Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 82
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
Facing down the clones of Xehanort, his armored forms, most bearing the weapons his vessels used and one carried a dark aura around it, likely akin to Ansem's dark powers. Hovering around the ten warriors of light, weapons at the ready as they gauged the situation.
Aqua sensed their strengths were much, MUCH higher than the vessels they had fought. It wasn't a surprise though; these were replicas of the strongest keyblade master of all worlds after all. Once more the old man was playing the old game of wearing out the guardians and then likely would swoop in and finish them off. Her thoughts were cut when one replica swoops in on the party, bearing Saix's claymore and aimed for Riku.
His stolen weapon is intercepted by Gladiolus' blade, holding it back from crushing Riku's skull while Noctis warp struck to the replica carrying Xemnas' laser blades. The false imitation blocks the king's keyblade and together they dual in the air while the replica with Larxene's weapon dashes towards Ignis, immediately engaging a wild exchange of blades. Then Kairi and Riku chased after the armored figures carrying Xion and Dark Riku's weapons, leaping unto the building.
Donald and Goofy stayed with Sora taking on the Ansem, Luxord, and Terra's weapon users, the heartless of Xehanort charging for the boy while Donald clashes with the card user and Goofy fends off the Terra user. Leaving Prompto to enter a shootout with the replica carrying Xigbar's guns, running into the town using the cover, and Aqua clashing with the replica using Young Xehanort's keyblade.
Running down the streets whilst taking shots at the gun-wielding replica, Prompto skirts around a corner and slammed his back against the wall. He lifts his gatling gun and leaps from it, unloading a barrage of bullets against the pink-ish projectiles that were flying towards him. The two ammunitions clashed into a cloud of sparks and flattened bullets fell from their struggles, the replica performing all sorts of flips and teleporting around to try and catch the gunner off guard.
Prompto runs down the streets, gatling limb firing behind as the replica chases him down, rarely re-loading those oversized cannons while he skipped across the rooftops. The replica then teleports just as Prompto runs into a square with a fountain and re-appears above the gunner upside down and fires more arrow bullets at him. Prompto in turn pulls out his bazooka from the pocket dimension and fires a single rocket at the hail of arrows.
It explodes upon collision and the explosive consumes the arrows in a fiery cloud. Prompto begins to fire more bullets upon the replica through the cloud, hoping it lacked the same intellect as the very person it was replicated from and just stayed there like an idiot. But from the corner of his eye, he sees a glint of pinkish light and quickly turns his gun arm upon the direction just in time to shoot down three long stretched arrows that almost closed the distance.
The replica aims both arrow guns at the Kingsglaive and fires a joint attack that shot a grey arrow that zig-zagged and when it touched the ground it propelled itself towards Prompto with great speed. Prompto just managed to turn his body enough to evade the thing piercing his left shoulder, though the arrow did cut through the side of it, ripping cloth and flesh. He grunts out as he stumbles from the shock of the pain, but the replica then teleports behind him.
He tries to smash the arrow gun into the back of Prompto's head, only to have the gunner spin around with a high roundhouse kick and knock aside the gun. With the lethal weapon out of his way, Prompto aims his left-handed gun at the face of the helmet and pulls the trigger. The replica's reflexes were quick enough to sway Prompto's gun arm enough to veer away from the bullets piercing its skull, but when it tried to shoot Prompto with the other arrow gun, Prompto responded with backhanding the weapon with his gatling gun.
Both arms locked to keep one weapon each from being used, Prompto stares down the replica's hidden face as his mind wracks for a solution to his new problem. Instead, the replica suddenly teleports again, breaking free of the constrictions Prompto had bound them both to and left the gunner alone. Prompto raises his pistol with both hands, trying to sense where the replica had scurried off to and with luck find him first before he could pull another attack.
His wishes came true when the replica reappears a few feet from him, both arrow guns in hand slowly raised to be level with Prompto, glowing in sinister grey darkness. The gunner in response to this challenge reverts his robotic limb into his hand and pulls out a second pistol, his old one re-customized by Cindy. He lifts the two to be even with the replica's, the wind blowing by as the sounds of a battle taking place nearby fills their ears.
Sweat runs down Prompto's forehead as his finger twitches, flexing and readying to be fired as the replica, like a statue, remains motionless. His breath clam and nerves steeled, it took only a fraction of second for Prompto's instincts to kick in and unload every single round within his two guns just as the arrows fly from the replica's weapons. Neither one had moved from their spot as they each fired a storm of bullets to each other.
The arrows and bullets meeting were either destroyed or bypassing each other, missing the shooters and hitting everything behind them. The ones that did hit the two were minimal brushes of pain, both having yet to hit a solid point on their respective enemy as their bullets and arrows whistling through the air. Prompto taking one gnash to his cheek as his bullets managed to scrape the helmet of his enemy.
The replica's firing rate increases to the point his arrow guns had turned into gatling guns themselves, overpowering and outgunning Prompto's firearms. Desperation taking over him, Prompto rolls out of the storm of arrows, taking a few scrapes to his sides doing so and when he got to his feet, he dismisses his left gun and plucks out his last grenade. He chucks the disc-shaped explosive across the ground like skipping stones, landing right underneath the replica.
The nemesis of the realm of light was then bathed in a blue scanning light before the disc detonated in a contained sized explosion that shook the ground and boomed loudly despite how far it was from Prompto. The replica is now being licked by the fires that adorned its armored form, staggering and not even attempting to douse the flames that taken home upon its form. Prompto raises his gun as the three barrels of the weapon glowed in the Armiger light, swirls of blue dancing around the weapon.
With one pull of the trigger, three bullets of light swirled around and danced in the air before condensing into one larger bullet that flies towards the replica. The blue bullet pierces the head of the helmet, the replica staggering back. The arrows guns were dropped to the ground as the figure of the replica begins to glitch and twitch before finally falling on its back, defeated. Prompto heaved a deep sigh as the pain started to sting, and one-touch to his cheek and he flinches from the cut, fearing it might have been more lethal than just a scratch.
"Hope Cindy likes scars…", he thinks to himself before he runs back to the others.
On top of what is assumingly a café, Kairi exchanges blow with the replica who dared to wield Xion's keyblade, their strikes precise and graceful with elegant footwork. The princess of light ducks underneath a single-handed swipe, her head just missing the teeth of the keyblade that is befouled by the touch of the replica. She lunges forth with a step and a strike at once, swinging her flowery keyblade. Her strike lands the teeth of her key into the replica's shoulder and dragged the blade across its chest down to the hip and knocks its exit point.
The body demolishes it as it flies through it and falls into the street, Kairi giving chase while Riku and his enemy stuck to fighting atop of another building, dark enhanced weapons clashing with loud clangs of steel as Riku side steps a stabbing motion from his former weapon and one more turn and step that gets him behind the replica, he smashes his elbow into the back of the skull and forces it to stagger forward. He turns around and fired a burst of dark lightning that strikes the back of the replica, shocking it in place.
The replica doesn't yell in pain nor does it even make a sound nor register pain is running through its back. Instead, it clenches the sword in hand and a burst of force shoots from its form, knocking Riku back and canceling his attack. Riku shakes his head and raised his keyblade in time to stop the replica from taking his head, the two blades were dangerously too close to his neck for any form of comfort as he was almost knocked off the building thanks to the incredible force behind the replica's attack.
One careful step and using some force to push back the blades, Riku manages to use the replica' aggression against it and once it was no longer putting pressure on Riku, it stumbles forward and one swift kick from the master and down it went into the streets.
Riku jumps down after it as Kairi is thrown across the street and smashes through a cart full of vegetables and fruit, landing on the ground with a roll. She rolls a few feet before she elegantly flips onto her feet, keyblade grasped in both hands, and fires a torrent of bubbles at the replica as it closes in on her. The bubbles all burst upon impact, blasting the replica into more bubbles that popped and this repeats until Kairi raises her keyblade high and calls down a giant golden bolt of lightning.
The flash of lightning nearly blinds her when it struck the replica with a loud booming noise, the ground was breaking apart as static runs rampant around them, the replica swallowed by the lightning. The bolt disappears slowly, the replica staggers to its feet and then vanishes like a wraith. Kairi gasps when she felt its presence behind her and turns on her feet to raises her keyblade to hold back the attack from its keyblade.
She pushes it off her just when Riku flies over her head with the replica chasing him in the sky. The master flips and grabbed one of the streetlamps, spinning around it three times as his Flowmotion begins to pick up speed. He spins faster and faster until he turns into a blur of speed and then propels himself forward to his challenging foe. Their two blades collide, but thanks to the momentum Riku had built up from his Flowmotion, they fly back where the replica came from.
The master breaks their deadlock and then plunges his keyblade into the chest of the replica with a yell, his keyblade piercing through to the ring guard as they crashed into a large building, a bell tower or lighthouse of sorts. His keyblade stabbed into the building with the replica still impaled by the master, the attack cracked the building and were Riku to use even more force he could have broken the entire building. The replica stiffens before it slumps in death, the master dismissing his key and leaping off the building, letting the replica fall unceremoniously.
Kairi and the replica wielding Xion's keyblade struck at each other, the replica's strikes becoming closer to Sora's two-handed strikes than Xion's less trained but quicker swipes. It struck Kairi's keyblade out of her hands and almost lopped her head off with one more swing, the princess quickly yelled out: "Reflectaga!" and erects a crystal barrier around herself. The keyblade hits the barrier and it was rewarded with a burst of light that blasts the replica from her.
She recalls her keyblade just when the replica lands on their feet, stares at her, and then strikes at the air, levitating. Tracing a glyph before it with darkness, Kairi realized the replica was performing one of Sora's attacks, Ragnarök. It fires several slithering beams of darkness that all danced and swirled towards the princess of light, forcing Kairi to start leaping from building to building to evade the chasing beams. Skirting around corners, leaping narrowly overarches and off bridges as close to the last second she could to just cause the beams to strike the world around her.
Kairi manages to land in the waterway beneath the bridge and slides down it as the replica flies above her, keyblade aimed and fires several balls of darkness at her. She skates around the attacks, flipping over them and when she reached the end of her little water slide, she fires a ray of ice. The ice connects to the edge of the waterfall, then it morphs and creates a rail of ice for her to use with the Flowmotion, quickly rising back to the surface as the replica hovers after her.
It shots a single ray of fire to her method of transport, melting it in seconds. She falls back to the park, rolling forward before she turns and shoots light to the replica. Her attack is easily struck aside by the replica, now flying towards her with the keyblade shining with darkness. Kairi takes a deep breath as she stands tall, grabbing her key with both hands and steadies herself. She spins and throws her keyblade at the replica, transforming into a ball of light as her keyblade flies.
The replica dodges the spinning keyblade, but Kairi then reappears right behind the replica, catching the keyblade. Spinning it around in her hand, Kairi grabbed it with both hands and aims it at the replica, who turned around to face her as her body shines with light. "Rays of Light!", she proclaims, firing seven beautiful golden beams of light at the replica. The beams danced in the air before they all charged towards the replica.
It raises a barrier of darkness to shield itself from the seven holy beams. But they all gathered into one spot on the barrier, slowly breaking it. Kairi raises her hand, a swirl of white light danced around her palm, and with a snap of her fingers, she shouts: "Silence!". A sudden sphere of faint translucent green hovers around the replica with a wobbly violet ring wraps around the head, and then it pops. Suddenly the barrier just evaporates like it was never called, allowing the seven rays of light to strike it. With each hit there is an explosion of light as Kairi falls back to the ground, watching her fireworks.
The replica plops to the ground like a broken doll, burned by the light, and beaten by the princess of light. Kairi wipes the sweat off her forehead in time for Riku to join her side, patting her shoulder. She gives him a nod and a thumbs-up before they both ran back into the town to lend aid to their companions.
Sparks of lightning flickers and dances around the rooftops, Ignis gracefully zipping across building to building while the replica using Larxene's weapons chases after him by shooting lightning at him. The advisor of the team backflips over a bolt of lightning lands on his feet and throws both daggers at the persistent replica. The blades were quickly parried aside by the double roundhouse kick of the replica, then it zips to Ignis' side with the knives clenched between its fingers. It punches at Ignis, the spectacle-wearing man ducks and sweep kicks the offending attacker.
The replica manages to levitate and flutter away from Ignis, throwing five knives of lighting at him from each hand, making the advisor leap into the air and land on another building further from the replica. He calls his daggers again just as the replica flies towards him, rapidly punching at him with the knives embedded fists of it. Reaching Ignis, they engaged in a wild frenzy of steel on steel, sparks flying around them as both were being hit by each other's lightning.
Ignis received a cut on his right cheek just as his dagger managed to cut into the replica's left arm, the advisor cursing mentally at the speed this faker possessed. He loses a dagger from a feint and the replica managed to grab his other armed limb, disarming him and rendering him helpless. At least so the replica would think. It reels its fist back to plunge its knives into Ignis' face, only for the advisor to suddenly lunge forward into a tackle and knock them both off the rooftop and into the streets.
They landed on an awning and bounced off it to slam onto the cobblestone with a single thud, Ignis using the replica as a cushion and rolled off it. The replica then zips around the battleground, right behind Ignis and almost plunges both fists into his back, until a building behind it demolishes loudly and outcomes Gladiolus and the replica using Saix's weapon, both swinging their weapons like they were made of paper.
Gladiolus is struck in the stomach by the claymore's pole and flies into a building wall, nearly going through it entirely. The replica, bathed in the same fiery aura Saix was in his berserker form, leaps and throws its claymore at the embedded Gladiolus. Quick thinking from Ignis saved the shield because he elbows his would-be assassin and grabbed its arm when it was dazed. He uses his enhanced strength to fling the replica between Gladiolus and it was struck by the claymore instead.
Though it wasn't enough to slay it, it prevented Gladiolus from meeting his end too early. The shield pulls himself out of the wall and practically bulldozed into the claymore user with his shoulder, smashing it into a wall. He used the armored limb to punch it in its helmet face a total of five times, denting and bending the steel, and then he flings it over his shoulder and into the wall that he was embedded in earlier.
Because it was already damaged thanks to Gladiolus, the replica smashes through it, and into the building, sounds of property damage rang out. The shield turned to his brother with a grateful nod before he runs into the building, weapon in hand. He drags his blade along the ground and with a bellowing roar and upward swing, he brings his giant blade up to the replica and almost cleaved his weapon in two.
Their weapons did create a shockwave upon colliding with each other, cracking the ceiling above them and even the walls near them. The replica chucks Gladiolus' blade off and with a burning fist swing at him, Gladiolus quickly leaning away enough to evade it. He throws his armored fist at the replica, socking it in the jaw and staggering it to stumble back, but Gladiolus grips his blade and swings it sideways to the waist of the replica.
It vanishes before his very eyes just before the blade performs the deed, Gladiolus reeling back his strength and raising his blade high in case of an attack. He strains his ears for the replica, knowing if that creation were anything like the man it was copied from, he wouldn't stray too far and wait for an opportune moment to strike. With a grunt after feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, the sworn shield of the king turns around with a roar and swing his greatsword.
The blade cleaves through the claymore, cutting just beneath the circular-shaped axe blade. The replica couldn't even react to the destruction of its weapon before Gladiolus grabbed the sword with both hands and brought down the sword from over his shoulders down to the ground between the feet of the replica. The blade slammed into the ground with such force it not only demolished the wooden floor they stood on, but the shockwave sent more tremors through the building, causing to tremble and break away like a brittle stone.
The replica silently falls forward, making Gladiolus sidestep it and as the building came down, he runs out to leave the replica in its new tomb.
Ducking underneath a straight kick aimed for his jaw, Ignis zips around the replica, backflipping away three times and then charges fire through his daggers. The replica spins around and shots chains of lightning at the advisor, the golden bolts nearly connected their attack to him until he uses the darkness to create a pool of shadows beneath him and quickly sank into it, evading the burning bolts.
He resurfaces atop of a building in the street, flames dancing around his shoulders and torso. He flings several dagger-shaped fires into the sky, all of them homing in on the replica. Like the person who once carried those daggers, the replica elegant dances around the homing flames like they were dancing with the breeze. Evading and flipping over the flames like it was child's play, using the large pots to trick the flames into hitting, street lamps, and even other buildings.
It then jumps to the building Ignis stood upon, using lightning to enhance its speed to catch him off guard and kicks him in the stomach and off the other side of the building and into the docks. Ignis bounces off the ground and rolls, flipping onto his feet as the replica runs towards him, lightning chains following the knives in zig-zag forms. Ignis spins his daggers into reverse grips, channeling darkness into them until they turned his daggers into roaring torches.
With a violet glow in his eyes, Ignis gets on one knee before he bursts forth like a bullet shot from a dark pistol, so fast lightning moved as slow as a slug in comparison. Lightning and darkness met in the middle of the dock, a flash of light shines and in no time they were on opposite sides, unmoving. Ignis grunts in pain as static ravages his body, flickering bolts stinging him and even paralyzing him to a minimal degree.
But that was generous compared to what he did to the replica. A burst of roaring black flames erupts from the replica, consuming it in all the darkness its creator had wanted. As the flames burned the cloth and melt the steel, it slowly falls to its knees and then collapses entirely, lifeless. Ignis huffs as he regains feeling in his body, hissing when the pain rumbles in his shocking form. Raising his no longer violet glowing eyes to the stairs leading back into the town, he spots Gladiolus waving to him to join up.
He nods and sprints towards his comrade.
Goofy is thrown across the garden when he tries to hold back the replica carrying Terra's dark keyblade's attack, while Donald just barely manages to avoid being turned into a die again. The two meet up in the garden just as Sora is pinned to the ground by the Ansem using the replica, keyblade holding back the dark claw that nearly tore his torso apart. Goofy throws his shield at the head of the replica, striking it hard enough to become disoriented and allowing Donald to blast it off Sora with a force spell.
The other two replicas were charging in, keyblade and cards in hand just when Sora kicks himself back to his feet. He crosses his arms and calls forth another keyblade, Oblivion, into his hand and then form changes into Dual Form. He stops both replicas with two keyblades, his feet digging into the cobblestoned ground and barely budges from the combined forces, staring them down with unwavering resolve and determination. The keyblade wielding replica breaks the deadlock and lifts its keyblade to smash Sora's skull, only for Goofy to shield tackle it.
The warrior turns back to the captain's courageous and stern look, then strikes at him. Even with it being a replica with Terra's might, the abomination could break through Goofy's incredible guard. He repels, parries, and even manages to hold back every attack the replica could throw at him, bashing the keyblade away and hitting back equally hard with surprising skill. The replica takes the shield to its helmet visor and stumbles back, giving Goofy a chance to spin around quickly and turning into a small vortex.
He sucks up the replica into his whirlwind of pain, bashing him with the shield and cutting it with the sharpness of the edges of the ultimate guard. Goofy then, during a spin, punches the shield right into the replica's chest, knocking it into a streetlamp and bending it to be rendered useless. While Goofy combats the replica warrior, Donald uses gravity to bring down the Ansem replica into the ground, then with a quick chant, he summons a giant boulder of magical stone. He quacks and lets the giant boulder drop like a literal rock unto the replica.
The replica is trapped beneath the boulder, but before Donald conjured up another spell, the replica's body glows in darkness and then spreads it to the boulder. Veins of darkness infect the stone before the brown rock turns into the dark blue stones from the realm of darkness and slowly levitates above the replica. It stands up with one arm shadowed by the darkness, glaring at Donald. With one gesture of its hand, the boulder flies towards the duck.
Donald raises a wall of stone that reaches as high as the buildings in the town, the boulder crashing into it breaks parts of it. The wall wobbles and breaks apart from the force as the replica zooms towards him charging with darkness surrounding its back. Copying Ansem's charge attack. Donald aims his staff at it and fires a powerful condensed beam of magic at it, holding it back as it tries to overpower the duck's awesome magical power. Donald grunts and mutters in defiance of the replica, both hands squeezing his staff as tight as he could to keep his magic going.
Slicing the cards in two, Sora cleaves another five as he chases after the beguiling replica. The card user flicks normal-sized cards at the master rapidly like it was dealing out the cards, Sora rapidly swinging both keyblades to slice and dice his way towards the replica. His eyes turned to his two loyal friends and can see Donald being slowly overpowered by the other replica. Knowing the power gap between them is too vast for Donald, he throws Ultima to the replica as he dashes towards the card user.
Ultima slashes the back of the charging replica, startling it and with the incredible power of the keyblade striking its form, it falters in its charge. Donald immediately picked up on its sudden falter and smirks. He channels more magic into his attack, this time going all out for the kill. The condensed beam enlarges to nearly the same size as his Zettaflare, intense roaring heat from the blast easily overpowered the wounded replica. The blast struck it and sends it through five buildings, decimating them and the ground along with it until it collides into a wall beneath the largest building on the island.
Though the beam didn't vaporize the replica, it finished it off and rendered it useless to the world. As the beam fades out, Donald pants tiredly but shakes his head and runs to aid the others.
Goofy is smashed into a wall as he held back the dark keyblade, the shield of the captain going above and beyond its duties to keep him in one piece. The replica continuously strikes at him with each swing growing heavier and angrier with each clang, likely the patience of the warrior at an end. But in its blind impatient assault, Goofy takes advantage of this and moves out of the way just at the precise moment. The warrior strikes the wall with enough power to demolish it, spinning around and sees Goofy punching its face with the shield.
It is knocked into the building via the newly made entrance, and with it in the middle of the building, Goofy uses all his strength to throw his shield into the building, striking the support beams placed around the room of the building. His shield ricochets from each beam until it splits the main one and flies towards the replica, cutting its chest and flying back to Goofy as the building starts to rumble and tremble with new brittle bones. When the shield returns to Goofy, the building collapses onto the replica, burying it with stone and wood.
The captain looks back on the destruction, suddenly feeling very sheepish that he destroyed somebody's house…and then casually whistles as he waltzes away…
Spinning in the air to evade the flying cards, Sora dives towards the card using replica. He recalls Ultima as the replica summons man-sized cards by its side, a total of five with the fifth behind it. It turns with the card and then all five of them fall to the ground and land face-first into the cobblestone. Sora groans when he sees more cards suddenly pop out of nowhere around him, dozens, maybe hundreds of them raining down to the ground.
They all scatter on the ground and began to shuffle amongst themselves, scurrying around the ground and mixing and overlapping each other. Sora lands in the sole spot on the ground not infested by cards and holds his keyblades up high as he tries to find the replica. He gasps when feels a presence behind him and turns around to see the replica dancing with two man-sized cards in hand. It slashes at Sora, making the boy dance back from its swing, but when it ended its combo, it disappears again and then appears several feet from Sora.
Raising its gloved hand to him, the replica lifts ten cards and fires them all at Sora. They were glowing a faint hue of red as they fly to Sora, warning him. He aims his keyblades and shoots two spread-shots of ice at the cards, some of them hitting them. They froze into thin solid pieces of ice while only four of them were missed by the chilling attack. The boy of destiny rushes and slides underneath them while cutting in half.
Getting to his feet after his slide, Sora rushes towards the replica but is too late to land the final blow as the replica vanishes again before his eyes. Losing his patience, Sora calls his magic, wind, and fire dancing around him as his feet leave the ground and levitates him above the ground. As he levitates five feet from the ground, he lets out a yell and becomes a roaring flaming tornado. Though smaller than the average tornados, the vortex sucks up the cards from the ground and the flames reduce them all to nothing but ashes.
He then propels himself out of the tornado-like he was being shot from a cannon and into the air. He spots the replica quickly escaping the security of its card to evade being burnt alive in the tornado, but it is unaware of Sora. Sora takes this chance to finally be done with this clone and dives down with a burst of light forwarding his speed. In a split second, the replica only had time to see the bringer of its end and Sora rushes past it with two swings from his keyblades.
Landing on his feet, the boy turns up to the replica still hovering in the air as two flashes of light mark its body. It stiffens and then stills for all eternity before falling to the ground, dead. When the lifeless body slumps to the ground, Sora reverts to his normal form with a sigh, laying his keyblade on his shoulder and rushes to find the others.
Cartwheeling from a swiping keyblade, the battle between two masters takes place within a large fountain. Aqua swings her keyblade, throwing water from the fountain up with the key as the Young Xehanort parries her attack. Combating the youth replica of the man who destroyed much of her life, Aqua took great pride in her ability to match, and dare she say even outclass the youth version of the greatest master of the keyblade.
The replica turns the keyblade into a whip and lashes at her, swinging the rope weapon so quickly it turned into a den of razor-sharp blades striking at her all at once. Aqua's keyblade is then wrapped by the weapon and is almost yanked out of her hands, but she grabbed the weapon and with a quick chant, bathes in it lightning that charges back to the wielder of the whip. The replica dismissed the weapon immediately before the lightning touched it, rendering it defenseless for a short time.
Aqua capitalizes on this moment of weakness by using a teleport spell to get in front of the replica. Appearing before it, she delivers a graceful kick to its helmet and knocks it off its feet. She kicks off its chest and leaps into the air with a backflip. Landing a few feet from it in the fountain, the master twirls one foot, her keyblade tracing in the waters as she raises it above her head like a ballerina. Four tendrils of water fly around her as she spins herself and her keyblade at once, a small fountain forms beneath her and raises her.
She aims her keyblade as she finishes her dance at the replica getting to its feet, quietly saying: "Waterja". The four tendrils of water fly behind her and into the ocean. Then a gigantic wave roars up, towering over the two wielders of the keyblade with roaring waves echoing across the town, glistening from the beautiful sunlight with crystal clarity. Aqua's keyblade glows in blue light before she commands the waters to charge forth with the fury of Leviathan herself.
As if they bend to the master's will, the tsunami roars as it washes over the land and fountain, not harming Aqua as it slammed into the ground, breaking and cracking the earth under its sheer might and weight. The replica is smashed by the raging tide, body rolling with the waters and against the stone, it once stood on to combat the master. It breaks through one of the edges of the fountains and off the platform where their battleground took place.
The waters rushing down like a massive waterfall, faster and faster as it brings the replica down to the main ground level. With the waterfall smashing it into the ground, it smashes through the city street and sends the replica into the ocean with it, returning to its home with a lifeless replica as its prize. Slowly Aqua is gently lowered back down to the ground, taking a soft breath as the spell had barely taken even a fraction of her strength to commence, showing her strength had grown.
In the air just above the town, the king of Insomnia and the replica wielding the third strongest vessel's weapons dueled. Noctis using his Armiger to keep him levitated in the ait while swinging his Ultima Blade and keyblade against the laser blades, repelling them and striking at it. The replica flies away after being parried by the king's weapons of choice, flying further away while firing small lasers at the king. With his Armiger, Noctis summons several weapons in their crystallized forms to shield him as he charges towards the replica.
The replica disappears as he closed the gap, appearing above the king and rains down a barrage of lasers. Raising his arsenal above his head like an umbrella, Noctis is saved from being shot down. He dismissed his sword and calls for his crossbow, the royal arm glowing in a powerful crystal light as he takes aim and fires back at the replica while being shielded from the raining lasers. The white bolts of light fly against the lasers, some colliding and bypassing each other.
The replica then uses its freehand and fires grey and blackthorns at the king, piercing and destroying his bolts as they collide with his shield. The attack pushes the king down closer to the top of a building thanks to the combined forces of the lasers and thorns pushing him down, Noctis gritting his teeth as he can feel his Armiger slowly drain and signaling it needed to rest. He growls, calling forth more of his light. His body glows in white light as droplets of crystals flutter around him, slowly.
He aims his hand at the raining barrages and fires his Armiger arsenals at the replica, acting as a wall of weapons to push toward the false Xehanort. Together with his largest and widest weapons, the attack not only kept him safe, but they also reached the replica. It was forced to call back its sabers to strike the king's attack, hold it back or if it is lucky enough, cleave through them. But the divine armory of the king proved too hardy for even a replica of Xehanort to breakthrough.
Holding them back from tearing it apart, the replica sees through the crystalized weapons Noctis glowing in his royal blue light, eyes shining ominously. He spins the keyblade in his hand before he suddenly launched himself toward the replica with inhuman speed, blasting off. As he reached the replica, his Armiger that held the abomination of darkness back, they all disappeared in an instant, the king of light right in front of the replica.
Noctis struck him with the keyblade, slamming the divine weapon into its stomach with enough force that its shockwave could have been felt from twenty feet. The replica was winded from the attack or staggered, Noctis wasn't sure if it can breathe like them but it still felt the attack from the king and was rendered dazed. Following his advisor's advice of taking advantage of a disadvantage the enemy is in, Noctis strikes the replica with several powerful hits from his keyblade, each one more lethal than the former.
With one spin and strike of the keyblade, Noctis rips the replica from shoulder to waist and knocks it into a bell tower. It smashes through it, the tower collapsing like an old withered building while the replica smashes into a house with a huge "booming" sound, the building collapsing upon it in less than a second. When the king could not sense the replica's essence, it assured the king of light the being had perished.
With a sigh, he quickly warp-struck back to the rooftop of an adjacent building, stumbling slightly. He shook his head to rid himself of the sudden dizziness of the fight, frustrated it took more out of him than he feared. He looks to his left and sees the other guardians had all gathered up, Prompto waving at him to join. Warping to his friends, once he dismissed his weapons and assures his brothers he would be able to keep going, he takes in how everyone else looked.
"Damnit…everyone alright?", he asked when he sees no one won their scrape without taking a few hits. "No one's dead, so that's a win", Prompto says, rubbing his healed cheek, "But those replicas were something else…huh?". "Yet none of them could hold a candle to Xehanort", Riku grunts as he heals himself and his two long time friends. "Speaking of Xehanort, where is he?".
"Of all the places to be sent".
The voice of the subject of Riku's question speaks, wistful, and even amused. The guardians turn their gaze to see the very man they had been chasing idling and merely taking in his surroundings like a tourist, not even acknowledging the supposed forces that oppose him. Whatever exhaustion or pain that had been inflicted upon the party quickly died a swift death and in its place were a mixture of shared emotions.
Anger and disdain.
"Xehanort…", Sora growls, keyblade in hand along with the others calling their chosen weapons. His dark exclamation earns the master's attention at long last; he turns to them with that arrogant yet confident smug look. There is amusement in his golden eyes, and after he quickly glanced at the final line of defense, he lets a chuckle escape him when he turned to address them all. "Amusing, yet somehow not entirely surprising you would find your way to me again", he says in a slightly impressed tone.
He glanced at the princess with a small hint of curiosity and strokes his goatee, a callous yet knowing smile adorned his aged face. "It seems you and Sora share more in common than I expected, cheating death was quite the feat, princess", he mused. His smile turns dark and sinister, saying: "Although, somebody else paid the price for you, haven't they?". With a growl, Kairi takes an aggressive step forward before Aqua outstretches her arm to stop her.
Aqua glares down the man who had slain her master while the others glared darkly at him. The old master shrugged, not remotely impressed as he raised both hands. "Behold, this town…was once the seat of power for all keyblade wielders", he explains. "Seat of power?", Sora ponders quietly to himself while sharing a glance at Aqua, who is equally confused. Her brows furrowed in confusion and curiosity, did she not know too?
"It is the nexus from which all worlds spring", he continues. Before the master who fights for the realm of light could ask, behind the party Ignis yells for the team. The vessel slain by Prompto begins to levitate from the ground before its body vanishes into a ball of black and grey, then flies up the air. All around the guardians they see the same balls of grey and black hover in the air, every vessel slain by them all.
The darkness all flies to Xehanort, entering his heart as he absorbs their powers. "Here, I and my other selves can be one", he says as his darkness grows into new levels of power. Opening his eyes after the final vessel entered his body, he smirks. "United…in Scala ad Caelum!", he proclaims. Without another word, he roars, and then a burst of darkness erupts from beneath his feet, surrounding him in a dark veil of. A rush of wind and force breezes the team, some forced to raise their arms to shield their eyes while others take in this surge of power.
A hurricane of darkness envelops the old man, and when it passes, levitating is the master now in his keyblade armor. The clothes were the same as the replicas, but on his arms are large sets of armor with the shoulder pads differed in sizes, metal greaves on his feet with his entire chest armored with a large helmet. The top is akin to a goat's head with long winding horns with its neck reaching down to his shoulders, red metal likely acting as the true helmet with the goat's head nothing more than a headpiece, two badges with long chains dangled from his collars. He calls for the keyblade No Name to his hand.
This was it.
No more vessels and no more other obstacles between them. The battle for the realm of light, for the worlds and for Kingdom Hearts itself. Sharing one more glance to Noctis, who gives the boy a firm nod, Sora faces down Xehanort's armored figure.
"Let's finish this…", he says.
Affirming grunts and "right" was his reward from his team.
But before anyone could make the first move, Xehanort lifts his left hand and moves it around. Only when Kairi yells out in surprise do the other guardians see to their shock, the entire city buildings starting to grow and expand like they were made of rubber, stretching over the group until they blocked out the sky itself. Next thing they all knew, they were all starting to slip to the right as the world around them turned on itself.
Vainly trying to hold themselves in place, one by one did the guardians all fall onto a building's surface. Some stood up quickly, seeing the somehow gravity had been turned on its head and now they stood on the building as if it were the right side up. But the master of darkness grunts "down", and once more the world begins to lift against the guardians as if they were standing on a drawbridge going up and slowly they all slipped off it as it faced them like a wall, all falling into a twisted and warped world where gravity had been completely thrown out.
The world of Scala ad Caelum began to warp and meld into an ugly paradox of itself as the guardians were thrown into a cage of sorts.
As they fall, they all take in the place that Xehanort had chosen to fight in turned into a horrible amalgamation of the city's buildings. It is like they were trapped in a tower where the buildings were in all sorts of positions on the walls around them, some normal while others looked like you could walk normally on them were gravity at your command. Only higher than any of them could hope to reach was the moon of Kingdom Hearts beaming down at them as they fell.
"Over there!", Gladiolus yelled, pointing to the only flat ground to land on. With the shield grabbing Donald and Goofy, the ten of them dashes toward to ground, reaching it safely. They turn around to see Xehanort hovering in clear space in the air, laughing at the guardians mockingly. He even mockingly taunts them with a "come on" gesture of his left hand, as if goading them into leaping.
A challenge Noctis answered.
With a burst of his Armiger, the king soars towards the master of the keyblade with a bellowing roar. Keyblade in hand, he swings it quickly at the old man, locking them in a clash of keyblades for no more than ten seconds. With a swing of his dark keyblade, Xehanort strikes aside the king of light and slammed him into a wall below him, turns in time to see Riku and Sora already flying towards him. The two who once slew his nobody worked in perfect unison to cover as much space with their keyblades while the master easily repels them with single swings of his weapon.
Riku's keyblade holds back the master's and when Sora goes for the kill, Xehanort grabbed the boy by his neck and tosses him down to the ground with strength his old body should not possess. Sora is sent down to the very bottom of the tower of adjacent buildings like a bullet, even leaving several cracks in the ground and dent it. Throwing Riku's keyblade off, the master strikes the other master aside just in time for Prompto to aim his bazooka.
He fires the rocket at the old man, Xehanort lifts his hand and using telepathy, he gains control over the rocket and re-directs it back to Prompto. The rocket is then split in half by a speeding Aqua, halving it and letting the two severed pieces fly past the party and harmlessly crash into the wall behind them. Aqua engages in swordplay with the master, elegantly dancing in the air. Xehanort and her clash in the air before the master swipes at her.
She flips over his attack and whilst above him upside down, she aimed the keyblade at his face and shoots a force spell to send him to the ground. He barely made halfway to Sora before using his magic to stabilize himself and aimed his hand at the master and fires a scattershot of fireballs at her. They swarm her in seconds and only thanks to Kairi using a barrier on her master to shield her, Aqua avoids being obliterated in flames. But the attack propels her further up into the air despite being unharmed thanks to Kairi.
Xehanort looks to see Ignis and Gladiolus diving towards the old man, air-dashing to him. Ignis immediately fires a barrage of fireballs at him while Gladiolus speeds up his descent and lifts his giant sword over his head. When his sword is brought down onto Xehanort, the old man raises his keyblade to parry the attack, but thanks to Gladiolus possessing even greater physical strength than he, Xehanort is sent further down the tower just as the fireballs blaze past the shield of the king.
He uses telepathy again to control the balls and fling them to Gladiolus, only to see them evaporate into nothing but air. Ignis then summons his spear and suddenly dives down as fast as an anchor and in no time, his spear's tip just nearly plunged into Xehanort's chest. Xehanort catches the weapon with his keyblade, holding him back from piercing his dark heart. Ignis pushes forward on the spear as they fall, only for the old man to clench his left hand and open it to create several ice bombs around them.
With a dark chuckle, he teleports and leaves Ignis to the bombs. The advisor erects a barrier of darkness just as the bomb detonates. One managed to strike him before he was completely shrouded by his barrier, instantly feeling his right shoulder freeze and nearly lost feel in his limb as his barrier falls like a rock. Above him, Xehanort aimed his hand and uses telepathy to grab the barrier and then slams Ignis into a building on the wall, encasing him in the rubble.
Xehanort is then tackled by a falling Gladiolus, bringing them both down to the ground with a heavy thud. The master blasts him off himself, throwing Gladiolus onto his back. The shield rolls backward and onto his feet, a sword called as he runs back to Xehanort. They engaged each other, one-handed swings from the keyblade master versus the raw and furious strikes of Gladiolus' blade. Their steel rings out with each clash.
The master parries a swing from Gladiolus and stabs at him, Gladiolus backhanding the keyblade with his armored limb and lunges forward with his sword in a downward motion. Xehanort catches the blade with his left hand, halting the shield's attack. To his surprise, Gladiolus dismisses his sword and goes in for a tackle. His bravado goes unsuccessful as the master raised his left-hand presses it against his chest, blasting him with darkness and then send him flying across the battleground and into a wall ten feet from him.
Xehanort turns around to see Sora getting up from his rocky bed, Ultima in hand. Keeping his eyes on the boy, the master only had a few seconds to register the looming threat from above. He lifts his hand and shoots several balls of darkness at the descending forces of light. Leading them in the front, Kairi aims her hand and shots small beams of light from her palm that pierces the dark balls and removes from the battle.
She warp-strikes down to the ground level behind Xehanort and once she takes form, she and Sora at once are both charged to Xehanort. Together the masters from the realm of light clashed with Xehanort, striking at him while leaping to the opposite side while he parries with magic and swordplay. While the two fought on, Donald and Goofy fall to Gladiolus to tend to him while Prompto uses his wire to help those stuck in the walls, leaving Aqua to dive down to re-join the team.
Xehanort's swipe manages to hit Sora across his chest and knock him back while Kairi darts past the flying boy. She danced around the master's swings, eyes burning with anger and contempt for this horrible excuse for a man, the keyblade that had struck down her friend narrowly missing her and cutting some of her red hair. Kairi warps around him, yelling as a burst of light shines around her, her Strike Form.
Calling her Dual-Blade, she splits it in half and engages Xehanort in a match of wild swings that created a down of razor-sharp gales and blades, their arms moving so fast it was like they were invisible. The old master swings his keyblade downwards, Kairi crossing her blades over each other to catch the dark key, holding it back in place. She pushes him back and swings her right-hand sword at him, just missing his helmet when he teleports from her. Kairi looks around but is then blasted in the back by a burst of lightning, bathing her in violet shocks.
She yells in pain as her body twitches while the master smirks at her suffering. He looks up to see Aqua inches away from him, her keyblade brought down onto his form. The keyblade of the master from the realm of light splits the chest plate and cleaves into his old flesh, knocking him back and forcing him to cancel his spell, feet dragged into the ground to stop himself from being smashed into the wall behind him.
Aqua turns to Kairi quickly whilst her former student staggered and nearly falls to her knees, she fires a stream of green light and heals her student before she dashed to Xehanort. Catching him while he prepared for a swing, she managed to land another blow to the old master, her keyblade teeth plunged into the metal shoulder pad on his right and near sundered into scrap metal. She then strikes him four more times before she aimed her hand at him and blasted him with a mighty burst of light.
Xehanort flies through a building's rooftop and crashed into the wall, sounds of destruction rang out while the others joined Aqua's side, healed and ready for more. The building then detonates into a wild burst of darkness, obliterating the home and like a cannon, Xehanort flies out of the building and strikes Aqua. She quickly raised her keyblade to protect herself, but Xehanort's attack didn't end with a simple strike. Once their keys were locked, he flies her and himself into the air, abandoning the others and taking their fight to the air.
Soaring into the air with keyblades still swinging at each other, Aqua tries to overwhelm the master with precise and merciless strikes, only for each of them to be blocked or parried by the master of the dark. He grabbed her neck and throws her over his shoulder and onto one of the levels of the clustered prison, waiting for her to land before raising his hand and summoning several keyblade shaped dark energy around him, and with a flick of his wrist, he fires them at the master.
A low hiss catches his ears and one glance down, he sees Prompto pulling himself up with his wire and reaches the level Aqua was laying on in time for the keyblades to fly to them. The gunner calls for his second pistol and with both firearms, he unloads a torrent of bullets at the keyblades with impeccable accuracy that Xehanort believed even surpassed Xigbar. Every dark key was blown to nothing when the bullets connected to them, Prompto's sharp eyes catching them and putting them down with ease.
When only one remains, he uses his triple barrelled gun and fires the three shots. One taking down the keyblade while two of them flew towards Xehanort. The master easily stops them by simply catching them with his free armored hand and then drops them like dirt. But in wasting time with Prompto, he was caught off guard and is struck in the back by darkness, not of his own, and he turns to see Riku and Noctis dashing towards him while from above Ignis is diving down with his spear.
The old man smirks cruelly behind his helmet and with a simple snap of his finger, a large pillar of flames suddenly roars to life from the very ground and instantly reaches the master's feet, bathing him in fire harmlessly. Riku and Noctis quickly dashed around the attack while Ignis is saved by Prompto's rocket hand grabbing him before the pillar reached him. The old man flies in the center of the cage as the guardians gathered upon the level Aqua and Prompto stood upon, while below he sees Gladiolus carrying Donald and Goofy while himself, Kairi, and Sora leap from building to building to catch up.
A change of scenery was needed.
With several turns of his hand, once again Xehanort begins to show his control over the world they reside in and turns his hands. Suddenly the building the five guardians from below were standing on begins to lean back until it turns into a slope that slowly pushes them off, while the level moves forward and catches the others off their feet and all ten guardians fall again. This time they fall into what looked to be the ocean.
When their visions were cleared from the strange warping and twisting of the world again, the ten guardians find themselves underwater. Prompto accidentally yells in shock, warbled yells with bubbles escaping him startles him and he slammed his hands to his mouth as everyone takes in the horrible realization they were indeed underwater. Worst of all, Xehanort just appears before them all, and likely wasn't suffering the same limitations of the human lungs as the others.
Many of the guardians were struggling to keep themselves afloat from sinking while fighting to keep what little oxygen they had within them, leaving them helpless. Only to see Sora darting past them all and meeting Xehanort's keyblade before he could attack the others, Donald and Goofy quickly on Sora's tail to support him.
The leader of the ten looks to the surface and calls her keyblade, a blue light shining on the tip of the keyblade. A current envelops the seven and with Aqua controlling it, she directs the current to the surface and throws them all out of the water and back onto the dry land. Everyone coughs and hacks out the water from their bodies, shaking and groaning with discomfort. Aqua shakes herself dry and turns to the dark waters for a moment before she sees the world around them had taken a horrible new look.
The island they were one before, once looking like a peaceful and untouched world, is now closer to ruins that had not been touched nor walked upon by mortals for eons. Destruction decorated the world, buildings demolished and left in ruins, the air dry and devoid of life while the giant tower was breaking apart as if something had struck it was a giant weapon of sorts. She grits her teeth with a hiss, no world would be spared from the war after all.
Her thoughts were broken when Sora and the other two guardians suddenly leap out of the water and hopped onto the land the others were on. "Are you three alright?", Aqua asks, checking them. The boy waves her off while panting, dripping wet, and says: "Xehanort just disappeared, did anyone see him?". The team does a quick search around for the old man, and Goofy yells out and points to the ruined building before them. Hovering there in front of the ruins, Xehanort stares down the ten hopes of the world.
"Impressive", he muses, "I will admit I had underestimated you all". The guardians called forth their weapons again as the old man chuckles darkly, a shine of violet pierces the helmet. "But I believe I've spent enough time with you all. This fight ends…now", he says. Behind him a gigantic wall of darkness arises, blocking out a large chunk of the building before the guardians, dark lightning crackling and sparking from it as a wave of power rushes through them all.
The wall rises higher and higher until it completely towered over them all like a giant, darkness leaking out of it as heartless began to rip from the wall and crawl out, shadows with large demon-like wings. An army of heartless, thousands from each corner of the wall until they block out all fragments of like and swallow the guardians in an endless void of darkness and despair. Xehanort aims his keyblade and silently commands his slaves to rid him of these guardians.
As the winged beasts hover and entrap the guardians, each of the guardians stared down the overwhelming horde of monsters. "Give me a break…wasn't the old man enough!?", Prompto groans. "Even with all his power, to be able to summon this amount of heartless alone…", Ignis calculates, "I understand now why you refer to him as the most powerful keyblade master". Aqua lets out a weak chuckle, nodding. "Certainly earned the title, that's for sure", she says defeatedly.
Noctis clenched his fists in anger, whatever advantage they had is gone, Xehanort had barely shown any signs, if not at all, of slowing down and now with so many heartless with only ten of them, there was no way they could fight them all and still retain enough power to fight the master. Even if he and Sora managed to pull off the same miracle they did against that tornado of heartless…
"A king does not look back…instead he pushes forward, no matter what happens", he recites in his mind. He glances down to his finger where once it would have donned the ring of his ancestors, a sudden familiar feeling overcomes his doubts and fears, a gentle warm resonating on his shoulder like someone was gently holding him, giving him strength. Looking at the heartless that readied to attack, and then to his friends, the very people who have all become too important to lose, Lunafreya's face flashing in his heart and mind.
"Not…one…more", he says to himself. "Dad…trust in me…help me protect them, just like you did for me".
Calling the Sword of the Father to his hand, Noctis suddenly flies into the air above his friends, startling the others and having his brothers calling his name. The heartless flew after the king when he stays stationary in the air, lifting the sword his father wielded in the past as the Lucis light shines around him. He opens his eyes as walls of crystal surround him, taking on the ghostly accessories like he had done in his training, sword, and keyblade in hand.
A large dome of crystal shields the others, very much like the wall that once guarded all of Insomnia in the past. "Noct, what are you doing!?", demands Gladiolus. His king glanced down at him and says: "Protecting my people".
The king then flies towards the heartless as all his royal arms following him fly all around and strikes the heartless that pursued him. He brings his keyblade down and fires a beam shaped like a sword slash upon the heartless, cleaving through them all like they were made of paper, the former king's sword aimed and fires several ghostly apparitions of a sword upon the flying rats in the skies. The Armiger of arms detonates whenever they meet the heartless, exploding, and eradicating them with little trouble.
Noctis charges towards a demon tower, spinning around until he becomes a hurricane of Lucis light, buzz sawing his way through the tower like it is nothing to him. Through the heartless tower, he cuts them down and flies to the skies, having the heartless chasing him like dogs chasing a cat. Whilst he was in the air, he spins around as his two weapons glowed in blue light and threw them both at two towers chasing him, acting like darts with jet engines. They both pierce the towers and destroyed the heartless making up the towers.
Three of them were still chasing him, doubling their speed when they see his without his weapons. Noctis aims both hands at them, grey and white lighting crackling around his palms as the clouds darken in the sky, deep booming thunder in the background. "Thundaja!", roars the king. Giant bolts of lighting booms from his palms like a net in a spider-web like a pattern, completely entrapping the towers that tried to chase after him. Not even surviving a second from this awesome display of powerful magic from the chosen king, the towers crumbled.
Summoning the Raksha blade after the spell performed its task, grabbing the weapon of his most hated nemesis. He lifts it over his head as he dashes towards the black wall, bathing the weapon in Lucis light for the first time since the corruption of its former master. The towers tried to stop the king, but each one that tried Noctis' royal arms comes in and slay them with ease, the power of the father and his son combined was too much even for the towers.
Like the ones the arms did not strike down attacked him, abandoning their futile mission to break the king's barrier shielding his friends, Noctis took the Raksha blade and struck them back with enough force to not only decimate the structure of the tower and the occupants but at some points, one mighty strike of Lucis infused attacks utterly destroyed them. His warp-strikes were so fast and sporadically all over the place they couldn't even keep up with him.
The shadows with wings were all being shot out of the sky by his ranged ghostly weapons while the Raksha blade slaughtered the minions the master once used and fought with, bathing in their dark forms. The king runs along with a tower, spinning the Raksha blade as he runs and slashes at once, his wall of crystals shielding him from the ranged attacks of the heartless. He jumps into the air as two towers loom over him, only to be brought down by the dark blade of Ardyn.
A single stroke of his ancestor's weapon, tracing a large dense line of Lucis magic cleaves the towers in half, allowing them to break apart like brittle stones. He spins around and flings the weapon used by Ardyn into another tower, flying towards the wall with Night's Sky in his hand. Just as he closes the distance between himself and the wall of darkness, the king is struck by a charging and frenzied tower that smacks him like a full speeding train.
Thrown back into the air and using his magic to stop his momentum, he shakes his head and sees himself being surrounded by flying towers, entrapping him in a cage of darkness. Looking around and seeing no exit, the king of light grunts and snarls at the heartless before his keyblade shines. "You're all going down", he growled. Summoning Ultima Blade, he throws it up and warps to catch it, suddenly all of his royal arms surrounded him as the walls around him break apart and infuse into him.
Lightning crackles and sparks around him as the arms began to rotate around him with incredible speed. "This…is the true Power of Kings!".
With a roar, a wild burst of white lightning explodes around him as the Armiger simply goes wild with power, striking all around him. So fast they were like lightning themselves, too fast to be seen and worst of all too quick for the heartless to protect themselves from it. Every arm rips and tears the towers asunder while the lighting burns them to dust, the king of light grabbing his two signature weapons and crosses them over his chest as his body shakes with power.
Cloaked in lightning, the king of light propels himself forward and pierces the wall of towers, sending them all to oblivion as he flies to the wall of darkness. With wild and unyielding frenzied attacks, Noctis strikes the wall with the combination of the keyblade and royal arm's light, slowly turning the dark into light. As his royal arms annihilate the towers, clearing the skies of the beings of darkness, he brings both weapons across his chest and slashes at it one last time in an X-pattern.
"It's done!", he proclaims as the blades sliced the wall, a large X shape cut into the portal. It crumbles and melts away, clearing the view. Panting in the air as his power fades, exerting himself to exhaustion, only his two weapons in his hand remained while the others fade back into his armory. He glances down to the others, they were cheering for him, barrier deactivated. Likely relating to his exhausted state but they were safe and judging from their looks ready to continue with renewed hopes. Prompto, suddenly, screams for him. Noctis faces forward in time to block Xehanort's keyblade from cleaving him in two, knocking him back into the air.
He grunts out in pain before snapping his head to the old man, hovering before him. He readied himself for the old man to make the first move, but through the lines of his helmet, he sees that same crooked smirk. He raised his hand and summons darkness, but then he quickly redirects his hand and fires it at the others below. "NO!", Noctis shouts, quickly forgoing his safety and erects a barrier one more time to save the others.
In the nick of time, the barrier erects itself and shield the others, the dark ball exploding harmlessly upon the wall. But this victory was short-lived.
Turning to the old man, Noctis froze.
He glances down and sees the keyblade wielded by the man who started all the chaos and discovered the heartless, had stabbed the king. Noctis sub-consciously drops his weapons, they fading back into his pocket dimension as all his strength had faded away like a candle being snuffed out, he couldn't even utter a word. Xehanort retrieves his keyblade, spurts of red gush from the king, and coats his weapon before Noctis falls from the skies.
His name is cried by the others, horror and enraged as he fell into the dark waters, sinking below with trails of red left behind. Xehanort turns around to the guardians attempting to jump in the waters to save the king, he raised his hand to summon forth a bombardment of darkness and rains them down upon the others. No protection to shield them and with everyone too focused on the king, none had even noticed Xehanort's attack. They were struck by his dark power, blasted away and thrown all over the island.
The destruction that he had wrought demolished so much of the land and port it became nothing more than ruins of ancient times, long passed. Not a guardian in sight…
*?*
Rolling onto his side in pain, Sora hisses and grunts out while trying to get to his feet. He struggles to even stay on his knees before collapsing in agony, body wrecked from taking a full hit from the bombardment of Xehanort's attacks along with fatigue. His clothes torn and burnt with obvious tears in his jacket getting closer to being rags, gloves ripped and burnt with pants having large tears, bleeding in several places and burns on his skin, even his left eye hurt so agonizingly much.
His powers wouldn't save him now with his body being close to being broken, he wouldn't be able to even use magic to heal himself. Laying on his stomach, he forces himself up even as his body weeps for mercy, he couldn't stop now. Thoughts of Noctis, Kairi, and the others weighed on his heart, they needed him, he had to help them. As he stands, clutching his arm, he takes in his surroundings again to find he must have been blasted further from the port than he thought.
Trapped in ruins with water nowhere to be seen, he could have been thrown onto another island for all he knew. Biting back the urge to whimper, he tries to walk through the ruins, hoping to find the others.
"You still stand?".
Sora gasps and looks up to see Xehanort hovering above him without his helmet. "After all this, you still have the foolish gall to attempt to walk and seek out your friends?", he ridicules, smirking. Sora grunts out at him, somewhat unsurprised he was the first one the old man sought out first. That thought is confirmed when Xehanort suddenly disappears before his very eyes and then reappears right in front of the chosen one. Unable to react, Sora is struck by Xehanort's keyblade and thrown back to where he awakened.
Smashing through broken fragments of a building and then slamming into a wall, Sora falls on his backside, beaten and broken. He musters what fragments of his will to stare down the old master as he casually approached him. He stands before him, smirking at the boy with malice. "I expected less of you, Sora, but you continue to amuse me", he says, "Gathering the guardians of light whilst befriending the king of light, bringing back lost hearts, and even earning the Mark of Mastery".
"And all for nothing".
Lifting his keyblade to aim at the boy, he continues: "But don't worry. It was your fate, you merely need to accept it, that is all".
"You…won't win…", Sora grunts out, "You're not…".
"Bold words boy, especially on your last moments in the realm of the living", Xehanort says. But then two fireballs suddenly flew over the master and hit the wall in front of them. Two voices that Sora would know from anywhere rang out, and behind the man who almost took his life, he sees Donald and Goofy running to him. Beaten and probably in worse conditions than himself, yet they threw their lives on the line for him.
Goofy came running to the boy and swung his shield at the seeker. Xehanort easily turns around and repels his attacks, but Goofy doesn't step back nor flee, he keeps pressing him and wildly attacking. "Get away from him!", Goofy commands, "Don't you dare lay another hand on him!". Xehanort scoffs and cruelly decides the two loyal subjects of the king have overstepped their bounds, they needed a clear reminder of their place. Xehanort strikes Goofy's shield, forcing him back onto the defensive role once more. But to the shock of the gang, Xehanort's strikes started to break Goofy's shield, first hit taking a corner of it, another breaking a large chunk, and then finally the last decimated the shield.
Goofy is thrown back from the attack, rendering him unarmed and unsuited for any more battling. "GOOFY!", shouts Donald, quickly aiming his staff at Xehanort. Only for the old man to bath his armored hand in reddish light, suddenly cracks and embers were glowing on the duck's staff. Then with him clenching his fist, Xehanort breaks his staff into metal scraps, disarming the two. "Away with you fools", he commands, firing a force wave at them and blasts them both into walls.
"DONALD! GOOFY!", cries Sora.
"Enough", Xehanort sighed, his patience thinning out. He turns his head to the boy, now glaring at him with renewed rage and determination despite his broken body. "Your futile interface ends here boy", he swears.
"Xehanort!".
Holding back a sigh, the master of the thirteen darkness glances to see walking towards him, even as bloodied and beaten as she is, was Aqua. The leader of the guardians and master of the keyblade marched towards him, her clothes and armor just as damaged as her former apprentice, cuts on her arms and a nasty one on her cheek that Sora feared may leave a scar, but her eyes withheld any signs of pain or even exhaustion.
"Master Aqua", the old man says with a small semblance of respect, "Still standing tall I see…". He chuckles darkly as the master before him, calling the Queen of Storms. "I see so much of Eraqus in you…the same foolish naivety. Have you not accepted the truth my dear?", questions the old man, "The guardians have fallen, the king perished, and your savior is no more than a broken doll. But you persist in defying destiny? Your fate?".
"…I will die first before I stand by and watch you harm my family any longer", Aqua says. Placing a hand on her heart, she faces him and Sora. "I am a master of the keyblade, a servant of the light and a guardian to those I hold dear", she proclaims, "I failed once to protect those I love…this time I will protect them…even if it means my life".
Placing a hand on her emblem, Aqua is bathed in the beautiful light that Sora remembered seeing before, and when it fades, she is in her master armor. Not even Xehanort could hide is respect for her, the first true keyblade master armor in so long. This however made the old man don his helmet once more. "Your fate has been written Aqua, you will accept it", he boldly claims, but the master from the light rebukes: "Destiny should never be left to chance".
The two masters rush into each other as Sora could only watch helplessly…
A/N:
…one down…
The final clash with the big man himself, god almighty this was hard to do!
Can the guardians pull another miracle? Do they (what remains) have even a chance to win? Or is it their fate to die? We'll have to see~
Questions:
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: Replica fights?
Q3: Mad I skipped the water fight?
Q4: Noctis' going all out with father's power?
Q5: Wanna see how Axel and co are doing?
Q6: How do you think this will end?
Q7: Whose gonna live or die?
Thanks for reading everyone, thanks to the new followers to for joining and as always, stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!
