Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 55
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Nearing the Castle*
'Quickly, fall back to the castle!', Dilan yells over the fight, guiding the civilians to the castle.
With the horde of people slowly growing smaller and smaller to just a handful of citizens, the forces of the darkness grew in numbers and desperation to consume as many hearts as they can get their evil claws on.
Only by the combined forces of light stayed their claws and prevent more hearts from being lost, Tifa beating down the trolls and bigger heartless with the force of runaway trains, Red XIII ripping and tearing apart the shadows that prowled the ground, his flaming tail scorching the soldiers.
Kairi, armored up, hacked and slashes her foes to nothing like a gardener cutting weeds, her strikes precise and clean. A morning star tried to crush the armor heroine, only to have itself be parried by Kairi and thrown into the skies. She leaps up into the air and once she was right above the armored heartless, Kairi smacks it with a two-handed strike of her keyblade and sends it careening towards a troll. Like a baseball to the skull, the two collided and were destroyed by her strength.
While still in the air, Kairi looks to the wyverns diving towards her with bullet speed. She raised her left hand at them and fires a barrage of ice shards at them. The crystal blue chilling spikes pierce their wings and forces them to crash into the ground as the princess of light dives back down to the ground.
Prompto rolled away from a mechanitaur group's charge, just narrowly avoiding being trampled to death. Rolling on his sides until he gets back to his feet, Prompto calls on his bazooka and turned it on the group. Firing one rocket at the group, the explosion consumes them in a fiery cloud and reduced them to nothing, liberating a problem for the young man. The gunner turns to the skies to see Kairi landing before him, nodding at his performance as they turned around to see a troll about to crush them both.
Kairi instantly erects a barrier to protect them, repelling the attack and protecting the two. The moment the weapon bounces off the shield, Prompto calls for his machine cannon and rushed in. With a pull of the lever, he discharges a fully charged blast the destroys the troll with a single charge, leaving a giant hole in the chest before the body disappeared. He gives Kairi a thumbs up in appreciation, then turned to the last of the civilians running into the castle before the giant blue steel doors closed behind them.
With a fist pump to the air, Prompto hoots in victory. 'We did it!', he cheers. Kairi smiles behind her helmet just as Tifa and Red XIII joins them. 'That all of them?', Kairi asked, gesturing the castle gates. 'At least in this section of the town', Tifa says, prompting the gunner to take out his phone and dial the others for an update.
He managed to get through to Sora luckily and the boy responded to his worries with a hearty cheer and says they were just finishing up with the marketplace before heading for the last district. Red gave everyone a genuine look of amazement by the speed of Sora's work while Tifa whistled, bragging he wasn't this strong last time she saw him. Kairi smugly took all the praise for her boyfriend in, if they saw him in action their jaws probably be hitting the other side of this world.
'Looks like Sora's doing good', Prompto comments with a grin before hanging up, 'Kinda worried Noct and Iggy didn't check in yet'. 'Maybe they've got their hands full?', Kairi remarks. 'But whatever comes, they'll handle it'. He nods, recalling who was with who and Noctis was far stronger than any heartless this world could throw at him. As the four were debating on what was next, Red XIII growls.
'Red?', Tifa asked just as Kairi's shoulders tensed. Kairi grips her keyblade tightly as the shadows of this new threat rises, a darkness she hadn't sensed before. A coldness and terrible scent of death and decay loomed over the air, the evil behind it was inhuman compared to everything she had faced thus far. Prompto squared his shoulders and raised his pistol, likely he too must have sensed something evil approach.
Slowly a mist of cold seeps around the party of four, the chill of death of sorts, unlike anything Kairi had seen before. The scent of the heartless was thin and minimal as if it were a minor power compared to the true darkness that threatened them.
'Disappointing', a raspy cold dead voice speaks. The chills racing down Kairi's spine was as if the cold froze it entirely and warmth of the world around her had died even within her armor. Slowly leaving the mist that threatened to consume them, a skeletal being slithers out of the mist with piercing glowing red eyes. 'I warned Maleficent of intervention of the light…and a minor inconveniences like yourselves', he sighs.
'W-What the hell is this guy?', Prompto asked, gun pointing at the Horned King. Kairi had no words, this being of the dark was something entirely unholy. Even Maleficent could not put her in such a state of uncertainty, a sensation of fighting something that could not possibly exist in this world. She sensed not even the smallest glimmer of light within this monster, just the cold bleak darkness of what she thinks could be his heart.
Yet strangely his heart was faint and weakened, like in a moment's notice he would pass on to the next world but somehow it was being stayed by something. Magic or something far darker, she couldn't say for certainty. The king raised a skeletal hand at them, with corrupted and rotting flesh barely hanging onto his hand. 'Interlopers of the light', he curses, 'Your futile resistance ends here'. Tifa steps up with her fists, glaring at him. 'Who do you think you are? This is OUR home, and we're going to let some bag of rotten bones take it!'.
Red XIII snarls in agreement at the king, baring his fangs and teeth while Kairi and Prompto readied their weapons. Even against this opposition, the king scoffs. 'Fools', he says coldly as the cold air coils around them and slowly they could hear the ground crack and break apart. Kairi looked below her feet to see rotten fleshy hands sprout out from the cobblestoned ground like weeds. She jumps back in shock and horror with the others as more hands begin to claw their ways up from the ground.
'Arise my army, reclaim your master's land', the Horned King commands as the legion of the dead begin to climb and crawl from their unmarked graves. Slowly the road is infested with a horde of the undead, many of them wearing armor that had become rotted and rusted beyond use from ages past, their bodies a mixture of just yellowed and filthy bones with green rotted flesh, sockets where their eyes once laid often emptied or carried pure grey orbs.
Kairi holds back to urge to vomit at the sight of these creatures, even the blight infecting people didn't startle her this bad. Tifa and Red XIII growled at the horde as Prompto looked close to fainting or screaming. Kairi couldn't fault him, she was keeping her screams back in her throat. The undead legion carried broken and rusted weapons, swords, axes, maces and other means of medieval weapons that had long advanced through time.
'Zombies!? Nobody said anything about fighting zombies!', Prompto shrieks, frantically aiming his gun at them all. The Horned King stands behind his minions as they marched to the defenders while more are raising from the ground, polluting the hill leading to the castle gates, his bony hands encased in black and greenish flames. He subtly begins to chant as the heroes backed up from the horde until Kairi stepped forward.
'Stay back! I'll take them on, Prompto give me covering fire!', she ordered, 'Tifa, and you Red XIII head into the castle and warn the others!'. 'What? We're not leaving you two!', Tifa admonishes strongly. Red XIII, however, nudges her leg, shaking his head. 'We can't fight them like this, one wrong move and we may end up part of his legion', he speaks wisely, 'Kairi's armored and the boy can keep his distance'.
Tifa looks back at Kairi, now giving her a thumbs up, 'We'll handle these guys'. Reluctantly, Tifa nods and together with Red XIII, they sprint off to the castle as the entire path is filled with the undead. Prompto gulps as Kairi clutches Dearly Beloved in both hands, the girl then runs into the horde swinging. Her holy weapon cleaves through the undead like they were nothing, splitting them apart easily as with each hit with her keyblade against their brittle forms they went down like haphazardly put together towers.
Their movements were luckily too slow for Kairi to be caught off guard, her sharp reflexes and senses kept her on her toes with each strike, calculated and already deciding who needed to be removed first. Dearly Beloved's powerful light not only brought them down like they were nothing but because of the keyblade's light and magic, the moment they fall they would be entering a permanent sleep without dreams.
With Prompto behind as the horde desperately tried to take own Kairi, he managed to pick several of them off with well time shots of his revolver. Thanks to their thin skulls and helmets, the bullets pierce through to hit more than just the one. He kept his aim short and timed, hoping to avoid hitting Kairi despite how quick she moved and if he was sure, she'd know where he was aiming but he didn't want to test out how durable her armor was against bullets.
Spinning her keyblade in her right hand like a buzz saw, Kairi begins to march towards the Horned King while spinning her keyblade and slowly cutting down the undead horde. She flips over a collapsed solider, spun around and widely strikes down three soldiers with a single stroke of her keyblade. As unsettling as it was fighting monsters like this, Kairi remembered Sora telling her nearly a year ago now that spells or curses like these stood no chance against the keyblade's magic.
Back in the world of pirates on his first touring of that world, he told her about the cursed gold that turned the pirate captain and his crew into the undead. Only when the moonlight shined on their cursed flesh would their decaying forms be revealed and exposed to the magic. Still, though she feared the more she'd cut down the Horned King would just replenish tenfold, for all she knows this could be a graveyard that was buried beneath their feet.
She cuts down another soldier, leaving the Horned King defenseless before the princess of light with only the flames of his dark magic lighting his hands. 'You're done for!', she exclaimed, dashing towards him.
Then the dark being gave her a cruel skeletal grin as he lifts both hands. The moment Kairi's foot touched the ground, a barrier of red flames and darkness erects around her and traps her in place. Kairi yells in shock and fear as the flames closed on her, her armor and cape protecting her as the ground turned into a swirl of black ink darkness. 'Foolish child of light…', he gloats as Kairi begins to sink into the darkness. She struggled to yank her feet out but like quicksand the more she struggled the quicker she sank. Kairi tries to use her magic as an escape but by the time she could think of a spell she was already neck-deep into the darkness, her head and right hand the only things still out of the darkness.
'KAIRI!', Prompto shouts. Quickly he dismisses his revolver and brings out his switch-sword, rushing in and hacking away the horde. His desperate adrenaline-fuelled strikes helped him to a wondrous degree as he nearly reached Kairi's prison, only to see her hand sink into the darkness with her keyblade disappearing into the light. Prompto cleaves the head off a soldier as the Horned King's body was slowly being cloaked in the reddish flames he use to trap Kairi before with a rueful look, he disappears.
'Consume his flesh my soldiers…', his voice rumbled overhead. It was there the gunner realized he was in the middle of a horde of flesh-eating zombies. Panicking, Prompto begins to hack a swing at ANYTHING that came close to him, cutting a few limbs of the skeletal monsters while using his free hand to shoot at them after recalling his gun. He needed to escape, get some distance from these freaks, but they grabbed an tugged on his body, trapping him in place.
Prompto thrashes around wildly like a caged animal as his gun goes off in his blind panicking, shooting the skies and sometimes the undead, his thoughts going back to Kairi and how this may be his final moments.
That was until a gunshot went off and struck down the zombie that tried to take a bite of his neck. More gunshots go off, particularly off on the undead holding the gunner in place which gives him more freedom to fight back and escape. 'Over here boy!', a voice calls out. Not questioning who was saving his skinny backside, Prompto slashes his way out of the horde and scrambles back up the hill to the voice who rescued him.
He raise his head to see a man standing near the castle gates with what appeared to be a rifle in his hands as he takes shots at the horde. His hair is brown in a ponytail and has blue eyes. A black cowboy hat, a purple vest, a long khaki-colored jacket, black fingerless gloves and brown chaps over black trousers with black boots. He has grey earrings and a red and yellow beaded necklace. The cowboy tips his hat to Prompto and offers a hand to him.
'Irvine Kinneas, Radiant Garden's number one sharpshooter, at your service', he greets to the gunner. Prompto takes his hand with a grin and is pulled back to his feet as more of the undead resume their march to the castle grounds. 'Looks like we've got a bit of a pest infestation', he says with a casual smile, 'Least it ain't heartless…'. Prompto chuckles weakly at him as he reaches into his phone while Irvine begins to unload bullet after bullet upon the horde.
"Time to call in the big guns", thought Prompto, dialing Sora and Noctis.
*Nearing the generators*
'Just a little further ahead!', Aerith announces as the boy cleave their way through the heartless.
Noctis was already going all out with his Armiger, though at the basic form as opposed to his full potential, becoming a whirlwind of blades that cleared the hallway for the trio while Ventus would use his Shot-Lock skills to take out the ones the king may have missed. The hallway like pretty much every other one they had entered was crawling with heartless, mostly the bigger dense ones like morning stars and large bodies with a few air soldiers.
The king figured without the security defending the place and with little manpower to contest with the heartless, the creatures must be busying themselves with occupying every bit of the castle they could before Sora or the others could attempt to reclaim it. Noctis wondered about this supposed ally that fat cat was bragging about earlier, wondering if this was someone Sora had fought previously and likely beaten. Yet Mickey was as clueless as he was when Pete bragged about him, could this be someone new?
Ventus brings down the air soldiers with his unique shots just as Noctis brings down Sword of the Tall onto a morning star, crushing it. Aerith runs past the fight and approaches the door's keypad, entering the code while her bodyguards do their thing. Noctis throws Night's Sky at a diving crimson jazz, spinning it around as it slices through the bright heartless while Ventus jumps off the walls and cuts down the pesky heartless in the air.
Noctis had to give credit to the kid, for as inexperienced as Aqua said he is, he knew how to handle himself in the air.
With the heartless slain just in time, Aerith opens the door and the two join her side. But before they could walk in, Noctis quickly pushes Ventus on the left side of the door while he grabs Aerith and throws them back against the right side of the door. Bullets flew out of the room along with some bolts of lightning. 'Back off! I've got bullets for everyone one of you!', a female yells out. Noctis tries to shout over the sound of the gunfire and light but his voice falls to deaf ears.
Aerith raises her staff and gently waves in front of the now cleared doorway. 'Yuna, calm down, it's me!', she yells, waving her staff like a flag, 'I've brought help!'. Thankfully the barrage of attacks stopped in a matter of seconds, making the three of them sigh in relief and enter the room. Inside Noctis sees tables had been thrown on the side for makeshift barricades, a large computer screen behind it with several tools scattered on the ground near the control panels.
There are clear signs of fighting that took place within the generator room but luckily none of the machines were damaged, scuff marks on the metal with some steel torn open and smells of smoke. Jumping over one of the tables was Yuna, holstering her guns and waving at Aerith. 'Good to see some friendly faces', she greets tiredly. Noctis glances at her and does a double-take when he sees her choice of apparel, and promptly looks away with a hue of red dusting his cheeks.
And there he was thinking Cindy's attire was questionably hot…
Resting down against the wall behind the table barricade was Paine, her skull blade resting against her shoulder that was wrapped with dried blood staining it. The woman gives Aerith's worried glance a wave of assurance with a tired smirk. 'One of those dual blades got me, just a scratch', she replies with assurance before grunting in her namesake. Aerith rolled her eyes and approaches her as Yuna turned to Noctis and a blushingly awkward Ventus.
Yuna raised a brow at the king who waves and reveals his name to save time. 'What's the story of the generator? Have you girls got it fixed yet?', he asks. Yuna gestured to the platform behind her and when the two keyblade wielders leaned to the right to see behind Yuna, they saw Rikku with her back facing them with a door plate off the machine. 'Rikku's been trying to get it going ever since we lost power, I think she said she'll have it done soon', Yuna assures.
'With all the heartless that kept trying to break in and the ones that managed to teleport here, we've been split between fighting and trying to get everything going', explains Yuna. She then frowns. 'We've been here for a while, how bad has it gotten?'. Ventus frowns with worry. 'Pretty bad, Cid said the city's hosed without the defenses and there's heartless everywhere we go', Ventus explains. 'But lucky for you guys, Sora's here with some help from my gang and more', Noctis said confidently, 'So if you guys get that security thing up and running, then we've half the work cut out for us'.
Yuna grinned with relief as Aerith finishes healing Paine, just as Rikku yells: 'Yunie, whose there? Is it that Irvine creep?'. Yuna giggled. 'Nope, its Aerith, a guy name Noctis…and Ventus~', she says, adding a hint of flirt when she mentions Ventus.
The reaction the party got from dropping Ventus' name made Rikku shoot up from her crouched position and turn on the boy, now blushing more intensely. She beamed happily and immediately dashes for the boy, enveloping him in a tight hug. 'Aww, welcome back Venny!', she coos. Ventus stiffens like a board, his blush reaching his ears and burning so bright Noctis could see the steam rising from them.
The poor boy couldn't even squeak out a greeting to the affectionate blondie while Rikku grins at him. 'This is the second time you came to our rescue, you little hero you!', she coos, pecking him on the cheek. Anymore blushing and Noctis fears the poor boy was gonna faint, much less function if all his blood went to his face. The girl turns to Noctis with a confused look, but he quickly answered her questioned look with a quick summary of he and Sora's group came back to help. 'Look not to be rude but can ya maybe pick up the pace and fix that generator?', Noctis asked impatiently, 'The others need back up'.
Rikku pouts at him as she releases Ventus from her hugs. 'I'm working on it, and nearly done thank ya very much!', she says. 'Then could you please finish it?', Aerith asks with a touch of authority, 'Right now we're on the end of our ropes'. Rikku opened her mouth to speak but Aerith gave her the motherly glare that promise a horrible punishment if the child disobeyed the mother. Rikku shuts her mouth quickly, weakly muttering a "yes ma'am".
'Rikku, fix the system and you can hug Ven all day after, ok?', Yuna bribed. 'WHAT!?', Ventus shouts in shock. 'Ok, sounds like a fair deal', Noctis agreed. 'NOCT!', Ventus yells again. 'DEAL!', Rikku chimes and rushes to get the job done.
'DON'T I GET A SAY IN THIS!?', Ventus questions with his cheeks rivaling a tomato. 'Sorry kiddo, but in war, we've gotta make sacrifices for the greater number', Noctis says with the "wisdom" of the king. This was a matter of a political negotiation, sacrificing the comforts of one to save the lives of many is a noble sacrifice. 'I think it's a fair trade', Aerith concurs with a giggle, 'Besides, Rikku is very affectionate'.
'DOESN'T MY PERSONAL SPACE MATTER!?', Ventus asks while grabbing his head with both hands. 'I'M NOT A TOY FOR SOMEONE TO CUDDLE!'.
Before he could rant more about this "horrible" situation, Noctis' phone goes off and he quickly answers it. Just as he does, the room lights up with bright lights as the machines roared to life, the hallway behind them bathed in blue light. Rikku grinned victoriously as she radios Cid to update him, throwing back on the comms for everyone with a phone and/or earpiece. The monitor begins to show off parts of the city with security cameras watching over.
This gives the team a perfect lay of the land and displays the heroes fending off the heartless and more. Rikku presses one of the buttons to communicate with Cid. 'Gramps, we got the power going!', she says. A tough laugh rumbles through the computer's radio before a monitor showed Cid with a smirk. 'I can see that ya little gremlin! Bout damn time ya got her going!', he praises/chastised, his hands working on the keyboards. 'Time to give those little bastards a taste of Radiant Garden's new defenses!'.
'How are things over there? Are you all ok?', Aerith asks. 'Axel and his majesty's been kicking out any heartless that so much as sniffs the door, we've got that replica thing up to speed, it'll be fine without all power going in!'. Then he curses and starts to yell at one of the scientists to help with something before he turned back to the group. 'Rikku, gonna need ya to stay there and keep things running! Radar showing a lot of heartless heading your way!', he ordered. 'You got it pops!', Rikku affirms with a salute.
Ventus turns to the entrance to see Noctis storming out, making the boy run to him. 'Noct, where are you going?', he asked, sure he had heard Cid's orders. The king turned to Ventus with a grim look. 'Prompto called, Kairi's been captured', he reveals. The young keyblade wielder gave him a strong look of worry before he turned to Rikku. 'Rikku, can ya find Kairi on that thing?', he pleads. 'Hang on a second, Venny!', she says, going through the cameras monitoring the city.
'…and please stop calling me that…', he begged weakly.
Several scrolls of the monitors, she calls out one that was overseeing the outskirts of the land. Near the old fortress occupied by Maleficent, just on the cliff that overlooked her old base, they see Kairi was surrounded by heartless with the Horned King atop of a cliff, summoning heartless for her to battle. 'There she is!', Ventus cried out, 'Where's that?'.
'That's by Villains Vale, Maleficent's old fortress', Aerith explains. 'Then that's where me and Sora are going!', Noctis says. 'Might wanna hold off on that for a second', Paine grunts, pointing to another screen. All eyes turned to see Riku's group facing Genesis, with only himself and Aqua faring against him while they saw Ignis and Gladiolus being thrown aside like they were nothing. Noctis' eyes widened in horror before that fear melted into anger.
'Ven, stay here and guard this place, I'm going after that wannabe Rockstar!', Noctis orders and before Ventus could argue, the king races out of the room. Running down the corridor as it begins to flood with heartless, he draws Night's Sky and roars, bursting into his Armiger and flies through the heartless. His weapons tore them apart and decimated the area around him as flies into the air, firing a blast of his Armiger and destroying a wall.
He flies through the hole and to the skies. Looking around the city in the middle of battle, he spots he senses Genesis' power and without a second thought, flies towards the battle…
*Riku's Group*
Gladiolus brings his large katana down onto Genesis rapier with a bellowing roar just as Ignis rushes in to slice at the one-winged warrior's hips. The redhead raises his blade to easily block against the much larger and heavier weapon while he caught Ignis' blade hand with ease.
The shield tries to press down on the man with all his strength as Ignis struggled to break free from him, yet the man looked to be putting less than little effort in holding back his adversaries. The fight had gone from the group taking on what they believed to be the ring leader of this attack, but in less than half an hour this man or monster would be the better description for him, had quickly repelled their attacks with ease.
Not since their fight with Terra had the two loyal members of Noctis' retinue been so outmatched it was like a sick joke. Every strike Gladiolus tried to land was either repelled with minimal effort, his attacks hit mostly air and finally, Genesis barely reacted to any meaning damage the shield did to him. For the rare times Gladiolus managed to hit him with his sword or shield, he shrugged them all off like they were nothing but bug bites.
Even Ignis had trouble with him, the man's speed was something dare he say comparable if not superior to Sora. Genesis' strength overwhelmed the man and despite Ignis' dark abilities the man in red countered and trounced his own.
Genesis pushes Gladiolus off him which sent the shield flying into a wall while he tossed Ignis aside. This allowed Riku to rush in with Brave Heart and strike at him. Unlike the two, Riku was honored by Genesis putting slight effort in repelling the master, paying attention to him when they fight as Riku keeps up with the precise and planned strikes. The silver master managed to duck under a sweep of the rapier and stabs for Genesis' chest, that was until Genesis caught the blade between his thumb and finger and halts any momentum Riku had for the attack.
Above them, Aqua dives down with a swing of her keyblade and cuts Genesis' shoulder. Once on her feet, she tried to bring down her keyblade into the skull of this man in red, but even with obvious marks of a wound upon his shoulder, Genesis lifts his blade to deflect her attack easily. Aqua's keyblade flies out of her hand as Riku raised a hand to fire a black firaga at him, only to have Genesis grab his face.
He fired a blast of dark energy and sends Riku across the square as the boy yells in pain. Aqua recalls her keyblade in time to clash with Genesis, eyes fixed on this monster of a man as they struck at each other. Their wild and yet somehow well-aimed strikes create a large radius where it seemed like they were striking everywhere around them. One final strike of their weapons ended them in a deadlock that they broke through with a loud clang of steel.
The ground, the walls and even the street lamps nearby were all slashed and riddled with marks of blades, the lamps sliced into ribbons. Aqua grits her teeth as the strikes Genesis managed to land on her erupts in blood, even her armor barely held against his attacks. Turning her head to man, again not even hindered by the strikes she lands on him turn on her with a dark smile. He pulls his sword back before he dashes towards her with the rapier outstretched.
With her wounds, she had no chance of moving to avoid it.
'AQUA!'.
Time slowed down for the woman, suddenly Gladiolus was right in front of her with his shield held out in front. She heard steel meeting steel, but even the mighty shield that had survived strikes from the XIII Phantoms couldn't hold against Genesis' attack. Gladiolus grunts out and coughs, Aqua's skin turning white as she realized the shield had been broken.
The man stiffens and coughs out blood, splattering the ground beneath him as the Defender shield is split in half and falls to the ground. Aqua could only stare in horror as Gladiolus' knees buckle with strain of keeping him up, yet he refused to stand aside and just defiantly stare down the man with a single black wing.
'How noble of you', Genesis remarks coolly, 'Despite knowing your metal would do nothing but delay your inevitable demise, you still leap in front of the damsel'. Gladiolus grunts out as the blade was lodged into his chest, he feels both the cold steel and darkness of the blade seep into him, any further in and he'd be a dead man. But Gladiolus growled as he recklessly grabbed the blade with both hands. The sharpness instantly causes bleeding but with a roar of pain and adrenaline, he lifts Genesis and throws him aside while pulling the sword out of his stomach.
The fallen angel is thrown back on his feet just as Gladiolus falls onto a knee, bleeding profusely from his chest and hands while Aqua hovers around him. The man in red scoffs in irritation, a meaningless effort and judging from how the supposed masters were along with those of the king's court, the challenge had greatly diminished.
With a dismissive sigh, he aimed his free hand at Aqua and Gladiolus and fires one dark sphere of darkness at them. The blast rockets towards them, but before it collides with them, a yell rings out and then the blast was repelled.
The darkness explodes within six feet of the two downed warriors, smoke covered them for a moment before it faded into nothing. Out of the smoke with his buster blade in hands, Zack stands before Genesis with a cheerful smirk. In perfect timing, a blade struck the ground near the warrior and appearing in a blue light, Noctis appeared alongside him. The king turned to his shield with shock, but then grits his teeth and turned on Genesis.
Genesis addresses Zack with a look of mirth and nostalgia before he lifted his rapier and slowly runs his hand along the blade, imbuing it with red darkness. 'Its been too long, Zack', says Genesis with a nostalgic smile. The black-haired SOLDIER lowers into his stance as Noctis calls for Night's Sky, 'Why are you here, Genesis? Shouldn't you be looking for Sephiroth?', taunts Zack, 'Or did you hear the latest addition of Loveless was released?'.
'Humph, I don't believe that. You don't read', chastised the man in red with a bored tone. The raven snickers caught. He turns to Ignis, getting to his feet while Leon helps Riku up. 'Leon, I'll take it from here, you get these guys to safety!', requests the captain. The mayor begrudgingly nods as Ignis helps Riku while the mayor lends a hand to help Aqua with Gladiolus. The shield grunts weakly as Aqua thankfully manages to close the wound on his stomach but the pain and blood loss weakened him.
'Noct, don't die on me…', he grunted out as his arms were thrown on Aqua and Leon's shoulders. Noctis turned to him with a nod before he looks at Aqua. 'You keep him alive, got it?', he ordered. With a firm nod, Aqua says: 'If he tries to punch in, I'll kick his ass'. With that promise, Aqua and the others leave the town square as Noctis turned back to Genesis as his body glowed with red darkness, his angelic wing covered in a red miasma.
Noctis calls upon his Armiger, glowing in the blue light as Zack readies himself for the fight. The three warriors rush in, their steels meeting each other…
*Villains Vale*
Kairi yells as she fires another barrage of Rays of Light onto the never-ending horde of heartless surrounding her while in the air. The princess' attacks detonates upon hitting the large swarm, creating small explosions dome sized that consumed the heartless nearby as more flew up towards her, mostly dual blades varieties like heat saber, chill ripper and stalwart blades.
She meets them all with Dearly Beloved, parrying and deflecting their attacks while using her free armored arm to deflect some attacks. The armor is more durable than she thought, even a fully powered stab from an armored knight hurt her minimally. It saved her skin more than she would like to have admitted given how many managed to hit her, though she swears in her defense she was fighting what is an army of heartless alone.
Atop a cliff watching her struggle was the Horned King with of course Maleficent and Pete, the latter spawning more heartless to contest with.
That walking dead king had taken Kairi here away from the others, and judging from previous experiences she feared this was a plot to try and lure Sora away from the others and then be rid of two guardians of light. Credit where credits are due, Kairi would say that was a smart tactic, but she also knew those three have been greatly underestimating the heroes. She had been fighting these monsters for over two hours now without any form of slowing down and while she feels the weariness seeping into her, she held out.
Kairi knows if she just holds out a little longer Sora would arrive and together they could wipe these heartless out like a powerful wind blowing out a blazing fire.
She fired a force attack that shoot the heartless across the ravine and into one of the walls while bringing down Dearly Beloved down onto a chill ripper from head to toe and splits it in half. The last one had its blade repelled by a smaller barrier she made in her free hand and then Kairi shifted it into a bolt of light that obliterated it. She turned down to the group of heartless but was struck in the back by the blade of an invisible that knocks her back into the ground. She crashes through some of the heartless, killing a few until she was thrown into a wall.
Bits of rockfall around her as she groans in pain, shaking her head. Kairi raises back to her feet and sees four parasol beauties aiming their namesake weapons and firing purple energy bullets at her. She erects a wall of ice to protect herself that reached as high as the cliffs that overshadowed the land. She could hear chunks of ice being picked away from their attacks as she runs up the icy wall like it was made of stone.
Once Kairi reached the top of it, she jumps high into the sky as the parasols looked at up, her armor glowed in pinkish light as she aims her keyblade up. Kairi is surrounded by six pillars of bluish-white light and then she jumps down into the center of the heartless. She cries out "Faith" and the moment her feet touched the ground, the pillars spun around her and destroys the heartless around her, slowly extending until they split off in six directions around her, destroying each heartless that were touched by it.
She had no time to celebrate her victory, barely having any chance to block three invisibles simultaneously attacking her. The combined might of all three throws her off her feet but not enough to send her flying like before, just enough to knock her back a few steps. That said before she could even turn her head to them, shadows began to leap onto her and slowly overwhelm her. She is forced onto her knees as the weight of the shadows and weariness her body undertook combined to make her feel as if she was chained to a boulder.
Kairi wildly thrashes against the shadows, trying to throw them off her but slowly the soldiers begin to jump the dogpile and pinned her arms down with her face pressed against the ground. Above her watching her slowly being pinned, Pete cackles. 'HAH! Looks like the princess has her hands full!', he bragged as he kept summoning more heartless.
While the oaf brags, the two sorcerers watched the darkness manifest and slowly swallow Kairi whole. 'Her power has grown since last time', Maleficent comments, clasping her staff, 'Possibly greater than the boy…'. The Horned King hummed in silent agreement, slowly raising his hand. This makes the witch look at him with amusement. 'Not going to try and turn her into a heartless?', she questioned.
'She will not become one, you know this. But I will not suffer a new nobody of hers, one who may be the threat that will destroy us', the king lectures.
Kairi's vision goes darker as the darkness slowly consumes her body, but her grip on her keyblade remains tight as a ball of light forms around her hand. Light begins to extend and cover her keyblade and with a cry from the heart, Kairi throws her head back through the heartless as a dome of light forms around her, incinerating the heartless around her like a nuke. Above even the masters of evil were forced to create a barrier to shield them from the divinity of Kairi's untapped power.
Kairi slowly gets to her feet as the dome shields her despite the heartless striking it. Glyphs of light appeared beneath her feet as she stabbed her keyblade into the ground while her helmet disappears, showing her face as her hair flies wildly. Her eyes shined in pure white light as she utters the single word that hadn't been uttered since the age of fairy tales.
'Holy'.
There was a silence as Kairi was enveloped in a pillar of the purest light that turns into a tower, rocketing to the skies like a beacon. The wind rushes by the heartless and the Horned King's allies as Kairi is levitating within the tower, glowing like an angel as she raises her keyblade with both hands. The tower extends and expands, covering the space around Kairi and destroying the heartless and area. The heartless couldn't stand more than a second in her divine light as they were scorched into nothing.
Even Maleficent's eyes widened in complete dismay of this light, not even the purest hearts all together could even compare to this power. She erects a barrier of violet darkness with the Horned King's help, but even their combined power wasn't enough to fully shield them from her power. The barrier crackled and shook under her power, cracks beginning to appear around their shield-like brittle glass trying to hold up against a horrible storm.
As the ground near them is vaporized by Kairi's light, Maleficent could see the futility of persisting in this vain battle and realized her life was worth far more to her than the city. 'We must retreat for now', Maleficent commands, turning to Pete to open a portal. The cat man didn't even hesitate to open one up and run in before his master could follow. Maleficent sees the Horned King persists in fighting, making her scoff.
'Don't be a fool, we cannot hold against her!', she lectures. The Horned King snarls. 'Be silent, run if you wish! I will not let this child of light stop me!', the Horned King bellows as his darkness begins to surge and cloak him.
As much as her pride was on the line, previous experiences with warriors of light had taught the witch the harsh lessons of swallowing her pride and cut her losses. Even as unaware and inexperienced as the girl is with her light, the witch knows better than to take a chance to fight her. 'The perish along with the heartless, you fool!', cried the witch as she disappears in greenish-black flames.
Alone the Horned King's barrier falls apart as Kairi levitates towards him, towering over him as her light slowly encompasses his barrier and pierce through. He tries to fight her light with all the darkness within his blackened soul, but even one as powerful as the Horned King and all his malice, they were nothing more then feeble shadows attempts to slay a master. He tries to strike at her with black flames, but even then the flames were doused by Kairi's light.
His hand was scorched by her light as she moves her tower closer to him, breaking through his barrier and slowly closed a small pillar around him. Without batting an eye, Kairi raised an armored hand at him and raises her arm as the pillar condenses around him. The Horned King lets out a cry of pain before both his rotted body and corrupted soul is consumed by the light, body evaporating into nothingness.
The Horned King was no more.
With the fallen king perishing into the light and the darkness clearing the area, Kairi's tower of light begins to fade out as her eyes return to the beautiful blue color she was blessed with as her keyblade disappears. An exhaustion that no human could experience takes her body as she lies backward and begins to slowly descend as her tower disappears, her strength gone. Beneath her, there was nothing but ruins of the cliff where a great battle once took place, the land vaporized by her power.
Before her descend increased in speed, she was caught by someone leaping from one smidgen of untouched land and landed just a few feet from where the Horned King's grave lied.
The princess whimpers in exhaustion as she weakly glances up to see Sora sweaty and dirty face staring down in concern at her. 'Kairi?', he whispers. Kairi smiles weakly at him before she gently reaches up to touch his cheek but even that was too strenuous for her limb. Sora caught her hand and helped place it on his cheek. She gratefully nods to him.
'I…I think I won…', she wheezes weakly. Sora looked around the destruction she had unknowingly wrought and nods. Never had he seen such power of destruction from the light, even his strongest spells with the light couldn't even light a candle to her own. He wondered if that woman with the mask did more then just gave her armor, maybe she unlocked more of her potential. But that was for another time, he sensed a more powerful darkness back within the city.
The moment Prompto rang him about the Horned King, he immediately raced out here for her after his two friends held down the fort for him. Before he climbed the slope leading to the cliff overlooking Maleficent's old base, he felt an incredible light that the only thing he could compare it to is the light of the worlds from Kingdom Hearts. The amount of power Kairi used, dare he say she could trump even Aqua with it.
He shifts her into his arms and smiled at her. 'Get some sleep Kairi, I'll get us back to the city'. Kairi smiles wearily at him, pouting slightly. 'Kiss…me', she weakly ordered. He chuckles softly and pecks her on the lips, then runs back to the city her sleeping in his arms.
His real fight is about to begin…
A/N:
Forced myself to get this done, had little to no ideas on how to make this work…sorry if it wasn't any good.
I wanted to end this arc here…but I feel like giving Genesis a decent fight since he was requested by a lot of people so next time we WILL end this arc!
Questions:
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: Rikku and Ven? Too weird?
Q3: Kairi's new power?
Q4: What do you wanna see in future?
Q5: Any other FF character you wanna see for fun?
Q6: Can you guess how Gladio will get a new shield? Again?
Q7: Do you think the FF XV crew should get KH based clothes? I'm doing it but curious what you guys think?
Q8: Undead? A bit much?
Q9: Anyone else tired of the fights?
Out of curiosity, but what was your game of 2019? Mine is between Devil May Cry 5 and of course KH3. Your own?
Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!
