DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Kingdom Hearts nor Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia characters, Square Enix, Nintendo, and Disney are the owners.
CHAPTER 17 – RETURN TO THE LIGHT!
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: This is gonna blow everybody's minds so get ready.
A/N:
I know it's been a long while since I last published the last chapter, there's been a lot of things I had to do, like playing videogames, watching movies or going out with my family, but we're here at last.
Also I forgot to mention that when Celica changed her costume to the Fire Emblem Heroes Gaiden one, she entered in Limit form, a trait similar to KH2 Sora's. And she is gonna keep doing that during the final battle.
/
Duma's Temple
After facing her doppelgänger, Celica and the others finally enter into a dangerous zone, a perfect setting for the final battle for Valentia and to make things right.
There, they encountered a now enraged Jedah. "No… No, this cannot happen! All because of this witch over there manage to break the Falchion's seal. Foul Mila! Duma is your brother! Would you truly betray your own kin?!"
"Stand down, Jedah! Your days of cruelty are numbered!" Liprica warned him to surrender his evil ways. "Cut it out already!"
"Your schemes end here and now. Prepare to pay for your atrocities!" Alm seconded as he pointed his sword towards the mage.
"Rudolf's worthless spawn…" Jedah cursed them in a menacing voice. "How dare you wish harm on Duma!"
"Open you eyes, Jedah. No matter how it pains you, you must see the truth." Celica tried to reason with him, but to no avail. "Duma's gone mad—he brings only suffering to his people now. This is the divine dragon's fate."
"Celica's right, my friend. Your actions did only more harm than good, if I understand well, Liprica suffered a lot because of what you did, and Celica and I almost suffered the same if not for her, this is why we are stopping you and Duma right here, right now!" Roxas stated his will to do whatever it takes to help them to win.
"Silence, fools!" Jedah spat angrily. "You know nothing of what you speak. And if suffering is the gods' will, what of it? Without their strength at its foundation, Valentia cannot sustain life."
"No. You're wrong." Alm denied his statement. "It's time for us all to stand on our own feet. To live as free men and women"
"Foolish boy. You truly believe such heresy to be possible?" Jedah spoke making fun of them.
"It IS possible!" Celica replied showing determination, just like everyone else. "We've come all this way to prove it!"
"We are not the ones whom you could underestimate!" Roxas agreed summoning his keyblades, putting himself in position to attack when ready.
"Presumptuous human children…" Jedah dared them. "Go on, then! Prove me wrong! Show me this strength to "stand alone." Show me the true limits of man!"
"Let's go team!" Alm cried out as they proceeded to charge through the temple and face hordes of monsters.
Then they began beating every single monster they saw in front of their eyes as to let Roxas, Celica, Liprica and Alm go ahead.
"Roxas, guys! Go get Duma! We'll take care of these bastards!" Saber said as he and the others held the monsters.
"Right! Let's go guys!" Roxas understood and indicated his team to go ahead.
They proceed to fight their way to where Duma was lurking, even thou they had to deal with many tough Faithfuls, nobodies and the heartless, but there was only one enemy remaining, a very pissed off Jedah standing on their way, he didn't look happy at all.
"You goddamn bastards! Do YOU realize of what have you done?!" he spat in a menacing voice, showing off the evil aura coming out from him. "You're gonna regret this, you fools! For defying Lord Duma!"
"Want to know what it's your problem? We think that you are so power greedy that you wish for Valentia to fall into the deep darkness, man." Alm pointed out his biggest flaws. "Seriously, Jedah. Get help."
"Shut up! You are the ones who are need a BIG help!" Jedah screamed in rage as he fired an electric wave at the party, who dodged it flawlessly.
[INFORMATION: Defeat Jedah!] [KINGDOM HEARTS III BGM: Eye of the Storm]
The team charged towards Jedah as they swiftly dodged the electric and clashed their respective weapons with the man's fists, who he countered them with a brutal wave sending them flying off.
Liprica fired a thunder spell on Jedah, who winced in pain as she charged and landed a slash on him.
"You've ruined millions of people's innocent lives with your lies! You sold my soul to Duma and Alm killed me because of you!" she snarled as she successfully dodged Jedah's eye tentacles. "This ends here! And it ends NOW!"
Liprica threw a Strike Raid to successfully destroy the tentacles and land another strike on Jedah, who was starting to rage.
He pointed his eyes on Alm and summoned another number of eye tentacles and this time they went stronger and fast enough to grasp him… to pull out his soul and sacrifice him to Duma.
"Alm!" Celica cried out and ran faster to flee him.
[INFORMATION: Hurry! Without your help, Alm is doomed!]
Celica hurried to aid Alm faster to hurry up as she saw Jedah drain his soul away, she had to act fast.
[REACTION COMMAND: Rescue *presses triangle button*]
Celica proceeded to cut the tentacles swiftly and grasped Jedah to throw him away few meters.
"Don't ever lay a finger on Alm again!" she cried out pointing her keyblade towards him.
"Are you okay?" Roxas aided the green-haired guy to stand up.
"Yes… I'm fine. I'm fine." Alm replied. "Celica… guys…"
"Come on… We have a big evil foe to defeat." Liprica said with determination.
Roxas, Alm, Celica and Liprica team-attacked Jedah in many ways using their respective attacks making sure he couldn't defend himself.
Liprica threw her Strike Raid against the newly emerged tentacles and her keyblade landed a blow on him from behind.
Jedah few to the ground after rolling few meters, and as expected from a tough boss, he stood up in anger, a real evil anger on his eyes, he wasn't done yet…
"Give it up, Jedah! You stand no chance!" Roxas asked him to stand down.
"Why Anthiese?! Why won't you embrace the powers of Duma?! You all know that Valentia's life cannot be sustained!" Jedah tried to manipulate them to stand down.
"You are deeply wrong." Celica refused to listen anymore bullcrap coming from his mouth. "There's always a way for life itself to sustain, neither Mila nor Duma's lives matter very much at this point…
"She's right." Liprica seconded glaring at him. "All of this happened because of your greed and atrocities you did in the past."
Jedah didn't want to listen anymore and then something huge happened…
"What the…?!" Alm was shocked upon seeing the faithful's actions…
"Did he just… bring here a huge black dragon?!" Celica seconded in the same emotion.
"Behold! The greatest creature of the universe! Lord Duma!" Jedah let out a huge and alarming statement.
Just then, Mae and everyone else arrived to witness this horrific scene. "What the hell?!" Boey spoke in shock like everyone else.
"What are you trying to do, you bastard?!" Fernand shouted in disbelief.
"You are psycho, man." Gray knew this went too far.
Suddenly… everything was turned into black… or more like, into abyss-like nothingness.
"What 'd just happen?!" Mae asked in confusion. "Where are we?!"
"I dunno. But I can tell something's wrong." Atlas acknowledged the grave danger they are going through.
"Yeah… that thing… Duma just became a heartless." Roxas noticed the well-known symbol at the dragon's forehead.
"He's a strong foe." Liprica
"Behold the endless abyss!" Jedah's voice was heard from above, only to be seen alongside the heartless Duma glaring at the party menacingly. "Try to struggle as much as you want… you'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light. From those dark depths are all hearts born. Even yours."
Suddenly… The heartless Duma transformed into a huge red-black monster, which reminded Roxas when he came to remember of Sora fighting Ansem the Seeker of Darkness for the first time near the kingdom hearts.
A sort of dejavu.
"Darkness conquers all worlds! Including Valentia!" Jedah screamed at the top of the lungs.
"Go fuck yourself!" Saber shouted back as he and everybody else fell down to the emptiness.
Suddenly, several portal of the darkness appeared scattered across the abyss sucking each and every one of the party, except for Celica.
"Celica!" Mae, Boey, Saber, Kamui, Leon and the others cried out as they were being sucked into that said portal.
"Everyone!" she cried out in fear as she kept falling down. "Why is this happening? I finally reunited with Alm… and the others… Mila… You gave me strength to overcome lots of adversities.
But then, she was able to stand up and not cry anymore… as she felt something sparkly surrounding her body and make her float up to where her biggest foe was.
"My friends are waiting for me." Celica said as she summoned her falchion keyblade with determination. "And I'll get them out of there with any means necessary!"
Celica flew towards Jedah and proceeded to slash him a couple of times while dodging some laser beams and cast thundaga across his face.
"You little…!" Jedah snarled as he was put to sleep for a few moments.
Celica then came up with a risky plan… pointing out at the portal to the darkness… and she went through it to enter into a dark area crawled with the heartless and a couple of terrors.
"You're not trapping me here…" she said as she launched a Strike Raid technique against the dark creatures across the room, defeating all of them in the process.
And then, a heartless symbol core appear in front of her and Celica proceeded to take it down and in a blink of an eye, she was back in front of Jedah and Duma.
"No one was there… but I'm sure Roxas, Alm and anyone could be in any other portal." Celica said as she went on to take down few spikes as well as being careful with the laser beams.
After doing so, another portal emerged from nowhere and like the last time, she entered it and…
"Celica!" it was Roxas's voice. "Over here!"
"Roxas!"
"I knew you'd come here!" Liprica also spoke surprising her.
"Liprica? Are you guys ok?!" Celica asked them in relief.
"Yes, but any help of yours would go fine." Roxas asked her to give them a hand.
"Okay! Let's do this!"
It was then when the three proceeded to beat down the monsters together, showing an excellent chemistry between them.
Just like the last time, the three exited the portal.
"I'm glad to see you guys alive…" Celica expressed joy of seeing them again.
"We too, but we'll have a happy reunion later. We have to rescue Alm and the others." Liprica replied with the same smile, before indicating everyone to focus on the mission.
The trio airstepped through the next portal and they saw Alm… struggling against the heartless in an almost losing effort before being eaten away by these dark creatures.
"Alm!" Celica exclaimed as she and company arrive in the scene.
"Celica! Guys! I'm glad you're here!" Alm thanked them as he slashed a couple of the heartless. "A little help would be fine!"
"We'll finish this quickly, let's go!" Roxas said as he summoned his double form to slay the rest of the heartless and terrors all together.
After destroying the core and clearing the area, the whole party went on separated ways of a team of two, which consisted of Roxas and Liprica, and the second team was Celica and Alm.
Both teams managed to snatch each and every single member of the two armies out of each portal of darkness, which with a doubt, was a very arduous task as they had to deal with a rather annoying horde of heartless, nobodies, unversed and terrors, but nonetheless, they still beat them all.
"Glad we are all together." Clyde was happy to be reunited with everyone, including his love of life.
"No wonder lady Celica and the others are tenacious." Python praised their actions that saved their lifes.
"I have grown to like them… I have no doubt that they have become powerful warriors." Saber acknowledged Roxas and the others' strength.
"Alright… We will put our trust on you, Celica, Roxas, Liprica, and Alm." Mae stated cheering the team. "Go take down that monster, and bring the peace back to Valentia!"
"Don't lose to that son of a bitch, or you're gonna be sorry." Saber also motivated them.
"Do it for Rinea… she didn't deserve what happened to her." Fernand gave them the greatest motivation for them to avoid such defeat.
"Thank you, guys." Alm understood the determination before facing the dragon heartless. "Are you ready for this, Roxas, girls?"
"We are." Liprica answered with determination. "Let's end this senseless nightmare once and for all!"
"Let's do this!" Roxas said as the team surged against the monster and prepared themselves to fight.
Celica and Liprica went to the blind spot and combined their thundaga spell and managed to stun Jedah and Duma together. Roxas and Alm didn't waste any time on beating them together.
"You're not to disrupt people's lives like that!" the keyblade wielder snarled as he continued to beat the monster down.
"It's over, Duma! Berkut, Mila… Even my father." Alm scolded him as well while remembering the people's tragedies. "They and countless others, lost to us—tainted by your precious power. But that chain of tragedies ends here."
Alm and Roxas successfully stunned the dragon Heartless, leaving it defenseless.
"My heart is full of thanks for you've given man. O divine Duma. Without yours and Mila's bounty, Valentia could never have existed. We would never have been born into this world. Never tasted joy and sorrow." Celica mourned acknowledging the positive consequences of their existence, before making one crucial choice preparing her keyblade and pointing it at the monster. "So please, do not suffer any longer. Let all of our pain end here. Allow your great and weary soul the rest it deserves!"
The Falchion triggered its powers to create a huge wave and shoot it to get through the monster's armor and deal mortal damage enough for the heartless dragon to crumble and fall apart…
"So be it, Celica…" It was Duma's voice that echoed through the place, looking at her but also at Alm, Liprica and Roxas as well. "I leave Valentia's future to you, her hero. Take from us what lessons you will and shape her into a land to remember… Make her strong like Duma, and fill her with Milla's love. Let our grave mistakes be warnings of where not to thread as you lead her forth. Now, we shall sleep. And never shall you disturb our slumber…"
These were the final words before the monster finally exploded in pieces, which probably would have killed everybody in there if not for Roxas's, Celica and Liprica's combined mega Reflega, which protected everyone from dying.
And the abyss zone was no more… everyone was back to the world in one piece.
"Are you all okay?" Roxas asked as he and everyone else were getting up.
"Yes, I'm fine… I'm fine." Celica answered feeling slightly tired but safe. "Looks like we succeeded."
"We saved Valentia… You did it, Anthiese." Liprica congratulated her as they both hugged each other. "You've grown up so much to become a warrior princess."
"I don't feel neither Jedah's nor Duma's presence." Roxas realized that there were any threats remaining. Realizing that he succeeded in saving the world and fulfilled his mission. "You did it, Celica, you saved the world, you're a really brave woman."
"Oh, thanks, Roxas… If it wasn't for you and the others… who knows if we'd have been able to survive and be here… alive and well." Celica blushed a little upon hearing his praise.
"Anyways, how about we tell the others?" Alm suggested the whole party.
"Right!" everybody agreed to do so.
And then, they proceed to everyone, who seemed happy that the senseless hostilities were over, because after all it was a unified Valentia.
/
SOMEWHERE IN PLAINS OF VALENTIA… Avistym 402 V.C
Roxas was wandering around the plains of Valentia to take his break from the battles he had endured during Celica's journey, he finally deserved his break time to lie down the grass when…
"Hey, Roxas." Liprica appeared aside of him to make his company. "Enjoying the nature?"
"Yes, how about you? Looks like you wanted to take a break time." Roxas said with a warm smile.
"Indeed, we went through many battles and hardships that we do deserve a rest time." Liprica remembered their battles and all before deciding to reveal her past. "Well, I guess it's time for me to tell you my past."
"Your past… I was wondering how you came here to aid us and all." Roxas accepted his suggestion.
"Well, all of this began the same way as Anthiese began her journey, like her, I wanted to stop this senseless war but… all I did was to make poor choices and because of my stupidity, fear took the best of me and I ended up being a Duma witch and Alm… killed me." Liprica proceeded to tell her tragic past with a sadness in her face, something that she didn't want to remember. "It was the only for me to end my suffering… but everything came with a high price… By the time I had died, or that's what thought, I was trapped in the sky but I could walk like I was touching an invisible floor. Then I encountered a creature who was not a threat for me but friendly."
"Could you tell me who your friend was?" Roxas asked her, curious.
"Her name was Chirithy… She explained to me that it was true that I had perished, but something prevent me from dying. And then she had me collect every piece of myself which contained memories of the people I love, Genny, Mae, Boey, Conrad, everyone including Alm. "
"I guess that you really strong sense of purpose, you couldn't just give up and all." Roxas comprehended her words.
"You are a real observer, Roxas… Chirithy asked me to use the power of awakening to go back in Valentia, even thou she told me that I had only one shot on this and not to screw up. Before I stood up, I saw a kind of luggage which contained these clothes you see here, this helped me blend through Valentia without being seen. I was supposed to fix this big mess… but your sole presence made things easier."
"You have been through a lot of hardships to stop this war, but fate can play sometimes in our favor, Sora brought me back to life using his keyblade powers when we were all fighting against Master Xehanort and his henchmen." Roxas told her the way he came back to life.
This made Liprica surprised, it was the first time she heard Sora's name, and she was somewhat curious.
"Do you mind if you tell me about Sora?" Liprica asked him.
"Sure." Roxas proceeded to tell his tales.
END OF CHAPTER 17
A/N:
THIS IS IT! WE HAVE REACHED THE END OF THE SHADOWS OF VALENTIA KH STORY, BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES, THERES A LITTLE MORE! WE ARE YET TO SEE ALM X CELICA ENDING SCENE AND… A SECRET SCENE WILL HAPPEN AFTER THE EPILOGUE SO PREPARE POPCORN AND SODA ANE ENJOY THE MOVIE SCENE.
ANYWAY PEACE OUT, AND SORRY FOR THE LONG HIATUS BECAUSE THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW AND I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO WRITE, BUT HERE IT IS.
SEE YOU IN THE EPILOGUE, FELLAS!