Greetings all, and welcome to chapter 19 of Before KH: Shadows!
Creativity: We're... what is it, four chapters away from the wrap-up of this set?
Author: Indeed we are! Let's make it a good one! So, anything to report before we get started?
Creativity: Um... no, I don't think so. Well, aside from shilling the discord server, password here for announcements, chatter and cooking pictures/recipes: 5RRcGwh
Author: Yeah, not a whole lot to talk about right now, so let's just get into it! Allow us to proudly to present chapter 19 of Before Kingdom Hearts: Shadows
"Are all minds this difficult to navigate?"
"About as roundabout? Yes. With multiple elements getting in the way? No."
Queen Arryn was only left to take Gourken's word as they navigated a warped forest within Ryo's mind. The queen suspected that this forest was meant to contain the village that Ryo and the others had been forced to flee from.
At a guess though, the forest path wasn't meant to be this winding, or to allow them to walk up a ninety-degree surface. If they had been able to glimpse the sun, Arryn had a feeling that the path would be very disorienting.
That said, it was at least a single clear pathway. They hadn't once had to worry about straying from it, nor encountered a fork in the road.
"I wonder where the boy is now…" Gourken muttered as he scanned their surroundings, hand held out in front of him with a flame burning above his palm, both for light and to have magic ready.
"How do you mean? Aren't we in his mind right now?" Arryn questioned.
"There should be a manifestation of him somewhere in all this mess, though I wouldn't even guarantee that with how in shambles his mind is. If he is in here somewhere, my guess is that he's being held captive by the curse's own manifestation." Gourken mused.
"And we still have yet to narrow down where it is." The queen muttered in mild frustration. Gourken frowned.
"I got a feeling we're getting close. We just need to draw it out again and I'm pretty sure I can pin down where it's hiding." He mused, though he didn't sound as confident as Arryn would have hoped. With little else left to do, Arryn's mind slowly turned back to the concerning implications of Ryo's past.
The language he'd used the last time she'd tried to confront him about his inability to use magic had left her suspicious that he had, at one point, been part of a magic cult. It was a surprisingly common occurrence, though one didn't often run into them. Most of them kept to themselves and conducted their rituals and ceremonies in secret, often in worship to some deity who they claimed gifted magic. Arryn wouldn't have been surprised if this worship wasn't formed based on encounters with Fae or other such magical creatures, though she never was able to get more information about them.
Now, the queen was confronted with two distinct possibilities; The first was that Gula was previously a member of a cult that was oriented around the Winged folk, and suffered something there that caused him to leave and left him twisted enough inside that he couldn't use his magic anymore. The second was so ludicrous that the queen almost burst out laughing at the possibility, were it not so concerning.
The former was far more plausible. While the topic was getting official sanction for research by various kingdoms, and her own husband and co-monarch had long been fascinated with the long-lost race, it had been a frowned-on practice to study them in any capacity, with only desperation to find some solution to stop the Dread King's rampage serving as a reason to support such endeavors. Of course, that hadn't stopped like-minded peoples from tracking down ruins and relics in an effort to discover their secrets, gain their power, or otherwise worship the winged people as deities of sorts. Those particular cults were often very reclusive and even more so antagonistic to those outside the cult. They tended to hole up in ruins of old civilizations that hadn't been found by the larger kingdoms or city-states, so that could help to explain why the courtyard/terrace they'd seen with the winged statues, though at the same time there was a potentially major contradiction.
"If a major location within a person's subconsciousness was a long-abandoned city that they never saw when it was still thriving, could their mind still make it look like new?" The queen asked Gourken, who frowned as he considered the question.
"Not really. If they had a strong enough connection, their mind could theoretically bend it to look that way if it was drawing on reference to another city that was in its prime. However, it would be easy enough to identify. There would be discrepancies in the materials and a sense of 'unreality' to the location. It would be obvious to the untrained eye, even if they weren't able to put it to words." Gourken answered. "The boy's mind didn't make that courtyard or terrace, whatever it was, look like new. If it did, why were the statues broken like that? No, he knows the place like new, but since something related to why it's so foundational has been thrown into serious question, particularly with those statues, that they've been rendered imperceptible to himself."
"But we were able to make our own determination with relative ease." The queen pointed out.
"Yes, but we're foreigners here, so we can see things that he won't; we have a certain distance from it. Besides, the mind can only do so much to a foundational memory. It's foundational, remember? Regardless of how shaken it is, the foundations can't give way without some serious damage. If we hadn't been able to make some reasonable determination as to what those statues were, I would have had us both exit his mind then and there, as he would have been unsalvageable." Gourken elaborated. The queen shuddered at the thought.
"So then, where do you think he saw something like that for it be a foundational memory?"
"He could be a time traveler."
"Magical movement through time isn't even theoretically possible."
"That we know of, but you're right in that it probably isn't the explanation here. Still, do you want to consider the alternative?"
"There's a few of those."
"You know what I mean."
"… No, not really. Still, I don't think we have a choice. If he really is… What do we do with that? He could be a spy, a saboteur, a scout sent ahead of the flag-bearers…"
"Well, gross violation of mind-exploratory practices as it is, we are in an excellent position to find out."
"Yes, and it is a gross violation of mind-exploratory practices, like you said."
There wasn't much said after that as they finally reached a breach in the trees, heralding their arrival at their destination. That said, it wasn't quite what they were expecting.
What Arryn assumed was the village of Woodfell lay before them, though it was a complete wreck, and not in a way that suggested a recent battle or being left to decay. Every building was damaged, but in an unnatural manner, as if chunks of the buildings had just blown away from themselves at random. Embedded in the ground were copies of the guardless blade that had been confiscated from Ryo when he'd arrived in Radiant Garden, though they were all in varying states of disrepair.
At the center of the village was a roiling, fizzing mass of black and blue energy that immediately had both magicians on edge.
"That looks like the Dread King's power…" Arryn muttered as she prepared a Thundaza blast.
"The curse must have some ties to that beast. Stay sharp, we don't know what this is going to throw at us." Gourken replied as he mirrored her with a Firaza blast.
The glob of black and blue energy frothed for a few more moments before it slowly descended into the ground and began to spread, bubbling and hissing as it formed a pool on the ground. After a few moments, a human limb erupted from the pool before it clawed at the earth and began to haul the rest of itself out of the ground. Soon, the rest of the body followed, though there wasn't much to say of its features. Undoubtedly human-shaped, nor particularly malformed (if a bit drippy) but it had not distinct features. No face, no definitive body shape, not even ears, eyes or a nose.
It didn't stay that way much longer though, as the creature let out a shriek as a burst of dark blue and black energy erupted from its body, briefly obscuring it before it became visible again. Now the creature was clad in ornate armor from head to toe in the Dread King's style and color scheme, with added gold trim and decorative, curled spikes coming from the armors shoulders. Its faced was obscured by a mask, similar to the mask-like creatures that had attacked Radiant Garden, though more sophisticated in design, and much more emotive, giving the impression of complete and utter despair. Most disconcerting was a pair of translucent, skeletal black wings sprouting from the creature's shoulder-blades, with flickering blue energy forming the tattered membrane between the bones.
Clutched in the creature's left hand was an ornate sword; The handle was just long enough for two hands and sported a knuckle guard, rather than a cross guard. The blade was single edged and wasn't quite the length of a longsword, but also longer than your standard arming sword. Black and blue energy rolled off the blade like fog as the creature slowly dragged it through the dirt as it approached them.
"I think it was expecting us…" Gourken realized as the creature let out a rattling breath as it stalked forward. Then, it exploded into action.
The creature let out a shrill cry as it swung its blade upward, sending an arc of energy towards Gourken that cut a smoking furrow through the ground! Gourken swore as he leapt out of the way, launching his firaza spell as he did so. The swordsman merely cleaved the attack in two, though that only caused the spell to detonate it its face!
"And that's why you use cover for explosive spells." Gourken preened, though his attitude swiftly changed as the smoke and flame began to swirl and gather together, until both magicians could see the fire being sucked into the sword.
"… You can't be serious…" Arryn groaned before the swordsman performed a horizontal slash, sending wave of blue and black flames rushing towards the pair! The queen was quick to protect herself with Barrier, while Gourken conjured an ice wall to block the flames.
With a growl, Gourken held his hand aloft and launched a lightning bolt from it, smirking as he did so. In response, the creature merely held its sword to the heavens, catching Gourken's bolt as it fell and surrounding the blade in crackling dark blue lightning. Gourken's face quickly fell as he was forced to leap aside as the sword was pointed at him, and a lightning bolt sprang from it. The bolt was still close enough to singe the old wizard's robe.
"How is this even possible?! There's no known magic capable of absorbing and redirecting other magics!" Gourken complained as he slammed his hands down on the ground, creating a sheet of ice that began to rapidly spread across the ground towards their assailant.
"No known magic!" The queen countered as she circled away from Gourken to try and find an opening where the armored monster wouldn't be able to catch her magic.
"That still doesn't answer how a mind curse is capable of wielding such power!" Gourken shot back before cursing as the creature lifted its sword, crackling with its own power, and drove it into the ground, causing the ice sheet beneath it to break and burst up from the ground before quickly becoming a mist. The creature let out a series of rattling huffs, which Arryn quickly realized was laughter, before the mist rose high enough to obscure its frame, though it was still visible as a dark blue glow, which dimmed into nothing.
The deafening silence was quickly broken by Arryn's heart pounding in her ears. They'd been fighting this thing for less than two minutes, and yet she already felt completely outmatched. Hers and Gourken's magic were their only means of attacking or defending, and this creature was able to turn it against them with a mere swing of its sword! And now, they couldn't even see the thing coming?!
The queen crouched down as she began to slowly make her way through the fog, trying to find Gourken.
"How do two magicians kill something that can turn their magic against them on a whim?" She muttered to herself as she slowly made her way through the fog, silently wishing she could just whip up some wind to blow it away. No doubt, the swordsman would absorb the gale with their blade and turn it against them.
Then, she saw a small, flickering light in the fog, like a candle.
"Gourken, if that is you, you're an idiot…" the queen hissed as she began hurrying her way over to flickering light, her eyes frantically darting from one side to another as she tried to find any sign of the armored creature approaching herself or Gourken. Luckily, nothing of sort happened by the time she reached the old wizard, who just grunted in acknowledgement.
"Took you long enough. What, did you stop to sniff the dandelions on the way over?"
"You cannot be serious! Why would you give away your position like that?!" The queen hissed as she stood back to back with the mind mage, who snorted dismissively.
"It's pretty safe to assume that this thing doesn't need to see us to know exactly where we are, thus I didn't make our situation any worse."
"No, you just did that by allowing to make this mist in the first place."
Gourken didn't have any words for that, though to be fair, he didn't have much of an opportunity as a crackle and whistle heralded a blade swinging down at them. The two magicians leapt to the side, narrowly avoid being impaled through the head as the creature descended from the skies, blade primed to spear them like a suckling boar!
The impact sent a shockwave outward that tossed the magicians into the air and tumbling upon impact. The creature let out a shriek as it leapt into the air, beating its wings for extra altitude, though also clearing some of the fog away. That part didn't really matter all that much, save for having a clear view of a sword-wielding demon descending towards her at speed, sword held aloft to cleave her in two.
The queen didn't think twice as she charged the largest Thundaza she could muster and unleashed it upon the creature! The response was predictable, but it still bought her precious time to get out of the way as the creature was preoccupied with absorbing the magic. What's more, Gourken took advantage of the creature's distraction to nail it right between the shoulder blades with a Blizzaza icicle, encasing its wings and much of its back in ice and causing it to crash to the ground hard. Arryn seized on this opportunity and pelted the monster with all the lightning she could muster, extracting many pained screams in response.
Unfortunately, that seemed to be all she'd gained as the smoke cleared. The creature shook itself clean of its icy shackles and glared hatefully at Gourken and the queen before it thrust its blade aloft and let out a wail, sending a titanic blast of lightning into the air! After a moment, dark blue bolts began to ran down all over the clearing!
A string of very un-queenly words streamed from Arryn's mouth as she scrambled about, desperately trying to avoid the blasts. Gourken instead cast a Barrier over himself, which held up rather well to the repeated lightning strikes. Unfortunately, the swordsman had noticed the magic and was advancing towards the old man, readying its blade to strike. Another string of un-queenly words began to pile up as the monarch's mind scrambled for a solution, though not before the monster suddenly rushed forward and swung its blade down on the barrier, smashing through it like glass!
Gourken let out a cry of surprise and fear as the backlash of having the barrier broken was combined with the armored beast seized him by the throat and hefted him into the air with one hand! The other arm reared back, aiming the tip of the blade at Gourken's gut as Gourken started to go limp. The queen could see a dark blue and black mist starting to enshroud the wizard and knew she had to do something now if Gourken was to survive.
With a shout, the queen launched a bolt of lightning into the back of the creature's head, causing it to drop its captive and round on her, a sputtering hiss escaping the mask's lips as it stalked towards her, raising its weapon to strike. Arryn scrambled for solutions.
"Magic isn't enough! What else do we have?!"
She didn't have time for an answer as the creature swung down at her, narrowly missing but still sending her tumbling to the ground. She scrambled backwards through the dirt as it pursued her, trying to stomp on her legs until she found her back against a rock. Her hands frantically patted around, trying to keep retreating, only instead to settle on something discarded on the ground. Looking down, she saw one of the ruined blades that were scattered about this battlefield.
A growl quickly drew her attention back to her immediate danger; The creature was just above her, blade raised , only to be struck in the back by a fireball! It was weak, but it was enough to get the creature's attention as it let out a frustrated shriek and whirled back around, energy gathering around its blade as it raised it to swing! Arryn didn't think twice; she seized the ruined blade and drove it through the back of the monster's leg, drawing actual alarm and panic from the mask's lips.
The creature fell to one knee as its hand leapt to its wound, trying to remove the offending object. Immediately seeing opportunity, Arryn snatched another sword from the ground and drove it through the creature's chest! Then another to pin its other leg to the ground, then its hands, sides and neck! By the time she was done, the creature was skewered through with over a dozen blades, some of which had broken in the creature's struggles to free itself or remove the weapons. Each of its wounds oozed a pitch-like substance that emitted an equally dark vapor. It had no smell, but each breath of it left Arryn feeling hopeless and miserable. Still, the creature was weakening. Its grip on the wicked blade was slackening and it was fighting less and less to escape its bonds. All that was left was to finish it off.
With a bellow, Arryn conjured the densest, most powerful ball of lightning she could muster and cast it into the heavens! Moments later, a single titanic bolt fell and struck the creature through the top of the head, extracting a stomach-churning wail as the creature spasmed and smoked, electricity arcing between the rusting blades before it all faded.
Soon after, the ruined blades began to crumble to dust and the creature collapsed mask-down in the dirt. Its armor began to crumble to black vapor and the ooze beneath began to drip away into a puddle on the ground, leaving only the skeletal dark-blue wings attached to a body.
"In all the hells…" Gourken breathed as he staggered to his feet, hand clutched over his chest. Arryn was hurrying over to the old wizard, but stopped when she saw what he saw: The body previously within the armor was gravely familiar.
"Ryo?! How is…?!" She started to ask before the wings on his back began to change color to purple, and appeared more to be a projection of proper draconic wings, looking more naturalistic than the black and blue ones had. However, they were quick to fade, and Ryo's body began to blur and turn transparent until he was gone. Gourken approached the spot and knelt down next to it, hand still massaging his chest.
"That must have been the boy's manifestation, held prisoner within that armor…" He muttered as he slowly dragged two fingers through the dirt.
"Are you okay?" The queen asked as she noticed Gourken still holding his chest.
"I'll be fine. It's just… That thing…" He started before he had to pause, and Arryn could tell it wasn't exhaustion. "The sheer misery… I've felt some awful things in my life… I've seen so much hurt in others when entering their minds or reading their memories… but that thing… I've never felt so hopeless. That thing was anguish incarnate."
Arryn knew what he meant. The fumes from that creature's blood had done the same to her, but she didn't get it nearly as bad as Gourken had.
"What kind of curse could make something like this?" Arryn murmured, though she didn't dare speculate.
"The sword."
Arryn turned her gaze back to the old wizard, who was pointing to the ground.
"The sword is still here." He clarified. Arryn followed his gesture and held back a curse as she saw the blue and black blade was indeed still present, discarded on the ground.
"Why didn't it fade with the rest of the armor?" she wondered as she glared at it. Then, to both magicians' shock, it began to shimmer. The wicked blue glow began to peel off the weapon, giving way to a soft purple glow. Even the black metal softened a bit, no longer seeming so harsh and threatening. The blade became ensconced in a soft purple aura and slowly rose into the air, handle pointed up.
"What is it doing?" Arryn wondered as Gourken's eyes hardened.
"Well, I think that's our confirmation…" He muttered as he rose to his feet, slowly lowering his hand from his chest.
"What do you mean?" Arryn asked, her eyes never leaving the weapon.
"Some of the old scribblings we still have from the winged folk made mention that several of their number were capable of summoning special weapons, born from their magic and spirit. No two were ever quite alike." Gourken elaborated, eying the blade.
"The purple wings, the weapon, the weird magic, it all adds up." He continued as the queen stepped back from the weapon in shock and awe.
"Ryo is one of them." She breathed.
Creativity: Alright, so we're just finally saying it.
Author: Look, I don't think we were actually make that big a deal out of his origins. I thought it was pretty obvious and never pretended otherwise.
Creativity: ...
Author: Anyway, now the "big reveal" is out of the way, though we still have some stuff to whip the tarp off of. You'll see.
Anyway, not much else to report on, so I think we'll call it a day here.
Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!