Sorry this is so late, this probably my longest chapter yet


Chapter 7: Vaizel battle royal

(Tala village: Necropolis entrance)

(Music: Villains of a sort~1.5 Ver~)

In the open area where the entrance to the Necropolis was, a corridor of darkness opened in the middle of the field, with Maleficent walking out after becoming impatient waiting for Pete to return from searching for and almost immediately noticed something off with the area.

"Hmm, it would seem a doorway to another world is hidden right here in this rundown little village. Perhaps a certain doctor came upon it." Maleficent said as purple lightning crackled on the jewel of her staff as the witch prepared a spell and shot it forward to the other side of the field as a portal began opening.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" screamed as he fell out of the portal and fell on his chin, while his butler Lawerence walked calmly out before the portal closed behind them.

"What a shame really, I was quite enjoying the sights in the land of the dead." Lawerence said as Nefarious stood up.

"I thought we'd never leave! Those ghost kids kept asking me how much of my body is metal, that's private information!" Nefarious exclaimed as he dusted himself off.

"Nefarious…" Maleficent raised her voice to get the robotic scientist's attention as he turned to notice her, and looked quite annoyed.

"About time you got here! Do you know what you send us into? First, some guy lands on my robots, then we get trapped in an alternate dimension!"

"Stop your whining! Have you found anything worth discovering in this world."

"Unfountly ma'am. We've found nothing worth noting, except for the fact this planet is quite backwaters and a certain someone might have a migraine." Lawrence reported as he nudged towards Nefarious being the one with a migraine.

"*Sigh* Of course you've found nothing. Now the only matter left is to find Pete." Maleficent signed as she looked upwards towards the sky and noticed something flying towards the area, and it happened to be a certain Minion that was knocked out of Vaizel.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Pete screamed as he flew towards the field and made a crash landing nearby in a cloud of dust. After landing, Pete's head was stuck in the ground as he tried to pull himself out before becoming successful and landed on his back while still being sore about his recent loss. "Those punk kids! They better hope I'm in a better mood when I see them again, especially that pig! I don't like the way he was looking at me!"

"Pete, you bumbling fool! Stand up!" Maleficent shouted, which startled Pete as he jumped up at her voice and looked to see the witch along with Nefarious and his butler as the minion decided to play along with the scene to make himself look good.

"Oh! There's the good doctor! I've been looking all over for you, pal!" Pete said with a fake smile as he put his hands on the unamused robot's shoulder. "Me and Maleficent have been worried about, ya!"

"...Get your giant sweaty hands off me, squishy." Nefarious said as Pete's fake smile quickly faded as he pulled away.

"Yeesh, you show a little kindness and get no respect for it."

"What sort of buffoonery have you've been up to, Pete? I told you to look for the doctor." Maleficent said.

"I was looking for him! But you won't believe who I ran into while looking, that brat keyblade runt Sora is here!" Pete explained as Maleficent raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Oh,he is? How peculiar." Maleficent said as Nefarious quickly became interested as well

"Sora, is it? I believe this squishy is your own arch nemesis?" Nefarious asked as an idea crossed into Maleficent's mind.

"Indeed, and I do not think his presence is a coincidence. If anyone might know anything about the black box, it might be him."

"So be it! LAWRENCE!" Nefarious yelled for his butler.

"Right here, sir." Lawrence answered quickly since he was still right next to the mad scientist.

"Lawrence, call for more troops, and make sure they're the violent kind. We shall capture this boy squishy, probe him for information, maybe ask nicely at some point to tell us something before we get to torturing him! MWAHAHAHAHA!" Nefarious laughed evilly as Maleficent and Pete looked at him like he grew a second head.

"I think you might've hired a total nutjob." Pete commented as Lawrence stepped in.

"He's actually just very passionate, but other than that, yes, he does have a few bolts loose in his brain." Lawrence agreed.


(Great Vaizel rock)

"My real identity is captain of the seven deadly sins, I'm Meliodas, the dragon sin! We're taking over Vaizel, everything here belongs to us now! I'm giving you less than one minute to clear out of this town, understand? If you don't, we're gonna kill you all!" Meliodas threatened after suddenly revealing his and the sins' identities, much to Sora's,Elizabeth's, Ryuko's and Hawk's confusion while Satsuki didn't seem surprised while the crowd of villagers didn't believe the captain's words.

"You're not fooling anyone, ya brat!" One civilian shouted.

"What he said!" Another agreed with the first while some had doubts.

"Wait, given how strong they are, it just might be true." One villager thought.

"I don't understand, what are they threatening everyone?" Sora questioned.

"Either they've lost it, or we've been played!" Ryuko said,guessing that the group may have been betrayed by the seven deadly sins.

"No, they wouldn't do that!" Elizabeth said.

"Elizabeth is right. I just can't see Meliodas doing this, something's off here." Sora agreed with the princess.

"Face it, Sora. We were screwed over." Ryuko argued until Satsuki put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"I'm going to have to agree with Sora. Meliodas is telling everyone to leave because an attack is coming this way." Satsuki said while looking up towards the sky, much to her sister's confusion.

"Say what?" Ryuko questioned, before Sora turned her around.

"She's onto something, look up!" Sora said, pointing upwards to the sky while Meliodas continued to get everyone in Vaizel to evacuate.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Meliodas shouted one more time, but was too late as a civilian spotted something in the sky.

"Hey, what's that!" The villager shouted as he pointed upward as a series of giant fireballs fell from the sky and crashed into different spots in the village, destroying everything they smashed into as one more fireball flew at the great vaizel rock, only to be stopped when Meliodas jumped into the air, drawing the dragon handle to use full counter and neutralized the fireball.

(Music: Apprehension~2.5 ver~)

"Damn, they're here already?" Meliodas questioned as he and sins looked up to see the source of the attack coming from giant manta ray like creatures flying in the air with a couple of familiar faces riding. At the helmand the one who fired the giant fireballs was Gulia, wearing a full set of armor and wielding a large drill like lance instead of a rapier, and at her side was Jericho from Baste prison and powered up by the demon's blood and a cold stare in her darkened eyes with the two female holy knights backed up another holy knight in in orange armor with what seemed to be maracas in his hands.

"There's that explosion chick again. Looks like we gotta teach her a lesson again!" Ryuko exclaimed as she smashed her fists together

"Gulia's not alone, that other girl is from the prison where we freed Ban." Sora pointed out Jericho's appearance before noticing something off. "Something's different about her…"

"You're right, kiddo. She managed to find some clothes." Ban noted.

"Don't tell me you stripped her too." Ryuko guessed with an annoyed expression.

"Yeah I did do-Wait, too?" Ban asked before his eyes turned to Sora, who looked away to hide his guilty face. "Holy crap! I didn't think you had in you, kid!"

How shameful!" King exclaimed while he and Diane gave Sora judging stares.

"And here I thought you were the one decent guy in the group." Diane said.

"It's only fifty percent my fault! Satsuki froze her armor before I broke it!" Sora defended himself as he pointed at Satsuki.

"I want my lawyer to settle that." Satsuki said before another fireball from Gulia hit a nearby hill. "She didn't have that much power before!"

"It's her new equipment, it must be a sacred treasure class!" King explained as Sora realized how dangerous the situation might be as he turned to the crowd of still present villagers.

"EVERYONE, GO! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS HERE!" Sora shouted as the civilians began screaming and running towards the nearby bridge to escape the battlefield that is they're town.

"That takes care of one problem." Satsuki said as Ryuko turned her view towards the town and saw an even bigger problem.

"And an even bigger problem over there!" Ryuko exclaimed as she pointed out towards the town where a terrifying sight could seen, hordes of heartless were appearing in the town, comprised of armored soldiers that slashed away the stands in the marketplace, flames cores that set buildings ablaze, and a few rock trolls that smashed the streets to pieces.

"The heartless are here! They must've shown up when the holy knights started attacking!" Sora guessed as Elizabeth looked over the keyblade wielder's shoulder and watched the devastation unfold.

"I still can't believe it, those monsters are here because of the holy knights. Don't they realize what they're doing by attacking this village, just to get to us?" Elizabeth questioned.

"I'm pretty sure they don't care and just blame all on us." Ryuko said while Meliodas walked up to Sora.

"So, Sora. What should we do?" Meliodas asked, much to the keyblade wielder's surprise.

"You're asking me? What about you?" Sora asked.

"Sure I'm the captain of the seven deadly sins and all, but you managed to get the townsfolk away when I couldn't, and you know those monsters down there better than us. So I think you should take charge of this one." Meliodas suggested as Sora looked towards Ban and the other two sins, who seemed to be waiting for advice.

"Come on already, kid. The captain is leaving this one to you." Ban said as he tapped his foot.

"Come on! You can do it!" Diane cheered with a jump.

"If the captain trusts you, then so do I." King said in his normal form as the scene forze and Sora turned towards the screen.

"Well, everyone is looking to me to lead again. Did I mention I don't do good with peer pressure?" Sora questioned as Elizbeth looked confused in his hood.

"Sora? Who are you talking to?" Elizabeth asked.

"Elizabeth, this is my scene. Don't even worry about it."

"Yeah, Sora. Who are you talking to?" Mako Manshoku asked as she appeared out of nowhere, eating a sandwich.

"Mako. You're on the wrong story, The honnouji set is that way." Sora said as he pointed behind himself.

"Whoops! My bad!" Mako apologized as she quickly gulped her entire sandwich in one bite and quickly dashed off and the scene resumed as Sora reached a decision.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do. Meliodas and Ban, you're the heaviest hitters right now, so you two should go and fight the holy knights." Sora said as the two seemed excited.

"Sounds like fun! Let's see who knocks out their holy knight first, cap!" Ban suggested with a smile and a clenched fist that Meliodas returned.

"I'm pretty sure it'll be me!" Meliodas said as Sora then turned to Diane.

"Diane, you're not at full strength without your size. So can you make sure everyone gets away from the fighting?" Sora asked.

"Sure thing! When I get everyone to safety, I'll join the fight anyway!" Diane agreed before Sora turned to King.

"King, since you fly, I think you're the best choice to take out some of the heartless, be our air support, and make sure they don't get anyone." Sora said as King nodded.

"I'll do my best. Those monsters won't claim any lives, I promise that." King vowed as Satsuki smiled at how well Sora is handling the situation.

"You are doing well, Sora. Leadership suits you." Satsuki said.

"So what are gonna do?" Ryuko asked.

"While King takes out the heartless from the air, we'll take the more dangerous ones that are on the ground." Sora said as Meliodas noticed something behind the keyblade wielder.

"I don't think you'll be able to do that, Sora." Meliodas said he pointed behind him and Sora turned to see a dark portal had opened near the arena bridge and a familiar foe appeared out of it. The Marauder, with his chaos ripper keyblade in its energy axe form.

It's that thing again!" Ryuko exclaimed as the Marauder stomped towards the arena.

"Damn, that thing must be as durable as me." Ban noted as the Marauder gave a death glare towards the group, mainly towards a certain shrunken giantess.

"Uh, I think he's looking at me. Think he remembers that it was me that dropped a house on him?" Diane questioned, which was confirmed when King pulled out of the way of the Marauder's tossed axe,which ended up planted in the arena floor behind the group.

"I'd say he remembers." Meliodas noted.

"Guys, go. That thing is after me, he won't come after you. Hawk!" Sora called out to the talking pig, who was hiding behind him after being startled by the Marauder's appearance.

"Huh?" Hawk questioned when Sora took Elizabeth out of his hood and placed the shrunken princess on the pig's back.

"Take Elizabeth back to the tavern. I'm not putting her in danger." Sora said.

"Sora. Are you sure you wanna fight that monster on your own? You couldn't beat it, even with help." Elizabeth pointed out.

"He's not gonna be alone!" Ryuko said as she drew her rending scissors.

"And don't you dare so no, Sora." Satsuki said as she drew Bakuzan and Sora sighed as he summoned the missing ache keyblade.

(Music: Doom eternal~The only thing they fear is you by Mick gordon~)

"There really is no arguing with the both of you together." Sora said as he turned towards the sins. "You guys better go, those holy knights and heartless won't wait much longer."

"We're on it. Sora, kick that thing's ass!" Meliodas said before he jumped off the side of the great Vaizel rock as Diane also jumped off the side and King flew off while Ban stayed in the arena.

"Kid, you got guts taking that thing on after it kicked our asses...give 'em hell." Ban said before he followed Meliodas over the side of the great Vaizel rock, leaving only Sora's group with Elizabeth and Hawk.

"Sora, please be careful." Elizabeth pleaded as Sora gave her a thumbs up before facing the approaching Marauder and entered his battle stance.

"Come on, Elizabeth. Time for me to get you out of here, because I am not becoming a pig in a blanket!" Hawk said as he immediately dashed away and around the Marauder towards the bridge. "Piggy track, piggy track, piggy track, piggy track…" The pig announced as he ran away while the Marauder stepped into the arena.

"Finally. All alone now." The Marauder said as he called back his axe. "No one to protect you this time."

"Forget about us, asshat?" Ryuko questioned as she pointed her scissor blade at the unversed, only to be ignored. "Are you seriously ignoring us?!"

"Forget it, Ryuko. He's only out for Sora." Satsuki said.

"Exactly why you're only fighting us today." Sora said.

"Then I'll honor your choice!" The Marauder said before impaling his axe into the ground and swung it forward to unleash a traveling wave of red energy at Sora, who dodge rolled out of the way while the wave of energy had split the arena down the middle.

"Whoa!" Sora yelped in surprise at the attack when the Marauder jumped into the air and brought his axe down on him, only for Sora to block with the keyblade while Ryuko took the opening to shoot off a firaga onto the Marauder's back.

"Gaahhhh!" The Marauder yelled in pain at the fire before Sora took the opening and used counter slash to knock him back a few feet.

"Freeze!" Satsuki shouted as she shot a blizzaga spell that froze the Marauder from head to toe, leaving a wide opening for Sora and Ryuko.

"Gotcha!" Sora exclaimed as he and Ryuko dashed forward and performed a jumping kick together into the Marauder's chest, causing the ice to shatter as the unversed was pushed back from the dual kick, causing him to stumble out of the arena as Satsuki jumped out of the arena herself and brought Bakuzan down on the Marauder.

"Perish!" Satsuki shouted as her sword clashed with the Marauder's axe that he used to parry before grabbing Satsuki by her face.

"I only seek the usurper's life. Stay and fight only if you wish to share his fate!" The Marauder warned as Satsuki tried to pull his arm off her head.

"Let her go!" Sora shouted as he charged at the unversed and swung his keyblade at him, only for the Marauder to counter with it's axe, but had to use both arms to swing his weapon which allowed Satsuki to be free from the Marauder's grip.

"Here!" Satsuki shouted as she tossed bakuzan at the Marauder's head, only for him to sense the coming before turning away from Sora to deflect the tossed sword, which was a mistake since it left an opening for Sora.

"Made you look!" Sora exclaimed before performing an uppercut with his keyblade into the Marauder's chin before the unversed countered by quickly grabbing Sora by his head and smashing him into the ground before Ryuko suddenly jumped on the Marauder's back and used her scissor blade to choke him.

"Get your hands off him!" Ryuko demanded as she used her scissor blade and pushed it against the Marauder's throat, causing the unversed to let go of Sora and began trying to reach behind himself in an effort to grab Ryuko.

"Rahhhhhh!" The Marauder roared before he was able to grab Ryuko and pulled her off and tossed to the ground and raised his axe to strike her, however, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck the Marauder in the back.

"Remember me?" Sora asked before using flowmotion to charge into the Marauder and knocked him towards the bridge where the two fell on and stood up on as Sora pointed his keyblade at the unversed before the two exchanged blows with their weapons, causing crackles of red electrily to burst whenever the Marauder's axe clashed with Sora's keyblade before the two got into a weapon's lock and stared into each other's face before Sora decided to jumped back a few feet, which the Marauder decided to swing his axe and create a red crescent wave of energy at the keyblade wielder.

"Defend!" Sora called out as he casted reflectga to call a barrier around himself as the energy wave made contact and bounced off the barrier back towards the Marauder and exploded upon hitting the unversed in a cloud of smoke. However, once the smoke cleared it was revealed that the Marauder had taken no damage.

"Pathetic-RAHHHHH!" The Marauder shouted in pain once a familiar blade had suddenly perdruded out from behind his chest with Satsuki right behind the unversed after stabbing bakuzan into it.

"Do you find that pathetic?" Satsuki questioned before removing her sword from the Marauder before he counter by swinging his axe at Satsuki's head that she duck under before Ryuko suddenly jumped in and kicked the Marauder in the face.

"Don't seem so tough this time!" Ryuko exclaimed as the Marauder looked annoyed before swinging his axe to sent another red energy wave that Ryuko thought for a moment was aimed at her until the energy wave passed her and instead hit one of the supports on the far side of the bridge, causing it to break and making the bridge unstable. "Hey! What are you doing, skull face?! You're going to bring the bridge down!"

"That's the idea." The Marauder confirmed as he raised his axe to fire off another energy wave at the remaining bridge support.

"No you don't!" Sora exclaimed as he jumped forward and slashed the Marauder across the back with a downward slash, causing the keyblade wielding unversed to stumble from the attack. "Satsuki!"

"I see the opening!" Satsuki responded as she and Sora charged at the Marauder together and began slashing at the unversed rapidly enough to visually slash the air until Ryuko finished the combo attack by charging at the Marauder while using the scissor blade like a baseball bat and slammed into the unversed's torso with enough force to knock towards the far side of the bridge and land on his back.

"How do you like that? I just got medieval on you!" Ryuko boasted as the Marauder stood up again and his eyes glowed redder in anger. "I think I might've made him madder."

"What do you think the red glowing eyes are for?" Sora questioned.

"RAHHHH!" The Marauder yelled in anger as he tossed his axe in a straight line at the trio, who all avoided the weapon. Unfortunately, the axe instead flew at the remaining bridge support and disconnected it from the bridge upon impact.

"That can't be good." Ryuko stated as the ropes of the bridges snapped and the structure fell from the side of the great Vaizel rock.

"Time to bail!" Sora advised as he, Ryuko and Satsuki jumped off the bridge together and down to the grass below and watched the Marauder jump down as well in front of them.

"Stop running and face me!" The Marauder said as he called back his axe.

"Be careful what you wish for." Satsuki said as she held Bakuzan forward and Ryuko did a similar stance.

"You might not like what you get!" Sora said as he reversed the grip on his keyblade and released a shockwave as he transformed into wayward form and then charged at the Marauder with a quick spinning clockwise slash that the unversed deflected with his axe before Sora quickly attacking with a counterclockwise slash that struck the Marauder in the shoulder before Ryuko charged in with an uppercut slash that knocked the unversed into the air where Satsuki charged into him with a flying slash that smashed The Marauder into the ground.

"Wind!" Sora shouted out as he pointed his keyblade at the down monster and a small formed formed to carry him into the air, allow Sora to follow up with wind raid, a toss of his keyblade that struck the unversed before it flew back into him a few more times as the keyblade was guided by a force of wind before it returned to Sora's hand and the Marauder fell back to earth as wayward form deactivated.

"Freeze!" Satsuki called out as she pointed bakuzan forward and a mist of ice froze over the Marauder, leaving most of his body frozen and stuck to the ground.

"Here you go!" Sora announced as he hopped above the trapped Marauder and smashed his keyblade into the unversed's chest while attacking with radial blaster that send blade projectiles across the Marauder and sliced apart the ground surrounding them while Ryuko had jumped into the air to follow up on Sora's attack.

"That's right! I'm gonna stab you in the damn face!" Ryuko exclaimed as she dove downwards with her scissor blade pointed at the Marauder with the intent to run it through the unversed's head, only to have the Marauder grab the blade with his bare hand.

"That's enough, child." The Marauder as he swing Ryuko around with the scissor blade before tossing her towards Sora and knocked the two over as Satsuki charged in hoping to ram the Marauder with her sword, only for the unversed to swing his axe to release a energy wave at Satsuki and blasted her backwards from the impact.

"Satsuki!" Sora called out as she rolled near him before glaring angrily at the Marauder.

"Anyone else that would like to save you?" The Marauder asked as Sora looked behind the monster to see the answer.

"Actually, yeah. Remember that house that smashed you?" Sora asked as the Marauder looked confused before noticing a shadow form over himself and looked up to see a giant rock falling above him and smashed the unversed underneath with the one responsible for the rock standing next to it.

"I hope I don't have to do this again, otherwise I'm gonna have to think of things to smash this guy with all the time." Diane commented as she tapped on the rock she crushed the Marauder with.

"Thanks for the save again, Diane. But you weren't gonna make sure the people got out and fight some heartless?" Sora questioned.

"I double checked to make sure no one was left, besides, King has the situation handled." Diane said as she pointed over to the nearby town where King was flying in the air, doding flame cores that charged at him or spewed fireballs at him as he countered with chastiefol in it's increase form. "I have the best confidence in him."

"If the flying dweep heard that, he would've fainted." Ryuko stated as a familiar someone in armor arrived on the scene.

"Diane, the serpent sin. Member of the seven deadlys, hold it!" Howzer announced to get Diane's attention.

"Howzer?" Diane questioned as Sora's group recognized him.

"Hey, that's the guy we met before the festival started, he really is a holy knight." Sora said.

"Diane, given your crimes you committed a decade ago, assassinating our grandmaster and attempting to start a coup-" Howzer listed the charges before Diane spoke up.

"I didn't do that." Diane interjected, which caught Howzer off guard. "Can't this wait? The monsters come first."

"No, I can't wait!"

"Hey, windbag. It is gonna hafta wait, because your friends and the heartless are tearing up the town." Ryuko stated, which got Howzer's attention as he recognized Sora's group from earlier.

"You guys again..." Howzer said in surprise and disbelief before turning back to a serious expression as he pointed a lance at Sora. "I know we both said we'd looked forward to fighting each other, but I didn't think it'd be like this. But unfortunately, since you've been accompanying the seven deadly sins, I have to arrest you too."

"I know, right now we seem like the bad guys to you. But it's going to have to wait." Sora said as Howzer became frustrated.

"You guys keep telling me to wait! Wait for what?!" Howzer shouted before hearing the sound of hum and looked next to him to see the rock Diane smash the Marauder with getting cut apart with a familiar energy blade before the rock was blown to pieces and the keyblade wielding unversed walked out the smoke. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!"

"The reason we've been telling you to hold off." Satsuki said as the Marauder glared angrily at Diane.

"*Growl* Twice you've done that now!" The Marauder growled as he gripped his axe hard and Diane became nervous.

"Uh, sorry about that?" Diane falsely apologized since she was in fact, not sorry.

"Maybe you've learned by now, you gotta go fight some of my friends if you want me." Sora said.

"Very well, then everyone around you shall be destroyed." The Marauder agreed as Sora went wide eyed at his comment.

"That backfired…"

"You really need to actually use your brain." Ryuko commented while Howzer trying to make a decision of who is friend or foe.

(The seven deadly sins are the priority target, but this monster is definitely a real dangerous threat. Since my own priority is to make sure the people are safe, I gotta make sure this thing is put down!) "Whirl shock!" Howzer announced as he formed a disc like whirlwind in his free hand and tossed at the Marauder, hoping it would slice him in half, only for the Marauder to lean to the side to avoid the disc as it sliced apart a nearby rock. As the Marauder looked at the sliced apart rock, he then turned his head towards Howzer and his eyes glowed redder in anger. "Aw crap…"

"RAHH!" The Marauder shouted he lunged at Howzer and swung his axe, and the holy knight defended himself with his lance, only to knocked backwards from the unversed's overwhelming strength and could only look up as the Marauder held his axe over his head in attempt to strike Howzer, only for Sora to jump in and block the attack with his keyblade.

"Forget what I said before! It's me you have to worry about!" Sora said before knocking away the Marauder's axe and used counter slash to knock the unversed far backwards as Sora turned around to help Howzer off the ground. "You okay?"

"I don't...I don't get it, why did you save me? We're enemies." Howzer questioned the keyblade wielder's actions.

"I don't see it that way. You don't even seem like a bad guy like the other knights I've already fought." Sora said as Howzer was caught off guard by Sora's friendly gesture.

Hey, Sora. If you're done making friends…" Ryuko shouted from a distance as the Marauder stood up from the ground from Sora's attack and cracked his own neck. "The big bad ugly is coming back for you!"

"I see him!" Sora responded before teleporting in front of the Marauder and struck him with three consecutive strikes the made the unversed stumbled before Sora jumped onto his hands and activated flowmotion to attack with a powerful kick that knocked the Marauder into the great Vaizel rock. "Diane, now!"

"Got it!" Diane responded as she placed her hands on the ground and used her earth magic to create shackles made of rock to trap the Marauder in place.

"Hit the bastard hard!" Ryuko shouted as she and Satsuki charged at the trapped unversed an attempt to finish him off. But the Marauder had a trick up his sleeve.

"Arise!" The Marauder commanded as a dark aura flowled around him before it flowed towards the ground and took the shape of a monstrous looking wolf made of energy.

"*Howllllll!*" The wolf howled which made Ryuko and Satsuki stop in place.

"The hell?!" Ryuko shouted in confusion before the wolf pounced on her and knocked her to the ground and tried to take a bite out of Ryuko wasn't able to hold the beast back with her scissor blade. "Get off me, fido!" She demanded as the wolf continued trying to bite her.

"Away!" Satsuki shouted as she swung at the wolf with her sword and made it dissipate into nothingness. Despite his wolf being destroyed, it bought the Marauder enough to struggle against his stone shackles and shattered them to break free while Sora jumped at the unversed and clashed weapons and exchanged blows.

"Rah!" The Marauder grunted as he swung his axe at Sora's legs, which he jumped before hopping on and then off the Unversed's shoulders.

"Gotcha!" Sora shouted as he tossed his keyblade at the Marauder's back, causing him to stumble and allowing Diane to follow up with a fierce uppercut that caused quite some damage to the unversed.

"How did you like that?" Diane said before noticing she had knocked off the Marauder's mask and looked up to the unversed's exposed jaw and saw half his face had flesh, while the lower half was only bone.

"RAAHHHH!" The Marauder roared in rage with his exposed skinless jaw, making Diane tremble at the sight as the unversed raised his axe to strike her before Sora tackled the Marauder with flowmotion, causing the two to fall to the ground before the Marauder quickly recovered and tried to take off Sora's head with a swing of his axe, only to miss when the keyblade wielder rolled out of the way and the axe hit the ground instead.

"Check where you're aiming!" Sora taunted before striking with triple rush and made three consecutive rushing thrusts that forced the Marauder back while Howzer decided to follow up with his own attack.

"Eat this!" Howzer shouted as he thrusted his lance into the Marauder and created a force of wind that knocked the Marauder back a few feet, but had no real effect. "Damn it! Thought that would work!"

"This probably will!" Sora said as he reversed the grip on his keyblade and once more transformed into wayward form before pointing his weapon forward to charge up ragnarok and unleash the energy bolts at the Marauder.

"Pathetic!" The Marauder said as he swung his axe and sent a wave of energy at the ragnarok bolts and destroyed them in midair. However, Diane quickly took advantage and made her way behind the Marauder's back while he was distracted.

"Behind you!" Diane exclaimed as she punched the Marauder in the back with a strong punch that sent him flying forward towards Sora, who struck the Marauder with a flurry of quick blows.

"See ya!" Sora said before knocking the Marauder into the air with rising spiral before Howzer followed up with his own attack.

This will do some damage! Super cyclone!" Howzer announced as he raised his lance and a giant tornado formed under the Marauder and caught him in the wind. But the only thing that was done to the Marauder was give him the advantage of air.

"RAH!" The Marauder shouted as he sent out energy waves from his axe towards everyone on the ground in an attempt to strike anyone in range. Luckily for Sora, he was right under the unversed's blind spot.

"Got him now!" Sora said as he began spinning to form a tornado that continued to rise into a larger whirlwind that rose upwards towards the Marauder.

"What?! RAHH!" The Marauder shouted as he was caught in Sora's tornado strike which continued to expand until it blew away Howzer's super cyclone, much to the holy knight's surprise.

"Whoa! He was actually able to blow my most powerful storm with his own! One much stronger!" Howzer in amazement before Sora's whirlwind faded with him and the Marauder in midair.

"Rah!" The Marauder roared as he grabbed Sora in midair and made a charge for the ground, only for the keyblade wielder to quickly escape the unversed's grip before swinging around his back.

"Hah!" Sora shouted as he slammed his keyblade into the Marauder's back, sending him flying towards the ground with great force, causing the unversed to crash and make a crater in the ground while Sora softly landed.

(Music ends)

"Just what the hell is that thing?" Howzer questioned as he looked at the downed Marauder.

"Something that someone sent after us because they don't like me." Sora answered.

"And he's also starting to get up." Ryuko stated as the Marauder began rising once more, although weakly while using his keyblade to prop himself up.

"That thing really is a monster." Diane said as the Marauder picked up his fallen mask and placed it back on his face, as his eyes quickly glowed.

"I didn't come prepared for this, I didn't think I'd fight some monster instead of the sins." Howzer said as some approached from behind him, the other holy knight with maracas that arrived earlier with Jericho and Gulia.

"Hello there. Allow me if they're a bother." The holy knight said before shaking his maracas. "Gravity x10!" He exclaimed as the air around Sora's group and the Marauder suddenly became heavier and they seemed to be forced to their knees.

"What's going on? My body feels heavy!" Diane said as the ground started to crack from the invisible heavy force.

"Gravity magic! Ah!" Sora exclaimed as he fell from the force and the ground slowly started to split open.

"If we're not squished into the pancakes, we're definitely going for a fall!" Ryuko said as she watched a small canyon form near them.

"That's right! My gravity spell will be the end for you all! Haha!" The gravity holy knight laughed as he continued dancing with his maracas to keep up his spell while the Marauder, kneeling from the increased gravity, became annoyed by the constant interference.

"Annoying little bug!" The Marauder shouted as he tossed his keyblade at the holy knight.

"AHH!" The holy knight yelped in surprise as he ducked under the tossed weapon in time to save himself, but his gravity spell was interrupted in the process, causing Sora and others to be free from the force.

"Move!" Sora exclaimed as he and the others rolled out the way when the ground collapsed under them, forming a cravus that nearly swallowed them into the earth while the Marauder jumped backwards away from the hole.

"That was close! That monster nearly took my head off!" The gravity holy knight sighed in relief.

"*Growwwwllll…*" A horrible sound growled behind the holy knight as he turned around to see one of the Marauder's energy wolves bearing its teeth at him.

"Uh...nice doggy?" The holy knight said before the wolf bit into his armor and carried the knight off in the distance. "YAHHHHHH!" He screamed as he disappeared over a hill to no doubt be maimed by the wolf.

"At least he won't get in the way again." Howzer said as the Marauder summoned back his keyblade.

"No more games. No more interruptions. We settle this now." The Marauder said.

"Come on then. We're just a hop away!" Sora dared the unversed while Diane kneeled on the ground to prepare her earth magic again.

"Very well!" The Marauder said as he jumped into the air above the hole in the earth, only for a rocky spear to emerge from the ground near Diane to strike the Marauder when he was right above the group, hitting him back towards the hole in the earth. "RAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He roared in rage as the unversed fell deeply into the earth, seemingly defeated.

"Is he dead?" Ryuko asked as the group walked to the edge to look down the hole, and saw no sign of the Marauder.

"I think we won." Diane guessed.

"I guess now we can go help the others and-" Sora said as everything seemed to move in slow motion once a dark fireball struck Diane dead center and engulfed her in flames as everything moved at a normal pace once Diane fell into the hole. "DIANE!"

"Diane, no!" Howzer shouted as he ran forward to see the fireball Diane was consumed in, fell into the earth and disappeared.

"She's vanished..." Satsuki said.

"Even if she's not cooked alive, she's down there with that thing!" Ryuko stated.

"He won't care about her in the end…" A familiar voice that sent chills down Sora's, Ryuko and Satsuki's back to see the source of the voice, Sora's dark twin, Vanitas. "It's not her my new friend wants."

(Music: Dual hearts cutscene)

"Vanitas…" Sora said as his surprise slowly turned to anger over what his twin had done to Diane while Howzer was caught off guard to see the striking similar appearance between Sora and Vanitas.

"What in the…?!" Howzer said in confusion before realizing he had seen Vanitas before. "That's why I thought Sora looked familiar when I met him before the festival. I saw the other guy talking to Gilthunder when we returned from the north."

"What are you even doing here, Vanitas? I thought you'd've moved on after getting so much negative energy back in Honnouji, and why send that unversed after us?"

"What? You don't like your new friend?" Vanitas asked with a smile as Sora gave an annoyed grunt.

"So you sent a monster after him for no other reason then to torment Sora, did you?" Satsuki questioned as Vanitas noticed her and Ryuko for the first time.

"You two are here too? Heh, I thought you both would've called it quits after nearly getting torn to pieces by your own mother." Vanitas taunted as Ryuko became annoyed.

"That's it! I've had it with you, you Sora wannabe!" Ryuko shouted as she drew her scissor blade and pointed at Vanitas' chest. "First, you drain the energy out terrified people, then you and Ragyo brainwash me into attacking my friends, now you've sent that freak after Sora! I have had it!"

"Take a moment, would you?" Vanitas said as he snapped his fingers and Ryuko suddenly dropped her scissors, much to the others confusion.

"Ryuko, what's wrong?" Sora questioned before Ryuko suddenly clutched her chest as if she were in pain.

"AHHHHHHH!" Ryuko screamed in pain as she fell to the ground, still clutching her chest as Sora and Satsuki rushed over to her.

"What's wrong with her?!" Howzer questioned as he became concerned for Ryuko.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Satsuki growled as Ryuko continued to be in pain.

"Remember when she attacked you and used the darkness? It was my own darkness that brought it out, and now that same darkness is within her, allowing me to tear apart from within whenever I want to." Vanitas explained as Sora glared angrily at him.

"Fix her, NOW!" Sora demanded as Vanitas smiled.

"How about...no." Vanitas answered as Sora summoned oblivion to his hand.

"YAHHHHH!" Sora shouted in anger as he jumped at Vanitas, only for his twin to wave his hand and a portal opened near him as a storm of rusted keyblades rushed out and slammed into Sora to carry him faraway from the area.

"SORA!" Satsuki shouted as the keyblade storm carried him away before turning towards Vanitas.

"Have fun!" Vanitas said as he disappeared into a corridor of darkness, leaving Satsuki confused at his statement before noticing Ryuko recovering and sitting back up. "Ryuko! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, except I know what a heart attack feels like now. What did I miss?" Ryuko questioned before hearing the sounds of rocks being crushed and turned around to see a familiar pale hand gripping the side of the hole Diane fell down. "Aw shit…"


(Meanwhile, in town)

As King struck down the last rock troll with a slash of chastiefol, it began fading into dark particles and releasing a crystalline heart upon its destruction.

"That's the last of those creatures." King said to himself before calling back his spear. (Sora was right about them. They're certainly nothing to take lightly, but where are they all coming from? Why are they following the holy knights?)

"DIANE!" King heard Sora's voice in the distance, sending a chill up the fairy's back upon hearing Diane's name screeched.

"Diane? What?!" King said in a panic as he became worried about her and turned around towards the sight of the great Vaizel rock and saw the storm of keyblades carrying Sora away out of town. "What just happened?! I gotta find out!" He said as he was about to fly over to the great Vaizel rock to find out what happened to Diane and Sora. But someone else had other plans.

"On no! It looks like we're all out of fighters now!" A familiar voice from below caught King's attention as he looked towards the ground to see Love Helm, standing in the middle of the destroyed town like he was still the referee of the festival.

"The fighting festival referee? What's he still doing here?"

"Did the battle make everyone queasy? It looks like all the heartless that have joined the festival today have all been wiped out!"

(Hold on, how does he know what they're called?) King thought to himself, wondering how Love Helm knew the name of the heartless.

"It seems like all of them have been wiped out by old fart's vicious assault! That won't do at all!" Love Helm exclaimed as he jumped high into the air and the red cloak he was wearing became the size of a large curtain as numerous armored soldier heartless fell out the cloak.

(Music: Apprehension~2.5 ver~)

"What?! Those monsters are coming from you?!" King questioned as several wyvern heartless appeared to surround the fairy king.

"That's right! Today's monster caller is your favourite referee. Love Helm! Whose true identity is…" Love helm said as he vanished out of sight before King found a green blade pointed at his throat by someone King recognized right away, someone he thought was dead.

"It can't be! You're…!" King said as surprised as a holy knight in bronze armor had his sword pointed at him. "You're Helbram?!"

"It's good to see you again, Harlequin. Or is it "King" now?"


(Vaizel outskirts)

After searching all of Vaizel, Veronica and Griamore finally found Elizabeth near a lookout post on the outskirts, after the mushroom spores that shrunk Elizabeth wore off and she returned to her normal size, leaving her without any clothes, making Veronica give her sister the coat she was wearing for cover.

"Thank you for lending me this, Veronica. It's cute, but downstairs is kinda breazy." Elizabeth said with a blush while Veronica sighed.

Honestly. What the heck am I gonna do with you?" Veronica said before she began smiling with relief. "But still, I'm glad you're okay. Of course, we're talking about you, I should've known you'd be alright."

"That's nice of you to say…"

"Did you really think I was done, Stupid?! Seriously! How worried are you planning on making me anyway?" Veronica suddenly snapped at Elizabeth, making her flitch. "This is way different from that time you snuck out of the castle to play on your own back when we were kids. And even back then you made everybody panic when that bridge collapsed."

"I'm sorry…" Elizabeth apologized for putting her sister through the worry, even though she had no choice.

"On top of that, rumor has it that you're hunting holy knights with the seven deadly sins!" Veronica accused, much to Elizabeth's surprise.

"You don't understand!"

"Oh come on, don't give me that! Look at it right now, you're here with the seven deadly sins, aren't you? They're the one who tried to overthrow the kingdom of Liones!" Veronica said as she pointed at an unconscious Meliodas and Ban, who were knocked down after a combined effort from Gulia and Jericho.

"That's not true…" Elizabeth denied.

"Meliodas is the worst of all! He's really a monster that brings destruction to everything around him!" Veronica said as Elizabeth looked away, thinking back to the black mark she saw on Meliodas' forehead, which her sister noticed. "See? You're having doubts yourself! And not just Meliodas! Grandmaster Hendrickson warned us that a boy traveling with the sins is just as dangerous!"

"Sir Meliodas and Sora aren't like that at all! Especially Sora!"

"Meliodas I have no doubts about! But I haven't seen proof to defend this other guy!" Veronica said as Griamore looked up into the air and alarmed by the sight he caught.

"Lady Veronica! Something is coming this way!" Griamore warned as he kept his sword while Elizabeth and Veronica looked skywards to see the keyblade storm pass overhead, and an object dropped out of it and landed nearby, which Elizabeth recognized the fallen object immediately as a certain keyblade wielder that was passed out on the ground.

"Oh my goodness! Sora!" Elizabeth exclaimed at the sight of Sora and rushed over to him while Veronica was annoyed at her act.

"Ellie! Get away from him!" Veronica ordered, which was ignored as Elizabeth got on her knees and held Sora's head.

"Sora! Sora! Please wake up!" Elizabeth begged as Sora's eyes began slowly opening.

"Uh...Eliza-Elizabeth? When did you…? Forget it, King did say it wouldn't last." Sora said to himself as he stood up out of Elizabeth's before suddenly remembering that with Vanitas' arrival, Elizabeth was in greater danger now. "Elizabeth! I gotta get you out of here, someone real dangerous just showed up and I gotta get you somewhere safe!"

"Someone more dangerous than a holy knight?"

'Ellie isn't going anywhere with you!" Veronica angrily objected as Sora recognized her and Griamore from their earlier encounter in town.

"You guys again? What are you doing here?" Sora questioned before looking behind Veronica and noticed the unconscious Meliodas and Ban, before the keyblade wielder quickly stood up and summoned his keyblade as he stood defensively in front of Elizabeth. "Okay, someone better tell me what's going on, because I don't like the looks of this!"

"Sora, don't! That's my sister!" Elizabeth begged as she stood in front of him with her arms stretched out to stop him as Sora's eyes went wide at the proclamation.

"Your...sister?! I thought you said everyone in your family was being held captive!"

"Well you thought wrong pal. Now Ellie is coming back home with me!" Veronica said.

"I think that's up to Elizabeth!" Sora argued before Griamore suddenly grabbed Sora's arm and disarmed him of his keyblade. "Ah! Hey!"

"I won't have you talking that way to princess Veronica, criminal. Now know your place!" Griamore said as he held on tightly to Sora's arm.

"Veronica! Tell him to let Sora go!" Elizabeth begged.

"That boy is going to be arrested for his crimes of aiding and abetting the seven deadly sins, and you're coming home with me!" Veronica said as she forcefully grabbed Elizabeth's arm.

"No! Let go of me!" Elizabeth said before someone smacked Veronica's hand off of Elizabeth, who turned out to be Meliodas, who had suddenly regained consciousness despite his battered and bruised state with the dragon handle ready for a fight.

"I'm gonna...protect Elizabeth…" Meliodas said as he struggled to stand up and Elizabeth stood behind him. "Even if I die trying!"

"It's exactly like Hendrickson said...He told us you've brainwashed her somehow and looks just like that." Veronica accused.

"Meliodas hasn't done anything like that!" Sora yelled before he was shoved face first into a nearby stone wall.

"I said, do not speak to princess Veronica like that!" Griamore repeated as Veronica suddenly pulled out a strange purple stone that Sora noticed.

"Hey, what is that?"

"Rosco, Basla, Melcito…" Veronica recited strange words that sounded like a spell before the stone she held began glowing which Meliodas gasped in surprise at before the stone's light engulfed and grew brighter before the light vanished and the only thing left of Meliodas was the dragon handle that clattered on the ground.

"Where did sir Meliodas go? What happened?" Elizabeth questioned.

"He got sucked inside that rock!" Hawk exclaimed when he realized that the spell Veronica recited is what was responsible for Meliodas' disappearance.

"Hahahaha! Meliodas really was some wicked monster after all! This stone's power only affects those that are evil, trapping them inside!" Veronica laughed before turning around to see that Sora was still present, much to the second princess' surprise. "What?! How are you still here?!"

"Well, let's see. Your bodyguard here is shoving my face into a wall, and he also has more muscles than a jacked up meathead, except he seems to still have his brains." Sora said.

"Hey!" Griamore said, taking offence to Sora's comment.

"I don't understand. Hendrickson said this stone should capture those with evil in them. So you should be trapped inside with Meliodas since you're supposed to be connected to those monsters appearing all over Britannia!" Veronica said, much to Sora's and Elizabeth's surprise.

"You think Sora is responsible for…?" Elizabeth questioned.

"I can't believe you fell for that! And news flash in case you haven't heard, the rest of your family was blamed for the heartless showing up! The holy knights have something to do with it!" Sora said.

"I've had enough of your lies! You're not even from Britanna, so why should I believe anything you say?!" Veronica said, as Sora looked surprised at her with surprise at her commnet as ELizabeth looked surprised herself.

"What do you say, Veronica?" Elizabeth asked.

"From what Hendrickson told me, this boy is not from this land. And judging by the look on your face, Ellie. He didn't tell you that, did he?" Veronica questioned as Elizabeth''s face had a look of uncertainty before she turned her attention towards Sora.

"Sora...is this true?" Elizabeth asked as Sora stared at her, debating with himself whether to tell her or not before Griamore shoved Sora's face further into the wall.

"Answer her, scum!" Griamore shouted before Sora came to his decision.

"No, Elizabeth. I'm not…I'm not from Britanna." Sora answered as Elizabeth's eyes widened in surprise while Hawk's mouth fell to the ground from shock. "Neither are Ryuko and Satsuki in case you were wondering. But I had a good reason to tell you or the others, I swear!"

"Maybe it's because Meliodas recruited you from wherever you came from so you could overthrow the kingdom together! And now that Meliodas' spell over Ellie is broken, she can finally…" Veronica said before Elizabeth snached the purple stone from her hand and grabbed the fallen dragon handle off the ground.

"I want you to bring back Sir Meliodas this instance!" Elizabeth demanded as she held the dragon handle threateningly as Veronica simply sighed.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea how to do that." Veronica admitted as Elizabeth's began watering up.

"I hate you for this, Veronica! You don't know Sir Meliodas, or Sora. Not a single thing about them!" Elizabeth cried.

"Griamore!"

"As you wish…" Griamore responded as he understood what Veronica wanted before drawing his sword and pointed towards Elizabeth and a purple sphere suddenly trapped her. "Perfect shell! You leave us no choice, I will bring you back this way."

"So you're just gonna lock up your own sister?! And you're saying me and Meliodas are the bad guys!" Sora said.

"Would you shut up!" Veronica shouted as Hawk dashed up to Griamore's sphere containing Elizabeth.

"This is nothing! I bet my trotters can bust right through your bubble with no effort at all!" Hawk claimed before buck kicking at the sphere, only to have no effect.

"Not even the meteors that fall down to earth can break my wall." Griamore proclaimed.

"I heard Diane got through it with no problem." Sora snickered before Griamore pushed back into the wall.

"Didn't princess Veronica tell you to be quiet?" Griamore said.

"Kid's got a point. You could probably just break it with just one arm." A familiar voice said as Griamore turned around to see Ban, holding Veronica hostage with a single pointed threateningly at her throat. "Second thought, maybe just one finger could slice through it."

"You dog! Remove your filthy hands from the princess!" Griamore demanded as Sora saw an opening before planting his feet on the stone wall and a blue aura surrounded him as he activated flowmotion which Griamore noticed. "What in the..?! ACK!" He grunted as Sora propelled himself off the wall and knocked down the holy knight, causing the helmet Griamore was wearing to fall off while Sora landed on the ground and recovered his keyblade.

"Way to keep your eyes on me pal." Sora said.

"That's pretty low using a woman as hostage-Uh, I mean...Good job turning the table, Ban!" Hawk praised.

"Now do what I say and nothing will happen to her. Now listen up, bring the captain back and let the princess out of that bubble, do that and you'll get your woman back." Ban listed his demands while Sora had another idea.

"Ban, let go of Elizabeth's sister." Sora said, much to everyone's surprise, especially Veronica's and Griamore's.

"What?!" Veronica said in surprise at Sora's request.

"Why would he let go of the upper hand?" Grimaore questioned as Sora turned to him.

"I don't see any point in it. Besides, I promised Elizabeth I'd help save her family, not hurt them." Sora said as Veronica was even more surprised at his statement.

"Sorry, I don't think I can do that, kid. They're probably the only ones who know how to get the captain out of that rock." Ban said as he continued to hold into Veronica.

"They don't know. I can tell, they barely know how it works, but I could probably figure something out." Sora said as Ban began reconsidering the hostage situation.

"*SIgh* Fine. Just so you know, I wasn't actually gonna…" Ban said before he was suddenly sliced across the back by a quick flash, which turned out to be Jericho. "You bitch...Jericurl!" He said before falling to the ground and Jericho stepped on his back.

"That's "Jericho"." Jericho corrected him and Griamore took back Veronica.

"Are you alright, princess?" Griamore asked as he held the second princess as she nodded.

"Ban!" Sora shouted as Jericho looked up to notice him, and her face grew darker as she recognized him from their short encounter from Baste prison.

"You...I was hoping you were here too…" Jericho said as Sora prepared himself to fight her.

"Hell there again." A familiar voice caught Sora's attention as he turned his head before getting blown back by a small explosion from Gulia's lance. "Aw, is that how you react to a pretty thing like myself?"

"What the hell, Gulia?! He was mine!" Jericho exclaimed as Gulia looked at her confused.

"Oh? He was? My bad…" Gulia apologized as Hawk's overconfidence was coming into play again.

"I guess it's time for the real star to show his stuff! Take this!" Hawk said before dashing forward and curled into a rolling ball aimed at Gulia and Jericho. "Rolling ham attack!"

"Oh good, I was in the mood for pork." Gulia said as she snapped her fingers and Hawk was sent flying by an explosion.

"WHAAAAAAA!" Hawk shouted as he flew a small distance while cooked by the explosion.

"Hawk, no!" Elizabeth shouted as Gulia and Jericho approached the sphere she was trapped in, and noticed she had Meliodas' dragon handle as well as the stone he was trapped inside of.

"We've achieved all of our objectives. So, Sir Griamore, please release your magical ability now." Gulia requested as Griamore responded by lifting a finger and the sphere trapping Elizabeth suddenly vanished and she fell to the ground on her knees as Gulia walked up and kneeled in front of the princess. "Come, give me your hand."

"Hold it. I appreciate the help, But I'll be the one to bring Ellie back home. Your objectives...or more accurately, Hendrickson's, were only Meliodas, that sword and the boy, weren't they?" Veronica questioned before Gulia suddenly pointed her lance threateningly at her and Elizabeth.

"What are you doing?!" Griamore questioned Gulia's sudden hostility.

"Now I ask that you hand over princess Elizabeth over to us quietly. If you refuse…" Gulia said before a familiar hand grabbed her lance which the holy knight turned to see was Sora, conscious again.

"Elizabeth is not going anywhere with you." Sora said as Gulia actually seemed surprised at Sora's recovery.

"I'm impressed. I would've thought that a close range blast would have at least render you unconscious."

"And I thought you would've learned after last time that I'm tougher than I look. Now why does your boss want me? Elizabeth and Meliodas too."

"You can find out for yourself!" Jericho exclaimed as Sora turned in time to summon the crystal snow keyblade to his hand to block Jericho's sword while Gulia pulled her lance away to blast Sora back with a small explosion, but did no real damage since the keyblade wielder was able to stay on his feet.

"Thank you for the assistance, Jericho." Gulia thanked before turning back to Sora. "You do remember Jericho, don't you? She certainly remembers you."

"You do remember me, don't you? After the humiliation you put me through?" Jericho questioned as she looked at the keyblade wielder with dark rage in her eyes.

"Yeah, I remember you, sorry about before. I also remember you looking a lot less scary looking." Sora said as he noticed Jericho's eyes have taken on a darker hue, which was a familiar sign to him of one slowly falling to darkness.

"You mean I seem more like a woman, right? Thanks to my hatred for you and Ban, I've been brought to an entirely new level of strength. Now I can make you take responsibility." Jericho explained as she smiled and Sora realized the red substance on her mouth wasn't lipstick, but blood.

"Okay, so you've gone crazy, good for you."

"Why don't you come with us peacefully? Instead of being brought back to the capital violently." Gulia offered as she held her hand out to the keyblade wielder. "Grandmaster Hendrickson wants you there in one piece, and maybe if you cooperate with him, you'll be made a holy knight and have any wish granted."

"No!" Sora refused, much to the two female holy knights' surprise. "I don't want anything to do with people that hurt others for their own gain." He said as he turned to Griamore, who was next to Veronica and Elizabeth to protect. "Hey, big guy. Think your bubbles could protect Elizabeth and her sister while I deal with these two?"

"Huh? I-yes I could." Griamore said as he waved his arm and a long barrier formed in front of him and the two princesses. "Long shield!"

"Griamore?! What are you doing?!" Veronica questioned his sudden action of taking Sora's request.

"I'm sorry,princess Veronica. It seems like the safest action right now, I agree with the boy because...Well, for some reason I feel like we should thrust him right now."

"You really think that's going to protect them from us?" Gulia questioned with her smile still unwavering.

(Music:The 13th struggle~Vs data Larxene~)

"Think I'll let you get the chance?" Sora asked as he got into his battle stance.

"You're pretty overconfident for someone about to fight two holy knights!" Jericho exclaimed before dashing at Sora with her sword, which he deflected with his keyblade and pushed her away before jumping over a explosive flare that Gulia shot at him before Sora tossed his keyblade at her with strike raid that managed to avoid by side stepping away.

"Shot bomb!" Gulia exclaimed as she unleashed a series of flares at Sora while he was in midair, but he managed to quickly call back his keyblade and used aerial dive to unleash a series of somersaults to deflect the flares in different directions before he held the keyblade over his head.

"HA!" Sora exclaimed as he dove downward with a falling slash to slam his keyblade down on top of Gulia, who was knocked backwards from the attack.

"Godspeed ten flashes!" Gulia exclaimed as she swung her sword quickly to create flash waves that lived up to its name as the flash waves flew at Sora at an almost instantaneous speed, which he quickly saw coming before quickly sliding under the attack and closed the distance between him and Jericho. "How the hell?!"

"Eat this!" Sora shouted before spinning around with his keyblade to strike Jericho before knocking her into the air with a rising attack before knocking following up with aerial sweep and struck Jericho with a horizontal spinning attack and finished the combo by using groundbreaker to knock her to the ground with a hard slam. "How do you like that?" He said as he landed on the ground.

"I don't think that's something you say to a lady." Gulia said as she appeared behind Sora before unleashing a close range explosion from her lance and Sora vanished in the following burst of smoke. "It's a little rude…"

"Sorry, I'm not taking advice from you!" Sora exclaimed from within the smoke, surprising Gulia before the keyblade appeared out of the smoke and counter attacked with payback strike and knocked Gulia back with the aerial blows.

(Was he this strong back in the necropolis?) Gulia thought to herself when she realized that Sora seemed to be holding his own against her when he seemed to struggle a bit back in the capital of the dead. As Gulia recovered from Sora's attack, she waved her lance and sent out a series of explosive flares at Sora, only for all of them to surround him instead.

"This is a new one…"

"That's right, and don't think you can get out of this one. You're already caught in my Chain explosion." Gulia explained before a flare near Sora suddenly exploded and sent him reeling back to another flare behind him that also exploded that continued to sent Sora flying around from flare to flare that exploded from contact until the last flare exploded and left him in midair and vulnerable for Jericho, who recovered from Sora's combo.

"I have you!" Jericho said as she leaped into the air and moved fast enough to become rays of light that assaulted Sora until he was knocked into the ground and Jericho quickly planted her foot on top of his chest. "Now do you see how much I've changed?"

"Yeah, and I don't think I like it. Now I gotta ask you this. How's this for a change?" Sora said as he held his hand holding his keyblade as he transformed into blitz form and the crystal snow keyblade transformed into one of the blizzard claws.

"What the?!" Jericho exclaimed before Sora used the blizzard claw to grab Jericho by her torso and pulled her off himself before calling the second blizzard claw on his other hand while Jericho recovered from being tossed and turned towards Gulia, fuming over being surprised. "You didn't say he could do that!"

"Actually, I did. You weren't paying attention." Gulia said as Jericho huffed at her answer before dashing at Sora again and swung her sword at him, only for one of his claws to intercept her attack before he struck her with the other claw and then reared back both arms.

"Take this!" Sora exclaimed as he slammed both claws into Jericho while they rotated and sent her flying a small distance as Gulia charged at the keyblade wielder with her lance pointed forwards, only to narrowly miss when Sora suddenly jumped backwards to avoid the tip of the weapon.

"Gotcha!" Gulia said after hoping Sora would jump back as she released an explosive flare from her lance, only for Sora to spin with the claws and knock away the flare.

"You don't actually!" Sora exclaimed as he lunged forward with flowmotion and attacked Gulia with a drilling attack with his claws that tore away the midsection of her armor and was knocked away near where Jericho landed earlier.

"Can we stop screwing with him now?!" Jericho questioned while Gulia put on a serious face.

"Yes, I believe we can!" Gulia agreed as she held her lance above her head which made Sora quickly realize that Gulia was going for her brilliant detonation attack and held his blizzard claws ready for defense while Griamore became worried behind his wall as he saw Gulia charge up her attack.

(Not good. I don't think my wall can defend against her attack if a single flare makes its way towards here.) Griamore thought to himself as he became worried that he might not be able to defend against Gulia's attack and the two princesses could be in danger.

"Brilliant detonation!" Gulia announced her attack as the giant sphere above her head releashed a numerous amount of flares that flew in Sora's direction.

"And to make sure you don't get away! Godspeed flash!" Jericho exclaimed as she dashed forward and became a flash of light that was quickly picking up speed as she approached Sora, who was more than ready.

"Bring it!" Sora said as ice began forming on his feet and became ice skates and the claws on his arms became arm blades as Sora's transformation into the blizzard blades was complete just in time as Jericho dashed at Sora, only to miss when he slides around her attack in time while avoiding any of Gulia's flares and dodging Jericho's rushes at the same time.

"Hold still,damn you!" Jericho cursed while trying to strike Sora with her dash attacks, which quickly stopped when Sora reached out with one of his legs and successfully kicked Jericho in the torso, stopping her in place as she crashed into the ground from the force.

"Damn!" Gulia cursed as she saw Jericho get knocked down easily before putting more power into her brilliant detonation and released many more flares than before in every direction, mainly towards Sora, but also towards Griamore's shield where he and the princesses were.

"Oh no, you don't!" Sora said as he focused on each and every flare at once before slashing through the air with the blizzard blades using the frozen crescents shotlock and managed to slice apart every flare with air slashes and kept them away from Griamore's wall, much to Gulia's surprise.

"He was able to stop every one?! No matter, I can just release more and-" Gulia said before Sora jumped at the main sphere and sliced it in half with one of his skates, much to Gulia's and Jericho's surprise. "What?!"

"He was able to stop Gulia's strongest attack?!" Jericho questioned as Sora landed on the ground.

"Time for you to take some time off!" Sora said as he stomped with one foot and a wave of ice shot out from under him and flew out towards Gulia and Jericho, freezing most of their bodies in ice.

(Music ends)

"Ack, no! Not again!" Gulia cursed at her second defeat as she tried reaching for her lance that she dropped in an attempt to use explosion to escape, but it was a futile effort as her weapon was out of reach and then quickly came to a realization. (He really was holding back his power in the necropolis. But why? So not to kill me?)

"Ice, it just had to be ice I'd lose to…"Jericho said to herself after being overpowered by the one element she despised the most, considering what it had to do with the brother she was on bad terms with before moving her head enough to stare at Sora with angry eyes. "You! I'm not with you yet! Let me out now!"

"Maybe another time." Sora said as his transformation wore off and he passed by the frozen holy knights and went towards the front of Griamore's wall. "You can put that down now, Elizabeth and her sister should be safe now."

"Very well." Griamore agreed as he pointed at his shield it faded away and then turned to Veronica. "What should we do about the boy, lady Veronica?"

"Veronica, please! Sora defended you too, that has to count for something." Elizabeth pleaded with her sister as Veronica thought hard on her decision.

"...Griamore, continue arresting this boy." Veronica said, much to Elizabeth's, and Griamore's shock.

(Music: Missing you~2.5 ver~)

"But, princess...he defended your sister's life and your own life with his. Is this necessary?" Griamore questioned.

"I'll admit, he saved our lives. But he is still a questionable figure that needs to be kept a close eye on, from behind a jail cell preferably!" Veronica said as Elizabeth became frustrated at her decision.

"How can you be so cruel, after he showed you kindness?!" Elizabeth said before taking Meliodas' dragon handle and the stone he was trapped in and ran off as fast as she could.

"Wait, Ellie, Ellie!" Veronica called out as she chased after Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, wait!" Sora said as he began following after the two.

(I don't trust Veronica anymore!) Elizabeth thought to herself as she tried to outrun her sister while Sora was passing by the frozen Gulia.

"I think you would like some assistance in catching princess Elizabeth." Gulia offered.

"Oh save it! I don't wanna hear it." Sora said as he stopped to respond while Griamore walked up.

"He's right. You should save your concern. I suggest you worry about your own fates." Griamore agreed with Sora as Gulia frowned at the answers.

"That's quite unfortunate. Truly, we were ordered to bring her back, even as a corpse, that would be perfectly fine too." Gulia said as her smile returned as a chill ran across Sora's back as he and Griamore looked over a nearby hill to see a purple light shining and building in brightness, pointed straight at Elizabeth and Veronica as the older sister caught the younger princess.

"PRINCESS VERONICA!" Griamore shouted to warn her as a giant laser of dark energy fired from the faraway hill and time seemed to slow down.

(Music ends)

"ELIZABETH!" Sora shouted as he quickly dashed forward to save the two princesses, but was too late as the laser made contact with the ground where Elizabeth and Veronica were standing, resulting in a dark explosion that blew Sora back from the force as he rolled along the ground.

Princess Veronica!" Griamore shouted again as he ran towards the site of the explosion.

"Elizabeth!" Hawk shouted as well when he came running as well, despite still being charred from Gulia's explosion. As Sora recovered from the explosion, he heard nothing but the ringing in his ears, before propping himself up and looked ahead to see the smoke where the two princesses were once standing as the ringing quickly faded

"No...No no no no no no!" Sora said as he nearly tripped trying to stand up before taking off towards the explosion site just as the smoke was clearing with the worst case scenario in his head. However, only half of his fear was true when the smoke cleared to reveal that Elizabeth was unharmed, pushed out of the way by Veronica, who was on the ground, heavily injured by the blast and bleeding as well.

"Veronica...why…This can't be happening...Veronica! Wake up...Please, open your eyes!" Elizabeth begged as she looked down at her heavily injured sister and began crying as Veronica managed to weakly open her eyes.

"Ellie…?" Veronica said weakly, much to Elizabeth's relief.

"I'm right here! I'm right here with you!"

"Are you...injured?"

(Music: Seven deadly sins ost~eri0ne$~)

"No, I'm fine! Because you took the blast for me!" Elizabeth as Veronica smiled gladly as Sora quickly kneeled near the two princesses.

"I'm so sorry! I-I didn't think you might still be in danger, I should've been faster!" Sora frantically apologized as Veronica was able to see Sora was present.

"You're still here? Actually, I should be apologizing to you." Veronica confessed, much to Sora's and Elizabeth's surprise. "You were willing to put your life on the line for Ellie, and I should've been more appreciative for it, Ellie always had a knack for getting into trouble. That's why...I had to look out for her." She said as more tears began falling out of Elizabeth's eyes.

"Like when we snuck out of the castle together…We fell, but you took the brunt of it and protected me." Elizabeth said as her mind went back to her childhood when she and Veronica were on a bridge that collapsed and the two princesses fell, but Veronica managed to save Elizabeth from harm then while her leg was injured in the process. "I just kept crying while you were trying to make me feel better. Ignoring your own pain the whole time."

"Did I really?"

"That's right, and it made me so happy, because I knew how much you really cared, even though the two of us aren't related by blood. That's why...That's why…!" Elizabeth cried before Veronica managed to hold her face.

"Ellie...None of that matters, any of it…" Veronica said.

"I'm sorry! I was so horrible! I can't believe I said that I hated you! Please forgive me! I'm so sorry!"

"I really do..love you, Ellie. Truely…"

"I do! I do too!" Elizabeth cried as Veronica smiled.

"Because through it all...We're sisters, aren't we?" Veronica said as Elizabeth cried even more before Veronica turned to Griamore."Griamore…"

"Yes…" Griamore responded.

"This is my final order...Keep Elizabeth...safe…" Veronica said as Grimore became distraught.

"Final order, Princess? Don't say such things!" Griamore said as Veronica turned her attention to Sora.

"I know I'm not your princess, I don't really have much of a right to ask, But please…protect my sister…"Veronica requested.

"Hold on! You can protect her too! You're not leaving her just yet!" Sora exclaimed, but would receive no answer as Veronica closed her eyes and went motionless, with no sign of life in her. "No…"

(Music ends)

"Big sister…?" Elizabeth said, trying to get her sister to wake up, but got no response as Grimore was at a total loss.

"Princess...Veronica..?" Grimoire said before all the emotion he was holding back hit him at once and a stream of tears flooded from his eyes. "HAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He screamed with despair as he fell to his knees and punched the ground. As Elizabeth and Griamore grieved for Veronica and Sora was completely stunned, the one responsible for the attack that cost the second princess everything stepped out of a dark corridor that formed nearby.

"My aim must be off. I tried to take out both princesses." A familiar voice caught Sora's attention as he turned around to see Vanitas, smiling as Elizabeth, Hawk and Griamore became shocked at Spra's look alike.

(Music: Organization XIII)

"Whoa! I'm seeing double here!" Hawk exclaimed.

"There's...two Soras?" Elizabeth questioned.

"No, that's just Vanitas." Sora answered as he bared his teeth at his double while Griamore became enraged at Vanitas' proclamation.

"YOU! It was your attack that killed princess Veronica!?" Griamore shouted.

"Didn't you just hear me a minute ago? Of course it was me." Vanitas answered before he was suddenly trapped in Grimore's perfect shell technique. "Judging by the bubble, you get it now."

"I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" Griamore shouted in rage as he drew his sword and jumped at Vanitas with the intent of striking him down, only for Sora's double to have a dark aura form around him before it flared out and shattered Griamore's perfect shell and blew the holy knight back from the force. "ACK!" The holy knight groaned as he rolled along the ground.

"*Gasp!*" Elizabeth gasped after seeing Griamore tossed aside by Vanitas without any effort and realized he was the one that Sora was warning her about earlier.

"Vanitas, stop! It's me you want!" Sora said.

"Not today. I'm here for her." Vanitas said as he pointed straight at Elizabeth, much to her confusion.

"Me? Why do you want me?" Elizabeth asked as two familiar figures reappeared.

"Because he's with us." A familiar voice answered, which was revealed to be Gulia and Jericho. "He made a little deal with us awhile back."

"Surprise…" Jericho said.

"That's a bad idea. Once he gets what he wants, he's just gonna pack up and leave, and probably leave some damage behind for you to clean up!" Sora said.

"Relax, I'm not staying that long. I just have to get the sword and the princess over there to get what I want." Vanitas claimed.

"Sora, just who is he? Why does he look like you? How do you know him?" Elizabeth pelted the keyblade wielder with questions, which Sora was about to answer, but Vanitas spoke up first.

"What's there to tell? He and I are brothers." Vanitas answered as Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock.

"HUHHHHHHH?!" Hawk exclaimed.

"Elizabeth, no! He's lying! That's just how he sees it!" Sora said, although other things were on the princess's mind.

"So why then? Why did you kill Veronica?" Elizabeth asked with tears in her eyes while hugging her sister's limp body. "Why did you kill my sister?!"

"She just happened to be in the way." Vanitas answered as Elizabeth fell quiet with a distraught look while Sora's anger was rising.

"Vanitas...You take that back, right now.." Sora said while Vanitas smiled sinsterly.

"I don't think so." Vanitas said, which caused Sora to growl in anger, which to Elizabeth and Hawk, sounded a lot like an animal's growl while Elizabeth could've sworn his eyes flashed red for a moment.

"So, I guess that settles it then." A familiar voice caught everyone's attention, which snapped Sora out of his anger as everyone except Vanitas turned to see Ban grabbing Sora's dark double by the throat. "I guess this bad impression of the kid has gotta go."

"Bad impression? I'll let you know, I came first."

"I don't know about that. Sure you look like the kid,but you look like you've been stomped on by Hawk's mom."

"Okay, time for you to go." Vanitas said, as his body faded into dark particles, revealing he was one of his dark clones, much to Ban's confusion.

"Hey, where did he..? BLARGH!" Ban shouted in pain when a dark fireball suddenly blew a hole in his body from behind, from none other than Vanitas. (Damn, it's just like with Jerigo or whatever her name is, my wounds aren't healing right away.)

"Ban!" Sora shouted as he stood up and was about to charge at Vanitas, only to have Gulia and Jericho stand in his way.

"Going somewhere? Last I checked, we're supposed to bring you along with the princess too." Gulia reminded the keyblade wielder.

"Get out of my way!"

"I don't think so. We're still not finished with you." Jericho said as Sora started shaking in anger.

"I said, get out of the way, NOW!" Sora yelled in a dark voice, which took Gulia and Jericho by surprise before he took the two holy knights by the heads and smashed them together, quickly disabling them while Vanitas was amused by his actions.

"Well that's a surprise. Didn't know you had that in-" Vanitas said before Sora quickly interrupted him by charging into his double with flowmotion, grabbing him by his head and the two flew off into the distance back towards the town.

"Ah, SORA!" Elizabeth shouted as the keyblade wielder flew off with the tackled Vanitas.


(Town of Vaizel)

"Ahh!" Ryuko groaned as she crashed into a nearby wall after being tossed by the Marauder while Satsuki and Howzer stood across from the keyblade wielding unversed as he dragged his chaos ripper menacingly across the ground.

"This is not good...nothing we throw at this thing even scratches him." Howzer said before falling to one knee.

"Without Sora, we don't stand a chance…" Satsuki muttered, mentally cursing to herself since she was still unable to use her kamui's power while Ryuko stood up again.

"Life fiber synchronize! Kamui, Senketsu!" Ryuko exclaimed as she pulled the pin out of her red glove with her mouth, only to have nothing happen. "Damn it! Still nothing?!"

"I'm sorry, Ryuko. It seems I still don't have any power to give you, that Vanitas might've done something to me." Senketsu apologized before Ryuko came to a realization. The last time she and Satsuki were able to transform was in the final battle against Ragyo.

"No, it's not you, Senketsu. I think it was when we killed Ragyo and the primordial life fiber. You lost your power when we destroyed it."

"That...seems to explain it actually."

"Are you done, stalling your deaths? Because I believe it's time I stop toying with you." The Marauder said as he converted his keyblade into its energy axe form.

"Well, I know I just met you guys, but I gotta say...It was an honor fighting with you…" Howzer said as he weakly stood up to ready his lance to fight again.

"Don't say that until we're certainly dead." Satsuki said as she prepared her sword while Ryuko managed to pick herself up.

"No, you two should probably get out of here. I'll try and hold him off until Sora comes back." Ryuko said as she held her scissor blade ready.

"Bad idea, Ryuko. I doubt this monster will give us that benefit." Satsuki said as the Marauder decided to make his move as he dropped his axe on the ground before dragging it as he ran.

"Rahhhhhhhh-!" The Marauder roared before a flying object suddenly flew between him and the sisters towards a nearby building that crashed into pieces and created a cloud of smoke.

"What the hell was that?!" Howzer exclaimed as the smoke cleared away to reveal Sora and Vanitas standing amidst the rubble.

"Sora! He's back!" Satsuki stated.

"And he brought bad company!" Ryuko said as the twins were about to face off.

"Guess you wanted a change of scenery so that the princess wouldn't get in the way, and also not to disturb the dead." Vanitas said while Sora glared at him angrily at his comment.

"What does he mean by that? Is someone hurt?" Howzer questioned as the Marauder turned his attention towards Sora and stomped over to him.

"So you've returned, along with my master. Now both of us can…" The Marauder said before Sora suddenly summoned the oblivion keyblade and pointed it at the unversed without even turning around to blast the Marauder with a beam of light that sent him flying faraway out of the town.

"I was really getting tired of him." Sora stated.

"I'm actually kinda glad you got rid of him. I wanted this fight to be just us." Vanitas said as he summoned his keyblade, void gear to his hand in a spiral of dark flames and took on a battle stance as Sora took a look behind himself to make eye contact with Ryuko before making a motion with his head, telling her and Satsuki to leave, which Ryuko understood when she able to sense that the keyblade wielder was angry.

(Music: Enter the darkness~Kh3 ver~)

"We should go, Sora wants to handle him on his own." Ryuko said.

"Understandable." Satsuki agreed while Howzer was confused by their decision.

"What, hold up. Wouldn't it make more sense if you back him up? Instead of leaving him with that guy?" Howzer questioned.

"Yeah, we would. But Sora's pissed right now, and I don't think we should get in the way. Now do yourself a favor and get the hell away from here!" Ryuko shouted at the holy knight, which made Howzer reconsider his options after seeing how serious the girl was.

"Uh...I get the hint…" Howzer said as he turned to leave.(Maybe this is a good time to see if Diane survived anyway.) He thought to himself to see if the sin of envy was still alive in the chasm she fell in before running off. As Howzer left the scene, Ryuko and Satsuki watched Sora and Vanitas prepare to face off against each other.

"Think he'll make it?" Ryuko asked, concerned for Sora's well being.

"He will, he must." Satsuki assured before grabbing Ryuko's shoulder and running off from the scene with her just as Sora and Vanitas finally made their move at the same and rushed at each other and clashed with the other's keyblade as energies of light and darkness sparked off the two twins before the two broke away. After jumping back, Sora planted his feet on a nearby wall to dash at Vanitas with flowmotion in an attempt to ram, only for Vanitas to dodge by backflipping into the air.

"Pathetic! " Vanitas said as he crashed his keyblade downward on Sora and created an icicle upon making contact with the ground, only for Sora to slide around the attack.

"How's this?!" Sora exclaimed as he counterattacked with a series of slashes that ended with one final flipping slash that staggered Vanitas before he managed to escape by warping a small distance away.

"Destroy!" Vanitas exclaimed as he shot out a pair of dark firaga spells at Sora, who managed to dodge out of the way as the fireballs passed him towards a couple of buildings that were blown apart by the dark spell. "Not good enough!" He said before warping behind Sora and slashed him behind, knocking the hero forward before Vanitas warped in front of him to slash Sora again to knock him back again, only for Sora to recover in midair.

"Back at cha!" Sora said before tossing his keyblade at Vanitas in retaliation, who deflected it with his own keyblade before being knocked by a flying kick. "Is that all you got? It's just the same old tricks with you!" He said as Vanitas recovered from the kick and smiled at the question.

"Actually, I'm glad you asked that!" Vanitas said before warping away from sight as Sora looked around for his twin. "Over here!" The dark twin exclaimed as he reappeared for a quick moment behind Sora before dashing around him in a circle and a set of dark crystals surrounded Sora before they crashed into him and caused a dark explosion that sent Sora flying back a small distance into a wall. As Sora shook his head out from disoration, he noticed that his eyesight was mostly blackened, and he could only see a small distance in front of him.

"I can't see! I can't see!" Sora said in a panic.

"Don't worry, it'll fade. But not quick enough for you." Vanitas' voice rang out as Sora turned around just as his eyesight returned to normal to see his double pointing his keyblade at him and unleashed a powerful laser with dark cannon and blasted Sora far back though several houses with the last house crashing on top of the hero. A moment later when it suddenly went quiet, a light shined underneath the rubble before the sound of glass shattering as the rubble was blown away at the same time as Sora rose up again in dark form, the form change of Oblivion. "I guess you're getting serious now."

"Of course I am! I'm mad!" Sora said as he spun his keyblade above his head and used bladefury eclipse to launch a series of dark blades at Vanitas, who dodged the blades by warping as they were lodged in the ground.

"Snow me more of that anger!" Vanitas said as he wrapped himself in a cocoon of darkness before dark clones of himself flew out of the sphere and attacked Sora with swipes of the shadow copies of the void gear, Sora however, was able to dodge the clones attacks by changing into a trail of energy that was able to out pace the clones as he dodged right to left in different ways, which aggravating Vanitas inside the cocoon sphere as it suddenly shattered. "Hold still!" He exclaimed as he charged at Sora with a high speed thrust.

"Gladly!" Sora responded as he wrapped his keyblade in a dark blue energy and countered Vanitas' attack with his own thrust attack and charged at his double as their keyblades rammed into each other, causing a build up of the clashing energies a sphere of light and dark energy formed around Sora and Vanitas before the energy burst outwards and destroyed a good amount of nearby buildings in the resulting explosion, leaving a huge crater in the middle of what was left of the town of Vaizel as Sora was flung away from site, all the way towards the top of the great Vaizel rock where the fighting festival was held and landed in the middle of the arena.

"Gah! Didn't realize how much power I was putting into that attack." Sora said to himself as he stood up before sensing a familiar presence and looked up to see Vanitas in midair as he swung his keyblade to create a crescent energy wave that flew at Sora, only to miss and hit the ground when he dodged the attack while Vanitas landed on the other side of the arena.

"You know, I was thinking about making a surprise appearance at this tournament that was being held here. But then that witch's moron minion had to show up and scare you out of it, and it would've been an easy grab for that princess considering she was pocket sized." Vanitas claimed.

"Good to know you've gone from trying to kill me and my friends to stalking me, now give your wish!" Sora exclaimed as he planted his keyblade into the ground to create a wave of blue energy that traveled towards Vanitas who jumped into the air to avoid the attack while Sora jumped into the air to follow him and clashed keyblades with each other before Sora leaped further above his twin. "You're going down!" He exclaimed as he dove into Vanitas with dark break and crashed into the ground with a diving attack that created dark blue energy upon impact with the ground.

"Gaah!" Vanitas groaned in pain after bouncing off the ground from Sora's dark break and the keyblade wielder followed up by stepping back and held his keyblade in a reverse position and used one of his strongest attacks, zantetsuken, to attack with a powerful slash send Vanitas crashing into the hut that sat atop of the great Vaizel rock.

"I'm not done with you yet!" Sora exclaimed as he switched oblivion to his left hand as his clothes colors changed color to black and white and a white keyblade appeared in his right hand, oathkeeper, as Sora changed into one of his strongest transformations, double form and aimed the oathkeeper forward. "FIRAZA!" He exclaimed as a large fireball shot out from his keyblade at the hut and the structure exploded in a ball of flames before Sora shot another firaza from oblivion at what remained of the hut and it exploded in an even larger ball of flame and was quickly blown away by a dark aura that flared from the rubble by none other then Vanitas.

"Now that was a surprise coming from you. If I didn't know any better. You were really trying to take me out, make sure I stayed buried." Vanitas said before snapping his fingers and a portal up over the arena as a storm of rusted keyblade flew out of the portal and flew around before flying behind the dark twin before he jumped onto the storm to ride. "Let's go!" He said as the storm flew around the arena.

"You read my mind!" Sora said as he chased after the storm before jumping upwards and landed on the storm behind Vanitas.

"Dodge this!" Vanitas said as he shot a volley of blizzaga spells at Sora, only to be cut away by his keyblades.

"Hah!" Sora shouted as he charged right at Vanitas with a charging thrust with oathkeeper, only to have his keyblade deflected by Vanitas' keyblade and the two exchange blows before Vnitas made a motion with his fingers as a series of keyblades flew out of the storm and charged at Sora. "I don't think so!" He exclaimed as he deflected the flying keyblades with his own, but was all a distraction Vanitas concocted.

"Gotcha!" Vanitas exclaimed as he formed a dark firaga in his hand and blasted Sora's back and made him fall back down to the arena, but was able to land on his feet. "Now, for the big finish!" He exclaimed as Vanitas jumped into the air and the keyblade storm surrounded him, as well as another cocoon of darkness.

"We're far from that!" Sora exclaimed as he readied his keyblade and Vanitas began his attack, sending out waves of rusted keyblades at Sora, who dodged quickly around the flying weapons and when dark clones dashed out of the cocoon, Sora swung his keyblades at the clones to destroy them before they could attack.

"Feel the despair!" Vanitas exclaimed as he sent out waves of keyblades and dark clones at the same time in a devastating onslaught. But Sora was more than ready for the assault.

"How about you feel this instead?" Sora questioned as he planted his keyblades into ground and a miniature galaxy formed underneath his feet with the shotlock, stellar inception, and summoned a cluster of stars from the miniature galaxy and shot them all towards the keyblades and clones, stopping them all in midair before targeting Vanitas' cocoon sphere. "Take this!" He shouted as he flung more star clusters at the cocoon and exploded upon contact, making Sora believe he had delivered serious damage to Vanitas. But to Sora's surprise, Vanitas was still floating in midair, with only small scuffs of damage on him.

"Huh, I didn't think this would be so much fun. Everytime the two of us fight, it gets more intense...Kinda exciting." Vanitas said with a smile.

"You think this is some sort of game?! You killed Elizabeth's sister!"

"Can you blame me? All these twists and turns got me all worked up. And speaking of twists...A friend of yours is about to show up."

"Huh?" Sora questioned before sensing a dark presence and turned his head, just as something crashed near the side of the arena and created a giant cloud of smoke that covered Sora's vision. When the dust cleared and his vision returned, Sora was able to make out a familiar figure emerging, it was Meliodas, wielding the dragon handle, only he didn't seem like himself. Meliodas had pitch black markings that covered half his body and his expression was blank and emotionless, with no sign of his usual cheery smile. "M-Meliodas?"

"About time you broke free of that rock. I was wondering if you actually couldn't break free." Vanitas stated.

"What did you guys do to him?!"

"We didn't do anything. This is what he really is, that guy is not human. Never was."

"Huh?!" Sora questioned before getting chills on his back and looked around to see Meliodas standing right behind him, staring at the keyblade wielder with his blank expression, making Sora worry that he was about to attack. "Meliodas, before you do anything, just remember, it's me, Sora!" He exclaimed while Meliodas continued to stare at him, only for the transformed captain to do something unexpected.

"*Sniff* Sniff*" Meliodas smelled Sora before stepping back and raised his right arm as the black markings on his body moved to form a giant black wing on Meliodas' body and flew at Vanitas.

"This just got more interesting!" Vanitas said, smiling as Meliodas charged into him with vicious force.

"No! I won't let you do anything to him!" Sora exclaimed as he was about to take off after Vanitas and assist Meliodas, only to be suddenly smashed first face into the ground from behind and dropped his keyblades in the process as he felt a hand on the back of his head.

"Your turn is over right now. I want to observe your friend in his transformed state." A man with green hair and a green wearing an eyepatch over one eye and bronze armor said while holding Sora's head to the ground.

"W-who are you?!"

"For now, let's just say I am an old friend of Harlequin, or as you would call him, "King". And right now, I am observing Meliodas' power like I was observing your's." The man said as he looked to see Meliodas form an axe with his black markings over his right arm and swung at Vanitas, only to slice a dark clone instead while the real one appeared behind Meliodas and blasted him with a point blank dark cannon that caused an explosion over the transformed captain, but when the dust cleared, Meliodas was completely undamaged.

"Huh. Thought that would've done something.." Vanitas said with an amused smile before fading away while Meliodas did the same as they reappeared in afterimages as they clashed in midair before Vanitas slipped around his possessed opponent and knocked down towards the ground. As Meliodas recovered from the attack, his black markings began pulsing like they were alive and formed into a pair of claws over both his arms, much to the green haired man's amazement.

"Impressive! It seems as though his transformation is not yet finished!" The man exclaimed.

"Why is that a good thing? You don't know what's even happening to him!" Sora said as Vanitas landed in front of Meliodas, who was ready to attack again.

"I do. It means he's got a lot more power than we realized." Vanitas answered before Meliodas lunged at him with his claws as Vanitas simply teleported around the attack. "You may have darkness within you, but I AM darkness!" He exclaimed as he held hand out as streams of darkness began flowing away from Meliodas, who suddenly seemed to freeze up before he could attack again and the darkness flowed from him and towards Vanitas, who absorbed the darkness. As Vanitas absorbed Meliodas' power, the black marks on his body began fading away and the captain's expressionless face suddenly seemed to fade away before he began controding in pain.

"GAHHHHHH!" Meliodas screamed in pain as his consciousness returned and Vanitas absorbed more darkness from him, causing more pain for the captain.

"Vanitas, stop! He's had enough!" Sora begged as Vanitas smiled in satisfaction at his double's plea.

"As you wish. I think I got more than enough anyway." Vanitas said as he dropped his hand and the connection between him and Meliodas faded and Meliodas dropped to the ground, unconscious and the dragon handle had dropped out of his grip and slid across the ground.

(Music stops)

"Meliodas...? Meliodas, wake up!" Sora called out.

"Don't worry, your friend is still alive, for the moment anyway." The man said before smashing Sora's face into the ground and letting his head go. "Now then, if you don't mind I have something to get from him before I take you to Liones." He said as he walked over to Vanitas who picked up the dragon handle and observed the broken blade.

"All this fuss over a broken toy. But I can see why though, this isn't a weapon, it's some sort of key." Vanitas observed.

"No need to go into further details about that. I'll be taking it now, though." The man said as he held out his hand and Vanitas tossed him the dragon handle. "With this, the seven deadly sins have been successfully vanquished. All that remains now is to return the sword, Meliodas, the boy and the princess, and then our mission will be complete."

"And your boss will hold up his end of the bargain, right?"

"Yes, of course. Hendrickson will be pleased to know that you were of great help in allowing me to destroy the seven deadly sins." The man said as Vanitas raised an eyebrow at his last comment.

"Hold up there, Helbram. It was me who took out most of them while you were catching up with an old friend. You're making it sound like I didn't pull my weight around here!" Vanitas accused the strange holy knight named Helbram.

"I think the part about me catching up with an old friend when you decided to pick a fight with your twin instead of getting the sword and the princess. I'm pretty sure sir Hendrickson will be very eager to learn about that." Helbram shot back.

"You do that, and he won't consider giving me what I want, you undead freak!"

"Undead, am I? Then are you supposed to be? I sense you are unnatural as well!" Helbram exclaimed. As the man and Vanitas argued, the two had completely forgotten about Sora, who managed to recover from Helbram's attack and rolled over to call back oathkeeper to his hand.

"Heal!" Sora whispered to himself as the tip of his keyblade glowed green and a flower appeared over himself as he casted curaga, restoring his stamina. After healing himself, Sora looked over to see Vanitas and Helbram still arguing, not paying the hero any mind.

"You're gonna tell him exactly what happened here! Not some white lie to make yourself look good!" Vanitas shouted.

"I see no reason to! I think you have more work to do for the holy knights!" Helbram argued as Sora looked away from the argument to see Meliodas still on the ground nearby and unconscious.

(They're gonna take away Meliodas too, along with Elizabeth. But with that new guy here, I can't focus on Vanitas.) Sora thought to himself as he tried to think of a solution to fight both Vanitas and Helbram when something seemed to shine his eye. As Sora looked over to see the source light, he noticed a familiar object as the source, the heart binder that was offered as the fighting festival prize along with Diane's hammer that was on the ground, no doubt fallen when Sora blew the hut to pieces earlier.

(Yes! I was wondering if that was still around!) Sora thought to himself as he quietly snuck over to the heart binder while Vanitas and Helbram were arguing and picked up the trinket. As soon as he held the object in his hand, Sora immediately felt a connection to another heart as it glowed blue from his touch.

"Who are you?" The voice of a girl asked in Sora's head.

"I know you don't know me, but please, lend me your power. My friends need help." Sora requested. As Sora reached out with the heart binder, Vanitas and Helbram were still arguing about the results of their mission.

"I know you have a grudge with people, but I'm not getting shafted because of your hatred! I am getting what I'm owed!" Vanitas said.

"HAH! What a human thing to say. You're all alike, whining like a child when you don't get your way." Helbram laughed.

"Incase you forgot...I'm not what you can call human. And I think it's about time I send you back to the grave!" Vanitas said as he pointed his keyblade at Helbram threateningly.

"By all means, do as you-GAK!" Helbram groaned as he was suddenly struck in the side by a very heavy object, much to Vanitas' confusion.

"What the?!" Vanitas questioned before he dodge the mysterious heavy object that Helbram was struck with and looked down to see that the object was a morning star attached to a chain before it retracted back to its wielder, a girl with short blue hair, wearing a flower on her head and a maid's uniform and wielded the morning star like it was light as air as she stood next to Sora as he wielded both oathkeeper and oblivion.

"Thank you for coming out here, Rem." Sora thanked the maid named Rem.

"You're welcome, I'm glad to assist." Rem said as Vanitas smiled at the situation.

"HAHAHA! So you couldn't take me on your own, so you call your maid?! What a joke!" Vanitas laughed.

"What's the matter, Vanitas? Scared that she might beat you?" Sora taunted as Vanitas' smile quickly faded.

"I think you should be scared about what I'm gonna do to her!" Vanitas said as he quickly dashed at Rem and brought his keyblade down, only for the maid to swing her morning star and wrap it's chain around the void gear. "What?!"

"Heha!" Rem exclaimed as she swung her morning star again and slammed Vanitas with it into the ground for some heavy damage, much to Sora's amazement.

'Whoa, you're a lot stronger than you look, Rem." Sora said.

"My sister is actually stronger." Rem assured as Sora did a double take, wondering how much stronger her sister is compared to the powerhouse of a maid he just summoned. As Sora was in amazement at Rem's strength, Vanitas recovered from the maid's attack and stood up with an angry expression on his face and a dark aura flared from him.

(Music: Enter the darkness resumes)

"Now you've done it…! You really got on my nerves!" Vanitas said as he held out his arm and a dark aura covered his arm and keyblade as an axe made of darkness formed, similar to the one Meliodas used in his berserk state and jumped upwards. "Hah!" Vanitas exclaimed as he swung the axe downwards at Sora and Rem, who both jumped in directions to avoid the attack before he snapped his fingers and a storm of keyblades appeared out of a portal to surround him again.

"Feel despair!" Vanitas exclaimed as he launched a series of keyblades at Sora and Rem as the maid held out her hands.

"El huma!" Rem announced as multiple spears made of ice formed around her before flying out towards the rusted keyblades and clashed in midair, canceling both attacks out and creating a cloud of dust, which annoyed Vanitas.

"Annoying little-!"

"Gotcha!" Sora exclaimed as he dashed out of the dust cloud to surprise Vanitas before smacking down to earth with a dual spinning strike while Rem swung her morning star upwards and before slamming down on the grounded Vanitas, only to miss when he warped out of the way which was also a distraction as Sora suddenly appeared next to his twin to attack him with a charging thrust attack the knocked him back several feet before raising one of his keyblade for thundaga, only for projectiles of light to suddenly fly in front of him and exploded to interrupt Sora's attack as he looked into the air to see Helbram floating above his head.

"You took me by surprise there, however, it wasn't enough to stop me!" Helbram said before placing a helmet over his head. "You're far from stopping me!"

"Rem, can you take care of patchy while I deal with Vanitas?" Sora requested as the maid nodded.

"Of course I can." Rem responded as Sora dashed off to face Vanitas as Rem looked up at Helmbram, who didn't take her seriously.

"That's strange, I don't remember hiring a maid to clean up after the festival. Hahahaha-AHH!" Helbram yelped in surprise as he narrowly dodged Rem's morningstar after she swung it upwards at him and made him realize that Rem was most definitely a threat. "I see then, now you have my attention. Hunter wisp!" He exclaimed as he summoned a series of light orbs and sent them at Rem, who dodged the orbs by sidestepping the attack, only to see the orbs had rerouted themselves to follow the maid, making Rem realize that dodging the orbs was pointless.

"Huma!" Rem exclaimed as she held out her hands and a sphere of water surrounded her to protect her from the hunter wisp orbs as they exploded harmlessly off the sphere, much to Helbram's annoyance. As Rem faced off against Helbram, Sora was once more clashing with Vanitas, clashing keyblades against each other before Sora blocked a strike of Vanitas before countering with dual hammer.

"Take this!" Sora said as he unleashed a flurry of powerful swings with both keyblades that created slash marks along the ground before he knocked Vanitas back with a charge attack that knocked Vanitas back several feet, while Helbram landed hard on the ground nearby after a heavy attack from Rem.

"I don't understand. You told us two girls were accompanying the boy. You didn't say anything about a third, I certainly never saw her during the festival!" Helbram said.

"It was two girls. That maid came out of nowhere." Vanitas said.

"You can thank this, Vanitas. It let me call Rem here." Sora answered Vanitas' confusion as he pulled out the light blue heart binder he called Rem, which Helbram recognized.

"Hmm? Isn't that the other grand prize for the festival?" Helbram asked as Vanitas turned his head towards him as he gave him an angry stare. "What?!"

"You showed up here with a heart binder for Sora to use?! You idiot!"

"How was I supposed to know what was?! It's not my fault we may not recover Meliodas and the princess!"

"Forget the other guy! We don't need him now that we have his sword. You can go after the princess another time!" Vanitas said as he pointed his keyblade at the unconscious Meliodas and charged up his dark cannon.

"What are you?! Stop!" Sora pleaded which fell on deaf ears as Vanitas fired his attack and the beam raced towards Meliodas' body about to make contact and destroy him, only for a large heavy object to block the laser and deflected back towards Vanitas.

"What?!" Vanitas questioned as he watched his attack thrown back at him and warped out of the way.

"What in blazes?!" Helbram questioned as he quickly raced above the laser and stopped in midair. "That was close! But how did that fool let his own attack backfire on-" He said before something large struck him in the back and sent him flying faraway out of town and out of sight while Sora and Rem were completely surprised by the sudden event.

"Oh my, what was that?" Rem questioned as Sora turned around to see what was the source of what sent Helbram flying and felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.

"No way…" Sora said in disbelief as he was looking up at Diane, who was restored to her full size and wearing her orange leotard and wielding her sacred treasure, gideon. "...Diane, you're alright!"

"I sure am. That fireball didn't really do as much damage as you thought it looked and the fall was really nothing." Diane assured the keyblade wielder as he sighed.

"I'm just so glad you're alright…I think King would be too…"

"Is that giant friend or foe. Because I am having a hard time keeping track of everyone." Rem questioned as Sora gave a thumbs up to assure that Diane was an ally. As Sora was relieved that Diane was okay, Vanitas suddenly reappeared nearby.

"I'm getting annoyed at this! I'm tired of all these interruptions!" Vanitas exclaimed while Diane had picked up the unconscious Meliodas in her hand. "Hey! Are you ignoring me now?!"

"Did you do this?" Diane questioned Vanitas about Meliodas' injured state.

"Uh oh…" Sora said as he held up his arm to signal Rem to get back as the two took a few steps backwards.

"So what if I had?!" Vanitas asked as Diane swung her hammer down on top of Vanitas as a response to his answer, only for Sora's dark double to hold back the sacred treasure with the tip of his keyblade.

"I'm gonna make you pay!" Diane said as she swung gidion at Vanitas only for him warped upwards above the hammer and shot out a pair of dark firaga spells at Diane that blew her back, but didn't cause any major damage since Diane was able to block it time while Vanitas charged up his keyblade for another dark cannon.

"Oh no you don't!" Sora exclaimed as he pointed both his keyblades forward and the tips of the weapons glowed with light and a streak of light suddenly struck Vanitas and interrupted his dark cannon from charging up.

"What the-?! GAH!" Vanitas groaned in pain as he was bombarded from all sides by streaks of light and darkness that knocked him out of the air and fell to the ground, leaving him open for Diane.

"HAHHHHHH!" Diane shouted as she smashed her hammer down and swung it upwards to send Vanitas into the air as she raised her hand to use her earth magic and raised numerous rocks out of the ground. "Rush rock!" She exclaimed as Sora decided to jump up on top of one of the flying rocks.

"Let's get him!" Sora said as he pointed oathkeeper forward and Diane swung her hammer at rocks and they all flew upwards at Vanitas' direction as he recovered in midair.

"Not good enough!" Vanitas said as he opened several portals and rusted keyblades flew out of the portals to collide with all of Diane's flying boulders while some were able to get past. The rock Sora was flying on was able to get past all of the keyblades Vanitas sent at him, making his dark double very annoyed.

"Just go down!" Vanitas shouted as he unleashed dark cannon at Sora and made contact with the boulder he was flying on, causing it to explode and making Vanitas smile in satisfaction. However, Sora was able to slip around to a boulder that flew behind Vanitas.

"YAHHH!" Sora shouted as he dashed off the boulder and flew at Vanitas.

"What the?!" Vanitas exclaimed before Sora charged into him with a powerful thrust using both oathkeeper and oblivion and sent his dark twin crashing into the earth and slid along the ground while creating a path along the ground after his violent crash landing until he finally slowed down and stopped and Sora landed on the ground.

(Music stops)

"Whew…I feel a little better now." Sora sighed as he dismissed his keyblades and double form expired. As Sora took a moment to breathe, Rem walked up next to him without her morningstar and more like a proper maid as she held her hands together like she was awaiting orders.

"Do you need me to get you anything for you?" Rem asked.

"Nah, I'm good. Not you're my maid...You are a maid, are you?"

"Sora!" A familiar voice called out for the keyblade wielder as he looked over his shoulder to see Ryuko and Satsuki running over to him. "Thank god, you're alive."

"We saw the explosion that took out the town and became worried about you. Then we saw Diane had survived." Satsuki said while she and Ryuko noticed Rem by his side.

"Uh, Sora? When did you get a maid?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. This is Rem. The heart binder that was the festival prize let me call her here." Sora explained. "Speaking of, Rem, you can go home now. If I need your help again, I'll give you a call."

"I should return, my sister and everyone else if I don't return." Rem said before she vanished in a cyan blue light.

"What's with you and girls with colored hair?" Ryuko questioned.

"Huh?" Sora asked, completely confused.

"You know, Kairi, me if you count my streaks and that Jakuzure chick back home."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at…"

"And it's something you might not get, Sora. Now let's make sure Vanitas is down." Satsuki said as Sora and Ryuko nodded in agreement before the trio walked towards Vanitas' crash site and found Sora's dark twin struggling to get up.

"What's the matter, wannabe? Got a problem getting up?" Vanitas heard Ryuko's voice before he looked up to see Ryuko hunched over him while Sora and Satsuki stood behind her with their arms crossed. "Doesn't look like you should have a problem. Then again, we'll break your legs to make sure you actually do."

"You're just lucky I don't have any strength to make your heart feel like it's about to explode on you…" Vanitas said weakly before smiling confidently. "Besides, you won't hurt me. Sora won't let you."

"I don't know about that. Sora seems to be in a bad mood today, he might be willing to overlook a few things." Satsuki said.

"Heh, keep fooling yourself."

"I don't think so, Vanitas. You need to answer for what you did." Sora said as Ryuko and Satsuki looked at him in confusion.

"Sora, what do you mean by that?" Ryuko asked as Sora had a look of guilt on his face.

"...He killed Elizabeth's sister." Sora answered as Ryuko and Satsuki were completely stunned by the confession.

"What?! Didn't Elizabeth say her family was being held captive?" Satsuki questioned.

"One of her sisters wasn't, and she came out here to find Elizabeth. Then Vanitas got her trying to get Elizabeth." Sora explained as Ryuko growled and took out her scissor blade to hold it over Vanitas' throat.

"You son of a bitch! How could you do that?!" Ryuko said as she held her weapon threateningly over Sora's double.

"Easy answer. I did it the same way like my friend is about to take off your head." Vanitas answered before Ryuko was suddenly pulled away from him by Sora when an object flew by her as it revealed itself to be the chaos ripper keyblade that belonged to the Marauder, who helped Vanitas off the ground.

"Shall I make them pay for what they did to you?" The Marauder asked as he called back his keyblade.

"Forget it, We're done for today. You get back to hunting Sora another time, besides, I need to pick something up."

"Vanitas! You're not leaving yet!" Sora exclaimed as he summoned his keyblade.

""I think we are. See ya." Vanitas said his goodbyes as a corridor of darkness opened around him and the Marauder.

"NO!" Sora shouted as he jumped at the two, only for Vanitas and the Marauder to vanish into the dark corridor just as Sora brought his keyblade, only to hit nothing instead, much to his frustration. "AHHH!" He shouted as he dropped his knees and punched the ground while Ryuko walked over to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Sora...I know what you're feeling right now since, you know…" Ryuko said considering there was a time she wanted justice. As Ryuko comforted Sora, Diane came from over a nearby hill with Meliodas, still unconscious in her hand.

"What happened? Did that guy that looked like Sora get away? Also, why did he look like Sora?" Diane questioned as the keyblade wielder got off from his knees.

"I'm uh...not comfortable answering that right now...Is Meliodas alright?" Sora asked to change the subject.

"Yeah, he's fine. But he's still out cold." Diane answered as she looked in her hand to see Meliodas unconscious but breathing very slowly. "So what was going on? You seemed very angry back there."

"...Something happened…"


(Vaizel outskirts)

As the sun began setting, Sora requested that the others follow him back to where he last saw Elizabeth near the stone wall, only it seemed that some of the terrain was damaged, no doubt caused by Meliodas in his berserk state where they found Ban, King(Who had a large gash in his chest) as well as Hawk sitting patiently atop the stone as Hawk noticed the approaching group.

"Hey! Look who it is!" Hawk exclaimed as Ban and King perked their heads up to see Sora's group.

"Hey there!" Diane greeted before she leaned down and opened her hand to show Meliodas, who had regained consciousness.

"Heya, everybody…" Meliodas greeted as Diane nuzzled him with her cheek before setting down gently. "So what did I-?" He questioned before Ban suddenly rushed forward and sent Meliodas flying into a nearby rock.

"That oughta do it, gotta pay you back for before." Ban said as Sora's half of the group was confused.

"The hell you do that for? What did he do now?" Ryuko asked.

"He cut me in half when he went nuts earlier."

"...Okay, that's a good excuse."

"It's all cool…" Meliodas said after recovering from Ban's sucker punch while King was able to walk up Diane slowly because of his injury.

"Are you alright, Diane?" King asked.

"Oh, I'm fine. But about you, King? Isn't your injury bothering you?" Diane asked with concern as King became giddy.

"Not really, maybe a little?"

"How did that happen anyway?" Sora asked as King's happy smile soon faded away into a sad face.

"I caught up with an old friend…" King said which made Sora realize that Helbram was telling the truth earlier, he and King did know each other, but it wasn't the top question on his mind.

"Where's Elizabeth?" Sora asked as Ban pointed behind himself with his thumb to show the keyblade wielder where Elizabeth was. The princess was some distance away, talking to Griamore, who was crying over the body of princess Veronica.

(Music: Ever after)

"I'm unqualified to be a holy knight. I couldn't even protect you, that was princess Veronica's final order to me, and I ended up disobeying her…" Griamore said to Elizabeth as he shed more tears before hearing approaching footsteps and looked up to see Sora standing over him with a face filled with guilt. "You though...You are more worthy than I could be. You had the strength to carry out the request she had for you…"

"I haven't done any better...The guy who looks like me and did this to her, he got away…" Sora admitted as Griamore looked disappointed while Elizabeth stood quiet until she decided to break her silence.

"Thank you, I know how much you cared for her…" Elizabeth said to Griamore as he looked up at the princess with tears still in his eyes. "Please bury her on the shore of Pienes lake...That's all I ask of you. I still remember how much fun the three of us had there, she loved it so much…" She requested before turning around to hide her own tears. "I'm going to stop the holy knights, no matter what…"

"Princess.. How were you able to become so strong?" Griamore questioned.

"She had help…" Sora said as he fostered towards Meliodas and the rest of the sins, which made Griamore understand what the keyblade wielder was saying.

"I see...Thank you again, and please...Watch over princess Elizabeth, like princess Veronica asked…"

"Don't worry, I'll protect her. Then I'm gonna make sure to protect the rest of her family when we find them." Sora said as Griamore nodded in understanding before taking Veronica's body and began walking away in the direction of the setting sun to lay princess Veronica to rest. As Griamore vanished from sight, Sora turned around to look at Elizabeth, who had her back turned to him.

"Elizabeth, I…" Sora said as he reached his hand out to the princess, only for her to walk away from him without a word towards Hawk's mother, who was off in the distance ready to take off with the sins. As Sora watched Elizabeth leave, he simply walked over to the nearby stone wall where the others were.

"Sora?" Ryuko questioned as he walked by her without a word before he jumped onto the wall and buried his face into his hands.

"What's going on with you?" A familiar voice brought Sora's head up as he saw Meliodas standing in front of him before the former captain jumped up on the wall to sit next to him while Ban and King did the same on the other side of the keyblade wielder while Diane sat behind the wall with her legs crossed as she looked down at the group. "You look like you believe this whole thing is your fault."

"Because it is my fault!" Sora shouted, which took everyone but Meliodas by surprise. "I was right here when Vanitas took out Elizabeth's sister! I could've protected them both!"

"Sora, there was no possibility that you could've known that Vanitas had united with the holy knights." Satsuki said.

"But I should've gotten Elizabeth out of town as fast as possible, maybe her sister would've chased after us!"

"But the holy knight that was accompanying her had the power to stop you in place, getting her to follow you would've been pointless." King pointed out, which fell on deaf ears as Sora put his hands into his face again.

"I feel like I haven't been able to save anyone lately, no matter how hard I try. I couldn't save Kairi...I couldn't save Ryuko from her own nutjob of a mother…" Sora said as he gestured towards Ryuko who looked down at the ground, remembering when she had her own heart torn out by Ragyo and then brainwashed by her. "Now, Elizabeth's sister too. I'm a total failure…" He said as everyone became silent at his proclamation, until Meliodas decided to speak up.

"Hey…" Meliodas said which got Sora's attention. "For me...It was the kingdom of Danafall, and someone else…" He said, which took the keyblade wielder by surprise at how the captain opened up.

"For me…" Ban said which got Sora's attention. "It was Elaine…"

"For me...it was also Elaine...And also my best friend…" King confessed.

"For me...it was the friend who's name I borrowed during the festival…" Diane said.

"Sora…The hardest thing each of us learned is...you can't save everyone..." Meliodas said as Sora took the advice to heart before looking out towards a nearby hill, where Elizabeth was watching the sunset.

"...Still makes you wanna try...doesn't it?" Sora asked as he took out Kairi's wayfinder and clutched it close to his chest.


Notice: Meliodas has lost the dragon handle and full counter is temporarily unusable

Notice: Diane has gained her sacred treasure, Gideon and her teamwork attack is now available.

Diane's teamwork attack, Gaia's rain: Diane raises tons of rocks with her rush rock attack while Sora jumps on top of a rock as the boulders rain upon enemies before Sora jumps off and attacks with one final charge attack.

Journal update

Helbram: A mysterious and powerful holy knight that shares a connection to King.

Love Helm: The referee of the Vaizel fighting festival and the alter ego of Helbram.

Rem: A powerful girl dressed like a maid who answered Sora's call though the heart binder. (Series she is from: Re;zero)