It feels peaceful here: no noise, no danger, no-Wait, where am I?
I opened my eyes to get a look at my surroundings.
Complete darkness. Absolutely nothing in front of me.
I twisted my head around to see if there was anything here. Still nothing but an inky blackness all around.
What is going on? Last thing I remember was getting thrown through a black portal after that black-cloaked guy…
Oh, right. How could I forget?
I clenched my fists at the memory. I let Master Verum get killed. It's my fault he was there in the first place. If I hadn't been so occupied with getting out of the castle, we wouldn't even have been outside. Why didn't I think it through carefully? I was being stupid. My brooding was interrupted by the impact of my feet hitting something solid. I somehow managed to stay on my feet. It was still too dark to see anything. Unsure of what to do, I took a tentative step forward.
A bright light suddenly lit up the area, blinding me for a moment. When my vision cleared, I saw that I was standing on a huge ornate stained-glass circular platform. I wasn't really interested in what it looked like, so I didn't pay much attention to the images on the platform. I walked over to the edge of it and looked down. The sight of an empty void greeted me.
"So much to do, so little time."
The sudden statement startled me, and I whipped my head around looking for the source of the voice.
There was nobody in sight.
"Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut."
Great, a disembodied voice giving confusing advice. My day just got a lot better, didn't it? Not having anything better to do, I decided to wait for the voice to continue.
"Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength."
Upon declaring this, three pedestals rose up from the platform, each with some kind of object on it.
"Choose well."
Okay, that's it. Either I'm asleep or vividly hallucinating. This can't be real, right? Disembodied voices and strange pedestals don't just pop out of nowhere.
Hoping this dream would end soon, I went over to the pedestal that had a sword on it. Upon picking it up, the voice spoke again.
"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?"
I thought about it for a moment. Being a warrior sounds great and all, but that last part about "terrible destruction" doesn't sound like my kind of thing. I gently placed the sword back on the pedestal.
Letting out a sigh, I walked over to the pedestal with a strange-looking shield on it. Upon picking it up, the voice spoke up.
"The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?"
Thinking about it, a memory came to mind.
I've seen these objects before! Well, in a book that I read in the library. I was really bored, and had grabbed a random book off the shelf. Pictures of these objects were on the first page, and the book described them as symbols representing attributes. The sword is offense, the shield is defense, and the rod is magic. Which means that the choice here would be determine what attributes are dominant in a fighting style. I wish I had read the rest of the book though. It might have had something relevant to my current situation.
After a moment of careful consideration, I decided to choose the shield. It seemed like the safe choice to make. Defense is a pretty vital part of not getting killed by enemy attacks. Also, the shield had a funny looking logo on the front that I liked. Holding it above my head, I felt a sudden urge to do something silly.
DUH-NUH-NUH-NUH! SHIELD GET!
No, I didn't actually say this. The voice probably would have been annoyed at that. Instead, I just stated, "I choose the shield." The shield suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, and the voice spoke up.
"Your path is set. Now what will you give up in exchange?"
Looking at the two remaining items, I decided on the sword. It looked cool, but I didn't feel like having "terrible destruction" hanging with me in my time here. I already break enough things on my own. I walked over to the sword, grabbed it, and held it over my head.
"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. You give up this power?"
"Yes," I replied. With that, the sword disappeared in a flash of light. The voice spoke again.
"You've chosen the power of the guardian. You've given up the power of the warrior. Is this the path you choose?"
Not seeing anything wrong with it, I replied with a yes. Immediately after, a low rumbling filled the air. Looking around, I noticed that the pedestals were sinking back into the platform, as well as-
"Wait, what's going on? Why's the ground falling apart! If this is a joke it's not funny!"
I broke off in a mad dash, before remembering that there was nowhere to run to. Before I could say open my mouth to let out some very colorful language, the platform finished breaking apart. And I fell.
I ended up landing on another stained-glass platform. And no, I didn't let out a high-pitched scream as I was falling. Really.
Anyway, this platform was empty. Right on cue, the voice spoke up again.
"You've gained the power to fight. Use this power to protect yourself and others."
While I was wondering what the heck it was talking about (and cursing it for not warning me earlier), something suddenly appeared in one of my hands. After recovering from the shock of witnessing spontaneous object materialization, I picked the object up off the ground and took a look at it. It seemed to be some sort of strangely shaped sword. Gold guard, with a silver shaft and what looked like the teeth of a key at the end. It looked a lot like the swords Master Verum, Nocte, and Crimson were swinging around.
"Is this a keyblade?" I wondered. I gave it a swing to get a feel for it. Pretty light, and appears to be usable in combat.
"There will be times where you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."
Wait, what? I glanced around to see what it was talking about. All I saw was nothing but empty glass platform. Hold on, there seems to be movement over there. As if on cue, something popped out of the ground. Actually, several things. They looked similar to the bear-like things I faced before, except these had yellow eyes instead, and these weird antennae on their head. They don't seem very danger-
"whoosh"
Scratch that. They have claws, which are sharp and hurt. A lot. This dream is quickly turning into a nightmare. Well, time to utilize my awesome hack-and-slash skills.
With a loud cry, I swung the keyblade down at one of the shadows, slicing it in half like it was made of paper. Its remains disintegrated into black dust.
Wow, this weapon's pretty effective against these guys. What's it made of?
The other shadows backed up a little, before all leaping at the same time towards me. I rolled under their pounces to avoid the potential dog-pile and stabbed another of the creatures in the back. Like its late friend, the thing fell apart into black dust. The other creatures seemed to lose interest in me, and went off in the opposite direction.
Feeling exhilarated from my successful retaliation, I went into a victory pose. "Hah! Look who's laughing now!"
Apparently I spoke too soon, because out of nowhere some sort of dark substance spread over the ground under my feet. I suddenly sank up to my knees, and continued to sink.
"Ah! Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't drown me!"
Despite my pleas, I continued to sink. With no other options, I had no choice but to wait for the inevitable. Eventually I sank deep enough for the black stuff to cover my face. Everything went black.
When I came to, I realized that I was on another platform. To my surprise, there was a door over on the far end. I rushed over to it, only to discover that the door somehow was intangible. What's the point of a door you can't even touch? Is someone mocking me?
A noise coming from the other end of the platform caught my attention, and I turned to witness a chest materialize out of nowhere. Thinking there might be something important in it, I walked over to the chest and opened it.
Nothing but air. I guess someone is messing with me. The chest disappeared, and I spotted a crate appearing on the platform. What kind of cruel joke is this? Seeing a way to vent my frustration, I smashed it with the keyblade. An object rolled out of the broken remains, and I picked it up. It was a small jar, with some sort of green stuff inside of it.
I put the jar inside one of my pockets. It might have some use later. I turned around to notice a barrel a few feet away from me. Thinking there might be something in it as well, I unleashed a powerful strike against it.
It went flying off the platform and fell into the darkness. I may have used too much force. Seeing nothing else to smash, I decided to walk over to the door again. Upon closer examination, I saw that it appeared to be solid, as opposed to its state a few minutes ago. Excited at the prospect of finally getting out of here, I pulled on the handles. The door opened without any trouble, though there was some sort of bright light that made it hard to see through the door. I walked through anyway.
When my sight cleared again, I appeared to be in the room of the castle where I first woke up. The voice suddenly spoke up again.
"Hold on. The door won't open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself."
So this isn't actually the castle? Figures. Unsure of what to say, I hesitatingly replied, "Uh, okay?"
"What's most important to you?"
I went to go sit on the chair and think for a moment. All I had really cared about back at the castle was the castle's inhabitants: Master Verum and Nocte. Oh yeah, and Crimson too. Even if she hadn't been the best of teachers, she still made some effort, even if it wasn't much. I still considered her as a friend. Finally, I decided on my answer.
"Friendship."
There was a pause, before the voice spoke up again.
"What do you want out of life?"
The answer to that one was simple enough.
"I want to find out what happened to me before."
There was another pause, before the voice asked another question.
"What are you afraid of?"
Is it planning to scare me to death or something? I still felt compelled to tell the truth, for some reason, so I gave an honest answer.
"Being left alone."
It occurred to me that I was having a conversation with a disembodied voice. This might be cause for concern over my mental health. Before I could continue with that train of though, the voice went off into a short speech.
"You consider your friends most important. You seek the truth of your forgotten past. You're afraid of loneliness. Your adventure begins at dusk. There will be many dark times, but as long as you keep your light burning strong you will make it through."
A flash of light blinded me as soon as the voice finished. What is up with all these flashes of light?
When I could see again, I realized I was standing on another stained-glass platform. It's starting to get annoying, being dragged from one strange place to another. I'll be glad when this is over.
Hearing a noise behind me, I turned around and was greeted with the sight of the creatures from before. They seem to have brought a lot of friends as well. Tightening my grip on the keyblade, I charged at them. Unfortunately, it seems like the little critters learned from the previous encounter, because they jumped out of the way of my first attack, and spread out in a circle to surround me. Looking around, I realized standing at the center probably wasn't a good idea, so I ran at one of them and leapt over it. Turning back, I swung the keyblade at its back, cleaving it in half. I proceeded to smash my way through the rest of them. They weren't really strong or fast; the only advantage they had was that there were many of theme and I was only one person. Upon taking out the last one, a stained-glass pathway appeared leading away from the platform. Not seeing anywhere else to go, I followed it.
The pathway led to another stained-glass platform. I wasn't really surprised at this point, already somewhat familiar with the pattern things seemed to be following. Impatient and wanting the whole thing to be over with already, I shouted out, "What's next? Another door? More questions? More things to fight? Come on, let's get it over with!"
"The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes."
A sudden noise alerted me to the presence of what looked like a huge shadow rising out of the ground. After a few moments of shifting and warping, the thing solidified into a humanoid form. Problem was, it was very large and its face seemed to be made out of black tentacles. Did I mention there was a huge hole in its chest as well? I wanted to run away screaming at the top of my lungs, except that the path I took here had vanished. Which meant that I'm stuck with this big ugly monster. Once again, I tightened my grip on the keyblade and charged at its legs. And was promptly smacked aside by a oversized hand. I probably should have been paying closer attention to its movements. Picking myself up off the ground, I immediately dove off to the side to avoid the huge fist that came down at me. I looked up, and noticed the monster's hand had plunged into the platform, seemingly creating a pool of darkness. Creatures like the ones from before appeared from the pool. So this thing could make minions?
While it was busy spawning numerous little critters, I saw a perfect opportunity to deal some significant damage. Running up its arm, I unleashed a series of slashes at the monster's face. Let's see if that fazes it.
Apparently it wasn't enough, because next thing I know, the monster pulls its hand out of the ground and throws me off to the side. Landing heavily, I looked up to see its minions approaching me. I spent a few minutes dealing with them before turning back to the big guy. It had gotten into some sort of stance and was pointing its chest upwards. The thing unexpectedly started generating some sort of energy inside the hole in its chest. Then it fired that energy at me.
I'd like to say that I dodged the attack like a boss, but the truth was that I was hit. Very badly, in fact. Surprised that I was still alive, I attempted to stand up and get back to fighting the monster. Unfortunately, the pain from my injuries left me too weak to do so. The monster began walking slowly towards me, probably with the intent to crush me under its fist. I suddenly remembered the jar I got earlier. Deciding that it wouldn't really matter in a few moments, I pulled it out, opened it, and drank the contents. Whatever that stuff was seemed to do its job, because I felt the pain disappear. I didn't have the time to do a thorough checkup, because the monster had finished its slow stroll over here. I hastily rolled over to avoid the large hand that attempted to squish me. Jumping back to my feet, I repeated the same strategy from before, running up its arm and proceeding to stab the thing in the eye with the keyblade. Leaping off from its face, I noticed that the monster had stopped moving completely, which seemed to indicate that it could no longer fight. I felt exhilarated enough at my apparent victory to yell at it.
"How do you like that, you big ugly brute!"
Apparently I spoke too soon, because it shook its head before leaning over me. I tried to raise the keyblade in defense, but for some reason it vanished from my hands, leaving me defenseless against the rapidly approaching monster. As I was about to be crushed to death by its descending body, the voice spoke up.
"Don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of all. And don't forget: you are the one who will…"
Whatever it was about to say next went unheard as the creature fell on me. Everything went black again.