I keep getting conflicting answers from Google – is it "Arandelle" or "Arendelle"?
SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR (MOST) DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Having arrived in a snowy mountain area, the sky overhead dark with clouds, a quintet of heroes made short work of a pack of Heartless; working alongside Sora, Donald, & Goofy, Akane Hino – already in Cure Sunny form – and Lea – getting some more field experience with his Keyblade – crushed and burned darklings, their attacks melting the snow around them. As the last Heartless feel, an icy wind blew by, resulting in Sora hugging himself, shaking and hopping around.
"Donald, gimme a coat!" he pleaded.
"The magic doesn't work that way" Donald replied.
"Guess he's too used to the beach" Goofy quipped.
"Good thing this coat is enchanted to protect against extreme temperatures" Lea remarked, tugging at one of his black cloak's tassels.
"I… think I'm gonna stay transformed," Cure Sunny said, "since my transformation protects me, too."
Still trying to warm himself up, Sora glanced off into the distance, where a town of some sorts bordered the ocean, which was visibly frosting over.
"Look" he said. "Even the sea's turning to… ice…"
Actually, it seemed a rolling wave of cold was flash-freezing the coastal ocean as it went, in a definitely unnatural manner.
"Donald, this isn't your magic, is it?"
Donald shook his head.
"Do ya think it's the Heartless?" Goofy suggested.
They ran over to the water's edge, and saw a young woman with pale-blonde hair, wearing a turquoise dress with a long, flowing purple cape running across the water's surface. The water flash-froze into ice beneath her feet, the ice quickly spreading. Reaching the shore, she started making her way up a snowy slope, toward the mountains.
ARANDELLE
"That girl…" Sora said. "She looks so sad… I wonder what happened… Maybe the Heartless? We should go talk to her."
The five started up the slope, weaving through snow-covered trees, and were soon ambushed by a pack of Heartless – Soldiers, Marine Rumbas, and a pair of Parasol Beauties. Lea's chakrams and Goofy's shield made quick work of the Soldiers, while Donald and Sora started blasting the flyers with Fira and Thundara spells. Cure Sunny charged at the Parasol Beauties, leaping high to dodge the blaster bolts they fired at her and coming down to hit one with a punch so strong it cratered the snow and the ground beneath. As the Heartless disintegrated, she quickly hit the other one with a Sunny Fire attack that destroyed it as well.
With the way clear, the heroes pressed onward. A bit higher up, they were attacked by a herd of a new kind of Heartless, looking like deer with big antlers of ice - Winterhorns. Lea and Donald blasted them with Firaga spells, which proved very effective against the ice-type Heartless, quickly vanquishing them. Farther up the mountain, they encountered another pack, accompanied by more Parasol Beauties and Marine Rumbas. A wave of firework-rockets from Sora & Donald took out the Marine Rumbas, while Goofy started bashing Winterhorns. Cure Sunny and Lea each took on a Parasol Beauty, his fiery Keyblade battering through the Heartless' guard and cutting it down with a barrage of red-hot blows, while her supercharged fists pummeled her foe into submission.
Onwards they went, using magic or chakra to ascend a sheer cliff and enter a narrow gorge. Following it even higher up the mountain, they came upon a cliffside clearing, and caught sight of the young woman they'd seen earlier, walking through the snow.
"Hey, hold up!" Sora called out, startling her.
"Why are you here?" she asked, suspicious as they stopped in front of her. "Where did you come from?"
"Hi, I'm Sora! And, uh…"
Donald cleared his throat warningly.
"Uh… We're from someplace… a little warmer."
"I'm Donald!"
"And I'm Goofy!"
"Name's Lea; get it memorized."
"I'm Akane; nice to meetcha!"
"Are you all visiting Arendelle," the girl asked, "for the coronation?"
"Huh? Uh…" As Sora looked confused, Donald & Goofy just nodded, so he played along. "You got us! So, what's your name?"
"Elsa… Queen Elsa of Arandelle."
"T-The queen?!" the quintet immediately straightened up.
Elsa sighed. "You shouldn't be out here. Please go back to the village."
"Why?" Sora asked as Elsa turned away. "Your Majesty, you look like you could use a friend. Don't you wanna talk?"
"…Please leave. I need to be alone. I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Oh…" the heroes exchanged concerned looks. "Is it that bad? You must've been through a lot."
"We know what that's like, don't we?" Donald said.
"Sure," Goofy replied, "adventuring's fun, but it definitely has its ups & downs."
"Yeah," Lea added, "you see things you'd rather not see, have days where you just wanna sit down and quit everything. But if you've got dependable comrades by your side, it's a bit easier to get back up and keep at it."
"I've been part of a team since day one" Cure Sunny said. "Don't wanna think about how things coulda ended up if I had to do everything solo…"
"Exactly!" Sora said. "Although, Donald… You do lose your temper a lot, so… I can relate to wanting some alone-time."
"Enough!"
Elsa waved her hand outward, releasing a wave of ice magic, forming a barricade of spikes between her & the heroes. Donald had avoided getting skewered in the face by inches. As Elsa stared in guilt and shock, she suddenly spun around as a herd of Winterhorn Heartless spawned in.
"We got this" Sora told her as he & his team drew weapons. "Take cover!"
As Elsa took cover behind the ice barrier she'd inadvertently formed, Donald zapped a few of the deer Heartless with Thundara, stunning them for Goofy and Cure Sunny to pound. Elsa watched in shock as Sora pointed his Keyblade at a charging Winterhorn and fired a Blizzard blast… and then cringed as the ice magic enlarged and sharpened the beast's antlers while giving its forehooves ice armor.
"Bad idea, bad idea!" Sora shouted, running from the enhanced Heartless.
Seeing the youth's plight, Donald fired a Fira blast at the Winterhorn, destroying it. Lea brought out his Keyblade, every swing and strike releasing a little burst of flame, while Cure Sunny wreathed her fists & feet in fire magic to give her blows a little extra oomph against the ice-type Heartless. After spending her life struggling to control and suppress her ice magic, Elsa was astonished to see people with such control over fire magic…
The hero quintet quickly disposed of the Heartless attacking them. With the area clear, the 'ice princess' came out of hiding.
"Are you okay, Elsa?" Sora asked.
"I… I'm sorry I was so upset" she said. "Thank you for your help."
Suddenly a surviving Winterhorn appeared behind the travelers and leapt at them. Reflexively, Elsa fired a shotgun-blast of little icicle spears, slaying the Heartless.
"Huh. Another ice-user" Lea remarked. "Doesn't someone on your team use ice magic, Sunny?"
Cure Sunny nodded. "Reika – Cure Beauty. Cure Diamond has ice control, too."
"And there are plenty of others who have magic ice control," Goofy added, "like that immortal little girl Evangeline, the Bureau's Colonel Yagami, that Miyako girl – God rest her soul – and-"
"I can't control it!" Elsa interrupted, pain filling her voice. "Unless I constantly suppress my feelings, my ice power runs rampant. I don't control it; all it ever does – all I ever do – is hurt people!"
"You never had anyone to teach you…" Lea realized. "Jeez, most of our element-users either had the power gifted to them but it came with knowledge on how to use it, or – like me – had to start from the ground up with months or years of training on how to convert your energies into elements. Nearly blew myself up more than once…" he mumbled.
"It made short work of that Heartless, at least" Donald added.
"What were those things?" Elsa asked.
"Creatures of darkness and instinct that try to corrupt or devour people's Hearts to make more of themselves" Sora replied. "And wherever they go, there's trouble."
Elsa clutched her hands to her chest. "They're after people's Hearts…?"
"Yes, and they're dangerous. You should head home before it gets any worse."
The girl turned away. "This is my home now. I can't go back. I don't wanna hurt anyone…"
"…What?"
"Arendelle is safer with me staying up here."
"Not safer for you!" Sora responded as Elsa began to walk away.
Suddenly, at Elsa's command, a massive wall of ice sprung up between her & them, keeping them from following as she ran off into the darkness…
"She'll probably be okay" Goofy tried to reassure Sora. "Seems like she's pretty strong."
"She really wants to be alone" Donald added. "You gotta let her go."
"Does she really?" Sora replied. "I just… wanna know why she was so sad."
"And how is it any of your business?" a new female voice spoke up. "Read the room, kiddo."
They turned to see a young woman in an Organization coat, with golden-blonde hair and Xehanort-yellow eyes.
"Larxene…" Lea drew his Keyblade, the others readying themselves as well.
"Axel…" she purred. "Axel's 'Somebody', rather. Still wearing our colors even after betraying us?"
"Organization XIII weren't the first to create the black coat; the Master of Masters was. Xemnas' little gang just co-opted it."
"Hmph." She looked at Sora, Donald, & Goofy. "Marluxia told me how you three don't have your memories of our first meeting, but you've learned all about it via secondhand sources. This time, I'll make sure you never forget me… And don't you worry; we'll take care of Elsa."
"Why are you after her?" Cure Sunny's fists sparked with flame for a split-second.
Larxene sighed. "We're not gonna hurt her. But we're not about to put up with your meddling. Stay here and behave yourselves."
She pointed a palm out, firing a wave of lightning and darkness that struck the ice wall Elsa had conjured, shattering it. The ice, now wreathed in dark power, swirled around in the air and then surrounded the five heroes, hiding them from view. Space twisted and roiled as a bit of charged power Xigbar had lent Larxene added some spatial manipulation to the whole affair, creating a pocket dimension.
When the mist settled, the quintet found themselves trapped in a mansion-like labyrinth of ice, much bigger on the inside.
"Anybody see a way out?" Goofy asked.
"Not me" Donald replied.
"Well," Sora said, "we can't stay here."
"Elsa's in real trouble now" Lea said. "Larxene said she wouldn't hurt the girl, but she's always been kind of a sadist…"
"But judging by her eyes," Cure Sunny replied, "she's a vessel for Master Xehanort's essence already. She might not be capable of going against his orders."
The quintet started trying to make their way through the frozen labyrinth, coming upon a room with a pair of ice 'trees'. A flock of Flutterings awoke as they sensed intruders, the bat-like Heartless swooping down at them. Donald's Thundaga took out about half of them and stunned the rest, letting Sora & Lea swat the survivors.
They smashed their way through a barricade of ice that looked like branches of lightning frozen solid, making their way down a hall and up a stairway. A few Soldiers tried to ambush from a side room, but Lea's chakrams quickly cut them to ribbons. Another side chamber contained a squadron of Gold Beats, a Parasol Beauty, and a Satyr. While Lea, Donald, & Goofy took care of the little flyers, Sora and Cure Sunny went for the two heavies. Sora circled around the Parasol Beauty, dodging its shots, then closed in and hammered it with Keyblade strikes and close-range Fire blasts, wearing it down and destroying it. Meanwhile, Cure Sunny overpowered the Satyr, pummeled it hard enough to dent its armor, and blasted it in the face with a fireball, killing it.
Down a frozen hallway and up another flight of stairs, they found themselves in a huge chamber dominated by an ice spire in the middle. As they entered, however, the spire retracted into the floor, and a squad of Nobodies spawned in – humanoid, with long yellow spikes for hands & feet, wearing dark-gray bodysuits white straps around the chest, gray hoods with the Nobody emblem over the face, with white scarves and gray sash belts.
These half-dozen new Nobodies – 'Ninjas' – scattered at great speed and started flipping around, dodging the fireballs Donald and Lea shot at them. Sora brought his Keyblade up to dodge a stabbing strike from a Ninja's spiky arm, while Cure Sunny leapt and rolled to avoid the kunai of solid Lightning magic two more of them were flinging at her. Goofy nailed the Ninja attacking Sora with a shield throw to the back of the head, stunning it and letting Sora pummel it with Keyblade blows until it came apart into wisps of white.
Lea got in close to a Ninja and landed a few blows, but the Nobody then electrified itself to force him back. Of course, that didn't save it from a Firaga to the face that finished it off. Cure Sunny came down foot-first on a Ninja's head, crushing its skull, and launched a Sunny Fire blast at another Ninja, weakening it for a Blizzara blast from Donald to finish the job. The remaining two Ninjas tried skating around and flinging electro-kunai at the heroes, but Donald & Sora's Reflega barriers stopped the projectiles, and a Zero Gravira from Donald then hoisted both Nobodies into the air, leaving them helpless for Sora & Lea to take out with Strike Raids.
Inspecting the huge central pillar, Sora gave it a spin. In response, the entire room began to rotate, shifting its position in the labyrinth, revealing a new passageway. They slid down an icy slope, Lea quickly taking out a pair of Dusks waiting for them at the bottom, and then dove down to an even lower level. Soon they came upon another large room, this one with two large pillars, with another squad of Ninjas waiting for them. Sora was enveloped in a red flash as he assumed his Valor Form, his boosted physical abilities letting him catch up to the quick & agile Nobodies and slash them apart easily, with Cure Sunny and Goofy getting the few he left.
A little experimenting with the two central pillars made the room's outer rings rotate, forming a new opening leading to a high chamber with a sharp slope upwards, a doorway at the top. The quintet made their way up, using magic-powered leaps and chi-based surface clinging to scale up to a higher tier of the massive labyrinth. One more big room with a central pillar and another squad of Ninjas awaited them, and this time Sora went with Wisdom Form, using supercharged magic to clear the room with Lea pitching in to help.
Rotating the room revealed a new passage leading to a glowing rail of enchanted ice. The quintet slid along the rail, which carried them through the labyrinth and into a massive elevator chamber… which, of course, was guarded by yet another squad of Ninja Nobodies. With the monsters vanquished, everyone got aboard the central elevator, which carried them to the top floor of the labyrinth. Down a hallway, they found a shimmering purple portal.
"Finally!" Donald said. "Let's get outta here!"
The five stepped through the portal, finally emerging back into normal space. Less time had passed outside than within the labyrinth, but it had definitely gotten darker out since before they got pulled into that subspace realm. Some of the clouds overhead had cleared, giving them a beautiful view of an aurora high up in the sky.
"We gotta find Elsa before the Organization does!" Sora said. "Come on!"
The quintet started making their way up the mountain, fighting through a flock of Flutterings along the way, using magic & chakra to scale up the cliffsides. After a long climb and a few more Heartless packs, they finally, finally got up to more level ground closer to the mountaintop. And as they fought their way through the freezing winds…
"Does anyone hear… singing?" Cure Sunny asked.
…
After an amazing spectacle, the gang found themselves standing in front of a massive ice palace/castle created by the now-liberated Elsa's powers, the sky overhead clearer.
"I don't know what we just saw," Sora said, "but… Wow… That… was Elsa?"
"She looked different" Donald said.
"And a lot happier, too" Goofy added.
"It's like a weight's been taken off her shoulders" Cure Sunny remarked. "And it looked like as she stopped fighting her powers & her emotions, her control over her powers improved."
"Why don't we drop in and say hello?" Sora suggested.
As they started toward the stairway leading up toward the palace, however, a corridor of darkness sprang up in front of them, Larxene emerging.
"Please don't tell me that you're spying on her now" she remarked.
Sora scoffed. "Don't turn this around on us. You're following her."
"Ooh. Look at you get all sassy. Okay, I'll admit: Elsa is a person of interest to us. Maybe she's one of the seven pure lights we need – the New Seven Hearts. Gotta make sure, though. Fortunately, we're in the best position to tell. Can't pick out that 'special glimmer' unless you're standing in the shadows." She turned to look at the castle. "And maybe… Elsa doesn't have it. I mean, just look at how icy her palace is – made of magic she forced herself to keep hidden until now. What if it's dark magic?"
"Elsa would never rely on the darkness!"
"You're in no position to say that; you barely know her! …Actually, it's still too early to call. Depends on how she sees it. If she believes that her magic is darkness, that's what it will become. Accepting her power, whatever it is, is the only way she can set her heart free. So what will Elsa accept? Light, or darkness? I know I wanna know!"
Sora growled. "Well, good for you, but guess what? I won't let her fall to darkness!"
"It's her choice to make, not yours! You know, I'm starting to understand why she gave you the cold shoulder…"
She raised her hand up, crackling with dark & lightning magic. Casting her hand forward, she conjured a continuous wave of powerful wind tinged with static charge, zapping at the five heroes and trying to blow them away. Lea tried firing a few fireballs at her, but the wind extinguished them before they could reach her. Sora groaned as he tried to fight the mighty gale.
"You wanna help her?" Larxene said. "Then stop trying to be her hero! Let her figure things out her own way!"
She started blasts of lightning amongst the wind, striking at the snow beneath the heroes' feet. Finally, they lost their footing and were blown away, falling down off the mountain…
-Break-
Further down the mountain, at the base of a snowy slope, the five heroes groaned as they pulled themselves up out of the snow; at least they'd gotten a soft landing…
"Everyone okay?" Sora asked.
"I'm okay…" Donald staggered for a moment, still a bit dizzy.
"All good" Goofy made an 'OK' gesture with one hand while rubbing at his sore head with the other.
"I've been hit harder than that" Cure Sunny remarked, dusting snow off her outfit (which mercifully hadn't dematerialized throughout the whole affair).
"So have I, but it doesn't mean that was pleasant…" Lea griped.
"We should probably go check on Elsa" Sora suggested.
"And make sure Larxene was wrong about her magic" Goofy agreed.
"But don't you tell her what Larxene said" Donald told the youth.
"Huh? Why not?"
"Well, to keep the order" Goofy replied. "We can't let locals know about other worlds unless events force our hands on the matter."
"Yeah, okay…"
Suddenly, everyone heard a deep, ominous rumbling sound. Looking up the mountain, they saw a massive wall of snow appear, speeding down the slope right towards them! Thinking fast, Goody conjured his shield and got himself, Donald, & Sora on top of it, taking off down the slope aboard their 'sled'. Lea, meanwhile, used his newest trick to summon his Keyblade Glider, a hoverboard-type like Ventus', and he & Cure Sunny hopped aboard, flying down the slope alongside the "main" trio. As they flew down the slope, Goofy chanced a look back, and saw what looked like a trio of winged serpents made of ice, with wide wings that spun like propellers or drills, and a familiar emblem on their foreheads.
"There are Heartless inside the avalanche!" he shouted to the others. "Big ones!"
As they sped down the slope, the Heartless – Frost Serpents – started firing sweeping ice-beams at them, forcing them to take evasive maneuvers while making sure those movements didn't slow them down enough for the avalanche the catch them. Finally, they made a long jump over a gap that the avalanche couldn't cross, leaving the Heartless in the dust. The next couple minutes were a somewhat more leisurely sled down the snowy slopes, weaving through trees and such.
When they finally reached level ground again, the three Frost Serpents (or perhaps three different ones) emerged from beneath the snow. One flew high and started sending twisters of freezing wind at the heroes, while another went to ground and tried to crush them with its jaws. Sora was enveloped in blue as he took his Wisdom Form, starting to fling enhanced Firaga and Thundaga spells at one of the Frost Serpents. Meanwhile, Lea and Cure Sunny put their fire-type powers to good use against the frozen Heartless, Lea's chakrams blowing one's wings off while Cure Sunny ripped/melted off another's tail. Sora finished off his opponent with a Firaza straight to the face, killing the icy Heartless. A shield-throw from Goofy stunned another Frost Serpent, leaving it unable to avoid a falling slash from Lea's Keyblade that took its head off. The last Heartless tried to flee, but Cure Sunny came down on it from above with a fiery punch that shattered its head.
Unfortunately, a fourth Frost Serpent appeared. And rather than fight the heroes who'd felled its comrades, it flew up and slammed itself into a snow-covered slope just up the hill, setting off another avalanche. This time, the quintet were unable to escape in time, being carried away…
-Break-
"Wow…" a voice said. "Look at all the pretty colors! There's blue, and green – ooh, I love green! And some red, and hey look – black! Just like my buttons. Hmm? Silly spiky grass; gimme back my foot!"
Groaning softly, Sora came to and was met by a sight that was weird, even for him – a little snowman waddling away. Shaking himself away, the youth got to his feet, followed by his four teammates.
"Hey, did you guys see that snowman?" he asked.
"Snowman?" Goofy looked confused, picking snow out of his ear.
"Yeah. And here's the funny thing: he was walking and talking."
"Huh?" the other four looked to each other.
"Everybody knows snowmen can't walk" Donald replied. "You must've imagined it."
"I dunno," Cure Sunny said, "dealing with a hidden world of fairies connected to old fairy-tales has left me a bit more open-minded when it comes to that kinda stuff…"
"Well," Goofy said, "if he was real, maybe we'll see him again. But if we don't get goin', we'll never reach Elsa's palace."
"Man…" Lea looked up at the mountain. "We're way far down. We're gonna have a hell of a time gettin' all the way back up to Elsa's ice palace…"
"We'd better get started, then" Sora replied. "Come on."
They started making their way through the snowy tree-filled valley, and as they entered a clearing, they saw a group walking by – a buff young man, a large shaggy-furred deer, a young woman with red hair… and a little snowman, waddling along behind them.
"Ah, I can't wait to meet Elsa" the snowman said to himself. "I bet she's the nicest, warmest, best person ever."
"See?" Sora turned to his friends. "I told you! A walking, talking snowman!"
The excited youth ran over to the little snowman, who was startled by the sudden appearance. Noticing the commotion, the other group-members turned and came back.
"Hello" the girl said. "Olaf, are these your friends?"
"Nope!" the snowman replied. "Never met 'em before."
"I'm Sora!" "Donald Duck!" "And I'm Goofy!" "Lea; keep it memorized." "I'm Akane, or 'Cure Sunny'!"
"I'm Anna" she turned to the young man. "And, I know they're strangers, but… they seem pretty nice to me."
The man sighed. "I'm Kristoff. And this" he gestured to the reindeer "is Sven."
"So," Sora asked, "where are you guys headed?"
"We're going to try and put an end to this crazy winter" Kristoff replied.
"And to do that," Anna continued, "we need to find my sister, Elsa."
"Elsa's… your sister?" Sora's eyes widened.
"What a coincidence" Goofy said. "We're going to see her, too."
Anna gasped. "You know Elsa?"
"Yeah, we ran into her up the mountain" Sora replied. "Um, do you mind telling us what's going on around here? We're worried. We think your sister might be in some trouble."
"Trouble? Are you sure?" Looking into his eyes for a few moments, she sighed and nodded. "All right. I know we've just met, but… Sora, was it? I get the feeling you're someone to trust."
Looking the boy over, Kristoff nodded. "I'm right there with ya."
"I just hope you like long stories…"
"…Ya know, I should go find some moss for Sven. He's looking a little hungry."
As Kristoff led Olaf and Sven away, Anna and Sora sat down on a snow-covered boulder.
"When we were little," she began, "my sister and I used to be really close. But then, one day, for some reason, Elsa just… shut me out. Years passed, and we barely ever saw each other. Then, finally, it was time for her coronation. Let's just say I was… more than a little excited. I thought we'd finally have a chance to talk. But at the party, I did something that made her mad. We got into an argument, and I lost my temper. I was just… so frustrated! And then, well… that's when she used her magic to push me away. In front of the whole crowd. …It was all my fault."
Anna sighed, briefly looking near tears.
"I shouldn't have upset her the way I did – pushed her to reveal the powers she'd kept hidden for so long in front of everyone. Elsa ran away because she was frightened. …I have to bring her home."
"I'm sure she knows how much you love her" Sora said. 'And I think,' he realized, 'maybe that's why she looked so sad. It's just like when Riku disappeared. He thought he had to push me away, to protect me. Maybe Elsa's the same…' "If anyone can help her, it's you, Anna."
Seeing Sora's conviction, Anna couldn't help but be a little bolstered by it. "Thanks, Sora."
"Hey, guys!" Kristoff called out, running over. "I need some help!"
"What's the problem?" Sora asked.
"This" he held up a stick with hand-shaped twigs at one end.
"A stick problem?" Donald asked.
"It's not a stick" Kristoff replied. "Well, it is a stick, but it – It's Olaf's arm. He's fallen apart again.
"Fallen apart?!" the main trio said in horror.
"Uh, how come you're not upset?" Donald asked.
"Oh, it's no big deal" Anna replied. "He's a snowman. We'll just… put him back together.
"That's it?" Lea asked.
"I gotta see this!" Goofy remarked.
After a little adventure combing the area for the snowman's bits & pieces, they managed to put Olaf back together again.
"Hey, Kristoff," Sora asked, "how'd all this happen, anyway?"
"You know, I'm not sure" the man replied. "These weird animals – well, they were more like monsters – just crashed into Olaf."
Lea sighed. "I knew it."
"The Heartless again!" Donald added.
"The 'Heartless'?" Kristoff said. "And I thought the wolves around here were bad…"
"They're creatures of darkness," Cure Sunny explained, "born when someone's Heart – their soul, basically – is consumed by the powers of darkness, or pulled out and corrupted by other Heartless. The more inherent darkness is in someone's Heart, the bigger and badder their Heartless will be; they can range from weak little cannon-fodder critters come from people with barely any darkness in their Hearts, to huge monsters of incredible power for the Heartless of really evil people."
"Look!" Anna suddenly pointed out. Across the clearing, a pack of Heartless had spawned in – a quartet of Satyrs, a few Winterhorns, and a small flock of Flutterings.
"We know how to handle them!" Sora said as he & his friends conjured their weapons. "We've got plenty of experience swatting Heartless. Anna, Kristoff, keep going while we deal with these things!"
As Kristoff ushered Anna, Sven, & Olaf along, Sora & Donald used a "Flare Force" firework-rocket barrage to take out the Flutterings and a few of the Winterhorns. Lea closed in on one of the Satyrs, striking with a barrage of blows from his Keyblade and finishing by cracking its helmet off and blasting its unshielded face with a fireball point-blank, destroying the Heartless. Goofy used his shield to smash a Winterhorn apart, while Donald stunned a Satyr with Thundara, letting Sora & Cure Sunny bash & slash it to death.
Donald and Lea herded the remaining Winterhorns into one spot, letting Sora & Goofy take them all out at once with "Goofy Bombardier". The last two Satyrs charged like bulls, and the heroes scattered to avoid being trampled. Sora and Lea nailed them with Strike Raids, and Cure Sunny came down on one Satyr's head with a burning heel-drop that crushed its head, destroying it. The lone survivor didn't have time to decide which hero to attack next before Donald & Goofy ganged up on it, shield-strikes and attack spells picking it apart and bringing it down.
"We'd better catch up" Sora said.
The gang started making their way up the mountain. A herd of Winterhorns tried to bar their path, but a huge snowball made for an excellent Heartless-squishing bowling ball that quickly cleared the field (Lea: "Ya missed two on the first pass, Sora. That's a spare."). They were also met with a new variant of the Large Body, the rotund Heartless now clad in horned helmets and with light armor strapped to their bellies that repelled frontal attacks and let them belly-slide along the snow at great speed. Donald used Blizzaga to form an ice ramp, making one Helmed Body go sailing clear over the nearest cliff to plummet, and Lea used his fire magic to melt the snow in another charging Helmed Body's path, leaving it to skid to a stop on the rocky ground beneath, wide open for killing blows from Cure Sunny and Goofy.
After a long climb and several more packs of Heartless, they finally reached Elsa's ice palace again. At the base of the fancy stairs leading to the palace doors, Sven the reindeer had his tongue stuck to the ice.
"Anna and the others must've gone inside" Sora said, while Cure Sunny used a bit of fire magic to melt the ice enough for Sven to get free.
Suddenly, Sora clutched at his chest in pain. As the others crowded around him, he straightened up.
"I'm fine" he told them. "But… I think that something terrible might've just happened."
A few minutes later, the front doors were thrown open from within, revealing a huge bulky giant made of snow with fingers of ice, Olaf grasped in one hand and Anna & Kristoff in the other. The giant sent the two humans sliding down the ice stairs and then chucked Olaf after them. Incensed, Anna picked up a snowball and threw it right at the giant as it was heading back inside… and the beast roared as it made ice spikes sprout from its upper body. It charged down the stairs, heading for Anna & Kristoff, only for Sora's Strike Raid to nail it in the side of the head.
"Over here, Frosty! You guys, get outta here!"
As Anna, Kristoff, Sven, & Olaf made a break for it, Team Sora led the giant snow-golem to a cliffside area in the other direction. Sora & Goofy pulled off a "tree-buchet" attack that stunned the beast, but it recovered quickly. The quintet backed away, weapons ready, as the snow-golem backed them toward a cliff… and then the monster grinned and slammed its icy fists down against the snow-covered ground between it and the heroes. The rocky outcropping Team Sora was standing on suddenly gave way and broke off, sending them all plummeting down below.
-Break-
Laying in a him-shaped imprint in the snow far below, Sora had a weary, annoyed look on his face.
"Good thing snow's so soft" he deadpanned. "We could do this a hundred times."
"Let's not" Donald grumbled, shaking snow out of his hat.
"This is getting real old, real fast" Cure Sunny groaned.
"Do you think our friends made it to safety?" Sora wondered.
"I don't think the snow monster got 'em" Goofy replied.
"They probably went back to the palace" Donald said.
"Makes sense" Sora said. "For us, too. We still need to talk to Elsa. Up we go again…"
"You sure we can't call in a dropship to give us a lift?" Lea asked.
"World Order…" Donald replied.
Making their way along the snowy path, they took a drop and came down on a Soldier packs' heads, Sora & Lea converting their momentum into magic-fueled shockwave stomps that took out most of them and left the few survivors easy targets for Donald's magic. A couple more drops brought them down onto a slope leading down to a field of snow-covered trees, with a few packs of Heartless waiting for them along the slope. Grinning, Sora and Cure Sunny got a snowball started and then pushed it down; as it rolled down the slope it continuously grew in size, snatching up and crushing any Heartless in its way, with the heroes following behind to mop up the survivors.
As they reached the bottom, however, in the distance they saw a man in a grey outfit with crew-cut ginger hair trudging through the snow… with an unconscious Elsa slung over his shoulder.
"Who's that guy?" Sora wondered.
"It could be somebody come up from Arandelle come to help her" Goofy suggested.
Sora tried to look harder at the man. "I don't think so; that doesn't look like help to me."
As the man and his out-cold cargo vanished from sight around a copse of trees, the heroes caught sight of flickering dark-purple energy around him.
"Darkness?!" Donald shouted.
Sora closed his eyes, extended his magical-empathic focus, and reeled as he felt as if physically struck by how much malignant darkness, greed, and evil was in the mystery man's Heart.
"That guy's major bad news!" he said. "Let's go!"
As the quintet started down the trail, they were attacked by a mixed pack of Heartless & Nobodies – Dusks, Flutterings, two Parasol Beauties, and a Ninja. Donald cleared out the bat-like Heartless with a quick Thundaga, while Goofy started beating Dusks around with his shield. Lea matched blades with the Ninja Nobody, dodging & blocking its lightning-fast strikes and counterattacking during split-second openings, soon wearing the Nobody down and vanquishing it. Cure Sunny set one Parasol Beauty's parasol on fire, and as the Heartless frantically tried to extinguish its weapon, she closed in and pummeled it until it came apart. Sora handled the other one, a Watera spell knocking it off-balance and a series of heavy blows destroying it.
As they moved down the slope and entered a clearing, there was a sudden blast as the giant snow-golem from earlier appeared, bulldozing through a few fallen trees and marching onwards. Team Sora got in its path to fight it, but it trudged right on past them, calling out for Elsa.
"Hey!" Sora shouted, running alongside. "Are you looking for Elsa, too!?"
Finally noticing the interlopers, the snow-golem snarled and advanced toward them.
"Whoa, easy!" Sora said. "We saw the bad guy who took Elsa, and we wanna save her too! We're on the same side!"
At that, the snow-golem stood down from its offensive posture, looking sad.
"I guess all he ever wanted to do was keep Elsa safe" Goofy supposed.
"Hmm…" Sora pondered for a moment. "We should team up, big guy! The man who took Elsa was brimming with the power of Darkness, and that's something my friends & I have a lot of experience dealing with."
After a moment's thought, "Marshmallow" smiled and nodded.
"One great thing about Sora" Goofy said. "He can always make friends with anybody."
"The DDF sure has quite a few people like that…" Akane said with a grin, thinking of her team leader.
The group, now with an extra (and extra-large) member, pressed onward. Soon, a half-dozen Satyrs appeared, two of them charging at the heroes right from the start. Marshmallow grabbed one of the Heartless, stopping it in its tracks, then used it as a club against the other one, destroying both. Donald used Blizzara to freeze a Satyr's hooves to the snow, letting Cure Sunny wail on it with impunity. Lea hit another Satyr in the face with a fireball, then cut it down while it was blinded. Sora fired a wave of Ragnarok bolts at the last two Satyrs, finishing them off. As they moved on, another squad of Satyrs barred their path. Marshmallow made multiple ice spikes jut out from his upper body and charged, his tackle killing half of the Heartless and leaving the remainder stunned and wounded, easy pickings for Team Sora.
Further along the path, they caught sight of Kristoff being forcibly dragged along by his reindeer. With Marshmallow hanging back, Team Sora ran over to whatever was going on, as Sven used his antlers to toss Kristoff forward, snorting at him.
"No, Sven!" Kristoff told him. "We're not going back. She's with her 'true love'."
"Kristoff!"
"Sora? You guys all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm glad you guys are safe."
At this point, Team Sora noticed something was missing. "Where's Anna?" Cure Sunny asked.
Kristoff sighed, looking downcast. "She's back at home."
"Something happen?" Sora asked.
"…During an argument with her sister, Anna was struck in the heart by Elsa's ice magic. If the ice magic isn't removed, she'll freeze solid. Forever. Only an act of true love can undo the curse and 'thaw a frozen heart'. So I took her back to Arendelle and her true love, Hans Westergaard."
"But… What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Uh, I sorta assumed you two were…"
"Huh? N-No, nooo!" the young man grew flustered. "I just keep her from getting lost."
"Really? Oh, but you seem so…"
"Perfect together!" Goofy chimed in.
"Reminds me of me & Daisy!" Donald added.
"…Wait a second…" Lea got a niggling suspicion. "Kristoff, would this 'Hans' character happen to have ginger hair and a goatee?"
"Um… I think Anna described him that way, yeah. Why?"
At this, the smile dropped off Sora's face. "Oh no… Kristoff, I've developed the power to feel other people's Hearts if they're strong enough with light or darkness. We saw that guy carrying an unconscious Elsa back toward the kingdom, and when I 'sensed' him… His Heart had so much darkness and evil in it, it practically punched me in the face! If Anna's fallen for him, she's made a huge mistake!"
At this, Kristoff's expression filled with worry. "Oh no… Damn it, I told her falling in love with someone and declaring them her 'soulmate' the first day she met him wasn't smart! I was worried maybe he was just someone trying to make nice with royalty to get the perks of that, but if he's as bad inside as you say he is…"
Suddenly, a cold and bitter wind kicked up, forcing the group to shield their faces. The wind seemed to be coming from Arandelle, the flurry of snow making visibility degrade by the second. Hans took off running in that direction, Sven right behind him. Marshmallow came up to the gang.
"Elsa… hurting inside…" the snow-golem rumbled.
"She and Anna both need our help" Cure Sunny said. "Let's go!"
The gang started making their way through the ever-worsening storm, having to use rocky outcroppings as shelter during particularly bad gusts of wind. Realizing the storm was slowing everyone down, Marshmallow had them all gather and walk behind him, his giant body protecting them from the fierce winds. Eventually, the storm seemed to die down, just as they got to a hilltop overlooking the capital, which had dark clouds swirling all around it.
"Hurry!" Sora shouted. "We don't know what could be happening down there!"
-Break-
Rushing across the surface of the frozen coast, through the thick mist and fog, Team Sora finally came within visual range of a terrible spectacle. Before their eyes, as Hans swung his deadly blade down at the downed Elsa, Anna threw herself into its path just as the curse on her heart reached its terminus. The girl's entire body was converted into lifeless ice… and the incoming blade shattered to bits when it struck her, a shockwave of magic blasting Hans back and knocking him out.
By the time Team Sora got closer in, Elsa – realizing what had happened – clung helplessly to the frozen body of her sister, sobbing in despair, the ice and snow in the air all frozen in place. However, a few moments later, a spark of light over the frozen Anna's heart grew in brightness and slowly spread across her body. Everyone watched in awe as the icy transformation reversed, returning Anna to flesh & blood. Overcome with shock, Elsa held her sister close, crying in relief.
"Y… You sacrificed yourself… for me…"
"You're my sister" Anna replied. "I love you…"
Olaf gasped. "An act of love will thaw a frozen heart! They never said it had to be romantic love!"
"Well, ain't that cute…"
Everyone was caught by surprise by the sudden new voice, as a corridor of darkness opened up, revealing Larxene. Elsa, not knowing who this woman was but already getting bad vibes, immediately took a defensive stance in front of her sister, while Marshmallow brandished his icy claws.
"Two Hearts," the blonde woman said with a sneer, "filled with love and Light… Two of the New Seven Hearts from the same world…"
"New Seven Hearts?" Anna said. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm part of a group trying to set up an ancient ritual that requires a clash between seven Hearts of Light and 13 Hearts of Darkness. We, the Seekers of Darkness, must engage in battle against the 7 Guardians of Light, of which Sora is one. But Sora's side don't have all seven of their Guardians yet, and if they end up unable to pull it off and get their numbers high enough, we'll need a fallback plan – the two of you and five other 'pure-hearted~' maidens to serve as sacrificial catalysts for the ritual!"
"Leave innocent people out of this!" Sora brandished his Keyblade.
"Oh, look at you, tough guy. Even though the last time we fought, not even two years ago, your voice hadn't even broken yet… Well, if you don't want those two to lose their happy ending, you'd better get off your ass and find the remaining Guardians of Light. You'd better get to work "
With that, she vanished through her dark portal.
"What… was that all about?" Olaf wondered.
Lea sighed. "It's a long story."
Suddenly, the group got another unwelcome disturbance as Hans' unconscious form was engulfed in a roiling wave of darkness coming from within him. The man's body was soon engulfed within an orb of black & purple Darkness that rose up off the ground, getting bigger and bigger.
"What's happening?!" Anna asked.
"He's becoming a Heartless!" Goofy said, shield at the ready. "And with how much darkness was in his Heart, it's gonna be a real doozy!"
A pulse of dark power raced out from the orb, and everyone's worlds briefly went white. When they could see again, they found themselves within an enormous dome-shaped pocket dimension, with swirling dark clouds high overhead and freezing wind gusting about.
(BOSS MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts III – [Vs. Grim Guardianess / Skӧll / Dark Inferno])
The now-huge orb of darkness finally began to burst as the Heartless within completed its formation. First, a massive tail sprang forth, followed by a pair of huge deadly claws, and finally the main monster emerged. It was an enormous wolf-like monster, with a head, shoulders, and front legs made out of crystalline ice – a face of opaque white ice with glowing yellow eyes and a Heartless insignia on the forehead above a mouth full of huge fangs, snowflake-shaped shoulders with icicle-spikes like bristly fur. The rest of its body was a streaming dark miasma, reaching out into a huge, long, bushy tail. The beast known as Skӧll let out a deafening roar mixed with a wolf's howl, as a freezing wind swirled around it.
"This thing… It might be one of the strongest Heartless I've ever faced!" Sora said, sensing the thing's enormous power level.
"It's absorbed all of Elsa's cast-off magic from the air!" Donald deduced. "That made it even stronger than it was already gonna be!"
"If we don't stop this thing," Cure Sunny said, "it might be able to freeze the entire continent!"
"…Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, Sven, head for the outer edge of this place, as far away as you can!" Elsa commanded. "Marshmallow and I will do what we can to help handle this thing!"
"It's gonna be one tough son of a bitch to take down…" Lea said worriedly, readying his Keyblade.
Skӧll snarled and lunged forward, the massive Heartless moving with frightening speed as it swung its huge icy claws. Sora and Cure Sunny managed to dodge, while Elsa formed an ice barrier to protect Donald & Lea and then made it shatter into a wave of ice spears that fired at the massive Heartless; the beast dodged most of them, a glancing blow chipping at the ice of its right shoulder. The monster spat out a few violet-hued fireballs that homed in on their targets, tracking Goofy, Marshmallow, & Lea. Lea disrupted the one coming after him with his own fire attack, Donald blasted the one coming at Goofy with a Watera spell, and Sora threw a Strike Raid to disrupt the fireball heading at Marshmallow.
The massive demon-wolf took off, running along the perimeter of the pocket-realm battlefield, going way too fast for something so huge. Having built up momentum, it then charged at the heroes, forcing them to scatter and snapping at them with its jaws as it passed; Sora took a hit as the huge Heartless swung its head like a hammer, but Marshmallow covered Sora while Donald healed him, the snow-golem slashing at Skӧll with his ice claws.
Lea fired a wave of Fire-type Sagitta Magica at Hans' Heartless, doing a little damage and pissing the thing off. Skӧll howled and released several Wolf Heads – lesser Heartless that, as the name suggests, were like smaller versions of the main Heartless' head with comet-like trailing bodies of Darkness. Sora and Donald conjured a wave of firework-missiles, taking out two of the Wolf-Heads, and when another tackled Marshmallow he grabbed it and slammed it against the ground until it was 'dead'. Goofy's thrown shield stunned a Wolf-Head, letting Elsa envelop its head in conjured snow and then compress to crush it, while Cure Sunny took out the last one with a flaming heel-drop.
Skӧll swept its head from one side to the other while firing an ice beam from its mouth, catching Cure Sunny with it and encasing her in ice. The ice immediately began steaming as she worked to melt her way free, and as the giant Heartless tried to attack her while she was helpless, a 'Goofy Bombardier' from the side caught it off-guard and knocked it aside. Elsa fired another wave of ice spears at the stunned Heartless, while Sora helped defrost Cure Sunny and Donald hit the monster with a Firaga.
The huge Heartless roared and flew high up to the top of the pocket-realm. It seemed to merge with the black clouds roiling overhead, and then a huge storm of giant ice boulders and ice javelins began raining down. Everyone scrambled to avoid and/or intercept the incoming projectiles; Goofy charged magic into his shield and used it to bat away ice chunks bigger than him, Donald and Elsa moved about dodging, Marshmallow and Cure Sunny punched the ones coming at them away, Sora and Lea slashed at some and leapt around others… Getting fed up, Sora fired a few waves of Ragnarok bolts up at the clouds, the Light projectiles slamming into the cloud of Darkness until Skӧll was forced to emerge and come back down.
Hans' Heartless roared and charged, swiping with its huge ice claws at Sora, Donald, & Goofy. Marshmallow came to their aid, shoulder-tackling the big Heartless from the side and starting to wrestle it. As the monster soon began to overpower its snow-golem opponent, ice spears from Elsa struck it in the face, stunning it and letting Marshmallow throw the beast far. Skӧll snarled, getting to its feet, and then was blindsided by a Sunny Fire Burning that blasted the spikes off its right shoulder.
Letting out a demonic roaring howl, Skӧll's body surged with black energy. It started spitting out homing fireballs and deploying Wolf-Heads, while also zipping around and lashing out with fangs & claws at anyone it got in range. Sora rushed it from behind, cutting through a few Wolf-Heads on his way, aiming for a surprise attack… and then the huge Heartless' massive tail abruptly lashed out, slamming into him and sending him flying. He ended up beside Elsa, stunned, and Skӧll then formed & fired a large roiling ball of Darkness and Fire, the deadly blast sailing towards them…
A wall of white suddenly appeared, shielding Elsa & Sora. The fire/darkness blast went off with a mighty explosion, but the two humans were safe. As the smoke faded, they saw Marshmallow looking down at them, arms spread wide, having used himself as a shield, taking the hit to the back. The snow-golem smiled down at them, chunks of snow and ice falling from him, and then he came apart and collapsed into an inert, lifeless pile of snow. Sora was trembling, while Elsa had her hands to her mouth in horror. Marshmallow had given his life to protect them.
Cure Sunny flung another Sunny Fire Burning at the ice-wolf Heartless, joined by a Flare blast from Donald. The monster managed to dodge the first but was nailed by the second, leaving it open for a glowing shield charge from Goofy and a barrage of blows from Lea's Keyblade. Sora, driven by righteous rage, came in next, Keyblade glowing with power as he bashed and slashed as hard as he could, mixing Firaga blasts in with his melee attacks. He finished with a Rasengan that blasted Skӧll back, the ice of the creature's body cracked in places.
Letting out a terrifying roar, the enraged Heartless flew up high and began charging a frightening amount of power, and at the same time it summoned a massive horde of Wolf Heads. Sensing just how much energy this creature meant to gather and unleash upon them, Donald's expression firmed.
"Everyone!" he said. "I have a top-level spell that can end this!"
Goofy gasped. "Donald, no! This situation's too chaotic for the big, lengthy charge time you'd need to pull that spell off safely, and you've already used up enough of your magic that if you fire it straight away now, you could die!"
"What kind of dangerous forbidden ace-in-the-hole do you have, Donald?" Sora asked.
"It's a Fire spell," the duck-mage replied, "the most powerful one in the entirety of the magic system we use."
"…What if Lea & I 'donated' our Fire-type magic to you somehow?" Cure Sunny suggested. "Could that lighten the load enough that we'd all survive?"
After a moment's thought, Donald pondered. "It could work. Let me set up the spell-circle so you two can transfer your mana to me!"
"We'll buy you the time you need" Elsa said.
"Here they come!" Goofy shouted.
The horde of Wolf Heads began their charge, flying through the air like ghostly comets. Elsa started firing blasts and spears of ice at them, while Sora & Goofy did their best to pitch in as well. Behind them, Donald was directing Lea & Akane in helping him forge the spell-circle for a group casting. Goofy threw his shield so that it bounced between and destroyed three Wolf-Heads before returning to him, while Elsa formed mounds of snow into two huge snow-fists which she used to punch and crush any Wolf-Heads that got within range. As Sora released Fira blasts and shattering strikes, he looked up at where Skӧll's charging dark energy orb was growing ever larger.
From above, there was another roaring howl as Skӧll's energy orb – thrice its size – compressed slightly, brightening, and was then fired downward. It began to plummet toward our heroes, aimed to vaporize them utterly. Donald stood in the center of a large spell-circle, with Lea and Cure Sunny standing within two smaller circles inside it. They both felt a draining feeling as their fire-type mana flowed into Donald, whose whole body glowed with power that then concentrated in the head of his staff, which he pointed up at the incoming death-ball.
"Essence of primordial flame!" he incanted. "Burning fury of the heart of a star! Blaze forth, and reduce my foe to annihilation!-! ZETTAFLARE!-!-!"
For a second, a flash of light compressed into a tiny pinprick at the tip of Donald's staff. Then, the air howled as a blindingly bright beam fired from the mage's weapon – enough raw Fire-type magical power to raze a city, hyper-concentrated into a beam only a meter or so across, giving it unparalleled destructive power. The Zettaflare met Skӧll's incoming massive energy orb, and was only impeded for a second before piercing straight through, destabilizing and dispelling the evil energy. It kept going and crashed into Hans' Heartless dead-center, burning a huge hole all the way through the monster's body. Skӧll's final howl echoed on the wind as the released energies utterly destroyed it beyond even ashes, an explosion of Fire and Dark energy lightning up the subspace's sky.
(MUSIC END)
Standing in a spell-circle whose glow was slowly fading, Donald, Lea, & Cure Sunny panted for breath, feeling drained. There was an echoing cracking sound as the pocket realm began to come apart, and then everyone was engulfed in light. When the light faded, they all found themselves back in Arendelle, atop a ship sticking out of the frozen bay.
"That was… beyond anything I'd ever imagined" Anna said. "I… I can't believe I trusted him…"
Elsa began focusing her power, and before everyone's eyes the world around them began to thaw, snow & ice floating upwards as the bay unfroze. At her command, the ice and snow magic gathered in the clouds overhead, and then dispersed outward, revealing a glowing snowflake sigil and a clear sky. There was a muted flash of red as, exhausted of mana and finally in a warmer climate, Cure Sunny de-transformed, Akane all but collapsing as Anna supported her.
"Hands down," Olaf said, "this is probably the best day of my life…" One of his stick-arms fell off as he started melting. "And quite possibly the last."
"Oh, Olaf!" Elsa panicked, focusing her power again. "Hang on, little guy."
Olaf's body refroze and reformed back to 100%, and a tiny blizzard-storm cloud appeared floating directly over his head, continuously sprinkling snow and freezing air all over him to keep him stable.
"Oh!" he gasped happily. "My own personal flurry!"
"Man…" Sora let himself fall backward with exhaustion. "That was the worst one in a long time… Between Hans' Heartless and Mother Gothel's, I'm really hoping this doesn't become a pattern."
"Because we've gotten stronger," Goofy replied, "our enemies are doing the same, it seems like."
"Well," Elsa spoke up as Kristoff directed the boat towards the shore, "you're all welcome to rest here in Arandelle until you've gotten your strength back. If that 'Larxene' and her allies are strong enough to command monsters like what we just had to deal with, I think you're gonna need to be at full strength…"
Sora nodded. "Thanks. And don't worry; we won't let them use you & your sister to forge the χ-Blade; we'll find the missing Guardians of Light and put a stop to them!"
As the heroes rested, the sun shone down on Arendelle.
-CHAPTER END-
Next Time: Another "new" world