(Philia Speaking) Hi, my name is Philia. A while ago, I ended up getting sent away from my world, and now I have no memory of my past, other than my skills with a dagger and the fact that I was a treasure hunter. I am currently joining alongside my new friends Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, as we are now finishing the fight against the Heartless, and the true leader behind them.

Last time, we returned to Hollow Bastion once again to seal the Keyhole once more. Before we did that, though, we encounter a strange person named Gilgamesh who was looking for Bartz, and thought Sora was that man. We managed to fight him off while clearing the misunderstanding, leading him to leave us. Hopefully that is the last time we saw him.

After that fiasco, we met up with the other six Princesses of Hearts, and we went in, defeated a powerful Heartless, and sealed the Keyhole at last. However, just as we went were set on going after Ansem, we encountered another person, only this man was far stronger than Gilgamesh by far. We barely were able to survive, but we were clueless as to why the man was there, or who he was. What we did know, based on the journal pages left by Ansem, was that he was some sort of being called a 'Nobody'.

While we questioned his motives, we received a letter from Hades himself, telling us of the next tournament. Deciding to take a detour, we doubled back and took on his challenge. I just hope things go a little more smoothly now before we face the Seeker of Darkness himself. Please let things go smoothly!

(Cue 'Digimon Adventure Tri Opening 1 - Butterfly TV Size', music on Youtube)

My wings are full of images of holding back, They are still weak but I'm sure I can fly

(As the viewer zoom in on a grassy field, a red shape passes the viewer, revealing Sora in the distance. A light blue shape passes, revealing Philia, then a green one reveals Goofy, and a dark blue one reveals Donald.)

Oh My Love (guitar intro)

(The viewer zooms in and circles around to see the four of them standing there, looking off into the distance. The image becomes blurry as the title appears in front of them.)

I become a happy butterfly and flying the shimmering wind And I will go to see you right away

(Sora was asleep on the shore of the Destiny Islands, but was awoken by a voice behind him. He turned to see Kairi and Riku standing there by the raft, the latter looking somewhat annoyed by Sora's laziness while Kairi waved him over to help. Sora got to his feet and raced to his friends. The screen fades to white.)

Better you forget about unnecessary things, There's no time to joke anymore.

(The viewer zoom out of the white in Philia's eyes as she practices with her Sword Breaker, with Leon and Yuffie watching her. Her blade glowing yellow-green as she thrusted her blade forward in a Dagger Skill. She holds her position for a moment as Yuffie applauds her, then Philia lowers her weapon, looking up at the sky with a sad expression. The viewer looks into the sky, seeing the stars as they shined for a seconds, before quickly disappearing one by one.)

I wonder, wow wow wow wow wow, what will reach the sky

(The viewer zooms out as Maleficent comes into view, standing at the table with the shadowy silhouettes of her villainous allies, and Riku at her side.)

But, wow wow wow wow wow, don't even have a plan for tomorrow

(The scene changes to six of the seven Princesses of Heart, their eyes open as they stand behind the Keyhole, defending the realm from the Heartless. Kairi appears in the middle of it, her arms crossed in front of her as she opens her eyes and opens her arms out, revealing her lucky charm, which shines brightly, replacing her position with Sora as he stood there beside Philia, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy on Donald's head as the viewer shifts the angle to behind them, seeing the hundreds of Heartless in front of them.)

Living in a world of nothing after the infinite dream, My love to you is growing weak

(The four begin to display to the viewers their combat skills against the Heartless one at a time, starting with Sora, then Philia, then Goofy, then finally Donald, who rains down lightning onto the Heartless before the heroes charge in to continue fighting.)

My wings are full of images of holding back, They are still weak but I'm sure I can fly. Oh My Love

(The viewer passes the Heartless to see Riku standing at the end, reaching out to Sora as to invite him to the darkness, his image replaced fully by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Philia clears the path for Sora as he races forward, reaching out to his friend. The view shifts to Sora's view, shifting his hand to swing down his Keyblade onto Ansem.)

Guitar solo ending

(The screen shines an image of King Mickey holding the Keyblade as Donald and Goofy looking in from the sides. The view shifts to a dark image of Aincrad as it crumbles away, with Philia's face looking to the viewer. The view zooms out as Sora pats Philia's shoulder, causing her to look and smile at Sora as he grinned back. The view zooms back even further to show quartet and Jiminy standing there, smiling at the viewers as they stood on the same hill as before, before the view shifts back to the sky again, with the flower petals flying by once again.)

"Pass it to me!" Philia called out.

"Me next!" Goofy hollered.

"Over here!" Donald squawked.

Sora swung his Keyblade upwards at the flailing Rare Truffle Heartless, knocking it over to Goofy, who bounced it off his shield over to Donald. He thwacked it with his staff, but the attack was not that effective, as it only went up a little bit, before nearly hitting the floor. This was stopped by Philia, who made a diving leap towards the Heartless, barely catching it under her dagger, and sending it upwards. Goofy came in clutch shortly afterwards by sending the mushroom-like Heartless towards Sora, who kept it high up.

In case people were wondering how things were like this, here's a short iteration; after getting the letter from Hades about the new cup that was happening, the team wet to the Olympus Coliseum once again, and signed up for the final cup, the Hades Cup. After signing up, they ended up going through several rounds featuring a variety of Heartless, while Phil watched from the stands, until reaching the Rare Truffle Heartless, which according to Philia, was able to give experience to the heroes by knocking it in the air numerous times without hitting the ground. So, the team were basically playing around with the passive Heartless.

"Comin' at you, Philia!" Sora shouted, sending it over to Philia, who caught the Heartless in her dagger again, before shooting it skyward, shouting, "Goofy!"

"I got it!" Goofy responded, backing up to catch it with his shield, but stumbled and fell backwards, hitting the ground. The Heartless was descending at his position.

"Oh, no!"Sora and Philia cried out, seeing the Heartless fall. Miraculously, Donald arrived just in time, bouncing off Goofy's shield to hit the Heartless, sending it closer to the other two.

"Dibs!" Sora shouted, racing towards the falling Heartless, and whacking it with his Keyblade. However, after all the damage that was dealt to it, the last attack took it out, and it vanished.

"Guess that's the end of that." Philia stated, as Goofy rose to his feet, with Donald huffing at him.

"That helped us a lot." Sora stated, "And thanks to that, we all got a little more experienced, too!"

"Now that that's over, we can move onto the next round." Goofy told the team.

"We can take whatever comes next!" Donald scoffed.

"Really?" Said a familiar voice, "Are you underestimating this great ninja thief?" The team turned to see the next person to arrive on the battlefield; Yuffie.

"Yuffie? You're back again?" Sora asked, surprised.

"What can I say? I aim to win." Yuffie answered, "Speaking of which, can I make a suggestion?"

"Depends on what it is." Philia responded, furling her arms.

"Don't worry. I think you'll like it." The ninja thief chuckled, pointing at Philia, "How's about you and I have a duel, one on one?"

The suggestion surprised the group for a moment, before Philia asked, "Just you and me?"

"Yep. Since I was the first to find you when you appeared in Traverse Town, I figured I like to see how far you've come."

The treasure hunter thought for a second, before smiling and answering, "Sounds like an idea. A thief versus a treasure hunter. Let's see who will win this." She turned to the boys, asking, "Mind if you guys sit this one out?"

"I guess." Sora answered, "Good luck out there!"

"Don't lose!" Donald squawked.

"We know you can win." Goofy encouraged her.

"Thanks. I know I will." She answered, as the boys stepped off the ring to one side, leaving Yuffie and Philia to ready themselves, their dagger and shuriken at the ready.

"Here I come!" Yuffie shouted, throwing a pair of shurikens at Philia, who shouted, "Aeroga!", placing up a wind barrier around herself, causing the thrown weapons to be blown off course. She charged at her opponent, unleashing her Cross Edge Dagger skill, unleashing a cross-shaped pair of slashes at Yuffie, who got sent back from her.

"Is that suppose to hurt?" Yuffie asked, producing another pair of shurikens between her fingers, before throwing them at Philia point blank, the wind barrier not blowing them off course, but still dulling down the damage.

"How's this for some hurt!" Philia shouted, unleashing Firaga, striking the ninja thief with a powerful fireball. She got burned badly, but recovered and retaliated with more shurikens. "And do something new!" Philia argued, knocking away the throwing weapons away before coming at her.

The battle was, for the most part, pretty one-sided. Yuffie was basically flipping and dodging about while throwing her shurikens and Philia, while she had far more variety of skills under her belt to throw Yuffie off-course.

"Not bad, but I still have an ace up my sleeve." Yuffie told Philia, producing a shuriken, and charging it up with magic energy, which glowed and doubled in size, before sending it throwing at Philia, who blocked it and sent it upwards.

'I remember this attack well.' Philia recalled, 'Back when we fought her and Leon before, I didn't realize that it would...' She looked up at the shuriken she parried, before seeing it come at her, before finishing, '...home in on me.' Learning from her mistakes in the past, she made sure to keep one eye on it as she fought on against Yuffie, dodging the the homing shuriken. Even after a couple more times of throwing homing shurikens, Yuffie's attack was not working as well as it did before.

"Not bad..." the ninja thief muttered, pulling out a potion, "Better just hold out a bit longer..." She was about to take a swig when a bolt of lightning came down and shattered the bottle. This came from Philia's Thundara spell, her dagger raised high.

"Not that trick again!" She barked, before charging in, unleashing Fad Edge at Yuffie, dealing an assortments of blows before the final slash, knocking her out of the ring.

"She won!" Sora cheered.

"Hooray!" Donald and Goofy whooped with joy.

Yuffie grimaced, but raised her head to see Philia crouching at the edge of the arena, smirking as she asked, "So, you think I improved?"

Yuffie chuckled before sitting up and answering, "Yep. I really underestimated you. I should've gone all out from the start." She flipped herself onto her feet, continuing, "You've really come a long way, Philia. I'm proud of you, girl." Philia rubbed the back of her head, blushing.

"Here, I'll give you this." Yuffie gave Philia a shield out of nowhere, surprising her. "I got it after snatching off of this big guy who was wandering around Hollow Bastion." She explained, "Pretty weird one, calling out for a guy named Bartz."

'That can only be one person...' Philia told herself, knowing full well that Yuffie had encountered Gilgamesh. So he was alive after all. Hopefully he wasn't gonna come around anytime soon.

"Anyways, good luck on the rest of the tournament." Yuffie waved her goodbye, as she exited the coliseum.

"Thanks. See you around!" Philia answered, waving her goodbye.

With the match over, the boys joined Philia onstage again as they fought the next few round of the tournament, with more of the standard Heartless trying to beat them. However, they were able to dispatch each of them with no problem.

"Up next is a powerful opponent." Phil called out to the team from the stands, "Don't go underestimatin' this one!"

"Got it!" Sora answered, as a darkness swirled in front of them, forming into an opponent they recently fought before; the Behemoth.

"This again?!" Donald exclaimed, recalling his sacrifice before the others beat it before.

"We're a bit stronger than last time, so we can win against it, easily!" Sora declared, smiling, "Plus, we know all its tricks, so we know what to expect!" The four charged in, with the Behemoth roaring as it faced the group.

The strategy was the same as the last time they faced this very same Heartless before; the only weak point was the horn on its head, which was able to be reached by land on its back. While it stomped around, summoning lightning, and unleashing rain of energy from its horn, the others did their best to avoid the attacks, getting onto the Behemoth's back, and striking its horn as much as they could before it got dazed and hit the ground, allowing everyone to have a chance to attack it together. The plan was simple, but the difference was that this Heartless had a lot more stamina than the previous one.

"Geez, is this thing ever gonna go down?!" Donald squawked angrily.

"We just have to not give up!" Goofy responded.

"Yeah. The moment we lose confidence, that's the sign we'll lose." Philia told the team.

"Then we gotta keep hammering at it until it's defeated!" Sora declared, leaping onto the back of the Heartless, and slamming his Keyblade over and over on its horn.

It took a few minutes more, but after a long fight, the four were able to take out the Heartless, with the biggest injury to them being plain exhaustion.

The panted as they tried to gather themselves after beating the Heartless, then saw something that replaced its position; a ball of magic energy. "A new power up to our magic..." Donald sighed heavily, seeing the magic energy split into three, before diving into Sora, Donald and Philia. The cold energy they felt showed that it was an upgrade to their ice magic, boosting it from Blizzara to Blizzaga.

"Alright, junior heroes. Get over here!" Phil called out to the group, "You got a ten minute break time in between shifts, so better make use of it."

"Only ten minutes?" Donald grimaced.

"Better than none at all, Donald." Philia sighed, "Let's take one while we can."

The team exited and entered back onto the arena in just ten minutes, still exhausted, but picking themselves up to face the next sets of opponents. While some rounds were easy, others had basically boss monsters they faced in the past, including one round with the Guard Armor, and one featuring the Stealth Sneak. Fortunately, the two opponents felt around the same levels as they were in the past, meaning while they weren't stronger than the ones they fought before, the heroes were a lot stronger, meaning they were far easier to take out than their first time around.

"Looks like we've reached the next big battle." Goofy pointed out.

"Right. Every ten rounds, we face a boss monster." Sora pointed out, "Last time was Behemoth. What's next?"

Just then, the gates on the opposite end of them opened up, and up bound their next opponent, none other than Cerberus. "This dog again?!" Donald squawked in terror.

"We beat it before, we can beat it again!" Philia declared.

"I totally agree! Let's get to it!" Sora declared, and he led the charge against the three-headed dog.

Cerberus was just as lethal as the team remembered to be. Snapping its jaws at them, homing fireball attacks, unleash dark breath attacks into the ground that rose up at their feet, creating shockwaves just by stomping on the ground. The monster was stronger and more enduring against their attacks than they remembered. It was tough to deal an attack to it when they were on the run against the dark breath attack that shot up from the ground everywhere they ran, not to mention the fireballs and shockwaves.

Fortunate, the team kept shifting between decoy and assault between one another, dealing damage to Cerberus, or even hopping onto its back and attacking the three heads from behind. It was a similar strategy they used on the Behemoth, but the underworld guard dog was much tougher and faster to react than it, and hitting the heads from behind weren't that easy when it was going all about the place. Still, it was fortunate for the team to see that their Stop spells were effective against it.

"Give us a break!" Donald squawked angrily, waddling as fast as he could, while dark energy spouted from the ground behind him. Philia managed to grab him by the collar and yank him along with her as she ran faster.

"If you can whine, you can run! Zip your beak, and keep distracting it!" Philia shouted, unleashing her Blizzaga spell, sending powerful ice shards deluging into the heads, while Sora and Goofy were struggling to stay on its back, before Sora unleashed his Strike Raid technique onto the heads.

"It's seriously a lot stronger and tougher to take down than I remember!" Sora acknowledged, "But even so..." With one final throw of his Keyblade, the Cerberus ended up in a daze, "...I won't let this stop me!"

"Atta go, Sora!" Goofy cheered, using his shield as a discus to bounce off of all the heads of the dogs, before it came back to him.

"Donald, let's hit him with all we have!" Philia shouted, turning to face the dazed Cerberus, dropping Donald, and unleashing her Eternal Cyclone Dagger Skill to strike all three heads in one go, while Donald unleashed Firaga at the same time. Philia's spinning dagger ended up catching the fireball, but it somehow melded into it, turning her Eternal Cyclone into an infernal tornado, doing more damage than before. The beast howled in agony from this enhanced attack, and it finally collapsed, disappearing into a dark mist.

"What was that?!" Sora gasped, as the four joined together again.

"Not sure..." Philia answered, looking at her dagger, which was slowing cooling down after being heated by the spell, "I think my Dagger Skill somehow got enchanted by Donald's magic to become a Fire-element attack?"

"But how was that possible?" Goofy asked.

"And why didn't you know how to do that earlier?" Donald questioned.

"Don't ask me. I just somehow did it." Philia answered, "Either way, that might be a useful trick if we ever needed to use it."

"Guys, look!" Sora pointed out, seeing another magic orb, which split into three, and dove into the three of them. Based on the tingly sensation, they could tell their Thundara spell has been upgraded to Thundaga. With the feel of the new magic, they went on another ten minute break to rest themselves up, before the next set of rounds.

The area was dark at this time, and the four fighters were dealing with more and more difficult opponents, specifically the flying type. They were fortunate to have the Thundaga spell on their side to unleash a new form of fresh hell on the enemy.

While they were at it, they also experimented with the magic-infused Dagger Skills. While it was hit and miss here and there, they learned that Philia's Dagger Skills were the only things that could be enchanted. Not only that, but they assumed the last time was a fluke, as the only time her magic could be enchanted was when she was charging up her Dagger Skills, meaning she herself could not use magic to enchant it. Lastly, they also learned they could only be enchanted by Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder spells. Still the enchantment was helpful, especially when they had to deal with the Opposite Armor, which was similar to the Guard Armor and Stealth Sneak

After several rounds, the group collected themselves, knowing the next was suppose to be the next boss opponent to deal with. "Get ready. Here it comes." Philia told the group, seeing the coliseum gates open up, and out came two familiar characters; Cloud and Leon.

"Cloud?!" Sora gasped.

"Leon?!" Philia added, shocked to see them.

The two stepped onto the arena as Leon said, "Guess you guys made it this far, too, huh?"

"I guess it was only a matter of time after beating Yuffie that we would face you." Philia stated, looking from him to Cloud, "But I didn't expect this kind of team-up."

"Not my choice." Cloud responded, "This guy was just here to partake in the tournament, and someone had us pair up together."

"But why are you still around, Cloud?" Sora asked, "Weren't you done dealing with Hades?"

"There's still someone I am looking for." Cloud answered, "I figure he might be the final opponent. So, in order to find him..." He pulled out his Buster Sword as he finished, "...I gotta win this fight."

"I'm gonna test you guys out, as well." Leon followed, pulling his Gunblade out, "I won't hold anything back against you guys. Show me you can save my world."

The four junior heroes looked to each other, before nodding in response, readying their weapons, with Sora declaring, "We came to this tournament to win, so that means we have to beat you. Don't hold it against us if we beat you guys!"

Leon huffed a chuckle as he answered, "Sure. Let's see what you got, kid."

The battle begun, and the two sides clashed. Dealing with one or the other was a challenge on its own, considering the skills they both had with their swords, the speed of their attacks, the weight behind Cloud's attacks, and the magic behind Leon's. While Donald and Goofy assisted anyway they could, they were almost always knocked out by the two powerful swordsman. This left basically Sora and Philia to deal with the two, and while they assisted each other from time to time, it was mainly Sora versus Cloud, and Philia versus Leon.

"You two have gotten stronger." Leon stated to Philia, her dagger locked with his blade, "But I highly doubt you guys are at our level yet." She pushed her off as he charged up magic into his blade, unleashing the same magic coat around the blade that Philia dealt with before, doubling in length and increasing in power.

"Here we go again..." Philia muttered, recalling the times when dealing with this, she barely could do much, considering the difference in lengths of their blades. However, she was more confident than before, especially since she knew she got stronger, faster, and more skilled than the last time they fought before.

This was quickly shown when he tried to do a horizontal slash on her, only for her to flip right over it. He switched to a leaping slash, slamming his blade at where Philia stood, or had stood, as she backflipped from the attack, readying her blade in her reverse grip, before launching forward with a Side Bite Dagger Skill at him. He backed off, massaging the area he got cut, giving a glare at her, but secretly holding back the urge to smirk. "Lucky hit..." he muttered.

"Not luck. Skill." Philia corrected, flipping her weapon in the air before grabbing it back into a reverse grip, and charging at him again.

At the same time, Sora was fending off Cloud's assault, using the small moments that he parried his blade to land a hit or two. "Is that the best you can do?" Cloud asked, charging at Sora with a Sonic Blade technique that Sora rolled out of the way. Cloud kept up his assault against Sora, who went on the evasive side, finding a moment.

With Cloud finishing up his technique, Sora turned as he unleashed Stopra on Cloud, freezing him in time, before declaring, "Time to do it the right way!" He launched himself forward into a Sonic Blade technique of his own, piercing Cloud several times, before unleashing the final attack. He whipped his Keyblade to one side as the Stop spell ended, and Cloud felt the full brunt of the attack dealt to him, knocking himself all over the place, before trying to recover as he barely held on.

"Not bad, but I can still fight." Cloud told Sora, leaping high and unleashing his Climehazard technique, coming down on Sora, who flipped backwards to avoid it, before unleashing his Thundaga spell right on top of him. With that final shock, he went down, unable to move.

"Got you!" Sora cheered, looking to Philia and Leon's fight, "Need a hand?"

"Nah, I got it!" Philia answered, dodging the many slashes of Leon's magically-enhanced blade, before his weapon's energy died down. "Got you!" She declared, unleashing her Fad Edge Dagger Skill, hitting Leon several times before her final attack made him skid backwards. He dug his Gunblade into the ground to stop himself, before he doubled over, and hit the ground, no strength to fight on.

"We won!" Sora cheered, punching the air, before he and Philia raced to each other's side, giving each other a high-five.

"That's showing them what we got!" Philia stated, looking to see the battered Donald and Goofy hobble over to them, feeling guilty that they failed to do much in that last fight.

"Sorry we weren't much help..." Goofy apologized.

"They just got lucky!" Donald scoffed.

"Nah, they got themselves beaten and bruised, big time." Tink stated, poking out of Philia's pocket.

"Not exactly nice, but blunt and true." Philia muttered in response.

"What did she say?!" Donald squawked.

"Oh, nothing." She responded, "Just that you did your best." She did not want to tell them what she really said.

"Not bad." Leon told the two, approaching them as Cloud turned and wandered off the stage, "You both showed everything you had, and I wasn't even holding back. Philia, you in particular did a great job beating me."

"Just had to show you I'm not the same memoryless girl you encountered the first time." She responded.

Leon huffed into a smirk, before digging into his pocket, pulling out two things; a new Keyblade keychain, and a new dagger, which was light blue with a yellow design going down the blade, and pincer-shaped blades on either side of the blade. "Take these." He told the two blade-users, who took the respective items, "That Keyblade is Lionheart, which is the same name as my blade. The dagger is Valkyrie, a modified version of a bladed weapon someone I knew had."

"Cool!" Philia stated, putting away her old dagger, and taking the new one.

Sora took the keychain, saying, "Thanks. I'll try it out later, but I'm gonna still use my Oathkeeper for the time being."

"Still using Kairi's good luck charm, huh?" Philia scoffed, rolling her eyes at him.

"Why? Is that a problem?" Sora asked as she turned and walked off the stage.

"No. Why would I have an issue of your obsession with a weapon of your 'childhood friend'?" She questioned, emphasizing the last words as Donald and Goofy hastily parted out of the way for her, "I just don't understand why you haven't even tried my dagger that I gave you as a good luck charm." She exited the stage as she went on her break.

"Did...I do something wrong?" Sora asked, scratching his head in confusion. Donald and Goofy looked to each other, a little confused themselves, though slightly more aware of Philia's jealousy than Sora. Leon smirked this time, finding the scenario amusing, and having more awareness than the trio.

"Oy vey. This kid's one pillar short in understanding the jealousy of a lady." Phil muttered, shaking his head at what he heard and understood.

After the break, the fighting continued in the next volley of fights, in an atmosphere that was darker than before, with dead trees on the outskirts around the arena. Not only that, but the compilation of enemies the team faced in each round was now much trickier. Most of them, like Large Bodies, Fat Bandits, and Defenders, were physically bulky and difficult to hit with weapons. On the other hand, there were opponents who either used magic like Wizards and Angel Star, or were fast on the attack, including an enemy known as an Invisible. The team really had to plan quickly on their feet when dealing with the opponents.

"Jeez, those last several rounds were grueling..." Sora panted, catching his breath for the next round.

"Yeah, we're almost done with the tournament, too." Goofy noted.

"Agreed. After this next opponent, we just have one more set of opponents to deal with." Philia pointed out.

"Then we'll be the champs!" Donald cheered.

The four suddenly sensed something as they turned to see a puff of black smoke appear on the stage in front of them, revealing itself to be the Lord of the Dead himself.

"Hades..." Sora growled.

"The last of Maleficent's goon squad." Philia added, glaring at him.

"Yo, hey, how're you doin', everybody, yeah." Hades greeted nonchalantly, "Got a minute? Hades, Lord of the Dead. Nice to see you."

"Yeah, we remember you," Philia snapped.

"Easy, dandelion puff." Hades spoke back, "Hey, guess what? I got special place for you down under!" He suddenly grew angry as his body gained a red hue, and the flames on his head ignited red hot.

The heroes readied themselves as he wandered into the center of the arena, before creating fire blast from his hands, and he began spinning around the battlefield. The four ran to avoid getting hit by his attack, but Philia and Donald ended up getting caught in the flames, causing them to burn from the attack.

"Philia!" "Donald!" Sora and Goofy called out, seeing them roll to the ground, putting out the flames, before grimacing at the burns.

"Feel the heat!" Hades told Sora and Goofy, creating a fireball, and tossing it at the two. Sora got in front of Goofy, whacking the fireball as hard as he could, sending it back at Hades, who flinched at the attack.

"Like that? You'll love this!" Sora declared, as he and Goofy charged forward, unleashing several slashes and bashes on him.

"Enough!" Hades roared, igniting his fists, and punching the two away from him. At this point, Philia charged in with her dagger, charging it up, as Donald unleashed a Blizzaga spell towards her, fusing the attack with her blade, as she unleashed an ice-enhanced Shadow Stitch Dagger Skill. She hoped it would paralyze him, though the side-effect never came around.

"Is that all you got?" Hades mocked Philia, unleashing another flaming fist at her, which she backstepped from. He sent another fireball from his hand towards her, and she blocked the attack, causing it to blow up in her face. She winced at the burns, but was healed by Sora using Curaga on all of his allies. At the same time, Hades's flames and body reverted back to their blue hue once more.

"We still have a lot more for you!" Sora declared, as he and Goofy charged at him.

"Yeah? Well I got this for you." Hades retorted, unleashing flames from his hands that not only sent Sora and Goofy in fire and brimstone, burning them hard as they were pushed back, but also caused Hades to push himself away from the pair thanks to the force of the flames.

"Hold on, guys!" Philia shouted, using her Curaga spell, healing the two.

"Thanks..." Sora thanked her, rising to his feet alongside Goofy.

"Hey, you havin' fun yet?" Hades asked the four.

"Wait till the party truly begins." Philia answered, as she and the three boys readied themselves to continue the fight.

Hades attacks were all fire-based, and powerful ones, at that. That said, he pretty much showed his hand to the group; when he was burning blue, the main attack he did was unleash flames from his palms at the team that came close to him. When he got all red and angry, he would end up in the center of the battlefield, spewing flames as he spun. He also unleashed fireballs and fiery hands whenever he was not spinning. Knocking back the fireballs did phase him a bit, while using Blizzaga also made him stop any attack he was unleashing, apart from the spinning flames.

"NOW we are having fun!" Sora stated, smirking at Hades as a sort of taunt.

"Speak for yourself..." Donald panted, using up a lot of magic to heal and to use ice attacks.

"Hey, no whining, Donald." Philia told him off, "Besides, Hades is almost beaten, so buckle down and help us finish the job."

"Please, I'm just getting warmed up!" Hades barked, already ignited in red flames, before launching at Sora, trying to strike him with flaming hands. Sora leapt to one side, before Philia used Blizzaga on him, stopping him in his place.

"Better cool off, buddy." Philia mocked him.

"Grraaaaah! You are seriously getting on my nerves, dandelion puff!" Hades barked, unleashing a pair of fireballs at her. This was blocked and repelled by Goofy and Sora, repelling the attack right back at Hades, causing him to get into a daze.

"Stop!" Philia shouted, raising her dagger high. All of a sudden, the phased Hades suddenly went motionless in his place.

"Now!" Sora shouted.

"Right!" Donald and Goofy answered, and the trio unleashed an assortment of attacks, ending with Sora unleashing a Ragnarok attack, all light salvos hitting Hades at once. When the time magic ceased, Hades's eyes bulged out as the collision of attacked took its toll on him. "This isn't happening!" He gasped.

"Buh-bye!" Sora shouted, as he and Philia came together, unleashing a simultaneous horizontal slash that sent Hades flying, screaming as he fell through the gate, until the group heard a thunk from Hades falling. Suddenly, they heard a growling of a monster, followed by Hades calling out, "Oh! Hey, kid, wh-what are you doing? Stop! Hey, guys! G-Get away from me! Come on! Come on!" As the team heard Hades deal with whoever or whatever he was dealing with, the metal gate closed quickly, and the noises disappeared.

"We beat him!" Goofy cheered.

"Have a good afterlife!" Donald called out to Hades.

"Well done, everyone." Philia congratulated the team.

"We couldn't have won with out one another." Sora replied, smiling back at her. Philia smiled and blushed as she nodded in response.

"Check it out!" Tink suddenly called out from Philia's pocket, startling her as she got out of the moment, before seeing three magic orbs fly through the iron gate to the magic users. Upon entering into each of them, they felt the mystical energy that meant that their Gravira spells became Graviga.

"We are unlocking so many of the third-level magic spells from this tournament." Donald pointed out.

"I told you coming here was a good idea." Sora stated.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Philia answered, rolling her eyes, but smiling at Sora. Suddenly, her eyes caught something, and she went over to the edge of the arena, grabbing a piece of paper. "An Ansem Report." She recognized the penmanship, seeing the page number being #8.

"Found somethin'?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah. Looks like Hades dropped an Ansem Report." Philia answered, holding it up, "Not that I want to look at any more of that twisted man's words. However, we might as well."

"Well, we first have one more set of battles remaining." Sora noted, saddling his Keyblade on his shoulder, "Let's beat every opponent remaining...after we rest ourselves up." The others nodded in agreement. The battle with Hades was rather grueling. They decided to go back to take their break before their final set.

After ten minutes, they re-entered for the final set, and it was rather tough for them. Every round was filled with a large amount of Heartless, or a group of tough ones, like the return of the Stealth Sneak in one round, and even dealing with two of them in another! The third and second-to-last rounds were quite brutal, as well, as they involved what felt like endless amounts of Heartless to deal with, and strong ones at that.

"You know, I think I'm starting to get use to the exhaustion..." Sora sighed, feeling worn out.

"If we can deal with all of this, then I'm sure we can deal with whatever Ansem tries to hit us with." Philia pointed out.

"Let's just hope we can deal with the final opponent." Goofy noted.

"I know we can deal with whoever!" Donald squawked. His sentence barely ended before there was a rumble on the ground, startling everyone.

"Why did you have to jinx it, Donald?" Philia asked, followed by another shaking that nearly threw her off her feet.

"Final round, guys. Here we go!" Sora declared, as they saw something massive start to approach from outside the coliseum. It was too dark to tell what it was from a distance, but once it literally crawled over the coliseum wall to approach the team, they learned what it was. It was a massive rock monster, completely made of stone, and had two heads, with red glowing out of its mouth and eyes.

"It's the Rock Titan!" Phil exclaimed, trying to find a place for cover.

"That is one HUGE opponent!" Sora exclaimed.

"Let's hope he's slow as a rock..." Philia noted. The team gathered all the energy they had remaining, and charged at the Rock Titan, prepared for their last battle here.

The Rock Titan was within Philia's expectations; a slow giant that was a huge target, but also a powerful one, too. It produced shockwaves with its stomping feet and hammering the ground with its arms. Honestly, dodging the stomps and hammers while jumping over the shockwaves was rather easy for the team to do. It was the immense stamina this beast had that made it difficult. Fortunately, doing enough damage to one of its stone legs did make it topple over, allowing the team to get to its two heads, and wail on them, avoiding it flail its head around as it did so. In all honesty, having it as their final opponent, considering the immense difficulty Hades, Cloud, Leon, and many of the other opponents were, made it rather lackluster. Still, after all the fighting the team did, they were not complaining.

"Almost down for the count!" Goofy called out.

"One more set of attacks should do it!" Sora followed up.

"Then let's hit it with all we have!" Philia finished, "Donald, Goofy, take the lead!"

"Right!" The two anthropomorphic characters answered, leaping over a ground pound from the Rock Titan, before unleashing a spinning shield and Firaga spell together on it. They backed away as Philia charged at it, unleashing an Eternal Cyclone Dagger Skill onto it.

"Switch out with me, Sora!" Philia called back, pushing herself away from the Titan, as Sora ran right passed her, their eyes meeting for a second, before Sora launched several slashes, backing away, and unleashing his Ragnarok technique on the whole body, peppering it with light salvos. The attack caused the Rock Titan to roar in agony, before collapsing, a massive dust cloud consuming it. The four shielded themselves from the dust, while bracing themselves from the ground shaking made by the massive monster collapsing. When the dust cleared and the shaking stopped, they looked at the spot where the Titan fell. All that remained was rubble, with no trace of the Titan remaining.

They looked at the area, before looking to one another, beaming with joy. "WE DID IT!" The four cheered, punching the air in victory at their win. They had defeated the Hades cup.

Moments later, when daylight was out, the team proudly raised the new trophy high in the air, as everyone, including Hercules and Phil, celebrated their win. Hades was behind the metal gates, frustrated at the failure to defeat the heroes, only for Donald to appear while his back was turned, and unleashed a small dose of ice from his staff to put his fiery hair out. The team made a good laugh at it, and it made Hades walk off, slinking back to the Underworld once more.

"Whoo!" Philia sighed, sitting at the steps of the Coliseum with the boys, enjoying the moment of rest.

"That entire cup was insane!" Donald exclaimed.

"I agree, but oh, so worth it." Sora answered, "New weapons, new upgrades to our magic, and what's more, we got a new powerful attack that the four of us can use together."

"Yeah, that Trinity Limit." Philia noted, "Though they said that it can be also used as the Quartet Limit when the four of us use it together."

"I can't wait to use it." Goofy said eagerly.

"Same here." Donald agreed.

"With the four of us together, nothing can stop us!" Sora declared, giving a fist pump, with the other three nodding in agreement.

They were about to step up and leave the place, about to return to their ship, when Sora saw something fall from above, landing on the ground before him. It was a black feather. He reached down and picked it up, asking, "Where did this come from?"

The others stopped and turned to him, looking at the feather. Suddenly, Philia had an uneasy feeling in her stomach, though she wasn't sure why. Seeing that feather made her feel like the owner was not from a bird of any kind, but something much worse. Question was, who?

"Hey, kid!" Phil's voice called out, and everyone saw him rush out of the coliseum.

"What's the rush?" Sora asked.

"Did we forget any more prizes?" Donald asked.

"That's the least of your worries!" Phil answered, "Someone just appeared in the coliseum, and and they are calling you and you alone out! They want to face the champ who won the Hades Cup!"

"Why Sora? We all won the tournament together." Philia pointed out.

"No idea, girl. All I know is that this guy makes the hairs all over my body stand on their ends. He is bad news with a capital 'B'! I'm not even sure Herc could hold his own against him!"

"Someone that powerful is wanting to fight Sora?!" Goofy asked.

Sora looked to the feather he held. It was a bit of a gut feeling, but if he had to guess, the feather he held might've belonged to the person that was challenging him.

"Sora, I have a bad feeling about this." Philia told him.

"Yeah... me, too." Sora agreed, "But, if he is related to Hades, or Ansem, we might need to take care of him now than later."

"Are you sure?" Donald asked.

"Kid, I'll be honest with you, I know you junior heroes are tough enough to beat Hades and a titan, but you alone against this guy ain't a good idea. Two words: Go, don't fight! It's okay to turn tail and leave, especially since you kids ain't true heroes!"

Sora paused for a moment, before stating, "If you said that Herc might not even beat the guy, then that just makes me have to fight the person. Besides, I am not alone. My friends are right here to support me. That's more than enough to help me win that fight!" He rushed into the coliseum again, with the others watching him enter.

"Wait, Sora!" Philia called out, racing in after her, with Donald and Goofy following behind.

"Geez, Louise. That kid's got guts, but he's crazy!" Phil exclaimed, and he ran into the coliseum to watch the battle between Sora and the opponent.

Sora raced into the coliseum, which was dark as it was before, as the metal gates closed right behind him. He looked back to see Philia race to the gate, slamming her palms into it as she gripped it tightly, watching as Donald and Goofy raced in right next to her. "He really is on his own..." Philia muttered in worry.

Sora looked back at them, before sensing something, and looked up. It looked as if the stars started to swirl into one spot, followed by a large magic circle forming right underneath them. "What's going on?!" Donald exclaimed.

"Something really powerful's about to appear!" Philia answered.

Sora looked shocked, but saw the center of the magic circle gather light, before shooting a beam down right on the opposite end of the arena. Sora shielded his eyes with his free arm, and saw someone materialize within the light. As the brightness faded, Sora looked to see two distinct parts of the new person's appearance; long silver hair, and a single, black angel wing protruding from his right side. As the person rose, Sora could see that the person was a man, wearing a tattered black leather coat with dark red trimmings, a long collar, and the coattails spread out wide. He wore black pants and boots, with two sets of belts on both leg. He wore a silver pauldron on his left side, feathery-finned gloves, and a belt across his waist, where he held a long, long blade.

(Insert 'One-Winged Angel')

He whipped his hand to one side, spreading his wing out, as he turned to face Sora, who saw the front end of his coat, which exposed his chest, apart from the red cross-straps that held it. Sora looked at his blue eyes, and felt a chill come across him.

"I saw you fight." He spoke to Sora, "You are rather intriguing."

"Who are you?!" Sora demanded, readying his Keyblade.

The man seemed unfazed as he reached down, as he reached down to the handle of his massive katana, ready to draw it. "My name is Sephiroth. However, you may consider me your despair."

"This guy... is extremely dangerous." Philia shuddered, as Donald and Goofy looked scared, while Phil looked downright terrified.

Sora barely saw any signs of him even making a move before he made the first move, drawing his massive blade and slashing Sora in one fluid motion. The cut had such force, that Sora gagged as he was sent flying right into the column on the corner of the arena, causing a massive dust cloud. The force even caused the column to fall over, crumbling to the ground.

"Sora!" The others cried out, fearful at his condition.

No one could see him, but they heard Sora weakly call out a "H-Heal..." Sora used his Curaga spell, recovering from the wound he was dealt with. He came out of the dust cloud, massaging the area he was cut at, looking at Sephiroth as he closed his eyes, huffing as he asked, "Perhaps I was wrong about you."

"That was dang too close..." Sora muttered, getting into his fighter's stance again, "But I won't let him get another shot like that again!"

Sora charged at Sephiroth as he swiftly swung his blade. However, Sora was ready for it, and leapt right over it, slashing several times at the man, causing him to get knocked back. However, he suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Sora, using his massive katana to slash at him. Sora twisted and barely guarded with his Keyblade, nearly sending him careening into the stands. However, he managed to flip around, land on his feet, and push himself right back at Sephiroth again.

"Meet your fate." Sephiroth told Sora, leaping a slash at Sora, who barely caught himself by using his Glide ability to halt himself in midair, the blade just barely scratching his legs. Sora stopped his hovering, landing on the ground, and charged at Sephiroth, slashing at him numerous times.

"Out of my way!" Sephiroth declared, raising his hand up as three large fiery pillar erupted from the ground around him, burning Sora and sending him falling backwards, rolling along the ground to die the flames out. He got to his feet, using another healing spell to recover from his wounds.

"That hurt..." Sora grimaced, getting to his feet.

"How disappointing." Sephiroth scoffed, "Are you so weak without having others assist you? Then again, it's not like I would expect anything from them."

"WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU!" Donald exclaimed, while Tink appeared out of Philia's pocket, growling in anger. Philia merely glared at Sephiroth, not because of what he said about them, but about Sora.

"I'm not done, yet!" Sora answered, readying his Keyblade again, glaring at Sephiroth. He scoffed as he readied his blade, before the two charged at one another once again.

What Phil warned the team before was no idle threat. Sephiroth was clearly a powerful opponent, and one that would deliver one or two hits to Sora before he had to heal with his magic or occasionally an elixir. With his massive katana blade, Sephiroth would swing it at Sora, or do dashing slashes before backing off to avoid any counterattacks by Sora. And if Sora did land good hits on him, he would cause pillars of fire to erupt from all around to burn Sora if he was not quick enough to backstep from them. He was vulnerable to Sora occasionally, but it looked more like he was mocking him by allowing him to hit him.

"Now you are starting to be of interest." Sephiroth stated, brushing his shoulder nonchalantly, "Perhaps I should take you a bit more seriously." He instantly teleported away from Sora, giving himself a good distance, before he started chanting something as he waved his hand in a fluid of motions.

"Sora, you gotta stop whatever he is doing!" Philia shouted, "I don't like the look of that attack."

"On it!" Sora answered, charging forward as a halo appeared above Sephiroth's head, before it went straight over to Sora. He had barely looked up at it before his opponent shouted, "Descend, Heartless Angel!" Suddenly, there was a burst of energy from the halo, and Sora felt the life instantly drain from him. He collapsed to the ground, barely conscious.

"SORA!" His friends called out to him, fearing he had been killed in an instant.

"Now, perish." Sephiroth spoke, before bringing his katana down on Sora, who weakly rolled to one side, just barely avoiding the blade. As he rolled, he pulled out an elixir, and healed himself, before rising to his feet again.

"That was too close...again!" Sora exclaimed.

"Impressive." Sephiroth told him, "You certainly have a strong will to survive."

"I won't be brought down by you!" Sora answered, "Not until I find Riku and stop Ansem!"

"All you will find is despair." Sephiroth responded, vanishing in an instant, before reappearing right behind Sora with a sword slash. Miraculously, Sora's instincts kicked in, and he performed a backflip, barely avoiding the slash. He landed, and swirled into a slash that struck Sephiroth in the gut, before going into several more slashes against him.

"Enough of this!" He shouted, vanishing an teleporting behind Sora again, this time with a flaming pillar that scorched Sora. He rolled himself out of there, putting the fire out on him, before turning to unleash Strike Raid on Sephiroth, striking him multiple times, even as he teleported about, trying to avoid the attack. Sora kept up his throws until he finished.

"My turn." The black-winged angel spoke up, vanishing and appearing over and over again around the battlefield, taking swipes at Sora, which he evaded to the best of his ability while trying to strike back at him. Sephiroth would unleash his towering flames at him, and once even tried to unleash the Heartless Angel technique again. Sora would dodge the flaring pillars, and went to stop Sephiroth before he unleashed the near-death attack again.

"Come power!" Sephiroth roared, gathering up energy at one point, before going into a wild dance of slashes at Sora, who dodged and parried to the best of his ability. However, the attack was so fierce and fast, that he did get cut a few times by the long-bladed katana. "Prepare yourself!" Sephiroth finished, doing a flip into the air and unleashing a hammering slash with his sword. Sora rolled to one side, before flipping onto his feet, healing himself with magic again.

"This guy is too much!" Phil exclaimed, "Kid, it's okay to get outta there!"

"Sora won't do that." Philia retorted, causing him to look to her. She watched as Sora continued the attack on Sephiroth, dancing about the battlefield as they clashed blades, "Sora wants to see this battle to the end. And I know he will win."

"Look, I get you have full support for your boyfriend or whatever, but look at how this guy fights!" Phil pointed out, indicating Sephiroth as he unleashed another series of fiery pillars, before unleashing a sword spin at Sora, who sucked in his gut to avoid the attack.

"Sora had overcome many kinds of trials before this, and don't forget we worked together in that last tournament." Philia retorted. She then realized something Phil said, and blushed before arguing, "Wait, boyfriend?! You really see him and I that way?!"

"Does it look like a situation where I give you a proper answer!" Phil argued, "And two words for you; Totally obvious from the get-go!" Philia looked back to Sora's duel, her cheeks rosy as she continued watching the big fight.

Sora and Sephiroth backed off from each other, Sora panting from exhaustion, his body in scars from the fight. "You needn't fight me any longer." Sephiroth told Sora, charging up with energy, "Just accept your defeat."

He summoned a ring of dark energy flares around Sora, who looked around at them, before leaping up as they came together, blowing up as one. Sora got pushed up further, but regained himself as he floated in mid air. Sephiroth flew right at him with his one wing, and their blades clashed over and over again. Sora parried the best he could, but got sent crashing to the ground.

Sephiroth landed neatly onto the ground as Sora flipped onto his feet again, seeing the man charge up for another wild dance of slashes. Sora immediately reacted by charging up his own attack. He unleashed his Ars Arcanum as Sephiroth unleashed his storm of slashes, the two going into endless slashes against each other, blades clashing over and over again. Sora got hit a couple times, but was able to overwhelm Sephiroth and unleash a longer stream of slashes than him.

"He got him!" Donald cheered.

"I told ya so." Philia told Phil off.

"Sure, the kid got him pretty good that time." Phil admitted, "But the other guy ain't done yet. Keep your head in the game!"

Sora saw Sephiroth vanish, and instinctively rolled ahead to avoid his reappearance from behind to slash at him, leaving a trail of dark fireballs in his wake. He then flew along the ground, leaving more dark fireballs in his trail as he came around and took a slash at Sora in front of him, which he barely blocked with his Keyblade. The fireballs he created from his swing formed in the air, before the two backed off as they exploded.

"I might need to actually start taking you seriously." Sephiroth noted to Sora, before raising his hand high, finishing, "I shall lead you to the Promised Land." He suddenly channeled a large amount of magic energy. From the sky, meteors started raining down onto the battlefield, crashing all around. Sora easily noticed none were gonna hit him, but they seem to float a bit off the ground, glowing with energy. They weren't the only ones, as Sephiroth was also channeling a large orb of magic above him.

"Sora, watch out!" Goofy called out.

"This looks bad!" Philia noted, before calling out, "Stop him before he uses that orb!"

"On it!" Sora answered, about to charge at Sephiroth, but was stopped as soon as he noticed the meteors were spinning around the battlefield. Sora nearly got hit by one, and had to back off, only to get slammed by another, and get sent toppling to the ground. He raised his head to see another meteor spinning around the field at him, and he rolled out of the way, before flipping onto his feet and leaping away from another meteor. He was able to glance at Sephiroth, seeing the magic ball of energy get bigger and stronger, gusts forming from the immense power.

"If that thing hits the kid, he'll be cremated faster than throwin' him into a volcano!" Phil exclaimed.

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy cried out in horror.

Philia looked on in fear of Sora, then saw something happen on the battlefield; the meteors all slowed down, and suddenly shattered, leaving an open field between Sora and Sephiroth, along with his massive spell. 'He's got an opening!' Philia exclaimed.

Sora reacted at that open opportunity, and saw Sephiroth's arm twitch. He was about to strike. "Perish into oblivion." He told Sora, and he threw the massive ball of energy. Sora shot forward, ducking low as the attack nearly fell on him.

"He's not gonna make it!" Donald exclaimed.

Sora's heart was thumping like crazy as he saw the attack nearly on top of him, but he channeled his magic, and shot forward with Sonic Blade, barely avoiding the attack that exploded right where he was before. He struck right through Sephiroth, who felt the pain of the attack. This didn't stop as he turned and struck Sephiroth a few more times with his attack. However, on his final attack, the one-winged man teleported out of the way, and reappeared on the opposite end of the field from Sora. A crater was formed on the spot where Sephiroth's attack struck, destroying nearly a third of the battlefield.

"Impressive." Sephiroth told Sora, "You saw my true strength, and you charged straight at me instead of fleeing. Course, if you even tried to flee, you would have died." He pointed his sword at Sora, practically inches from Sora's face, "You are a rather skilled opponent. Even so, you don't have what it takes to defeat me."

"I'm doing whatever it takes to survive." Sora panted, "That said, I'm not gonna let you endanger this world. If you're working with Ansem, then I will stop you."

Sephiroth pulled back his blade, scoffing as he said, "I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't work with anyone or anything other than the planet itself. I only came to this world because someone called out for me."

Sora looked confused as he asked, "Wait... you are not with Ansem?"

"No." he answered simply, sheathing his blade, "Though I was very intrigued by you and the weapon you wield. I wanted a taste of what you were capable of. And now, I feel satisfied by what I was able to learn."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, as Sephiroth walked towards the opposite gate from where Sora's companions stood at.

"It means I'll let you live, for now." He answered, looking back at Sora, "Although, I pray that you get stronger the next time we meet again. Until then, farewell." He walked off the arena, and vanished once again, leaving black feathers behind.

Sora stood there, wondering what he meant by those final words, but saw something on the ground where Sephiroth vanished, and wandered to it. Meanwhile, the gates opened up, allowing Philia, Donald, Goofy, and Phil to enter into the area.

"What just happened?" Goofy asked.

"Seems like that other guy forfeited the match." Phil summed up.

"More like he got bored and walked away." Philia answered, "I wonder if what he said was true or not about his connection with Ansem?"

"He said he wasn't." Tink answered, poking her upper body out of Philia's pocket, "Still, he wasn't exactly a trustworthy fellow."

"I dunno. He was definitely a villainous person, but he was more straight-forward than most." Philia pointed out, "He probably was telling the truth."

"I dunno." Sora answered, walking towards the team as they joined together, "I found this on the floor where he left." Sora held out another Ansem Report, with the page number 12 on it.

"He had an Ansem Report, as well?" Goofy asked.

"That isn't really enough proof that he was with him, but it makes him suspicious." Philia stated.

"He also left this." Sora added, holding out a Keyblade keychain, "According to Jiminy, this is the One-Winged Angel Keyblade."

"Is it any good?" Philia asked.

"Not sure, but I'd rather stick to my Oathkeeper." Sora answered, pocketing the keychain.

Hearing this, Philia couldn't help but feel a little jealous as she muttered, "You got so many new Keyblades, and you stick to the one given by Kairi. Jeez, you really have him wrapped around your finger, girl."

"Did you say something?" Sora asked, not hearing what Philia said.

"Nothing. Just wondering when you'll use another Keyblade or even my dagger I gave you." She responded in a stern tone, turning around and walking away.

Sora looked puzzled for a moment, before feeling his legs wobbled, and he nearly collapsed to the floor. Goofy and Donald fortunately saw him falling, and caught him in time. "Are you okay?" Goofy asked.

"Kid over-exerted himself out there." Phil answered, "Gotta say, you were so close to death so many times out there, I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did. Good job out there."

"Thanks, Phil." Sora thanked him, barely finding breath to speak, before looking to Philia as she exited the arena, before asking, "I did hear Philia rooting for me all throughout that fight, but why does she seem angry with me all of a sudden?"

Donald and Goofy rolled their eyes as Phil shook his head, answering, "Kid, you got a long way to go before you realize what women think." This only made Sora even more confused, wondering even more about Philia's attitude.

At this time, Philia had made it out of the Coliseum, still irritated, but not as badly. She had to remind herself that she and Kairi were agreeing not to interfere with their contest to earn Sora's affection. That being said, she wished Sora would at least change the Keyblade around for something else. He had so many that were given to him afterwards, and she bet they were stronger. So why was he so focused on the one Kairi gave him? The importance of Kairi's lucky charm was strong, yes, but so was having the strength to beat the enemies. Not to mention that he never even once used her dagger. In the end, the reasoning she tried to put herself through only ignited the frustration again.

"Hey." Someone spoke up, and Philia looked up to see Cloud walking towards her.

"What do you want?" She asked, her tone expressing her frustration.

Cloud stopped, looking at her expression. However, he decided not to question her anger, and asked, "I felt something a moment ago. The person I am searching for... he's in there, isn't he?"

Philia showed a slight bit of confusion before asking, "Wait, are you talking about Sephiroth? Sora fought him just a while ago."

"So he is here." Cloud understood, glaring at the coliseum, before walking past her, "It's time to finish this."

Philia turned and watched Cloud walk up the steps, just as Sora, Donald, and Goofy wandered out. They stepped aside to allow Cloud to pass, seeing his expression, before wandering down to Philia, with Goofy asking, "Is Cloud okay?"

"I think so." Philia answered, looking to see Cloud disappear into the building, "But it looks like he might have some connection to Sephiroth."

"He does?" Donald asked, looking back.

"I hope he'll be okay." Sora muttered, turning back to Philia, who locked eyes with him for a moment, before she looked away with a huff. He paused for a second, wondering what she was getting worked up about. Finally, he produced his Keyblade, which had changed since the last fight. He now equipped the Oblivion Keyblade instead, which looked like the complete opposite version of Oathkeeper. Instead of white, it was black. Instead of angel wings as a guard, it was bat wings. Instead of the kanji for 'light' at the teeth, it was now the kanji for 'darkness'.

Philia looked back at Sora for a second, then saw the Keyblade, and asked, "Finally changed your Keyblade around?"

Sora looked at it as he answered, "Well, after fighting Sephiroth, I decided to switch it up with a stronger Keyblade."

Philia gazed at the weapon, before looking away as she simply said, "Better."

"Huh?" Sora questioned her word.

"I mean, good thinking." Philia corrected herself, looking back at him with a smile, "Let's get going."

"Um...sure." Sora responded, deciding not to think about it too hard, as they activated the transporter, and they ascended back to the Gummi ship again.

While Sora crumbled to his seat, still worn out from his fight with Sephiroth, Philia went in and placed in the two journal entries of Ansem they collected. She started with page #8 from Hades.

There is no doubt that the Heartless are deeply connected to the people's hearts. Further study may unravel both their motivations and the mysteries shrouding the heart.

As a start, I have built a device that artificially creates Heartless. By recreating the conditions that spawn the Heartless naturally, I should be able to produce them artificially. This device is the culmination of all my research thus far. The machine's test run successfully created a Heartless.

This may be a step toward creating a heart from nothing. The artificially and naturally created Heartless showed nearly identical traits. But the two types remain distinct for the purpose of the experiment. So, I will mark the ones that are created artificially.

"He created a device that artificially makes Heartless?!" Donald gasped.

"This guy is seriously something else if he is able to do that." Philia muttered.

"Could it have been one of the machines we saw in Hollow Bastion?" Sora asked as Jiminy hopped out to connect with the group.

"If it is, hopefully Leon as his crew take care of it." Philia responded, watching the scan of the next page, "Let's see what the page Sephiroth has contains."

The body is gone; the heart should have returned to the Heartless. And yet, nothing.

This one is unlike any other. Its memories remain, and it has yet to take the form of a Heartless.

A close eye must be kept on the situation. Much is still unknown.

To get to the realm of Darkness, one must go through the doors of Kingdom Hearts, the place where the world's hearts connect.

Beyond this world is a place in which Darkness reigns. (Details shall be archived in a separate report)

There are many worlds in existence, some of which we know nothing about.

The world in which we live. The realm of Darkness. The realm of Light.

And the world in between.

Wherein lies true nirvana?

After reading it, the team sat in silence, both concerned and confused. Who was Ansem speaking about? Was the realm of Darkness behind Kingdom Hearts? And what was his idea of nirvana?

"What is nirvana?" Sora asked, "I heard the word before, but never understood it."

"It basically means a paradise of sorts." Jiminy answered, "Judging on this journal entry, Ansem was probably looking for the paradise he wanted."

"It's pretty disturbing to wonder what his nirvana must be like." Tink pointed out, frowning at the thought.

"But we are missing one more page here." Philia pointed out, pulling up all the pages they gathered so far, "According to this, the page before this one is the one we don't have. We should at least discover what that last page says before anything else."

"But where should we look?" Donald asked.

"Maybe we should get back to facing Ansem, instead." Goofy suggested.

For a second, the team pondered on what to do. Suddenly, the alarm went off, making them all jump out of their seats in shock. The team were then greeted by the screen turning on in the Gummi ship, showing them the faces of Chip and Dale. "We got an alert!" Chip exclaimed.

"What's going on?!" Sora asked.

"We've detected two energy readings from different worlds." Dale answered, "They seem to be Heartless, and powerful ones, at that!"

"Powerful Heartless?" Sora asked, concerned on the matter.

"If there are Heartless of that caliber around, we shouldn't let them wander freely." Philia answered, looking to the team, who nodded in agreement, before looking back to the screen, "Where are they?"

"According to our systems, they're in Agrabah and Neverland." Chip answered.

The latter world made Tinker Bell shoot out of Philia's pocket, as she gasped, "Oh, no! Peter is in trouble!"

"Don't worry, Tink." Philia assured her, "We will save him."

"The same goes for Aladdin." Sora added, "Plus, Jasmine needs to have a home to return to."

"Agreed." Philia responded, "But where should we go to, first?"

"Obviously, we should hit Neverland, first!" Tinker Bell answered, "There is no question we should go there to save Peter!"

"I knew you would answer that." The treasure huntress answered.

"I guess she wants to go to Neverland first." Sora assumed, not understanding the pixie language.

"Hold on. Agrabah is nearer." Jiminy pointed out, "We should probably deal with that, first."

"But who knows what'll happen if we leave the strong Heartless alone in Neverland." Goofy pointed out.

"We can only fight one at a time!" Donald pointed out angrily.

"Maybe..." Philia muttered, "Or maybe we can take care of both at once."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"One team can handle the one in Agrabah, while the other can handle the one in Neverland." Philia suggested, "There are four of us, plus an ally in each world. Take out two birds with one stone."

"Yeah, that can work!" Sora agreed.

"No, it won't!" Donald argued.

"Sora's the only one who can really fight the Heartless." Goofy pointed out.

"You forget that I was able to help Sora out when you two ditched us for Riku a while back." Philia retorted, causing the two anthropomorphic characters to flinch at the reminder, "But just in case, I should probably have a lucky charm just in case." She wandered over to Sora, and held out her hand, asking, "Mind if I borrow one of your keychains? It's only fair, considering I gave you my dagger."

Sora seemed a little surprised, before nodding as he answered, "Sounds fair. Here." He pulled out his Keyblade keychains he gathered so far, and pulled out the Kingdom Key keychain, handing it to Philia, "You gave me your first weapon, so I'll give you mine."

Philia smiled and gently took the keychain, answering, "I'll treat it with care." The two gazed at one another, sort of phased out, before they heard the chipmunks on the speaker clear their throats, snapping them out of their state.

"I hate to break up the moment, but we got a major situation, here!" Dale pointed out.

"Sorry." Philia apologized, blushing as she shook herself out of the moment's trance, before becoming serious again as she asked, "So, anyways, as for teams, I should go to Neverland with Tink."

"Okay. Since Genie is with me, I'll go to Agrabah." Sora agreed, looking to the remaining two, "What about you guys."

"I don't mind going to Neverland with Philia." Goofy stated with a raised hand, "Plus, I can't get enough of flying." He chuckled after that.

"It's not playtime, Goofy." Philia argued.

"Then I'm with Sora." Donald decided, not that he had any other option.

"Right. We'll drop you two guys off at Agrabah, before making our way to Neverland." Philia told the two, getting to the controls, "Let's save those worlds again."

"Yeah!" The remaining team answered, before the Gummi Ship was launched forward, and they went soaring to the worlds together.

Agrabah

Moment's later, Sora and Donald were teleported down to the surface again, where they discovered Aladdin back in his hideout. When he asked about the search for Jasmine, the two assured him she was safe and will return soon, as soon as she was done dealing with some things, along with Philia and Goofy. They didn't bother mentioning about other worlds, or some of the other things that were probably against the world order. However, they did explain about why they returned, and about the detection of a powerful Heartless.

"Come to think of it, Carpet has been acting a bit strange, recently." Aladdin pointed out, "It keeps me from wandering out to the desert, though I can't imagine why."

"Maybe it knows where the Heartless is." Sora assumed.

"Let's go find it!" Donald declared, racing out of the hideout. However, just as he was about to exit the area, Carpet came flying in, spinning Donald around as he flew in, making him dizzy to the point of falling over.

Carpet flew in front of Sora, standing on two of its tassels as it jumped up and down frantically.

"Carpet, we were just looking for you." Aladdin told him.

"Seems like he's in a real panic." Sora pointed out.

"This is what I mean." Aladdin reminded him.

"Carpet, can you take the three of us to where the Heartless is?" Sora asked Carpet, whilst Donald was shaking off his dizziness, and rising angrily back to his feet again. The living rug nodded, and straightened itself out for all to climb aboard.

"Alright, let's go!" Aladdin declared, hopping on.

"Donald, come on!" Sora called to his buddy, who was grumbling at what he wanted to do to Carpet, before stomping his way over to the carpet, and sitting down on the front of it, his feet dangling over. Carpet then lifted itself higher, and shot out of the hideout, nearly throwing Donald off as he went from the front to the back, grasping onto the ridge of the carpet as he squawked in a panic while they flew off.

Neverland

Meanwhile, Philia, Goofy and Tink all made it back to Hook's vacant pirate ship again, where Peter was playing pirate on it. They explained to Peter about how Kairi was safe and sound, and that they only returned because they knew a powerful Heartless was in the vicinity.

"Well, I haven't seen any Heartless about the place." Peter pointed out, "I was able to clear them out of Hook's ship, leaving me as the captain of it."

"Well, if it isn't here, then maybe it could be somewhere else?" Goofy suggested.

"Quite possibly at the clock tower." Tinker Bell suggested.

"What makes you assume that?" Philia asked.

"Just a gut feeling." She replied simply.

Philia paused before narrowing her eyes and asking, "You aren't just suggesting that because you still believe Wendy to be there, right?"

"That thought never came across my mind!" Tink responded defensively, "Besides, I only dislike her because of how close she is to Peter."

"I know, I know." Philia chuckled, "Still, let's try following your gut feeling."

"I'm pretty surprised at how close the two of you became." Peter pointed out, "Usually, Tink isn't fond of other girls."

"Other girls around YOU, you mean." Philia corrected, with Tink nodding in agreement. Goofy merely stood there, feeling left out of the conversation, considering he didn't speak pixie.

"Anyway, let's head to the clock tower." Peter decided, flying into the air, "Let's go right away." He flew into the sky, with Philia, Goofy, and Tink following right after him.

Back with Sora's team, they held onto Carpet as they flew across the desert. Donald managed to get a good hold on their mode of transportation as they flew as Sora asked, "How far away are we from the Heartless?"

"I just hope it won't be too much of a threat to Agrabah." Aladdin prayed.

Just then, something large shot out of the sands, spinning like a top, brandishing blades that almost cut the group as they flew. They barely avoided them as they started to swerve around, trying to face it. Suddenly, stone pillars shot out of the sand, forming an energy barrier that encased the team and the Heartless within. Carpet couldn't turn tightly enough, and ended up flipping upside down, causing the trio to fall off.

"Ouch..." Sora grimaced, rising to his feet after hitting the ground.

"What in the world is that?" Aladdin asked, seeing the Heartless clearly now. It was a six-armed monster with a cobra head, a tunic-like armor, detached bellsleeves on each arm, pale colors that matched the sand, and heavily curved blades wielded in its middle pair of hands.

"I don't know. Philia has the book on these Heartless." Donald mentioned.

Sora glared at it as Jiminy poked his head out, before realizing, "I think I know what it is. I studied a bit in Philia's book, and I can tell that is a Kurt Zisa."

"That's a strange name." Sora muttered, getting his Keyblade out, "But no matter, we can take. Everyone, let's-!" Before he could finish his sentence, the Heartless suddenly used magic on them, and in an instant, Sora lost his voice. In fact, both he, Donald, and Aladdin lost their voices. They looked to one another, before looking at the Heartless, who produced magic orbs on its lower pair of hands, brandishing the blades like a master. It just silenced their voices, not only preventing them from communicating to each other, but also preventing them from using magic. They were already on a troublesome start.

Back in Peter Pan's world, Peter and Tink took the lead as they flew towards the clock tower. As they did so, Philia could feel a presence starting to creep up on them. Then suddenly, she felt it right by her, and looked to her right. There, flying alongside them, was the Heartless they were searching for. It looked like nothing but bodiless, white-cloaked figure, the cloak being ragged and torn, with black arms. From Philia's perspective, it looked like it would fit better in the world of Halloween Town than here.

"Whoa, what is this?!" Peter questioned, the team stopping to see it fly by them, stand directly in the light of the clock head.

Philia pulled out her book, and examined the contents, before finding the Heartless in it. "The Phantom." Philia answered, "According to this, this Heartless is one of the most powerful in current record. It tends to spend time near clocks, and one that can steal your heart with one spell if you aren't careful."

"What kind of spell is that?" Goofy asked, bringing out his new shield he got from the Hades Cup.

Just as he questioned that, the Phantom's body glowed eerily, the focus on Goofy. He suddenly gained the same eerie glow, with Philia crying out, "Goofy!" Fearing the fact to come true. Goofy shut his eyes, worried he would lose his heart. However, after a few seconds, he didn't feel any different, and he looked up, wondering what happened.

"What's going on?" Peter asked.

Goofy looked at the eerie glow on him, before Tink gasped, "Look above his head!" The three looked above Goofy's hat, and they saw a number '12' in creepy font.

"Why does he have a number above him?" Peter asked, scratching his chin.

Philia looked to it, before instinctively looking to the Phantom and the clock tower head. Blue embers were on the edge of the clock, each fireball on each number. The arms of the clock were moving quicker than they should, almost moving every second than every minute. As soon as the clock hand passed five minutes mark, one of the blue flames disappeared as Tink called out, "The number went down!" Philia looked back to Goofy, which sure enough, saw the number went from 12 to 11. She put two and two together, before the horrible truth came to her mind.

"It's a countdown." Philia gasped, getting the team's attention, "And I fear that if it hits zero, it's lights out!" The foreboding realization caused the team to look scared, Goofy especially. They had to beat the clock, and destroy the Phantom before Goofy, along with the rest of them, lost their hearts.

Sora charged at the Heartless, who backed away as it menacingly spun its blades, bringing them down on Sora, who evaded the attacks.

'I can't use magic without speaking, and that Heartless has muted me.' Sora told himself, looking to Donald and Aladdin, who were racing in to join in the fight, 'Donald can't use his magic, either, which is really bad for him.' Sora looked back at the Heartless again, seeing the magic orbs in each hand, 'I bet destroying those will help us speak again. Time to do it!'

He shot towards the Heartless, avoiding an oncoming blade, before unleashing slashes at the orb in the left lower hand. It tried to slash Sora away with spinning blades, but Sora backed off before leaping at the orb again to attack it more, with Donald and Aladdin joining in to attack them. The Kurt Zisa tried to back away to avoid an attack, but they kept up with it, eventually destroying one of the magic orbs.

'One more left.' Sora told himself, now shifting to the other orb. Destroying the orb did seem to regenerate the team's stamina, while the Kurt Zisa tried to back off before lunging at them with a double slash. Donald got struck hard, his mouth gaping as he potentially screamed in agony, while Aladdin and Sora barely avoided the attack. They then charged at the Heartless's final magic orb, before hammering down on it together with their combined attack, destroying the orb together.

The final orb destroyed caused the Kurt Zisa to collapse onto the sand, as the two heard Donald's voice return, and he was pissed off at not getting a chance to deal damage then. "Our voices returned!" Aladdin noted.

"Great. That means I can use magic!" Sora realized, looking to the Kurt Zisa, seeing the cobra head sticking out of the body, flailing about, "Let's do some damage to it, everyone!"

The trio went to the cobra head, who tried to lunge out at Sora, but he blocked the attack as the others used magic and skills to strike a lot of damage to it in a short period of time. However, before they could do more, the Kurt Zisa retracted its head and rose up, bounding away from the team.

"Careful, guys. It might silence us again!" Aladdin warned the two.

"Right!" Donald and Sora answered, prepared for the muting that was gonna take place.

However, what they didn't expect was the Heartless to do something different, as it suddenly leapt up and crossed its legs, floating in midair as it summoned a barrier completely around it, encasing it inside.

"Another barrier?" Donald questioned.

"And it looks different." Aladdin answered.

"No worries. We can just break it like we did with the magic orbs!" Sora answered, racing towards it, and taking a leaping slash at it, despite Aladdin and Donald's outcries to stop him. However, when he struck the barrier, it resulted in him being bounced off, shaken by the attack. This was done even further, as the Heartless used lightning to strike down upon him, shocking him more. Fortunately, he was able to endure, and regained himself.

"You okay?!" Aladdin asked as the Kurt Zisa backed away.

"I'll be fine..." Sora answered, downing a potion to recover himself.

"You dummy!" Donald scolded him, "It clearly looked different!"

"Hey, I'm sorry!" Sora argued, looking at the Kurt Zisa surrounded in the new barrier, asking, "But how are we gonna deal with this?!"

Back in Philia's team, three five minute passes on the clock happened as they tried to pursue the Heartless, but their attacks were not doing anything to it. Goofy's countdown was now at 8, with four of the flames gone from the rim of the clock head.

"We gotta stop the countdown, somehow!" Philia exclaimed.

"But we can't defeat that cloaked monster in time to save Goofy." Peter pointed out.

"We just attack it or use magic on that heart it has, and somehow one of them does damage." Tink added.

"I don't know how to deal with this!" Goofy exclaimed, worried about his life going to end, seeing the timer go to 7.

"If we can just stop the clock, that should hold things out until we beat this thing!" Tink wished.

"Wait, stop the clock?" Philia echoed, looking to the said clock, before gasping, "That's it!" She flew to the clock as the Phantom shot fireballs at her. She avoided the attacks, before reaching the clock and shouting, "Stop!" She unleashed her time-stopping move on the clock, the hand almost reaching the next five-minute mark. She looked back to Goofy, seeing the number above him stay at 7.

"Yes, it worked!" Philia cheered, before turning to the Phantom, "Now, how to deal with you..." She saw it twirl around, and a red glowing heart was under the cloak. "A red heart..." Philia muttered, "It always shown white, blue, yellow and red. When it was white, it seemed like our physical attacks did damage. When it was one of the others..." She then came to a realization; her magic was key to attacking the other heart colors, and if her theory was right about those colors...

"Let's try a bit of Fire magic on the red heart!" Philia declared, firing Firaga at the red heart. It seemed to do the trick, as the attack knocked it back from almost swiping Peter Pan. The heart turned yellow, which caused Philia's instincts to kick in, and unleash Thundaga onto it, causing it to flail and falter, the heart vanishing.

"Got it!" Philia shouted.

"How were you able to harm it?" Goofy asked.

"The heart was giving off clues." Philia answered, seeing it fly away, causing team to pursue, "It was doing damage based on what color its' heart was. When the heart is white, deal physical attacks. When the heart is any other color, it requires magic. Fire for red, Blizzard for blue, and Thunder for yellow."

"That makes a lot of sense!" Tink admitted, looking to the Heartless, who twirled around, and a new white heart appeared underneath its ragged robe.

"Sure wish Donald was here to help us in the magic department, but we have to work with what we got!" Philia stated, "Let's go, gang!"

"Right!" Goofy, Peter, and Tink answered simultaneously, charging at the Heartless together.

Back in the desert, Sora, Donald and Aladdin were following the Kurt Zisa relentlessly, even as it unleashed fire balls and tornadoes at the team, causing them to avoid the attacks. While they were fully aware of physical attacks not working, Aladdin used his quick wit to figure out one thing; if they were able to speak, they could use magic. This meant the team had to use magic to destroy the barrier. And he was right; their spells were doing the trick against the Heartless's barrier.

"Aladdin, watch out!" Sora called out, seeing fireballs coming at him.

"I got it!" He answered, using his scimitar to deflect the fireballs, hitting the magic spells right back at the Kurt Zisa, doing more damage to the barrier.

"That did the trick!" Donald cheered.

"Yeah, it should be almost down." Sora stated, charging at the Heartless, avoiding a tornado that appeared right at his feet by sidestepping, before leaping ahead and unleashing a Blizzaga spell, peppering the barrier with ice magic, before it shattered, causing the Heartless to collapse to the ground, with the snake stretching out of the hole it was in, and flailing about.

"We got him, now!" Aladdin declared, as he, Donald and Sora went all out on the Kurt Zisa's head, striking it with all they had while parrying off the snapping jaws.

After doing a lot of damage to it, the Kurt Zisa's head retreated as it got itself back on its feet again, its arms stretched out as it readied its blades. "It can still fight after that?!" Donald squawked angrily, "Just die already, you lousy piece of-!" His last words were cut off when the Heartless unleashed its silence spell again, muting the three of them, as it produced two more magic orbs in its hands.

'The same trick as before.' Sora mentally noted, 'Guess that means we gotta target those orbs again.' Sora charged in to attack, but backed off as it started spinning the blades around, avoiding the spinning shields it made. He skidded on the sand as Donald and Aladdin ran past him, slashing and slamming against the right orb.

Kurt Zisa backed off, before jumping into the air, folding its body as it spun around horizontally, its blades out like a buzzsaw. It then flew at the team, slashing down Donald and Aladdin, causing them to fall in pain, while Sora avoided the attack barely. He turned to see it rise into the air, shifting its body around, until it started spinning vertically, wheeling towards Sora again, who was just centimeters away from the blades as he avoided it, but got blown off course as a result of the shockwave of the attack, falling on his butt.

It rose again, spinning around into another vertical spin attack at Sora, charging at him once again, who couldn't avoid the attack in time this time around, and used his Keyblade to at last minimize the damage. The force of the attack on his own weapon caused Sora to be lurched by the force of the attack, damaged quite a bit from the attack. He grimaced as he looked to see the Kurt Zisa switch to another horizontal slash, coming at Sora again, who knew he couldn't even block it this time around. Fortunately, a hand appeared and grabbed Sora wrist, pulling him out of the way as the Heartless passed him. Sora looked to see it was Aladdin, who held a Mega Potion in his other hand, mostly drunk by himself and Donald, and handed it to Sora. He took it and downed the rest, restoring his stamina.

'That was too close!' Sora exclaimed in his mind, getting to his feet, 'Jeez, I shouldn't get overconfident. I know it is weaker and slower than Sephiroth, but I shouldn't let that be an excuse to be careless. I gotta think smarter than that.'

The Heartless stopped its attack, landing on the ground, before doing a leaping slash at Sora and Aladdin. Sora got in front and blocked the attack to protect himself and Aladdin from the attack, before charging at the magic orbs in its hands, not wasting the open opportunity to attack and destroy them.

Up at the clock tower, Philia's team had a rhythm going on now, but it was still very difficult to deal with the Phantom. The Heartless was pretty evasive, swinging its claws at them, or unleashing dark fireballs at them. The key to attacking and damaging the Heartless, though, was the heart in it. As Philia noted, the color of the heart required a unique method of damaging it, either by physical attack or a certain magic spell. Damaging the heart three times destroys it, causing the Phantom a moment to falter and move away from the team in order to restore its heart or to attempt at a retaliation.

"That's it! We got it on the ropes!" Philia shouted, destroying the heart another time. The Heartless faltered back before flying towards the clock tower, where it gathered up energy, and suddenly, the clock hand started moving again.

"Uh, oh!" Goofy hollered, looking up to see his countdown make its way to '6'.

"I gotta stop the clock handle again!" Philia called out, prepared for using her time magic. However, as she flew, Peter ended up passing her, racing to the clock handle, and shouting, "Time out!" With a wave of his dagger, he suddenly used a time spell himself, stopping the clock again, with the countdown on Goofy just barely reaching past '5'.

"Thank goodness..." Philia sighed.

"Didn't know Peter can also use that same magic, too, did you?" Tink asked.

"Honestly, I forgot he could do that." Philia admitted, redirecting her flight towards the Phantom, who now embodied a blue heart, "But that gives us two people who can stop the clock for Goofy." She unleashed a Blizzaga spell on it, causing it damage as it changed to a white heart. Goofy suddenly appeared with a whack of his shield, damaging the heart as it stayed white, allowing Philia to unleash an Armor Break Dagger Skill to further damage the Heartless.

As the Heartless flew away to regenerate its heart, the two pursued, with Peter and Tink joining in alongside them. "Thanks for the save, Peter."

"Thank me. I told him to do it." Tink corrected her.

"I was gonna do it, anyway." Peter muttered.

"Whatever." Philia disregarded something that could've gone into an argument, "Peter, can I count on you to help stop the clock if that happens again?"

"Can do." Peter answered, as they pursued the Phantom again, prepared to take it out before time ran out.

With a final slash of his Keyblade, Sora destroyed the final magic orb, causing the Heartless to collapse to the ground, same as the other two times. "Now, everyone!" Sora shouted, and he led Donald and Aladdin in taking on the Heartless, damaging the head as much as possible. They did all they could before it could recover, which it did so, leaping onto its feet, before floating and activating its barrier once more.

"Shoot, I thought we were close!" Aladdin grimaced.

"Then it's time we end this quickly." Sora declared, pulling out Genie's lamp, tapping it with his Keyblade as he shouted, "Summon: Genie!" The spoke emanated from it shooting upwards, before revealing the Genie himself, wearing a headset with microphone attached, and a table made for a sports announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the final inning of this wonderful world of sports!" Genie announced, "At the left infield, we have the duck with all the bad luck, Donald!" In a puff of smoke, Donald suddenly found himself on the left side of the Kurt Zisa, wearing a baseball cap and mitt. He looked dazed and confused at the situation.

"And standing in the right infield, we have our national star of Agrabah and dethroner of viziers, it's Aladdin!" In a puff of smoke, Genie sent the world local to the right side of the Kurt Zisa, with the same attire as Donald, plus a blue and white-striped shirt.

"Good to see you haven't changed, Genie." Aladdin chuckled, tilting his cap up to look at Genie.

"And finally at the pitcher's mound, we have our captain of the team. His fan base has allowed him to Smash his way into the Ultimate level, and with Keyblade at hand, it's Sora!" With one more puff of smoke, Sora also appeared with a hat and pitcher's mitt, though the hat cartoonishly shot off his head due to the spring-force of his hair.

"Now, it's time for our next batter!" Genie continued, holding up a card, "Here at the plate, we have... Kurt Zisa. Obviously a foreigner and not from this side of the desert. Now for the ball..." Genie shot magic energy at Sora, who caught it in one hand, forming a magic energy the size of a baseball.

"And Sora is about ready to wind up to strike this sucker out!" Genie shouted, as Sora, deciding to go with the madness, holds the ball close to his mitt, before winding it up, and throwing it as hard as he could at the Heartless. It hit its shield, before ricocheting off into the air.

"Oh, and we have a fly ball, folks! And it looks like it's heading towards Al." Genie continued his announcing as it flew towards the right side, down towards Aladdin, who reached up with his mitt to snatch the magic ball, which he managed to do so. Suddenly, the magic ball pulled on his hand, and with a spin, he unintentionally threw it to Donald.

"And Al passes it to Don!" Genie shouted as Donald caught the ball, going into a back roll by the force of the attack, before skidding on his back, raising his gloved hand high, "And it was a good pass!" Donald rose to his feet, as he heard, "And Don passes it to Sora!" With Genie's magic, he tossed the ball to Sora, who caught it in his glove.

"Wait a minute!" Genie called out, looking at Carpet, who was on the sidelines, making signs with its tassels, "It looks like the team is sending in a new man onto the field. Needing no introduction..." In an instant, Genie appeared in full baseball attire in the technical center field of the battlefield, "It's the golden arm himself, the Genie formerly known as the lamp!"

"Bring it here, man! I'll send this guy cryin' in the showers!" Genie on the field called out to Sora.

"I'm counting on you, Genie!" Sora called out, throwing the magic ball to Genie, who caught it in his gloved hand, before prepping himself. He then took a leap as with his throwing arm, which was literally now gold, he stretched back as far as he could, before throwing it hard at the Kurt Zisa, the magic ball now far more powerful than it was before, thanks to the passing over to everyone, shooting like a comet at the Heartless, striking the barrier around it. After a few seconds of the magic ball grinding into it, the ball shattered the barrier, striking the head of the Heartless hard, causing it to fly along the ground, dropping all of its sword in the process, before skidding to a halt, unable to move.

Genie appeared by the Heartless, dressed as an umpire as he made the call, "He's out!" A cheering crowd could be heard all around. Sora, Donald, and Aladdin all cheered in victory at taking down the Heartless with that attack.

"And that is game, folks!" Genie reappeared at his announcement stand again, "We like to thank you for joining us on another glorious season this year, and we hope to see you again next year!"

In a puff of smoke, Genie disappeared as the baseball attire disappeared off the three boys, with Genie reappearing right next to Aladdin, asking, "What you think of my play-by-play announcement. Really called it, huh?"

"Thanks, Genie. It's great to see you again." Aladdin answered, "It's good to see you again."

"Great to be back for the time being, pal." Genie answered, "But unfortunately, my call time is up. Gotta clock out from work. See ya!" With a puff of smoke, Genie vanished from sight, his summon time over.

The Heartless's snake head was stretching upwards, trying to recover itself again, it saw Sora charging in, not giving it a moment to regain itself, his Keyblade to one side. "It's all over for you!" Sora shouted, as he wound up his Keyblade, and shot with lightning speeds, shooting right past the Kurt Zisa, stopping as he held his Keyblade in both hands. The snake head was stunned for a moment, before it felt itself split down the neck, before vanishing in darkness, along with the rest of his body, leaving behind the crystal heart that floated into the sky, vanishing from sight. It was finally defeated.

"Way to go, Sora!" Aladdin cheered, "Nice final attack."

"That was new." Donald pointed out, "What was that?"

Sora looked as his Keyblade for a moment, before answering, "Zantetsuken. I'm pretty sure that was the name of that attack. Must've learned it just now."

"That really worked out well for you." Aladdin pointed out, "And thanks for letting me see Genie again." Sora chuckled as he grinned back at him for the compliment.

"Look!" Donald called out, retrieving something from the sands, and showing it to Sora. It was the last paper they were looking for.

"The final report entry from Ansem!" Sora noticed, seeing the page number #11 on it.

"What is that?" Aladdin asked, "I remember you guys getting one from Jafar, too."

"It's...a journal made by the guy that is even more dangerous than Jafar." Sora answered, "He's also responsible for a lot of the Heartless things, as well as the kidnapping of Jasmine."

"Sounds like you guys have your work cut out for you." Aladdin noticed, realizing the level of danger they were dealing with, "Well, if you need a hand, I can come and help you out."

"Thanks, but it's our responsibility." Sora answered.

"You just take care of Agrabah." Donald told him.

"Sure. I can do that." He answered, as Carpet joined them, "Speaking of which, let's head back to Agrabah, for now."

"Yeah, we have to wait for Philia and Goofy to pick us up." Sora stated, the trio climbing onto Carpet, before taking off back to the city again.

The battle against the Phantom was nearly over for the team, though it was time consuming. They could only do so much damage during each time, not to mention that every other time its heart get destroyed by the team, it would make its way to the clock head, either unleashing homing energy balls at the team, which they could avoid by moving towards another part of the clock tower, or resetting the countdown, in which Philia or Peter went to stop the clock again with their magic. Unfortunately, at this point, the countdown above Goofy had reached 2.

"We're cutting it close!" Goofy called out, whacking his shield on the white heart of the Phantom, breaking it as it fumbled away.

"Just a little more, and it's over for it!" Philia called out, racing after the Heartless as it flew towards the clock tower. It then gathered up energy, and it restarted the clock. "No you don't!" Philia shouted, about to stop the clock with magic. However, with one swish of the Heartless's claws, she was sent flying in agony from the tower. 'No!' Philia exclaimed, 'I gotta stop the clock now!'

"Philia!" Goofy cried out, before looking to see the hand pass the eleven mark, the flame by the number dying out, and his countdown reached '1'. He was almost gonna have his heart stolen.

"I got it!" Peter shouted, him and Tink racing to the clock, and using time magic to stop the clock once again. He arrived at the right time, as the minute hand was one step away from hitting the twelve marker.

"Close one..." Philia sighed in relief, while Goofy nearly passed out from the stress of what almost happened.

"What would you do without me?" Peter chuckled.

"You were amazing, Peter!" Tink cheered.

Philia went from relief to anger as she turned to the Phantom, now away from the tower to produce another heart. "You are gonna pay for nearly killing my friend, you monster!" She roared, flying at it with great speed. She saw the heart was blue, and got in close before the Heartless could evade, unleashing a point blank Blizzaga that sent it back, its heart becoming yellow. She immediately spun and pointed her dagger upwards, unleashing a Thundaga spell onto the Heartless, zapping it and turning its heart white.

"Perfect..." she growled, her dagger glowing brightly, before she shot forward, unleashing the Armor Pierce Dagger Skill, hitting the Phantom's heart with as much force as she could, roaring in a war cry as she did so. She shattered the heart with her final attack, sending the Phantom careening backwards, before it stopped.

It started to squirm in pain, clutching the area where its heart was. Another heart produced from it, but this one was the actual heart the big Heartless's sent flying into the air, vanishing from sight. Philia heard the distant echo of a roar coming from the Heartless, as it fell from the sky, fading away from existence. They had defeated the Phantom.

Philia turned to the clock tower, seeing the final flame vanish, and the clock hands spinning rapidly, before stopping at the actual time it was. She hastily looked to Goofy, whose countdown marker vanished from above him. Fortunately, he was completely fine.

"You okay, Philia?" Tink asked, the first to arrive to her as Peter and Goofy flew towards her.

"Better now that Goofy is safe, and the Heartless was defeated." She replied, rubbing the back of her head, "Sorry for going into a rage like that."

"Hey, I get it." Tink chuckled, "If something happened to Peter, I would be mad, too." The two girls shared a chuckle at this understanding.

"Thanks for savin' me, fellas." Goofy thanked the team.

"Glad we got rid of that." Peter stated, looking down at the area the Heartless vanished, before noticing, "And look. It left something behind." The team looked to see three magic orbs fly up to them. One of them immediately went into Philia, and she felt the power of time from it. Her Stopra spell upgraded to Stopga. As for the other two magic orbs, they floated in the air in front of the team.

"New upgrades to our time magic." Philia noted, reaching over and taking the two orbs, handing one to Goofy, "We should give them to Sora and Donald." The hound dog nodded in agreement.

"Does that mean you guys have to leave again?" Peter asked.

"We have to." Goofy answered.

"To end the Heartless threat for good, we have to take down the biggest threat behind them." Philia responded, "And hopefully, I might find my home afterwards, as well as my memories."

"Then I should stay with you, as well." Tink told her floating onto her shoulder, "As I said, what would you do without me?"

"It's pretty amazing how close you and Tink ended up being." Peter pointed out, "She never seems to be close to any other girls."

"Probably because they end up being close to you." Philia answered, with Tink nodding in absolute agreement. Peter scratched his head at this comment, not sure what she meant by being close.

"Welp, we should head out." Goofy told Philia, who nodded. They had to pick up Sora and Donald from Agrabah. They said their farewells to Peter Pan, before taking off to teleport back to their ship again.

A while later, the team finally reunited with one another, discussing their battles they went through in both worlds, along with exchanging what they found. Philia and Goofy gave the two magic users the upgrades to their time magic, while Sora placed in the final Ansem Report into the computer, where they were able to read it together.

Opening the door to the world's heart causes its walls to crumble. These fragments are seen as shooting stars. This explains why these "gummi blocks" can travel freely to other worlds.

I know the catalyst of the collapse, the appearance of the Heartless. However, it will take time to search out the worlds' doors, and to retrieve each heart.

Furthermore, the doors can be locked using a Keyblade making the heart forever unattainable. I must take action before the wielder of this key appears in this world.

If the princesses and the Keyblade are connected, they should resonate.

I have chosen a girl. I don't know if she holds the princesses' powers, but I will find out. She may lead me to the key bearer.

I shall set her free and observe.

"So who is the girl they are referring to?" Tink asked.

"Based on everything from our journey, one person comes to mind." Philia assumed, looking to Sora, who knew what she meant.

"Kairi..." he muttered.

"So does that mean Ansem knew Kairi before?" Goofy asked.

"Based on everything, including the fact Kairi doesn't really know about where she's from before coming to the Destiny Islands, I feel like maybe that is the case." Sora answered, "So...if that's the case, where did Ansem come from?" The team paused on that, questioning more and more about Ansem himself.

Finally, Jiminy hopped up as he said, "Right now, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we now have everything we need to know about Ansem, as well as preparing ourselves for the final fight."

"That's right. We need to take him down, now!" Donald exclaimed.

"There are no more distractions in our path right now." Philia told Sora.

He looked to the empty space in front of them before giving a confident nod as he declared, "Time to take down Ansem, and save Riku."

"I'm placing in the coordinates." Philia told the team, getting into the driver's seat, and sending the Gummi Ship forward. The heroes all had serious expressions on their faces. This time, they were confident in their goal, and were ready to finish this once and for all. Ansem had to be stopped.

Next Time on Sword Art Kingdom: Heart's Origin:

Journey to the Center of the World!