The Age of Fairy Tales:

The Ocean Knight

"Amongst the ancient ruins of Remnant, there are tales of certain figures that have become highly regarded legends and myths.

The Infinite Man

The Warrior King of Vale

The Indecisive King

The Warrior in the Woods

The Hunter's Children

The Two Brothers

The Demon

The Grimm Child

The White Witch in the Woods

The Dark Empress

The Girl in The Tower

The Moss Man

The Girl Who Fell Through The World

The New Gods

Sin

The Ocean Knight…

Ah, now there's a popular topic.

The Ocean Knight, commonly known by her blue colored armor but the silver also gives her the title Silver Knight as well. It all depends on who you ask and whose favorite title they have. Either way, they all center around the same woman.

Well, women obviously.

The armor of the Ocean and Silver Knights have only ever been worn by women since the days the when the first stories began. "

Xxx

"Poppy!" Aqua shot forward, summoning her Keyblade as Poppy turned and looked up.

Poppy stared up shocked horror; her graze trailing up the sight of appeared to be a massive creature unlike anything she had ever seen before.

Not even the Grimm that had destroyed her village could compare to the feeling of horror she felt from seeing this monster and hearing the sound of voices wailing in pain. It didn't help that the monster was staring down at her with multiple eyes, moving back and forth.

Aqua moved in front of Poppy, settling into a ready stance.

The creature let out a wail that sounded like a thousand voices wailing in agony.

Aqua narrowed her eyes and summoned her Keyblade armor.

(Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Soundtrack – Monstrous Monstro – Arena Version Starts)

The massive monster roared as it chased Aqua who had summoned her glider out to the sea to avoid any innocent people getting caught in the middle of the battle. Aqua landed on a small bit of land and watched as the massive monster followed her while vanishing into the water. An aura of fire appeared around Aqua, having activated her Firestorm Shotlock and she kept a careful eye on the water.

SPLASH!

Sure enough the first attack came in the form of a giant tidal wave.

Aqua jumped and then preformed a Double-Jump that allowed her to easily dodge the wave. The creature slowly came out of the water, glaring at her as it circled the small bit of land she stood on.

"Take that!" Aqua shouted, firing a Triple Firaga blast at the monster.

The creature immediately went under water and the three fireballs were immediately extinguished upon making contact with the surface.

There was a moment of silence…

SPLASH!

And then the monster shot straight at the island with its mouth wide open.

Aqua grunted as she jumped out of the way but a passing fin knocked her down but she immediately got back up. She turned around and saw the monster lunge at her again.

"Seeker Mine!" Aqua shouted, aiming her Keyblade at the ground in front of her.

Circles of light appeared on the ground and Aqua jumped back as the monster made it onto the land to attack her.

BOOM!

There was a blinding flash of light and the monster was knocked into the air before crashing into the water. Aqua then rushed forward, jumped up into the air and fell down while swinging her Keyblade down with a battle cry.

Slash!

Slash!

Slash!

She delivered several slashes to the monster's face, especially at its eyes before the beast seemingly recovered and let out a roar. Aqua jumped back, falling into the water but quickly made it back to the small patch of land. She stood up and looked around, seeing the monster had already vanished back into the water.

She knew she wouldn't have to wait long for it to resurface.

SPLASH!

This time, the monster emerged from the water right in front of her and tried to flatten her with its entire body slamming into the small island. Aqua cartwheeled and jumped off just before the monster's body hit where she had been standing.

CRASH!

Aqua then spun and aimed her Keyblade at the monster. "Thunder!"

Several bolts of lightning rained down and hit the monster, causing it to let out a haunting howl. It sounded like the howling of countless people in agony and it caused Aqua to freeze in mid-air.

Just what exactly is this monster?

Aqua's hesitation left her open to attack and she was swatted out of the air by the monster's fin, sending her crashing down hard into the water.

SPLASH!

"Aqua!" Poppy screamed out from the safety of the land.

Aqua grunted as she sank into the water, feeling dazed for a second before recovering. She held up her Keyblade and transformed it into its Glider form.

The Glider looked different from its original form with the front resembling the pointed end of Ocean's Apart with the blue silk cloth from the end of Ocean's Apart attaching it to a staff with a wave shaped ends, forming the control yoke for the glider. Unlike her previous glider form, Aqua found a seat in this one that was blue and slightly curled, following the wave shaped pattern that Aqua's weapons and clothes favored. As for her feet, they rested on white footholds, completing the seat and giving the appearance of a stylish and futuristic speeder. The glider shot out of the water and Aqua could see the monster getting back up.

The monster roared and charged after Aqua but now that she could fly, she had much more maneuvering room now. She took off with the monster trailing after her. Looking over her shoulder she saw it was swimming after her and moving very fast too.

'Good. I can lure it from the mainland and away from any innocent bystanders.' Aqua thought as she focused on leading the monster as far from anyone as possible.

"Aqua!" Poppy called out, watching as Aqua led it away from the land with her unable to help out.

She could only stand and watch.

Aqua looked over her shoulder to see the monster was still swimming after her.

But not for long.

To her and Poppy's surprise the monster leapt out of the water and seemingly flew into the air, roaring as it now followed Aqua while flying.

'By the Heart!' Aqua quickly swerved her glider out of the way of the creature's mouth. 'Is there no limit to this creature's abilities?!'

Aqua quickly accelerated through the air, shooting in between the clouds with the monster hot on her tail. They passed a few airborne Grimm that had been attracted by the emotions of the battle but immediately retreated upon encountering the monster.

Apparently they recognized it as a monster too strong for them and wanted nothing to do with it.

The monster opened its mouth and seemed to be gathering energy in its maw. Aqua looked over her shoulder, seeing the gathered dark purple energy at the mouth of the beast.

'A Gravity Blast!' Aqua's eyes widened in alarm, knowing how dangerous such an attack would be.

The monster roared and unleashed the blast at its airborne target. Aqua changed her glider back into its Keyblade form and pointed right at the incoming attack.

"Defend!" She shouted and conjured a barrier around to her protect herself.

The blast slammed into the barrier, sending it flying through the air like a rocket. Aqua grunted but managed to keep her barrier up. She fell back down towards the water but pointed her Keyblade down. A pillar of light exploded from the edge, allowing her to slow her fall and she immediately transformed her Keyblade back into its glider form.

She then shot right at the monster as it roared and seemingly tried to swallow her. She angled her glider to the side, flying past its head and in mid-air, transformed her glider back into its Keyblade form which then morphed through the power of Form Change, becoming the Naginata form that Aqua was quickly becoming accustomed to. A beam of light shot out and stabbed at the creature, causing it to screech in pain. It was Aqua's Bladecharge Shotlock which she used to stab and slice through the monster.

The monster collapsed into the water with another screech, seemingly passing out from the pain. Aqua spun and changed her Keyblade back into its glider form, taking off towards the mainland again but landed on the small patch of land from before. She then turned to face the monster again but was greeted with a surprising and alarming sight.

"What the-?!" Aqua gaped as she watched as the monster's wounds began to heal but pieces of its flesh fell into the water.

The pieces of flesh then began to form into various creatures ranging from jelly-fish like creatures to a shelled plant like monster. They swam through the water and quickly surrounded Aqua who readied herself while the beast slowly recovered.

"Thunder!" Aqua shouted, summoning down bolts of lightning that easily killed the surrounding creatures.

(Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Soundtrack – Monstrous Monstro – Arena Version Ends)

'At least they're as easy to kill as Grimm, Heartless and Unversed.' She thought to herself as the monster raised its back up and roared in her direction. 'A creature that possesses elemental powers, can heal itself seemingly and can spawn smaller creatures from its own flesh. Is this the power of Kingdom Hearts, albeit a weaker copy?'

The monster turned and swam straight at her again.

'I am not sure if I can beat this thing.' Aqua thought but steeled herself.

The Keyblade was powered by the heart and it she allowed doubt to creep into her own heart she would truly lose this battle.

There was a way to defeat this monster.

It could be wounded as she had just proven.

If it could be wounded…

It could be killed.

The monster slowly rose back up and snarled at Aqua with its multiple eyes glaring at her. The standard magical attacks were wounding it but she wasn't sure they would be enough to kill it. It was massive enough to take the magical blasts she had thrown at it and it could heal itself so she couldn't keep this up and hope its regenerative abilities had a limit.

'Aqua…'

Aqua's eyes widened as she heard a familiar voice calling out to her. "Master?"

'Aqua, in order to stop this creature you must seal it from the inside.' Eraqus instructed. 'Its core will contain the Kingdom Hearts replica that the original being absorbed.'

Seal it from the inside?

She watched as the creature lunged at her with its mouth wide open.

"Why am I not going to like this?" She muttered, standing still until it was time…

And then jumped up and right into the monster's mouth.

"AQUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Xxx

"How could it have gone so wrong?"

Yunalesca had had complete and utter faith in her father's plan to restore their once great kingdom and make it the most powerful kingdom in the world. When he had proposed his plan, she had been in full support of it and during the years he was gone she had gathered supporters to follow the new faith: the faith of Yevon.

They would bring about a golden age in this world.

Magic would return.

A new prosperous world would be born.

Only something had gone horribly wrong.

"Father's plan to summon a guardian for the new Spira has somehow backfired." Yunalesca muttered as she stared out the open window of their sanctuary.

One of five temples built in the name of Yevon.

Only five were built in the short time when Yevon returned, using the remaining souls of the fallen Spira to create a brand new one and he planned to create a guardian to protect the new kingdom from the Grimm.

"His guardian…What he planned to call Sin has destroyed what remained of the old Spira." Yunalesca scowled as she turned from the window and faced her husband. "If something is not done, he will destroy the rest of the world soon."

"So what can we do?" Her husband, Zaon asked. "Is there an Aeon powerful enough to this…Sin?"

Yunalesca was silent for a moment before she approached her husband. "…There might just be. Follow me."

Zaon was confused but complied with his wife's wishes, following her deep into the depths of the temple.

"During his research, Father spoke of an Aeon more powerful than any other. Aeons are formed by the dreams of the Fayth and the Fayth are those who choose to let their dreams be harvested for the purpose of creation." Yunalesca explained as she led Zaon into a large chamber with intricate designs in the center. "He theorized that a summoner possessing a strong bond with a personal Fayth would yield the creation of a Aeon more powerful than any other. If the bond is strong enough, then an Aeon powerful enough to slay Sin will be born."

Zaon's eyes widened as he took a step back. "You don't mean-?"

Yunalesca slowly turned and faced her husband. "I am sorry, husband. I truly am."

The designs in the circle slowly began to glow.

"But for the future of this world, a sacrifice must be made."

There was a scream followed by what sounded like stone piling up…

And then nothing.

"For Yevon."

Xxx

When Aqua opened her eyes, she found herself standing in a completely different place than what she was expecting.

She thought she was going to end up in the creature's stomach.

Instead she found herself standing before what looked like a red-tinged sea winding through a cloudless vista.

"An entire world lives in this creature?" Aqua wondered aloud to herself. "Is this what one can do with Kingdom Hearts?"

She stiffened, feeling a great but dark power somewhere out, likely deeper inside the creature.

That must be the core.

Deciding against simply traversing the interior and perhaps taking more than just one risk on foot, Aqua transformed her Keyblade back into its glider form and took off, riding over the red sea.

It wasn't a sea for very long.

Aqua looked down and watched as the red sea was replaced by what looked like a city. It looked like one of the many kingdoms Aqua had seen during her previous time on Remnant, before Izanagi and Erebus had stripped humanity of their magic and left for parts unknown.

'The source of the overwhelming darkness…' Aqua looked up ahead. 'I need to keep moving north.'

As she left the city behind her senses screamed at her and she swerved out of the way as a massive structure fell past her.

"What in the world?!" She looked down to see it was a massive tower that crashed onto the ground below but remained intact.

Aqua frowned, sensing something about the tower and angled her glider down, jumping off and reclaiming her Keyblade as she landed at the entrance. Her senses told her that the source of the monster's power was inside this tower. Seeing no alternative, Aqua pushed the doors open and walked inside, coming upon an arena like room.

"What is this place?" She wondered aloud to herself.

Her senses screamed at her again and she jumped back as large icicles popped out of the ground where she had been.

"Just what is wrong with this place?!" She exclaimed while landing on her feet.

The obvious answer was she was in a world inside a giant monster but Aqua was beginning to run out of patience. She looked down and watched the ground glow before jumping back again, watching as an icicle popped up.

'So there is a system here of some kind.' Aqua carefully watched the ground, looking for any signs of light that would indicate when more traps would be sprung. 'But where do I go from here?'

The answer came in the form of a golden light.

It was just a feet away but Aqua sensed something about and instead of risking herself by running and getting impaled, she teleported right in front of the crystal and grabbed it. There was a flash of light and Aqua had to close her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them, she found herself standing in the exact same room…

But the source of the monster's power was even closer now.

'Am I in the same room or did I get closer when I touched that crystal?' She wondered, looking around and seeing everything looked exactly the same.

Except the source of darkness was much closer.

Taking a leap of faith, Aqua again moved towards the gold glowing crystal, evading traps along the way and grasped the crystal once it was within reach.

Another flash of light.

Same room but the dark presence was even stronger now.

'I am getting closer.' Aqua narrowed her eyes as she spied the next crystal. 'I just have to keep going up by grabbing that crystal until I reach the source.'

And so she did.

She evaded the traps, touched the crystal and in a flash of light she traveled up one more level and repeated. As she did, she counted in her mind how many times she had to do this.

She had already done it twice so now this would be number three.

And was quickly followed four.

Crystal spikes shot up, attempting to skewer her…

Five.

She reached out and grabbed the golden crystal.

Six.

There was a flash of light and she appeared in the next room that resembled the previous ones.

Seven.

The cycle repeated.

Eight.

But Aqua could feel the gap between her and the source growing smaller with each flash of light.

Nine.

And so she continued on, not allowing herself to stop or to be stopped.

Ten.

And then it was over.

Aqua blinked, finding herself in an entirely different place now.

For a brief second she thought she had returned back outside but knew that was not the case. She found herself standing in the center of what looked like a kingdom, resembling the Emerald Kingdom from before but was different with strange eye shaped symbols and glyphs painted on the houses and buildings surrounding her. People walked past her without so much as a glance but Aqua couldn't sense any light or darkness from them.

They had no hearts.

All living things had hearts so they were either imitations or illusions.

Aqua reached out to touch someone, a woman in a medieval looking dress and her hand passed right through.

"Illusions…So these are just memories…" Aqua muttered to herself.

Then she felt a presence and spun around.

Behind her was a man in a dark robe with an eye like glyph painted white on the chest. Aqua could not see the face but she could tell from the shape it was a man.

"Who are you?" Aqua asked, summoning her Keyblade.

The man said nothing as a dark mist surrounded him and before Aqua's own eyes began to change. The arms and legs were replaced by hooks while the human body seemingly faded and the robe became the true body, taking on a strange new form.

Aqua honestly had no idea what to call it.

It was like some kind of parasitic bug or something with the white glyph seemingly acting as its eye as it gave Aqua the eerie feeling it was staring at her.

"Do you understand? Can you speak?" Aqua asked, trying to find some form of reason from the creature.

There was no answer.

There was only a blast of dark purple light that Aqua barely managed to block as she cried out 'Defend' but was still pushed back. Aqua grunted, seeing the creature would not respond to reason and knew she only one choice left.

She must defeat it here and now.