Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 56
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Town Square*
With a warp strike closing the distance between himself and Genesis, Noctis brings down the Sword of the Tall onto the man cloaked in red with a cry. He misses by an inch as Genesis steps back from the attack, the giant blade destroying the ground where he once stood.
He thrusts his rapier at the king in quick succession as retaliation, the tip of the blade appearing as if he was stabbing at the king with hundreds of swords. Noctis luckily warps into the air to avoid the storm of blades.
Genesis chases him to the skies with his wing outstretched. In the skies, the two warriors of opposing sides fought with the king using his vast arsenal of weapons while Genesis using just his rapier. Noctis swings his keyblade downwards onto Genesis, the teeth of the key merely swiping against the hilt of the red blade as Genesis parries his attack with ease. The cloaked man stabbed at Noctis, just missing impaling the king's stomach by reflexes of the king, though not unscathed.
He felt the cold steel cutting his flesh and t-shirt, though not fatal but it was the first blood to be drawn. Noctis warps atop to a building to give himself some space from the man and calls for his engine blade. Just before Noctis re-joined the fight, Genesis fires a large sphere of energy at him. With a yell, Noctis warped back to the square right before the sphere touched him, only a fraction of second before he was reduced to ashes.
The sphere explodes the moment it hit the rooftop of the building, completely obliterating it and even destroyed several more buildings nearby.
Noctis staggers forward in the square with a gasp, turning to the destruction behind him to see how powerful that attack was. Grimacing at the sight, he turned back to Genesis still flying in the air. He sees Zack flying upwards to him, swinging that giant chunk of steel he called a sword at Genesis. The truly amazing sight Noctis witnessed was the sheer speed Zack manages to possess wielding such a massive weapon and to add insult to injury he kept up with Genesis' attacks as if he were wielding a sword of the same size.
The SOLDIER's strikes were strong enough to send Genesis backward while guarding, and even despite the size difference, Zack is fast enough to keep the gap closed between him and Genesis.
Genesis feints an attack that guard Zack to raise his blade with the flat side, like a shield. This gave Genesis the chance to push aside Zack by placing his hand on the flat surface of the sword and fired a shockwave that threw Zack back to the ground level.
The warrior lands on his feet despite how powerful the shockwave was, the moment he lands the earth cracks as if the weight of the world increased ten-fold on Zack. He shrugged it off with a grunt and glared at Genesis before he aims his free hand fires several bullets of fiery rocks at the fallen angel. This magical attack is quickly swept aside like a hurricane blowing out a forest fire as with a single sweep of his rapier, Genesis splits the rocks in half and the gale from his attack douses the flames.
This gives Noctis a chance however, he warps right in front of Genesis while he still had his sword at the end of his sweeping attack. Keyblade and engine blade together, Noctis brings them both down onto his shoulders with a cry. The strike is a success and because of the combination of the king's strength and determination to win, Genesis is grounded. He is thrown back down to the square, using his magic to stop himself from slamming into the ground like he had down to so many others.
The king warps right for him and wildly swings his engine blade at him. Genesis merely swept his blade upwards, throwing dark crimson energy waves shaped like blades at Noctis. Caught off guard by this, the king could only raise his sword to protect him marginally as the arcs struck him. With grunts from every hit landing on his body, the final wave of energy struck his blade and throws him up higher in the air.
Noctis falls back to the ground with a thud and on his shoulders with a bounce before he falls onto his back, his blade landing next to him before disappearing into the Armiger. Grunting and groaning with pain, Noctis gets to his feet while clutching his arm as he bleeds, his clothes in tatters and even his jacket was closer to rags with his t-shirt exposing a lot of his torso. He feels blood leak from his cheeks and even above his left eye.
Out of potions from the pro-long battle with this monster of a human with Zack admitting not having the right tools for healing magic, whatever that meant, the king gritted his teeth in a mixture of frustration, pain, and anger. Genesis just rolls his shoulders as if the attack he had just been hit with had done nothing more than irritate him. He smirked as he popped a few muscles in his neck and shoulders as if just working out the kinks.
The king started to wonder even if he did land a fatal attack would Genesis even register it as a wound or just another irritation…
He had no other option, the only way he could keep up with this guy would be to go all out. He calls his keyblade and with a cry, activates his Armiger. A burst of blue light shines around him as his arsenal of weapons float around him in the usual crystal ethereal form. This change prompted a raise of a brow from his adversary. 'Interesting, you still intend on fighting?', he asked, bemused. Noctis growls at this tone.
'I'm not out of this yet!', Noctis declares.
Noctis dashes forward towards him with a cry, three of his royal arms flying towards Genesis like rockets. The man in red deflects two of them with his sword and fired off another dark energy at the third just as Noctis reaches him with the Blade of the Warrior. With a rapid succession of quickdraws accompanied by ghostly missiles of his ancestor's weapons, Noctis strikes so much space it was like he trapped Genesis in a den of blades that struck at him like a whirlwind.
Genesis parries and deflects as many as inhumanly possible but even with speed like his couldn't cover everywhere and with the hits, Noctis manages to land on him it seemed as though the king had started to gain the advantage of the battle at last. The single winged man raised a hand to create a dome of dark red energy to cover him and push Noctis back from him. The king is thrown into the air but he quickly recovers and then begins to fire all his arms at the dome with a cry.
Each arm that struck the dome explodes in blue fire, destroying the ground around them, yet the barrier held up from the attacks. It was clear as well, given the king a view of Genesis merely standing in his barrier, not even healing from the attacks Noctis landed. He stands still with a smirk like this whole battle was nothing more than just a fun distraction for him before he got serious. That smirk reminded the king of Ardyn, that conceited arrogance on his face.
Noctis calls for his Armiger, all his weapons fly back into his body as he raised his engine blade above his head. Like he had down with Sora in the past, the blade was engulfed in light that extended into a large and long blade of light. He dives to the barrier and with every fiber of power and strength within his majesty, he brought down the blade on top of the barrier.
The moment of impact between the blade of light and shield of darkness, the entire town shook. The blade striking the dome creates a shockwave so powerful the ground breaks into nothing as a crater is formed beneath the dome, the streetlights glass shatters and the metal bends, unrepairable. The houses and buildings nearby shook as windows shatter, the greenery and flowers obliterated by the force and some of the tiles of the roofs are torn off.
The wind rushed with such power Zack had to stab his sword into the ground to keep himself from being thrown into the stratosphere.
Noctis presses the blade harder onto the dome with his teeth bared as Genesis raised his hand to keep his barrier going. It might have been the first time this man had to try and protect himself from Noctis. The cracks in the dark barrier begin to spread as Noctis lifted the blade and brought it down again with another cry. The sword cleaves through the barrier like a hot knife slicing through butter, speeding towards Genesis.
He raised his sword swiftly to meet Noctis' own, their collision shook the ground again as the red blade glowed to counter the blue light. The two warriors fought for dominance as Noctis now stands on his feet as he shortens his blade to a normal size and conserve power against Genesis. In a deadlock that could end with one of them being split in half as their bodies glowed in blue and red lights respectively. Genesis grunts with exertion surprised he was having trouble fighting Noctis while the king grips his sword so tightly his knuckles begin to whiten.
'I admit…your majesty', he grits out, 'I might have underestimated your tenacity'. Noctis growls back in response, pushing the man backward as he takes a step forward. This got Noctis a smirk from Genesis as his wing glowed in red. 'But you're a bit in over your head'. The advantage Noctis had clawed his way for was swiftly taken away as Genesis begins to overpower him, pressing his red misty covered sword down on the engine blade.
Slowly being pushed back despite how hard he was digging his heels into the ruined ground, Noctis hisses through his gritted teeth to push back against this monster but he could feel his power waning from overuse and his bleeding had finally caught up with him. Genesis sensed this, knowing the man is running on his last legs as he sees this king before him determined to fight on but the body is no longer able.
'A noble attempt, but a futile one none the less', were the last words the man would give Noctis. He pushes the blade off his own, throwing the king backward and launched himself towards him. Noctis raises his sword to meet him but Genesis swung his blade so quick Noctis couldn't even see it. The red blade accomplished a feat not even Ardyn had achieved, the engine blade was split in two with the blade being cut from its hilt as a large red slash marked Noctis' chest.
The attack throws Noctis through three buildings, breaking through glass, wood, stone, and steel until the king crashes into another clear square, skidding on his side until he came to a painful halt by slamming into a wall. The impact broke the dense wall and broke the left shoulder of Noctis.
Broken, disarmed and beaten, Noctis could barely twitch from the inhuman amount of pain his body took, nearly convinced he must be too shocked to even register the attack. He feels his breath weaken and it became harder for him to breathe, the slick warm touch of his blood coating his bare chest with his jacket destroyed and his t-shirt reduced to just covering his left shoulder and waist. Cursing in pain as he weakly tries to sit up, using his left elbow to prop himself upwards felt like there was a boulder on his back.
Never in his life did he feel so utterly helpless, even back as a child. This man, this guy was something entirely out of his league, and maybe even stronger than Ardyn if not Sephiroth levels of strong.
His musings were cut short when he looked up to see Genesis slowly walking towards him, his blade by his side. He stood over the fallen king, taking in his victory over the king of light. Noctis stared at him in defiance, though stubbornness would be the better word for the situation he was currently in, seeing he couldn't even keep his determination in his eyes.
Genesis brushes off the dust from his shoulder, flaunting his power over the king and rubbing in how vast their power was compared to each other. 'It seems your at the end of your rope, your majesty', he says condescendingly, spitting on his title. He raised his sword to deal the final blow, least Noctis could say he died fighting.
The blade comes down…upon another.
Zack appears in front of the devil in red, buster sword up to hold back his attack. The warrior glares at him as he held back the red sword without any sign of trouble, showing the king that another had greater strength than he. Genesis' smirks melted into a dark glare while Zack kept his cocky but playful smile on his face. He pushes Genesis off his blade and swings at him, making the man leap back from him.
'No one is dying on my watch', Zack promises, readying for the next bout. The SOLDIER runs at Genesis, commencing the next fight between them. As Noctis is forced to watch them battle, his mind wanders back to his companions and a sense of failure settles in his heart.
His hope now lied with the boy…
*Merlin's Home*
Making back to the city would have took Sora half an hour, but upon Kairi getting weaker and fainter to the point of him constantly shaking her to keep her awake, he reached the town in less than five minutes.
He finds the old coot's home (hard to miss really) and all but barged into the house. He startles what remained of his party along with a few familiar faces he hadn't seen for quite some time. The home looked nearly identical to how it looked long ago, just more clustered with books and a few bits of machinery scattered around the place.
It seemed the place was turned into a makeshift clinic with several civilians and guardians wounded and resting on cots, beds and some on mats. The smells of medicine linger in the air with sterilizations and other smells he'd knew would linger in a hospital of sorts. The computer that Cid used and still does likely was working away with someone the boy didn't recognize trying to do computer stuff. Sora didn't care really for it, both because he had no real interest in technology, and he was more focused on getting Kairi some help.
'Sora!'.
He turned around and sees amidst the sea of people Ignis speed walking towards. The boy grimaced at the sight of the man, he looked as if he had just walked out of a horrible fight that could have been very one-sided for him. His jacket was missing, and his dress shirt showed a lot of scuff marks and tears around his torso. There was a bandage around his cheek and a wrap-around his left arm. The older man glances at Kairi, no longer in her armor, sees the girl looked worse for wear.
'Iggy, I need someone to look at her', pleads the boy. With a curt nod and gesturing him to follow, Ignis guides Sora through the group of people while informing him and Kairi about the situation. Once the defenses of the city had been re-activated a lot of areas that the guardians hadn't reached had quickly cut down the number of heartless that populated the area and with what remained of the RC, they took the rest out. However, despite the shift in the tide against the darkness, the man reveals many of the RC had been severely wounded and are too fatigued to finish the battle.
This said he states that Mickey and the others are working with a group called the "Gullwings" to eradicate what remained of the heartless at the Bastion and then fight their ways to the town. When Sora asked about the others, Ignis takes him to a room with the party were stationed.
In one cot was Riku unconscious and being treated by one of the nurses, frantically calling out for medicine and other doctor stuff that went over Sora's head. Leon, much like Riku, was unconscious and had several doctors checking on him, rightfully so that is their mayor after all. Sora was relieved to see Gladiolus and Aqua were still awake, though the shield had a very foggy look in his eyes. He guessed he must be on some medicine for the pain if the blood on his chest isn't a dead giveaway.
Aqua turned to the three, relief shined when she sees Sora was safe but then worry at Kairi's form. She patted Gladiolus' chest to alert him gently and prompted him to look at the teenagers. 'Sora?', slurred the shield, trying to look at the boy. Sora gives him a small grin before one of the nurses guided the boy to a bed for Kairi. The moment he puts her down, Aqua instantly is by her side and checks her, asking the hero what had transpired.
He gave the master a quick and loose summary of what had happened despite not being present at the whole thing, but when he mentioned Kairi took down the Horned King there was a collection of quiet cheers and hope renewed in the other patients' hearts. 'Next thing that happened, I found her and brought her back here', he finishes. Aqua looks at her apprentice, wearily and weakly staring at the ceiling with clear exhaustion. She sighs. 'I can't believe she managed to use that kind of power, so early too…'.
'I'm sorry, but what is this power Kairi displayed?', Ignis questions. Aqua turns to the two. 'I'm not entirely sure of it, but it might be a combination of her being a keyblade user as well as being a princess of light', she says while crossing her arms in thought. 'She's technically the first to be two of those, and her magic isn't anything I have seen before'.
'Do you think that girl with the fox mask gave her more power with her armor?', Sora asked, 'I mean, she is a keyblade master right?'. 'If a master can unlock more power within you, then Eraqus never told me', Aqua says shaking her head. Then she gives Sora a concerning look. 'Sora, I know you're worried about Kairi, but we've a got problem'. The boy frowns and listened intently when Aqua explained to him about Genesis, telling him how the man had not only defeated Leon, Riku, and Gladiolus but even stood toe to toe with Aqua, maybe even surpassed her.
'We only managed to get away thanks to Noct and Zack', Ignis says with disgrace, 'But I fear Noct may very well be unprepared for this man'. Sora crossed his arms, mulling over the information the two of them gave the boy. The only person he could compare Genesis to is Sephiroth, and if this guy IS anything like they say…could he beat him?
When he fought Sephiroth before, not only was he leagues above the boy, but he wasn't even phased by his attacks. And now this man could be his brother for all he knew. He raises his head to face his friends, then slowly survey the clinic to take in all the people who are hurt or in worse states, like his best friends and even an old-time ally of his. Everyone here he knows had worked so hard to help rebuild their home, their dedication to bring back their home to its glory days.
Looking at Riku's wounded form, Gladiolus state, and Leon's wounds, the fact someone had dared to lay a hand on those close to him. Finally, he looks at Kairi, now looking at him with confidence and hope in her eyes. This world may not hold the same weight of love as the islands do for her, she even admitted the islands is her home, but it was still the world she was born in and came from. A world that could be destroyed by this man.
He feels the weight of his black crown, not weighing him down with doubt but reminding him why he kept pushing. He clenched his fist and pushes his fear and doubt aside and approaches Kairi. She stares up at him as he cups her cheek and with his cheesy smile, he says: 'Wait for me here, ok? I've gotta take care of someone'. Kairi replies to his smile with one of her own small but warm smiles that invigorated him. Weakly and slowly, she reached into her pocket, takes his hand off her cheek and places something within that hand.
He opened it to see her lucky charm, a wave of nostalgia washes over his heart as she says those words: 'That's my lucky charm, you be sure to bring that back to me'. Even as low and soft as those words were conveyed, Sora feels the emotion of love behind them, a surge of hope and strength coursed through his body. He kisses her forehead. 'Don't worry, I will. Promise', he says warmly. Kairi smiled once more before she laid her head in the pillow and allowed her exhaustion to win her over.
He turned back to Ignis and Aqua. 'I'll go help Noct', he says. 'Not without me', Aqua says firmly. Before Sora could argue, Ignis steps in. 'I've contacted Donald and Goofy, they're making their way back here', he says, 'With Donald helping the nurses and Goofy by my side, we can defend this clinic from the heartless or whatever else this Maleficent has in store'. They look at him as he shows genuine fear. 'If this man is as powerful as Sephiroth…then Noct is in greater danger then we thought'.
Aqua nods in understanding, turning back to Sora. 'All the more of a reason we go together', she states. Sora nods, steeling himself and pushing his arguments aside. If that man is this bad, then he'd be stupid not to take a master with him. They give Ignis a nod, Aqua kisses Gladiolus one more time and together the two wielders of the keyblade race towards the square.
With Kairi's good luck charm in his hand and his black chain crown glowing with a friendly dark light, Sora speeds off to battle.
Completely unaware of the man of no consequences watching both master and hero leave from a rooftop, and giving him his opportunity…
*Square*
Forcing himself to stand while his body takes on a pain greater than even his fight with Ardyn, Noctis barely holds himself up while clutching his right arm as he watches Zack and Genesis clash in the street. The SOLDIER lands several hits on Genesis, more than Noctis ever did, and unlike the king, it seemed his attacks left an effect on the man in red.
This minor victory, however, paled in comparison when Genesis seemingly took Zack more seriously than his fight with Noctis, because no more is he playing with his prey and started to retaliate and go for the kills this time.
Genesis strikes at Zack with waves of blade-shaped arcs of energy that forces the raven on the defense, but the attacks broke through his guard and strike the blade out of his hands. The buster sword was sent to the air and left the sole guardian unarmed and worst of all, defenseless. Genesis takes advantage of this shift in battle immediately and dashed to Zack, placing a hand on his chest and blasts him with a blast of dark red fire. His attack sends Zack flying into a building through the roof with a cry.
With him out of his way, Genesis turns on the king attempting to call for a royal arm to fight back. His strength so weakened it took all his will to merely stand up and face the man before him, his knees buckled under the weight of his body.
'It seems your majesty is out of knights to defend him', Genesis says with a curt smirk, aiming his rapier at him. Noctis snarls at him as he flexed his weakened right hand's fingers, trying in vain to call for his weapons to return to him. When Genesis is about to attack him, a loud gunshot rings out in the area and makes Genesis turn around to deflect the bullet with ease. To the horror of king Noctis, he sees Prompto firing at Genesis.
'Noct! RUN!', cried Prompto as he kept shooting at Genesis. Every bullet fired was deflected by the man with minimal effort as he started to stride towards Prompto. Yet despite this Prompto didn't hold back with his firing and shoots continuously. Noctis grunted and tried to stand tall but he collapses to a knee, to hurt to even make a break for it. All he could do is watch his best friend foolishly attempt to buy his king time to flee.
'Prompto, get out of here!', ordered the king, cursing at the sting of pain from his body. The blonde didn't stand a chance against Genesis, and he should have known that, but as the king watches him, there is nary a trace of fear in Prompto's eyes. Just bravery he never knew the gunner had within him as he drew that short blade when Genesis reached him.
Prompto swung at him with a yell, his attack easily repelled with a quick swipe of Genesis' sword. But he wouldn't run at all, he kept attacking Genesis with a mix of novice swordplay along with well-timed and aimed gunshots. He rolled away from a lazy downward strike from Genesis and when he reached behind the warrior, Prompto aims his gun at the man. At point-blank, he could lodge a bullet between the shoulders below the neck, even if he had superior physical strength that could still do enough damage to hold him back.
Except he would never know if his plan would've worked because Genesis turns on him with blind speed and all Prompto could see was a blur of red swiping across him. A splash of crimson covers his vision along with his gun…and his right arm flying up. Too shocked to even register his dismemberment, Prompto's skin turns ashen white as he went shell-shocked, he couldn't even hear Noctis' calling out his name in a mixture of horror and anguish.
Prompto falls backward and too shocked to even utter a gasp of pain or horror as the man before him loomed over the boy. Finally, he musters enough consciousness to look at the loss of his arm as it spurts out more crimson liquid, shaking as he takes in what had just transpired in less than five minutes. He cries out in horror and complete pain, clutching his stump as his heart rate skyrockets in horror.
Cruelly grinning at him, Genesis raises his sword to give this boy the mercy he needs. That is until he senses someone else fast approaching him. He was quick enough to leap away from the blade that could have harmed him, narrowly missing the teeth of the weapon. He raises his head to see it was that boy with the key who had the gall to attack him. Once Genesis was further away from them, Sora looks at Prompto and pales in horror.
'P-Prompto…', he gasps, never seeing such a gruesome scene. The blonde looked to Sora with wide panicking eyes as his entire right arm was covered in his blood, complete terror coating his blue eyes. Aqua arrives on time and upon seeing Prompto, she dashes to him and holds back her gasp of horror. 'Oh my god…', she whispers in horror. She grunts and pulls out an hi-elixir from their pocket dimension and grabbed Prompto's arm. She crushes it and lets the liquid cover his wound despite Prompto crying out in pain.
By the mercy of whatever deity, the bleeding ceases and closes but it would still need medical attention. Aqua tried not to look at his severed limb laying on the ground with his gun broken in half, holding back her bile as she helps Prompto to his feet. He staggers and nearly collapses on her had she not held him up. 'Prompto, look at me!', she orders gently, trying to startle the poor young man, the last she needed to happen is him shutting down. He weakly looks at her as she gestured Noctis, 'We need to get Noct to safety, can you run?', she asked.
Shakily he nods, keeping himself together as he slowly jogged to his king while Sora stares down Genesis. Aqua turned on the boy as he kept his eyes on this man before she lamentingly says: 'I have to get them to safety'. Sora nods in agreement, understanding. 'Leave this guy to me, I'll handle it', he says confidently. He turns to her with a smile, one that gave her hope he could do this. 'You make sure those two get back safely, promise?', he asked.
'I'll guard them with my life', she promises. Aqua runs to Noctis and heaves him up, throwing one arm over her shoulder and grabbed the waist of his pants. 'Follow me, and stay close!', she orders. Together the three escape the square which leaves only Sora and Genesis in the area.
From here Sora could feel this guy is something else entirely, the same essence of power and darkness that only Sephiroth had. It was like he was fighting a duplicate or something, the fact he took down the entire group, Noctis and his Crownsguard, Riku and Leon, and even Aqua struggled against this guy. Even if he had Donald and Goofy or even Kairi by his side, his confidence in winning wasn't as high as it was when he fought Ardyn.
Yet despite this overwhelming power that resided within this enemy of his…he feels not fear. No, he felt anger against him, fury. He had to be working with Maleficent and the Horned King for them to get this confidence to attack the city, to have someone strong enough to fight the champions of this world. His thoughts go back to the destruction of this world, to the people in that clinic, and now his friends.
Seeing his best friend in such a state, an old companion who helped guide him on the start of his journey, Gladiolus taking another hit for the team, Kairi getting captured and battered by his enemies, now seeing Noct and Prompto in such near-dead states. So many of his friends were in some way or another hurt and scarred from all this, all of them fighting for this world, for him and the other guardians of light. The pain they carried, he felt them all, the look of horror on Prompto's face at his loss of arm, the anger and pain Noctis carried.
Aqua's worries for her boyfriend, Kairi's own weary eyes showed him a sense of uselessness that still anchored her confidence. Seeing that, all this caused by the man in front of him along with Maleficent, ignited a fire within Sora's heart.
'Chosen wielder of the keyblade', Genesis greets, amused, 'I've heard much about you'. He chuckles casually as Sora draws Oathkeeper. The keyblade glowed softly when thoughts of Kairi and the others filled his mind as he removes his black crown and clenches it. 'Saviour of worlds, slayer of countless heartless, nobodies and more, a hero to the people', listed Genesis, though he spat the "hero" part out with bitterness. As a wicked smile appears on his face, he lifts his rapier at the boy as his body glows in dark red energy.
'Sephiroth might have failed to claim your head, but I am nothing like him', he promises. Sora faces him with utter determination as he lowered his left hand clenching the black crown. Slowly light begins to shine on Sora's clothes as well as a darker light, surprising Genesis that a warrior of light carried a strange darkness like Sora did. 'I don't know who you are, what you've got to do with Sephiroth or why you're working with Maleficent, but I don't care!', says Sora as his left hand is covered in dark light.
'You've hurt so many people here, everything Leon and the others worked hard to rebuild, and then you hurt my friends!', he lists as the power within Sora begins to grow and raise. He takes a step forward as slowly his clothes turn into a different color. Black and white melding together in a perfect balance as in black flames materializing in his left hand was Oblivion. He aims Oathkeeper at Genesis, body glowing in the two clashing forces, 'You're not going to hurt anyone else!'.
Images of his friends, those he's met and grew so close with all filled his mind and heart, power that could counter even the darkest forces, dare he even say even Xehanort, filled him. Genesis began to sweat at this pressure of power, not since Sephiroth did he feel such power resonate within someone other than himself. How is a boy who isn't a master could call such power from within him, and dual-wielding two keyblades at once?
Sora spins the two keyblades in front of him, creating a spark of lighting when they touched before he holds them by his side. 'I will beat you!', he cried.
Sora speeds towards Genesis, temporarily turning into a small ray of white light before reforming right in front of the man and striking him with Oblivion and then knocking him into the air with a slash from Oathkeeper. The speed displayed with a newfound source of power caught Genesis off guard and soon he was up in the air.
Recovering himself in the air, Genesis fires several violet homing energy spheres at the boy as Sora flies upward to him. The spheres rocket towards Sora, the boy wildly swings both keyblades at them and not only cuts through them all like they were just bubbles of air but he didn't lose any momentum and reached Genesis quickly. The man in red swings his rapier at Sora, their weapons clashing together as sparks of red and light burst from their attacks.
The speed of the two is invisible to the normal human eyes with the amount of space they covered, the sounds of steel clashing rang out so fast the sounds ended as quickly as they would start anew. Flashes of white and black steel clashed with the dark red, light and darkness working together to combat a greater danger to the realms. Sora warps around Genesis and aims both keys to fire a barrage of straight beams of light that struck the man from high and low. The attack makes Genesis growl in pain before he flails his sword around to destroy them.
He speeds to Sora and strikes him. Sora luckily raised both keys to protect himself though it did nothing to stop Genesis' attack from sending him back down to the ground. Sora was thrown back to the square with a bounce on his back and quickly recovered by using a small aero spell to put himself back on his feet. Sora raises his head to see Genesis rushing towards him with a thrust of his sword. The attack fails as Sora sidesteps the attack, again showing off his speed is comparable if not superior to Genesis.
He swings Oathkeeper up to throw off the blade and with Oblivion Sora imbeds it lightning, something he learned from Ignis doing the same with his daggers, and strike Genesis with it. The lighting was violet, using the darkness of Oblivion Sora strikes Genesis three times and together with Oathkeeper, he crisscrosses the attack to form an X like arc and sends Genesis flying across the square.
Genesis uses his free hand to drag into the earth and slow his flight with heels dug into the ruined ground. He curses and bores down Sora with contempt as the boy runs towards him, keyblades teeth dragged on the ground creating sparks. Sora begins to swing his weapons wildly, throwing his beams of blade-shaped arcs at Genesis, creating a mini barrage of blades attacking him. Genesis swings his blade upwards, firing off a large blackish-red arc of energy at Sora's barrages, destroying them and as it splits the earth, heads for the boy.
Crossing his arms with the blades touching his shoulders, Sora spreads them open and destroys the arc before him, closing the gap between him and Genesis with one final leap. He spins around and with both keys strikes for him with a cry. Genesis blocks this attack, but not without straining himself from the force behind Sora's attack. The two warriors glared at each other before Genesis throws Sora off him and attacks him with several thrusts of his sword.
Sora weaves and dodges these attacks enough to prevent himself from being fatally wounded save for a few scratches and nicks around his body before one thrust aimed for his heart makes him fly backflip away from it. Sora lands three feet before Genesis just as the man fired a boulder-sized blast of energy at him. No way to cut it, Sora aims both keys at the thing and fired a large ball of fire at it, the same size.
The two boulders collided and creates a massive explosion that bathed the square in intense heat and even made the two warriors jump into the skies to avoid being scorched. In the skies once more their battle took place, Sora dashes in the air to Genesis and thus their wild strikes commenced anew. Neither running low on mana or stamina, both wounded still though Sora sees Genesis was barely phased by the damage he dealt to him.
Genesis grips his blade with both hands, bathing it in red energy and struck Sora. Though he managed to erect a barrier just in time to protect himself, the barrier only took half of the damage the blade could do. The attack sent Sora back to ground, through one of the stone walls and he found himself in the outer gardens and only by slamming into the old statue in the center did his flight cease.
Shaking his head in pain, Sora narrowly managed to roll away from a stabbing attack from Genesis, his red blade piercing the statue and after he yanked it out, he swings at to cut it down to hit Sora. The boy deflects this attack with a quick swing of Oblivion and while aiming Oathkeeper, he fires several bullets of light that struck the fallen angel. The attack is enough to make Genesis growl in pain, but Sora was far from done.
The moment his foot touched the ground he leaps at him and begins to unleash a barrage of strikes from both keys while yelling at him. Light and dark arcs trailing behind each strike, cutting into Genesis and feeling the brunt of Sora's anger to him. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of a brutal beat down, Sora swings both blades up and smashes them into Genesis, sending him across the old gardens. He crashes through several dead and withered plants before he bounces up onto his feet. Bloodied, filthy with dirt and feeling the pain for the first time in years, Genesis gritted his teeth and stared down at the boy.
Panting from both pain and tiredness, Sora tenses his body for the next bout. Even with all that damage, he did to this guy, if he is anything like Sephiroth then he was far from finished. Genesis lifts his hand and utters a single word: 'Apocalypse'.
Genesis rises into the air and creates a red magic sigil under Sora's feet. Before Sora could make a run for it, Genesis had already gathered enough energy in his hand, channeling it during their clash. He raises it above his head and casts powerful lightning on Sora, causing the sigil to explode. Sora cries out in complete agony as his body is struck by the most powerful lightning he never dared to dream, every nerve was being alit with pain and the dark power behind it only amplified his suffering.
He was being held above the ground by only two feet to prevent him from running away, each bolt felt like a burning blade was piercing his body. Genesis ruthlessness didn't end there, because the moment the lighting stopped, he flew to Sora and struck him with his enhanced sword. Cutting Sora, he fires one final blast of energy at Sora that sends him across the garden and into a wall. Colliding with the wall with a heavy thud, Sora slumps to the ground dropping his keyblades.
Genesis pants himself, exerting his body by using a very powerful spell that combined with the damage Sora did to him bode ill for the fallen hero. But it was done, the world's last guardian had finally fallen to him.
Slumped on the ground, his body wracked with pain and even his clothes in tatters with his torso completely exposed and his pants torn, one glove barely holding on and another in rags, body decorated with burns, cuts, and bruises. Genesis approaches the boy, battered and likely broken as he expects…
But to his shock, even as beaten as the boy looks, Sora slowly gets back to his feet, hunched over and panting, but the moment he raises his head to look at Genesis, the man in red sees Sora is far from down. 'That's…that's impossible…', he growled, none had ever survived Apocalypse, and yet even if by some miracle they could have they still wouldn't have the strength to even raise their head, much less continue the fight.
'How!? How are you still standing!? What power could you possibly possess that could stand against me!?', demanded the man in red. Sora looks at his keyblades and then back to his adversary, glowing in light. 'My friends…', Sora says simply as he readied himself.
'MY FRIENDS *ARE* MY POWER!'.
Body bathing in light, Sora rushes at Genesis, too quick even for him to counter the boy. Sora strikes him with all the light and darkness his keyblades could give him, unrelentingly striking Genesis with power he accumulated throughout his journey. Genesis could do nothing but suffer through his attacks before with a cry, Sora sends him into the skies.
Spinning both Keyblades, he aims them both and creates a large glyph of golden red and silvery-white lights. Sora lets out a final cry: 'ULTIMA RAGNAROK!'. Instead of only twenty-four beams of energy, Sora fires off a hundred of them that all spiral and spun in the air before they all combined into one single beam of golden red and silvery-white that rockets towards Genesis. The attack struck Genesis head-on, utterly consuming him in the beam of light as his body dissolves and evaporates into darkness.
Yet as he faces the final moments of his life, Genesis lets out a chuckle and accepts his fate, disappearing into the abyss as the beam continues to pierce through the dark clouds above the world. With Genesis' body destroyed and removed from the realm of light, the dark clouds begin to evaporate and slowly it was the clear blue skies once again.
Shaking with exertion and pain, Sora pants and coughs, dropping his keyblades and falling back on his back. He lets out a tired chuckle, eyes staring up at the skies and taking in the warmth of the sun.
'There…we, we go…', he pants.
'SORA!'.
Next thing he sees are the faces of Donald and Goofy obscuring his vision of the skies, both showing pure worry on their faces. He figured he may have looked a lot worse than he felt and judging by much of a strain it was for him to just sit up he had a worrying feeling it was much worse. Donald immediately started to heal him up, using what Sora feared was fumes of his magic by how shaky the duck's arm.
'Are you ok?', Goofy asked as Donald helps close the wounds and patches Sora up. The boy hisses in pain, some of his bones were tender and the duck couldn't heal him completely, but after some help from Goofy, he is happy to see standing wasn't an impossibility for him. 'I'll be ok…thanks guys', he says kindly.
'But, I thought you guys were at the clinic?', he asked. Donald says: 'We stuck around for a while, but then when Aqua came back with Noct and Prompto, she told us to help you!'. Sora was about to ask about Prompto before his eyes widened in shock.
'What a performance, Sora'.
His two long time companions turned to see waltzing up to the trio, is none other than Ardyn. He courteously takes his hat off and bows to them in a greeting manner, a coy and sneaky smirk plastered on his face. The three gasped his name and instantly summoned their weapons, but Ardyn is unphased by this expected aggression. 'Now, now gentlemen, I feel as if there has been enough fighting, hasn't there?', Ardyn asks.
He gestures to Sora, 'After all, dear Sora looks ready to collapse from all his fighting'. Instantly Goofy pushes Sora behind him while Donald steps in front of them, staff aimed at the man. 'You take a step closer and I'll turn ya into a roast dinner!', threatened Donald. Sora stares at the nemesis of Noctis, pondering how he survived their fightback in Eos. Until he sees his eyes and then his own widened.
Golden, just like Xigbar's.
Ardyn smirks at the boy's reaction, placing his hat back on. 'Ahh, you seem to have noticed a change in me, have you not?', he asks. Sora grunts and lifts Oathkeeper up. The man clicks his tongue in a chastising manner. 'Oh Sora, as much I would love to have our rematch, I'm afraid to say it is not you I'm interested in fighting'.
'You stay away from Noct!', Sora growled, 'You're not immortal anymore, and even with Xehanort's darkness, we can take you!'. Ardyn hums in response to this bold threat before he nods. 'Oh I know, my immortality has long been taken from me, make no mistake', he muses, 'But your Xehanort is quite the planner if you recall. Granted, I may be killable as you and your friends, I am, however, I'm not entirely the same'.
Then he simply waves his hand. 'But why spoil the fun? I'm only here to deliver a message to you and your fellow guardians', he reveals. 'Master Xehanort is getting a little impatient with you, and told me to tell you, in seven days, whether you come to the battle or not, the war will begin', he warns, then smirks evilly, 'And perhaps you need some incentive to hurry up, perhaps say a world going poof?'.
Sora strode forward, pushing past his friends. 'You stay away from other worlds!', ordered Sora. 'We'll be there, and we won't let you win!'.
Ardyn's smirk leaves his face, for a moment he nearly mistook the boy for Noctis. That light they somewhat shared shined so bright, and the utter faith in the boy's eyes…
He scoffs. 'Such confidence, I truly hope, for yours and your friends, Sora, you have the power to back that up'.
With a curt but sarcastic bow, Ardyn turns around to leave as a dark corridor opens. Then, he stops. 'Oh, and Sora? Perhaps you go visit your dear princess at the clinic? I heard she isn't doing so well', he says dismissively. Sora's eyes shoot open in shock but before he could demand answers, Ardyn leaves the world behind him. In silence with the words burning in his mind, forgoing all concern for himself Sora breaks into a sprint, closely followed by Donald and Goofy.
Sora runs through the city like a man who had but a few seconds of life left, leaping over buildings and dashing through the streets like a bullet. His mind fixed on Kairi and whatever Ardyn could have done to her, especially with everyone unable to fight in such a state.
They reached Merlin's house and before the two could stop Sora, he all but kicked the door to oblivion and ran in. He calls for Kairi's name as he skitters around the clinic, narrowly avoiding knocking into people and/or bumping to people.
He nearly trips and was caught by Aqua. 'Sora, calm-
'Where's Kairi!? What did-
'Sora?'.
The hero looks past Aqua and sees Kairi sitting down near a sleeping Noctis, looking over at him. She gasped in horror over his state and quickly rushed to him just as he slumps in relief. 'Sora, oh my god, what happened to you!?', she questions, catching him and helped him settle on his knees. He stares at her, confused and judging from his looks close to passing out.
'Y-You're ok…', he sighs. Kairi nods and looks over his wounds, rambling over how he was still conscious of all his wounds. 'What happened? D-Did you…', she starts before Sora cups her cheeks and silences her worries and kisses her. Kairi blushes from this and more so when he pulled her into a very tight hug. He breaks the kiss and pants, smiling tiredly.
'You're safe…', he breathes out before he collapses into her, passing out.
Kairi and Aqua helped get him into another bed with the princess staying by his side while Aqua instructs Donald and Goofy on what to do. Kairi gently strokes Sora's cheek lovingly and allowed herself to be at ease.
The battle was over…
A/N: I AM SO HAPPY I CAN TAKE A BREAK FROM FIGHTING CHAPTERS!
Before I get into the usual stuff, just quick response to the guest: Guest-Questioner.
First thank you for the detailed review, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
Responses:
A1: Great to read, thank you!
A2: I'm guessing "Shota" is a chibi of the boy or something else?
A3: I understand, but most of Kairi's abilities (if Remind is any indication) is based on light, so hence why I'm focusing on using light with her, otherwise she'd be no different then Aqua. I'll diversify the team so we won't see light as much!
A4: True! But it never hurts to get an idea what people wanna see in future. Thank ya for the support.
A5: I promise Moogles, Cactuars and Chocobos in future!
A6: Good :3.
A7: I know I could use the Kingsglaive uniforms, but I already have an idea on their designs.
A8: Good point, so I'm safe!
A9: I'm genuinely surprised people AREN'T complaining with all the fighting we've been having!
So now we're done with the fighting, we're gonna have some laid back chapters until we reach the final battle with Xehanort and the XIII Darkness. Fluff, bonding, fun and maybe foreshadows. Party time next time!
Questions!
Q1: Thoughts on chapter?
Q2: Prompto losing a limb? Too much?
Q3: Noctis losing his own weapon?
Q4: Fight with Sora and Genesis?
Q5: Happy we're done with the fighting?
Q6: Dual wield done well?
Q7: Sora's new attack?
Next chapter is gonna be a while due to a few changes, so I'm not sure when I'll get another out but it'll be a goodie! As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!
