Of Keys and Hammers

by zcritic88

In a realm beyond, the Four Chaos has taken notice of a realm tied close to the heart. They squirmed into the darkness and sought to corrupt if to reach a prize beyond the light. Will the Light of Order, be able to repel this ancient evil?

69. An Inward Chaos

In a dream. Xion felt relaxed in the presence of the Oak, the beauty and quiet gave the feeling that she could drift off to a deeper sleep and it would be fine. Ripple! Ripple! Then, the sky changed to a blackish red and hideous, cruel laughter sang in the silence, Xion realized something was wrong and tried to get up, she couldn't move, the forest began to wither as flames pounced, she heard the cries of at least a thousand, cries of despair and doom, then the screams of a massacre. The flames burrow into the roots of a tree, like an animal who's smelled something buried, the screaming became worse and Xion tried again to get up, nothing worked and she watched the tree be ripped from the ground and seized by clouds in the sky, like fingers slowly pulling a life from the earth, the forest and the feeling of a haven was no more. The tree was slowly torn apart by the forces at work, stretching further than a tree should, decaying with insects, crushed limb from limb and giving off a hiss of a scream, then it was consumed in the storm and in it's place was a faint glow of an Eight Pointed Star and the remains of the earth, unraveling.

The girl woke up and let out a scream, she looked around to find herself in reality but wasn't feeling relieved, the Replica stirred. "Mmm... five more-" he realized what the noise was and where it came from. Jolted awake and jumped off of his bed, drawing his weapon and looking around for what ever caused the scream. "Where are you, punk?!" Xion realized she caused a stir. "Relax, it's...nothing."

She saw reds eyes in the shadows, like it was asking. "Are you sure?!" The Replica guessed. "Bad dream?" Xion nodded. "Y...yeah, I was in some clearing in a forest, with a big tree for a while, until... something came to swallow it. I... heard people screaming." The boy wanted to sit on the bed and asked. "That is not normal." Xion cringed to more. "That something, did horrible things to that tree too... and before the world became... undone, I saw what caused it. An Eight Pointed Star, that symbol the Varanguard have."

That gave the Replica chills. "The symbol of Chaos," He exhaled. "We'll, that dream is over, right?" Xion wanted to nod, felt something twisting in her heart and looked to the door, like there was a task that needed to be done. She got up and approached the door. "Do we have any idea where Roxas and the others gone?" The Replica shrugged. "Just the bare minimum," he snapped his fingers. "Did anything else happened prior to that dream?"

Xion turned the knob. "If you didn't hear it, I think... I might have dreamt about this place getting attacked by some weird grot that wanted to free this one guy from the castle. Then I found myself back here after trying to fight him." The Replica did find it weird. "That's too surreal to be a coincidence. So where are you going right now?"

Xion has no idea and felt a strange urge. "Just...I need to take a walk, do... you want to come? I don't feel comfortable doing it alone." The older brother readied for an adventure. "Lead the way."

Xion opened the door, went down the stares, she and her brother found Ken's mother trying to get up from a nasty fall, the woman tried to use the sofa to get up and saw the kids. "Urk." The Replica helped up. "You gotten woken up from that too?" The woman exhaled. "Yeah, that was not a normal scream and the freaks out there these days didn't help."

The Replica reminded her. "Ward!" Ken's mother's gaped her mouth. "Oh, right. If it's a bad dream, then it's not a normal nightmare." Xion nodded and lead the way out. "I know, we're heading out... somewhere, so I can get that out of my mind. It could have something to do with what Sora and the others are fighting." The woman yelped, went to the door and closed it. "Oh, no! No! I know you were not here, but this town almost got sacked by a bunch of heavily armored freaks that those kids were dealing with. Anything with that symbol and anything associated with that symbol, is bad news!"

Xion cringed as the Replica felt a little hurt from the guilt. "We... know, we know. That's why we got to get going, Xion wants to go do something about it. We can defend ourselves and the ones with that kind of power are smaller in number." The woman felt that was true. "Yeah, thankfully. Just-" she opened the door. "don't get in trouble, the others aren't exactly here to be the big heroes right now."

Xion felt those works sink into her subconsciousness. "They're not. Come on Dupmic, I think... I know where to head to." She left and Dupmic promised the woman. "We'll be back." He caught up with Xion and found her making way to the trains, she found one scheduled for Twilight Town and waited, her brother caught up and asked. "What's gotten into you?" Xion opened her lips and showed her nervous teeth. "I don't know! I don't know, but something... tells me that we need to try to help the guys out, a lot more than we have been. That dream... is that... what's going to happen if Chaos... wins?"

The Replica realized and gasped. "I think that will and there is someone over... there that neither of us really met. If I don't know any better, that is the one who Dad is keeping us far away from at all costs." Xion agreed. "Even compared to that... man and his toadie. What ever Dad has planned, is nothing like what that someone has planned in comparison."

That, the Replica knew, deep down in his heart. "That's why he get what he needs from them, one up them and then get back to what he was trying to do before all that happened. But what are you even trying to do? This is random."

The train took off and in a few moments, another came. "I.. don't know, but I feel like if we look somewhere, we will find a clue." She confessed. "It is pretty confusing, but I feel that my heart is bringing me somewhere, like how your heart tells you to come along." The Replica admitted. "It might be, but it could be that some of the hearts... in there, are asking for a little extra help. No matter what, that feeling leads to results."

The train opened and Xion entered more calm. "Exactly," She and the Replica entered, found a seat and waited, after what felt like ten minutes, the train took off, the two look out at the cosmic forces in play and found the train taking them to a tropical island, basked in the night, with a hint to a morning sun in the far horizon. The trained stopped, opened it's door and the two got out to see it, the Replica sighed. "This place again?"

Xion nodded and looked to a rather distant island, she lead to the shore, found two person raft and stepped on it, her brother stepped in with her and used his blade to kick the raft to the island. Upon entering the shore, they searched to find a broken bridge, a tree house and a particular collection of trees giving a good view of the endless sea. The girl squinted her eyes and approached it, feeling a deeper connection. "...Right here, this is it." She took her blade and aimed it to the sky, acting odd. "Now... what." "Now what? Isn't this whole venture pointless?"

The rather dull and droning voice wormed into Xion's mind, she felt it familiar, but too patronizing. "That dream wasn't pointless, I think there is something I can-" "There isn't. Just go back home, I'm sure things will be fine."

She felt a tip of her tongue and continued to aim, feeling a sudden spike, like hearts were calling to her. "That's it." She focused and caused a glistening Keyhole to appear, it is closed however and only a faint sign of light could be seen. She turned to the Replica, who was a little unnerved by Xion talking to someone at random. "That looks like it can use a hand. What do you think Shadey?"

The shadow crawled to the keyhole, enveloped it and cause a little ripple to open, it wasn't enough. The boy felt an idea come. "Xion, we should give it some light while Shadey gives it the dark." The girl felt it was a good idea. "But would that be enough?" "It won't, that thing was made from the stuff of darkness and Chaos, it has little will of it's own." The voice became buzzing and Xion swatted to her left ear. "Would you go away."

She remembered something, gasped and turned, in a faint ripple, the sands of the islands became of putrid fungal moss and a black, bloated humanoid of open, puss like sores and a fly like head, appeared. "Why are you this rebellious, was it not us who gave you company, before he came into your lives?"

Xion summoned her blade as her brother rushed to her side and shouted. "Daemon!" The Herald of Nurgle enveloped himself in flies and dropped his tongue out, revealing a maw of teeth. "You've been allowed too much freedom, little ones. The Everchosen and the Darkseeker, will not be pleased." Shadey readied to attack, sensed something and went scurrying to the water, the Daemon extended his hand. "Allow me, to deliver you to them and put an end to this game."

The Replica shoot his head, glowed his blade in magical light and was ready to spear it. "Nope! Let's get em, Xion!" The girl agreed and flung herself at the Daemon, the demon grew a rusty sword from it's arm and tried to parry her, the girl smashed into him with one blow and smacked it across the head, sending it buzzing away and unleashing a swarm of tiny, yellow eyed mosquitos, the girl dashed away from that as the boy rushed to the swarm and slashed, unleashing a ball of blue light that evaporated them. The Daemon flew in a rather sporadic, zigzagged pattern. "Lord Bubon is too lenient! This will become too much for us to control!"

He appeared over the Replica, sword aimed downard and tried to stab him, the boy back flipped to dodge and stabbed the demon in the chest, like one with a halberd, he flung it at Xion and let her have another go of a brutal swat. PEW! The daemon distorted, position himself upward and used his tube mouth to spit caustic bile in a rapid pace, Xion rolled left and right as the Replica focused his hand, looked at the line of his stretched shadow and at the daemons, the shadow flung a barrage of bolts. Doing rather critical damage and forcing the daemon to fly towards the ground, sprout razor sharp, insect legs and fly at them in a zig zag pattern. "You will not, escape the inevitable!"

The siblings rolled in separate directions and dodged a multi stab, the daemon was at the edge of the shore and did not notice the ripple in the ocean, it turned to them and glowed it's legs in darkness. SPLASH! In a sudden, something jet out of the water, a strange, dark blue shark with a white underbelly, glowing red eyes and a mouth full of teeth, it rushed at the daemon and completely went through it.

The sudden arrival caught the daemons attention, the shark flopped to face the daemon, saw the sharp spikes and flopped to the side in fast speeds, it enveloped it's side fins in water as the the siblings took the chance, jumped high and speared the daemon, forcing it to focus on them for a parry, the shark jetted to the side of the daemon and caused it's left fine to envelope into a blade, it sliced through the daemon and caused it to collapse in halves, it disintegrated. The two felt a battle was over and saw something wiggle from the sharks shadow, Shadey looked at the shark in gratitude, who in turn looked at the two. "Shar?"

Xion realize the shark recognized her. "Hello, we're here because I think friends of ours need us." She pointed to the keygate. "And we need to open this. The names Xion." The Replica saw the dark features and introduced himself. "Dupmic is what I go with. The thing that guided you here was Shadey, because apparently some of his stuff contradicts what is needed to open it. A strong...dark." The shark gasped, looked to be smiley and gave happy barks as he flopped towards the key gate. "Shar! Shar! Sharpedo!"

The two realize that's all it could say to them, the Replica approached the clearing and aimed. "Alright Xion, Shadey, let's try this again. Sharpedo, do what you can do."

Xion readied and saw a strange green barnacle crawl from shrubbery, saw the decay and looked like it wanted to puke. "Cra?"

Xion waved. "That's pretty caustic stuff, don't touch it." The barnacle saw hints of a fight and called. "Cra?" The Replica realized something, signaled Xion that it can't see or hear her and pointed to the key hole. "You're friends over here, what cause this mess, left something pretty contagious stuff. I wouldn't touch it if I were you."

The barnacle listened, and thought of an idea, he wiggled closer and channeled a green power, a pulse of green enveloped the patch of plague and caused it to mulch into a spring of moss, that bloomed rather pleasing, pink flowers. The siblings were impressed and Sharpedo was a little relieved, the humans focused they keyblades and channeled light into the gate, Shadey enveloped it and tried to pry open the lock, a faint opening was revealed and Sharpedo smelled something, he slowly went into a trance, recognized the scent leaped and roared. "SHAR!"

He rushed at the lock with his teeth and crunched into the lock, busting it open from the other side and rushing in. The siblings gasped and sprinted in, they found themselves in a crystal palace, a stary robe wizard that was trying to sense something, felt something behind him and turned around. Finding the unusual arrival, prepared himself and heard Sharpedo bark. "SHAR! SHAR!"

The wizard blinked. "Kairi?!" He looked behind him. "She has ascended far into this forsaken place. It is not something for you to trend, not without aid." Sharpedo groaned in frustration and turned to the two, asking them, what was the big idea? Dupmic turned around, saw the keygate glowing and expanding. "...We... were suppose to open that."

Xion gasped. "That's it, someone is going to happen here and we... made a way out." The wizard thought to it and agreed. "Something is occurring up above, this would be most helpful, who are you?"

The girl gasped, realize the wizard knows she exists and answered. "Just...Xion, don't tell anyone, I got a plan for that soon." She looked to her brother. "This is Dupmic... or the name he uses because of a problem he has."

The wizard took one look at the boy and sighed in pity. "Fate has not been kind to you, Replica." The boy cringed and whispered harshly in a tone like Riku's. "Don't call me that. I know what I am, but what am I going to do about it?" The wizard wished he had the answer to that. "I know not, but you cannot continue on, living in that fear. One day, you will cross paths with the boy you were made after. The sooner you confront him, as yourself, the better."

The Replica wanted to whine. "Great, even this guy is saying it." He exhaled. "We'll guard the other side and keep any weirdos from wrecking this, once we see you come out, we will be gone." Xion puffed her cheeks. "Come on, that's a good chance."

The Replica shook his head. "Not this early in the morning, unlike you, I have a LOT of strings on my hands."

The wizard tried not to intervene and Sharpedo asked the wizard something, the elder answered. "We will see if it is needed, four mighty warriors are keeping the gate open. We will hold this side of the doorway, what you are by nature and what you are at heart, is unique." Sharpedo growled a guess, the wizard found the question interesting. "I believe this dark type is a factor, but not the whole." He smiled. "Thank you for your aid, you have done more than you realize."

Sharpedo smiled, feeling his help was appreciated and flopped backwards. "Ar!" It was ready to jet through and Xion asked the wizard. "How do you know what he's saying?"

The wizard laugh to that. "Hm, hm, hm. His tongue might be different, but his heart speaks clearly. I hope to meet you four again."

The Replica's shadow revealed astonished red eyes and the wizard gave it a farewell. "I was not purely speaking for Sharpedo, you've came from the dark depths of a gentle heart and you think like him if he was unbound. Remember that in the trials to come."

The Replica was impressed. "That's kind of why we need to stick to the shadows for now. We'll see you around." Sharpedo jet through the door way and the odd trio jumped to the other side, finding themselves back on the island and seeing Sharpedo ram his head unto a tree, he was dazed as the leaves shook. Xion gasped, approached the new friend and took out a potion with a star. "Ouch."

Pew! Sharpedo felt his head ache gone and flopped to have a look at the gate, seeing it enlarge since the last time he saw it. "Pedo?" Xion sat next to him. "Yep, I'm glad that I came all the way here, so, who is your green friend?" Sharpedo tried to recall things as the Replica saw Cradily smelling his handy work of flowers. "Friends Kairi has made... apparently."

In Pandemonium.

Kairi lead a spear head into a muscular heartless with angelic wings, a glowing red spear and horns shaped like a halo, it raised it's spear and summoned multiple pillars of dark fire, then fluttered to the ceiling and shot down burning brimstone. The Princess kept at the even level as Sora and Riku surrounded the thing, together they slashed in sync and caused feathery, golden to appear, it burned the heartless skin and caused it to convulse, the trio circled around in light formed a halo like ring and caused it to snap into the heartless, finishing it off. Ana was pretty surprised. "Despite all those horror stories, you're light's stronger than ever."

Ken felt it was odd. "For real, we're not giving up but we can't take Archaon down as we are. You're pretty happy to have seen what you did?"

The Stormcast wanted to laugh as the destiny trio landed and lead the way up crystal stairs. "A lot of what I've seen and heard from Sigmar has always been from scriptures and the few things he's told us on the dawn of our forging. Now, I seen what I needed to see and more." Halvek nodded. "Both the flaws and what's made him shine among the others."

Mickey felt it made sense. "From what I've seen and what you told me, he's always loved his people, that was why he left the Empire in their hands and faded into the legends." Ana nodded. "Aye, and it is those people giving that love back that helped him find his way, should he be lead astray by evil."

Donald had one thing to complain about. "If that's so, then why didn't he give Diederick a sign when he needed him?" Goofy scratched the back of his head as Aqua felt a few theories in mind. "Either, because the Chaos gods were keeping Sigmar out of Diederick's life when he needed someone. The God King being busy at the time in an Empire trying to stay alive in that world or because the Chaos gods kept Diederick down that path, until only one thing remained in his heart."

Goofy guessed. "It could be either of those three or all of them." Sora over heard that and turned around as his closest friends found a room with four platforms. "It's the only thing that makes sense, how can anyone hold that much hatred in his heart?" Ven did not want to answer that. "It's sad to think about. But it's why were here to push on, we're going to stop Archaon from hurting more of our people."

The party reached the room and heard a combined voice. "You're presence is forbidden here!" A glow on the four sides shined, on the north east, was a familiar, blue aquatic monster, with tentacles for limbs, tentacles resembling a throne and two upper tentacles with lamprey like mouths. To the north west was a familiar green dragon, with three heads, the dragon looked more demonic than draconic. "Victory is but an illusion for you." To the south east was a familiar skeletal lich of dark white bones, limbs with the feathers of a buzzard, a long kilt of ribs, a spinal cord and what looks like rotten flesh. "and only death awaits you here!" To the south west was a snake like creature with the upper body of a woman, her underbelly was light blue, her scales were read and her upper half had legs that resemble a cobras hood. "We are the Chaos Guardians," she hissed. "Kneel before our power!"

Riku was not impressed. "He's doing this again? Come on Garland, bring some new material!" Aqua puckered her lips in thought. "Hmm. Ven, Ana, Kendry, we got these guys." The Stormcast faced the Kraken lookalike and sparked her wings. "That, we do." Ven faced the fiend resembling the Marilith and Ken confronted the thing resembling Tiamat, leaving Aqua to face the thing resembling the Lich. The Keyblade Master told the Destiny trio, Disney Trio and the Kharadron. "Get going!"

The crew didn't have much time to argue and ran on ahead, going down a long hall way. Finding a throne room, but no Garland. Sora and Donald, were completely confused, the duck asked. "What's the big idea?" Riku felt something was suspicious and Mickey ordered. "Look around, but be careful, this could be another trap."

Kairi looked to the corners of the room, seeing markings of some importance and tapped it with her keyblade, nothing happened. "This must be how he created the Four Fiends, those Archfiends, enslaved Loru and the others, along with making those knock offs." Sora felt that made sense and checked on another slab, he gasped, looked up and found nothing. Riku wondered. "Where did you go?"

Goofy hmmed as Halvek realized something, the shieldbearer and the Navigator gazed upon the throne, Halvek guessed. "Through most ingenious getaway trick, when making a lair." He and Goofy walked to the side of the throne and pushed, it move and revealed something, impressing the party among other things. Riku whistled to that. "Wow, so he was getting ready for us." Sora gave Goofy and Halvek a thumbs up. "Nice work guys."

Rumble! Rumble!

The group felt rumbling and Riku felt a strong darkness coming, Goofy and Halvek ran to them and avoided a dark figure bursting from the ground, a gargantuan, yellow bodied, regal like heartless of many spikes, it had a black skull, demonic horns and snakes for hair, on it's chest is a dark blue plate with the emblem of the Heartless. The Dark Emperor gazed it's eyes upon Halvek and tried to swat him. Riku grabbed the stunted Kharadron and pulled him away as Donald enchanted Goofy's shield and let his friend bash the Dark Emperor in the face, Mickey flung himself at him and yelled. "Come on fellas, get past him while we deal with this!"

Riku nodded and readied to jump. "You're ready Halvek, this is going to be a rough one." Halvek groaned and readied to jump. "Not if I can jump with these legs." Riku appreciated the effort and jumped with the Kharadron, managing to get over the Dark Emperor and making a break for the stairs, Sora grabbed Kairi's hand and together, they flowed over the heartless and made it to the other side. They followed their friend and found themselves in a stair way with a dark sky that rains fire.

Back at the Chaos Guardian's Chambers.

Ven had to to move around the Marilith's many, wicked, viper strike blades, Ana bolted to the Kraken for a smack of a lightning hammer, flapped back from a right tentacle shooting ink and watched it shoot itself with water magic for a healing. Ken shot two of Tiamat's heads, waiting for it to blow a twister and flung himself to the side with his air magic, he pressed his feet on the crystal wall and darted to the dragons back, he speared Cadia's Light for a firm grip and slashed his burning blade. Tiamat lifted her right head, turned to the boy and snorted a gust of wind to knock him off, the left head looked to him and breathed out a stream of jet fire, causing the boy to feel a rather intense heat. He groaned. "Well, I got close enough anyways."

He called Cadia's Light back and sprinted under the dragon, dodging claws to try and cut into her belly. Aqua sprinted to the Lich, who unleashed pillars of stone to halt her advance, the keyblade Master flowed to the Fiends personal and unleashed quick slashes that were followed by an envelopment of fire magic. She unleashed devastation upon the half rotten, half rotted foe and caused him to scream. "Wraaagh!" He floated back and hissed. "Commendable, but your life ends here!"

He summoned a mirror, showing Aqua a reflection of her being pale in skin, pale in the eyes and her hair being oddly long, she felt a mortal peril as the mirror shattered, she back flipped and felt her heart counting down something. (10) Ven felt his friends peril and asked quickly. "What did that thing do?" Aqua felt the countdown getting worse. (9). "He" (8). "used." (7). "a" (6.) "death." (5.) "curse." (4.) Ven felt his instinct kick in and on the mental count of three, aimed his blade at his friend, causing a spec of light to appear in her chest. SLASH!

Marilith took the chance to attack him (3) and force him to shoot out a quick ice spell to get her to back off. (2) Aqua still felt a doom looming over her. (1) On the last heart beat, she felt something hit her sharply in the back of her head, it sent her on her knees, yet she still lived. The Lich growled and readied to cast something as Aqua used a quick heal, enveloped herself in the wings of a pheonix and dived at him.

Ana felt annoyed by the Kraken's self heal and barked. "That won't hold you for long fiend." She crackled in a storm and went back to face the Kraken, she flew around the ink and water shots, and smashed the fiend in the head, in a couple quick blows, the fiend of water wailed and fell on his rear, he melted and gave the Stormcast the chance to assess the situation, Aqua was scorching the Lich in a hurry and Ven found out ice magic works well against the Fiend of Fire, the boy enveloped himself in ice and slashed to the Marilith's sides. That left Ken, who was in an over heat and under the dragons belly. She aimed her blade and blew a cool wind at the boy, cooling him down and giving him the chance to form chance his blade into a burning spear and rushed it into Tiamat. The dragon was pushed back and flapped her wings to fly at a higher ledge, intending to swat the boy down, Ken pulled on his own and let himself fall, his weapon facing down to the ground.

STAB! BOOM! A fire storm was unleashed and it engulfed the dragon, burning her wings to the point their membranes scorched away and making her fall, thud! She tried to get up and Ken flipped for a spear on her back, the dragon collapsed, her mouths let out fire that was not her own and her body began to blow away.

Ken felt that was done and jumped back to the group, the Marilith saw she was in a losing battle and cast a barrage of bombs on the group, causing an aura of heat. Ana growled as Ven paid little heed and unleashed a finisher of ice and Aqua was readying a finisher, she focused a cooling spell on the Keyblade Master as Ken realized something was strange about the fire spell and reached to his bag, finding a small, tube of something purple with a star. "This ought to help!" Squirt! A star shot out and shot to Ven as he was feeling a massive over heat of an explosion.

PEW!

The star cooled that down, the older boy smirked, flung his blade at the fiend of fire and had it return to him, the boy jumped on the blade and had it form a trail of ice, like a skating ramp, he circled around the annoyed fiend and rushed the blade on her back, flipping to land by the group and flipping his weapon. Marilith hissed as her body began to smoulder. "This... isn't... over!" She flung her blades to the air and let them fall. "Take this!"

The swords rained down around the group, by the time they realize they were burning blue fire, they exploded and sent the boys on their back sides and Ana tumbling, the fiend collapsed as the Fiend of Earth flung caustic powder at them and tried to cut dark blades at Aqua. The Keyblade Master parried, gave a faint glow of light and riposte him for a brutal finisher, causing it to scatter in bones and collapse as decayed matter. Victory was achieved and she jumped back to a party looking rather sick. She cast a heal and exhaled. "Phew! Those were a bit tougher than I expected."

Ken agreed and noticed the four cores floating above the remains of the Chaos Guardians, they sparked in a flicker and faded away as a bubble, gust of wind, a dying flame and as dust. He grumbled. "And that jerk made them so we can't use those cores again. Darn it." Aqua folded her arms as the group got up. "Kendry, we're not going to get the strength we need if we acted like those kleptomaniacal scavengers we've made friends with."

Ken felt the lecture and felt a harsh voice in his mind. "Did she just insulted them? She knows that was the only way they could get by." He felt the temptation to ask that and spoke respectively. "The idea worked for the kind of power some of us got," Aqua nodded in agreement. "Oh it did, you should have seen what Ven's screams have done. That is why Garland spiked these cores up, he wanted us to work a little harder and have our reward just... vanish."

Ana got up and agreed. "And what else do we have to mix those cores with anyways?" Ken counted and answered. "Nothing, those guys at the castle have the only thing we could have used." Ven was the last to get up. "I guess we could use more of those, but be careful with what you throw into that kiln, cause the Gnashing Winds would have burst something if I didn't scream." Ken felt the voice whisper. "What an ingrate!"

Ken got annoyed and turned behind. "Hey! I thought that was a lot of power to fit into someones lungs, give him a break!"

He found nothing and Ana asked. "Kendry, was... something the matter?" The boy felt awkward and heard cruel laughter in his mind. "I was hearing something. Did you hear it too?" Aqua's eyes widened as Ana answered. "No," she realized something and asked. "Were the voices trying to argue with us?"

Ken nodded. "Yeah, but the things you guys said were true. That world has too many things we wouldn't have agreed with if we weren't desperate for the questions." Ven saw corridors open up, in the pattern of eight points and Aqua put her hand over her face. "Oh no!"

Ken realized and turned, finding a corridor slip open and unleash a twenty group of crimson armored chaos warriors with axes and spiked shields, rushing to the group, some of them screamed. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

Ven saw the other split open to a six man group of crimson Chaos warriors on the backs of mechanical, rhino monsters, lead by what looked to be a warlord on a dark red rhino monster. He shouted. "SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" The third corridor split open to reveal a horde of Bloodletters, lead by a particularly well armored one one with a cloak of skulls and two skulls decorating his horns. He hissed as his daemons charged. "Guess who came!"

Ana grabbed a stunned Ken by the shoulders and joined Aqua and Ven on a jump to the exit, letting the forces of Khorne sandwich themselves and push themselves to regain a momentum of a charge. Ken was completely dizzy as the Stormcast cursed. "Ah darn it, I knew these guys were going to come. We've spent so long in here that Archaon took notice!"

Ven cringed. "We got to find the others!" Aqua agreed, ordered her companions to make a run for it and sprinted into the long hall, she turned to find the Forces of Khorne arguing about something, flipped her keyblade in a glow of crystal blue and used it to make a mighty barrier of crystal, containing stored energy of light. "That should slow them down for a minute and take some of them down." Ken tried to kick himself free as his teacher turned. "Come on, let's hurry!"

She and Ven glided in high speeds and left the boy with only one option, he wanted to whine as Ana readied to fly. "Don't go complaining now, every second wasted could mean death by them." Ken groaned. "I can move fast too you know." The Stormcast groaned. "But for how long? This is a long hall way." Ken actually looked, realize he didn't have the kind of time and gave up. "Awwww." WOOSH!

At the Throne Room.

The Dark Emperor attacked Mickey and Goofy rather relentlessly, forcing the mouse to jump back as Goofy was flung back. Donald cast a heal as the Dark Emperor focused on him and fired a flare ball, the Duck quacked as the King jumped in front of him and used a reflect spell. Deflecting the devastating explosion, Donald aimed his staff at the challenge. "Let's see how tough you are if you can't aim!" He enveloped in water. "Ink!"

PWEW!

A stream of ink shot as the Dark Emperor raised his other hand and caused something to form around the two, the ink shot into the eyes and the two sprinted out of the circle to avoid a temporal trap, the Dark Emperor roared in rage as Goofy flung his shield and bashed it, directing the foes attacks to him and using the chance to jump out of there. The Dark Emperor, not realizing he completely missed, kept attacking and gave Mickey the chance to aim his blade to the air. "Holy!" A beam shot out to the heavens and returned, hovering above the Dark Emperor, bombarding it with it's divine power, it burned it's eyes in purple and burned through the ink, it raised it's hands to the sky and summoned burning meteors from the darkness. Mickey yelped, signaled his partners to spread and tried to avoid as much destruction as possible, he and his companions felt the impact regardless, Donald waved to Mickey. "This is knocking the wind out of us! Hurry and help me cast this!"

The Mouse understood and jumped to him as Goofy bashed the Dark Emperor in the face, Mickey and Donald focused life energy, formed a circle and raised their weapons in sync, forming a mighty tree that sprouted its roots that impaled the Dark Emperor in the chest and cause the arena to spark in floral power, giving the trio a rather bountiful heal and leaving behind invigorating, floral power.

The Dark Emperor growled, burned the roots with purple fire and smashed Goofy across, taking some of the green lower for it's own healing, Mickey flung to the Dark Emperor in holy light, slashed in fast speeds and raised his blade to bombard it in orbs of light. Goofy approached, raised his shield up and yelled. "Get on high, ya Majesty!" Mickey saw that, dived down to avoid a clawing, landed on the shield and felt Goofy spring up high, giving the king the chance to dive down at the Dark Emperor's head like a spear of light. Stabbing it deep into the skull and causing a rupture of light, the mouth burst and the Dark Emperor tried to call upon one more spell, Mickey pushed deeper in, pulled out and flipped, he watched the Dark Emperor engulf itself in dark fire, slowly collapsed into the hole and release a captive heart. Victory was achieved and the kings guards exhaled in relief, Goofy admitted. "That was pretty fast." Donald confessed. "And tough." Mickey agreed with that. "Phew! Now we can catch up with Sora and the others."

"You will not."

Two corridors opened up in a pattern much like an eight pointed star, on one side is a rather vast legion of Chaos warriors, lead by a trio of Varanguard, on the other was a rather gargantuan heartless of limbs, many mawed tentacles and a large mouth with a glaring yellow eye. The army was about to lead an overwhelming charge as Ven and Aqua arrived, landing with a stab to the ground and letting loose a unified pulse of light, the Heartless howled in many directions as the Chaos Warriors were pushed back, the Varanguard sizzled from the darkness. One of them, with a horned helm resembling a reptile, hissed a sadistic laughter. "Hwa, ha, ha, ha! So it is as our Lord Promised. The "heroes" of these worlds are here, the specs of Light that seek to banish the Chaos from this Realm!"

Ana burst an entry and smashed her keyblade towards the group, actually flinging them a couple feet, Ken looked like he was dizzy, regained his sight to see the Chaos Warriors regaining some balance and cringed. "Oh no! No, no, no, no!" He wiggled free and pressed his hand on his chest on something as the Varanguard counted a missing heads. "Where are the three missing youths and the stunted one?"

Aqua answered back with attitude. "Where's your Everchosen? It doesn't sound like him to just leave this one to you."

The Varanguard leader gave a rather excited stare to such a brave woman. "A fiery soul have we? Well, who's to say he isn't near? But no matter." He ordered. "Slay them all!"

The group knew a fight was charging and Ken's eyes glowed in primordial power, his hand glowed and he waved it free from his heart. "You'll have to get past this first if you got a chance!" The light burst into a fiendish storm, the Chromatic Kharibdyss appeared in a twisted storm and roared, causing the Chaos Warriors to halt in terror, the Varanguard leader noticed them and ordered. "It's another dumb beast! Rip it apart!"

The Warriors quickly rallied and charged, the Chromatic Khari breathed out a cloud of acid with it's black head and mixed it with lightning, engulfing ten of the warriors in a corrosive cloud that sparked into a storm, the result was lethal, the lead head worked in sync with it's green to breath out a hazardous black cloud, followed by fire. Giving the Guardian's of Light the chance to focus on the Gargantuan, Dark Spawn, Ana took the Varanguard's taunt to heart, lifted a ready Ken by the shoulders and asked. "Ya know where Archaon's heading towards?"

Ken realized and asked. "There is no way Sora, Riku and Kairi can take him on!" Ana agreed and flung him to the stair way up, Aqua cringed and used her magic to form a barrier as soon as the boy was on the steps. "Get them out of there! We got this now thanks to Khari!" Ken saluted and dashed ahead, a fresh wave of Chaos Warriors pushed through the clouds and the lead Varanguard tossed his serpent helm to reveal a scaled, red face, he looked up at the Kharibdyss with a snarl, the beast gave a gurgle that sounded like laughter. "Empowered by dark storms of not, you all will die!"

Prior to the invasion of Chaos Warriors.

The Destiny Trio and Halvek ascended to a rather cosmic purple throne room, in the distance was a volcanic landscape with mountainous swords, the sky rained fire. Sitting on a throne, with a head piece looking like a round circle with eight points and a center piece of skulls, was the demon Garland, pressing his upper arms together in anticipation and his right lower arm in reach of a claymore. "So you finally arrived, Warriors of Light." He stood up and picked his claymore up. "All you have fought, all you have sacrificed, has lead you to this moment, to the very heart of Chaos itself."

He snapped his lower left hand and caused his claymore to glow in fire, the demon's body enveloped in flames and looked comparable to a devil. Halvek took out his void stone orb, pressed a button and raised the orb high, the orb pulsed, shattered and let loose a stream of a stary night. It made contact with the demon and caused a barrier of crystal to appear, it burst into blinding grey, the trio shielded their eyes and saw the crystal in the shadow, it shattered and was no more. The fiery power died down, Garland growled, flexed inward to hover and pulsed out the fire, letting loose a ripple of power that blew against the four. He stomped down in a pillar of dark power. "Do you honestly think that would make a difference? You still stand, before a god."

Sora was confused by the intense power, Riku relaxed a little and Halvek hummed. Kairi noticed that, she asked. "Did that even do anything?" Riku nodded. "He's putting up a show, but that stone did it. His crystal is gone and his powers a lot more loose." Halvek tossed aside the remains of his artifact and tried to analyze. "It's still a tremendous amount of power, all be in a less concentrated form. It's a good thing you three are here!"

Garland snarled. "Even if you are the worlds greatest warriors, it is meaningless! If you dare to challenge me," He jumped high with his right foot glowing. "I WILL KNOW YOU ALL THE WAY DOWN TO YOUR PRECIOUS ISLANDS!"

He dived down after the four like a meteor, the Destiny Trio flew away from that as Halvek tried to sprint, Garland made impact and caused an earthquake, followed by a volcanic eruption, fire balls the size of boulders flew at the trio that had to deflect, Halvek was nearly flung off the platform and crashed to an invisible wall. Garland turned his claymore into a sword with a chain and flung it at the three, it enveloped in water and resembled a krakens slap. The trio jumped over that and Sora flowed to him in lightning, he summoned Hero's Origin and attacked Garland in the speed of lightning, distracting the demon for Halvek to crawl away to a safe distance and focus on summoning. "I'm getting Ol' Bountiful over ere. You two, get in there."

Kairi and Riku nodded to him, looked to each other and jumped as one, the Princess summoned a circle of feathery wings as the silver haired boy channeled morning light, the wings closed on receiving that power, spun to dim the light and unfolded to channel an even brighter ray. The ray shot into Garland and sent him flying to the invisible wall, the Demon watched the duo land, saw Sora about to shield bash him and elbowed him to the ground. The demon cloaked himself in storms, turned his claymore into a lance and speared into the duo, like a bolt of lightning, they flew from the impact in electrocution and force. Halvek enveloped himself in light, hovered high and summoned his Frigate, it aimed it's guns at Garland. The Demon folded his wings and formed a reflective barrier, giving Sora time to get to his friends, Kairi used a heal to sooth the damage on her and Riku, the spiky haired boy asked. "Think we can attack him from all sides?"

Riku felt that was a smart idea, enveloped himself in the light of the dark sun and readied to wall jump. "I got the back." He wall jumped close to the demons back side as Kairi turned her blade into ice claws. "I got the right! Let him have it Sora!" The boy switched to Happy Gear and rushed at the defending demon. Riku speared at him and cleaved as Sora bull rushed him and smashed, giving Kairi the time to circle around and clawed.

Halvek maneuvered his Frigate and had it hold fire, Garland attempt to reflect one blow, took damage and circle around. It has hurting, the demon raised his upper hands and howled. "Your lives are mine to take!" Dark green brambles burst from the ground, stabbed the trio and sent them back, they back flipped from the damage and watched Garland heal some of his wounds, the brambles receded as Riku focused, hovered and let loose a dark sun divide of energy bullets. Sora form chanced Happy gear into mechanical claws as Kairi turned her claws into skates, Garland turned to the boy and girl coming after him, split his claymore into four, his lower blades cleaved the ground and let loose lava snakes after the two, his upper flung spears of fire at Riku and Ol' Bountiful, Riku flipped to avoid the blows and Halvek noticed a button that says, reflect. Press! Ol' Bountiful glowed a reflective barrier that handled the spear, though it was still pushed off course. Sora and Kairi dodged the fast slashes and pounced on Garland, Sora's claws and Kairi's wrist blades parried through the swords and cut into him. Kairi gave Garland a round house kick and slashed him towards the throne.

Ol' Bountiful took it's chance and fired every possible gun at him, sparking the demons anger. Garland reverted his blades snapped his fingers and caused the air ship to stop in a sudden, Halvek tried to see what happened and noticed his Frigate is frozen in place, Garland grabbed his upper left hand and crushed something, when the Frigate began to move, it crashed to the ground and disintegrated. Halvek flipped his staff and saw Riku crash to the ground, he summoned a turret with a comfortable cushion. The silver haired boy saw that, let himself land on it and sprang off. Halvek ran to his summon as Kairi slipped from the gravity push and was in a painful split of the legs, Sora form changed his claws into yo- yos, kept his balance and flung them at Garland, pelting him in the face and getting close.

Kairi gritted her teeth, dismissed her form change and tried to get up. "Not... cool." She took out a pendent with a sea shell and focused. "Give me strength!" A whirlpool appeared, swimming around it was a mermaid of water, she had the lower half of a fish, sea shells on her top and long flowing hair, Kairi's pain turned to a smirk as the mermaid swam to her. "You're the one who helped me back on the islands, you gave me that seal skin?"

The mermaid nodded to her like an eager teenager, then turned to Garland to give a determined battle gaze, Kairi grabbed her by the hand and asked. "You lead and I'll follow for this dance!" The mermaid turned to her and winked, she to the ground and disappeared, Kairi thought to take a dive and disappeared in a splash of water.

Garland was being pelted by gun shots and was slashed by bladed toys and sword, he turned his claymore into a mighty hammer. "I'll crush you!" He smashed the hammer at Sora, the boy jumped back and felt a power from bellow, he flipped to avoid a jagged stone, Riku was shaken back from the quake and flipped to avoid the hammer being swung at him, he noticed Kairi disappeared as he struck the demon on the head.

Splash! Sora heard the splash and turned to find a familiar mermaid of water flopping towards Garland, she dived into the ground, out of that ripple, came Kairi with the lower half of a purple seal. Sora found that so bizarre. "What's Ariel doing here?" Garland glowed his free hand in fire and shot Riku away, he was smacked from behind by something wet and turned to face it. He heard another splash to his right and turned to be harpooned by Kairi, she rushed through him and dived into the water, giving Sora the chance to ready his yo- yo finisher, swinging them horizontally, one half enlarging to be like a lower jaw with a blade of teeth in the center, the other half, forming a work hat with eye stalks at the top, with a matching upper jaw.

Ariel leaped high over an annoyed Garland and lung drops of water at him, the demon spotted her and tried to shoot a lightning bolt at her, the mermaid dived down to the water and avoided him. Kairi leaped from the magical water puddle, spun in a dance and rained down a spout of water, right above him, Riku took advantage of his wet foe and rained down lightning as Kairi dived, Garland felt the zap and saw Kairi facing him upside down and sticking her tongue out, the two yo- yo halves caught Garland as the girl disappeared. Sora had the halves munch on the demon and called the weapons back, reverting them back to a keyblade as Kairi and Ariel jumped up high and swam together in a waltz, the salt water made Garland's wounds sting and a large droplet of water caused a splash.

Kairi and Ariel looked to each other, back to back, gave a cute node and a giggle. The mermaid disappeared and Kairi turned human again, she flipped an elegant landing and spun in a crouch, Garland caused the water to evaporate and hissed. "Clever, Princess." He flew high with his hammer glowing in fire. "But will you catch the stars themselves?"

He spun his hammer, the boys and Halvek saw what was coming and felt their hearts skip a beat, the demon hurled it at the Princess, the hammer became a large meteor, Kairi rolled and flipped to avoid the impact. Garland used one hand to fire a super heated beam at Halvek, chasing his off his turret, the other shot a beam at Sora to keep him moving and the lower hands to fire a more intense heat beam, Kairi yelped and ran for her life. Garland flung himself after her like a missile, foot first. Kairi used a reflect spell and was flung against the invisible wall, it cracked and she was out of breath, Riku flung himself at Garland's back with a battle scream and unleashed slashes of dark light, Sora gave Kairi a heal and hovered. He fired beams of Ragnarok to compliment Riku's melee.

Kairi got to slide off the wall and fell on her knees, she saw Halvek firing his pistol in an attempt to keep some damage and glowed her blade in light, she flung it like a boomerang and caused it to shine like a star. Garland braced his wings upon reaching a pain threshold and yelled, stretching out and causing the ground around him to glow, Riku back flipped, saw a pillar of fire erupt and form an orb of flame, it rained fire upon the four, Kairi jumped in front of Halvek to deflect, Sora used a deflect and Riku used a deflect. Garland looked at Sora and hurled the fire orb at him, he saw the group try to come for him in melee and back flipped, jumping through the invisible barrier as he taunted.

"You resist in vain."

He fell to the fire bellow, the group gathered up in preparation for what feels like an intense attack. Rumble! A giant yellow clawed hand climbed from bellow and pulled, revealing a giant yellow demon that is the Warriors of Lights foe. The giant was like a mountain, Garland too advantage of the shock went to one of the swords and plucked it from the ground, he raised in high and slashed down at the four, Halvek made a run to the left with Riku as Sora and Kairi ran right, Garland circled around the platform and swiped his sword horizontally, Halvek ducked as Riku jumped, Sora and Kairi slide to the ground and saw the throne's base was smashed off. The heat of the sword caused some explosion. Garland circled around again, jumped high in the air and stabbed the platform in a plunge, causing an eruption of fire that followed the four, Halvek got caught in one and rolled to the ground as the teenagers glided away. Kairi took her turn to heal Halvek and flipped with her friends to another horizontal slash. Garland used the explosion to fly back to the landscape and with force of will, called three more mountain sized swords, Riku's eyes widened. "Oh crud."

Garland flung the swords at the lower base of the platform, they stabbed the four corners and caused it to rumble, five clumped together rings of fire appeared, yet the there was a clearing by the south east corner, the four made a rush to that and watched the pillars explode, the platform was engulfed in hellfire and the four felt a light shine.

The throne was as it was and Garland made the exact same pose he did when they entered, yet his wounds showed. Sora growled, for a moment he thought Garland reset the whole fight, Riku asked him. "He looks beaten up, are you ready to finish this?" Sora knew what that meant as Kairi closed her eyes and put her hand to her chest. "So much we've been through has lead to this. We are in this together!" She shined in light as Riku did a similar pose and gave an odd glow of a late sunset night. "We are so close to ending this. Our hearts are like one!"

Sora felt the strange mixture come together, felt the Kingdom Key in his hands and felt his own light shining, with a glow, he felt himself hovering, his clothes in the half side of black and a half side of wide, Oath Keeper and Oblivion hovered his side. With the power, he faced a Garland standing up and slowly approached. "It's over Garland."

The demon laughed to him. "Is it now?" He snapped his fingers and caused pillars of light to descend from the sky, Sora rushed to him at blinding speeds, to avoid the pillars that became infernos and struck him with a spin, Oblivion disappeared in shadows and slashed at Garland from the dark corners as Oathkeeper spun into stars and rushed to the demon, pushing him to the center of the arena and bursting spheres of light. Sora blitz to the demon with light and yelled, juggling him with the two keyblades and becoming like that of a night sky, Garland tried to parry and was disarmed by a rush from Oathkeeper, he was struck in the chest by Oblivion and Sora jumped high with his blade raised upward, ready for a downward slash. A ring of a night sky appeared on the ground, Sora smashed Garland and sent him flinging to the ring.

On impact, the ring burst into pillars of intense light, quickly engulfing him, the demon screamed in defiance as Sora back flipped, hovered to his friends and felt the power flickering away, Oathkeeper and Oblivion disappeared, Kari and Riku snapped out of their zen and saw the light's radiance, in a flash, they felt the air lessen. They saw Garland smouldering, he stood up and tried to ready another attack, his legs shook and he fell on his knees, holding onto the ground with his four arms, Sora almost passed out as he realize the fight was over, Kairi and Riku held onto him, feeling his panting and slowed their breathing. Sora felt he could stand, let them know they let him go and tried to say something, Garland coughed. "You hack won." he breathed deeply. "Victory is... yours."

Halvek growled and took his pistol. "Oh don't give us any of that." He approached him with an executioners glare. "If we let ya go, let ya crawl back into the darkness, you will just cause all of this this again." He aimed it at Garland's head, before he pulled the trigger, Kairi ordered. "Halvek stop!"

The Duardin stopped and had one eye turned to her, like he was waiting for her to give a reason. The Princess calmed down, took out a crystal and approached the two. "I think I got a way to keep him from being our problem again. Garland's imprisoned Loru and the others with the power of the crystals."

Halvek listened. "So with a little reverse engineering, we can lock em in one of those and see how he likes it?" Kairi nodded and Garland saw the puny crystal, he gave a laughter. "Do... ha... do you really believe a puny thing like this could contain me? Foolish girl."

Namine appeared next to Kairi, took the crystal and focused, she had it hover where the throne was and with a little power, caused it to enlarge. The nobody gave a justified glare to Garland. "It will now." She disappeared back into Kairi, who used her caused the crystal to glow, form a keyhole and let loose tethers that circled around the demon that was keeping silent. The boys and Halvek felt that was a just punishment and prepared to watch, Kairi closed her eyes, took a deep breath and spoke to the defeated foe. "And... I guess...as weird as this sounds... we should also be thanking you."

Halvek was on the right end and turned. "Huh?" Sora had his free arm at his hip. "What? After everything he has done?" Riku agreed with his book dumb friend. "Kairi, that makes no sense." Halvek put his pistol away and thought of it. "It... doesn't really. But if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have learned about Archaon, the kind of danger he poses, nor have any lick of an idea of how to deal with him. Thanks to that lad proving the impossible and you all looking into yourselves, we could find what we need with some excavation."

He looked onto the crystal, less has a spectator of punishment and more like a business man, Garland shook his head. "Even for a Princess of Heart, you are far too forgiving for your own good. Who is to say I won't escape and try this again?"

Kairi puffed her cheeks in a growl as Sora had something to say, with a sharp scowl. "If you do, we'll kick your butt back in there." Garland laughed to that as the tethers were dragging him into the crystal, then he noticed something that made him stop, on the right corner of his eye was a corridor with a burning center and in a ripple of eight points. Riku felt an menacing darkness and dropped a sweat. "No..not now, not now."

Kairi and Sora wondered what Riku meant and saw a fast trial of fire rush to the crystal, a cloaked man of horns dived through the darkness with a wave of flame and smashed a glowing red sword into the crystal. Shattering it and the throne and pushing Kairi back, Sora and Riku recognized the red cloak, the horned crown and the black armor. Halvek jumped to that and readied himself. "Don't just stand around, we need to get ready for a-" The horned man, flickered in a ripple and stood in front of the Kharadron with his sword aimed for his chest. STAB! In a flash, Halvek was stabbed in the chest and lifted up, Kairi's mouth dropped as Riku felt a quake in his heart, Sora gritted his teeth and drew for battle, he charged. "Archaon! You've done it now!"

The Everchosen slowly turned to Sora and flung Halvek's body at him, like he was trash. "That Kharadron was spent anyways." The body knocked Sora back, the boy flipped and was about to attack him. Riku felt something appear at the ruins of the crystal and throne, an eight pointed pool of darkness and the sound of hissing. Garland tried to drag himself away and chains of darkness jolted to him, the chains had teeth. CHOMP!

The chains bit into Garland and caused him to scream, earning a satisfied stare from the Everchosen. "So, your whole plan was not usurpation, but a feeble attempt to prepare these mortals?" He laughed to that as Sora rushed him blade first, the Everchosen blocked that and slashed his blade at the boy, Sora back flipped and aimed his blade at him. "Would you stop that!" A Ragnarok shot, it made contact with Archaons armor and did nothing, the chains pulled Garland by the skin, the demon tried to push regardless and was met with another chain, wrapping around his neck. Kairi readied to attack the chains. "Archaon, this is way too cruel!"

She hovered and unleashed orbs of light fitting for a Princess of Heart, bombarding the chains and vaporizing them, the Everchosen glared at her and shot a bolt of arcane power from his eyes, flinging her back and swaying his sword to summon more at a Garland trying to make a corridor to sprint to, the chains sank into his feet and yanked, tripping him and wrapping around him. Riku had his turn and tried to flow to the side to cut the chains, Archaon side stepped and appeared next to him, ready to decapitate him, the boy focused on a glow of sunlight and parried, he was being pushed and resorted to using a burst of light to get Archaon away, he back flipped as the Everchosen simply walked to him and rippled towards him. "Regardless of his true plans, he will be made a use to me! His twisted heart would be a vessel for the Dark Powers."

Garland clinged and used his free hand to shoot a fire ball at him. "Has the Warp brought such delusions that you over think to make me serve you?!" He shot it at Archaon, who glared at him and spoke that sound northern, the chains burned and Garland tried not to scream. "N..No! I won't go back in there!" He flung water at the Everchosen and caused him to freeze, it cracked and Riku took it as his chance to return to the group. Sora was realizing even Garland had nothing to stop him with, the chains yanked harder and Garland felt a slip, the demon realize his fate was sealed, he was reduced to cursing an Archaon that burst free. "Mark my words, Diederick, one day the Warriors of Harmony, of the True light of this realm, will stop the madness you're unleashing!"

Archaon didn't even paid heed to him as the chains yanked Garland into the rift and quickly closed. The Everchosen set his gaze upon the Destiny Trio, keeping their guard up and ready to fight, he found it laughable. "Sanity was his burden, he will learn that soon." Kairi is giving off a strange glow of light in her eyes. "You're not going to get away with this, this game.. all of it, is sick."

Archaon balked to that. "It is, Princess. That fool Sigmar, called upon that worlds heart, made himself a god and chose to continue this pointless struggle! Now that frauds burdens are yours." Sora gritted his teeth and yelled. "Yeah right," he pointed to him. "Sigmar tried to give the people of the world something to hold on to, something you lost ages ago!" Riku agreed with that. "He kept that hope alive, even after YOU made the world burn. How many more people need to die for you to go away?"

Archaon took that as an insult and flickered in front of them. "Until your worlds drown in blood! That will be made so when I find the Heart of Your Worlds and TEAR IT OUT!" He swung the Slayer of Kings at them, the trio parried back in sync, pushing back Archaon for a moment and having the tips of the blades aimed for his head, in a flash of light a beam knocked him back, the Everchosen howled and was flung back. The Everchosen rolled on his back and flipped, he skid across the arena and glared at them. Kairi slowed her breathing and kept a rather determined gaze at him. "One day, you will just be another nightmare, all the hatred that burns in your heart." She looked rather sorrowful. "Why? Why does someone like you exist?"

Archaon was ready to charge them. "Because I am Ruin Made Flesh, I am the Everlasting Void, I am the thing you would call The Devil. The Divine shall be kneel before me, they shall beg for the end! Order, Chaos, Light, Darkness, all shall fall!" He yelled and sprinted. "Starting with you!"

Pew!

The trio felt a light behind them, ascending high in the air, a stream of sun light dived down at Archaon's chest and impaled him spear first, a fiery Kendry, who knew who he was attacking and pressed a trigger to shoot Archaon far across the arena. He landed and back jumped, seeing the battered trio and a dead Halvek that was impaled from a sword. He closed his eyes and turned. "Are... you guys okay?"

Riku looked at Halvek and answered. "...No, what's happened back there?" Ken stared at him. "Take a guess." He turned to a furious Everchosen, who had something crawling from bellow, the Everchosen felt a collective gaze ready to fight back against him, he snarled to them. "Even as the gaze of you're end is upon you, you still stand before me? You are but candles against the Lord of Chaos!"

Ken was ready to shoot him. "We are the flame in the dark, we are the thing that keeps guiding the lost through the shadows. As long as that flame burns, we are not going to die to you!" Dorghar crawled and readied for his master, who was tired of holding back. "There are worse things than death, boy. Allow me to educate you."

Kairi saw the fight was going to get more intense and she had the vision of islands, she glowed in light and caused a circle to form underneath the group. "Yeah right, the only think you need to do is get lost and take your Chaos gods with you. Guys, hold on, we're getting out of here!" The boys turned to Kairi and found angelic wings sprouting from her back, they enveloped them and the dead Kharadron. PEW!

In the lower floor.

Goofy used an empowered shield of lightning to shoot the Dark Spawn in the eye and give Mickey the chance to fling a keyblade into it's eye, it caused it to rupture and explode. A battered Aqua and Ven relieved for that problem being done as Ana and Donald unleashed a storm upon the Warriors of Chaos, they heard something shatter from across the halls. More problems were coming. The Chromatic Khari sprinted it's dominate head upon a particular Chaos Champion, bit down on him with burning fangs and chewed him down as the other heads kept the Varanguard cautious and distracted, it's wounds were regenerating in less speeds than they were being inflicted. The Varanguard Champion stuck the beast and hissed "You will not hold forever! You're souls will belong to the Everchosen."

Khari tail smacked him as. Donald was looking upon a pretty hopeless scenario and saw an orb of light appear in the center. "Huh?" The orb formed feathers and unraveled, letting loose a pulse of light that caused the horde to break apart. Donald had to adjust his eyes and saw a group of five. A confused Sora and Riku looked around to a confusing fight and to the charging inferno coming from the hall, a Ken that turned around to the fight and was looking desperate for a push, a dead Halvek and more importantly, a Kairi with angelic wings.

The stairway up rippled in chaotic power and Ken ordered his summon. "Good work Khari," He twisted his hand. "Try not to get mad." The summon swallowed something, snorted and enveloped himself in a storm, transforming into a mighty chromatic storm that tore into the Chaos warriors and even fell one of the Varanguard, leaving the last two critically wounded. Ken blinked as the summon disappeared. "That... works too."

Ana turned to find a dead Kharadron and screamed. "What in the Primes wings happened up there?!" Kairi cringed and tried to focus once more. "Archaon! Come on, we need to get out of here!" A circle formed, the scattered group ran to it as the Khorne Horde of mortal and deamon rushed in, Aqua saw the hell steed of Dorghar crawl down the stairway and charged at Kairi as the Juggernaut riding Chaos Lord sprinted to them Kairi embraced her companions with wings and teleported them to the entrance of Pandemonium. The palace twisted and the Elemental Lords of Order were doing battle against a swarm of Skaven, Yen Sid washed the rats in light and saw the ripple, he closed his eyes for a moment, felt it shine and opened them to see a large party. Ana picked up Halvek's body and saw the large keyhole of light. "Oh thank goodness! Yen Sid, everyone, we gotta get outta here! Archaon in the upper reaches!"

The collapsing lair is raising alarms, Loru readied to fight. "We'll hold them off, you all should run, now!" Ana turned and barked. "Oh no! No one else is dying here! We need to regroup!"

The sudden order caught the Drakesworn by surprise, Nightscale unleashed a storm upon the rat men and took flight as the Skink unleashed cutting sand upon the rats and had Woodmaw sprint to the exit, the Eidolon used a vast mist that knocked his group of rats out cold and flowed to the exit, Began growled and roared an inferno upon the rats and met up with the wizard, they went to the exit. Goofy and Donald were next to help escort Yen Sid out as Kairi's wings of light flickered, she almost lost balance, Sora caught her and used his strength to push her and himself through. Riku and Ken looked to each other in a plan and summoned a sun like orb that is quickly expanding. "That super nova should hold them! Aqua, Ven, with us!"

The veterans agreed with that and rushed out the keygate with them. Ana and Loru were the last ones in and saw Dorghar ripple into the room with the Everchosen, Archaon gave the two the gaze of Hell itself and yelled. "This isn't over, when I seize that Divine Heart, you're realms and your God King are next!" Loru exhaled and had his drake fly off. "Not if we still live." Swoosh! Ana was the last to fly off and through the gate, was upon Destiny Islands.

The group wanted to know where that gate came from and Kairi had a flickering glow of excessive light, she aimed her keyblade at the gate and a nearby friend flopped to her side, Sharpedo growled to the gate and bare his fangs, the light enveloped it to show dark light. Kairi ordered. "Crunch that gate and anyone behind that!"

Sharpedo bit and unleashed fangs of dark to compliment a beam of light that soaked it in and pierced the keygate, the group heard a yell of defiance from the other side be shoved away and the keyhole flickered in the mixing light. Pulse! Pulse! PHEW! A wave of morning light rippled across the islands, the feeling of danger faded. Kairi slowed her breathing and fell backwards, landing by the tree and looking upon the morning sun arising and to a distant flicker of light. She gave a sigh of relief and slump her head back, petting her strange companion and seeing the whole group gazing upon the horizon.