Wizard Duel.
After a while, Kairi left the squirrel to herself, and returned to the castle, where Merlin was waiting in the door to turn her back.
"You won't believe the craziness that just happened, some maid went into the kitchen and saw our hard work, and then everyone went crazy and mad at me. Hmph! I saved the time of both sides, and this is my reward." Complained the wizard.
"Can I help you with anything, Master Merlin?" Asked Kairi.
"Well… I convinced Wart to come to my horrible tower for some important lessons, maybe you could help me?" Answered Merlin.
"Of course!" Agreed the girl.
So Kairi joined Merlin at teaching Arthur, mainly, they taught him about Gravity, just for accentuate it further, Kairi used Gravity magic on some floating objects to show them hitting the ground and ending pancaked.
"But eventually, boy, the humans will be able to defy gravity, as they will soar through the sky!" Teached Merlin, surprising Arthur.
Archimedes only laughed at that.
"Sure thing, humans will fly. Haven't you thought that since humans are not born with wings, maybe they are just not meant to fly?" Argued the owl.
"Kairi?" Asked Merlin to the princess with a smirk.
Kairi understood, and began to glide inside the tower, making the bird choke.
"Now hold on! That doesn't count! That's obviously… magic!" Exclaimed Archimedes.
"Well, don't worry, in many, many years, humans will be able to fly without any magic too, with this!" Merlin stated, grabbing a small plane from the ceiling, which obviously wouldn't exist until a loooong time later.
Then he began to spin the propeller, but didn't notice that it was getting stuck on his long beard, then ran towards the window and threw it… the plane began to spin with his beard stuck, the wizard nearly fell out of the window, and the flying object didn't fly and instead decided that it'd rather start falling to the ground.
"Master Merlin!" Kairi exclaimed, as she grabbed her old master so he doesn't falls, then she saw the plane about to hit the ground, and casted a small Aero down there, catching it, and making it start flying. Archimedes was speechless as Merlin gave him a smug smile.
"Oh, I wish that I could live in the future, I would love to fly… well, I mean, I think anyone wishes that they could fly, no?" Said Wart, looking at the flying plane with awe.
The old wizard smiled, and slowly approached the kid with his wand, he whispered some magic worlds, and touched him, then Arthur began shrinking and transforming, until he became a small brown and yellow bird looking through the window.
After some moments, he noticed it, and started to hop in excitement.
"L-look! I'm a bird! I'm a bird! I'm a bird!" Happily exclaimed the small bird, as he jumped off the window.
"No, Wart, wait!" Said Merlin laughing, catching the tiny bird on his hands before he fell.
"Now, you must first learn how to fly, but before that, would you like to join us, Kairi?" Asked the wizard.
Even though Kairi could already Glide, she wouldn't say no to becoming a bird, so she nodded. Merlin said the same magic words, touched her with his wand, and after a moment, she was a pink and white bird, bigger than the bird Arthur, though smaller than Archimedes.
"Now, if you want to fly like a true bird, you must…" Started to explain Merlin.
"Listen and see how a true bird does it." Interrupted Archimedes.
"Archimedes, I have studied bird flight for a long time." Argued Merlin.
"And I, am a bird, Merlin." Answered the owl.
The wizard grumbles and sits on his chair, letting Archimedes do his thing.
"Very well, with that solved, now do as I say." Said Archimedes.
The owl teached his two new students how to fly, Arthur was enjoying it a lot, and was quickly doing pirouettes in the air and having a lot of fun, Kairi smiled at his excitement.
"Nice one boy, you are a natural!" Praised the owl.
Suddenly, above the group, Kairi heard something and looked up, and gasped when she saw a big hawk coming towards them, and around him appeared Heartless, Air Soldiers, and Airplanes, which were Heartless piloting, airplanes.
"Watch out!" Kairi warned, as she summoned her Keyblade on her talons.
Information: Defeat the enemies while protecting Archimedes and Arthur!
The Air Soldiers flies towards Kairi, while the hawk and Airplanes started to chase the other 2 birds.
"No, you don't!" Exclaimed Kairi as she casted Aerora, trapping the big bird and Heartless for some seconds as she defended herself from the Air Soldiers for then strike back.
After the tornado, the hawk's attention shifted to Kairi, so he charged towards her, but she used her Barrier and its Starcracker counter to send the hawk back. Afterwards, the Airplanes began to fire a barrage of bullets at Kairi, making her dive down to evade most of them, though with some hitting her.
Then, thinking logically, Kairi casted Thunder on the Hawk, dealing critical damage and sending him diving down, she flies towards the predator and smacks him many times with her Keyblade mid fall.
More bullets comes from the Airplanes, but she uses her Barrier, reflecting many of them back to the Heartless, making them fall.
Noticing the danger of the pink bird, the hawk tries to get away and hunt Arthur and Archimedes again, so Kairi chases after it, casting Firas from behind the bird, burning some tail feathers and making the hunter screech, as he just gave up and decided to leave those birds alone.
Ascension!
While in the ground, sprout wings from your back and proper yourself and close enemies upwards while in middle of a combo.
After the danger was gone, the Keyblade disappeared from Kairi's talons as she looked around, searching for her bird partners, after a few seconds, she saw Archimedes quickly flying towards her direction in a rush.
"Girl! This is bad, we must find Merlin and now!" The owl shouted.
"What happened? Where is Arthur?" Asked Kairi.
"There's no time, we really need Merlin!" Archimedes answered as he flies past her, so Kairi follows.
In record time, they got back to Merlin's tower.
"Well, how was the experience as a bird? Wait, where's Wart?" Said the wizard when he saw them.
"Merlin, the boy landed in the house of Madam Mim! She's got him." The owl quickly answered.
"WHAT!? Madam Mim? Well, well, so she took my student… that old witch is going to see what's good.." Said the old wizard in an angry tone.
"Huh, who is Madam Mim?" Asked Kairi, curious.
"A witch, pretty strong I will confess, but only because she uses Dark Magic, Darkness." Explained the wizard.
"A witch that uses darkness… like Maleficent…" Thought Kairi to herself.
"No time to lose, let's go teach Mim some stuff." Stated Merlin as he turns Kairi back into a human, and then teleports the trio towards the witch's house.
When they get there, the first thing that Kairi notices is an old, ugly woman, holding the small bird Arthur on her hand, and she quickly summoned her Keyblade.
"Huh? What is this? MERLIN!" The witch said as she looked towards the group.
"Mim, what were you going to do with my student?" Asked the wizard in a calm, angry tone.
"Oh, why, we were just playing a game of course! Your student is a funny one." Answers the witch with a laugh.
"She's lying! She said that she was going to destroy me!" Arthur shouted from Mim's hand.
"Oh, you little…" Started to say Mim, until Kairi pointed at the witch with her Keyblade, making Mim look at her.
"Bleegh! Light! So much light! Can I turn you off?" Complained Madam Mim.
"Release my friend right now." Demanded Kairi.
"That much light, and that weapon… might you be the one that is destroying the Heartless?" Wonders the witch.
Kairi gasps.
"You were the one that brought the Heartless to this world!" She exclaimed.
"Yes, of course I did. Why wouldn't I? I'm the mad Madam Mim, and bringing the Heartless is just mad!" Mim said in the middle of laughing.
Kairi grasped tightly her Keyblade, if Mim brought the Heartless, then she had to stop her, but Merlin put a hand on her shoulder.
"Now Mim, why don't we solve this, like true wizards?" Asks the old wizard.
"Oooh, so you want a wizard duel, Merlin? Then you will have it!" She accepted.
"A wizard duel? Master Merlin, you plan to duel Mim?" Asks Kairi.
"Yes, that's my plan." Answered Merlin.
"But she brought the Heartless to this world, I have to stop her!" Argued the princess.
"What, you don't trust that I can beat her?" Answers the master.
"Enough with the talking! So you want to fight me too? Well then, I will fight both of you! A double victory will only make it even better!" Proposed the witch.
Kairi nods.
"Very well, then so we don't break your comfy home… let's find ourselves a good spot." Said Merlin.
The group walks, or in the case of Archimedes and the still bird Arthur, flies towards a clearing in the forest, with enough space for the contenders to duel without problem.
"Now, as this is a 2vs1, we obviously need some rules." Stated Mim.
"Rules indeed! She will make them for then just cheat." Archimedes said to Arthur.
"Close that beak of yours, owl, or I might have to do it myself after this!" Said, Mim, hearing him.
"What are the rules?" Asked Kairi, shifting her attention from the birds.
"Rule one, no one can turn into minerals or vegetables Rule two, no make up believe things like… pink dragons" Started to say the witch, looking at Kairi's pink clothes while saying the latter. "Rule three… no disappearing" She then says, grabbing Merlin's nose and shaking it, annoying the wizard.
"Rule four, no cheating!" Quickly said the wizard.
Seeing that not only Mim was able to make the rules, Kairi said something too.
"Rule five, no using the power of darkness." She stated, hoping it will be allowed.
The witch stared at Kairi for a second.
"Alright, alright, now each side makes ten steps." Accepted Mim.
She turned her back to the duo, so they did the same thing.
Information: Team up with Merlin and defeat Madam Mim in duel!
Kairi and Merlin started to walk 10 steps… but Mim made steps in place, and then, disappeared.
"Wait, she disappeared! That's agains the rules!" Exclaimed Arthur.
The duo heard that and looked back, not seeing Mim.
"M-Mim! No disappearing!" Merlin exclaimed to the air, then behind them, Mim started to appear, revealing she was a pink alligator, who then tried to bite Merlin. Kairi turned back just in time, and used her Barrier around Merlin and herself, making the witch bite it, she groaned and teleported away before Kairi could counter her.
She appeared far away between the trees, and started to run towards the duo, before disappearing, trying to confuse them, and appear at their right as a snake, jumping and trying to bite Kairi's arm, she slides away and smacked the snake with her Keyblade and sending her up into the air, and Merlin casted Gravity, slamming Mim into the ground, who disappeared again
"I will crush you, Merlin!" Exclaimed the witch from somewhere above the fighters, they looked up, just to see a massive rock fall down towards them, Kairi used her Barrier… but the massive rock shattered it on impact, hitting the wizard and princess for high damage and stunning them, then the rock turned into Mim, who began to laugh.
"Hey, rocks are minerals, right? Merlin told me that once!" Said Arthur.
"Yes, boy, they are, and the rules did not allow minerals and vegetables." Answered Archimedes with a glare towards Mim.
When their stun ended, Merlin used Cura, healing both Kairi and him, Kairi tried to strike Mim, but she teleported away.
"She is tough." Commented Kairi.
"She is tricky, we are stronger than her, but she just cheats and does whatever she wants." Aswered Merlin.
"Everything starts small!" Mim said, appearing behind them, and touching the duo with her hands, suddenly, they were inflicted by Mini status, and Mim was a giant next to them, making her laugh.
"Huh, until I fully cast the spell to turn back to normal, I'd say we run!" Says Merlin.
Mim became a big elephant, and started to walk towards Kairi and Merlin, trying to stomp them as they constantly moved and ran around, after several seconds of perfectly dodging her, Merlin became a mouse, scaring the elephant Mim, and then he ended his spell, returning them back to their normal size. And taking advantage of Mim just being scared by mouse Merlin, Kairi strikes her several times in the head, and finish off her combo with a Blizzaga.
Mim turned back into human, and angrily started to stomp the ground, suddenly, the grass and flowers around her went into a state of decay and died, and then the decay went towards Kairi and Merlin, the wielder began to glide away while Merlin teleported as the decay chased after them, until it finally died down and Mim stayed still for over a second, so her opponents casted joint Firaga spells, staggering her, so Kairi threw her Keyblade towards Mim to teleport where it appears, and start hitting her, during her combo, big white wings appeared on her wing, she jumped and made a small wind wave around her, which threw the witch to the air too, Kairi did a full aerial combo, casted Aerora to throw the witch into the vortex, throw her Keyblade, and teleport and attack her again.
After the long combo, she felt the power surge coming from Destiny's Embrace, so she released it for the 7 Lights Formchange.
Mim disappeared after the long attack, and from above her, Kairi heard "You will be crushed!". Without losing time by looking up this time, she slides to a side, evading the big rock, and the moment Mim turned back into human, she strikes her before she disappears, the 6 orbs throwing Light bullets at the witch as Kairi attacks.
"This is it! I'm going to win!" Mim exclaimed.
She now became a purple rhino, and charged towards Kairi, who dodged it, then towards Merlin, who barely managed to step to a side, she kept doing that, until one time where she tried to hit Merlin, the wizard turned into a blue weasel, got into the rhino's face, and covered her eyes, not being able to see, she ended up crashing onto a tree near a cliff as weasel Merlin jumped away.
"Now Kairi, let's give Mim a lesson like a parent would." Merlin said, becoming a goat, and starting to run towards the stuck rhino's rear, Kairi followed too.
"No, no! Merlin, girl, you wouldn't dare!" The stuck witch screamed.
"It's over!" Kairi said.
Log off.
With a strong synchronized attack, Merlin headbutted and Kairi slammed with her Keyblade, hitting the rhyno's rear, and making tree and witch fall down the cliff and into the water.
"Is it… over?" Asked Arthur.
"It seems like it, boy." Answers Archimedes.
But, as Kairi made her Keyblade disappear, and Merlin lowered his wand, fire suddenly came from the cliff, making them revert those actions.
"What is happening?" Said Kairi, surprised.
"Seems like Mim is not done yet…" Stated Merlin.
From the fire, and climbing up the cliff, appeared a big, purple dragon with Mim's hair, smoke coming from her nose.
"Mim! We said no make-believe creatures like dragons!" Angrily demanded Merlin.
"Ah, haha, no, I said no PINK dragons. The rules never said anything about purple dragons!" Countered dragon Mim.
"A purple dragon still is make-believe!" Argued Kairi.
"Bah, technicalities, I'm winning this duel now!" Says Mim, as she breathes fire out of her mouth.
Kairi quickly made a Barrier around Merlin and herself to block the stream of fire, but when the dragon started to move her hand for another attack, Kairi used her Barrier again… bad idea, as Mim slammed her hand on it, shattering the magic shield, staggering Kairi and Merlin.
Afterwards, Mim breaths fire again, hitting the duo many times with the fiery stream, but at least Merlin managed to cast healing magic afterwards, denying some of the damage.
Kairi tried casting different spells on the dragon, through she seemed to shrug off and laugh at most of them… until a multi Blizzaga from Kairi and orbs hit her face, which stunned Mim, the princess threw her Keyblade to quickly reach her face, and decided to go all out and use the Formchange's Finisher, spinning in place next to the dragon's head alongside the orbs, each firing several light blasts, hitting her many times.
The purple dragon growled, and dark energy started to appear in her mouth as she charged it, Kairi and Merlin got ready, as Madam Dragon spit many dark fireballs, which each made a pretty big dark explosion, wizard and wielder managed to dodge and block pretty well, though they still were hit, with the darkness powered fire being painful.
"Of course… she also broke the rule of not using the power of darkness." Stated Kairi, annoyed.
Mim started to walk towards Kairi, and tried to grab her in her claws, but Kairi dodged and smacked Mim in the hands. The witch growled and then tried to swipe at Kairi, who blocked it, and then followed with Blizzara right after the attack to hit her in the head, staggering the dragon again. Kairi teleported to her head, struck many times there, then ended her combo with a strong Blizzaga…
As Mim roared in pain and started to fall to the ground.
Maximum MP increased!
Magic Galvanizer!
Increases the damage of spells depending on the length of a Magic Combo.
After the dragon fell to the ground in defeat, Kairi and Merlin slowly got closer, unnoticed by them, one of Mim's eyes, barely opened a bit, then suddenly, she extended her arms, and trapped Merlin on her hands, covering him completely.
"Master Merlin!" Shouted Kairi.
"Ha, haha! I might not have beaten the girl, but I got Merlin! I beat Merlin! Haha!" The dragon happily said as she opened her hands and saw… nothing.
"Huh…?" Wondered Kairi.
"He's gone…" Said Arthur.
"Disappeared." Followed Archimedes.
"Madam, I'm not gone." Merlin's voice suddenly came from, somewhere in the air. "I'm very tiny, I became a germ, a really rare disease called malignalitaloptereosis… and you caught me, Mim!"
"WHAT!?" Exclaimed the witch as she realized she got tricked.
"First you break into spots…" Merlin started, as the dragon's scales turned green, and red spots appeared all over her body. "Followed by feeling hot and then cold." The scales became red out of the heat, and then blue as Mim shivered. "Then, violent sneezing." Merlin finished.
The dragon sneezed fire towards Kairi, who dodged it- The sick dragon started to throw a tantrum, angry at Merlin, as she fell and started to rest on the ground.
Merlin appeared next to Kairi.
"Well, now we should take care of her." He said with a smug smile.
Due to the illness, Mim shapeshifted back into her human form, Merlin picked her up with magic, and brought the witch back to her home, and placed her on bed.
"Oh, don't worry Madam, it's nothing too serious, just a few weeks, and you'll be as good, err, I mean as bad as ever, but I would suggest plenty of rest and lots, and lots of sunshine." Merlin said as he broke some of the ceiling with his wand, making sunlight land right on the witch's face.
"I HATE sunshine!" Complained Mim, covering her face with her hair and throwing another tantrum as the group left her house.
"Wow, you two were so awesome, and Merlin, giving her a disease was so clever!" Praised the bird Arthur.
"See what some wisdom and smart thinking can do? Now Wart, let me turn you back." Merlin said, gently touching the bird with his wand, turning Arthur back into a boy.
"Now… Mim is taken care off, so Heartless shouldn't be much of a threat anymore, I think that I should leave to continue my training." Said Kairi.
"Wait, my dear, wouldn't you consider staying… just a few more days? You see, I can see into the future… and I have the feeling that something amazing will happen in a few days." Asked Kairi's former master.
Kairi thought for some seconds, and then nodded, being fine with staying a bit more to see the "something amazing".
Forged a D-Link with Merlin.
2 days later… Arthur rushed into Kairi's room, worried.
"Kairi! Merlin, is gone!" He exclaimed.
"What!?" Kairi answered, surprised.
"Well, you see, Kay's Squire ended sick, so I became his new squire since in a few days an important tourney will happen in London that will decide the new King… but when I told Merlin the news, he got mad, he basically said I'm wasting my potential and went somewhere named "Bermuda"…" Arthur explained with some tears on his eyes.
Kairi couldn't believe his old master would just leave like that because something good happened for Arthur, she felt bad, and hoped this wasn't the "amazing" thing Merlin was talking about…
Some days later, everyone went to the tourney in London, Sir Ector told everyone that Kairi is a princess, so she got a good spot in the tourney, from up there, she could see the whole arena, and also many knights preparing at the sidelines.
After a while, something caught her attention, she saw Arthur suddenly running away in a hurry, wondering what happened and while everyone was too distracted by the important tournament, she left her spot and ran after the kid.
"Arthur! What happened?" Asked Kairi, catching up to the boy who was in front of the inn where they left their stuff.
"It's terrible! I forgot Kay's sword in the inn, and now it's closed! What will I do? I'm a terrible Squire…" Explained the kid.
"Boy, look! A sword!" Archimedes said, pointing with a wing towards the church, in front of it, was an amazing sword through an iron anvil, above a stone. The sword had words engraved.
"Yes! A sword!" Arthur happily said as he ran towards the church.
"Are you sure no one owns that sword?" Kairi asked.
The princess then looked in shock and awe, because when the kid approached the sword, a bright light came from the sky and shined down the sword and the boy, Wart grabbed the sword by the handle and pulled, quickly taking it out the anvil, then ran back to the tourney, with Kairi following
"Kay! Here is your sword!" The kid shouted.
His big "brother" grabbed the sword out of his hand, and looked at the sword.
"This is not my sword…" He said.
Sir Ector looked curious at the sword and grabbed it, reading the words, and gasped.
"It's the sword in the stone…" He said in shock.
"The sword in the stone?" Asked a close knight in black armor, grabbing the sword and reading the wording too.
The tourney quickly stopped when it was announced that the sword was pulled.
"Where did you get this from?" Asked Sir Ector to Arthur.
"In front of the church, it was in an anvil, I pulled it off." Explains the kid.
Almost everyone in the tourney laughed when they heard that, pointing at the small kid, which annoyed Kairi.
"That's enough!" She exclaimed, everyone stopped laughing as they didn't want to annoy the princess, so she played along. "I'm princess Kairi… and I followed this boy, Arthur, to the church, and saw with my own eyes how he pulled that sword out of the anvil, as light came from the sky when he approached the sword!" She testified.
Everyone stared in shock, silent, in shock that the princess confirmed the feat, then, slowly, everyone in the tournament started to kneel and bow to the kid, Sir Ector and Kay were shocked, but they also followed, their expressions softened too, feeling bad for how they acted.
"So a miracle happened… we have found our new king… King Arthur!" The knight in black armor exclaimed to the knights and attendants, who all cheered.
Kairi smiled at the shocked young king, and also bowed to him.
"This must be the amazing thing that Merlin talked about, he knew." She told the kid.
"Merlin… knew that I'd become… King? Was that why he got so angry? He thought I was aiming too low by wanting to be a squire?" Wondered Arthur.
"This will of course be confusing. I also was surprised when I learned I actually was a princess... But I'm sure that you will learn, and do great." Assured Kairi.
"Tha…thanks, Kairi, I-I promise I will." Promised King Arthur.
"I'm sure of that, just follow your heart, and you will be fair. Now, I must leave, I still have so many things left to do." Advised the princess to the king.
"Oh… I understand, I hope that we meet again, Kairi, and thank you for everything!" Arthur said goodbye.
Kairi left the crowd, and when she was in a faraway place, a beam of light covered her, bringing her back to the Gummi ship. And looked at the Country of Pendragon, oddly… she saw the world… Shine?
Suddenly, Destiny's Embrace appeared on her hand when she didn't call it, and Kairi looked in awe as its Keychain got replaced by an anvil, and the Keyblade turned into a white and blue more sword like Key, the handle being like a lance's, and the tip looked like some sharp wizard hat.
Sorcerer's Squire.
A Keyblade with a balance between Strength and Magic.
Formchange: Spellblade.
Kairi looked at her new Keyblade, and decided that she will absolutely test its powers when she arrives at the next world.
She looked at the map, and set course to Portorosso.