Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 50
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Nearing Gralea*
Entering the tunnel leading into the capital of the empire, where some of the party of eight gathered up into the dining cars, prepping and checking their supplies while making plans.
Aqua and Noctis had gone to the freight cart that carried Wayfinder II and the Regalia, prepping them for the drive while Donald and Goofy were still in the conductor's cart.
'It shan't be much longer now, until we arrive', Ignis speaks softly, looking at the map of the city on the table. No longer wearing the black shades to hide is scarred eyes, going back to his originals. Lunafreya helping him since she had been taking to the capital numerous times in the past, guiding the man. 'Soon enough', she concurs, 'but where before our biggest concerns were the imperial prowess of the empire's army, now we face the darkness itself'.
'Heartless, daemons, nobodies, the MTs, Ardyn, and Xigbar…and that's just the start', Riku sighed, sitting down on a stool by the bar after he checked his inventory. He glanced at Lunafreya. 'How bad do you think it's gotten since the Eternal Night started?'. The woman clasped her hands on the table, looking outside at the window to see the dim lighting of the tunnel. Truly she had presumed the empire had fallen within the first week of the darkness with so much of it already dominating the land.
Nearly a month into this ever-lasting night, however, she turned to Riku. 'It could be the dark realm by now, were it not for Ardyn and Xigbar keeping it at bay for their benefit', she says. Riku grimaced with a small hitch of his breath, recalling that world. Gladiolus sitting near him with arms crossed and head down in thought, then he raised his head to address the party. 'What's the first thing we need to do once we get there?'.
'First, we make for the Keep, Zegnautus', Ignis answers, pointing to the keep on the map, 'A imperial mega fortress that is said to be impregnable'. Gladiolus raised a brow at him, surprised that their first trek would be to fight their way into a place that claimed to be undefeatable. 'Seriously? That's our first thing to do?', Gladiolus questioned. Lunafreya faced him with determination and said: 'That is where our friends will likely be kept. What better a place to keep some of the King's strongest allies?'.
Riku nodded to that claim. 'Then we'll just fight our way through them all…we've done so before', he claimed. 'But I'm kinda wondering about the crystal'. The three looked at him. 'I know that after Ardyn slew Bahamut, the ring of the Lucii and everything else died, but does that apply to the crystal too?'. 'Certainly', Lunafreya answered with a weary tone, 'It was a gift from the Astrals, and without their presence, the crystal is nothing more than stone'.
'Meaning without its power, we cannot use it to restore the light of this world and purge the Eternal Night', Ignis finished. Riku hummed in thought, looking up at the ceiling in thought. His mind swirled with questions about their plans to help restore the light to the world since even if they stop Ardyn and put an end to whatever scheme Xigbar conjured up, that will not bring the light back. Unlike so many other worlds that had their light unchallenged by the single threat's minor goals, this world had lost so much of its light.
Without Lunafreya's Oracle powers to help keep the light going, even a princess of light alone wouldn't be strong enough to restore the light. At least as far as he was concerned, not without a terrible price to be paid. He grunted as he unfolds his arms, shaking his head and decided to push those thoughts aside for the time being. For now, his biggest priority would be rescuing the others first and foremost.
Then slowly the train began to halt in its drive, making everyone raise their heads at the sound of the brakes. A sense of dread begins to wash over them when the former Oracle pointed out they were nowhere near the train station by another ten minutes. 'I think we've been stopped in our tracks…', Ignis said slowly, trying to get a sense of whatever was attempting to halt the party. Although many of them had a strong guess of what it is. Riku turns to Gladiolus. 'Think you should go tell Aqua we're being held back', he said lowly.
The shield nods and gestured to Lunafreya with a nod. The blond woman nods in agreement as Ignis and Riku headed for the conductor's cart. Keyblade and daggers in hand, they walk a few steps into the resting cart of the train. No sooner had they got halfway through the cart, a loud crashing sound rumbled and shook the train, the glass wall on their left cracked almost instantly and decorated the wall with spiderweb-like cracks. Ignis nearly loses his footing as Riku slammed into the wall on his right with a grunt.
'What was that?', he asked, turning to his friend. Ignis doesn't turn to the direction of the force, instead, his lips tightened to a thin line with brows narrowed. 'Daemons…many of them', he says. They get to their feet just as Donald and Goofy run out of the conductor's room, weapons in their hands. 'Fellas! We gotta go!', warned the driver, 'The tunnel is full of daemons!'. Another attack on the glass wall caught their attention, goblins striking it while some clung to it. 'Riku…there's too many', Ignis says.
The silver head looked to his friend as he dismissed one dagger. 'We need to abandon the train', he suggested. Ordinarily, Riku would have argued they should fight them off, but in a strange development to Ignis' regaining his sight, the man had also developed a unique gift to be able to sense numerous numbers of creatures of the darkness. Much like how his vision had improved even greater than before, he could sense anyone of darkness like a radar.
And if he says there's too many for them to handle, the master knew better to argue with him. Riku nods and pushes Donald and Goofy behind him just as daemons broke through the glass. 'Alright, go!', he shouted. A goblin leaps at him, only for Ignis' dark dagger strike the skull of the beast and pinned it against the door of the conductor cart. Quickly as more and more daemons begin to pile into the cart hallway, the two users of the darkness ran from the monsters.
As the two raced through the carts, more and more daemons find their way into the train, slowly occupying the vehicle. Riku struck down a goblin that tried to go for his face as Ignis waited for him by the door of the cart, a fire flask in hand. The moment Riku got through, he throws the flask into the cart and slammed the door shut behind them and ran. The explosion shook the carts and nearly made the trip in their run.
Ignis helped Riku stabilize himself and pushed him forward. 'Having fun with making your flasks?', Riku asked as they ran. 'There is a satisfaction one gains from the fruits of their own labor', Ignis remarks as they race into the next cart. 'Explosive results?', teased the boy. 'One could say that…though I wished I weren't restricted to just fire'. 'One thing at a time buddy…'. Together they reached the freight cart, seeing Noctis in the Regalia just as Aqua opened the hatch.
They nodded to the other and headed for their respective vehicles.
With Noctis in the driver's seat and his royal party and fiancé in his, Ignis quickly threw his phone on speaker to stay in contact with Riku. As they rolled out of the freight, an alarm went off as well as an announcement.
'Threat upgraded. Activating level 4 security measures. Sealing all gates'.
'They're trying to trap us in the tunnel!', Noctis shouts as the cars sped off. 'Then put the pedal to the metal and floor it!', Gladiolus ordered. They sped off through the tunnel, littered with burning trains with barrels and other debris in the way. Chasing the party were neo-shadows and goblins that crawled on the walls and ceilings of the tunnel while the heartless traversed in the ground. A shadow slithered onto the roof of Aqua's car.
It plunged its claw through the roof of the car, electing a yell of surprise from the four other world party members. The claw retracts and tried two-strike again blindly, the black claw piercing the metal and nearly stabbing into Aqua's shoulder. 'Donald, get that heartless off my car!', Aqua yelled, making a sharp turn to avoid crashing into an abandoned burning train. Donald summoned his staff and aimed it upwards to the roof, firing a shockwave that went through the roof and threw the heartless off.
More shadows leaped onto the car, all stabbing into it rapidly while Donald blasts them with magic to either throw them off the car or destroy them entirely. Aqua turns and swerves her car to avoid the junk on the road while keeping her eyes on the Regalia before they heard a loud groan of metal overhead. Slowly the roof of the car was pried opened like open the lid of a can and threw it into the tunnel. Shadows looming over them but before they could strike them, Riku and Goofy shot up and smacked and slashed them into nothing.
'How far is that gate!?', Riku yelled as he swings his keyblade at them.
Ahead of them, Gladiolus turned in the back of the car to see the others. He swore and reeled back to Noctis. 'They're getting their ride torn apart out there!', he warned. Noctis curses in response as he ran over a shadow. 'Luna, any idea how much more there's left in the tunnel!?', he asked over the wild drive. The woman holds onto the handle of the car above her with a grunt. 'We're almost there, but we still have the gate to get through!'.
'Terrific…', grunted the king.
'UP AHEAD!', Gladiolus yelled. Before them was the entrance to the tunnel slowly getting smaller, and any further delays could spell the end for the party. Noctis slammed his foot into the pedal and the Regalia speeds up as the engines roared to life. Bursting with speed, the car zoomed past the gate and as the good fortune of the king graces his subjects, Aqua's vehicle was not far behind her liege.
On the highway to the keep, the party of eight only gasped in utter horror of how far the city had fallen. Buildings were pouring out the shadow heartless, iron giants prowling the streets of the capital with the skies dark with red magical energies as well as small vortexes in the sickly grey clouds above the empire. Violet lightning sparking here and there in the clouds, gargoyles patrolling in the skies with heartless and nobodies alike.
'This…is Gralea…', Gladiolus grunts out. 'By the gods…it…the darkness…', Lunafreya gasped, placing a hand on her heart. 'Iggy…just how many of them are there?', Noctis asked. 'Enough to populate all of Eos, Noct', his advisor states firmly. Before the king could say more, he lets out a yell as he swerves the car to the left, just dodging what seemed like a missile. Behind them, he sees in the rear-view mirror Aqua narrowly avoiding turning her car into a microwave.
'What was that!?', Ignis asked. 'The empire's trying to shoot us off the road!', Noctis answered, speeding up, 'But that's not gonna stop us!'.
Driving on the rails of the train, dodging both the discarded locomotives and debris on the field, the two vehicles kept dodging and evading the lasers as best as they could. Tragically the Regalia may not have been hit dead on, but the shockwaves and point-blank explosions of the blasts harmed it, shaking it enough that Noctis had to steady his grip to not accidentally drive them off the railway. Aqua's car fared no better with the blasts, only thanks to Donald's magic erects small shields to keep them safe kept them moving.
'Those cannons could tear this car apart…', Gladiolus growled as he gripped the back of the seat occupied by Ignis. 'It's going to take more than missiles to stop his majesty's mighty stead!', Ignis said confidently. 'No one knows her better than you, Ig!', Noctis stated, 'Aqua, how are you guys holding up?'.
'I'm putting my extremely limited driving skills to the test!', Aqua replied with a mixture of panic and focus in her tone, 'Fastest time I've ever gone on this thing was a hundred miles!'. A yell of surprise catches the king for a moment as he saw the Wayfinder II just moving from the landing point of a rocket, the explosion hitting the rear end of course. She re-directed the car straight after she bashed into one of the locomotives abandoned, the front bender dent and bent with the register plate falling off and one of the lights cracked open.
'Aqua!', Noctis yelled into the phone.
'We're all right, she can take the punishment! Just keep moving!', Aqua argued.
The missiles became more frequent, blasting the roads blindly and desperately, nearly hitting the cars dead-on as they reached the gate slowly closing and become almost too narrow for either car. Noctis stomped onto the pedal with all his might as he yelled: 'Hold on!'. Blasting ahead of Aqua as the missiles pelted the ground, the windows of the Regalia cracked and some even broke with steam and smoke slithering from the vehicle itself.
The mighty stead of the king pulled through…
Just as the gates closed on the rear end of the Regalia, the king slammed his foot onto the brakes, loud squealing that pierced their ears and the stench of burning rubber assaulted their noses before with a sharp turn in a desperate attempt to slow down, the Regalia slammed against two crashed locomotives by the side of it with a loud crash. The party bumped into the doors of the car just as more of the windows shattered to pieces and the windscreen broke apart.
Groans from the group with heavy breaths of relief and pants from the surge of adrenaline rushing through their veins, but then Gladiolus looked behind to see the gate had closed with Aqua's car nowhere in sight. 'No…', he gasped. They all quickly got out of the Regalia in a panic, and as soon as they took two steps from the vehicle, an explosion was heard from the other side of the closed gate with more rockets hitting the entrance.
Noctis ran to the Regalia and picked up the phone, screaming into it. 'AQUA!? AQUA!? RIKU!? ANYBODY!?', he demanded. No response, only the dial tone, and silence as the king looked to the gate in dismay while his companions looked on in silence. He looked to Gladiolus, head downcast as his fists clenched tightly and shoulders shook. 'Gladio…', the king started.
'Hey, guys!'.
They all looked to see the four of them jogging up to them, no worse for wear. Riku waved good-naturedly before smirking. 'Sorry about the scare, Aqua's phone fell of that dashboard thing, didn't have time to pick up', he explained. Aqua turned to Gladiolus, seeing his fists unclenched and relax, raising a brow at him. 'What?', she asked as he approached her. Next thing she knew, he enveloped her into a tight hug and held her close to him.
Caught off guard by this sudden but certainly not unwanted display, she hugged him back. 'Don't you scare me like that again, you got it?', he growled into her ear, making her shiver. Aqua smiles warmly as she faced him. 'It'll take more than that for you be rid of me, thank you very much', she said playfully and pecked his cheek. 'How did you all survive that? The gates were closed', Lunafreya questioned, gesturing behind them.
'We jumped, that's how', Riku explained with a shrug, 'When we got close enough we grabbed Donald and Goofy and then jumped over it'.
Noctis rolled his eyes with a sigh, figured a closing gate while on railway being shot with rockets wouldn't do them in. His eyes fall onto the Regalia however, steam hissing from the engine along with the poor thing looked like it was indeed put through hell, and likely will never run again. He placed a hand on her, mentally thanking this stead for all the years she gave toward his father and him and taking him this far. Closing his eyes and thanking it one more time, he reinforced his promise to his father and his companions.
He turned onto the road ahead of them, no turning back now he reminded himself as the others joined his side. 'So we're gonna be marching into the capital like this?', Gladiolus asked, looking around at all the darkness surrounding them. 'Diving headfirst into a den full of monsters along with our enemies lying wait? Seems like it', Ignis rebukes. 'But we best move fast before the daemons find us first'.
Ahead of them is the entrance to the capital with unfortunately a locomotive that must have flown over its rails looming over the pathway. They see it slowly, almost tauntingly, move up and down like it was on a ledge and just a sneeze away from falling. Noctis went first with Donald and Goofy trailing behind him. Just Lunafreya followed him, she was yanked back roughly by Gladiolus just in time as the train finally gives away and falls.
Blocked off from Noctis and the others, Ignis called out to his king before Riku yells out: 'Look out!'.
A single demon tower shoots up from the streets and begins to wrap around the railway as dozens of heartless begin to swarm and populate the bridge. The warriors drew their weapons and gathered into a circle, facing down the horde of monsters. On the other side, Noctis and his companions were cornered by several high soldiers, goblins and heartless wyverns. Demon towers sprouting up from the streets like geysers of water, trapping the heroes.
'You've gotta be kidding me…', Donald grumbled, looking at all the monsters.
On the other side of the train, a demon tower swoops down towards the heroes, moving fast enough that they had no time to properly dodge or defend themselves other than haphazardly leap to the ground and avoid it. Aqua was not so fortunate as when she fell to the ground, her ankle was grabbed by a shadow and she was pulled along into the tower with a yell. She tried to cut the hand that grabbed her but more clawed at her body and pulled her into their tower.
Below, Gladiolus sees her being swallowed by the darkness. The shield of the king looked at the pillar of the tower on the streets and after making doubly sure it was the same, he nodded. He turned to Ignis. 'Look after Luna for me, I'm going for Aqua!', he yelled. Ignis gave him a look of bafflement, and before he could question what made the man think he could do so, the shield runs to the railing and leaped off it. Summoning his masamune blade he plunged it into the tower all the way through, using it to help stay attached to it.
In the air went the tower with Gladiolus as a tag-along, flying away into the capital with only Ignis crying out his name. When they were out of sight, Ignis grunts and turned to Lunafreya and Riku, staring down the opposition as they stepped back. Looking around quickly for another way out, Ignis finds one train's door was still opened and like the others, its other half had fallen onto catwalk leading into the keep. 'Riku!', he yelled. The silver head turns to him just as Ignis stabbed a goblin in the stomach and kicked another aside. 'We're outnumbered and heavily short on numbers, we need to go!', he instructed.
He gestured their exit route, guiding the eyes of the master to his idea. Riku looked back to the monsters and the train, thinking of Noctis before he shouts: 'Noct! We're gonna find our way to you guys! Just go!'. Riku fired a barrage of dark fire at the horde as Ignis guided Lunafreya to their escape, and once they were in the train, Riku followed suit…
Back over to Noctis' group, the king crushes a high soldier with the Sword of the Tall, warps into the air while using the Bow of the Clever to fire down arrows of light at the wyverns. Below him Goofy uppercuts a soldier into the air and spins around to smack his shield into another, throwing it into the fallen train and destroying it. He then throws his shield at the wyvern and slices off a wing, causing it to crash and die. His shield flew and during a flip, Noctis caught it and throws it back down to the ground.
The shield decapitates a goblins head just as Donald smacked it aside with his staff and then blasts two more behind it with water. The water engulfs the goblins and crushes them within the bubble, then exploding sent bullets of water striking several more goblins and heartless near the duck.
Donald pulls the shield out of the ground and chucks it to Goofy, who caught it and blocked a wyvern's talons. The beast received a blade into its back from the king, stepped on and used the corpse of the heartless to jump into the air and summoned Katana of the Warrior. He performed a quick draw like motion, before wildly swinging the sword in high-speed that sliced the wyverns in the air and when he fell back to the ground, the moment he dismissed his ancestor's weapon the heartless above splits and disappears.
As the demon towers start to swarm them, the trio were surrounded by goblins and heartless alike despite the amount they slew. Keyblade summoned into his hand, Noctis grunts, frustrated by this. 'We can't keep fighting them all…', he muttered to himself, looking around for an exit strategy. 'Fellas, this way!', Goofy shouts. The captain runs forward with his shield in front, battering and knocking aside the monsters as he runs into the train compartment. 'C'mon!', Donald shouts, grabbing Noctis' arm and dragging him with the duck.
Together with Goofy smacking aside their enemies along with Donald blasting them magic and the king cutting a way for them, they reach a platform and climbed a flight of stairs before running into the building with a horde of monsters on their tails. Before they could enter the building, Noctis and Goofy slammed the door shut on their faces with a heavy clang. Move behind Donald, the duck fired a ray of ice from his staff that upon hitting the door, froze it until there was nothing but a frozen blockage before them.
They finally allow themselves to breathe and pant together, the king looking around to see the whole place was abandoned. The silence was so deafening it was as if instead of the capital of his nation's enemy, he was treading through an abandoned kingdom long untouched by human hands. The wind was non-existent here, all he could feel was the coldness of the daemon and blight with the suffocation of the heartless.
He placed a hand on his heart, frowning with worry over his friends. Alone with just Donald and Goofy, for the first time without any backup. Goofy must have sensed something perturbed the king because he placed a hand on his back. 'Are you ok, Noct?', asked the captain. Noctis shook his head as Donald turned to face him. 'Can't say I am…', he huffs.
'We're on our own, chances of any using our phones are a no go, and we're in the darkest place in the world right now', listed the king. Not since he lost his weapons, had Noctis feel so unprepared and vulnerable. Then as his doubts grow, he felt a pat on his leg. Donald faced him. 'We know, that's why we gotta keep moving and find the others as soon as we can!', he lectured. Goofy nods. 'He's right, Noct! Our friends are probably fighting their way through this scary place too, and they're gonna need our help!'.
Noctis glanced at the two, both giving him brave smiles and nary a trace of doubt were to be found in their eyes. Is this how Sora was able to get through all his trials before coming here, he wondered. Having these two constantly cheer him up, push him on no matter how dire the situation had become for them, and feel like whatever came his way with them by his side he could topple even the greatest of threats. Turning to the path ahead of them, knowing his, no, their friends were fighting their way to reunite their lost friends.
A king does not turn back, he moves forward regardless of the consequences. A king does not forsake his subjects.
He nodded to them with a smile, summoning Night's Sky. 'Then will you join me in this rescue?', he asked. They summoned their weapons and saluted him by placing hands over their chests and bowed. 'Of course, your majesty!', they said together. The smile of the king widened, and together as more of the heartless begin to swarm, he nods.
'Then let's go!', he declared, rushing into the fray…
*Elsewhere*
Grabbing the head of a shadow to hold himself onto the tower as it soars through the skies, Gladiolus gritted his teeth to keep himself from falling off the tower, even stomping his boots into the shadow tower. He was nearing the point where Aqua was absorbed into, just a few more steps away from her and making this trek was no easy task.
The tower had tried to shake him off by swerving left and right, doing loops and all sorts of crazy formations to throw him off, but he held on by grabbing the tower or using his sword to keep himself steady. Sometimes he even jumped towards the tower when it does do its strange flying formations, and while times he did fall lower on the bending tower, climbing up wasn't an issue for him. All he did to keep himself from not giving up was focusing on the goal.
Gladiolus sees the tower was looping around a radio station tower near the keep, going around and around it like a snake coiling around its victim. This was a chance he couldn't pass up, He summons the masamune sword and waits for that moment the tower would coil over his head, feet firmly planted in the tower's form, he grabbed the blade with both hands. Timing is everything as the tower flew over his head.
With a cry and using all his strength, Gladiolus swung the legendary weapon and cleaves through the tower of heartless with force even he didn't know he possessed. The heartless were decimated from his attack, some flying off the tower while the lesser fortunate ones were almost instantly torn apart from his attack. The tower was split as the top began to fall apart like an old withered pillar of stone falling to pieces, many shadows falling out of it.
He saw Aqua's body amidst the shadows and dismissed his weapon. 'AQUA!', he roars. The woman's eyes turned to him, reaching for him. He grabbed her hand with both of his and practically rips her out of the tower. Doing so frees the master, but thanks to the decapitation of the top, the tower begins to fall apart beneath his feet. Soon there is nothing to hold them up and down the two warriors of light went with yells.
Aqua summons her keyblade though and aimed it below them, crying out: 'Glacier!'. The master of the keyblade fired a large ray of blue ice that formed instantly in the air in the shape of a slope. The two slide on it and begin to slide down the ice as Aqua creates a slide for them to traverse the air while Gladiolus tumbles and curses at each bump and tumble he endured. The woman sees a large glass windscreen that would lead them into the keep and directs the slide towards it.
'Gladio, get ready!', she yells. She creates a ramp using the ice and when they were in the air, she aimed her hand at the glass and used force magic to obliterate the glass into nothing. They flew through the windowless wall and fell onto the floor of the keep. Bouncing and tumbling before coming to a stop after three more rolls. Groaning in pain together, Aqua pushed herself onto her elbows as Gladiolus sits up, rubbing his head.
He looks at her, approaches and checked her anything. 'You ok?', he asks, heaving a breath when he sees nothing tracing the heartless was on her. 'I'm…I'm fine, just a little shaken up', she answered, shuddering from the darkness she endured in the tower. When they got to their feet, they looked around to see they were, and likely not anywhere near where Sora would have been kept. It appeared to have been a storage room of sorts with several wooden crates, cardboard boxes, moving vehicles and a few monitors here and there.
A set of stairs for the two to use and escape with just nearby, there was a second level with catwalks above them with more machines with screens on them.
'Must be below the keep…', Gladiolus hummed, looking around while Aqua rolled her shoulder. 'So to get to the top, we must work our way from the bottom', she remarks with a click of her tongue. The shield smirked at her. 'Couldn't have aimed a little higher for us?', he teases. The blue head rolled her eyes with a scoff. 'Any higher and we'd be kissing the building', she stated confidently. The shield chuckled in agreement, before patting her shoulder. 'C'mon, we better go catch up to the others'.
Just when he made a step to the stairs, a barrier erects in front of it, walling them off. Instantly, the two drew their weapons. Slowly the entire room was being filled with heartless, just heartless of all sorts. From purebloods to emblems, new and old ones that Sora likely had fought before, scaling the walls, occupying the catwalks and bathing the entire room they were in with darkness. Back to back, the master and the shield held their weapons out as they took in the amount of monsters that cornered them.
'This could be bad…', Aqua says, sweating slightly with the amount. 'Can't disagree with you there, Blue', agreed Gladiolus, eyeing them all. 'Ok then, you take the…hundred on the left, and I'll take the hundred on the right', he says.
Aqua scoffs playfully. 'Are you mocking me? I'll take on a hundred and one!', she boasted. 'That's the spirit', Gladiolus sighs. Together they split apart and ran to the heartless.
*Meanwhile*
Peering from a corner of the wall, Riku gazes down the empty corridor. He grunts and gestures the two behind him to follow closely, keyblade out as Lunafreya trails behind him whilst Ignis takes the rear guard.
Passing by a closed gate, the moment Lunafreya was near, she was grabbed by an MT and pulled to the gate with a scream of surprise. Quick as he is, Ignis instantly plunged the dagger into the skull of the man-made machine, killing it and yanking her grace out of its metal claws for hands. Behind her guardian, the woman placed a hand on her heart, panting with adrenaline racing through her veins as the machine falls back, dead.
Riku checked her for any wounds, only when she nodded and clams her breathing did he relax. The two guardians stared at the machine with disdain. 'I hate those things…', Riku grunted out. Lunafreya frowned in concern however when she looked at the mechanical soldier, studying its body before she grasped her trident. 'There is something wrong with them…', she whispers, 'I can sense the darkness of the blight oozing from it'.
'Is it possible the darkness from the heartless quickened the infection of the blight?', Ignis asks, looking to her grace. She nodded hesitantly. 'It is possible…with this place being infested by so much darkness', she theorized. Even as they narrowly evade the heartless and daemons, the princess of light had never felt so disturbed be within the imperial lands, not even in the company of the emperor or his generals had made her feel this level of skin-crawling.
For every deeper they went into this place of hell she feels the darkness seeping through every crevice, whispers of the shadows dooming her ears and the stench of the vile creatures of the blight. Her heart wanes at times from all this exposure, only thanks to Riku and Ignis' darkness that absorbed it or repels the miasma did she manage to reframe from having her heart explode. She did not wish to even fathom how Kairi must be faring in this place as a prisoner.
Thanks to Riku's use of the darkness within his heart, he manages to camouflage their scent from daemons and the heartless alike so they could traverse through the empty metallic corridors. With the party split into three groups on the enemy stronghold, the last thing they needed was to bring down an entire keep's worth of enemies on their backs. Lunafreya's memory of this place were vague and fleeting, leaving to blindly stumble into this place.
Fortune smiled on them after they entered what looked like a security room. Empty like everywhere else in the keep but the power was still running, several computers and monitors functioning in perfect condition. Locking the doors behind them (Lunafreya having more knowledge of how they worked), they approached the plethora of screens before them showing several spots of the keep. 'This must have been where the eyes of security worked', Ignis suggested, 'Perhaps we can locate Sora and the others using them'.
Riku placed himself on a chair and looked at the switches and buttons, before frowning with confusion. 'Don't suppose…you know how to work them, Luna?', the master asks sheepishly. 'I'm sorry to say technology was never included in my education', the woman says with some weak playfulness as she looked at the switches and buttons. There were too many switches and buttons to push, for all she knew the woman could press a button that would self-destruct the entire keep.
Riku cautiously presses a few switches here and there while Ignis watched the monitors changing to show off more of the keep they hadn't seen yet. Many locations yet none showing what they sought other than heartless engulfing an entire room, daemons prowling the area or MT patrolling the empty halls like undead with their broken and dislodged limbs hanging by threads of circuits and wires. The former blind man crossed his arms, wondering if the emperor himself had survived this newest change to his empire.
'Riku, look!', Lunafreya stated, pointing to a screen. The two looked and see Noctis and his party fighting by an elevator, slaying heartless and daemons alike. 'Least those three made it in…', Riku said as he went through the other cameras, hoping to find the others. As he changed seven screens, Ignis sees Prompto at long last.
Bound into what looked to be a torture device, hanging up with his arms bound and head downcast, the princess of light lets a gasp escape her before clasping her mouth in horror while Riku and Ignis stare in horror at the sight of the boy. Until Riku grits his teeth in fury, thoughts already racing to Kairi and Sora. 'W-Where is he?', her grace asked with a shake in her tone. 'It would appear he's nearby the throne room of the emperor…', Ignis reveals, gesturing to the camera numbers on the lower half of the screen.
The numbers labeling the cameras clued him in as Prompto's was labeled "763" while the throne room was "758", meaning the blond was not too far from the others. 'But where are they keeping Sora and Kairi?', the advisor asked the question burning in their heads, 'I don't see Kairi nearby'. Riku quickly tried to go through the other cameras to find the others, frantically going through them as fast as he could blindly.
Just as he did, the doors on their right opened, and upon looking, their eyes hardened. Entering the security room, Terra strode forward towards the trio.
Riku got to his feet as Ignis placed himself in front of Lunafreya, daggers in hand as Riku glowered at the vessel of Xehanort just as the enemy before them summoned Dark Gnaw once more. With a cruel smile, he aimed his dark weapon at them. 'Well, well…look at what I have here…a master, the former Oracle and advisor to the king', he gloats as his golden eyes gleamed with malice. He sees the monitor showing Prompto, and chuckled.
'That boy's still alive? Thought he would've been reduced to a corpse by now…', he mocks. Riku and Ignis glared at this mockery of Aqua's oldest friend, resisting the impulse to charge headfirst at the man. The older man of the two however stared at the royal arm strapped to Terra's hip, looking at the man before them and subtly glancing at Riku and his lady. Curling his fingers tightly around the handle of his daggers, Ignis nods to himself.
Fast as lighting, Ignis chucks one dagger at Terra like a dart, the dagger soaring towards the man of the darkness. However, Terra merely deflected the blade with a simple swing of the keyblade, in doing so he exposed himself to Ignis.
The man dashed faster then even Terra had expected, dagger in the other hand and plunged it into his unarmoured shoulder. Terra roared in pain before Ignis knees him in his stomach and kicked the wind out of his lungs, then he grabbed the royal arm and rips it off the strap. 'Riku!', the man yelled as he throws the arm to the boy.
Riku caught the weapon overhead just as Ignis pushes Terra backward and kicked him onto his back. 'Go! Take Luna and find Noct!', he ordered, 'I'll buy you time!'. Riku looked at the man, then to Terra and the weapon in his hand, and reluctantly he nods. 'Ok, just be careful!', Riku instructs, grabbing Lunafreya's hand and dashing out of the room with her. Terra sees the boy attempting to flee with the princess, aimed his hand at the two but Ignis kicked him in the face to stop him.
Once Riku and Lunafreya escaped the room, Ignis backflipped away from Terra's enraged swinging keyblade and stands in front of the screens, daggers respawned back in his hands. On his feet whilst spitting out some blood from his lips, Terra glowers at the advisor as Ignis crossed his arms over each other and readied himself. Slowly his body emits a dark aura, not like Terra's but more akin to his time using the ring so long ago.
'I do believe, I owe you for what you have done to my friends', Ignis said, his voice controlled and steady. Terra smirked at him, 'Oh, you mean that shield of the king? And breaking poor Aqua's spirit?', he mocks. Next thing he knew, a sharp stinging sensation struck his cheek and then a warm liquid runs down it, making him touch it and look surprised he didn't even see Ignis strike yet.
Pushing his glasses upward, Ignis's violet eyes narrowed darkly as his daggers were now encased with black and grey flames as opposed to the darkness' violet colors. '…yes. And for every moment they were in despair…', Ignis promises as his eyes glowed with violet, 'I'm going to break a bone of yours to compensate their agonies…'.
Terra growls, before letting out a roar and darkness exploding around him, surrounding his body in violet flames. The force of his roar short-circuited the computers and screens, some shutting off while some just exploded behind Ignis, the machines being thrown aside by Terra and more. Undeterred, Ignis held his ground as Terra's display of raw power subsides and his glare returned to the man. Terra rushes towards Ignis as the man, daggers blazing, charges towards him.
Unaware on a screen of a computer, a warning alert flashing red behind him, warning of an unidentified vessel was fast approaching…
*Noctis' party*
Reaching the throne room after several hours of fighting heartless, daemons and MTs, Noctis, Donald and Goofy reached the very top of the keep where the emperor was supposedly waiting. Yet despite the numerous amount of adversaries that stood in their way, the trio slew them all and remained steadfast in their quest. Flipping a switch to elevate them to climb even higher up, they were swarmed by more MTs, allowing them to at least have a way to kill time while they go up.
Slicing an MT in half from the waist with Night's Sky in his right hand while plunging the engine sword into another using his left, Noctis hacks his way through the metal soldiers, crying out with each strike as Goofy punched a soldier with his shield and Donald shocking them with bolts of lightning. The trio were slowly getting swarmed by the MTs as they got higher and higher to the top floor, soon enough the entire ring of the elevator was overpopulated by the soldiers of the empire.
Noctis swings both blades to cleave three soldiers into scrap metal, dismissing both swords in favor of Blade of the Mystic and began to wildly swing at the soldiers. He tears them apart, spinning around with each swing of his ancestor's weapon, front flipping and striking them while using his warping powers to evade the strikes of his enemies sub-consciously and intentionally. He felt his pool of mana deplete quickly doing this, but he pushes forward regardless of the ramifications of his body.
Goofy reached his shield when he saw the king stagger and grow more sluggish with his movements, defending him from the on-coming attack of an axe wielding soldier. Goofy pushed it off himself just as Noctis turned around as the captain side-stepped for the king to deliver the killing blow, stabbing the machine in the stomach. He throws it off his weapon just as Donald rolled to avoid an attack and joined up with the two, now surrounded by MTs with no way out.
Noctis looks at the horde of the red glowing eyed monstrosities of the empire, glaring at them while trying to think of a way out as Goofy and Donald kept moving their weapons to try and choose who to direct their attacks on. The king looked back at them, realizing they were severely outmatched, yet in their eyes, he saw no fear or even resignation of their fates, but rather resistance and defiance to the empire's soldiers.
Sora and the others were close by, they were just within arm's reach of the group. Noctis turned on his enemies as he summoned Night's Sky once more and slowly begins to glow in his Armiger's light. With a cry, he swung his keyblade and a burst of light shined through, ghostly apparitions of his royal arms appeared around him as his own eyes glowed in a blue light. The weapons begin to spin around the king of light, faster and faster until they were blurs and with a yell, Noctis raised his hand and the weapons flew to the air.
Noctis suddenly flew into the air as his weapons gathered around him, with a wave of his keyblade, he aimed his arms at the soldiers. The weapons flew towards the soldiers like a wave made from weapons, sweeping up the soldiers and striking them all. Breaking the soldiers apart and eviscerating them all into nothing but junk. The weapons circled the entire floor, spinning wildly and striking them all while some bashed the MTs or shoot them.
When they were cleared, Noctis yelled at his two companions to run ahead to the next room while the coast was cleared, granting them a safer passage to carry on their trek. The two ran across the catwalk to the room as more MTs begin to deploy from their closet like housing, only being stayed by Noctis' royal arms and wild strikes before he warped to the door with Donald and Goofy. They ran inside and locked the door behind them.
Once they were sure the MTs couldn't break it down, they pressed on despite the fatigue plaguing their bodies. His Armiger state evaporated and returned him to normal, doing so Noctis nearly collapsed to the floor, had Donald and Goofy not caught him and held him. So weary and exhausted from all the fighting, Noctis feels his eyes grow heavy with want of sleep and even nearly fainted from all the exertions he pushed his body through.
He exhales a weak breath before nodding to the others in gratitude, slowly getting to his feet properly. Now wasn't the time for him to lay down and die, not when the others were still in need of rescue. He gives the two one more resolute look before they jogged onwards to rescue their friends.
Soon enough they came to a hallway littered with the dead MTs, but not a single adversary was ahead of them. On the one hand, Noctis was grateful they had a reprieve from their enemies at long, LONG last, yet the other hand warned him something much worse is yet to come. 'Only one way forward…', he remarked with a huff. 'Be careful, fellas', Goofy warned, 'We don't know if that Ardyn fellow has got something sneaky up his sleeves…'.
'He ALWAYS has something sneaky up his sleeves…', Donald grumbled, staff in both hands.
Slowly they walked into the hallway, and as they were halfway through it just nearing the other side, both doors shut closed. Then the door ahead of the party was covered in electricity and slowly moving towards them. As they backed away from the door, the door's electricity struck the MT corpse and destroyed it, reducing it to ashes. They looked to see their exit had also donned a sheen of electricity, trapping them.
'You gotta be kidding me!', Noctis shouts as the door edges closer and closer to the trio, 'Donald, can't you blast that door?'. Donald aimed his staff at it but nothing came out of his weapon, his eyes widened with panic as he started to rummage through his pouches and pockets. 'WAK! I'm out of mana AND ethers!', he yelled. Noctis swears, looking back and forth between the exit and door slowly encroaching closer and closer to them.
Goofy looked at his friends as they start to panic, looking at his shield and then nods to himself. Goofy jogged back to the entrance of the door and aimed his shield forward, taking a deep breath. As his legs ran on the spot like they were imitating a wheel on a car, Goofy suddenly charged forth with his shield in front, completely bypassing Noctis and Donald and charging shield first into the door. At first, the collision did nothing but crack the glass, until they see Goofy tore right through the door while being shocked and charging into the next room.
The flickering lightning died off as they hear a loud crash from the room ahead of them. 'Well, that's one way to do it…', Noctis laughed lightly, chasing Goofy with Donald leading them.
The captain was face-first into a wall with a large body shaped print on the metal. They approached Goofy and together pried him off the wall with some difficulty. Doing so, they could see Goofy's eyes were showcasing dizziness and pain, muttering something about getting the door opened for them. Noctis cast a glance to his feathery friend, who gave the king a shrug and waved off this worry. Likely a regular occurrence of Goofy's.
The room they find themselves in is full of computers and monitors, which Noctis checked while Donald attended to Goofy after getting him to sit down. The only door leading onwards was locked, encouraging Noctis' hope that possibly a locked door meant someone they know was locked away inside it. He presses a few buttons, and by the devil's luck, the door unlocked and opened for him to continue their search. The king looks at Donald, giving Goofy their last potion and once the shield of another king was healed, they proceeded onwards.
The room they were in is a prison ward but full of empty cells without any traces of the original occupants, nor were there anymore MTs scattered around. The dank smell of decay and death lingers on Noctis' nose, almost made him gag in disgust from it all. Then, Goofy lets out a cry of a name the king had desperately wanted to hear again and points ahead of them.
Bounded in that strange contraption, Prompto was ahead of the party with his head downcast and silent as the grave. 'Prompto!', cries the king before he sprints towards him with Donald and Goofy. He opened the cell door up and with the help of the other world companions, manages to undo the shackles binding Prompto to his torturous device, catching him before he fell. It broke his heart to see how horrible the condition the blond was in.
Several marks on his arms that were a blend of fresh cuts and old faded but poorly healed ones, on the right side of his face was a long cut, face adorned in red blemishes and dried blood, eye bags that showed no sleep had been granted to the youngest member of the king's guard. 'Prompto…come on man, say something', begged his majesty.
Prompto hisses and whimpers in pain, shaky and unsteady breathing escaping his lips as he settled on his knees and hands, Donald and Goofy hovering over him like doting parents. 'I…I'm fine…', he gasped out, raising and resting on his knees to look at his friends. His blue eyes show pain but pure relief at the sight of his best friend.
'Tell me. Were, you worried about me?', he asked, looking at Noctis. The king scoffs and gently pats his shoulder.
'Not just me…all of us were!', Noctis said. Prompto looked at Donald and Goofy, who both nodded warmly and even gave him tight hugs, just to show their worries for the young man. Prompto smiles weakly but warmly, saying: 'I knew you were…that's why you all came here…'. The two helped the blond get to his feet when they broke the hug before Goofy asked: 'Prompto? Where's Kairi? Did she get kidnapped too with ya?'.
The mention of the redhead, the man's eyes dimmed into despair, head looking down at the ground. '…no, she wasn't'. Noctis' alarm went off with fear as the eyes of his friends turned wide. 'W-What? Then where is she!?', Donald demands.
'…I'm so sorry…', he whimpered…
*Two days ago*
Driving on the snowmobile while just being only a few hours away from the capital, the two youngest members of their respective party stared ahead of them with Kairi using her light to shield them from the darkness whilst studying the map.
They had some rest earlier before resuming their journey to the capital, at Kairi's insistence to the surprise of Prompto. She hated to say it, but as desperate as she is to rescue Sora she knew better to go in headfirst while struggling to stay awake. Now they were on the home stretch to the capital, both eager to catch up to Noctis and co while saving their friend and likely the world.
'We're almost there if I'm reading the map right', Kairi says over the blistering winds. 'Should be a few more hours!'. Prompto yells back to assure her he heard as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. 'Almost time to reunite with your boyfriend!', he shouts with a laugh, making Kairi giggle in response. Prompto feels Kairi wrap her arms around his stomach, sensing she was still trying to stay awake for the remainder of the drive to the capital. He says nothing and allowed her to hold on as they make a turn around a cliff.
He had only a fraction of a second before he saw a rocket flying towards the ground. The explosion wasn't close enough to directly hit their vehicle, but the force alone threw the vehicle off course and Prompto, in a panic, drove it off the ledge. They tumbled down the cliffside while being thrown off their transport, rolling and bouncing off the cliffside with thuds until the fell onto the snowy ground, Prompto hitting his head and then losing consciousness…
Through blurry vision and dull echoing voices, he feels himself being dragged through the snow by something rough that sunk into his arms like thin pins. Prompto tried to make out what was happening to him, the sounds dull and unclear while his vision was slowly cleaning up. The gunner sees two MTs hovering over Kairi, guns trained on her as she laid there in the snow. Panic struck his heart while he was being dragged away, too hurt to speak or even lift his hand.
He sees Ardyn approaching the girl and shook his head to the soldiers. 'Now gentlemen, we've got what we came for', he says. Terror races through the gunner as the soldiers and Ardyn simply turn around and abandon Kairi to the snow, the man looked to Prompto with a wicked grin on his face as the sounds of the engines roared as he is being dragged up the ramp. The next thing he saw before the hatch close, obscuring Kairi from his sight as Ardyn's boot to his face…
*Present*
'After that…I was brought here…', Prompto finishes, forlorn and defeated as his friends look at him. Noctis gritted his teeth as he started to pace on the spot with Donald and Goofy looking close to breaking down into tears. 'Kairi's still out there…alone!', Goofy says with terror clear in his voice, 'We gotta go save her!'. 'How!?', Donald shouts, frustrated, 'We don't even know WHERE she was left! And how are we supposed to get to her from here!?'.
'Guys, I'm-
'That's enough!'.
The three looks at Noctis, turning to them all. 'We can't do anything for Kairi right now! And crying about it won't magically bring her to us!', he stated with hurt but resolve in his tone. He faces them properly. 'All we can do now is save Sora, then see if he's got a way to find in time'. The three shared glances of equal doubt and worry for their lost companion but before they could say more, they hear a set of footsteps approaching them.
They all turned to see who…
*Riku and Lunafreya*
With the royal arm strapped to his hip, Riku followed Lunafreya, using her light to see if she could track down Noctis or the others. After they managed to escape from Terra, they used an elevator to hopefully go up and reach Prompto, but the elevator turned against them and descended deeper into the fortress as opposed to ascending to reunite with their friends.
They were taken to the loading bay of the keep and any attempt to get the elevator started up again proved fruitless, the power was cut. Forced to find alternative routes, Riku and Lunafreya explored the bay. Walking on to an open space, the woman of light stops her walk and freezes on the spot. 'Riku…', she says warningly. Immediately the hairs on Riku's back stand up straight, a dark presence made itself known to him.
He summoned his keyblade as Lunafreya summoned her trident. Looking up, Riku grunts out Lunafreya's name, prompting her to look and in doing so, she lets out a gasp. Floating above them were the 13 Phantoms, glowing ominously violet with both the blight and darkness emitting from their forms as were their weapons. 'What the hell are they supposed to be?', he questioned, 'Never seen a heartless like these!'.
'T-Those are, the kings of yore…Noctis' royal family…', Lunafreya reveals, aiming her weapon at them. 'What? But I thought…'.
'You thought they'd share the same fate as the ring?', a familiar voice rings out. They lower their gaze to the left and see Ardyn sauntering towards them with that despicable smirk on his face, without his fedora this time. Riku bore his teeth and took one step forward to the man, but then Ardyn wagged his finger. 'Ooh I wouldn't do that, were I you', he lectured playfully.
With a snap of his fingers, something descended from a dark corridor from above, held by black chains. Hanging above Ardyn was still the comatose chosen wielder of the keyblade, like a lifeless puppet held by the strings of his master.
'SORA!', Riku cried out, nearly rushing to Ardyn, a mixture of fury and relief washes over him. Lunafreya looked towards Ardyn and Sora, her eyes burning intensely when she tried to see within the boy's heart, only to sense nothing but emptiness. 'Ardyn…', she growled, for the first time showing her anger towards this man of the dark, 'What have you done to Sora!?'. Ardyn gives both enraged warriors of light a look of offense as he clasped a hand over his heart. 'My dear Oracle, how could you be so quick to presume *I* was the one who harmed the boy?'.
'Answer me!', demands the woman, stamping her trident into the ground.
Ardyn sighs like he was being pestered by a child, before with an exaggerated shrug, he says: 'Well…according to Xigbar, he was trying to manipulate the darkness within the boy'. Looking at Sora's blank stare, he resumes: 'Though I was sure he'd make no progress in turning him into his master's next vessel, he did do something with the boy's heart'.
With a cruel smirk, Ardyn says: 'Something about…breaking it?'.
Riku's blood ran cold, shoulders sagged and strength evaporating from his limbs. His light blue eyes fall to Sora's lifeless and unmoving form, trying to sense his darkness, his light, ANYTHING to fight against the lies Ardyn was spewing. Yet he sensed nothing from him, it was like he was looking at the body of a replica that had yet to be used. He could feel his eyes water as despair clutched his heart, lowering his hands in defeat.
'A shame truly…poor Kairi will be devasted to hear all she had gone through to see her precious lover will all be for naught', Ardyn dramatically sighed.
His grip on the keyblade tightened to the point where his knuckles turned white, eyes burning with rage pushing despair aside. With a roar as his body bursts with darkness from his own heart, Riku rockets towards Ardyn, keyblade bathed in darkness. Unfortunately, Riku's assault was barred by two of the Phantoms, tackling him together and pinned him to the ground just a foot away from Ardyn. Lunafreya tried to assist, only for her to be grabbed by the Dynast King via the neck.
Ardyn kneels to Riku's level, smugly reveling in the fury of the silver head. 'Temper boy, temper. You're going to get into trouble with that hot head of yours', he lectures playfully. He gets up and approached the still boy, drawing forth one of his Armiger weapons, shocking the former Oracle. He gestured to his pawns of the dark. 'Fierce and Merciful Kings? Be good sports and put the poor boy out of his misery!'.
Without any words exchanged, the two chosen slaves to Ardyn draw their weapons and flew towards Sora.
'SORA!', cried Riku.
'NO!', Lunafreya cries.
As the two Phantoms reached the boy while in the middle of swinging their weapons, a powerful ray of light pierced through the roof above them with speed greater than anything Riku had ever seen. The two kings of yore were still for a moment before hundreds of slashes of light decorated their bodies and then they fell to the ground, like lifeless mannequins. Sora had disappeared when the ray of light dissipated.
Ardyn raises a brow at this, surprised and even looked at the indisposed woman, who was still being held by the neck. All eyes fell behind the Oracle near the large doors that leads to the crystal chamber, Sora's body laid flat on his back while he was being surveyed by an armored figure.
She was a tall as Sora with the boots, colored in shades of pink, light red, royal cream, and silver. A light red breastplate resembling the Oathkeeper's chain and a dark-visor helmet. Her helmet had a silvery halo over the head with two prongs on both sides of the head, light red. Her cape is that of a royal cream color, more armor near her upper legs and hips.
In hand was a large keyblade that had much of Oathkeeper's looks except with golden red colors instead of the white and light blue, the blade is a blade with two edges with glowing runes of light on surface. The teeth was Sora's crown with a heart holding it, the ring of the hand was shaped like a heart with silver and white colors. The chain is also Sora's crown.
The armored figure turned onto Ardyn and the others, keyblade in both hands as the light shined brilliantly on her armor like she was an angel of the light. Riku could on gasp in awe and joy, knowing only one person could carry Sora's necklace.
'Sora', she says, her voice clear with determination and unconditional love, 'This time, I'll save you'.
Kairi has returned…
A/N: This took a lot longer than I thought…and I didn't even follow the original idea I had for it!
So here is the last chapter of 2020 (likely), we have all the players in centre stage, the final fight is next time and we can end it! Truth be told, the reason I got this chapter done was to have the group back together (kinda?) before the end of the year, so I hope you liked this one!
Questions!
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: What do you think of Ignis fighting Terra?
Q3: Can you guess who Noctis and co are meeting?
Q4: What do you think of Kairi's armour and new weapon? Not sure if I should make it her Ultima weapon, but if I do, what should we name it?
Q5: Anyone wanna guess how they're gonna bring Sora back?
Q6: How do you think this will end?
As always thanks for reading, and truly, thanks to everyone whose favourited, followed and reviewed this story for all of 2019. It means the world to me that you all take the time to review my work and help motivate me to make this a priority. What started out as just a short story to celebrate the KH3 release, has turned into a passion project.
Thanks for reading, as always stay awesome but more importantly, stay safe! Merry Christmas, and whatever holiday you celebrate!
