Chapter 18

The two of us arrived at the base of the Castle That Never Was, the imposing, monumental structure glistening with a pale white in stark contrast to the murky, abyssal black sky. In the sky, shining behind the castle was a moon-like entity, glowing with a warm cream-yellow and radiating a shimmering light.

"So," I began with a deep breath. "This is it," I muttered, gulping down my fears. The air around us was cold and sharp, and combined with my already tense nerves, goosebumps were forming all over my skin. We inched toward the colossal building, a wave of dread over me like the dark clouds above.

"We need to prepare for the worst," Sora whispered as his Keyblade materialized in his hand. "I know we've been through a lot of battles, but I think that this one is going to be our hardest yet,"

I nodded, taking in a deep breath and responding with a quiet "Mm-hmm" as I followed suit, equipping my own keyblade. "It'll be tough, but when I'm with you, I feel like I can do anything,"

Sora smiled at me and nodded back as we made it to the castle's entrance. A glowing, rectangular ray of blue light burst from the castle's base, firing directly at our feet. "You ready?" He asked, his smile unwavering.

"Of course!" I replied as the two of us set foot upon the light, its form solid and tangible. A short walk later, the two of us made it inside the castle. The entrance hall was rather large and spacious, with not much of anything of note save for a walkway with an eerie blue-white glow to it as well as the walls. A deep abyss was below us on either side of the walkway.

"Let's get going," Sora said, the two of us walking forward and up the slanted walkway. I kept feeling as if the two of us were being watched. I clutched onto the hilt of my Keyblade as I prepared for the inevitable.

Just as I expected, in seconds a horde of Heartless and Nobodies rose up from the ground, surrounding us as if right on cue. Many of them were rather large and misshapen, not to mention menacing.

"Are you ready?" Sora asked me, taking my back as he got into a fighting stance. "You'd better be, because even if you're not-"

Amid Sora's sentence, two Heartless and a Nobody lunged at me, all taking swipes at me with their grotesque claws extended. In a haste, I slashed through the two Heartless in a swift horizontal swing, then thrust the blade through the chest of the Nobody. All three disintegrated into black and gray dust.

"You know it!" I said, my blood rushing and heart pumping. A taller, more muscular Heartless barreled toward me at an alarming pace, and in a reflex, I swung the blade at its midsection. The beastly Heartless stumbled backward, and I finished it off with a diagonal strike in its moment of vulnerability.

"To your right!" Sora called out. I quickly pivoted to see a taller, human-shaped Nobody just inches away from clawing at my neck.

"Whoa!" With a nimble sidestep, I raised my keyblade to block the Nobody's claw and pushed its arm back with a well-timed parry. As the Nobody staggered backward and lost its balance, Sora cleaved it in half with a horizontal strike of his own. The front lines of the Heartless and Nobodies continued moving toward us. I raised my Keyblade up and dashed toward them, doing a 180 as I entered the fray and slicing through at least ten of them in succession. "I've got it from here!" I said with confidence as my clothes transformed into the pink outfit the fairies made for me.

With a grin upon my face, I rushed through the corridors of the castle, basically forgetting about the walkway and the bottomless pit below. The walls became nothing but a blur to me as more and more Heartless and Nobodies emerged from the ground. One by one I sliced through them like a knife through butter. Another wave of them appeared in a rectangular formation, and in a quick motion I slid along the ground and cut through each one in a single slice, my body feeling weightless and frictionless.

As I stood back up, a much taller Heartless with gigantic arms and hands rose from the ground, blocking my path completely. I looked up, anticipating its next move. Calling it right now, it's going to swing at me with its right hand. I thought to myself. It swung its left hand down at me, and despite having predicted incorrectly, I rolled out of the way of the strike as its hand landed on the ground. I then swung my Keyblade at its wrist, which was around the width of a tree trunk. Despite its massive size, I cut straight through it as its hand fell off and turned to dust along with the rest of its body soon afterward.

Wow, I'm on a roll! I thought to myself, my veins surging with adrenaline as sweat poured down my face. More hordes of Heartless and Nobodies rushed at me, all ready to strike at any moment. Each one which got close enough to me would meet the same end, being chopped to bits and not even one ever getting a single strike in. Several floating Nobodies tried to strike at me from above, but I simply jumped upward and spun around with the blade extended, cutting through them and reducing them to dust as I gracefully landed back on my feet.

With no other Heartless and Nobodies in my way, I rushed into the next room. I centered myself, taking a moment to finally breathe. I realized that I had left Sora behind to deal with the other Heartless and Nobodies in the room previous. My clothes reverted to normal as I relaxed a bit, waiting for him to catch up. Part of me worried a bit, but I held no doubt that Sora would turn out okay.

"Coming, Amara!" Sora called out, quickly catching up to me. I turned around to see Sora hacking through a Nobody emerging from above as he caught back up with me.

"So we keep pushing forward then?" I asked him, looking ahead.

"That's the plan!" He replied with a crooked grin on his face. The two of us ran forward, slashing through the Heartless and Nobodies tirelessly. It was going to take more than an onslaught of them to slow us down.