The three keybladers are flying in-between worlds when they come to a portal of light.
"Stop," commands Princess Hi. After they put their flying to hover Princess Hi takes out Map Star Shard and looks at it.
"This is it," says Princess Hi, putting Map Star Shard away. "This portal will take us into Inner World."
"I see to world," comments Igneous.
"That's because Inner World is inside a world," exclaims Princess Hi. So they fly through the portal. Inside is all light. The three keybladers stops when they see a woman floating in the light. The woman is very beautiful with her flowing hair.
"Welcome keyblade wielders," greets the woman. "The darkness you chase is here in this world. It has just attacked my chosen hero. I will send you straight to that spot. I will also put my mark on you so that the people of this world will know that you're good and will help them in this hour of darkness. I will also give your leader something just to hold onto that will come in handy to my chosen hero." The woman disappears and in her place a portal of light appears with a kind of manacle in front of it. Princess Hi takes the manacle and puts it around the wrist that doesn't have the bracelet that she got from Universe of Heroes and Villains on. The three keybladers flies through it and the first thing they see is the overhead view of a forest surrounding a clearing that has two black spots, a red and blue spot and a blue spot in it.
"Guys, before anything happens that spirit we just met is this world's multi-worlds secret keeper," explains Princess Hi. "She put her mark on our left wrists."
"Right," replies Leopan and Igneous. As they get closer they see that the spots are Maleficent, a heartless with long claws, a red haired person in armor on the ground and a giant blue spider on the ground weakened. The redheaded person is withering on the ground in an advance state of darkness poisoning, much more advance then Lloyd was in. A ball of light is emanating from the redhead's chest, thus protecting his heart from the darkness.
"Last chance to tell me where the Oracle Keys are," says Maleficent.
"….Never," gasps the redhead.
"Fine, be that way," says Maleficent. She points her staff at the redhead who starts seizing and making choking sounds.
"Hunter!" the giant spider calls to the redhead weakly.
"Leopan, attack Maleficent. Igneous, heal the spider," orders Princess Hi. "I'll get the Heartless."
"Yes Hi," responds Igneous.
"Understood," responds Leopan. The three keybladers charges into their ambush. The results are the heartless is defeated, the giant spider is standing over the redhead ready for battle and Maleficent weakened by a bit, two of the keybladers standing around the spider with keyblades in hand. Princess Hi is kneeling on her hands and knees with her keyblade in one hand and with the other reaching through the giant spider's legs as she turns Hunter to be laying on his side. Hunter promptly heaves bile and blood onto the grass and finishes it off with coughing up more blood. He stops seizing and just lays there on his back gasping for air.
"You better retreat now before we bound you with light webs, courtesy of a combo of this spider's webs and our powers of light," Princess Hi orders Maleficent. "Now!" Maleficent conjures up a dark portal as all three keybladers shouts "light" and the giant spider shoots out yellow webbing. The webbing misses as Maleficent steps through the dark portal.
"There, that got her to leave," exclaims Princess Hi. "Now we can hurry and take care of Hunter." The giant spider doesn't move from his position over Hunter.
"Hold it!" orders the spider. "Just who are you three?" The keybladers dismisses their keyblade armor.
"My name's Himoxie, that's Leopan and Igneous," introduces Princess Hi. "We're keybladers sent by the king of a different world to chase down that being that just retreated. When we entered your world we met up with Oracle who gave us a mark to show you we're on your side." They show the giant spider their left wrists that has a glowing picture of a spider around them, Princess Hi removes the manacle in order to do it. The giant spider moves away from his spot. Upon closer inspection the keybladers sees black veins coming out from underneath the collar of the armor Hunter is wearing, up his neck and all over his face, and that's just what they can see.
"Do you know what's wrong with him?" asks the spider.
"Yes, we do," exclaims Leopan.
"It's an advance state of darkness poisoning," explains Princess Hi. "Which means we have to work fast." The three keybladers does the same thing they did to Lloyd. When they are done the black veins are gone along with the ball of light in his chest and Hunter opens his eyes. Leopan and Igneous helps him stand up while Princess Hi restores the giant spider's energy. The two male keybladers supports wraps each of Hunter's arms around each of their necks in order to help him stand up. They then help Hunter sit on the back of the giant spider. Once he is standing he calls his armor away.
"Thanks for saving me there," says Hunter. "I'm Hunter Steele. This spider's name is Shadow."
"Yeah, we heard Shadow calling out your name," says Leopan. "We also heard that being say something about Oracle Keys. What are they?"
"They are four items that are links to this world's goddess' power," answers Hunter. "I was the last one to use them. I hid them around this world until they are needed again."
"These Oracle Keys are links to her power," repeats Princess Hi. "Therefore they are a source to the strongest power on this world."
"That is most defiantly something Maleficent would be after," exclaims Leopan.
"Excuse me, who's this Maleficent?" asks Shadow.
"The name of the being that attacked you," answers Leopan.
"We've been sent to chase her down," adds Igneous.
"She's collecting samples of the strongest powers of other worlds," finishes Princess Hi.
"If she is collecting strong powers then you'll need all the help you can get," exclaims Hunter.
"Let's go tell the others Hunter," says Shadow.
"Right," agrees Hunter. Shadow turns with Hunter still sitting on his back. The keybladers summons their keyblade riders and pulls up beside Shadow.
"We're coming too," exclaims Leopan.
"After all, we'll need to find someplace to stay while we're dealing with Maleficent," smiles Igneous.
"Then you better keep up," says Shadow. They all take off to only Shadow and Hunter know where.
"You three," indicates Shadow as they are traveling. "What is this darkness poisoning?"
"We don't know ourselves," responds Princess Hi. "We've only seen it once before, in a young man on a world we've visited along our journey."
"Except his poisoning was less serious than yours," continues Igneous. "So we only have theories on what it is."
"The thing that inflicts that kind of damage is called a Heartless," explains Leopan. "It infects the body with darkness. Usually the darkness will then take over the heart, turning the victim into another Heartless, and leaving a husk called a Nobody. But if the person has some kind protection and is on the world they received the protection on, they're OK. What happened with you Hunter is that the one who has control over darkness, in other words Maleficent, kept pushing darkness into your body. With your heart protected the darkness kept filling your body until either light is put in your body to counteract the darkness, or you die."
"Just one last question," exclaims Hunter. "If you have a manacle then why don't you just ride your battle spider?"
"Because I'm not meant to be a spider rider," answers Princess Hi. "I'm just supposed to hold onto it until it's time for you to use it."
"That means," begins Shadow.
"That means that it will be like when we were finishing that war," finishes Hunter. By the time they are done with this chat the group exits the forest and are on a cliff overlooking a kingdom. On the other side of the kingdom from where they are they see a castle carved into a cliff.
Later on they are in the throne room of the castle. A young man that looks a few years younger than Princess Hi sits on the throne. More people stands to either side of the one on the throne. Hunter and Shadow had already told them about what happened earlier. They also introduced the keybladers to each of them.
"So you wield something called a keyblade," says the one introduced to be Captain Igneous.
"Yes we do," responds Princess Hi as she and the other two summons their keyblades.
"Wow, they're so pretty," comments the girl introduced as Princess Sparkle.
"Yes, the keyblades look amazing," awes the one in the throne introduced as Prince Lumen. "But now we have two men named Igneous."
"Well that's a problem that can be easily solved," says Princess Hi. "At the end of a keyblader's training and the passing of the Mark of Mastery Exam they become keyblade masters. We can just call yours Captain Igneous and ours Master Igneous."
"That is a good idea," comments Captain Igneous. "Using our ranks to identify which Igneous they are talking to."
"I agree," comments Prince Lumen. "And that's what we'll do."
"I see, you're here," says a voice from behind. The keybladers and local worlders looks to see a woman in the doorway.
"Hello Lily," greets the blond woman introduced as Corona. "Himoxie, Leopan, Master Igneous, this is Lily, the castle seer."
"Greetings universe travelers," says Lily. "I have seen your arrival and came to see you with my own eyes."
"Yes, it's nice meeting you," says Leopan. "But we must get to the biggest problem now. Maleficent is a very strong being with magic who's after the Oracle Keys. We need to get to them before she does if we have a chance at beating her."
"Corona, Aqune, could you put up a barrier so that even the Heartless in the shadows won't be able to spy on us?" asks Hunter.
"Sorry Lily, please step out for a while we work," Princess Hi tells Lily. After Lily walks out of the room and shuts the door behind herself Corona and the red haired woman, introduced as Aqune, closes their eyes and starts glowing. The glowing spreads around the room. After the glow surrounds the room the two women opens their eyes.
"It's now safe to talk about the location of the Oracle Keys," announces Aqune.
"Great," comments Hunter. "After the war ended I separated the keys. One I gave to the Invectids, one I had Aqune put back into the cave where we got the first one, one I had Corona put into the place in Nuuma where we got the third one and had Oracle hide the last one in a special place."
"Is this 'special place' your body?" asks Leopan. This shocks everyone but the keybladers.
"How did you guess?" asks Hunter.
"We did explain what we think darkness poisoning is," reminds Master Igneous.
"In the case we explained that we've come across another one with darkness poisoning was a young man who received the poisoning on his home world," explains Leopan. "He was protected because he was blessed by a spirit. The only natural protection from the darkness is if you are one of the seven princesses of light. So that means that you were protected by Oracle. To be more precise it was a link to Oracle, an Oracle Key near your heart."
"Your right," replies Hunter. "An Oracle Key is in my body."
"Well, now we have the locations we best figure out how to retrieve those keys," says Leopan.
"What are the Heartless' weakness?" asks Prince Lumen.
"The only kind of weapon that can get rid of Heartless for good is the keyblade," answers Princess Hi.
"Then one of the keybladers will go to each locations and bring back the Oracle Keys," says Prince Lumen. "The other will go as decoys. Hunter will stay here under protection. Can any of you provide some kind of barrier like protection for him before you leave?"
"I can," states Princess Hi.
Half an hour later the keybladers leaves the kingdom. Princess Hi to Nuuma with Corona, Leopan and Prince Lumen to the Invectids and Master Igneous to the cave with Aqune. Hunter is in his room that has its window and door locked with a keyblade and lanterns lit with light from a keyblade shining so that the light covers all of the room.
With Princess Hi and Corona
Princess Hi lands her carriage like keyblade rider. She allows Corona to step out of the carriage part before dismissing he keyblade rider.
"Wow, we're here already," says Corona in awe.
"Yeah," replies Princess Hi. "Keyblade riders are the fastest way to travel. And we couldn't afford to waste any time." They have landed on some land with a huge ditch in it. Above the ditch is a whole kingdom in the air. In the ditch, trying to reach the kingdom above, are a whole sea of heartless.
"First off, these heartless has to be destroyed," continues Princess Hi raising her keyblade. "I can do that easy with Light Tidal Wave." A huge wall of light in the form of a wave of water shoots from Princess Hi's keyblade and towards the sea of heartless. The wave wipes out all of the heartless on the ground. Princess Hi resummons her keyblade rider and both her and Corona flies up to the floating kingdom.
Once inside they ask for the immediate audience with Queen Illuma. Once in front of the queen Princess Hi and Corona explains their reason for coming. Princess Hi shows Queen Illuma Oracle's mark too.
"Yes, Oracle did speak to warn us about this," says Queen Illuma. "That's why you arrived seeing our kingdom in the air. I would help you defeat evil, but I have to think of my people first."
"I understand Your Highness," responds Princess Hi. "Therefore I offer a trade. I can put a barrier around your kingdom that no heartless will be able to enter. Thus your kingdom can be safe without the Oracle Key."
"I accept your offer," agrees Queen Illuma.
Fifteen minutes later Princess Hi and Corona sets out back to where they were. With Oracle Key in hand and a barrier over Nuuma.
With Master Igneous and Aqune
Aqune jumps off Master Igneous' keyblade rider as he comes to a landing. They are in front of an entrance to a tunnel.
"This is it," sighs Aqune.
"OK, lead the way," smiles Master Igneous. He conjures a ball of light at the tip of his keyblade. After that they both enter the tunnel maze.
After a long walk they enter a cavern. In the middle of the cavern is a stone pedestal with a ball of light. In the ball of light is what they came to seek, an Oracle Key. Aqune walks up to the ball of light, reaches through it and takes out the Oracle Key.
"Got it," exclaims Aqune.
"Great, lets hurry back to the castle," says Master Igneous. So they leave the cavern and the tunnel maze and they head back to their starting point.
With Leopan and Prince Lumen
They reach a huge ditch with a town surrounded by a wall with a tower that makes the town look like a scorpion on the bottom. The town has a white dome over it and a swarm of Heartless are trying to get in it. An army of beings that looks like a cross between humans and bugs are in the inside of the wall.
"Light!" calls out Leopan with his keyblade raised. A ball of light shines from the tip of his keyblade. The rays of the light destroys all of the heartless in the ditch. Leopan resummons his keyblade rider and flies Prince Lumen down to the group of the Invectids. The one with silver hair steps forward.
"It's good to see you Prince Lumen," welcomes the silver haired Invectid.
"Good to see you too King Buguese," replies Prince Lumen. "Unfortunately we don't have time for pleasantries. We need to gather the four Oracle Keys together again."
"I couldn't agree more," responds King Buguese. "The Oracle Key is in the tower above us. But Spirit Oracle is protecting our town through it."
"No problem," exclaims Leopan. With one beam of light Leopan makes a dome of light and locks it in place.
"There we go," says Leopan. As Leopan is flying him and Prince Lumen away they stop to get the key, then head back to the castle.
Back at the castle
Master Igneous and Aqune arrives first, then the decoys, then Leopan and Prince Lumen and finally Princess Hi and Corona.
"OK, that should be everyone," says Master Igneous after a headcount.
"Well then, shall we retrieve the Oracle Key in Hunter's body," says Leopan. Everyone voices their agreement and walks towards Hunter's room.
At the door to Hunter's room they stop.
"OK, I'll unlock Hunter's door and Corona and Aqune will go in," explains Princess Hi. "Then I will lock the door behind them. Corona and Aqune will retrieve the Oracle Key from Hunter's body. When they are done they will knock on the door to signal to me so that I can let all three of them out." The two women agrees and Princess Hi lets them in and locks the door behind them.
A moment later there's a knock on the door. When Princess Hi opens it Corona sticks her head out.
"Excuse me, could one of you keybladers come in please?" asks Corona. Princess Hi only took two steps forward when Master Igneous holds her back with one hand on her shoulder.
"I could go," replies Master Igneous then he quickly flashes Princess Hi a look that says 'you stay here'. Princess Hi was about to flash him a look that says 'who's the leader here?' when Leopan flashes her a look that says 'let him do it and I'll explain something to you out of earshot of the others'. Princess Hi lets out a quiet sigh and nods her head in a go ahead way. Master Igneous enters the room and Princess Hi and Leopan walks to the other end of the pretty long hallway.
"Hi, do you remember the time you passed out on the last world we were on?" whispers Leopan.
"Of course I do," replies Princess Hi, also at a whisper. "It took all I had to faint after locking that world up."
"Yes, well," begins Leopan. "After you collapsed me and Igneous were the ones to catch you, the local worlders just gathered around us. Igneous freaked out more then I was. He was shaking you and slapping your face trying to wake you up while I tried to cast a heal spell on you. When it didn't work he lost it, he shook you harder. I immediately took charge of the situation and told the local worlders to bring you to a cabin, I told them that you probably fainted from tiredness. When they were gone I called your dad and, you know the rest."
"Igneous cares a great deal about you," continues Leopan. "He would check up on you in between lessons and make sure you aren't overworking yourself. When you passed out he snapped. Now he wants you to take it easy when you can."
"Thanks Leopan," whispers Princess Hi. They return the rest of the group.
"You know, you guys don't have to communicate with your facial expressions just to decide who to go into the room," exclaims Captain Igneous.
"You know how to read facial expressions?" says Leopan.
"Of course," replies Captain Igneous. "I had to learn it to help keep the troops in line, even when they communicate secretly."
"Well, please don't do that with us," says Princess Hi. "We like to keep some things to ourselves."
"Of course he will," responds Prince Lumen. A bit later the glowing keyhole on the door to Hunter's room disappears again and the door opens. Master Igneous, Corona, Aqune and Hunter walks out of the room.
"Good, now that we are all together we need to talk," begins Captain Igneous. "While I went out with Magma and the others to be decoys and going to towns and villages we each fought a group of heartless. Once they were defeated for the time being they left behind a note at each place. Each of the notes said the same thing, 'bring the four Oracle Keys to the top of the tower that at the end of this map included in the afternoon. If you don't whole armies will attack all places people living in.'" He hands a piece of paper to Prince Lumen.
"Then we'll give them to her in a way she'll not want them," exclaims Hunter. "By beating her with the power of Oracle." The other local worlders shakes their heads with a half-smile on their lips as Hunter cheers.
"Yes we will," agrees Princess Hi. "You can't hurt Maleficent when you've summoned the power of all four Oracle Keys. But she has a tower that will take a long time to get to the top the regular way. That you can take care of. Now, I have a plan on how all of us can take her by surprise." So she tells them her plan.
Hunter and Shadow reaches the top of the tower at the agreed time in full armor. Maleficent is there waiting.
"Well, do you have the source of your world's greatest power?" asks Maleficent.
"Yes, I do," replies Hunter showing all four Oracle Keys. "Oracle's light!" The Oracle Keys glows and Hunter and Shadow's armor transforms (watch the last episode of Spider Riders to see what they look like in that form). They jump over the edge of the tower and while riding Shadow Hunter slices the tower as he spirals down. As the tower collapses it kicks up dust. When Hunter and Shadow lands on the ground there is nothing left of the tower. Maleficent is laying on a pile of stones. Once the dust starts to settle three new figures in cloaks and hoods reveals themselves on the scene. Princess Hi, Leopan and Igneous steps out of the cloud of dust and shoots beams of light at Maleficent. More weakened then before Maleficent retreats into a dark portal. The dark portal closes and Princess Hi locks the world.
Later on after dinner the keybladers and all of their local worlder friends are hanging out in the training room. They are talking about the adventure the keybladers had so far until Lily steps into the room.
"Excuse me Himoxie," says Lily. "Now that Maleficent has been defeated and this world has a lock protecting it from her, it is now safe to tell your new friends the facts about you that you're holding back."
"What do you mean Lily?" asks Corona.
"She means that it's safe for me to tell you stuff I've been keeping from you," says Princess Hi. "Fact is, I'm not just a keyblader. Himoxie is a name I use to hide my true identity. My real name is Princess Hi of the world The Radiant Garden." The local worlders gasps.
"I'm just curious on how you knew about my secret," Princess Hi says to Lily.
"When I saw your arrival in this world in my crystal ball it also said that one of the keybladers is a princess in disguise," explains Lily. "You are the only female in the group."
"Yay, another princess here would be so fun," cheer Princess Sparkle.
"You're right, it would be fun," agrees Princess Hi. "But our journey is not over yet. Maleficent still needs to be stopped. Soon we have to leave to continue doing just that."
"Oh," sighs Princess Sparkle as her face saddens. Princess Hi smiles, kneels down to her level and puts a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, come on, don't be sad," chuckles Princess Hi. "My father once said that as you meet new friends their hearts will become a part of yours. And it's the same vice versa. All you have to do is think about them and not forget them and your hearts will be one. When Maleficent is defeated for good I will tell my father about this world and he and your brother can strike up an alliance together."
"I will be very eager to do just that," says Prince Lumen. With that said Princess Sparkle's face lights up. Suddenly Princess Hi's communicator star shard rings from within her star pocket.
"Excuse me I have to answer this," exclaims Princess Hi as she walks out of the room. She answers the call in the next room. King Sora's holo-image appears above the star shard.
"Great news Hi," says King Sora. "The trap is set. We just can't get to her to lure her into it. She's made the area she's in invisible along with her."
"Then we have to bring Maleficent to us," exclaims Princess Hi.
"Looks like we have no other choice," sighs King Sora. "Any ideas on how to bring her out of her hiding place?"
"Yes," replies Princess Hi. "I just have one question first. Have there ever been another world that Maleficent been to, but no trouble happens?"
"Yes, just one," responds King Sora. "Wonderland."
"OK," says Princess Hi slowly, remembering her only visit to that world. "Then sent a message saying that we know that the dark being Maleficent has been visiting. And say that we'd like to give The Queen of Hearts a weapon that will defeat Maleficent for good. And that Princess Hi of the world The Radiant Garden is going to personally deliver it. Then prepare a bright light in a chest. I'll head there to do my part in a bit. I have some new friends so say goodbye to." Princess Hi walks back into the room with the others.
"Leopan, Master Igneous, everything is set to defeat Maleficent," exclaims Princess Hi. "So we have to leave." Then she turns to the local worlders.
"Looks like all this is coming to an end sooner then we think," exclaims Princess Hi.
"Then we better say our goodbyes now," replies Prince Lumen. "Good luck on defeating Maleficent once and for all."
"Yeah," agrees Hunter. "We'll be cheering you on all the way." The other local worlders words out their agreement too. Suddenly the marks on the keybladers' wrists turns into balls of light and comes off of their wrist, combines in the air in front of Princess Hi and transforms into a new keyblade.
"Princess Hi, the Spirit Oracle is thanking you for what you did for this world," says Aqune. "As a token of friendship she's giving you this keyblade, Oracle Keys." Princess Hi takes the keyblade and it vanishes. Princess Hi flashes in and out from Goddess Form once. But it's enough to see that the brooch she got at Olympus Coliseum changed into on with a gem that matches the ones in the spider riders manacles with a gold setting. The local worlders jumps back out of surprise.
"What was that?" asks the one called Magma.
"Long story," responds Princess Hi. "But for now we have to go." They say their goodbyes and the keybladers takes off back towards The Radiant Garden.