*Arrives a little over two years late with Starbucks* Ah shit, this one took longer then I was expecting... Gotta love when the Hyper Fixation Rolette keeps dragging your attention away from works you need to finish. Probably doesn't help that I had rewritten this chapter once and struggled to figure out how I was going to write combat in the beginning... I think I figured something out as I went though.
Anyways Hope you all enjoy the long awaited chapter 12.
Darkness Cometh Part 3:
Hearts began to be released in a white light from the dark shadows that had captured them. With each swipe of their Keyblades, Blaine and Lauriam made quick work of the first wave of heartless… only to have more crawling their way up from the very shadows they are made from.
"Geez, talk about determined." Blaine muttered as he rested his keyblade against his shoulder for a second, before a Firaga spell fired from the dark crystal lined keyblade, hitting a NeoShadow that had attempted to sneak up behind him.
"Any theories about why there's so many attacking now of all times?" Lauriam questioned, stabbing through a Soldier heartless, flipping it around and firing off a Blizzard spell with his keyblade still embedded within the heartless. This had launched both the heartless and the ice spell into two Shadows that had just pulled themselves up from the ground. Upon contact the Blizzard spell shattered within the heartless's body and smaller shards flew out damaging others of its kind.
"Want me to go through a list?" The black clad teen questioned, almost lazily holding his long blade up into the air and summoning up a thunder spell to strike a couple of Blue Rhapsody's that had appeared. Soon after Blaine tossed his Keyblade in the air for a minute to fire off a couple more Firaga spells from his right hand at some incoming Shadows, then catching his Keyblade again in his left. As soon as the Keyblade was once again in his hand, the crystals along the blade glowed a pale green for a second before releasing a powerful slash of wind at the incoming heartless. "Because I'm pretty sure I've got the time to list them all off as we work."
"Does one of them involve figuring out where they might be coming from?" Lauriam asked, having finished slashing through a few more of the Shadow heartless, only to wince a little as he saw more crawling in. "Because we need to seal it off, and quick."
"Considering how big this tower is… there are way too many places they could be crawling in from. But hey as long as the Dandelions are-" Blaine started up, his keyblade mid charging up another firaga spell, only to be cut off by the hauntingly loud blaring of the alarms… alarms that only went off if something bad was happening to the Dandelions.
What little joy they were able to hold onto beforehand, vanished into dust as the alarms blared, covering the sounds of the heartless that scuttled their way towards them. The red lights that flashed in the halls made the scene all the worse for the two older teens.
Without having to say a word the two began charging forward, Keyblades swinging at rapid and breakneck paces as they raced to the Garden with fear and dread filling their hearts.
….
Skuld threw her keyblade right into the head of a Soldier heartless, the small blade hitting true and momentarily getting stuck in the creature's helm. The moment didn't last long as the long haired girl practically materialized right to her own blade, taking it's handle and swinging it AND the heartless in a perfect circle until it flew off into a few other heartless. Not ready to let up in her attack, Skuld gripped Moons Light tighter and dashed forward, twisting the keyblade to the side letting the star-shaped teeth point towards the heartless… before slicing through a few of them with the ease of a butter knife through melted butter.
Even while doing so, Skuld would take a glance over her shoulder every now and again to keep an eye on Ventus in case he needed help on his end. Then again she didn't really have anything to worry about in all honesty.
Ventus moved through the heartless like he was the wind itself. Out of all five of them, Ven was the one who was physically the fastest on his feet. His keyblade, Winds of Change, really helped adjust to his quick movements… as well as his own flair of dramatic flourishes that Skuld swears he picked up from all the time he spent with Blaine.
The young blond was practically decimating the heartless that came close to him with quick strikes and surprisingly subtle Aero spells being cast to improve the speed of his blade. The only difference was Ventus didn't seem to have the physical strength to toss or lift the heartless like Skuld could do with her own, smaller blade. Still, the sight alone brought a smile to Skuld's face… even as she slashed an approaching shadow right in half while barely looking.
To think we were all so worried about him ever going into the field… Guess all that training really did pay off. Skuld thought with a touch of pride, though pausing long enough to also glance towards the stove where the stir fry was still cooking.
"We might need to hurry this up before the food starts to burn!" Skuld announced as she quickly spun on her heels and whipped her keyblade in a "Strike Raid" attack at a group of approaching heartless. A bit of concern was starting to grow in her heart as she saw more heartless seeming to slowly pour in to replace the old ones.
"Try telling them that!" Ventus responded, his face already in full clear worry as it seemed to hit him just how wrong this situation truly was… and it only got worse for the both of them when the alarms began to sound. The look of fear that crossed Ventus's face made Skuld immediately tighten her grip on her keyblade the moment she caught it again.
"Get to the Garden, I'll take care of these guys!" Skuld commanded, her posture changing as the situation just became much more serious.
"But I-"
"You're the fastest Ven! Go there and protect the Dandelions! I'll catch up!" Ventus wanted to protest what Skuld was telling him, but with the sound of the alarms all he could do was bite the inside of his cheek and nod. The first opening he found, the young blond immediately took it and ran as fast as he could, using his mastery of wind magic to his advantage as well in order to dodge and get past all the heartless.
Skuld meanwhile, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her heart filled with guilt about sending Ventus alone to protect the Dandelions, but she quietly set it aside for now as she tapped into her magic.
"I'll catch up soon…" She muttered to herself as lightning magic began to channel into her keyblade.
The stir fry, left completely forgotten and slowly beginning to burn in the background as heartless began to quickly get destroyed by the "Queen of the Training Field".
….
"Who the hell are you snowball?" Elrena questioned, or… more like demanded out of the first person she had found since waking up in the place with all the other Dandelion members. The white haired boy in front of her was looking at her in surprise as she kept her keyblade, A Rose's Thorns, pointed at him the whole time. After all, she wasn't sure if this guy was exactly "safe" or not.
"... You're one of the Dandelions, aren't you?" he asked her, crystal blue eyes looking right up into her teal colored ones with surprise.
"Hey! I'm the one asking questions here, alright cream puff!"
"Cream puff?" Ephemer blinked, quietly questioning why she changed it from "snowball" earlier.
"Who the hell are you?!" Elrena practically screamed, her patience practically a thin thread by this point.
"I'm…!" Before he could even introduce himself, Ephemer was quick to notice the appearance of some Heartless appearing in the hall behind Elrena… and summoned up his keyblade. "Heartless!"
Elrena was confused for all of one second before it hit her and she quickly turned around, just in time to see a few Shadows crawling towards them.
"You have got to be kidding me…" Elrena growled, turning her keyblade away from Ephemer to the Heartless instead. "Hey Snowflake, help me deal with these guys would you."
"Are… Are you just going to use a different nickname everytime you talk to me?"
"Until I get your name Cool Whip."
"Ephemer… My name's Ephemer."
"Elrena." The blond held her keyblade in a battle ready stance, one hand free and sparking with lightning magic while the other pointed her keyblade at the enemies. Though her focus is mainly on the Heartless for now… she was also keeping a close eye on Ephemer just to be cautious.
Ephemer on the other hand had both hands on his keyblade, ready to strike with all his might when needed but also able to channel magic more effectively through it as well. His focus was solely on the Heartless, but a passing thought of trying to explain as much as he could to Elrena about… well pretty much everything after the war did cross his mind.
I'll try to tell her after. He decided, just as the attacks from the heartless began.
Some Red Nocturne's fired upon them, forcing the two to move out of the way and a couple shadows to seek an opportunity to take either one of the keyblade wielders by surprise. However, both were prepared as Elrena stabbed her keyblade into the first Shadow that rose up to strike at her. As soon as her blade was through the first shadow, the blond girl immediately turned her attention to the other heartless crawling into the area, and unleashed the charged up Thundaga spell at them from her hand.
Meanwhile Ephemer was relying mostly on his skills with a keyblade, slicing through the shadows and even using some of the heartless against their brethren like shields or even makeshift weapons… his eyes and senses however remained focused on his entire surroundings, allowing him to react to anything that even twitched around him.
Just how did Heartless even get in here? I thought our world was locked down for safety after the war… Ephemer thought absentmindedly as he cut into an attacking heartless that jumped him.
"Hey Ephe, get down!" at Elrena's shout, Ephemer was confused but followed through… only to be surprised by the strong Thundaga spell striking a good chunk of heartless around him. While he was used to seeing magic, it was clear to the white haired teen that Elrena was gifted in lightning magic the same way Ventus was gifted with wind.
However… Ephemer turned his attention quickly to the blond and saw that as she was taking in a breath after unleashing the powerful magic, a NeoShadow appeared behind her and ready to take her out while her back was turned. Within a split second, Ephemer threw his keyblade right into the NeoShadow before it could hit the blond teen with its claws, and took a page out of Skuld's book with his own personal spin. By using a minor time spell to give himself an "extra boost" in speed to reach his weapon, Ephemer was able to greatly damage the NeoShadow and knock it away from his fellow Keyblade wielder.
"Kinda risky there using a spell that normally needs a recharge after use." Ephemer pointed out, keeping his back to Elrena and focusing intently on the Heartless that were slowly crawling their way towards them.
"Kinda risky throwing your Keyblade away like that and have to use magic to get back to it faster." Elrena retorted, leaving Ephemer mildly impressed that she actually could pick up the use of magic. Time magic was one of the few spells that were as hard to master as they were to sense.
"I can handle it." Ephemer responded, hearing the crackling of lightning magic behind him.
"So can I snowball."
And like that the two of them rushed forward in opposite directions taking out heartless in their wake. In complete honesty… Ephemer felt like he was having fun again.
Reminds me of when Avery and I-
A loud, blaring sound broke the white haired keyblade wielder from his trip down memory lane and began to fill his heart with dread. Memories of Avery's critical condition… the thrashing about in the pod from an unknown source as the same alarms blared mere weeks ago filled his mind with each rise and fall in the alarm's sound pattern.
"HEY EPHE! The hell is that?!" Elrena shouted over the blaring alarms, snapping Ephemer out of his growing panic long enough to focus on the present.
"The… The Dandelions are… They're in trouble right now!" the white haired boy managed to finally get out, now focusing his entire attention on trying to get to The Garden then trying to clean up the heartless.
"Shit… We save them and then you have to tell me everything after Ephe."
I was going to do that anyways…
Raising up the Starlight Keyblade, Ephemer cast a strong Aeroga spell to clear the way of heartless. This allowed the duo to make a run for it down the corridor and to the stairways, Elrena staying a couple steps behind Ephemer to make sure she was going the correct way all the while as they hurried to protect the still sleeping Dandelions.
...
Ventus was the first one to make it to the Garden when he fully took note of the horrifying sight before him. Heartless of all shapes and sizes scattered across the room, many attempting to break into the pods that held the precious hearts within… and a few who had succeeded leaving a bloody body within the pod as a crystalized version of their heart rose up out of their torn open chests and was consumed by the darkness.
Fear and panic began to creep through Ventus's veins as his own heart began to pound in his chest, as repressed memories began to spring forward in his mind at seeing the carnage of the Heartless… faces of old friends who foolishly thought they could fight them without a keyblade or training… faces of some keyblade wielders who went in over their heads against heartless that they were not prepared for… the old memories and the weight of what was happening right now was becoming too much for the scared boy. So much so that he didn't even notice when a shadow heartless snuck up behind him, fully ready to catch him unawares.
"VEN!"
The sound of his name and the small flash of heat from behind him brought Ventus back to the present. Turning around quickly, the young blond only caught a glimpse of the shadow heartless burning from a strong fire spell before the very familiar form of Lauriam was already blocking his vision of it.
"Are you okay? Nothing hurting? Have you had any need to use a Cure spell at all recently?" The pink haired older teen questioned, checking him over for anything. Ventus however could barely bring himself to speak as he was still rather shaken up, which only made Lauriam more worried.
"As much as I agree in making sure Ven's okay my dear assistant… We've got much bigger concerns at the moment." Blaine's voice caused Ventus's blue eyes to look over to the black clad teen and notice the red glow in the crystals that made up Light in the Dark.
Lauriam took stock of what was going on in the Garden and his own pain and horror started up but was quashed down by his own feelings of responsibility and protectiveness for those that could still be saved… and for the youngest of the Union Leaders looking like a shivering, fearful rabbit from seeing the gruesome sight.
"Of course…" Lauriam responded, before turning his attention back to the youngest among them. "Ven it's okay to be scared right now… but if you can't bring yourself to fight I need you to stay close to Blaine and I, alright?"
You're just going to hide or stay on the sidelines while others die again. That self deprecating thought immediately began echoing in Ventus's head. The fear was still there, but the blonde boy took a deep breath to soothe it out… and instead replaced it with a slowly building, righteous anger for those that were lost to the threat that invaded their home.
"I… I can fight."
Lauriam frowned, looking like he was going to say something but Blaine beat him to the punch.
"Great! Now Ven, Lauriam let's get these pests taken care of!" Blaine declared, physically seeming to not care about the horror… but is at least fully set on getting rid of the problem as he slammed his now blue and white glowing Keyblade into the ground.
Upon impact a mix of a Blizzara spell and Aerora spell exploded outward towards the heartless as a fog that made their visibility more difficult, yet also did some damage from high speed Ice shards that got mixed in.
That was an immediate cue in the heads of the other two Union Leaders to rush in with their own attacks while "Magic Master" Blaine would cover them. Ventus, in mere seconds before rushing in, had also activated the prototype armor piece on his jaw to make the dome helmet appear to protect his head, and set Winds of Change into backhand mode. While Lauriam had a Fira spell charging up in his free hand and Dark Hellebore being fed with more mana as well to produce more poison with each swing.
Then like a dance the two were in complete sync while fighting. Lauriam with fire in his hand drew the attention of the Heartless within the fog like moths, those that got too close however were met with a devastating slash from the Dark Hellebore and then knocked away into the magical fog. A parting gift of a poison that drained the vitality of the Heartless remained within each Heartless that was knocked away, and slowed their movements in trying to get back towards the pink haired keyblade wielder, never realizing that the blonde one was not too far away.
With Winds of Change in back handed mode, Ventus sliced at the many unaware Heartless with his usual quick movements within the magically created fog as he rushed around at each and every enemy without letting any of them get a chance to properly react. Though with most of the ones already suffering from the poison, the quick, well placed slashes from the little speed demon made the Heartless perish all the more quicker.
The few heartless that had a little bit more intelligence that tried to escape from the magical fog and avoid the deadly duo, were not as lucky as the moment they breached the fog a blast of powerful magic would strike them dead. Blaine was dividing his focus between trying to maintain the fog and dealing with any heartless that escaped from it, or attempted to get into the room from behind to overwhelm the trio. Difficult to maintain by oneself, but the black haired teen took to his task at the moment like a fish to water… After all, he just needed to hold it all long enough for any of the other Keyblade wielders to arrive.
And arrive they did as after maintaining the fog for about two minutes, Ephemer and Elrena burst into the Garden themselves by striking down some heartless attempting to rush in.
"Perfect timing Ephemer and… Lightning girl?"
"It's Elrena, cowboy."
"Cool, introductions later, deal with threat now. We got at least five Dandelions dead, keep the rest alive. Oh and try not to maim Ven or Lauriam in there."
Elrena was surprised to hear two very familiar names, but put them on the back burner for now as the Heartless were a much bigger problem at the moment and needed her full attention.
"Elrena, could you please stay here and help Blaine by keeping any more heartless from entering?" Ephemer asked, adjusting his scarf a bit and tightening his grip on his Starlight keyblade.
"Fine. Thundaga doesn't work well when you don't know where your allies are." The blonde girl sighed, turning her full attention towards the entrance to the "Garden".
As Ephemer ran into the fog, he couldn't help but wonder where Avery and Skuld were.
….
That took way longer than I thought it would… Skuld thought to herself as she rushed through the halls, taking note of the shockingly large amount of heartless and feeling her own heart grow more fearful at knowing they would have to go through with the barely completed escape plan they had been working on.
"The others all had to have made it to the Garden by now… they can wait a little longer." Skuld muttered to try and reassure herself as she rushed to the room that they set as the "Armory" where the completed pieces of Keyblade armor were set up and waiting to be used. As soon as she arrived however, her well honed battle instincts shouted at her to jump back just in time to dodge a strike from a keyblade that aimed for her head. Skuld's heart practically stopped as she recognized the extended metal form of the "Jailbreak" keyblade retracting behind the door frame.
"I should have known you would have seen that coming." A familiar voice commented from their hidden position in the Armory.
"Avery… what the hell do you think that you are doing?" Skuld growled, her grip tightening on Moons Light and a combination of confused fear and anger bubbling up within her… only for everything in her body to practically freeze on the spot as the other keyblade wielder stepped out of hiding.
Gone were the playful blue eyes that Skuld remembered fondly looking at on her friend's familiar scarred face, and instead an intense reddish orange glow of barely restrained sadistic glee met her chocolate gaze. Long brown hair seemed to have darkened and changed hue as it started to take a more dark violet like gradient. An inky violet-black mass seemed to be present on Avery's hands from the visible, now clawed, fingers from the fingerless gloves and the strange black coloration seemed to go past the gloves cut off point at the wrists, and fade slightly up to the elbows. One of the other more glaring changes however, was how the keyblade Jailbreak seemed to have changed in shape to be much more… deadly with sharper points and even the guard around the hands seemed to change from a protective one to a broken one and it's colors began to darken more as well.
"I thought I was being rather obvious on what I'm doing right now, Skuld." "Avery" grinned, showing slightly more elongated fangs to the black haired girl. "I'm going to make this world fall into darkness."
The concept of a world falling to darkness… it wasn't really one Skuld had heard, nor thought of, before and yet it left a cold feeling in her heart, as she tried to picture what a world fallen to darkness would be like. However one solid thing stuck out more in her mind at the moment than the threat to her home world.
"You're not Avery." the black haired girl growled, shifting into a battle ready position and pointing the tip of Moon's Light right at "Avery", who simply laughed.
"Oh, but I am Avery." The darkened Keyblade Wielder raised the changed Jailbreak, ready to have it go straight into it's whip form and put Skuld's shorter reaching Keyblade at a disadvantage. "And I'm not going to let any of you warriors of Light escape from this world."
With a quick flick of the wrist, Jailbreak's bladed teeth went straight for Skuld, only to be parried by a violent one handed strike from Skuld. As soon as the first strike was parried Skuld began to advance forward with a steeled determination and was able to block each of the next few swings that "Avery" threw at her. With each strike knocked away the grin began to fade from the darkened teen's face and a glare took its place.
"Is that the best you got? Or is Avery's body still too rusty from their year nap?" Skuld taunted, a confident smirk spreading across her face as she once again deflected another strike with barely a sweat… even though in reality Skuld was beginning to get tired from the heartless fights she had on the way here.
"I am Avery!" Pulling their arm back, the extended blade of Jailbreak returned to it's hilt and sparks of a Thunder spell began to dance about the segmented points of the keyblade. "Avery" raised their keyblade high in the air and called upon a Thundaga to strike the advancing Union Leader down… only for Skuld to practically dodge each and every lightning strike in a manner that almost looked like a graceful dance, weaving between each and every row of magical lightning that attempted to strike her dead.
"Then you've truly gotten worse at fighting "Avery". I mean if this is the best you've got then this is just sad." Skuld grinned once the lightning spell had run its course and it's caster was forced to take a moment to recover from the powerful use of magic. "After all, the REAL Avery would rather light their keyblade on fire and strike multiple times from different positions."
Without a word and a low growl from their throat, "Avery's" keyblade ignited in a blue flame along with a crackling of lightning, actually wiping the taunting smile of Skuld's face.
Okay… that's new and very concerning…
Shifting to finally hold her own Keyblade with both hands in order to properly focus her magic, Skuld kept a close eye on "Avery" to try and figure out what the definitely possessed teen was going to do and whether she could dodge, or create a shield to block it in time.
Raising their Keyblade in the air, as if to summon the lightning first, Skuld prepared herself to quickly dodge the expected Thunder based spell… only for a storm of Dark Fire to begin to fly at her and force her to create a barrier instead.
Little surprising but nothing I can't-
Skuld's line of thinking was immediately cut off as once one of the blue flames hit her Barrier, a powerful bolt of lightning joined it in striking at the girl. Her Barrier spell shattering under both hits and forcing her to immediately jump away from another flame that nearly hit her.
Okay, this might be a problem.