Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories

Chapter 23: Castle Oblivion part XXIII

Mickey swiftly flipped backward and away from Marluxia, to which Donald and Goofy immediately rushed to his sides. The three facing off against the pink-haired man. However, said individual appeared to be merged with a large creature in the shape of a woman with grey skin. It wearing similarly colored armor, which formed into long pointed pauldrons and a beak-like mask. While it also had sleeves, rather than ending with actual hands, there were large scythes hovering at the openings. The rest of its body was that of a simple spike, with four other spikes surrounding it.

Marluxia himself seemed to be sprouting from a flower on the being's back, along with a shroud of darkness and a long grey cape. The last of which seemed to flow behind him, regardless of whichever way the wind blew. Though, due to the fact that this creature was floating a few meters in the air, it made any form of attack difficult. Yet as the man gazed down toward the three, he just smiled lightly in confidence as he moved himself over the edge.

The group being just outside the entrance of Maleficent's castle in Hollow Bastion. And since this entrance was so high up, thanks to the mutation of the building, a fall from this height would be deadly. "Well well...it looks like this form is too much for the three of you to handle." Marluxia claimed with an almost smug tone.

The mouse narrowed his eyes briefly before looking around briefly, hoping to find some kind of environmental advantage. While there were means of reaching the man, all of them were precarious and couldn't be considered a means of gaining the upper hand. But the king just glanced to his two friends with a determined nod of his head, a gesture the pair had returned as they all turned back to Marluxia. "You haven't won yet, and none of us will be giving up!" Mickey declared as he and Goofy rushed forward and threw their weapons toward the man.

All the while, Donald lifted his staff into the air and cast enhancing magic on the two. Of which, not only increased their speed, but also made their thrown attacks hit much harder. Yet it still did little against the pink-haired man, whom used the floating scythes to deflect these attacks. Upon doing so though, Mickey and Goofy leapt into the air over the man's head. The pair resummoning their weapons and slammed them down toward their foe. Whom brought his hands up, just as his own scythe appeared in his grasp.

As he blocked their attacks, the man attempted to pushed them in such a way that they would fall. But he immediately felt a shock of electricity surge through himself and the creature, Donald having struck it with a large bolt of lightning. Yet while it wasn't enough to actually injure the the man, it was enough to throw him off. This allowing Mickey and Goofy to push away and land on the walkway once more. Immediately after they had however, Marluxia's eyes narrowed and the creature's scythes scissored toward the two.

With a quick snap of Mickey's fingers though, the two were surrounded in a barrier that deflected the attacks from both sides. Sparks of magic flickering off the shield as these blades ground across the surface of this spell. Once the scythes returned back toward the creature, Marluxia chuckled lightly as he floated to the side slightly. All the while, remaining just over the edge in order to keep the three from attacking too recklessly.

"Yet another failed attempt to hurt me. What will you do now?" the pink-haired man questioned, still sounding rather smug in the way he spoke.

As each of the three looked to one another, they all appeared to come to the same conclusion. Each of them having gone through multiple team tactics they had been developing for years. Despite dealing significant amounts of damage to the man initially, almost nothing seemed to harm him the moment he 'transformed'. But as they offering a small smile to one another, the king then turned back to Marluxia with a narrowed gaze. "You say that, but you also haven't been able to land any hits against us either!" he retorted, pointing toward Marluxia with his free hand.

Letting out a laugh in response, the man simply shrugged his shoulders. "Oh~...but that's the whole point." he declared in a nonchalant manner.

After hearing this, the three blinked briefly before narrowing their eyes on their opponent. "What do you mean?!" Mickey all but demanded while taking a step forward.

"I'm not here to kill any of you. My goal is to merely make sure you can't get in the way of our ultimate goal." Marluxia answered in a chuckle.

"And since we're at a stalemate right now, you have no means of getting past me!" he continued, making the three gaze at him in shock.

Though, Mickey soon readied his Keyblade as he took another, yet firmer step toward his foe. "And what is your goal?!" was all he questioned, ever so slowly placing the tip of his blade onto the floor.

"Come now, your 'Majesty'." Marluxia begin in a clearly mocking manner when saying this title.

"You're smart...why don't you try and figuring it out." he continued, just as both floating scythes slammed into the ground a meter away from the mouse.

Despite not directly hitting him, Mickey was soon thrown back as ripples of darkness echoed out from the impact. The king quickly being caught by Goofy and he moved in the way of his friend's short flight. Seeing this, Donald let out a garbled scream of anger before rushing forward and pointing his staff forward. "Take this!" he called out, to which a massive burst of ice rushed forward in a large cone.

It spreading rapidly at the man, yet the scythe's cut through the growing ice spires as they came. This keeping the attack from actually hitting the main body of the creature, along with Marluxia himself. During Donald's attack, Goofy fastball pitched his shield straight forward the pink-haired man. As it spun at his head however, Marluxia noticed it coming and deflected it with a simple swing of the scythe in his hands. "Still so predictable." he muttered with an amused smile curling his lips.

"Not anymore we're not!" Mickey called out, already being behind the man.

Whom turned toward the mouse with a slightly surprised expression, yet Mickey's slashing attack bounced off a series of cherry blossom petals that suddenly swirled around the man. "Oh but you are." was all Marluxia whispered before slashing his weapon into the mouse's side.

The moment he did though, the image of Mickey shimmered away into nothing. This made Marluxia eyes widen in response, to which he quickly turned back toward the others. Where he saw all three of his opponents were still standing. Both Donald and Goofy had a hand on Mickey's shoulders as a faint glow seemed to flow from them, into the king. Said mouse rapidly gaining a powerful white aura, which swiftly encircled and condensed around his Keyblade.

"No...we're not." was all Mickey claimed before a wave of light engulfed the entire area, like a massive dome of energy.

At the same time, Sora's own attack diminished and revealed both Axel and Larxene to have vanished. While it was likely meant to be a secret, the teen did notice the pair using a corridor of darkness to escape at the last second. 'Cutting it kinda close, don't you think?' she thought to herself in a sigh, before looking around slowly.

There usually being a clear means of exiting a memory, yet there didn't appear to be anything in the area. With a somewhat confused glance around, Sora then simply shrugged and began heading toward one of the rounded walls. "Odd...I would have thought the memory would be over now." the teen uttered silently.

'This isn't just any memory, Sora.' Maleficent suddenly spoke up from within the girl's subconscious.

Instantly upon hearing this voice in her head, the brown-haired teen let out a quick 'kyaa' in fright. Yet she quickly cleared her throat as if to try and play it off, to which she crossed her arms. "W-What you you mean?" she questioned, making sure to balance her voice.

'After seeing your mind, there was someone you met here before...is there not?' the witch responded in a serious tone.

Noticing this change in mood, Sora's eyes narrowed slowly and her arms uncrossed. Moving into a more defensive stance, the girl began looking around the room once more. Though, there didn't seem to be anyone nearby, making Sora wonder if Maleficent was being paranoid. In a sudden flash of movement however, a familiar hooded figure immediately appeared on her left side. This individual swinging what appeared to be a beam of red light directly toward the teen. But despite moving as fast as she could to dodge, it still scorched a line up the side of her face. The burn reaching from just below her left cheek, to a few centimeters above her left eye brow.

Feeling this singeing pain caused Sora to let out a scream, as well as forcing the eye to unconsciously close. Something the figure seemed to have planned, as they instantly moved into the girl's blind spot. This lead for her instinctually swing her fist wildly, hoping to keep the attacker back. Yet when no impact came, Sora then just used the momentum to flip her body through the air and away from where she thought her new foe was.

Growling and whimpering from the burning of her skin, the girl placed a hand over the injury and cast a healing spell. Despite this, the pain still lingered as if nothing had changed. And even as she moved her hand away, the wound was still mostly there. Though she could reopen her eye, it was constantly wincing from the searing pain. "What the heck was that red thing?" she uttered out in a near growl while gazing out to her opponent.

Whom was just standing to the side of where Sora once was. Them seeming to have moved to her blind spot to simply see her reaction to it. But as the teen looked them over, they were clearly a male, yet didn't seem to have any weapons. Even the beam he attacked her with was missing, which actually served to unsettle Sora all the more. Of which made her summon the Keyblade and ready it at her side. 'This guy is definitely dangerous.' she thought to herself while narrowing her eyes.

Doing so though, make another quick bit of pain shoot through her, as the burn across her eye singed heavily. Almost like he was waiting for this to happen, the hooded man lifted both hands up and crossed his arms in an 'X' formation. With a quick flex of each gloved finger, beams of red energy erupted from his palms. These crackling with a powerful force as the man just remained silent before vanishing.

A split second afterward, the hooded figure suddenly appeared in front of the teen. This shocking said girl as the man's speed was even greater than what Larxene had shown when moving as actual lightning. Which made Sora's eyes painfully widen as she saw the beams coming right toward her neck from both sides. However, she still managed to flip backward to avoid these strikes, as well as use this movement to kicked her opponent's hands upward.

Once her feet touched the ground, Sora attempted to make a thrusting strike with her weapon. But by the time she looked toward her foe with this attack, the man was already gone. Not for long though, as a red light could be seen just in the peripheral of her burned eye. This lead for Sora to duck under the swing, to which she then swept her leg around in order to kick the man's feet out from under him. Yet again however, her opponent had vanished before she even completed her kick.

Sora then swiftly looked around before settling her gaze upward as the man was coming right down with both beams aiming for her head. Letting out a frustrated growl, the teen back flipped out of the way. The impact of these crimson beams causing nothing but two burned holes, as they pierced through the floor with no resistance at all. While the girl was annoyed at being on the defense, she disregarded all complaints upon seeing the twin holes in the floor.

'Okay...this is definitely not good.' she thought to herself, casting another healing spell on her eye to reduce the amount of pain she felt from it.

This giving Sora an easier time to see her opponent rush forward once more with one of the beams stabbing toward her face again. The teen swiftly reached up with her free hand, intending to grab the man's wrist. But halfway through this action, the teen noticed the other red beam coming right for her midsection. Despite only being half a second, Sora managed to bring up her Keyblade to deflect this blow. At the same time though, this shifted her off center. Which made it so that the girl could only push the man's wrist to the side, instead of grabbing it.

In the same moment, the man moved past Sora before spinning around with another set of swings at her. Narrowing both eyes, the brown-haired teen leapt backward to avoid this. All the while, she could feel her heart pumping faster. There being a bit of panic in the girl's demeanor as she was being entirely overwhelmed. 'This feels familiar, yet it almost feels so much worse than it once was.' she thought quickly while continuing to gain distance from the man.

Within the blink of an eye though, the figure had appeared right in the girl's path. Gazing to the man with an almost horrified expression, Sora grabbed her Keyblade with both hands and swung with all her might, even letting out a battle cry as she did. As her weapon connected to both of the red beams, the resulting shock wave knocked both fighters away from each other. As she went, Sora immediately pointed her Keyblade toward her foe once more and shot multiple beams of darkness toward him.

All of which appeared to impact their target, as a mist of shadow floated over the hooded figure afterward. In the very next moment however, dozens of red beams fired through this darkness and came directly at Sora. Whose eyes widened once more in shock, to which she created a barrier around herself. This causing most of the attacks to deflect off, yet the magic soon shattered apart from the sheer number and force of these blasts. Once it did, a few other beams were destroyed mid-flight by the resulting explosion of the shield.

Though, one of them still snuck through and made Sora slash it away with her weapon. Providing the opportunity the man needed to deliver a powerful strike into the girl's side with one beam, while the other slashed across her face. Upon feeling the burns of these impacts, the brown-haired girl let out a yell of pain once more as she tumbled to the floor. Sora growled and almost whimpered from agony, placing a hand to her face while casting healing magic once more.

By the time she removed her hand, the burns on her face had mostly faded. Yet there was pain-driven anger in her eyes while glaring at the hooded man standing a few meters away from her. "Looks like I'm gonna need my full power Maleficent." she claimed, slowly standing back to her feet.

'I unfortunately must agree. This one is far more dangerous than anyone else we've met in this castle.' the witch responded, the black energy around Sora gaining green flames within it.

"Lets see how well we can work together." Sora hummed out silently before stepping forward.

However, the red beams suddenly disappeared and the man just held a hand out. "You have proven your worth, I look forward to our official meeting." the man suddenly spoke.

Despite it being a deep and very unique voice, Sora wasn't sure if it was the first time she heard it or not. Yet in the middle of these thoughts, the man disappeared in a corridor of darkness. Stunned and still wincing from pain, Sora slowly allowed her body to relax. "Maleficent...that was part of my memory, right?" she asked in a concerned tone as the alternative was far more frightening.


Again, sorry for the lateness of these chapters, I hope the extra length of them makes up for it. I also hope you enjoyed the alternate take on Sora's fight with Xemnas/Xemnas' memory. I think 'this' suits things much better. Let me know your thoughts. I'll definitely have chapters 24 and 25 for next week, then we'll move into the additional chapters for this part. It might only be one or two more, but I guess we'll find out together. ;) Until next time.