Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories
Chapter 2: Castle Oblivion part II
Sora flipped and ran across the hall, Axel's chakrams flying just centimeters behind her, before returning to their owner's hands. The red-haired man himself grinning a bit as he continuously threw his weapons at the teen, yet he was very obviously missing his target intentionally. This being something that the girl did seem to catch on to, as his attacks always seemed to miss her by the same distance each time. However, as she ran and glanced toward her opponent, there was a very clear ring of fire at the base of his feet.
'That'll probably erupt upward if I get too close. It has all the makings of being a shield.' she mused to herself while pointing her Keyblade at the man.
A few quick bursts of ice magic shot at Axel, yet these instantly turned to steam as the fire ring did indeed flare up and around him. At the same time, there was also a small bit of fire magic that flew toward the receding wall of flames. Unlike with the ice however, there was no reaction from the ring. But the fire was still absorbed into the rest of the inferno around Axel, not effecting the man at all. 'So it's definitely reactive to anything that isn't fire-based. But anything that is fire, will just literally add to the flames. Duly noted.' she thought quickly while side-flipping over the pair of chakrams.
Just as they span past her though, the red-haired man appeared in front of the girl, catching both his weapons in mid flight. Then, with a small smirk toward the shocked teen, he delivered a swift kick to her stomach. The blow, while not overly strong, was still enough to slam Sora against the wall behind her. At the same time, Axel just chuckled and rotated both weapons in his hands. "You look like you're trying to figure me out, and how my powers work." he hummed out with a slow shrug.
"Unfortunately...that won't do you much good, as you're not nearly strong enough to take advantage of it. But hey, give it all you've got...maybe you'll get lucky." he continued, just grinning lightly while watching Sora push off and away from the wall.
The brown-haired teen winced in pain as she looked to Axel silently for a brief moment. 'He's testing me. There's something he's trying to get me to do, or achieve. And if that's the case, it must have to do with what I gained while in my memories.' she mused to herself, to which she readied to attack the waiting man in front of her.
'If I regained some semblance of magic, then it must relate to it in some way.' the girl thought as her eyes slowly narrowed.
'And his words of 'giving it all I've got'...wait...even if I don't remember how to use higher tiered magic, my magic reserves wouldn't have been effected. Which means that even if the magic wouldn't be strong on its own...I can pump out as much magic as I need into my spells to compensate.' Sora declared inwardly, slowly gaining a small smirk on her features.
This lead for Axel himself to raise a curious brow while looking her over, to which he then shifted into a move defensive stance. "Looks like you've thought of something." he uttered out with a tilt of his head.
Sora simply shrugged her shoulders before gripping her weapon with both hands, pointing it toward the man. "Something like that." she responded, clicking the heel of her right boot onto the floor.
Immediately following this, a massive cone of ice magic burst forth from the girl's Keyblade. This shocking Axel slightly as he swiftly dodged away and came up to Sora's right side. As he did, the man swung both chakrams at his opponent. However, she ducked under this while stabbing her weapon into the floor, the ice magic still flowing from it. At which point, a wave of ice rapidly began crawling across the floor and walls until the whole room was coated in a thick sheet of ice.
While Axel's circle of fire still remained around him, the flames themselves greatly diminished as the temperature in the hall dropped a great deal. But just as he was about to swing his weapons down on the crouching Sora, spears of ice suddenly shot up from the floor. Though he dodged out of the way of these, he quickly had to move back as many more erupted up from beneath him. At the same time, Sora remained crouched as she simply watched the man with narrowed eyes.
Axel glanced to her as he began destroying these attacks with fire, to which he just chuckled lightly. "Now 'this' is what I was expecting of a Keyblade wielder." he claimed, gaining a wide smile.
"But you'll still have to do better than that to beat me!" he declared in a halfway mocking tone, charging after the girl with great speed.
In an almost blinding flourish of steel and fire, Axel unleashed many swinging attacks at the teen. Whom parried or blocked each blow, seeming to be trying to remain in one place the whole time. Yet the red-haired man was too fast for her, as she couldn't keep up for long. Even when trying to distract him with other ice spears, Axel was always able to block or destroy them. And within mere moments, she was fully overwhelmed, being knocked to the side by a powerful spinning kick to her ribs.
As Sora tumbled to the floor, she took in and let out a painful breath. Not only did the kick likely leave a large bruise, but now the icy cold air was beginning to hurt her lungs. But a small smirk began to form on her features while standing back to her feet. Axel raised a brow once more as he noticed this; "Something good happen?" he questioned in a mocking, yet almost hopeful manner.
"Maybe. But I guess we'll find out." she hummed out while clicking her heel onto the floor once more.
Instantly as this sound echoed, a light blue circle of magic appeared under Axel. Him standing right where Sora had been, to which he look down just before a sphere of ice immediately encased him. Though, since the ice itself didn't appear thick, the man simply smirk lightly. Him then creating a surge of fire around him in order to melt this frozen orb. But as the flames died down, it showed the sphere of ice to still be there, seemingly untouched. "Now that's unexpected." he muttered silently while curiously looking to the wall around him.
"It's a multilayered wall of ice that has several empty pockets of vacuum space." Sora stated with a small smirk on her features.
"Which lets even a thin wall like that withstand multiple fire attacks, with little damage to the wall itself." she explained in a confident tone.
"It was the first thing I came up with when thinking about how to fight you with very little magic. But when you gave me your little hint, I figured I didn't need to use it. But I still wanted to have it there...just in case." Sora finished, shrugging her shoulders briefly.
Axel merely smirk lightly in response, him dismissing both weapons and crossed his arms. "Clever girl. I was hoping you would catch on." he muttered before vanishing instantly in a swirl of darkness.
Once he was gone, the teen simply sighed lightly as she allowed all of the ice in the room to simply shatter. Her noticing that the blue card Axel had been given, was now resting right where the red-haired man had been standing. Kneeling down and picking it up, Sora blinked a few times in curiosity as she gaze at the depiction upon it.
"Traverse Town again? But why?" she muttered silently while examining the card with a confused gaze.
"Was I just there." Sora continued, yet she slowly turned to the side when she heard Axel's voice.
"Indeed you were." he started, him standing beside the next door with his arms crossed and back leaning against the wall.
"We decided to create a bit of a game for you during your stay here. Since we're such kind individuals, and we don't want you dying...we made sure to give you the chance to rest before a 'big fight'. As, after visiting your memories, you'll be facing a powerful Heartless with the next card." the man continued while pushing away from the wall and uncrossing his arms.
"We want you to slowly gain as much power as possible, and what better way than to put you up against a powerful foe that will push you to your limits?" he claimed, gaining a small grin on his features.
"And since there are many floors in this place, we figured we would split them up into the different worlds you've visited. My colleagues and I are on the top floor, and will be eagerly awaiting your arrival. But we wanna make sure you have the opportunity to revisit as many memories as you can before you meet us there. Aren't we nice?" Axel hummed out in a chuckle whilst shrugging his shoulders.
Sora quirked an eye brow to this, yet she simply sighed heavily. "I mean...it's not like I have much choice." she muttered with a bit of a huff.
"Oh but you do...cause halfway through...you'll get the opportunity to just leave this castle." Axel stated, making the teen's eyes widen in response.
"You'll regain all your memories the moment you exit through the entrance. However, if you choose to leave, then you'll never be able to enter again...and you'll never know what any of this was about." Axel claimed as an almost devious smirk curled his lips.
Despite Sora thinking it over for a few long moments, both she and the red-haired man ultimately knew what her decision would be. "I guess we'll see when I get there." she muttered silently, her eyes narrowing slightly once more.
Shrugging quickly to her words, Axel then made a gesture toward the door behind him. "Regardless, do enjoy your next fight...I'm sure you'll learn even more interesting abilities along the way." he claimed before slowly walking past Sora.
As he did however, he paused in his steps when he reaching the teen's side. "But be forewarned. Once you start moving forward to reclaim what you lost...you may no longer be who you are now." was the last thing he said before vanishing, just as Sora turned to look at him.
Briefly narrowing her eyes, the girl glanced around for a moment before tilting her head down in thought. 'In order to regain my abilities...I'll have to lose everything that makes me who I am.' she mused silently in a soft and almost sad sigh.
'But...even if I lose everything, I will never be what they want. I will make sure that I hold onto my drive to protect the people I care about. And so long as I have 'that'...I won't have to worry about changing for the worst.' Sora continued, gaining a confident flare in her eyes before stepping toward the door.
'However, I can't and shouldn't rely on the things I relearn from my memories. I should try and come up with ways of gaining new abilities with the limited resources I have now. That way, the people who put me in this mouse maze...won't be able to account for everything I'll have at my disposal.' she thought while coming up to the door and placed a hand on one of the handles.
'Although...I doubt it'll take them long to figure out what I'm doing, so I'll probably have to start off with something big in order to truly take them off guard.' the girl affirmed inwardly with a deep breath, to which she opened the door and stepped through.
"Lets see how this goes." she uttered aloud in a somewhat heavy sigh.
Next week should have chapters 3, 4, and 5...but we'll see. Hope you all enjoyed. Until the next one.
