Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, I got really sick this past week and I couldn't find the strength to write much. So I only got this chapter done. I hope you'll enjoy it all the same.
Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories
Chapter 26: Castle Oblivion part XXVI
"It was you who destroyed your home."
As these words echoed in Sora's mind, her sight started to blur around the edges of her vision. The brown-haired girl being flooded by confusion, sadness and even rage, as question after question rolled in her thoughts. But as she gazed at Marluxia, the man continued to slowly approach her. "The heart of your world holds a connection to both the Kingdom Key of Light, as well as the one of Darkness." he continued on as his gazed upon the teen shifted to one of anticipation.
"So by calling to one of them, you brought the Darkness to your island. You're the one at fault...you caused its destruction." the pink-haired man declared, obviously trying to push Sora over the edge until she snapped.
Which seemed to be working, as each echoing footstep he took toward her, caused the teen to tense up further and further. "Now take that guilt...and turn it into anger. Show me your true power without restraint!" Marluxia claimed firmly, to which the creature behind him lifted its scythe into the air.
Seeing this movement, Sora's eyes lifted up to look at the weapon as it swiftly swung down toward her. But as she lifted her weapon up to block, she failed to see the man rushing forward. Him instantly kicking the girl in the stomach, now that her thoughts and attention were elsewhere. After being knocked back a few meters, Sora managed to bring herself to a stop and lift her gaze back to Marluxia. Yet the girl's eyes seemed unfocused, as though she was losing her will to fight.
"Tch! Don't tell it had the opposite effect." he hissed out silently in aggravation, readying to make another attack.
Him having the creature slash toward Sora several more times, of which she managed to avoid. Yet she moved so sluggish, that it appeared as though the teen was just dodging out of instinct, instead of on purpose. As he watched her, the pink-haired individual then moved up to his opponent and began making attacks with his own scythe. "How can you be so passive about hearing such a thing?" the man demanded almost to himself as he continued trying to hit the teen.
Sora herself moved out of the way of most attacks, but after being struck it once, more and more strikes began to hit their mark. "Be angry! Show me your true strength! I won't let you beat me without using your full power!" he continued, sounding actually enraged, though it didn't seem like it was truly directed at the teen.
Said girl being hit after each of these declarations, to which the last one sent her into the wall in an almost limp manner. As he saw this, Marluxia stared for a few moments as he breathed heavily. Yet his breaths became slower before he just let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head slowly in the process. "Forget it." the man stated in what seemed like disappointment.
"You obviously have no ability to fight anymore, so I'll have to just continue on with another plan." he said, looking Sora over for a moment.
"And I had such high hopes for you." Marluxia whispered before turning around and heading toward the door.
What the pink-haired man didn't know however, was the fact that Sora's mind was elsewhere from the moment he claimed that she was the one at fault. The girl having brought herself to her own Station of Awakening, where she faced Maleficent. Whom was gazing at the teen in a serious manner, all while narrowing both eyes heavily. "Are you really doing this now?" she demanded in a huff.
"Yes...I need to know if what he said was true." Sora stated firmly, both eyes narrowed on the witch.
Whom let out a breath, yet soon closed her eyes and nodded in response. "It is." she said, shrugging her shoulders as she spoke.
"But what difference does it make?" Maleficent continued while swiftly looking to the young girl again, obviously annoyed that Sora was putting both of them at risk.
While Maleficent was able to use her magic to pilot the teen's body, it was slow moving and made it difficult to actually avoid being hit by Marluxia's multiple attacks. Despite having control over Sora was something she had considered wanting, Maleficent was very quickly regretting it. "Are you really going to let both of us die because of your guilt?" she questioned, narrowing her eyes heavily.
Sora looked down for a few moments before taking in and letting out a soft breath; "No...but I really needed to know if it was true." she said in an almost voiceless manner.
"Why? What would actually change if it wasn't true?" was all Maleficent asked in response, not hesitating at all.
As she made this inquiry, the brown-haired girl just gazed at the witch, simply shrugging her shoulders. "Probably nothing, but it does let me know where to go from here." she answered, making Maleficent raise a brow curiously.
"And where's that?" the witch uttered out in an almost unconscious way.
The brown-haired girl looked to her with a soft smile and a determined gaze in both eyes. "Forward."
Immediately following this, Marluxia was halfway to the door before he heard Sora shifting and standing up. Turning around to face her, his eyes widened slowly as she was already in front of him. The man not even having time to move, before feeling a powerful punch in the center of his chest. Sora's strike caused Marluxia to slam into the creature near him, to which both were sent flying against the curved wall next to the door.
The force of the attack causing the stone around the teen to actually crack as a result, yet Sora herself kept both eyes fixated on the man. Whom was partially embedded in the wall with the creature, whilst the wall itself caved inward and left a spiderweb of fractures throughout it. Said cracks reached the door, but they never seemed to go through the the archway around the double doors. "Not bad..." Marluxia muttered out, sliding down from the wall and looking to Sora once more.
Gazing into her eyes, he could see a seriousness in them that wasn't there before. This bringing a small smirk to his features while nodding; "It looks like you're able to fight back after all." he spoke silently, trying to overcome the pain in his likely broken sternum.
"Yes...and I plan to show you my power." Sora declared firmly while moving into a battle-ready stance.
"However...I refuse to fight you in anger. Even if you don't like it...I won't let you push me to fight your way." she stated, flipping the Keyblade in her hand into a reverse grip.
Listening to this, Marluxia sighed in clear annoyance and disappointment. "And as I said...I won't let you beat me without using your full power." he retorted, knowing that Sora will instinctually hold back if she's not fighting out of anger.
Yet she simply shook her head, clearly standing firm in how she would fight. Marluxia narrowed his eyes briefly once more, before immediately slamming the bottom of his scythe onto the floor. Doing so created three very large swirls of darkness on the floor, each one allowing what looked to be a series of rotating vines to rise up. Of which lashed out at great speed, as the thorns covering them looked like a blender of blades moving past and around one another.
Seeing the vines come rushing at her, Sora ducked, dodged and rolled away from these attacks. Her moving closer and closer to Marluxia as she did, likely planning to fight entirely in melee from this point on. As she flipped herself over one of the vines however, the teen immediately threw her Keyblade toward her foe. Yet she was not able to see the result of this attack, as she fell into the midst of the other vines rapidly encircling her. Due to them not coming toward her though, it allowed Sora to notice the swirl of darkness beneath her feet.
Quickly leaping away from the eruption of vines coming through the swirl, the girl almost instantly came face-to-face with Marluxia. Him slashing at her a great many times with such speed, that his previous attacks paled in comparison. However, the teen summoned her Keyblade back and managed to deflect each of these strikes. Which continued coming, even after they landed on the floor in unison. During this, most of the vines swiftly began surrounding the pair in a tightening formation. Meanwhile, the rest of the vines lashed out like spiked whips at Sora, forcing her to move faster and faster to keep up.
Her managing to dodging and parry the multitude of attacks from the vines, as well as the scythes from both Marluxia and the creature. But it was very obvious that the girl couldn't keep this up for long, as she swiftly began spinning the Keyblade in her grasp. This creating a coating of Darkness around the blade, of which she immediately stabbed into the floor after flipping over her opponent's head. The moment her weapon hit the ground, a pulse of black energy radiated outward. Burning the vines to ash, snapping the portals shut, as well as even pushing Marluxia and the creature backward a few steps.
While the creature was the first to recover and rush in to attack once more, Sora seemed to be ready for it. Her simply making a heavy swing against the scythe, causing the weapon to nearly flying out of it's hands as it lurched to the side to keep this grip. Yet it provided Sora the opening she needed to leap up and stab the grey-skinned being in the chest with her Keyblade. "Blizzaga Burst!" she called out, to which a large blast of ice magic shot through the creature.
There being large spikes of ice that protruded from its form, just before it slowly faded into shadow. Watching this, Marluxia blinked a few times in shock as he was actually surprised from the amount of power she used in that one attack. "Admittedly...impressive." he muttered to himself before darting toward the girl once more.
As he went, the pink-haired man slashed his scythe through the air multiple times, sending half a dozen pink and black arcs of energy toward his foe. Whom only had a brief moment to see these coming, to which she just glanced at the floor briefly and narrowed her gaze. Sora swiftly brought her free hand out, causing the cracks in ground it rapidly grow. Immediately following this, a portion of the floor suddenly turned on its side directly in front of the teen.
This blocking each of the attacks coming toward her, all while destroying the piece of floor in the process. Though, Sora then thrust her Keyblade forward, causing a series of dark beams to shoot toward the now charging man. Yet he just flipped around each one while coming right up in front of Sora, to which they both swung their weapons toward each other. Just before they could collide though, Marluxia was suddenly struck from the side and thrown in the opposite direction.
Blinking briefly from this, Sora quickly turned to the one whom did this to the man. "Hey Sora." a familiar voice hummed, to which she just gazed in surprise at Riku's replica.
"Y-You...how did...?" she uttered out in shock.
The silver-haired boy just smirked lightly with a shrug; "I managed to follow the scent of Darkness, leading me here." he claimed while looking toward Marluxia.
Said man growling silently in frustration as he glared at the boy; "Tch! Meddlesome puppet." he muttered out silently.
"Hey! I told you not to call him that!" Sora snapped back with a narrowed gaze.
The teen boy just waved a hand in response while smiling lightly; "It's fine, I don't care what he calls me anymore, cause now...I have a name." he declared confidently as a small smile curled his lips.
Sora quickly turned to him once more before gaining a smile of her own; "Really? What is it?" she asked in excitement, the tension of the fight already beginning to leave her.
"Teng." he answered, his expression softening a bit while saying this.
"It might sound a bit weird...and little lame. But it's the meaning behind it that made me decide on it." the silver-haired teen stated while moving into a fighting position when seeing Marluxia beginning to approach.
"It's short for; 'Tengai'. Which is the place where the sky meets the earth..." the boy said silently while giving Sora a quick glance when finishing his words; "...the horizon."
Hearing this, Sora just stared at him in silence, feeling both happy and proud of Teng for choosing such a name. "It's beautiful." she whispered with a wide smile and approving nod.
And there you have it, this fight will reach its end in the next chapter. Where we'll see just what has, and what has not changed. Let me know what all of you thought of this chapter, as well as your thoughts about this remake of Chain of Memories as a whole. Next week I'll aim for two chapters, but I might only have one if I'm still not feeling better. Until next time.