Author's Note: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch.53 End of the World
Once we made our last farewells to Leon and the others we left the Grand Hall, moving to the Castle Chapel to talk to the princesses. "Thank you, Sora, Dexal. I think the darkness has begun to weaken," Alice said. Sora nodded and I bowed, saying "It was only our duty." "That duty may not be finished yet. I can feel a powerful darkness growing somewhere far away," Aurora told us. "It's the heart of the darkness. It must be where Ansem went," Jasmine said. Sora smiled. "Then we'll take the Gummi Ship and deal with both Ansem and the Heartless!" he said. Cinderella nodded. "A good answer, Keyblade master. Take this power to aid you," she said. A fireball flew at Sora and hit his Keyblade, which absorbed it. "You now possess the highest level of fire magic possible: Firaga," Cinderella said.
"Good luck, Sora, Dexal. Your courage can bring back our worlds," Snow White said. "When the worlds are restored, all should return to its original state," Aurora said. "Kairi will be back on the island?" Sora asked. "Most likely. And the two of you will be there as well," Jasmine replied, looking at us. To their surprise we shook our heads. "We can't go home until we find Riku and King Mickey," I said. Snow White smiled. "Your friends have good people looking for them. They'll be found," she said. Sora and I smiled and nodded our thanks, and we left. We boarded the Gummi Ship for what was probably the last time, and sped forward through the interspace. As we flew I took out the pages of Ansem's report Aerith had given us, going over them. The pages we had already collected were 1, 3, 5, 7 and 13. I read the rest of them, trying to see if anything was useful.
Page 2 read "It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments: Extract the darkness from a person's heart, cultivate darkness in a pure heart, and both suppress and amplify the darkness within. The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle. Some time later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness...What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?" I sighed. I already knew that Ansem's experiments had generated the Heartless.
Putting that piece aside, a I read Page 4. "The Heartless appear in groups, and are multiplying rapidly. I've provided them both living and nonliving samples. They've responded only to the living. They seem to multiply after absorbing something from the living creatures. Their prey vanishes without a trace. I believe the Heartless are taking hearts. They are born from those who've lost their hearts, and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless become Heartless themselves. Though I lack proof, I am confident in this hypothesis. I must also study their behavioral principles. Though they lack emotions, they do seem to have some intelligence. How to communicate with them? It's just occurred to me: Could they be the darkness in people's hearts?" Again, something already known. I also set that one aside, and picked up Page 6.
It spoke of the hearts of the world and how the Heartless were after it. Page 8 described how the difference between Emblem and Pureblood had come about, 10 told of a meeting between Ansem the Wise and King Mickey, and 11 spoke of the connection between the Keyblade and the Princesses of Heart. It was only in Page 12 that I finally gleaned something new. "The body is gone; the heart should have returned to the Heartless. And yet, nothing. This one is unlike any other. Its memories remain and it has yet to take the form of a Heartless. A close eye must be kept on the situation. Much is still unknown. To get to the realm of Darkness, one must go through the doors of Kingdom Hearts, the place where the world's hearts connect. Beyond this world is a place in which darkness reigns. (Details shall be archived in a separate report.) There are many worlds in existence, some of which we know nothing about. The world in which we live. The realm of Darkness. The realm of Light. And the world in between. Wherein lies true nirvana?"
So was what Ansem had planned. He planned to go through the door of Kingdom Hearts and take control of the darkness there, giving him ultimate power. Even now I could feel us draw closer to the End of the World, the place where the remnant of the worlds taken by darkness remained. This was a mad place for beings of light to be, but if being here was what it took to bring safety to the light, then there we would go. I chuckled humorlessly. Besides, this would be a world inhabited solely by Heartless. Another Heartless like me should fit right in. We reached the end of the pathway and warped to the End of the World, ready to fight what lied there.
When we appeared in the End of the World, it was in a place known as the Final Dimension. It was a small cave that barely fit the four of us, and held a single opening to the outside. We walked outside and stopped, seeing what was before us. Ahead of us was a long plane that wasn't composed of soil, grass, stone or any kind of material. Just a flat "something" to walk on. Scattered here and there was rock formations, some of which held treasure chests. At the farthest end were several rocks surrounding a huge sphere of light, which I guess was the way to the next area. Dark spheres of energy rained down every once in a while in random areas. Goofy looked around, saying "Gawrsh, is that all that left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" "Looks like," I said. Seeing the ruins of once great things made me uneasy; in a way it reminded me of the Keyblade Graveyard.
"Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora asked. "You betcha, Donald said. "But, if we do beat him and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what's going to happen to this place? And to us?" Sora asked. "Well, uh..." Donald said, unsure. I said nothing, because I knew exactly what would happen. If these worlds were revived then this one would vanish, along with all of its inhabitants. I was prepared to sacrifice myself for the salvation of the worlds, but I wasn't sure about these three. "This is a Heartless world, so maybe it'll just disappear," Goofy hypothesized. "Huh?" Donald and Sora said, looking back at him. "But no worries. Even if this place goes poof, our hearts ain't goin' nowhere. I'm sure we'll find our friends again. Yup, I know we will," he said.
I smiled, once again impressed by Goofy's sage wisdom. It really was there, just covered up by Donald and Sora's hotheadedness. "Yeah, you're right," Sora said. "Well the, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Donald said, marching forward. We followed, and Sora pulled out the good-luck charm Kairi gave him. "I'll return this. I promise," he declared. The four of us moved out and began to make our way to the other end of the Final Destination. Surprisingly no Heartless appeared, none of them trying to stop us. That was, until one of the dark orbs that were raining down did so right on top of us. The sphere expanded and everything turned black, before revealing the true nature of the area. It was a snowy wasteland that was filled with crystals around the edges, and we were surrounded by a shadowy dome of darkness.
In front of us appeared a swarm of Heartless, brought here because of the darkness of that orb. There were three Invisibles, two Angel Stars, and four Neoshadows. "Let's get 'em!" Sora said, and we charged. The Invisibles flew forward and slashed at us, and I blocked one of them while Sora did the same. A Neoshadow dropped into the ground and moved forward, emerging and launching itself at Donald. He shouted and cast Stopga, freezing the Heartless in place. Once it was unable to attack he blasted it with Firaga, and Goofy blocked a shot from an Angel Star with his shield. He tried to counter but it blocked his attack with its wings, and shot him in the arm with a blast of energy.
"Ouch!" he said, falling back and drinking a Potion. The Angel Star tried to hit him while he was doing that, but I stopped it by casting Zero Graviga. It flapped its wings as it spun around in the air, and Sora used Sonic Blade to rush and stab it in the back, destroying it in one move. The other Angel Star glared at him before it began glowing blue. It fired a shot at the ground which erupted with a pillar of water, revealing another Angel Star. "Not so fast!" I said, using Treasure Raid and hitting one of them with my Keyblade. It burst apart in a shower of munny and Stormfell flew back to my hand. Now back to one, the Angel Star paused to consider its next move, and that wait was long enough for Goofy to successfully hit it with Rocket. The Angel Star flew upwards until it crashed against the top of the dome, bursting into shadows.
The Invisible that I blocked before swung at me and I blocked again, shoving it away. I jumped and took the offensive, swinging my Keyblade in a circle. The Heartless blocked but I smiled, charging my free hand with a Firaga spell before delivering a swift uppercut. The Invisible's eyes widened as it was propelled upwards, and I jumped with it. "Down you go!" I said, and I used Sacrifice. I could feel my remaining stamina cut in half as it was channeled into my attack, and I swung downwards. The Invisible tried to block me but my attack actually broke its sword in half, maintaining enough momentum afterwards to cleave the Heartless in two. As I dropped back down one of the Neoshadows tried to slash at me, but Sora stopped it with Blizzaga, impaling it with a chunk of ice.
The other two Invisible tossed their sword in the air and vanished, the swords moving of their own accord. One shot at Goofy and he sidestepped, but it turned and pursued him. He held up his shield and the sword clashed against it, striking sparks. It slammed against his shield again and again until Goofy back up against a formation of crystals, having nowhere to go. That was when the other sword came at him from the left, while the first one attacked from the right. Goofy blocked one but the other cut him across the back, eliciting a cry of pain. "Goofy!" Sora called, and cast Curaga on him. His body was suffused with bright green healing light, the cut on his back disappearing. The Invisible reappeared and grasped its sword, slamming it against the ground and creating a shockwave.
Just as it did though Donald cast Graviga, causing the Invisible to slam against the ground and be hit by its own shockwave. Goofy hit it with his shield and it faded away. The other Invisible reappeared but Sora stopped it from creating another shockwave, slicing it to pieces with Ars Arcanum. That left just two Neoshadows, one of which I destroyed with Triple Firaga. Sora cast Thundaga and blasted the last one with a bolt of lightning, killing it instantly. Once the last Heartless was gone everything turned dark again, resolving itself to be the Final Destination again. We kept going and dodged anymore dark orbs, making it to the portal that led to the Giant Crevasse. It was a giant canyon filled with colorful crystals and with green web-like formations, one of which we were standing on.
"I wonder where that Ansem feller went," Goofy said. "Dive into the most dangerous place and we'll find him!" Donald said. Sora and I nodded, and jumped off of the edge. More Heartless appeared as well fell, and readied to fight again. No matter what we had to fight, we would keep going until we reached Ansem and defeated him.
Our heroes of the reached the End of the World, but can they reach the end of that world and defeat the Chernabog, and then Ansem after that? Keep reading to find out!
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