A/N: Wingul's battle is pretty interesting. As far as you guys could see of course. But you'll see more in this chapter. A chess battle. Quite an interest. But beside that, I am one step closer to getting to Rasputin. How far can I go before the Darkness becomes overwhelming?

World: The Forsaken Void

The Knight stomps on the board, and I dodge roll out of the way, landing in front of the Pawn. I do a couple of strikes on the one Pawn, destroying it.

Wingul just sits on top of the ledge, watching his magical chess pieces move around while I fight them. He gazes down fingers on his chin. He's barely impressed by the fight. After taking down one Pawn and a Rook, I enter Critical Impact then strike viciously at the next Pawn.

"This little game could use a little...improvement." Wingful holds his hand out, channeling arcane energy.

Wingful unleashes his power. Three arcane bolts rain down on the field. They stick to the ground like bricks landing on soft grass. That can't be good. The bolts grow larger and larger, until they're twice the size then they explode. Luckily I wasn't anywhere near them, so I didn't get hurt.

I cast Sparkja, destroying a Pawn and the other Rook. Now it's just down to a knight and two pawns. I focus on the one Pawn. The other move slide towards me. Once it's close, it attacks. I staggered a bit, but after the strike I swing my weapon hard at the Pawn that stroke me. The Knight and Pawn stand close, that's when I do Shadow Dash.

I enter Black Maelstrom.

The Pawn and Knight falls. Wingul's little chess game comes to a halt. "It seems the king is tougher then I thought." Wingul stands, draws out his sword, then jumps into the field.

Wingul doesn't fight much, I strike him hard with my dark strikes and shadow reflects. Wingul staggers a lot from the attacks. Whenever he gets the moment, he strikes at me. He's pretty good with a sword for a spell caster. For his finish move, he swings his sword sending a blade beam of arcane energy at me.

I dodge the beam then strike at Wingul then do Falling Stars. Falling Stars causes me to enter Twilight's Dawn. Wingul has had enough damage. "You are but a pawn to the game!"

Wingul teleports back to the ledge. On the field board, six pawns, two rooks, a Bishop and a Knight appears. The battle is certainly getting tough. I gather them with Magnega. They didn't gather in the magnet, but draws closer. Then I unleash Blade Storm, holding my arms around and spinning at high speed in twilight energy. My attack destroys four Pawns and a Rook. The rest survives but are pretty weak from the attack.

"Perhaps a strategy to enlighten the field." Wingul channels arcane magic. Five beams rain down from Wingul's direction and they burst into energy. The beams weaves through the field. I focus on dodging the beams since they are pretty powerful.

The beams lasts a couple of seconds then they vanish.

I attack the rest of the Chess pieces. The Rook and the rest of the Pawns falls. Just leaves the Knight and Bishop. The Bishop does a healing magic on itself. I never knew a chest piece could even do magic like that. Now I know I have to down the Bishops or the fight is going to be long and even harder.

I strike crazy at the Bishop until it falls, then I finish off the Knight. Wingul joins the battle once again. "Quite a strategy. You are indeed a worthy opponent."

Wingul attacks me by casing Arcane Barrage, shooting bolts of energy at me. I do Starburst Stream on him. He staggers quite a lot from that attack. Once it ends, he quickly recovers and attacks me. I parry his attacks then counterattack him.

Wingul teleports back to the ledge. "The king will not be defeated so easily."

On the chess field, all of the chess pieces have been summoned. All minus the king. The wall of Pawns stands in my way so I strike them down. The rooks and Knights surrounds me. I become aware of the chess pieces. Just as they all charge to me at once, I jump high. They end up ramming at each other.

Midair, I gather energy and unleash a dozen of razor winds, six of light and six in darkness. Twilight Winds. The Twilight Winds destroys the Bishop and Rook. The Knight and Rook comes at me when I land. I dodge out of the way, only to be hit by the Queen from a fast charge.

"How about a little change of plans?" Wingul asks. He blasts an arcane orb in the sky.

I fight and dodge each of the remaining chess pieces. I do Soulstroke Spin. That's when arcane bolts rain down from the sky. I remain focused on my attack for the arcane bolts didn't cause me to stagger. Not once. But it still hurts.

A Bishop, two Knights, a Rook and the Queen remains.

I heal myself with Curaga. "HEAL!" Then I continue attacking until I unleash Twilight's Dawn. The pieces went down quickly, except for the Queen. It's not surprise she's...err, it's the strongest. By the final blow, the Queen falls.

"I guess it's now time for a checkmate." Wingul stands then jumps into the field.

We now stand against each other. I make the first strike. Wingul parries my attack then counterstrike with swift swings. "Why do you still fight? You have lost everything! You're home! Your family! All of the people who cared about you."

During the conversation, I strike Wingul several times, only to have them either parried, blocked or dodged. "Think again! Sure, I have left everything in the past. But none of that matters! If there's one thing I learn, I must move forward, into the future! Where I have a new home and a new family!"

My final strike disarms Wingul, sending his sword flying in the air. He looks up, surprised. For the first tike, he actually made an expression. Then he looks back at me when I start attacking him.

My Keyblade breaks Wingul's skin. The man staggers a lot from the attacks. For my final blow, I jump back, draw my Keyblade back, then do an instant rush attack.

Wingul stands, frozen from the blow. I remain positioned as i have at the end of my attack. Finally, Wingul drops to his knees, then to his hands gasping.

"My lord...I have failed you." Wingul loses his strength and ends up collasping on the ground.

I just look at Wingul over my shoulder. My Keyblade vanishes then I walk towards the castle. When I'm up the steps, Wingul calls out to me.

"Turn back...while you still can." Wingul says.

I don't turn when I step. "You still think I'm a coward, aren't you?"

"No..." Wingul coughs as he gasps for air. "I'm trying...to protect you...from him. You don't know...what you're up against. My lord...has powers...far beyond yours...and your kind." I say nothing. His words cannot stop me. I know the Shadowmoon very well. He's trying to deceive me. I keep going, until I stop in front of the large doors. I open one of them and enter the castle.

Wingul stays behind. He looks back down to the ground. "You...have been warned...LeiShen."

Wingul loses consciousness as he draws his final breath.

The Foyer is pretty large, just like I remembered. Only it's not as colorful as it use to be. Was once was a large ember and golden room engulfed in multiple colors of the memorial windows is now gray with purple light coming from the shattered windows.

What I said to Wingul is true indeed. Only it's hard to move forward with the scars of the dark past staring right in front of you when you see it for the very first time. But I know that I can't back down. I must defeat Rasputin.

I walk down the Foyer. There are no enemies encountered.

All there is in this abandoned castle are five hallways. One of them up ahead at the top of the first set of stair cases, sealed shut. I approach the door, putting my hand on it. I can feel cold darkness behind it. Rasputin is behind this door, I know it. But how do I open it?

Right in front of the door, I find a scepter, with three shorter scepters surrounding it, in the form of a triangle. I read the plaque in front of it.

"Each clan of the dark shall gather forth to destroy the LeiShen. Bring forth the fragments of the darkness and the path shall open."

I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I figured I should take a look around this castle. I start going into the lower west hallway. The hallway is just a long passage, filled with suits of armor much like Beasts Castle, only many of the armors are either disappeared or missing pieces.

In this hallway, I encounter Heartless. Soldiers, Neoshadow's, Darkballs and Morning Stars. If the Heartless thinks they can stop me after coming this far, they are sadly mistaking. I cast Zero Gravija to send them in the air, then blow them away with Aeroja.

Once the path is clear, I keep moving onward. There are a lot of crumbling ruins in this hallway. Many of the rooms and paths are blocked, a lot from a large pillar. that's tumbled down like a tree. The second wave of Heartless appears when I'm close to the next room ahead.

I strike the Heartless with my Keyblade. I destroy the Wizard then do Siegebreaker, doing a heavy slam on the Morning Star with my Keyblade. It destroys the Heartless in a single strike. I enter Critical Impact from that attack. The rest of the Heartless fell easily.

The next room I enter appears to be some kind of sorcerers sanctum. It's filled with countless scrolls and books with a large planetarium in the center.

The Heartless in here is countless hordes of Wizards, Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, Yellow Opera, Indigo Anchor: A sea blue Heartless that casts water bolts, Crimson Jazz, Silver Rock and Emerald Blues. Figures all of the Heartless would be spell casters.

During this battle, I can't relay on magic other then my Magnet and Zero Gravity spells. I focus using brute force abilities, even since their defenses are pretty weak. Because of that, the Heartless went down quickly, even through more kept appearing to take their place.

It takes a while to defeat all of the Heartless in this area. After their defeat, an artifact appears at the end of the room. It's shaped of the Heartless logo. I think these is what I need to open the sealed door.

I return quickly back to the foyer and put the Heartless Fragment on one of the lower scepter. The Scepter pulses with energy from the fragment. That seems to work.

One down. Three to go.

I next enter the lower east hallway. This one has Gargoyles. Many broken or destroyed. This hallway is filled with Unversed. I use my Aqua charm to activate the D-linking, then I take on the Unversed. The Shadow Screechers were the first to go, then I handle the rest.

The Unversed was not challenge in this hallway. No different from the Heartless anyway. If Rasputin is either trying to kill me or keep me away from him, he's doing a terrible job then. The hallway was long and I ran into three groups of the Unversed. I even unleashed my D-link power on the last wave.

At the end of the hallway, I wound up in the castle grounds that seems like a backyard. It's pretty large with hedges on the each of the paths. The whole thing is like a massive, and all of the grass and hedges are dead gray instead of lively green. In the center of the yard is a dead tree. I'm guessing that could be a cherry blossom tree, an explanation to how I could have had a memory attack from the one I saw at Mulan's house.

I follow the path until I reach the dead blossom tree. There, I encounter massive horde of Unversed. The Wild Bruisers charges towards me. I avoiding their attacks easily doing my Shadow Dash. The negative apes went down quickly. That just remains the Dawn's, Floods, and Archravens.

In the end, the Unversed are defeated, and an Unversed Fragment appears. I return to the Foyer and put it on one of the lower scepters.

The next place is the upper west hallway. On the walls are several paintings, many faded, some torn. If they were once worth quite a fortune, they are now priceless. And I don't mean really expensive priceless, I mean it's completely useless, not worth a single munny, not even worth being paid to take it, priceless!

This hallway is crawling with Nobodies. Only this time, the path here gets tough, even since I'm dealing with Berserkers and Fat Ninjas. My actions on these fights are mostly dodging. whenever I get the chance, I attack the empty husks.

Once they start falling, the fights get easier. In the end of the hallway, I arrive are some large room that's trashed. On the end is a king sized bed. The whole bed-frame seems pretty fancy. I'm guessing this must be the king and queen's bedroom. My parents.

Being here makes me miss them. I never got to know my parents very close, very well. All I had in my childhood is Aqua and her friends and master.

Nobodies appears. Saberon's, Sorcerers, Dusks and Grandmasters. There is just no end to these fights. That's how Rasputin plays alright.

Taking on the Nobodies here seemed endless with more of them appearing to take the place of the ones I slay. Most of them manages to hit me all right, I end up casting Curaga a few times. Finally, I made it to the end and gather the Nobody Fragment.

The Nobody Fragment gets placed in the last lower scepter. Now I just need one more. In the upper east hallway.

The upper east hallway. The hallway has banners with the LeiShen's logo on them. The banners are worn and torn. This hallway has all of the enemies. Heartless. Nobodies. Unversed. All working together.

This is not going to be pretty.

I attack the dark enemies swiftly. Avoiding them wasn't easy however. It's like whenever I dodge ones attack, I land right in front of a Wizards thunderbolt or blizzard barrage.

I finally made it to the end of the hallway, which leads me to some kind of large room. It's similar to the inside of a Cathedral, only at the end, it's some cauldron. All the scrolls and books on the shelves are dark powers and magic, some of them forbidden.

I got a bad feeling that this must be Rasputin's room.

Countless hordes of the darkness appears in this very room. The enemies here are pretty dangerous. I can only attack by containing them with Magnega or subduing them with Zero Gravija.

The entire battle lasts quite a while. It was as long and as annoying as enduring the 15 wave of Heartless in the Realm of Darkness, before encountering Dark Hide.

In the end, I'm on my knees, panting, using my Keyblade for support. An artifact appears right above the cauldron. It matches the eye necklace Rasputin wears. The Eye of Chaos. Once I regain my energy I grab the artifact and return to the Foyer.

I stand in front of the scepters, hesitating. Once I open this door, there's no turning back. I'm about to face the most powerful, most frightening foe, I have ever seen. Taking a deep breath, I place the fragment on the scepter. the whole thing glows as dark energies pulses through it.

The sealed doors slowly opens. I stand against it with pride. Once it's open, I walk right in. "Let us finish this."