Shadow Feathers: Chapter 2
Blind Battle + Mindtug Fracture
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The Masamune hummed through the air, cutting through about five shadows at once. Upon finishing its horizontal curve, I brought it upwards and cleaved through yet another three shadows, watching their dark bodies disappear into the gloomy dim area that surrounded us. Whirling around and around, the Masamune covered my naked body in a wall of slashing metal. Shadows leapt towards me in vain hopes of disarming me, only to be hacked into nothingness before their last foot left the ground.
As I danced in and out of the crowd of circling golden orbs, my mind slipped away and I once again gave in to the thrill of the kill. Slowly, their numbers decreased until there were as few as perhaps three hundred eyes warily pacing around me. They had stopped attacking me and now waited.
"You plan to retreat?"
I struck, with untouchable speed, at the nearest shadow. As it burst into dark blotches of nothingness, another creature dashed forward, extending shadowy claws. I sidestepped the pitiful attempt; like water I flowed directly behind the beast and cut down on the base of its spine.
After some time of obliterating the shadowy assailants, I surveyed the scene. Two hundred eyes stared back into mine, two hundred feet shuffled back and forth in a crazy dance of bloodlust, two hundred tiny hands clenched and unclenched in anticipation. One hundred more of these tiny bastards remained.
I was not tired. No, Mother had helped me to surpass silly barriers such as fatigue long ago. My rage, on the other hand, had lessened greatly, and I now stood there, facing these hundred with only the cold instinct of survival running through my veins. But then again, that was all I needed.
Something strange was happening. The quivering mass of two hundred eyes was melting together. Slowly the eyes disappeared. There was no light anymore. Then, just as suddenly as they had disappeared, four great slits of gold appeared forty feet above my head. They have…combined into some sort of giant version of their initial selves. Two of them.
Deep booming sounds echoed through the darkness. They were laughing. The two beings shook with glee at what they believed to be my misfortune. How ignorant. I raised my right hand and pointed it at the giant on the left.
"Descend, Heartless Angel."
The ground shook and colors inverted, nearly blinding me with the brightness of the white expanse before me. A shocked giant gasped and burst into nothingness. In seconds, the last molecule of the being was obliterated and darkness returned to the scene before me.
The remaining giant seemed to stare in horror at where his partner had once stood. I stepped forward. It twisted its head to stare at me. I stepped forward again. The yellow orbs widened in fear.
One step forward.
There was a crash as the giant took a step backward, away from me, away from what it feared. In seconds I was kneeling behind it as its tentacle-ridden head fell from its shoulders. In a colorless poof it vanished and I was once again alone.
Minutes, hours, perhaps eons passed as I stood there, watching darkness ripple in front of me. I did not know where I was, but neither did I care. What really mattered was that I needed to find where Mother had gone and why I had survived.
"I'm sorry, do you miss your mother?" the deep voice once again resonated in the dark expanse.
My eyes shifted to look all around me as I spoke. "And who are you?"
"Excellent, questions are essential in order to know anything."
"Is that a fact?"
"And those who know nothing can understand nothing."
By then it was clear where the speaker was located. I sat down and placed Masamune at my side. Then I closed my eyes.
Inside my mind the walls flashed and flickered with images of my past and present. The traitor, mother, the ancient, Mako, the Masamune, Shinra, Hojo, Gast, Lucrecia, they all shimmered on the iridescent surface of my mind. The whole place shone an eerie royal blue and accentuated the man standing in the middle of it all. He had not noticed that I was there yet so I began to stroll towards him. He turned, with a look of surprise flickering across his face. Swiftly, I reached him and grabbed him by the throat, thrusting up against a flashing image of the Shinra mansion.
The silver haired man smiled in a snakelike manner and honey sweet words fell from his lips. "Let us not be so hasty, I do believe that I know something that would be of great value to y-AAAAAGHHH!" A shriek of agony tore from his lips and his eyes widened and began to fill with tears.
I ground my fist slowly into his stomach, hooking my right forefinger behind his bottom rib. The room faded from blue to a steely grey.
"You were never given permission to enter my mind."
Sweat poured from his forehead and he gasped for breath. "I…ah…I only came to…ow…help…erhh…you."
Snap.
His rib cracked in half between my fingers. He screamed. "Shut up. I don't need any help, much less from such a weakling as you." I lightly rubbed his next rib, taking it between my forefinger and thumb.
"Please…I can help y-AAAAAUGGH!"
His second rib fractured under my grip. I left it whole, but cracked and waited for him to speak again.
"I know…euugh….wh-where…agh…Cloud is."
At the mention of the traitor, the room turned a terrible shade of blood red. Violently, I gripped two ribs and crushed both of them. Flinging him to the ground, I shot a venomous glare in his direction.
"I should kill you where you lie for that comment. You should never have looked through my memories!"
"Curaga." Green leaves and two golden bells materialized above the man's head. He shuddered slightly and then shakily rose to his feet. Long silver hair fell messily past his shoulders. "But despite that, you will not kill me.
'You know that I am the key to escaping this void where you are trapped. You know that I can lead you to your enemy. You know that I am the only one who can help you get your mother back. You will not kill me, because you need me."
He smiled an omnipotent, condescending smile. The gall of this man, to think that I needed him. Once again I closed the gap between him and me and brought the back of my palm across his face, sending him sprawling. He scrambled quickly to his feet. While he was in the process of regaining his balance I made a quick jab to his stomach. His breath drove out of his lungs and he leaned over in shock.
"Cur-"
I brought my knee up to his forehead, lifting him from the floor with the force of the blow. He did a complete somersault before landing, spread-eagled on the ground. He writhed there for several seconds, clutching at his head. The room was slowly changing colors, returning to the cold steel hue that it had adopted before.
"C-c-curaga." The green light once again appeared above the man's head. Wincing, he stood up and looked at me. A silence began to stretch between us. He was, of course, afraid to speak. I waited, watching the man become more uncomfortable by the second. Sweat began to form on the crease of his forehead. After a time I spoke to him.
"I do not 'need' you. Your services are not by any means required. I am immortal. In time I will find my way out of this void and I will find Mother. I will carry out Reunion and Mother and I shall become a God. The only help you can possibly give is to lessen the amount of time it would take me to get out of this void. I am a patient man, and do not care to hasten things without reason.
'You should realize by now that you can not leave this place until I allow you to. You will tell me how I am to escape the void and in return I might allow you to live. Your other option is to die here, now. Give me your answer."
Something in his face changed. A look of anger, rage and indecision washed over him. His eyes flashed red and his fists clenched.
"You…you think that you can keep me here? You truly believe that you can defeat me? I am Ansem! I hold more power than you can possibly imagine! Soon I will control Kingdom Hearts! You fool! I do not need you at all! Prepare yourself weakling!"
Insanity had closed its hand over the man. I stood, without emotion, watching him. He leaped away from me and cast his hands about in some strange summoning ritual. After several seconds of this, a shadow creature materialized behind him. It was muscular and had a large white "X" over its mouth and chest. Ansem laughed maniacally and screamed at the top of his lungs, "SUBMIT!"
With suprising speed, Ansem and the shadow creature closed the distance between us. The shadow leaned around Ansem and made a large sweeping motion, as if to grab me. I struck with Masamune at the outstretched arm and a deafening clang echoed through the room.