Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 76
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
Many would say Sora has his fair share of enemies, but few he could call a sworn nemesis. Many foes he had defeated in the past were just adversaries who tried to harm his close and new friends whenever he visits new worlds, but the three before him he would completely agree are some of his greatest and worst enemies he ever had the displeasure of fighting.
Words could not even convey the feelings of disdain he had for the three that had so much of an impact on his life, and not just his but so many of his friends. Ansem needed no explanation, just remembering hearing his voice coming from Riku's mouth before fuelled the fire that is his anger, and of course, him being the one who brought the heartless to Radiant Garden and destroying so many worlds for his somebody.
Xemnas is already a monster of a man for what he had put Roxas and his friends through, using all his members as sacrifices for his grand plan. But now putting Kairi's life in the hands of Xehanort, smugly taunting the boy that he once again stole his precious light, it was just as well Aqua taught him to reel in his anger enough to concentrate on the battle. But he was going to rip into Xemnas, not even their first fight could compare to it.
Then came Young Xehanort, nearly identical to his older self just more smug and arrogant. The young boy wanted to see the outside world but is willing to do whatever it took for his goals. It still leaves Sora perplexed as to how this young man was perfectly okay with how he would turn out in the future, seeing the levels of evil and cruelty his older self would stoop to for his goal. Remembering his time back in the sleeping worlds, how he tricked and beguiled Sora into falling for his false memories, and only thanks to Riku and Axel he was spared a horrible fate.
All three of these men were here in between himself and Kairi, and no sooner had he entered the fight Sora was already pulling out all the stops.
Already in his Ultimate Form and making a beeline for Young Xehanort by tackling him past Xemnas and Ansem, leaving those two to deal with Riku and Mickey. The young man tried to break out of Sora's attack but the boy who he had greatly underestimated so much in the past strikes him with his keyblade and hits him up to the air. Sora flies up after him, engaging him in a clash of keyblades, each of Sora's strikes forcing him to go higher and higher.
The young master teleports away from the boy and returns to the battleground, jerking his head to see Sora is already right in front of him. He could not even teleport in time to avoid getting Sora's boot to his face. Sora leaps off him as if he were nothing more than a platform and spins in the air to aim his keyblade at him. Young Xehanort reels on him and changes his keyblade into a whip and then attacked Sora with it.
His whip wraps around Ultima and stopped Sora's attack, only for Sora to dismiss his keyblade and dive back down to the man who started it all. The young seeker of darkness swung his keyblade at the boy, Sora gliding to the side of it while spinning around and recalling his keyblade. Sora misses the young master when he tried to go for the head, forcing Young Xehanort to teleport again from him, further burning the levels of patience Sora had.
Reappearing on his left, Young Xehanort is already aiming his keyblade at the boy and fires a barrage of dark projectiles at him that flew several levels of height at him. Sora in response dashes forward recklessly, his Ultimate Form calling for the many colorful swords from his form to act like projectiles to pierce the darkness. Sora grabbed for one and swung them both at Young Xehanort. The older boy just barely manages to block the attack with one keyblade. When Sora slammed the two blades on him, the force of his attack almost split the earth in two from where Young Xehanort stood.
Confronting his "master" with all the anger in his heart, Riku manages to slide underneath the flying disks of darkness hurtled toward him. No sooner did he evade having his body sawed into pieces, he dashes towards the man who had put him onto the dark path in his past, keyblade shining brilliantly as he managed to land a blow onto the man who stole the identity of Radiant Garden's ruler. Though nothing that would do him in.
The false Ansem floats into the air, firing a barrage of dark fire at Riku. Riku in turn leaps at the hurtling flames, using his darkness to coat his blade and slice and dice his way through the barrage. He front flips over the final ball and aimed his free hand at the seeker of darkness. With a yell he shoots a ray of his darkness at him, Ansem flies away from the attack and then, as he is cloaked in darkness, rushes towards Riku like a rocket.
The master slammed his keyblade right onto the attack, but his efforts were for naught as Riku was thrown into the air. Ansem reappears behind him and opens his arms up to engulf himself in a barrier. The moment Riku contacted him, he is cloaked in darkness and electricity before being repelled by the barrier and falls to the ground with a thud. Ansem smirks victoriously at the boy, lifting his hand to channel his darkness into the final attack.
Instead of Riku laying there in defeat though, he shocks the seeker of darkness by jumping back to his feet with ease. The boy holds his keyblade with both hands and lowers it to his side as darkness cloaks his form, even his eyes going purple for a moment before with a yell, he swings his keyblade at the master. The attack creates a large arc of darkness and even light that launches towards Ansem, so fast even he could not react in time to dodge or stop it.
The attack hits the man with full force, cutting and burning him with the divine darkness. He is thrown off the platform and onto another battlefield where Riku immediately gives chase, it was time to put an end to this man once and for all.
With the two youngsters fighting their greatest adversaries, Mickey takes up the duty to settle the score with the man he once thought was Xehanort's original form. It still made the mouse king ponder how he had been so blind in the past, never putting together how everything could have played out in Xehanort's favor up until now. He never told anyone this and a selfish part of his heart knew he'd take it with him until the end of his days, but he felt great remorse and shame for his lack of action in the past
If he had been wiser, if he had been stronger, then perhaps so many of these tragedies could have been prevented. Had he the strength to dive into the dark realm and rescue Aqua, had he the foresight to see through Xehanort's guise of using Terra's body as a puppet and heavens forbid had he been there for Riku and Sora at the beginning, then perhaps their falling out before would never have come to pass. Seeing Xemnas bearing so many similarities to Terra's young form, the way he smirked smugly at the king just mocked Terra's kindness.
It had been a very, VERY, long time since Mickey got serious with an enemy. And evidently, Xemnas himself is going all out for this bout as well. His once all-black cloak is now a white one covered in black designs, many of which resemble the nobody logo. Sora and Riku had warned the team about this form when they last fought him together, and his power is an all-time high now compared to earlier.
Mickey's smaller size and skilled acrobatic prowess held the advantage of mobility against Xemnas, his lasers were hitting everything but the king. This does not mean however Mickey held the fight in his hands entirely. Even someone as powerful as himself, Mickey's might is matched by Xemnas' tenacity and versatility. Every swing from his laser sabers was followed by more lasers fired from nowhere so that even if his blade missed a laser could catch Mickey.
Mickey's parries and deflecting skills had been put to the test, even while facing arguably the third/fourth-strongest member of Xehanort's vessels. Xemnas levitates away from the king, firing a series of dark thorns at him. Mickey jumps and leaps over these attacks, even using his keyblade to rip them to shreds with a few swings. He then fires a pearl of light magic at him, running along with it before he fires two more.
Using his laser sabers, Xemnas splits the pearls with ease and manages to lock weapons with Mickey. While still in the air, Mickey strikes at the former leader of the organization as he levitates backward from the mouse king. Mickey's attacks forced him back to the ledge of the platform, but when he tried to go for another flurry of keyblade strikes, Xemnas teleports behind him and grabbed the collar of his clothes.
Before Mickey could do anything, Xemnas throws the king into the air and off the platform, teleporting to the king. Whilst in the air, Mickey is then attacked by thorns appearing from portals around him, making the king leap and flip around them as Xemnas dives in with his sabers. Mickey is struck several times by either the thorns or the laser sabers, yelping with each hit before Xemnas performed a roundhouse kick that throws Mickey onto another platform.
He chases the mouse king, leaving only Sora and Young Xehanort on the platform.
Facing on against Ansem, Riku charges at him with his Guardian Form. With his gigantic ax in hand, he brings down the mighty weapon upon Ansem's barrier. The force breaks apart the platform they were on and both fall through the collapsing stones while Riku keeps striking the dark barrier. Ansem dispels it just as Riku swings it and misses thanks to there being no barrier. Ansem teleports above him and stomps on his back with both feet.
Riku smashes through a fallen boulder and slammed into another, but he quickly tosses his ax at Ansem. As it spun towards the heartless, Riku jumps from platform to platform to reach the older man. Ansem uses his darkness to catch the ax by the pole, completely unaware of Riku's quick climb up towards him. Only when he senses the boy does he turn in time to see Riku deliver a solid punch to his jaw, his fist coated in darkness. The attack blasts Ansem through more falling boulders until he smashes through another pillar of stone.
He stops his momentum with a grunt, bruised, and bloody. He raises his head to see Riku running at him through the tunnel his back created and leaps towards Ansem. Ansem curses him and with a single swipe of his arm, Riku is caught in the air by darkness, held in place. Ansem then swipes his hand several times, telepathically slamming Riku into the wall, then to the ground from ten feet and then upheave him and repeat this torture for a good five minutes.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Ansem throws Riku through three pillars and onto a short platform of stone. Riku bounces off the ground with several thuds before lands on his feet and slammed his ax to stop him from being thrown off the platform. Panting and gritting his teeth in pain, Riku gets to his feet as Ansem levitates before him, darkness gathering in his hands. He starts to throw several disks at Riku, forcing the master to stand and swing his ax with enough force to destroy the disks.
Riku runs at the seeker and slammed his bladed ax into the ground, vaulting himself into the air and with a single front flip, Riku aims both hands and fires a charged hurricane of flames with violet lightning dancing around it. Ansem calls his barrier in time to hold the beam from swallowing him in flames but it only protected him for five seconds before breaking through it and sending himself through the platform and further to the labyrinth.
Ansem is smashed into the ground by the blast as the flames roasted his body and lightning shocking his nerves. With a bellow of power, Ansem blasts the attack into nothingness as darkness erupts around him, reaching as high as one of the towering platforms.
Riku jumps down to confront this man for the final time, seeing the darkness slowly fade away and Ansem steps out of it. Without his jacket and gloves with his pants and boots are replaced by a pair of black skin-tight leggings with yellow lining. He also grows to a tremendous size and his eyes become completely orange and pupil-less in this form. In his hand is Soul Eater a dual-bladed halberd, the very same weapon he used against Sora in the past.
Riku takes his ax and reverts it into Braveheart, takes up his stance as darkness cloaks his body while drawing up all his power. Ansem spins his halberd and readies himself to put an end to the vessel that housed his will and heart, only one shall walk away to continue their journey.
They both raced towards each other, the titan swinging his dual blades at the boy with just one hand. Riku flips and jumps over the blades while using his dark enhanced strength to strike back at him. Ansem grunts with each hit but that is all Riku achieved with these attacks, the dark power coursing through this man who once possessed the boy is at a new level of power no heartless had ever attained in the past. Even without his guardian, he still manages to put Riku's best upfront.
Ansem slashes Riku's body from hip to left shoulder, earning a yell from the boy as he is flying and into the wall. Ansem lifts his hand and summons several glyphs surrounding him and with a single gesture of his hand, they glyphs fire straight lasers at Riku. The boy quickly kicks off the wall to avoid being burnt, only managing to dodge nearly all of them with one burning his right shoulder. Riku lands on his feet and stabbed his keyblade into the ground, firing a wave of darkness at Ansem.
The seeker spins and swipes his blade across the wave, splitting it in half. Doing so gave Riku a chance to fly and kick Ansem in his heartless emblem chest, then he slammed the palm of his free hand on his face and fires a condensed burst of darkness at point-blank. This attack fires Ansem further from Riku just when he bathes his keyblade in violet lightning and allows his body to be cloaked in darkness. He takes a deep and steady breath, lifting his keyblade so he can press his forehead against the flat surface against it.
Slowly Riku's eyes shifts into a dark violet color while darkness paints his skin into ink, his greaves turning violet and red with the dream eater emblem stamped onto them, his jacket turning into a black and red cloak. Even his hair goes ashen white as he calls out his darkness to its fullest power. Ansem raised his head to bear witness to Riku's full potential being brought out before the seeker raised his hand to the air and cried out:
"Welcome Oblivion!".
A large ball of darkness that is comparably the same size of a house with several glyphs flashing as it starts to turn into a black hole. The ground trembles at its power while sucking in everything around, broken and fallen stone, dust, and rubble, even the air. Riku feels it pull before he lets out a roar, darkness erupting from his heart and tendrils of darkness shoot out and stab into the ground, holding him safely in place.
Riku grabs his keyblade, lifting it above his head as the dark light within him bathes it in what could be the perfect harmony between light and darkness. Slowly the aura surrounding the blade raises and extends to replicate an oversized buster blade that reached above the walls of their arena. Grabbing the key with both hands as the weight of its power it enough to sink Riku's feet into the earth, and with a roar that could shake even the darkest hearts, Riku brings down the massive blade.
The twilight blade cleaves through the black hole, splitting it in two. The ball doesn't even explode as the giant sword falls onto Ansem. Ansem snarls and calls for every drop of the darkness within his heart, bathing himself in the blackest of darkness. His halberd roars with darkness as he swings with every fiber of darkness within his body. Their weapons collide for no more than a single second, for the collision sent a horrible blast the consumed both warriors in a bright flash.
The battleground is destroyed as the blast consumes the walls and ground…
Just narrowly escaping from the pit of death, Ansem teleports to one of the final platforms that watched over the arena, bloodied, bruised, scarred and ultimately, beaten. His weapon breaks apart into fragments of darkness before he almost falls to his knee, gritting his teeth. But this temporary respite came to an end when he turns to see on the other side of the platform, is Riku.
Reverted into his human appearance with his jacket gone, shirt barely holding together exposing his stomach and right shoulder, his right arm bare. Several tears in his pants, a single cut above his left eye leaking and even has some blood in his silvery hair. The master's keyblade looked significantly heavier in his hand but his eyes showed he was far from done with this bout, even if he did look like he is ready to keel over and welcome sleep.
Ansem turns to face him, his pride is still on the line after all, but whatever fight he carried within him had evaporated. The boy approached him, his walk showed he was tired and weakened but none the less he still approaches the man he, in a sense, went on a long journey with. The young master could never forgive the seeker, nor even himself, for the chaos they had wrought together, even if he could justify Ansem had put him on the dark path.
Oddly enough, meeting this man had strangely benefitted Riku in the long run. His desire to atone stemmed from this man trying to goad him into becoming a heartless again, to use the darkness to get what he desired and his acceptance of the darkness in his heart is what made him strong enough to take the Mark of Mastery Exam and more importantly safe his best friend from a fate worse than becoming heartless.
Ansem chuckled ruefully, sensing his body had finally submitted to the fate that lied in store for him. Slowly his darkness propels into the skies, like so many before him as his body slowly fades away. "What…a journey you and I had…", he reflects fondly, looking at his hand slowly fading away. Riku stops before him, even his eyes showed a semblance of remorse for the man. "It's weird…strange even to feel…but I think I'm gonna miss you", he says.
"…your strength is vaster and greater than the darkness", Ansem concedes respectfully, "I knew the moment we crossed our darkness…I never stood a chance". He then scoffs in a very indifferent manner, saying: "Part of me wanted to defy the fate that lied in store for me…but when the others betrayed us, I simply did not care". He stands up tall as he closed his eyes for a moment to reflect, before facing Riku again. "And then…nothing else had mattered to me anymore".
Riku looked down, prompting Ansem to chuckle. "The time has come…to move on boy…", he lectures with a smile, "Go…there is so much more to seek, so go forth and seek it out". His final parting words to probably his greatest adversary, whose heart and strength had long since surpassed the seeker. And thus, the heartless of Xehanort pass onwards to the next world, wherever he may fall to.
Looking up to the traces of Ansem, Riku nods and accepts this road. He clenched his teeth before he runs to re-join the others.
If he was going to seek out more from the worlds, he wanted to do it with those two by his side.
On the other side of the labyrinth, jumping from one pillar to the other, Mickey strikes back against Xemnas' lasers and slices through his endless thorns. The nobody was flying in the air shooting the mouse king relentlessly and tirelessly, keeping at a distance from Mickey and planning to finish him off without crossing blades with one of the most powerful masters of the keyblade.
Mickey remains determined, however, even if he is at a disadvantage. The king's eyes were alit with the motivation to win. He jumps off another pillar and runs along a wall as they both navigate through a narrow canyon, Xemnas still keeping to his strategy, firing more lasers at the king. Along the wall, Mickey jumps from wall to wall to evade the lasers and at the same time slashes at the thorns, trying to keep Xemnas on guard but at the same time show him this attempt to do away the master would not work.
Xemnas then teleports just as Mickey swaps walls to run along and appears in front of him just as he lands on the wall. With his right hand aimed, he fires a barrage of lasers at Mickey and uses his left hand to implant thorns into the wall. Seeing the thorns nearly shoot out of the wall, Mickey jumps off it and avoids the lasers. In the air in between the walls, Mickey is caught by Xemnas via the neck and tossed down to the ground, with the nobody chasing after him.
Flipping in the air, Mickey fires two pearls at Xemnas as he falls to the ground. These attacks were quickly done away by Xemnas slashing them in half, but Mickey's feet find a home on a small broken pillar of stone, and quickly he uses it to leap back up to Xemnas. His speed catches the nobody off guard and closing the distance so quickly allowed Mickey to land several strikes on him before Xemnas could react in time.
His keyblade cuts and pummels Xemnas, light striking at his dark tainted body. The king strikes Xemnas with enough force to smash him into one of the walls with a thud, and once he was planted within the wall, Mickey aims his keyblade and fires a single beam of light at his heart. Xemnas, however, smirked and uses the corridor of darkness to disappear before the beam touched him. He reappears below Mickey and then performs a back-flip kick that kicked Mickey to the air, and gives chase.
Mickey is kicked up to the top of the canyon and is then roundhouse kicked again by Xemnas. He is kicked onto the top of the wall with two bounces before he rolled to his feet, watching Xemnas as the former leader levitates before him. Mickey huffs and readies for the fight, even with his attacks harming the nobody they were nothing more than minor brushes. His respect for Sora and Riku had grown when he remembered Xemnas met his end by two weaker keyblade users.
Xemnas flies to the king with his sabers but performs a low sweep kick instead of attacking with his laser sabers. Mickey leaps over this attack while swiping at the nobody, his keyblade deflected by Xemnas' right-hand blade. Mickey jumps around his sweeping and roundhouse kicks while at the same time tries to land a blow only to have each attack miraculously be deflected back from the sabers. Xemnas' skill is a cut above the others, his reaction is almost worthy of a keyblade master.
Xemnas' saber lands on Mickey's chest thanks to a quick turn around and swing, striking Mickey. The mouse king is thrown onto his back for no less than five seconds as he rolls to his side and fires off a slew of elemental magic at Xemnas. But even some of the more powerful spells were nothing for Xemnas, his sabers cutting them down as he practically dances while swinging his weapons and even his kicks were powerful enough to break them. Once he got close to Mickey in the middle of casting another spell, he kicks the mouse in the side of his head.
Mickey grunts out in pain and staggered to his feet as Xemnas raises his hand at him, firing more lasers at him. Unfortunately, Mickey is hit twice by the barrage, his shoulder, and right knee which forced him to a knee. Mickey hisses out with pain, looking at Xemnas at the man aimed his hand at him, his face showing amusement.
"Humph…I had expected the keyblade master who came before Sora would have been more…", he mocks, "My fight with the boy should have been a prelude to what a true master is capable of…yet I'm more than disappointed".
Mickey slowly gets to his feet as Xemnas floats to the air, the mouse's body carrying too much pain to stop him as Xemnas' hands shine with darkness and emptiness of a nobody. "But I am no fool…leaving you will only be a detriment to our goals", he states, "I will allow you to perish, so you may be spared of the fates of your companions". Slowly enshrouding the two, Xemnas lights up the dome of darkness with lasers that far exceeded his previous attack.
Mickey looks around to see he is trapped within as Xemnas smirked ruefully. "Embrace…oblivion!".
Xemnas unleashes what could only be compared to a thousand lasers fired per second, completely covering spaces and obscuring everything in Mickey's eyes. Mickey presses onward, using even his weakened knee to carrying him while he jumps, dodges, and deflects the lasers with every fiber of speed and strength his small body could grant him. He takes hits and grazes here and there, but his small stature granted him better chances of avoiding.
Even if it meant he would only be delaying his end…
As he jumps and dodges these attacks, watched by Xemnas as the nobody enjoys the guardian's struggle to fight back against his destiny. His words, the promises of harming his companions, they rang out deep within the king's mind and heart, images of the past fighting had popped in his mind. Donald and Goofy, weaker than the others and even with all the beatings they endured for their companions boiled the mouse's blood.
Thinking back to how much the worlds had asked from Sora, Riku, and the others, his shortcomings burning his heart. The pain the lasers paled in comparison to how much he had asked from those people, young folk who did not deserve the anguishes Xehanort and his vessels had put them through. Sora nearly becoming one of the dark, Riku put on the dark path, Kairi being forced to stay behind and wait while her friends suffer, Aqua trapped in the darkness, Ventus losing his heart and Terra becoming a slave to Xehanort.
All this, all this pain and misery he had not been able to prevent…
It ends today.
Mickey raises his keyblade and yells out: "STOPZA!".
The next thing Xemnas knew, all his lasers were sliced into nothingness, not a trace of them could be found as a blur of light flashes all around the darkness and the red of his lasers slowly disappearing like the air. His yellow eyes were not able to even see what the king had done to stay off his end yet again, moving so quickly it is as though there were hundreds of the king all in one spot. He grunted in fury calls his sabers and prepares himself for the moment needed to do away with this meddlesome past.
Mickey suddenly appears right before him, in the air with his body glowing in light. Xemnas' eyes lose the anger within them as a sudden sense of nothingness washes over him, the king's hand tightly gripping the keyblade as the blade shined with the most brilliant light. In his eyes Xemnas sees the pain his body had adopted and yet even with all his wounds, he sees the will to persevere and walk down his road despite the pain.
For the first time in what feels like a lifetime, Xemnas felt something other than emptiness…admiration.
Mickey brings down his keyblade down onto Xemnas at last, concluding their battle. He slashes past the former leader and lands behind him, on one knee while his keyblade touches the ground, the king panting with exertion and pain coursing through his small form. Xemnas could feel his life fade from his body, the darkness that will create the final key seeping into the skies as he slowly floats back down to the ground, clutching his chest. Staggering the moment his feet touched the ground, Xemnas looks at his hands as he starts to fade away.
"Bested…yet again…", he sighed.
The king slowly stands and turns to him as Xemnas looks at his hands as darkness seeped from them, the king looking at his keyblade and then back to the nobody. "…Sora believes you have a heart", Mickey informs, respectful and even sympathetic, "Tell me…what do you feel? Was any of this worth it?". Xemnas placed a hand on his chest, whether in pain or even to feel his supposed heart, Mickey couldn't say for certain.
"I feel…nothing but the emptiness of where my companions once stood…I had taken them for granted", confesses Xemnas, "And now I have nothing. The first surge of emotion I have had in years for as long as I can remember…and it is loneliness". Xemnas shakes his head and looks at Mickey, and speaks: "Do you see? A heart is just pain".
"That's…part of having one", Mickey says, shaking his head. "Pain…anger, sadness, they are all part of having one. But there are also other parts to make one, joy, bravery and kindness", Mickey says, placing a hand on his heart, "Yours is filled with pain because those you called companions are either gone or have left your side…". Mickey frowns in silence, remembering all those times he had to be alone for their goals to protect the realm of light.
In a lot of ways, he and Xemnas had both endured that same loneliness on their journeys through the worlds. The only difference is Mickey's companions would have always been there for him when he would come home to them, Xemnas had none.
"Is that so? Hmm…it must take…incredible strength", he sighs as his body fades away. Admiration is shinning in his eyes as he addresses the king, and if Mickey were a betting mouse, likely he is thinking of Sora too. Once the nobody fades away into the darkness, Mickey finally falls to his knees in pain, exhausted and weary.
The spell he cast took far more out of him than he dared to think, and he could feel his arms waver in exhaustion and his eyes felt heavy. But he cannot stop here, not yet. Using a piece of his low mana pool, Mickey gets to his feet as his wounds patched up and turn his head to where Xehanort waited for the battles to conclude. His hand tightening around his keyblade at the thought of that man using Kairi to hurt Sora and Riku awoken a fire within his heart.
This time he will not leave anyone behind, no one else would be alone after a great battle. As king, as a master, he will make it his mission to make sure everyone can go home together.
Atop of the battleground overseen by Xehanort, his younger self still clashes with the chosen wielder of the keyblade. The younger version had set mine glyphs all over the battleground while using his whip-keyblade to strike at the boy from a distance and cut off any other direction he could have taken, either forcing him to make hasty decisions that could have set off a mine or be struck by the whip. The young master had regained control over the battle within minutes after his nobody and heartless scurried away with their prey.
Sora jumped on one empty bit of ground and stayed on it for less than a second before the whip almost slashed his face again. He keeps jumping from one fragment of free earth and keeps getting attacked by the whip and would often receive a hit. Young Xehanort had effectively turned the battle into a game of the floor is lava with the added layer of the unfairness of getting slashed by a whip, forcing him to constantly be on the run.
One step on free earth before the whip could touch him, Sora rockets himself into the air above the battleground. Young Xehanort watches him fly to the sky while Sora is bathed in light. He grabs his sword and with a yell, teleports just above the ground, and light bursts from him. Two large glyphs of light appear from below and above the boy, and then a hurricane of slashes from his sword, slashing the entire battleground and with each slash hitting the glyphs, exploding them.
Young Xehanort grunts before leaping into the air to evade Sora's desperate attack with explosions covering the entire field. The young master searches for him in the smoke as the glyphs disappear and he senses the light from Sora had reverted to his original form until another burst of light makes itself known to his senses. Sora suddenly launches from the smoke, his clothes now red with urban camouflage patterns and carries a gigantic hammer.
The master strikes Sora with his whip with a yell but the boy dashes towards him quickly enough for him to miss. He appears above Young Xehanort and slammed his hammer right onto his back with all the force of a runaway truck. Young Xehanort slammed into the ground so quickly he could not even comprehend the attack nor form a proper counterattack or even use his powers to make a softer landing form himself.
The younger seeker of darkness got to his knees with a growl and turns around in time to fire a ring of nine icicles at the boy. Sora smashes them to pieces with his hammer as he dives to the ground. The second his feet touch the ground, he immediately dashes to Young Xehanort while dragging the hammer down on his right, breaking the earth beneath him. He swings the hammer upward to Young Xehanort with a roar as the hammer uses its rocket booster to increase the speed.
Young Xehanort foolishly tries to block the attack and slammed his keyblade upon the hammer. His keyblade is struck out of his hands, flying into the air, and with a spin, Sora slammed his hammer into the master's body, throwing him into the huge pillar of stone Xehanort stood upon. His body is buried within the stone, but Sora was not finished with him yet. He quickly swaps out his hammer for the halberd.
Young Xehanort propels him out of his stone prison and strikes Sora as he raised his halberd against his reclaimed keyblade. Sora throws him off himself and starts to dance with his halberd, striking at Xehanort's youthful form, his halberd plunging forth repeatedly and with several skilled swings Sora counters all Young Xehanort's attacks. The older master just narrowly managed to block the halberd from cutting off his head, parrying it, and then uses force magic to blast Sora away from him.
Sora's feet dug into the ground; his eyes bore deep into Young Xehanort's while the boy of the darkness summons clones of himself to harass the younger master. The two clones jump into the air and begin to wildly swing their key-whips at Sora, lashing out at him and the ground around him. Sora spins his halberd and uses his magic to shift it into the Storm Flag, and with amazing demonstrations of his skill, he quickly deflects the whips back at the clones.
Young Xehanort teleports in front of the boy and strikes at his flag, Sora meeting his swordplay with polearm prowess, the flag itself striking back at the one keyblade wielder of the darkness. Young Xehanort's keyblade is then held in the air during a swing by the flag, the red cloth wrapped around beneath the teeth of his dark and time themed keyblade, allowing Sora to use the staff to pummel and give Xehanort's youthful form a taste of payback for his meddling back in his exam.
The flag can extend as much as it wanted and thanks to some quick movements from Sora's pole, he eventually yanked the keyblade out of Xehanort's hand and beat him several times with the pole before one stabbing thrust from the butt of his pole and one wallop to his jaw with the end of his weapon. Young Xehanort is sent staggering to the left, bruises starting to form on his handsome face, and having no time to stop Sora from spins the staff over his head and creates a small hurricane that slashes Young Xehanort's body and sent him flying across the battlefield.
The master flipped backward in the air and lands on his feet, grunting in pain while Sora reverts to his normal form, Kingdom Key back in his hand. Young Xehanort chuckled smugly, smirking cruelly at Sora. "Where was all this during your exam, Sora? You might have passed if you weren't so worthless!", he mocks.
"Shut up!", Sora snaps, "Get out of my way!". Young Xehanort stands up properly as the boy's eyes glowed with anger towards him, his grip on the keyblade tightening. "What? You still think you're gonna save her?", asks the young master with a cruel laugh. "Foolish boy…". Sora growled and dashes at him, swinging his keyblade at the silver-haired youth. Young Xehanort blocks his attack and pushes his keyblade aside and takes a swing at him, only to be blocked himself.
Their keyblades locked, eyes dead focused on each. "You think because Aqua deemed *you* worthy, you have the right to be called a master?", he mocks, "Never chosen, never even given a chance to be worth consideration by the keyblade! An accident, a mistake, a chance of fate! That is why you wield the keyblade!". Sora grunts at the cutting words, yet his heart steeled itself, his will power not even chipped slightly at the words this arrogant brat of a man spewed.
"And you think you're worthy of it? Especially knowing what you're going to do in the future?", Sora challenged, "Killing your best friend? Tormenting his kids? Hurting so many hearts!? Trying to destroy the realm of light!?". Sora's eyes burned with fury while Young Xehanort arrogantly smiles, indifferent to his future self's terrible actions. It enraged Sora, how could someone be so callous when they slew someone so close to them as if they were nothing more than a heartless?
"You wouldn't understand…you still understand so little", he parrots his heartless' words. Sora breaks the deadlock and before the older master could do anything, Sora slammed his keyblade into his stomach and knocks him back. Even though it was a minor scratch, Young Xehanort rubbed his wound while Sora stares him down, his body glowing with light. "You're right, I don't understand that much…but I'd rather be an idiot than understand THAT line of understanding!".
Young Xehanort laughs cruelly at the audacity from the boy, glowing with the sinister dark light. "Then perish as a fool, as you are in life!", he orders. Sora is then trapped within a small dome of a clock where the hands spin until they slowed down till they stopped altogether. Young Xehanort places several icicles around the boy, a mine glyph beneath his feet before he rushes past Sora, slashing at him several times and then appears behind him.
With a single snap of his fingers, time resumed.
Sora immediately yelps in pain when his body houses new slashes, the icicles struck him, and one stuck itself in his side. The glyph beneath him explodes and bathes him in smoke and pain, likely putting down the warrior who could have been the catalyst to foiling Xehanort's plans. Young Xehanort turns to the smoke with a smug smirk, not sensing Sora's light any longer and as the smoke cleared, he sees the boy shaking with pain and almost collapses.
Finally, Sora falls to his knees in defeat, head downcast while Young Xehanort walks around him and stands before him. He uses his keyblade to lift Sora's chin to face the very person who would take his head. The young seeker of darkness rises his keyblade up, smiling wickedly as Sora grits his teeth in pain, and just as the keyblade falls to him…
"SORA!".
Sora lifts his keyblade and blocks Young Xehanort's final strike, startling the master. The smug look is gone, and rage coats his face, grabbing the keyblade with both hands and tries to press down on Sora. Yet the boy, for all his wounds and spent mana, pushes back and stands on his two feet, his body cloaked with both light and darkness as the keyblade shines. "Impossible…this is impossible!", barks Young Xehanort, desperately trying to hold down the boy, "You are a mistake! You aren't worthy of the keyblade, how can you still stand after all that!?".
"I told you before…I don't care if I was never chosen, I don't care if I don't meet *your* standards as a master", Sora reminds as he starts to overpower Young Xehanort, "I promised, I swore I will keep her safe, I'll save my friends, and we WILL all go home together!". Sora throws off the seeker of darkness, then placing a hand on his heart, he proudly proclaims: "My friends are my power…and I'm not gonna lose one more!".
His clothes shine so brightly yet there is great darkness surging within his heart, but unlike the thirteenth darkness, this darkness is strong and fierce, and protective. Pulling all his strength from the light and darkness within his heart, Sora enters his Dual Form. His clothes take on the perfect balance of white and black, except now there is an aura of light and darkness cloaking his body, light shining brilliantly on Oathkeeper while Oblivion is cloaked in black flames that held no evil within it.
There is a heart symbol is visible on Sora's sleeves and hood except on the hood the heart is half in black on Sora's left side, and half outlined in silver on his right side. His coat shares a resemblance to his Light Form, the left sleeve is black. The pants are black on the left and grey on the right, with grey back pockets; white kanji are imprinted on the front of each pant leg, with the kanji for "darkness" on the left side and the kanji for "light" on the right side. The shoes are a fusion of Light Form and Dark Form's, with white collars, black toe boxes, and heels outlined in white, and grey vamps and quarters.
Young Xehanort can only stare in bafflement, never seeing anyone from the realm of light nor darkness show a perfect balance of utilizing the full power of both sides of nature. Sora crosses his arms with keyblades over his torso, staring down the man who once shared the same desire Riku once did, that same hunger for the outside worlds. Back in his exam, he could not protect himself, but nowhere he stood, a master and a guardian of light.
And the seeker's worst nightmare.
Sora vanishes before his eyes, and only because of the darkness given to him by his older future self is Young Xehanort able to turn in time to see Sora. But that was all he could do in such a short frame of time. Sora Oblivion keyblade slashes his right shoulder with burning speed, even the coat designed to face the dark corridor burns from the keyblade's power. Young Xehanort feels the flames burning into his body, the very force of nature he commands hurt him of all people.
He tries to strike Sora, but the boy seemingly defied the speed limits of the human body, because only a brief flash of light and a sharp slashing pain raced through Young Xehanort's body, his darkness being purged away. Oathkeeper's divine light cutting his darkness in half, so swift and clean it is like a surgical knife.
Sora disappears again, strikes him at the side, then vanishes and strikes his back. Young Xehanort's body coated with wounds as he could feel his strength deplete rapidly, yet his eyes were wide with disbelief and even fear. He can't track Sora, even with his ability to stop time the boy moves too fast for him to conjure a plan and his strength outclasses him, even if he did strike his keyblades Sora could break through his keyblade for all he knew with ease.
Sora stands in the center of the ruined battleground, keyblades swirling around him as he slowly spins in the air. Gold and purple light glow in his hands as he wraps his arms overlap each other, gold and purple light lap around each other before converging into Sora's hands. The two keyblades stand at his side facing downwards, plunging downwards into the ground and turning the ground into a galaxy. Light flurries up from the galaxy ground and dances around the boy before all the light flies towards Young Xehanort is blasted with the perfect balance of the two opposing forces, his body unable to bear it.
The final vessel of Xehanort has fallen.
A pillar of darkness erupts from the young master as his keyblade fades away, the twelfth key has been forged as his life force slowly fades away, like all the others. Overwhelmed by the pain inflicted by Sora, Young Xehanort collapses to his knees with his hands supporting him, grunting and gritting his teeth. Raising his wounded face to stare at Sora, still blessed by the great power before him. "It's over…Xehanort", Sora proclaimed, "Go back to your time".
Laughing cruelly, the master gets to his feet. "You…you think you've won…? You think it will end here with my demise?", he mocks, staring at the boy with smug confidence. "I will return to my time, and live out my life…but you Sora? You are done". Sora blinks with confusion, stepping forward, and demanding answers. "Oh…your journey will end here…and when you allow your despair to drive you to lengths you will go for your precious friends…your time in this world…will end!", swears Young Xehanort, vanishing like all his companions before.
Sora hisses before his great power finally comes to an end, and he falls to a knee. He hisses in agony, his power may have won the fight and stay off his wounds, but he is a far cry from the mighty master he became. Not to mention the exhaustion he felt, all the battles from the start had finally caught up to him, tiredness he had never felt before. Between helping the others in their battles, fighting the armies of Xehanort to this point, his body begs him for rest.
But no, he cannot. Not until she is safe in his arms.
"Sora!", calls a voice.
Sora raises his head and glances back to see Riku running towards him with Mickey coming in behind, neither in any better conditions than he. Riku however remained uncaring to his state as he quickly helps Sora to his feet, helping him stand as they both looked up to Xehanort, now surrounded by twelve keyblades, smirking. The two boys grit their teeth at this man, wondering if he felt ANY remorse for the deaths of his vessels. Doubtful, they feared.
"Twelve keys we have now", he states, his voice trembled with excitement within his old body. So close is he to the goal he had been planning for, the day where his greatest curiosity would be satisfied. The day where he would be the one to wield the legendary blade and create the worlds in his vision. But first, he just needed the right motivation for the two islanders to fulfill his desire. He aims his keyblade to the sky. "Leaving us with just one more!".
With one beam of darkness fired from his keyblade, the clouds of darkness and grey that had gathered are pierced by light. The golden light shines down on Xehanort, Kairi, and his keyblades as the world grows darker, Sora and Riku staring in disbelief at the sight. How could such a powerful light shine down on such a dark creature?
"Now, Sora", Xehanort states, "Darkness and light's final clash". Sora's eyes widened as his skin turns ashen with fear, the words foretelling what was about to unfold. Slowly and helplessly, Kairi is levitated in front of Xehanort, blissfully unaware of her fate.
"KAIRI!", Sora screams.
"XEHANORT, STOP!", Riku roars.
Both islanders rush to scale the pillar, running despite their devasted bodies. Fuelled by adrenaline, fear, and determination to save her, both masters run up the pillar just as Xehanort raises his keyblade.
"You both require motivation", he warns cruelly, "And that is why this is her fate".
A/N:
Cliff hanger…ish?
Next time we're going back to Lunafreya and see how she's doing, while Gladiolus and company face their own trials.
So now we're down to just one Xehanort (THANK GOD!), and soon he's going to obtain the X-Blade by any means, even if our lovely red head must die (Or kinda die? I swear nearly NO one stays dead in this series!). But that's for next time!
Big thanks to the new followers and favourites, really helps motivate me to keep this story going and I'm happy its worth your time!
QUESTIONS!:
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: Favourite fight?
Q3: How was the guardians in this one? Like their performance?
Q4: What are you eager to see next?
Q5: Wanna guess how much longer this is gonna be?
Q6: Anything you're not enjoying so far?
Q7: Annoyed the lengths of the recent chapters or happy with them?
Q8: Did anyone like Mickey's portrayal here or was it too out there?
To any writers out there, what's your personal rule as a writer that you try not to break?
Anyone tried Road to Dark yet? I have and its pretty "eh" to be honest.
Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!
