It seems that this site has a new feature that one can easily reply to signed reviews. It also seems I was right when I said that putting review responses in chapters was against the rules. Anyways, I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but I've had a very hectic holiday, and I've also been busy with several other projects. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and please review.
Disclaimer: I do not own any video games and any characters or elements from them.
War of the Warriors: Crystals of the Sky
Chapter 10: Darkness and Heartless
Auron, Talim, Chun-Li, Cloud, and Dante had left Jonin and were now past the castle that had visited only a short time ago. Before they left, Talim had told the others that she saw a vision in her crystal ball that there were several crystals past the mountains in the north. As they continued on, the land began to appear more barren, and Talim began to grow rather uneasy.
"I feel a dark wind in this area", murmured Talim. Dante overheard her and asked, "What's this talk about wind and stuff?" Talim replied, "In my village, we believed in wind spirits. In fact, not only was I trained to be a fortune teller but I was also a wind priestess in training." "Wind priestess? What's that?" asked Chun-Li, who listing to the conversation. "Well, a wind priestess is similar to a fortuneteller except that they have the ability to listen to voices in the wind," explained Talim. Chun-Li and Dante simply replied with an "oh".
As interesting as the conversation was, Auron's warrior instinct told him that an evil presence was near. Suddenly, a movement in some nearby bushes caught Auron's attention. "Everybody, get back!" shouted Auron. Talim, Chun-Li, and Dante snapped out of their conversation. Cloud, who already knew that something was amiss, had his sword in his hands and was in battle position. Auron pulled out his sword and slowly approached the bushes.
When Auron was within a foot of the bushes, a small black creature with glowing yellow eyes crawled out of them. Dante smirked and said, "Is that the thing you told us to get back from? I could beat that thing with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back." "Dante's right," agreed Chun-Li, "that little creature doesn't look dangerous. In fact, I think it's cute!" Talim, however, stared at the creature with suspicion. Even though it appeared harmless and even cute, she could sense the darkness and evil within it. Talim took a good look into the creature's eyes and noted how empty they seemed. It was as if the creature lacked a soul or even a heart. Cloud also didn't trust the creature and kept his guard up. Auron also kept his guard up. Since he was an experienced warrior, Auron knew that appearances can be deceiving.
Another reason why Auron kept his guard up was the fact that were in was quite rocky and had many places to hide. If there were more of those creatures, then they could sneak towards Auron and his allies and launch a surprise attack. If Auron and the others were caught off guard by an attack, then the consequences could be disastrous.
Sure enough, the sound of twigs snapping was heard and another small, black creature appeared from behind a nearby rock. Then another of said creature jumped on top of another rock. Suddenly, about ten more little black creatures appeared, and Auron and company were surrounded. "Damn, this isn't good", muttered Dante as he took out his pistols. "I agree. I had a feeling that there was something evil about them," said Cloud. "Me too," agreed Talim. "So, what are we going to do Auron?" asked Chun-Li, who was starting to get a little worried. Without turning around, Auron replied, "We should wait for them to make their move. When they do, we will counter."
Auron, Chun-Li, Talim, Dante, and Cloud stood in a circle with their backs facing each other. They stayed in a defensive position for several tense minutes. Meanwhile, even more of the little black creatures had crawled out their hiding spaces and were surrounding Auron's group. Suddenly, one of the creatures jumped up towards Talim to attack her. "Now!" shouted Auron, as everyone sprang into action.
Talim dodged the creature that attacked her and retaliated by whacking it with her tonfas. Then she kicked it hard against the wall. Soon the creature was unconscious and began to fade away. But Talim didn't have time to relax as she had to quickly block another attacking creature.
Meanwhile, Chun-Li was fighting off several of the little black creatures as well. They were starting to gang up against her but Chun-Li jumped away if they got to close. Then, a couple of the creatures jumped towards her, but she quickly unleashed a series of lightning fast kicks and sent them flying away. Chun-Li also managed to catch a creature in mid-air and threw it into the ground as hard as she could. Just when Chun-Li thought she had fought them all off, more creatures suddenly appeared. 'When will these things stop coming!' thought Chun-Li to herself.
While Chun-Li and Talim were struggling, Dante was having a field day. Using his sword, he slung a few of the creatures into the air. Then, Dante quickly switched to his pistols and quickly filled the creatures with bullets as they were falling down. Then Dante pointed his gun to behind him to shoot some creatures that trying to sneak up on him. Dante switched back to his sword and charged at the creatures while slashing at them like crazy. Then Dante jumped into the air, switched again to his pistols, and gave the creatures a shower of bullets. When he came back down to the ground, Dante smirked and smugly said, "That was a piece of cake. I was hoping for a challenge."
"Show-off," thought Cloud as he watched Dante in the corner of his eye. Cloud quickly turned his attention back to a couple of approaching creatures and dispatched them with a few swipes of his oversized sword. He had already slain about thirty of those little black creatures, and the tediousness of the battle was beginning to catch up to him. "Damn, how many of those things are left?" wondered Cloud out loud.
Auron had also slain many of the creatures without much effort. He positioned he sword and sent several of the creatures flying in a single swoop. Out of the corner of his eye, Auron noticed Talim struggling with the little black creatures. She was doing a fairly well job of holding them back and blocking their attacks, but she was out numbered. To make matters worse, a few of them were creeping up from behind her. Auron ran towards Talim and slayed the creatures behind her before they could attack. "Thanks, Auron", murmured Talim in appreciation. Auron didn't reply but had kept his eye on the creatures.
A few minutes later, all of the attacking creatures had either been defeated or had fled. Our heroes were now resting from the ordeal and were using potions to heal their wounds. They were still had no idea what those little, black creatures were, but they had won the battle. Still, Auron had a feeling that they had only experienced a portion of what was yet to come. Many questions lingered in his head. What were those creatures? Why they attack him and the others? Were the crystals somehow involved? Auron continued to contemplate these questions while the others rested.
Meanwhile, Link was a short distance North of Auron's group. He was currently hunting birds so he would have plenty of food and wouldn't starve to death or be in a weakened state if he faced Ganondorf again. His horse, Epona, was somewhere along the trail looking for something to eat. However, Link doubted that his horse would find anything suitable to graze on since they were in a mountainous area.
Link looked around at his surrounding and noticed that what little vegetation that grew there was either dead or dying. In fact, Link remembered seeing dying vegetation in other places he had traveled during the past few days. It was as if the planet was dying. 'I wonder if the crystals have anything to do with it', thought Link. Did someone evil get a hold of enough crystals to taint the land? Or were the crystals themselves draining the life away from the planet? Either way was bad news, but it would be even worse if it was the latter. At least Link would be able to deal with a villain like Ganondorf. However, if the crystals themselves were causing the decay of the planet, then it could potentially be harder to stop it. After all, there were thousands of crystals scattered around the planet and it would take forever to find them all.
Suddenly, Link's thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound. He turned around to see a familiar looking creature running towards him. After a few seconds, Link realized that the creature was the same type he encountered in his battle with Ganondorf and the cloaked man. As the creature approached, Link quickly drew his sword and shield. The creature lunged at him, but he blocked the attack. Then, Link retaliated and dispatched it with a few slashes of his sword.
After his tussle was over, Link looked toward the south, which was direction where the creature came from. Could Ganondorf or the cloaked man be there? Link needed to know for sure; so, he decided to head back there. He took out his orcarina and played a song to call Epona. Within a few seconds, Link heard a familiar neighing sound and saw Epona approaching from the distance. When Epona reached Link, he quickly jumped onto the horse's back and rode south as fast he could.
In a forest far away from both Link and Auron's group, Sephiroth, Vergil, Ganondorf, and the cloaked man were gazing at an image crated by the crystals. The image showed Auron and the others resting after their grueling battle with the creatures. "Looks like those creatures were useless", said Vergil to the cloaked man. The cloaked man just shook his head and replied, "Those 'creatures' you are referring to are known as the Heartless." "Heartless, eh? That's a menacing name for something so pathetic," murmured Vergil in a loud enough tone for the cloaked man to hear. "I purposely sent weaker ones to test this group of warriors. There are more powerful Heartless in existence," explained the cloaked man. Vergil simply muttered "Whatever" and walked away.
"So, is this really the group that gave you problems?" asked Ganondorf in a doubtful tone. "Yes, it is," confirmed Sephiroth. Ganondorf looked at the image of Auron's group again and replied, "Ha! I could probably beat them." "Is that so? Well then, why don't you prove it?" challenged Sephiroth. "Fine! Maybe I will!" shouted Ganondorf as he grabbed a few crystals and used them to create a portal. Before he could walk through the portal, the cloaked man said, "Wait, I'm coming too. I would like to see these warriors' skills for myself." "You can come if you want, but you must keep out of my way," replied Ganondorf, as he walked into the portal. The cloaked man soon followed and the portal closed after he disappeared. After Ganondorf and the cloaked man left, Sephiroth turned back to the hologram of Auron's group and thought, 'This should be an amusing show.'
Meanwhile, Auron and the others were getting ready to leave their resting place. At first, Chun-Li suggested that they stay and camp where they were, but Auron didn't agree. "If we stay here, whatever attacked us before might return," warned Auron. Chun-Li was about to protest, but Talim spoke up first and said, "I agree with Auron. It's not safe here." Dante rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever. If they do return, we could probably handle them." "I don't think so," replied Cloud, "because we are all still tired from the previous battle. We might be able to handle a second wave, but what if they keep attacking?" Auron added, "There should be a town on the other side of the mountain. We should rest there and continue with our journey tomorrow." Dante snickered but reluctantly agreed with Auron and Cloud. Chun-Li agreed with the others as well, and they all started heading north.
However, they had only moved a few feet when a sudden bright light blinded them. "What the hell!" shouted Dante in surprise. Dante, Talim Chun-Li, and Cloud put their hands in front of their faces in a futile attempt to block out the light. Fortunately for Auron, he was wearing shades. Auron quickly realized that the 'light' was actually a portal similar to the ones that Sephiroth and Vergil created. Two people slowly walked out of the portal and the portal closed behind them.
Auron took a good look at the two mysterious strangers. One had short red-orange hair and an evil smirk on his face. The other one was concealed in a cloak. Auron had a strange feeling about those two from the moment he first set eyes upon them. Talim also felt something strange about them. "Auron, I sense evil from both of them. I also sense that they have crystals with them", she whispered. Auron gave Talim a nod and quickly turned his attention back to the strangers.
"Who are you and what do you want?" asked Auron. The red-orange haired man chuckled and replied, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ganondorf, the one who shall soon become the ruler of the world!" Dante snickered and snapped, "Ruler of the world, eh? Do you really think you can beat us? I hate to tell you this, but you and your buddy are out numbered." "I can see that, but numbers don't always matter," replied Ganondorf.
While Dante and Ganondorf were exchanging insults, Auron kept an eye on the cloaked man. The cloaked man noticed that Auron was staring at him and said, "I see that you have potential to be a powerful warrior. You can become even stronger than you already are. All you have to do is to join forces with me and embrace the darkness!" "Do you really think I would join forces with you? Sorry but power doesn't interest me," answered Auron. The cloaked man chucked and replied, "Is that so? I beg to differ. You say that you are not interested in power, but deep down there is a part of you that says otherwise. Every heart has at least some darkness inside of it, and yours is no exception."
Auron didn't like where the conversation was headed, so he decided to change the subject. "Who are you! Reveal yourself now!" demanded Auron. "As you wish," replied the cloaked man as he began to take off his cloak. The cloak quickly dropped and revealed a man with long silver hair similar to Sephiroth's. Unlike Sephiroth, this man had yellow eyes instead of green, and his skin was tanner. "If you must know who I am, I'm known as Ansem," stated the man.
Before Auron could say anything, more of the little black creatures that his group fought earlier appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Everyone except Ansem and Ganondorf tensed up at the sight of the creatures and got into battle position. "I see that you recognize the Heartless," stated Ansem. "The Heartless?" asked Auron. "Yes, these creatures here are called that because they have no hearts of their own. Now, it's time to see if you are strong enough to face the power of darkness!" said Ansem as he and Ganondorf powered up.
There was no way that Auron and his group could back out of a fight now. This was not going to be an easy fight, especially since they were all still a little tired from their last encounter with the heartless. Auron was unsure exactly how powerful Ganondorf and Ansem were, but he had a feeling that they were both quite powerful. Still, the fact was that a battle was unavoidable and it was about to begin whether they were ready or not.
Characters in this chapter: Auron (Final Fantasy X), Talim (Soul Calibur series), Chun-Li (Street Fighter series), Cloud (Final Fantasy 7), Sephiroth (Final Fantasy 7), Dante (Devil May Cry 3), Vergil (Devil May Cry 3), Link (Legend of Zelda: OoT), Ganondorf (Legend of Zelda: OoT), Ansem (Kingdom Hearts), The Heartless (Kingdom Hearts)