Wow! It's the chapter that is two years into the making! I must say that it is quite difficult to start righting something, and then stop, only to pick it back up again. To put this in perspective, I finished the first installment in a summer, and this one is now going on 5 years! I will promise everyone that I will not take as long with the next chapter. As always if you recognize any of the characters, they are owned by either Disney or Square-Enix. All others are mine! Please read and review!
Chapter 14: A Hero's Call
The two warriors stared down their dark adversary with revenge for their fallen comrade clearly on their minds. Sora and Roxas, who was now whole again, hovered slightly off the ground, as the wind whipped up rapidly. On the opposite end Ankoku was seething. His illusions were gone, his entire façade, was vaporized by some unseen force. Now the path to the world of light lay out in the open, offering a way for his playthings of the last few months to escape back to their own realm. Still, the aspect that upset him the most was that he had been compromised. He vowed to himself to not be embarrassed by Sora again. Roxas glanced over at his partner.
"Let's finish this and get back home." Roxas said, with an authoritative tone.
"Agreed." Sora said, not for a second taking his eyes off the enraged Ankoku.
Sora wanted to end this as quickly as possible. He wasn't sure how badly Yamato was hurt, nor did he want to risk him getting further injured by not getting him help in time. He noticed that he was seemingly stronger than the first time he and Ankoku clashed in the Forbidden World; however, he was still in Ankoku's backyard where Ankoku's power was clearly amplified. The wild card was that Roxas was now whole, and thus a valuable weapon to be used in the coming battle. It also was apparent to Sora that Roxas's power had increased as well. Sora had only faced off with Roxas once before, but Roxas shared much of Sora's skill, making him a very dangerous fighter. Sora turned his attention back to Ankoku, who wasted little time in creating more of the clone duplicates of Sora to help even the playing field. Ankoku snarled at the two combatants as his eyes flashed as they normally did when he was angered.
"DIE!" Ankoku screamed out, breaking the silence.
At his command, the newly created clones rushed forth to attack. Sora and Roxas adopted their fighting stances as the clones charged at them. Sora was quickly analyzing the situation, trying to find the best solution to take out the vast clone army that was fast approaching them. As the calculations went through his head, he was snapped to attention by a voice from beside him.
"Sora! Hold your hand out!" Roxas yelled over to him.
Sora was unsure of what his friend had planned, but nevertheless obliged him. As the two warriors stretched their hands out, a white hot ball of energy formed in their hands. They stared down the waves of clones that were barreling down on them. The energy masses grew larger and larger to the point that Sora wondered if he could hold it much longer.
"Wait for it..." Roxas said, seemingly sensing Sora's willingness to dispel the ball.
Sora held on a bit more, but the ball kept getting larger, and with every passing second the clones got closer and the ball got more difficult to control.
"Roxas..." Sora said, the concern in his voice rising.
"Not yet!" Roxas said with a little more base in his voice.
By this point, the clones were practically on top of them. Roxas had made no movement towards telling Sora what to do. One of the clones had actually gotten close enough to reach out and take a swipe at Sora. With his other hand, Sora managed to slash at the clone with his Keyblade, decapitating it with one strike. Sora had waited enough, and was about to let his friend know it.
"ROXAS!" Sora yelled at Roxas.
Roxas opened his eyes.
"NOW!" He screamed and fired the blast at half of the army.
Sora followed suit, and then watched in amazement as the ball cut through the army like a hot knife through butter. The clones all but disintegrated upon the energy touching them. When the balls made their way through the army and towards Ankoku, he had to quickly create a shield to deflect it, and even with that shield he still took some damage. Everyone was in shock. Sora looked over at Roxas in amazement.
"How did you know that would work?" Sora asked, dumbfounded.
Roxas smiled at him.
"I didn't! But it was cool right?" Roxas said with a grin.
Sora looked at him like he was an idiot.
"One of these days I'm going to hit you...hard." Sora stated.
Roxas merely laughed at the suggestion. One person who wasn't enjoying the banter between the two friends was their opponent, Ankoku. He seethed at the jovial manner that they were talking, as if he was a joke. A loud roar emerged from his mouth, snapping the two from their discussion.
"You dare disrespect me!" Ankoku screamed.
He started rapidly firing off small blasts of energy that forced Roxas and Sora to dodge them and go on the defensive. They dodged the blasts with relative ease thanks to their enhanced speed. However, they weren't accomplishing much by constantly running around, so Sora devised a plan.
"Roxas! Follow my lead!" Sora called out.
Roxas nodded, and swung out to his left, avoiding a blast. Sora meanwhile stopped moving and planted his feet squarely facing Ankoku, his Keyblade at the ready. Ankoku fired off a couple rounds of dark energy at Sora, but was stunned when Sora hit them right back at them with his Keyblade. Ankoku threw up his shield once again to block the rebound attack. He was able to do this, but it left him open for Roxas to sneak up behind him. A leg sweep put Ankoku down on the ground staring up at the sky. Ankoku was dazed, but could just make out the image of Sora coming down at him with his blade thrust down. Ankoku quickly threw up his shield once again, and was just in the nick of time. Ankoku looked up in horror as he realized that Sora's charged up Keyblade had pierced through his armor, and was centimeters from his face. Before Ankoku had time to process his next move, Sora was gone, and Roxas was over him, with a white ball of energy about to be unleashed. Ankoku roared as Roxas let the ball fly. There was a flash, a bang, and then a huge cloud of smoke. The two warriors retreated to a safe distance to see what damage their tandem moves had caused. As the smoke cleared, they saw that Ankoku was standing, but breathing heavily. A cut had opened up above his right eye and was bleeding down into his eye. His clothing was ripped, and cuts were all over his left arm, but the biggest injury, was the fact that Ankoku was missing his right arm. He stared at the two Keyblade wielders, and for the first time, he seemed unsure of how to attack them. He had tried a direct assault, and that failed; and he was slowly realizing that he couldn't match power with them.
"The way things are right now, they have me out gunned and out numbered." He thought to himself, as he wiped some of the blood out of his eye.
He peered past Sora and Roxas, and noticed the portal to the world of light shining brightly. He could sense that the reason his opponents' power was amplified was from the portal, but the exact reason he didn't know. What he did know is that Sora and Roxas would eventually try and make a run for the portal and he could not let that happen.
"Time to switch things up." He murmured to himself. "If I can somehow get to that portal, I could close it up from the outside, trapping them here and having the worlds to myself." He concluded.
He closed his eyes and channeled his energy and focused it over on the right side of his body. A dark ooze leaked out of the hole where his arm used to be. He focused even harder and the soft ooze formed into a synthetic arm. Ankoku focused back on the task at hand. He quickly got to work, launching numerous blasts of powerful dark energy attacks at the Keyblade warriors. Roxas and Sora dodged them fairly easily, but the constant barrage of attacks prevented them from launching any kind of counter-attack. The bombardment continued, keeping Sora and Roxas at bay, all the while Ankoku was inching closer to the shoreline, and the portal. Sora and Roxas continued to dodge the attacks, looking for any sign of an opening that they could exploit, but the rapid fire of Ankoku's attacks stopped that idea dead in its tracks. Sora dodged, and twisted his body around, looking for some kind of opening and found it. A blast of dark energy was coming right at him, and took a swing at it. The blast ricocheted off of his Keyblade and flew back at Ankoku, who was completely unprepared for it. The blast nailed Ankoku right in the left shoulder. He cried out in pain, clutching his wounded area. Once again, he realized that he was going to have to switch up his plan again. He summoned as much dark energy that he could into his good arm and fired off a big blast at the two of them. The duo had barely a second to get out of the way, but they were able to by the skin of their teeth. When they looked up, they were stunned to find Ankoku gone. They turned their attention over to the portal where they saw Ankoku racing towards it.
"Roxas! He's going for the portal!" Sora screamed.
"I'm on it!" Roxas said, as he sped off towards the fleeing Ankoku.
Roxas realized that despite his enhanced speed he wouldn't be able to catch Ankoku, who had a massive lead. He slowed up and hovered over the water. He whipped his Keyblade out and took aim, before flinging his blade with all his might. The Keybade whizzed through the air, spinning at an astounding speed towards Ankoku. Ankoku was so focused on getting to the portal that he failed to see the weapon until it was far too late. The blade caught him on his already injured left shoulder, and rebounded off him. The agony gripped at Ankoku's shoulder as he stopped and felt the gaping wound, which was now gushing blackish-purple fluid. He turned around, and as he did two piercing gashes cut across his chest. His eyes bulged out of his sockets, and his mouth stood agape, but no sound came out. What he didn't know is that as Roxas threw the blade, he flew right behind and as the weapon deflected off of Ankoku he caught it and unleashed two diagonal slashes across the chest. As Ankoku looked down to the gushing geyser that was on his chest, Sora came speeding up and caught him with an energy blast directly into Ankoku's face. Ankoku screamed in agony, as the energy seemed to burn his flesh. Sora and Roxas stood back, still in the fighting stance, not letting their guard down for a second. Ankoku was a mess, and was fading fast. The water below him, which was grey and murky, started to turn black from the ooze; and Ankoku slowly started to sink into the water, struggling to maintain his breath. His shocked eyes never left Sora and Roxas even as his head sank under the waves, and disappeared from their line of sight into the black abyss. The two warriors looked at each other and slowly lowered their weapons. They immediately raced back to the fallen Yamato, to see if he was still alive. The two crouched down next to him, and Sora took Yamato's hand to check for a pulse. He looked up at Roxas with a concerned look.
"Is...is...he...dead?" Roxas reluctantly asked.
Sora shook his head.
"He's alive, but barely." Sora said as he got up to his feet.
Sora looked down at Yamato and held his hand out. He closed his eyes and a white aura passed from Sora and encompassed Yamato's unmoving body. Sora opened his eyes once the Curaga spell was complete, and waited for any sign that it had an effect. The seconds turned to minutes, but there was no change in Yamato. He was alive, but he needed greater medical attention then what Sora could provide.
"Roxas, let's get him up and through the portal." Sora said to his partner. "We need to get him to a doctor."
Roxas nodded in agreement. The two warriors gently picked up Yamato and each draped an arm around their shoulders. They started to make their way out towards the portal home, when all of a sudden there was a massive geyser out in the middle of the water. Sora immediately motioned to Roxas to set Yamato down and prepare for battle. The waters continued to bubble as a massive sea monster rose from the depths. The monster was human in appearance, but with definite aquatic features. It had a long set of spikes down the back it's midnight black body, and its head was similar to that of a shark. Sharp, yellowing teeth could be seen when the monster let out a roar. It had two long arms, with five long slender fingers on each hand. The nails on the hand were like their own individual scythe. The biggest feature that allowed Roxas and Sora to identify the creature was the scar on it's face, as well as the human side of it resembling Ankoku. Ankoku looked down at his new body, and then spotted his adversaries on the bank of the water. His dagger teeth curled up into a malicious grin and he let out a loud roar. Sora and Roxas were still ready with their blades, but the roar made them a little uneasy. They had little time to ponder anything however, because Ankoku was immediately on the attack. Ankoku held his massive arms out, and held his hands, allowing them to hover barely over the water. The duo watched as huge cyclones of water formed and started moving towards the shoreline. Sora looked over at Roxas with urgency.
"Get Yamato out of harm's way!" He ordered.
Roxas nodded, and grabbed the limp Yamato and flew off. Sora meanwhile pressed forward, dodging the countless cyclones that were slamming into the shore. Sora weaved around, inching closer and closer to the monstrous visage that was now Ankoku. He finally approached his left arm, and prepared to give him a hard strike, however his blade couldn't seem to make contact. He tried again and again, but the same result happened. He slowly realized that Ankoku had a shield and it was much stronger than the one that he had applied in their earlier battle.
"Not good!" Sora said to himself as he glanced up at Ankoku.
Sora quickly dodged, and just missed Ankoku's blade like fingernails slicing him in two. However, the nails did catch his calf, causing a cut that quickly began to bleed. He winced in pain, and grabbed at the wound and cast a quick Curaga spell to heal it. This momentary distraction, however, left Sora open to an vicious back hand from Ankoku's other hand. The force of the blow sent Sora sprawling back to the shore, and crash-landing on the beach.
"Ow." was the only word that Sora could muster as he hovered back to a standing position.
He glance out over the water, and saw Ankoku moving closer, his eyes flashing wildly. Ankoku was just off shore, deep enough that he didn't have to leave the water, but close enough that he could still reach the shore with his arms. He then proceeded to slam his arms down into the shore, creating a shock wave that sent Sora back a bit, but didn't cause him to lose his balance.. Sora looked up and saw that Ankoku still had his hands embedded in the sand. There was a blackish-purple glow that surrounded his hands, and Sora gasped as he started to see at least a few hundred Sora clones emerge from the ground. Sora readied his blade to greet the oncoming enemies, when he noticed Roxas slide up alongside him.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Roxas said, noticing the wounds on Sora, from his sprawl on the beach, and the massive clone army heading their way.
"He's stronger then before, and there seems to be some sort of field around him that my blade can't penetrate." Sora responded, still gazing at the army that continued to grow.
"Did you get Yamato to safety?" Sora asked.
Roxas nodded.
"Yes he's over there in the woods." Roxas said, tilting his head off in the direction of the trees.
Sora glanced over and saw where he was looking at, and saw the large trees in the distance. An idea crept into his head.
"I have a plan, but we need to thin out some of these clones." Sora started. "Take the left side, and I will work the right. We will meet up at his face." Sora said, as he took off.
Roxas nodded, as if he knew what Sora was planning, and took off in the opposite direction. The two warriors, interweaved between attacking the clones and evading the blasts of dark energy that Ankoku now was launching at them. Fortunately for Sora and Roxas, while Ankoku's enhanced form allowed him to create more clones, they were still the same strength as the ones before, making it a little bit easier for them to manage. They worked their way closer and closer to Ankoku, who increased the amount of blasts to try and knock them out of the sky. The two continued upwards, making their way almost up to Ankoku's head. Ankoku roared and tried to smash the two warriors with his hands, but they were too quick for the attack. The two drew their blades, causing Ankoku to laugh sinisterly, knowing that his shield would protect him. However, rather than using their blades to attack him the two met right in front of his face, and smashed their blades together. The contact of the blades caused a blinding flash, causing Ankoku to cry out in pain. He roared and rubbed his eyes furiously. Sora looked over at Roxas.
"Come on!" Sora shouted as he sped off back towards the tree line.
Roxas didn't know what Sora had planned this time, but he quickly followed in pursuit while Ankoku was briefly stunned. The duo landed next to a rather large tree, which Sora seemed to be measuring up carefully. Roxas looked on puzzled.
"Sora! What are you doing?" He finally asked.
"Roxas, I need you to fly up above this tree, and ready your Keyblade!" Sora commanded.
Roxas shrugged. He flew up to where Sora had instructed him to, and readied his blade. Sora took his Keyblade and with one astounding stroke sliced the tree, separating it from it's base. He then in a split matter of seconds, swung his blade in a upward motion, and in a feat of strength pushed the tree up into the air. Roxas was stunned as the tree suddenly appeared at his eye level. Sora looked up and noticed that Roxas wasn't doing anything.
"ROXAS! HIT IT TOWARDS HIM!" Sora barked out, snapping Roxas of his momentary shock.
Roxas leaned back and unleashed a full swing with the broadside of his Keyblade, so as to not cut the tree. The tree rocketed off his blade towards the blinded behemoth. The tree managed to strike Ankoku right between the eyes, his shield flickering from the attack, and Ankoku seemed to recoil from the shot. Roxas and Sora grinned at each other and continued to fire trees at Ankoku. Three more trees were sent and hit Ankoku before finally the shield that protected him fizzled out. Sora and Roxas took that as their cue to strike. They flew at Ankoku with their blades drawn, and unleashed a series of attacks on Ankoku's chest, which despite his size, they theorized was still wounded from their assault on it earlier. The monster screamed in agony as they cut into his body with their blades. Finally Ankoku's sight came back and he swatted away at the two of them, like one would with a pair of mosquitoes. Ankoku flailed away but he couldn't seem to take down either Roxas or Sora. The pair continued to assault Ankoku with a well timed hit and run strategy, landing strikes all over his body. Ankoku screamed in anguish and continued to thrash away, desperately trying to stop the onslaught. He focused in and was finally able to get a strong smash in on Roxas, which sent Roxas flying backwards. However, Roxas was able to astoundingly recover in mid air, and launch himself back at Ankoku, taking a large cut out of Ankoku's previously injured shoulder. The pain gripped Ankoku, and he rocked with anguish. A follow up series of strikes from the duo, caused further pain, and slowly Ankoku realized that despite his early advantage, he couldn't last even in his ultimate form. Despite the fact that he was in his own dimension, where his power was at its peak; he was no match against the jacked up Sora and Roxas. He had to think of a plan and he had to think of it fast. Sora and Roxas had backed off slightly, giving a moment's breath to Ankoku.
"I'm not going to beat them in hand to hand combat." Ankoku said to himself. "So it's time for something different." He concluded.
Sora and Roxas, seemingly had devised their own method of attack, and set to work on executing it. They weaved in and out of each other, picking up speed; seemingly going for one great last final assault to finish off their nemesis once and for all. They drew their blades, as Ankoku held out his massive hands. Ankoku closed his eyes and a dark glow formed. Roxas and Sora got closer and closer, and right before they were ready to strike, Ankoku suddenly opened his eyes and a black smoke covered him, blocking him from view. Sora and Roxas searched, but were unable to find Ankoku. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. Suddenly, they felt two things attach to their bodies and neither one of them could move their arms or legs. They struggled but to no avail.
"R...ROXAS..I CAN'T MOVE!" Sora shouted out.
"ME NEITHER" Roxas called back.
A loud crack was heard, and the two warriors went flying before they crash-landed into the beach on their backs, still unable to move their appendages. As the smoke cleared, they could see two blobs of blackish purple ooze, that were preventing them from using their limbs. As they struggled to break free, they were brought back to attention by a maniacal laugh, as Ankoku, no longer in his gigantic form, slowly appeared into view. His face was weathered, his clothes tattered, and his body showed wounds from the previous battles. His chest was a mess, as he was using a similar looking blob that was attached to Sora and Roxas to stop more ooze from leaving his body. His shoulder was mangled, and it seemed to be unusable. Still a sinister smile was on his face, because he finally had the two right where he wanted them.
"What's the matter? Can't move?" Ankoku sneered. "Pity" He said he touched down close to where the two were still stuck.
"You know, I must admit some surprise." He began. "I didn't expect the fight that you put up, and in this form you two might even be a match for me in this realm." He stated, causally walking around his downed opponents.
"But...that ends now." Ankoku said, his once wild eyes now shifted into an empty black.
"You see...I know where you are getting this power, and it's the connection that you have to that wretched princess." Ankoku explained as he motioned over to the door to light.
"I was shocked when this door showed up." He began. "I couldn't quite figure out why it appeared." He continued.
"When your foolish actions brought me here I searched all over for some type of portal back to the realm of light. Even when I was toying with you I was still searching." He explained.
"I did notice that ever since you two went on your little journey, that strange things were happening in this realm, and I deduced that it had something to do with you! You were the key to getting back to the worlds! All I had to do was bide my time." He continued, as Roxas and Sora tried to get free.
"I wanted so badly to get back and get revenge on the worlds for what they did to me..." He stated, his voice starting to quiver with anger. "So! You can imagine my elation when the door appeared to me!" He said.
"But still, I wondered why it showed up..." He stated.
"However, after seeing all the changes occurring around here, seeing my deception fade away, and your substantial power increase, I put it all together." He stated with a hint of triumph. "Somehow that girl was connecting to your heart, and that's what gave you all the power that you needed." He finished.
He turned back towards the two paralyzed warriors. He held his arms up. He let out a primal scream and a dark aura formed around him. Sora and Roxas looked around and struggled to get free. The ground began to tremble and the trees began to violently shake. A maniacal laugh emanated from Ankoku.
"What are you doing!" Sora yelled, struggling to get free.
Ankoku whirled around and got right in the face of Sora. He grabbed his cheeks and pulled his face up close.
"I'm using my powers...to destroy this realm...with you in it." He said coldly. "And I'm going to get back into the realm of light." He continued leaning closer into Sora's face.
"With you out of the way...no one can stop me." He sneered. "I am going to demolish every single world, everything you ever cared about I will wipe out." He said with a sinister grin.
"And I will take special pleasure in visiting that little girlfriend of yours...to personally thank her for setting me free." He said, with an evil laugh.
Sora was enraged at the thought of harm coming to Kairi, but he couldn't do anything with his blade. With his arms and legs out of commission, he spat at Ankoku, catching him right below his eye. The smile faded from Ankoku's face.
"Why you...little" He said, as he slammed Sora's head back down into the ground, and kicked Sora hard in the ribs.
Sora cried out in pain, and Ankoku sneered looking at the damage he had caused. Roxas turned his head and saw his friend in pain.
"Hey! Let us go and fight us like a man!" Roxas called out to Ankoku.
Ankoku looked at Roxas with scorn. A loud crack of Ankoku's fist meeting Roxas's face echoed as the world continued to crumble around them. Roxas winced in pain at the blow.
"Don't speak to me...you filthy nobody." Ankoku jeered.
He swung his hands up and Sora and Roxas raised in the air. Ankoku was expending a ton of energy between creating the blobs that had Sora and Roxas contained, as well as self destructing this realm, so there was little else that he could do. However, he ego wouldn't let him get back to the realm of light with out getting a last few licks in on Sora and Roxas. He raised them up as high in the air as he could before bringing them down hard, slamming them into the ground. He laughed as he repeated the attack over and over, as the trees started to fall around them from the realm's collapse. Ankoku released them from the attack, and brought them up to his eye level. Across Sora's shoulder he could see the door to light starting to flicker around the collapsing realm, which told him that he needed to finish this, and make haste to the portal. He looked into the faces of his adversaries. Sora and Roxas were roughed up, but their powers had very quick healing properties. Still, as long as they couldn't move, he was in no danger. He grabbed them by the throat, and pulled them closer to his face.
"I am saddened by the fact that I will not get the pleasure of watching you die." He coldly stated.
"I will however, take some measure of satisfaction in destroying everything you hold dear." He continued, the world continued to deteriorate around them.
"But I will be fair." He said, smiling that sick smile that caused both of them to know he was lying. "Everyone you love will have a choice." He began.
"They can either bow before me or I will kill them." He sneered, as he noticed the anger growing on Sora's face.
"Although...in the girl's case...I may just kill her anyway!" He laughed maniacally in Sora's face.
That image infuriated Sora to no end. He struggled even more, harder and harder desperately trying to break free and attack Ankoku. He continued to think of it more and more, further becoming more and more incensed. Ankoku at first was amused, but once he felt his grip around Sora's throat starting to loosen, it wasn't as funny to him anymore. He looked down and saw that the blobs had turned hard and were starting to crack.
"STOP!" He screamed as he continued to fight Sora's resistance, tightening his grip, attempting to choke the life out of Sora.
It was starting to become too much for him, and his grip slowly faded away, until suddenly Sora broke free of the blobs. Sora kicked Ankoku right in the gut, doubling him over and dropping both Sora and Roxas. Ankoku was stunned, and that momentarily lapse allowed Sora to call forth his blade and cut Ankoku in the abdomen.
"ARRGH" Ankoku cried out in pain, and fell to his knees.
Sora used his blade to cut Roxas out of his ooze, before continuing his vicious attack. Sora was using the images that Ankoku put in his mind as fuel to add to the fire that raged inside of him. Ankoku was constantly on the defensive, not quite sure how to fight back. Roxas meanwhile was trying to convince Sora to let it go, especially since he saw that the door to light was starting to fade.
"Come on Sora, we need to get Yamato and go!" Roxas pleaded.
Sora would here none of it. He continued his assault. Ankoku was down and solely on the defensive. Sora meanwhile was now slugging Ankoku with the hilt of his Keyblade, causing more ooze to drip out of his face. Roxas tried to pull him off, but Sora pushed him out of the way and continued his assault. Ankoku was fading in and out of unconsciousness, and his face was starting to puff up from the shots it was taking. This didn't faze Sora in the slightest, and he continued to bludgeon Ankoku, taking his rage out on him. Roxas continued to try and pull Sora off, but to no avail. The rage continued to build in Sora, to the point that he almost seemed to be possessed. A beast had taken over Sora it seemed.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Sora roared, now using his fists to further do damage, before once again grabbing his Keyblade.
Ankoku was out, and not moving; but Sora didn't care. Sora brought his blade up ready for the finishing strike. He was going to end him, and get revenge for everything that he had done to him and his friends, when a hand grabbed him and yanked him off. Sora turned to strike, believing it to be Roxas, but he was stunned to see Yamato staring back at him. He was in pain still from the earlier battle with Ankoku, but he still had enough strength to get Sora off. The raging fire inside of Sora seemed to temper off.
"Don't give into the darkness Sora." Yamato warned in a gravely voice. "Don't sink to his level."
Yamato motioned over to the fading door, as the ground continued to shake around them.
"The door is going to close, you need to get to it." He stated firmly.
Sora looked over at the door closing, as the flames in his heart and the anger both subsided.
"Come on guys we need to go!" Roxas called out from closer to the shoreline.
Sora grabbed Yamato and started towards the shore. They got about halfway to where Roxas was, when a huge rumble knocked them all down and a large gash in the earth started to form behind them. As they got back to their feet, and continued towards the water's edge they heard a loud yell from behind them.
"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" Ankoku bellowed.
He raised his arms and some of the fallen trees raised off the ground.
"I WILL TAKE ALL OF YOU TO HELL WITH ME!" He roared as he used his telekinetic powers to fire the trees at them.
They were able to get out of the way of the initial attack, but Ankoku was advancing, and transforming into his larger entity. Sora and Roxas stood ready to attack him, Yamato however noticed that the portal was flickering even more now. He jumped in front of his younger friends, and drew his Keyblade. He looked over his shoulder at his compatriots.
"Sora...Roxas...you need to go to the portal now." Yamato said, his voice weathered from age and battle. "I will fight him."
Sora and Roxas looked at him in astonishment.
"No! We are not going to leave you behind!" Sora screamed.
"Yeah you have to come back with us!" Roxas pleaded.
Yamato shook his head.
"You two have lives back home, loved ones to see." He stated, not taking his eyes off the growing Ankoku. "My world is gone, my beloved is gone...all because of my selfish actions." He said sadly.
"I can never atone for destroying my world, but I can give the rest of the worlds their Keyblade master back!" Yamato said with great determination.
Sora looked ready to protest, but Roxas's hand on his shoulder took his attention away from Yamato. Sora looked at Roxas, with a pleading look, almost begging Roxas to help him convince Yamato to come with them. However, the look that Roxas gave Sora told him exactly what his friend thought. Sora turned back to Yamato, tears forming in his eyes.
"I will find a way to get you out of here!" Sora stated with quivering resolve. "So while this is goodbye, it is only for now!" He said, as he put his hand on Yamato's shoulder.
Roxas stood there silent. "Until we meet again." He quietly said, while putting his hand on Yamato's other shoulder.
Yamato smiled.
"Well then...goodbye for now..." He said, his aged eyes starting to mist.
A roar from Ankoku, followed by another ground tremor, brought them all back to the task at hand.
"GO!" Yamato commanded.
Sora and Roxas sped off towards the door to light. Ankoku saw this and roared out in desperation. He started to lumber towards them as quickly as possible. Yamato looked on the ground, and found the large gash that had formed from the earlier tremor. He raised his blade up and using whatever powers his Keyblade still had in it, slammed it down into the ground. The power from the thrust caused the ground to shake and then rupture, causing a massive sinkhole, taking both Ankoku and Yamato down with it. Ankoku tried to hang on and claw his way out, but Yamato slammed his Keyblade in Ankoku's back, causing him to lose his grip. Ankoku roared as he toppled down into the abyss. Yamato, had meanwhile used the last of his strength and a boost from Ankoku's body to leap back to the ledge and pull himself out. He gazed out over the water and saw Sora and Roxas speeding off towards the portal. He smiled as he saw the two of them finally make it and cross through to the realm of light. The wizened Keyblade master took a look around at the realm that was violently shaking. He slowly made his way to the water's edge, and stared out across the sea. He could see the portal flashing and growing dim. Yamato closed his eyes and tried to cancel out the noise of the realm collapsing around him. As the noise seemed to die down around him, he felt something that he hadn't felt in a long time. There was a warmth in his heart that he recognized immediately. An image of his late wife flashed before him. He opened his eyes, and smiled out at the portal.
"Miyu...I'll see you soon...my love..." He said as the flickering portal finally disappeared, and everything around him went dark.
End of Chapter 14
And there it is! Chapter 14 is in the books! Hopefully that was a fitting enough chapter to warrant a two year wait! Thanks to all of you who waited patiently, and most importantly didn't forget about this story. There will be a short chapter next, and then...the final chapter on the 2nd installment! I hope to have both done by the end of the month, and that will allow me to storyboard for the final installment of this story!
Thanks Again Everyone!