Lloyd used a magic lens on 1 of the creatures & charged at them. He swiped 1 of them 3 times but the other snuck up behind Lloyd & struck him with a shard claw.
"DAH!" Lloyd yelled in pain. He looked over at both creatures & ran back. He waited for them to be close enough together to be able to strike them both at once. They eventually got so close they were almots touching. "Now's my chance." Lloyd thought to himself, he then ran up to the creatures. "BEAST!" He shouted. He then bashed them both with his shoulder, followed up by a shoulder swipe, destroying 1 of the creatures & blowing the other back 2 feet. He then ran up to it. "SWORD RAIN!" He shouted. He then jabbed the shadow multiple times with his sword. Then he finished off with 1 mighty thrust of his sword, pushing the creature further back. It got up on its feet again, & slowly started towards Lloyd again. He sliced it, & destroyed it. He then smiled with confidence. "It just wasn't your day, was it?" He boasted. Then, 3 more shadows appeared behind him.
"Behind you!" The mysterious voice shouted. Lloyd turned his head & saw the 3 shadows. He sweatdropped.
"Never mind." He said. He turned around & then charged at the approaching shadows. He swiped at 1 with his sword, but soon found himself outnumbered. He was swiped with a whopping 4 slashes from the shadows, sending him about a foot back, onto his back. "Dammit!" Lloyd muttered to himself. "I need another strategy." Lloyd's eyes then opened. "Maybe I can come at them from the air." He thought to himself. He leapt to his feet & charged at them. Then he leapt into the air. "RISING FALCON!" He shouted. He then brought his swords out & came down on the shadows. He slashed 2 in half, destroying them, then he turned his attention to the remaining shadow in front of him. "Now for you." Lloyd said. "BEAST!" He shouted, he bashed the shadow with his side, then hit it with a shoulder swipe, pushing it back further. He then ran at it & started jabbing it with his sword. "SWORD RAIN!" He shouted. He stabbed the creature multiple times, then hit it with a mighty thrust of his sword. The creature then got up & attacked. Lloyd's quick blocking saved him. "BEAST!" He shouted, & repeated his Beast move, destroying the creature. Lloyd smiled boastfully again, with his eyes closed. "You picked the wrong guy to mess with." He said. Then he stood up & sheathed his swords. Then he looked forward & saw a black void appear before him. Lloyd was slightly surprised by the sight. He slowly stepped forward into the void & disappeared inside. When he came to, he was in another room, in which he was lying on a huge circular floor that looked like a stained-glass window. He stood up & looked forward, he saw a door in front of him. He walked up to it & grabbed the knob. He tried to turn it, but to no avail. "Dammit, it's locked." Lloyd thought. The door then disappeared, & Lloyd saw a chest in the place a foot behind where the door was. "Hey, a treasure chest." Lloyd said. He walked up to it & opened it. The chest then vanished & a large wooden crate appeared, surprising Lloyd. "What's this crate doing here?" Lloyd asked himself. He began to push it slowly, since it was heavy. After a while, it suddenly burst. "Huh?" Lloyd said, unbelievably. Then he heard chains rattling & saw the door from earlier above him. Then a thought occured to him. "Perhaps pushing that crate triggered the door's slight unlocking." He thought to himself. Then a barrel appeared in front of him. Lloyd jumped at this. "Whoa!" He said. Then he quickly remembered the crate. "Maybe." He said to himself. He lifted the barel with his hands & it exploded as well. Then he heard what sounded like a door unlocking & looked up to the source of the noise. The door unlocked & floated down to him. Lloyd smiled at this. "Wow!" He said. "Now I can finally get through." He turned the knob & opened the door. A blinding white light shined through the door as he walked through it. He then found himself on a desert island. He looked around & saw he had company. A small girl with long brown hair & green eyes wearing yellow overalls, a boy with orange hair that curled upward at the top, wearing a blue bandanna, yellow pants with an X at the bottom of each leg, green sandles, & a white sleeveless shirt, & another boy with light brown spiky hair wearing an unbuttoned T-shirt, yellow vest, gray shorts, & sandles. He held a staff in his hand.
"Hold on." The voice said. "The door won't open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself."
"Umm, alright." Lloyd said. "My name is Lloyd. I'm from..." Then he decided to stop & looked down from the sky. "Ah, why bother." Lloyd said to himself. "Whoever that voice is probably isn't listening anyway." He then looked forward to the other 3 people on the island. "Maybe they will listen." He walked up to the kids. He first approached the boy with the staff.
"Um, hi." Lloyd said. "I'm..."
"What are you most afraid of?" The boy asked. Lloyd looked down at the boy.
"Wha?" He asked.
"What are you most afraid of?" The boy asked again. Lloyd scratched his head.
"Well." Lloyd said. After a bit of a pause, he answered. "I'm afraid of coming to school in my underwear." He said, slightly muttering.
"Going to school in your underwaer?" The boy laughed. "Is that really so scary?"
"Well..." Lloyd said. "It is to me." He then walked over to the other boy.
"What do you want outta life?" He asked.
"For a world where nobody has to be sacrificed." Lloyd said.
"A world where nobody has to be sacrificed, huh?" The boy asked.
"Of course." Lloyd said. "I do not want to see anybody else get killed." He then walked over to the little girl.
"What's most important to you?" The girl asked.
"My friends." Lloyd said.
"Are your friends such a big deal?" The girl asked. Lloyd looked stunned, then glared at the girl with steam shooting out of his ears.
"Of course they are!" Lloyd shouted. "I lost my friends, & I don't know where they've gotten to!" Then, all of Lloyd's surroundings dissolved around him. Lloyd's head darted every which way, trying to make sense of his predicament. "Huh? Wh... what's happening?" Lloyd asked. Then he found himself in a dark area. He looked up, certain that the voice would speak again. Sure enough, it did.
"You're afraid of going to school in your underwear. You want a world where nobody has to be sacrificed. You want to see your friends. Your adventure begins at dawn. As long as the sun is shining, your journey shall be a pleasant journey."
"It's dawn already?" Lloyd asked. "How long was I out for?"
"The day you will open the door is both far off & very near." The voice said. Lloyd then found himself on a circular floor staring at a picture of Aurora. He approached the light shining on the portrait. Just then, the light dies away & is replaced by 4 shadows.
"Oh no, not more." Lloyd said to himself. He waited until the shadows were all close enough together that he could strike them all at once. He then charged at them & shouted "BEAST!". He hit then with his shoulder & sent them flying back, dazed. He then charges at the stunned group &, once close enough, shouted "SWORD RAIN!". Then he started rapidly stabbing the group, then hit them with a mighty thrust from his sword. They got up & swiped at him, only to have their attacks blocked by Lloyd's swords. He then hit them with some sword swipes, followed up by "BEAST!", destroying the 2 in the front. Lloyd repeated the action, & finished the 2 in the back off. "Just as I expected." He softly said to himself. Then he noticed a glowing circle on the ground, similar to the spots he saw in certain areas all over Symphonia. He walked into it, & it shot a white light into his body, that made his entire body glow white. When it vanished, Lloyd stood there, all his wounds healed. "Wow." Lloyd said. "I feel a lot better." Then the light from before shined off the floor & what looked like pieces of a large broken stained-glass window started appearing, floating in the air, & appeared to be forming stairs, leading somewhere. "Looks like it wants me to go up those stairs." Lloyd said to himself. He then walked towards the edge of the floor & started climbing the stairs. "I wonder where these steps go." Lloyd thought to himself. He came up them to another circular area, like the area he was in earlier. When he reached it, all the stairs vanished. Lloyd looked around. "This place looks familiar." Lloyd said to himself.
"The closer you are to the light, the greater your shadow becomes." The voice said. Lloyd looked up at the supposed source of the voice.
"Ummm... right." Lloyd said. He then looked back & noticed his shadow. It had begun getting longer. Then it leapt off the ground, startling Lloyd. "Wh-wha?" Then Lloyd's shadow begun expanding, getting bigger & more menacing. Eventually it became a large, dark creature in a black cloak.
"But don't be afraid." The voice said. "& don't forget." Lloyd looked up at where he believed the voice was coming from.
"Don't forget what?" Lloyd asked. Sadly enough, the voice was gone. Lloyd then looked back at the giant creature that had once been his shadow. He then got a look of determination on his face. "Well I know what "don't be afraid" meant." Lloyd said, srawing his swords. "I have to defeat this creature."