Chapter 11: Battle of the Sea of Darkness

As Zorua flies straight towards one of the demon kraken's arms with a trail of black aura behind him like a tail of a comet, the flying demons lets out menacing roars and are about to attack Zorua.

Riolu has a serious expression in his eyes as he thinks with a trail of white aura flying behind him as well, 'Here it goes! I need to keep Zorua from getting knocked out by these bastards!'

While Zorua focuses his attention more on the giant arm, most of the demons cover his sides.

Riolu yells out with a serious expression on his face, "Double Team!"

The white aura forming out of Riolu forms two more clones of him, protecting both of Zorua's sides and slashing at the demon, causing pools of blood and bodies to fall into the sea.

Riolu thinks as he keeps his attention on Zorua's back, 'Good luck, Zorua!'

As the clones slash away violently at the flying demons, Zorua sinks his claws into the giant arm and starts biting violently at the arm, opening up the skin, causing blood to pour down.

The giant kraken demon lets out a loud roar and Zorua lifts his left front paw away from the arm, charging up for a powerful Nigh Slash.

As dense black aura generates out of Zorua's left arm taking shape of a blade, several of the flying demons take out the two clones and flies straight towards Zorua with blood thirst looks in their eyes.

After Riolu lands on top of the demon's palm, he jumps down towards all of the demons, with the two Aura Blades still activated.

As he flies down straight towards them, he thinks with a serious expression in his fiery Aura Eyes, 'I won't allow you bastards to get through!'

Riolu lands right in front of Zorua in midair and aims both of his hands at the demons.

Riolu has a serious expression in his eyes and he thinks while the white aura surrounding his body grows larger with power, 'Arceus, lend me your power!'

As Riolu closes one eye and aims carefully at the middle of the mob, a red plate appears in midair above Riolu and slowly takes form back into the aura.

After the red plate took form inside the fire of white aura, flaming Aura Spheres bursts out of Riolu's hands, taking down every demon that comes into its path.

Riolu looks back at Zorua with a serious expression on his face and he yells out with a meager amount of sweat rolling down his face, "What are you waiting for, Zorua? Do it already!"

Zorua roars like a demon as he slashes his Nigh Slash through the demon's entire arm, cutting it down like what a chainsaw does to a tree.

As the severed part of the arm falls into the water and Zorua cancels his Night Slash, the kraken demon lets out a malevolent roar, which summons more flying demons to its aid.

Riolu has a look of seriousness in his eyes and he thinks after he stops firing his attack and finished off the last of the wave, 'Damn… there are more of them coming this way!'

When Riolu looks back, he sees Zorua already flying straight towards the next arm that appeared in front of the ship.

Riolu has a serious expression in his eyes and he thinks as he flies straight towards Zorua, 'Only three more to go! But…'

Riolu has a look of concern in his eyes as he thinks, 'I'm already starting to run low on energy… even with the white aura as back up, I'm reaching my limit.'

After Zorua reaches the next arm and sinks his claws into it, all of the flying demons in this wave fly down straight towards Zorua with all of their mouths hanging wide open.

Before one of the demons could attack Zorua, Riolu instantly appears by Zorua's side and slashes that demon's head off with one single swing of his Aura Blade.

As that demons starts falling down towards the water, Riolu aims both palms at the oncoming wave of demons and starts firing the thousands of flaming Aura Spheres.

While Riolu continues firing at the demons, his eyes widen with shock as he feels enormous shockwaves of energy coming from behind him.

When Riolu looked back at Zorua, his mouth hangs wide open with shock when he sees the power of the black aura growing stronger than ever before.

Riolu thinks as he sees long red and black flaming hair growing out of the top of Zorua's head, 'Z-Zorua… this power…'

Riolu looks back at all of the demons he is fighting against and his eyes widen with shock when he realizes that most of them are retreating.

After Riolu stops firing his Aura Spheres and looks back at Zorua, his eyes widen with shock once more as he sees Zorua instantly slicing off the kraken's arm off in one single blow again, but only in a matter of seconds.

Zorua is already flying straight towards the next arm at such a quick speed, that he instantly slices off that arm in a matter of seconds as well.

The kraken lets out a malevolent roar and it tries to knock Zorua off course by trying to swat him away with his remaining arm.

But Zorua doesn't change course and continues flying straight towards the giant palm coming his way.

When Riolu blinked his eyes and looked at Zorua again from where he was left, his eyes widen with shock when he notices a demon skull mask of Zorua taking form over his face.

Zorua intercepts with the giant hand, blasting right through it. But Zorua sinks his claws into the tops of the kraken's hand and lifts his front left leg away from the hand, charging up for a fierce Night Slash.

But as he charges up to attack, the kraken moves his hand towards his mouth, about to take a bite out of his hand in order to kill Zorua.

But Riolu reappears right in front of the giant kraken's right eye and forcefully stabs his Aura Blade into its eye.

The kraken lets out a roar of agony and tries to swat Riolu away from his right eye, completely distracted from Zorua.

After Riolu pulls out his right arm and flies straight towards the kraken's left eye, Zorua slices straight through the kraken's remaining arm, cutting it in half from the top of hole in its hand down to its elbow.

The demon lets out an agonizing roar as its blood spills into the ocean, causing the ocean to turn red.

Riolu flies up straight towards the ship on the top of the kraken's head and he thinks with a serious expression in his eyes, 'After Zorua finishes the kraken off with one more final blow, I'll have to use the rest of my remaining energy to bring Zorua back.'

As the kraken tries to take a bite out of Zorua but keeps missing, Riolu lands on the deck of the ship and grabs a hold of the wheel, using it as a support.

Riolu pants heavily as he focuses the remaining white aura into the palm of his right hand, taking form of a sphere.

Riolu looks down at Zorua and he thinks with an exhausted look on his face, 'You're on your own with this one, Zorua…'

The demon kraken tries to take a bite out of Zorua again, but Zorua just dodges it without any problems.

As Zorua flies straight towards the kraken's face, he thinks as himself, 'I won't allow myself to be taken over completely!'

Riolu looks down at Zorua with a look of shock in his eyes when he notices the mask in front of Zorua's face is crumbling away, and the flaming hair has disappeared.

Riolu thinks with an amazed expression on his face, 'Is Zorua actually still fighting for control?'

When Zorua sinks his claws into the kraken's face, he yells out as his eyes starts glowing blood red with black aura radiating out of his eyes like fire, "I won't let you take over my soul!"

As the kraken stares into Zorua's eyes, its left eye widens with shock and the pupils start to dilate completely, covering its entire eye.

As the demon's body starts to crack up like fissures, Riolu looks down at Zorua with a look of amazement in his eyes and he thinks as he sees Zorua's claws and fangs slowly returning to normal size and the black aura slowly lingers away, 'I can't believe what I'm seeing! Zorua is actually fighting the Hell Spirit Blade's control!'

But while Zorua continues to stare into the kraken's eye, sweat rolls down Zorua's face and he has an exhausted expression on his face.

As the cracks on the kraken's body grew larger, Zorua's eyes widen with shock after the black aura just explodes out of his body.

Zorua's mouth hangs wide open with shock and he screams in agony as the black aura is slowly forcing his body to transform into Darkrai's body.

Riolu has a serious expression on his face as he thinks while seeing Zorua slowly turning into Darkrai, 'Well… so much for that idea!'

After Riolu runs to the side of the ship and jumps off of it down towards Zorua, the kraken shatters into thousands of pieces like glass with its blood pouring down into the ocean.

The boat starts falling down towards the bloody ocean along with Riolu, who still has the sphere of white aura forming out of his palm.

Riolu yells out as he falls down towards Zorua, "Just hang in there, Zorua! Keep fighting for your soul!"

Zorua has a serious expression on his face and he yells back to Riolu, "I'll do what I can! Just hurry up before it fully controls me!"

The right side of Zorua's body has turned into Darkrai, while the other half still remains the same.

Zorua starts falling down towards the water after the black aura radiating out of his body like fire vanishes.

Riolu has a concerned expression on his face and he thinks while falling down towards Zorua through the chunks and pieces of the kraken, 'I need to get to Zorua before he falls into the water! If I don't, he'll transform completely while in the water!'

Riolu closes his eyes and forces large amounts of white aura to form out of his body to use as an accelerator to reach Zorua faster.

Before Zorua's back hits the water, Riolu jabs his right palm onto Zorua's chest, causing the white aura sphere to form into his body.

After he pulls him arm back, the sphere turns into a thread that is connected to Riolu's palm and Zorua's chest. Riolu grabs a hold of Zorua with his left hand and pulls him away from the water and flies to the ship that has just landed into the bloody water.

After Riolu landed on the deck of the ship and laid Zorua on the floor, Zorua's eyes widen with shock as he feels the presence of the white aura flowing throughout his entire body.

As the Darkrai side of Zorua slowly turns back to normal, Riolu's eyes are closes tightly, trying to keep himself from falling over from exhaustion.

But as he tries to bring Zorua back, Riolu hears a voice in his head saying to him, "Riolu… you're role as a Pokemon… is…"

Riolu has difficulty hearing the rest once he starts using the rest of his remaining energy on Zorua.

After Zorua's whole body turns back to normal, the white aura thread snaps and Riolu just stands there with his arms falling to his sides and his head just faces down with his eyes shut.

When Zorua got back up onto his feet and looked up at Riolu, his eyes widen with shock when he sees Riolu falling down to the ground on his back, completely knocked out from exhaustion of energy.

Zorua rushes to Riolu's side and calls out his name, but Riolu don't respond as he just lies there.

As Zorua checks for any signs of life, he starts hearing a voice saying to him, "He's alive, Zorua."

Zorua's eyes widen with shock and thinks as he slowly looks directly at the front of the ship, 'That voice… it can't be…'

When Zorua looked where he heard the voice, he sees Mienfoo and Dark Riolu standing there.

Mienfoo is still tied up with cuts and bruises all over her body.

Zorua asks with a serious expression on his face, "What the hell is going on here? I saw you die right in front of my eyes!"

Dark Riolu grins malevolently as he replies in the demon language, "Oh… let's just say I brought her back to life for you, Zorua."

But Zorua still has the same look on his face as he asks, "Did Darkrai send you out here?"

Dark Riolu shook his head no and he replies, "No… in fact, I choose to do this on my own. Besides, it's been such a long time since you've last been on the island."

Zorua looks right at Mienfoo with a concerned expression on his face and he says, "Mienfoo…"

Mienfoo too has a look of concern on her face and she says, "Zorua… I…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Dark Riolu pulls the sharp edge of his double bladed scythe up to Mienfoo's neck.

Zorua's eyes widen with shock and he asks, "What the hell are you doing?"

Dark Riolu looks right at Zorua with a murderous smile on his face and he says, "Even though I brought her back to life, I can still kill her out here with one slice to the neck."

Zorua cries out with tears of fright rolling down his cheeks, "No! Please don't do it!"

Dark Riolu continues, "Tell you what… why don't I go ahead and make you a deal. I'll keep this girl alive for a little while longer if you agree to return to Darkrai as his apprentice."

Zorua has a shocked expression on his face after he hears Dark Riolu's request.

Dark Riolu keeps the blade up close to Mienfoo's neck as he continues, "If you agree now, Mienfoo will survive. But when you do agree, I still have one more task for you to do. But if you don't agree or fail that certain task, well…"

Dark Riolu looks down at Mienfoo's face as he finishes, "You know what will happen."

Mienfoo has tears of fear rolling down her cheeks and tries to shake her head no, but she's too frightened to move.

Zorua's heart rate begins to rise as he looks back and forth at both Mienfoo and Dark Riolu.

He thinks as he looks at them both, 'Mienfoo… I don't want to lose you again, but I don't want to return to Darkrai. But if I decline, Mienfoo will die right in front of me. But if I accept his deal, Mienfoo will live and I'll get to be with her again…'

Zorua shuts his eyes tightly, looking down at the floor, trying to hold back his tears.

When he opens his eyes, he looks directly at Dark Riolu with a weak expression on his face and he answers, "I… accept your offer…"

Dark Riolu moves his scythe away from Mienfoo's neck and he replies, "Good choice, Zorua."

Zorua asks with the same concerned expression on his face, "What is Lord Darkrai's... bidding…?"

Dark Riolu points directly at Riolu and he answers, "Once you and Riolu reach Mirage Island, kill Riolu."

Zorua's eyes widen with shock as he thinks, 'K-kill Riolu!'

He looks down at Riolu with a concerned expression on his face and he thinks, 'But... Riolu just…'

Zorua looks back at Mienfoo and he thinks with a look of panic on his face, 'So if I decline, Mienfoo dies. But if I accept, Riolu dies!'

Dark Riolu says as both he and Mienfoo disappear into the shadows, "I'll give you then to decide. Either you kill Riolu on Mirage Island, or I'll kill Mienfoo."

After they both disappear into the shadows, Dark Riolu's voice continues, "By the way… you'll get your memories back of this situation once you get to Mirage Island. Until then, good luck!"

Zorua's eyes widen with shock when he instantly loses memory of what just took place.

He looks down at Riolu with a concerned look on his face and he thinks, 'I need to find some way to help Riolu. He's still breathing, so all I really need to do is find some Oran Berries on this ship."

While Zorua tries to help Riolu, Dark Riolu and Mienfoo reappear back on the Underworld Island.

Both Dark Riolu and Mienfoo are standing before the torture chamber entrance.

Mienfoo has tears of sadness rolling down her face as she thinks, 'Zorua… I'm so sorry to put you through this…'

As Maractus and Audino carry the depressed Mienfoo into the chamber, Darkrai appears right next to Dark Riolu from the shadows.

But Dark Riolu just stands there, not caring for anything at all.

Darkrai looks directly at Dark Riolu with a curious expression in his eyes and he asks, "So, you went to Zorua already?"

Dark Riolu nods his head and he replies with the same expression on his face, "Yes, my lord. I don't care what you end up doing to me for disobeying orders. Just go for it…"

But Darkrai just asks, "What do you think Zorua will do?"

Dark Riolu replies with his eyes shut, "Zorua's going to follow his heart… I also erased his memory, so he'll get it all back once he reaches Mirage Island…"

Darkrai turns his back on Dark Riolu, starts walking away, and he replies, "Very well…"

After Darkrai disappears into the shadows, Dark Riolu just stands there, staring at the torture chamber deep in thought.