Castle Oblivion Side

Second Act:

The next door is open! Today's episode introduces:

*Irocu Shans - Another character from our forum's very own, theblackbloodwriter.

*Valla - A character created by our most recent forum member, Katana001

*Shadow - Another character presented by our forum's third member, Blaze the Flareon.

*Artemecia Lawliet - Another character thought up by Yours Truly.

Enjoy!

Mistress would not meet this news with much enthusiasm, that was certain. A lone, pale, shivering man makes his way through an endless sea of winter emptiness, eyes half shut and gently frosted over. The snow rises up to his knees and his breath, now escaping in a thin mist from his frostbitten nose, was beginning to slow until breathing became almost voluntary. He squints anxiously ahead of him and catches a glimpse of the familiar, a black bird, resting on the arm of a figure whose features are too obscured by the swirling snow to be seen clearly from far away. Fueled by nothing more than strong cowardice, he wills his way through the snow toward the figure and the crow.

"I-I've exhausted every possible trail...", he begins, once he nears the figure. "...But it all points to one inevitability, and I'm sure you won't like it..." The figure, a woman with coal black hair and harsh, piercing sapphire eyes meets his fearful expression with an apathetic sigh. "Well then, let's hear it.", she says to her subordinate. "And pray I don't find you boring..." The man sheepishly flips through a small notepad and kneels to give his report. "A-according to what I've seen...", he stammers, the frost in the air paling in comparison to the unforgiving chill in this woman's expression. "There's no trace of Balamb, or any other place on any other map in the -there's only one structure to be seen amidst the snow, and it's C-Castle oblivion..." The woman raises an eyebrow in interest and shifts her attention to the crow resting faithfully on her right arm, a tiny, silver bell tied around its neck. "Castle Oblivion, you say...?", she asks, never once breaking her focus on her pet. "Then the world is different than what we knew it as... If the world is still in existence at all, that is..."

The skittish man stands and bows deeply. "Then, you anticipated this...?", he asks, feeling collected enough to continue scribbling in his notepad. The woman simply nods and laughs against the harsh frozen wind. "Anticipated the void opening up and dragging us all to Hell? It's been a vivid dream of mine for quite some time now...", she replied. "First, God breaks us all. Then, he watches us rebuild in this awful place and prepare to break each other... The 'grand design'; that's what the archfiends called it." The snow continues to fall as she takes a step toward her subordinate and widens her smile, bearing a set of remarkable fangs. "Unfortunately...", she says, biting her lip in anticipation. "You've officially outlived your usefulness..."

The subordinate opens his eyes wide at her last statement. "Outlived my usefulness?", he exclaims, taking a step backward. "But you said you'd spare me if I gathered information for you!" The woman shakes her head in disagreement. "I told you that I wouldn't lay a finger on you. Those were my exact words...", she says, her free arm drawing back to unholster a strangely-crafted orichalcum handgun from beneath the waist of her crimson trench coat. She trains her weapon on his heart and steadies her hand. "And this way, I'm honoring my word, am I not...?" The iron bat's head built onto the barrel of the gun spits out a black round that explodes in a cloud of darkness, which subsides as the woman's target drops to the ground, clutching meaninglessly at the empty gap where he could no longer feel the beating of his heart. The fusileer holsters her weapon and grins. "Five down, one more to go..."

"That's quite a weapon you've got there...", comes an echoing voice through the freezing wind. The woman turns about in place, unable to trace the sound. Suddenly, the wind around her intensifies as a tree beside her falls and shakes the ground with incredible force. She examines the fallen half of the tree and discovers a set of incredibly deep claw marks. A final turn, and she finds herself face to face with a grinning man with long claws and a maddened, piercing stare. "You said something about having one more to go...", the clawed figure begins. "What exactly were you talking about...?" The woman flashes a grin of her own and draws her handgun once again. "I was referring to my quota...", she says. "I've killed five sinners today, and I only need to kill one more before I can rest easy. I believe you'll do nicely..." She lunges for him and fires. The stranger simply extends the claw of his index finger and dashes by, stopping immediately behind her. The woman looks back as a cut begins to open up on her left cheek. The stranger turns back and folds his arms in satisfaction. "Irocu is the name...", he says, licking the blood from his index finger. "And, not that it matters now, but who might you be...?" Irocu suddenly grimaces as a bullet-wound suddenly burns in his left shoulder. The woman looks back halfway and folds her arms as well. "Artemecia...", she replies. "A pleasure to meet you."

Artemecia quickly fires a shot into the ground, releasing an acrid cloud of dark smoke. Using the smoke as camouflage, she fires in Irocu's direction. Instead of hearing the oh-so-satisfying sound of a bullet hitting its mark, she only hears her shots shatter air as they exit the cloud and fly astray of their target. The wind intensifies around her, and she draws another handgun (gold, with a dented up silver cross hanging from the barrel) to parry away a claw attack from behind. Another claw attack comes in from above, and she uses the orichalcum gun to block, immediately following it up with a shot from the golden firearm, resulting in a burst of electricity that sends them both flying out of the smoke cloud and into the open snow.

Irocu moves first this time, leaping high into the air with a short laugh of amusement and bringing his claws together for a cross-attack. Artemecia puts her weapons together in a defensive stance and guards, but is thrown back by the sheer force of Irocu's landing. While she is disoriented, he attacks again, making several swipes while moving at angles. Artemecia, with no time to regain her balance, simply fires a dark shot over her shoulder and rolls backward into the cloud of smoke in order to cover her fall. She then bursts out of the cloud, furiously unloading with both handguns. Lightning and smoke fill the air as they charge each other. Suddenly, a massive flash of steel is driven into the ground, shaking the earth and forcing both of them to guard until the tremor is over. When the frost and smoke begin to clear, they regroup and look up to see a figure standing atop a massive, steel-clad, axe-wielding Heartless. The Heartless pulls its steel weapon from the ground as the figure leaps to the ground below. He bears a keyblade, black at the blade, pommel and edge with red thorns interwinding in a circle around the hilt. The Heartless insignia hangs from a chain at the pommel. "That's quite enough...", says the figure.

Irocu growls at the newcomer, baring his sharpened teeth at him, his claws at full length. "Nobody interrupts my fun!", he shouts. "Who the Hell do you think you are? Coming between me and my prey like that?" The figure folds his arms and scoffs. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to step in...", he says, the Heartless behind him standing at ease. "But if you two go and kill each other, what use are you to me...?" Artemecia turns her full attention to him, and scowls. "Use?", she repeats angrily. "What makes you think you can just use us like that?" The figure holds his keyblade at the ready and motions for the two of them to attack. Artemecia and Irocu glance at each other briefly, then charge in unison. The newcomer blocks a swipe from Irocu and sends a torrent of shadow into Artemecia, sending her sliding backward in defense, then brings his keyblade around to Irocu, who ducks beneath it. The two clash for quite some time, giving Artemecia ample opportunity to take aim and let off a fusillade from both handguns. The stranger sees this while defending, and raises a wall of shadow, separating him from the blast. When the wall vanishes, the keyblade-wielder is nowhere to be found. Irocu and Artemecia regroup and stand back to back. Suddenly, the area becomes shrouded in darkness. The two look up to see the axe-toting Heartless, now airborne, bringing his weapon down hard over their heads, the stranger standing poised on its shoulder. Just before the axe makes contact with the ground, an explosion of light shatters the Heartless and scatters the three for yards across the snow.

"What...?", exclaims the stranger as he stands and clutches his weapon tightly. "He's here earlier than I anticipated..." The three of them look up to see an entity, human in shape, but surrounded by a searing light. He is dressed in all white with long silver hair and bright golden eyes. Upon his descent, he looks from Irocu, to Artemecia, to the keyblade-wielder. "Look at you all...", he says, approaching them at a quick pace. "Irocu...no amount of blood you spill will ever be justified by insanity..." He turns again to Artemecia. "Artemecia...", he says with a stern face. "You kill those who sin, but have no awareness of you own sins at all..." Finally, he turns to the keyblade-wielder. "And you, Shadow..." He stops and glares, his bright eyes narrowed in contempt. "What have you done...?"

"Valla, your sense of timing is worse than I could've hoped for...", Shadow says, turning his back on him to gaze at Castle Oblivion in the distance. "And I'm afraid you're far beyond your boundaries inside the void... You've no jurisdiction here..." Valla frowns at him and clenches a fist. "True, my powers may not be what they should in this Godforsaken place...", he begins. "But don't doubt for a second that I could still put all of you in your place..." Shadow lets out a sinister laugh and turns to face Valla. "Is that so...?", he asks. "Then show me... Show all of us." Artemecia and Irocu both stand, deciding this new enemy would take their combined effort to to take down. "You seem to know us well enough...", Irocu says, his hands twitching uncontrollably; his claws grinding together igniting small sparks in the cold air. "It's too bad you'll have to be taking all that information of yours to the grave ahead of your time..." Valla holds a hand out to his side, and a gold and silver bo-staff appears. He holds the staff lightly and stands ready in the middle of his three adversaries.

Artemecia attacks first, sliding through the snow and firing repeatedly. Irocu leaps into the fray and adds his own mad rush to the effort. Shadow remains still, watching them intently. Valla shifts his weight to one side, dodging a swipe from Irocu and forcing him away with a two-handed swing, then raises a streak of light to dissolve the dark cloud produced by Artemecia's onslaught. Artemecia prepares to fire another shot, but is suddenly blinded by an explosion of light, and sent tumbling along the ground by a horizontal swipe. Shadow finally makes his move, raising a behemoth from a large shadow on the ground and leaping atop its back. The behemoth enters a furious charge at Valla, who hurls his staff at Shadow and begins to grapple with the massive Heartless. The staff gains a life of its own, and begins to spin and maneuver around Shadow, clashing with his keyblade. Shadow leaps from the Behemoth as Valla begins to gain the upper hand. He claps his hands together and the Heartless explodes outward, sending snow and scalding hot air spiraling around the area. When the explosion subsides, Valla is nowhere in sight. Only his staff remains, impaled into the snow...

Irocu scoffs at the spectacle. "It's a shame, actually...", he says, kicking at the snow. "I wanted to deliver the killing blow..." Shadow tightens his grip on his keyblade. "Well, Irocu, here's your chance...", he mutters. Before Irocu could ask him what he meant, The staff, glows with a brilliant light, and sends a shockwave along the ground, melting the snow in the immediate area. The trio leaps over the shockwave as Valla drops from the sky and pulls his staff from the ground. Artemecia gets an idea and makes brief eye contact with Irocu, who charges forward with his claws, dipping them into the puddle of melted snow. Artemecia fires a round from the golden firearm, electrifying the trail of water. Irocu arrives directly in front of Valla and prepares his claws for a powerful slash. The electricity reaches his claws just before he unloads, turning the vicious attack into an overcharged electrical blow, the lightning syncing up with the slash to send Valla flipping backward, clutching his chest. Shadow takes the opportunity to charge. He raises his keyblade high and strikes, but Valla, still lying on his back, kicks the blade away and springs to his feet. While Shadow is off balance, he creates a small blade of light and impales him with it in the heart. Shadow simply laughs as he drops to his knees. Valla, breathing heavily, leans on his staff for support. "What's so funny...?", he asks. Shadow says nothing. He simply waves a hand and watches as Irocu and Artemecia vanish into their own shadows in the snow. Finally, Shadow fades away into thin air, and all is quiet.

Valla pounds the ground with his fist. "Damn that Shadow...!", he yells. "He wouldn't even come here and fight me in person!" He stands straight and looks over to Castle Oblivion out on the horizon. Shadow had been there all along, controlling a puppet of himself he created... To make matters worse, that puppet managed to get away with Irocu and Artemecia before it faded to nothing. But he couldn't go after them now... Even for him, entering Castle Oblivion alone was suicide. He'd need to make a point to visit Traverse Town and begin seeking help...

Xehanort...

Shadow...

Just what was Kingdom Hearts facing here...?

-To be continue