Chapter Twelve: Light within the Darkness
That same night, Nick had a strange dream. He was once again in yet another completely dark and endless place. And then he saw Stephen. His back facing Nick. Nick ran to him as fast as he could, but the faster he went, the further Steve got. He continued to run until Steve disappeared into the shadows. Then out of nowhere, Dyler appeared in front of him with his hood down. Being so close to the N.E.O. for the first time made him realize how similar Dyler was to Stephen from up close.
"Steve?" Nick asked in turmoil.
Dyler shook his head.
"I am Stephen Carlski no more. Stephen Carlski is dead. I am Dyler. The new Key Master."
"What!?"
"You heard me; I am the one who shall wield one of the Keyblades!"
"Wait wait, one? You mean there are other Keyblades!?"
"Yes, one for each world. The Keyblade of light, the Keyblade of darkness, the Keyblade of the present world, and the Keyblade of Twilight."
"So which one are you wielding?"
"So many questions…"
Suddenly, Dyler began to evoke an earthquake. The surprising thing was that it was all darkness but there was still an earthquake on the "floor" that Dyler and Nick were stepping on. Since Dyler was the one causing the earthquake, he couldn't be unbalanced by it. He stood still like if nothing was happening.
"Steve…" Nick muttered.
He was getting unbalanced by the strong quake that it was pushing him back. He got further and further apart from Dyler. He didn't know why but he knew something bad was going to happen if the earthquake kept pushing him apart from Dyler.
"Steve…"
Nick continued to move aback until…
"STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
…he fell as if he was falling off a cliff. Just that it was still only pitch black darkness. He continued to fall and fall as Dyler approached the "edge" of the "cliff" and looked down on him. Right then, Nick woke up. He sat up on his bed in cold sweat and gasping for breath.
"A Keyblade for each world…"
When dawn reached the sky, it was time for another battle against countless of Heartless. Amidst the confusion and destruction of war, Nick ran indoors. But then he remembered, he was fighting in Hollow Bastion! Hollow Bastion was a quick route into the city so Ryker decided to clear the Heartless army moving down from Hollow Bastion. Nick then realized that the doorbridge had lowered when he was going inside!
"Someone is inside the castle!" Nick yelled in excitement.
He ran up some stairs until he reached the library. It was dusty, but exactly as in Mitos' memory. He then found a book called "Facts of the Keyblade History". But Nick was shocked to see who had written the book.
"Th-th-this is impossible…"
"No, not impossible; just inexplicable." A voice said from behind.
Nick turned around and saw another hooded N.E.O.
"Who are you?"
"The one who wrote the book."
"Wait, so you're…"
"Shhh, I'm no longer that person. Now I'm known as Tilson. I am the leader of the Organization."
Suddenly, some strange creatures began to appear in the library. They weren't Heartless, but they were similar in shape and size. They were white, with a different symbol on their foreheads and many zippers. They could shift shapes and were very acrobatic. They appeared from silverish white portal on the walls instead of the floor like the Heartless.
"Wha-what are these things!?" Nick nervously asked.
Tilson didn't answer, but he got in a fighting stance. He then unleashed an arsenal of punch, kick, and flip moves unto the white creatures. He high-kicked one and then sent him flying backwards with that same foot while sweeping the floor with it in an instant. He then spun in the air and punched the creatures while he let out his fists open wide. Every creature that approached him got punched by the punch spin. He continued to launch crazy moves on the monsters but he soon got caught in a dead end with Nick.
"What are we going to do now?"
Tilson snatched Nick's weapon from his hand and glued his finer on the trigger. After a while, he looked back at Nick.
"Reload!"
Nick nodded, and took out another cartridge of ammo. The not-yet-hoodless Tilson reloaded the machine gun and unleashed another round.
"Reload!" Tilson yelled with his deep voice due to the hood six minutes later.
But Nick was out of cartridges. As more infinite white creatures approached the helpless men, Tilson desperately strafed at the closest creatures.
"I guess I have no other choice…" He said to himself.
Tilson dropped the ammo-less machine gun on the floor and opened his arms wide. A Keyblade appeared in each hand. He then proceeded to slashing any and every one of those white creatures he could find. Trying to remain calm, Nick examined the two Keyblades Tilson had. One was a Kingdom Key on the left hand, and apparently another Kingdom Key with opposite colors on the right.
"Tilson!"
"Yeah?" Tilson replied as he continued to slash the white monsters.
"Are you the dual wielder mentioned in most history books nowadays?" Nick asked curiously.
"No…and I never was…"
After that, Tilson continued to hack away at the creatures until he had finally finished them all.
"How do you have those Keyblades?" Nick asked right away.
Tilson exhaustedly made the Keyblades vanish once again and squeezed his knees tight with his hands, gasping for air.
"Because…didn't you already see the author of that book? I wrote that book, I used to be that person. But now I'm a Non-Existent-One so I am no longer…that person…and now I'm Tilson. Period."
Then the tired Tilson began to evaporate into black smoke. He was leaving back to where the rest of the Organization was.
"Wait, Tilson!"
"What now?"
"Where do I find the answers? Who is ruling this world? I must know, we shall not be a Heartless colony anymore."
"That is not the Organization's problem."
"But you are helping us!"
"Because we must."
"Then do so now!"
"Fine…in order to find the answers you are looking for, you must find the light within the darkness."
And after that, what was left of Tilson were black fumes. Nick began to think of that riddle. Trying to figure it out—but he couldn't. But then he realized, he was in a library. He might as well read some books to shed some light on the situation.