Kairi, Roxas, and Lea, with Elrena's help, not counting the sporadic comments she made bothering the three of them, continued through the tunnels of the castle, ridding themselves of any Fallen that got in their way, though it was clear that As the place was, the tunnels seemed reminiscent of a maze, forcing them to retreat whenever they came to a standstill. Finally, it did not take long for them to reach what looked like some kind of hole that led into an underground cave.
"Do you think it is part of the castle?" Kairi asked, staring at the hole.
"According to my data, I don't have enough information on that underground cave," Tron's voice said in the zone. "It appears to be an untouched part of this world. I will not be able to observe you if you enter."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Lea said sarcastically.
"Easy, Axel," Roxas said. "We have been in similar situations before."
"Do you remind me when exactly, Roxas?" Lea asked Roxas
"That's good for you," Elrena interrupted. "It's probably in there, let's go," She said and jumped inside.
Soon the other three jumped up behind her. The interior of the caves was very rocky, with shiny gems that gave the cave its shine, as a sign that no one had ever been in there and that no one had modified anything. It was clearly a section of the world that no one knew about. The place was very lonely, but it did not take long for them to be surprised by a group of Fallen.
"Let's finish them off before he escapes!" Elrena said.
She was the first to jump on them, while Lea followed closely behind.
"She Incorporates or not, she will never change," Roxas said shaking his head at her.
Kairi advanced to help them, but she was surprised by a Fire that almost hit her full. She noticed that the one who attacked her appeared to be only a red robe with a pair of red eyes where her head should be. This ghost launched another Fire towards Kairi, but she managed to avoid it and jumped on him, hitting him with her Keyblade until he disappeared, although Kairi was surrounded by several equal specters and some bats. Soon Roxas stepped in front of her summoning her Keyblade to protect her, but Lea and Elrena cast Fire and Thunder spells, eliminating the group around her.
"Thanks!" Kairi said.
"Give them when this is over, little princess!" Elrena said sticking her knives on a zombie.
Lea soon launched a powerful fire attack to the front, charring everyone who was in front, leaving the ghosts intact. "Wow, these things are immune to fire."
"That's why they are called Ignis Specters!" Elrena replied kicking a nearby bat.
"First news we received," Roxas said as Kairi sighed. How did Elrena expect them to know that these beings were immune to fire?
Following this news, they began using fire spells on all of them and using physical attacks on the Ignis Specters due to their invulnerability to fire. After a short struggle, they soon cleared the way and moved on.
Without going too far, they came to what looked like a very special large underground cavity. It looked like a very high cave with a stone platform in the center, and several cascades of water falling down the rocks, under the glow of the cave's gems, giving the impression of being a very quiet place. When they entered that area and were in the center of the stone platform, a magical barrier blocked their way back. Lea pulled the Keyblade from her to smash it, though Elrena stopped him.
"Do not bother yourself. It is a trap," Then she looked up, seeing a raised platform.
"Should we go up there now?" Roxas asked.
"I am not going to climb that high," Kairi said looking at the height.
"Well, a portal period," Lea said, looking at the raised platform. "From here I can calculate the distance so as not to fall short."
"I must admit that you are very persistent for being human," She said a voice, causing them to look down, finding the person they were following, when a moment ago she was not there. With no darkness obscuring his figure, they could see that he was not human. Rather, it looked like some kind of dark-furred anthropomorphic cheetah with a pentagon on its forehead.
"Shaft!" Elrena said furiously, pointing her daggers at him.
"Come on, dear. Why do you get like that? What have I done to you to deserve your hatred? " Shaft asked calmly.
"Because of you I became a Nobody, and I'm not telling you everything that has happened to me since then, since I would spend everything in your face until tomorrow!" Elrena said furiously.
"What happens to you after that ritual is not our responsibility. So we have nothing to do with what happened to you later."
"Shut up! Since when do you do things like that? " Kairi asked.
"That, my dear Princess of the Heart, is none of your concern," Shaft said, surprising her at how he knew she was a Princess of the Heart. But know one thing. You will not leave this cave alive. This is what happens when you enter the home of the spider," Shaft said and soon he was suddenly gone. "But don't worry. I promise you it will be quick and clean," His voice sounded from the upper platform. "Not like Death would do it, but you understand me."
As Kairi frowned at Shaft's words, Lea herself wondered what she meant, but he looked to the side of her and gave her a jolt of fright. "And what is that?!"
They all turned to that side, finding what looked like a gigantic spider-like skeleton with a long spine and the skull of an alligator with horns for a head, ascending to the platform at one edge, letting out a chilling screech.
"What is that thing?" Roxas asked upon seeing the creature, as he summoned the Keyblade from him.
"Let's be careful. This thing is huge," Kairi said prepared for battle.
"Seriously? I hadn't noticed until now," Lea said sarcastically preparing the Keyblade for her.
Elrena looked at Shaft who was watching them from the raised platform, "You think you're going to get rid of me so easily!" She screamed and soon used her lightning agility to leap between the rocks and reach the platform, while Shaft ran off when he saw what was coming on top of her, to be followed by it later.
"And there she goes, leaving us alone with the mess," Lea said, shaking her head.
The skeleton moved slowly but surely toward them, and the trio lunged toward it. Kairi began to hit the skeleton where she could while Lea and Roxas hit the sides with their weapons and using magic spells when they could, seeing that the skeleton was resistant despite being bones. As Kairi hit him head-on, she saw one of the skeletal spider's claws rise, and it jumped to the side to avoid being hit by it, which came down violently. He also made the same movement avoiding the other claw.
At one point, Roxas managed to jump on top of the creature's bone back, and began hitting it on the head several times, until the spider skeleton began to shake off the boy, forcing Roxas to jump and walk away. before the monster could attack him with her claw, but Lea blocked the attack with her Keyblade, giving Kairi time to hit her hard with a Thundaga attack, causing her body of bones to shake from the discharge.
Following these attacks, the skeleton's eyes filled with flames, and from her mouth he launched a torrent of fire towards them, forcing the group to recoil before the blaze.
"Wow, it looks like the skeleton is on fire," Lea joked.
"Come on, this is no time to joke now," Roxas said to Lea.
"What you say."
The skeleton spider continued to release its puff of fire as it advanced towards them, until Kairi decided to cast a Blizzaga spell towards the head, thus managing to freeze the skeleton's mouth and stop the attack.
"Good idea! Why didn't anyone think about it before? " Lea asked sarcastically.
Kairi and Roxas then took the opportunity to hit the enemy with what they had while their mouths were frozen. After taking several hard blows from both of them, the skeleton spider drew back slightly before breaking the ice at its jaw to let out a blood-curdling screech and immediately charged at full speed at them. Fortunately, the group was able to avoid being run over by the skeleton. When it stopped on the edge, he turned and continued his claw attacks and flare, but the trio managed to make him back enough so that he slipped on the edge of the platform, causing him to fall, catching the floor by the front legs and claws. In that position, Kairi began hammering the skull from one side of it to the other trying to throw it to the ground, but it soon rose again, before charging again against them, who fortunately avoided being run over by the skeleton.
"Look how hard it is," Roxas said after avoiding the onslaught.
"And that we are giving him with everything," Kairi said.
"Well, if we want to end it, we will have to throw it into the void," Lea proposed seeing the skeleton run like a horse.
To their surprise, the skeleton leaped over the edge, staying anchored in the walls of the grotto, embedded the bones of the legs in the wall, and began to walk through them in a circle around them, throwing fireballs at them, making to move or dodge the projectiles that the monster was throwing at them until finally, the skeleton jumped back towards the platform.
After continuing to attack the arachnid skeleton and avoid its attacks, the group managed to push enough to push it back to the edge, where it was hanging again, but this time, Kairi decided to hit one of the claws that held it, until it finally broke one of them, but that was not enough to throw it away, as it soon ascended again by the other claw.
Enraged, apparently, the skeleton began to chase Kairi, skull first trying to bite her with their jaws engulfed in flames, while Lea and Roxas tried to get her attention by attacking from the sides until Kairi turned at the last moment and killed him. It hit the skull hard, spinning it like a top for a moment until it snapped back to its original position. With a roar, it went to the edge and jumped back to the wall, but this time it did not throw fireballs, but suddenly symbols began to appear on the ground and skeletons began to emerge from them.
"It is seen that he has called the cavalry," Elrena said. "Well better, he's going to need it."
Kairi smoothly dispatched a couple of skeletons at the same time that Lea burned those close to her and Roxas swiftly struck those within her reach. When the group was destroyed, the skeleton spider began to roam around them again, launching more fireballs with greater intensity, until it leaped back to the platform, continuing its physical attacks with its remaining claw and launching more flames from its mouth.
After a long team effort, they managed to make the skeleton recoil and it will be left hanging again. Kairi then took the opportunity to hit the remaining claw that had him grabbed onto the platform. Unfortunately, the skeleton spider managed to climb onto the platform, but not before destroying the remaining claw.
Unable to use its claws anymore, the skeletal spider flipped into its lunges and launched fireballs into the sky that then fell like a shower of fire, forcing the group to move to avoid the flames that fell on them. But even so, Kairi managed to throw her Keyblade at the monster and used her ability to teleport to it and start attacking it with everything she had until she decided to use Princess of a Heart, striking continuously the skeletal monster with orbs of light and shoving it with the attack to the edge, causing him to finally fall into the void.
After falling, they soon heard the sound of something hard falling hard to the ground. When the three of them peered over the edge, they saw the bottom of the abyss, and the skeletal spider shattered. Several beams of light shot out of it and soon burst into an explosion of darkness, floating a great heart surrounded by glowing spheres, just as a great Heartless lost its own.
"Finally," Kairi said breathing in relief, noticing the released heart, but also the orbs of light. "What are those things?"
"And you ask me?" Roxas said, watching both things disappear. "It's the first time I saw something like that."
"Well, if what the old wizard said is true..." Lea said.
"What are you talking about?" Kairi asked.
"You said that one of those Fallen is formed when someone's heart and soul succumbs to darkness, similar to the Heartless, am I right?" Lea asked, and they both nodded. "Well, I suppose those orbs of light are the liberated souls that those things carried within."
"Are you sure, Axel?" Roxas asked.
"Hey, I'm not a scholar!" Lea exclaimed. "It is what I have deduced, nothing more. But anyway, I think this is over for our part," Lea said scratching her head. "I suggest we go back to the castle.
"Right, we no longer have anything to do here," Kairi said, seeing that the magic block had disappeared.
The three left the room, while someone was watching them in the dark.
Back at the castle, Kairi, Lea, and Roxas met with Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, who had finished off the Fallen in the east wing of the castle. The group explained what happened in the cavern in front of Ansem and his team.
"And you say that Larxene, this... Elrena... already had an encounter with these Fallen before?" Ienzo asked.
"That is," Kairi replied. "She seemed to be investigating both the Fallen and the cult around them before she became a Nobody."
"And to think that the Heartless and Nobodies were already bad for the League of Villains and Organization XIII," Lea said. "And now there is a cult that worships nightmare monsters. Seriously, we don't give enough! What will be next? An army of wraiths based on ancient heroes? Please!"
"According to the data acquired, there seems to be a great fauna among these beings, but currently I only have those that appeared here, plus the information you gave me," Tron reported, displaying on the monitor some images of the Fallen seen so far.
"Thanks. If we need a Fallen guide, we'll ask you," Lea said.
"Remember that he does what he can," Even replied. "Remember this is the first time we've seen something like this."
"I don't know..." Kairi said. "For some reason, I have a feeling that I've seen them before… somewhere, but I don't remember where… or when."
"If so, we would have already had information about them in the organization," Roxas explained.
"That's true. We saw many worlds, and there was nothing quite like those things," Lea said. "Well, maybe Halloween Town."
"I've been there, and believe me, they are nothing like them," Roxas said.
"It appears that these Fallen have been in the shadows all this time. And for some reason, they have started to appear," Ansem said.
"Maybe they were expecting some advantageous situation for them," Ienzo said.
"It is possible if we think about what has happened so far," Ansem said. "Sora disappeared last year, to begin with, and not long ago, Riku went looking for him in this fictional world."
"Are you hinting that they were waiting for Sora and Riku to disappear from the map to attack?" Ventus asked.
"That has no sense," Aqua said. "Even though they disappeared, there are still several competent Keyblade Wielders here."
"Especially a Master," Mentioned Terra.
"True, it is just a simple theory. But keep in mind that these recent attacks have had a specific objective," Ansem said, looking at Kairi.
"Kairi? Why?" Roxas asked.
Lea sighed. "We are back on the subject of the Princesses of the Heart."
"You're wrong," Aqua said. "Remember that Death tried to kill her before. So this has nothing to do with Kingdom Hearts, as if she died, her light would pass to someone else."
"That's true," Lea admitted. "Seriously, this is a good brain-ache," He then directed his gaze towards the entrance of the room, suddenly exalted. "Uh? Now who?"
The group looked at Lea and then looked to the entrance of the room, where they found a strange woman dressed only in a corset that only covered her breasts and lower parts. She would look like a normal woman if it weren't for the purely dark hair, the black tail she wore behind her, the two long bat wings on her back, and the two horns on her head, not counting her eyes, which they were blood red.
"A Fallen?" Terra asked, confused.
"Oh that, or a Succubus," Even said, also confused.
"More like the second," Aqua said.
She simply watched the group, staring at Kairi. "You shouldn't have shown up. You should have stayed in the dark, Princess of Heart." The woman said to Kairi.
"Do you know who I am?" Kairi asked, surprised, though she soon thought that she and Shaft were accomplices.
That was more than enough for everyone to prepare to fight if necessary.
"Yes, and we know much more than you don't," Said the Succubus. "I suggest you go back to your dark hole and never come out again. Unless of course, you wish to suffer the same fate as your mother."
That left her confused, but before she could ask anything more, she disappeared in a kind of purple vortex that appeared and disappeared in a few moments.
"Okay, that's beyond surreal, really," Lea said.
The Keyblade Wielders, still confused, retreated to the Mysterious Tower and informed Yen Sid of what had happened, with everyone present. He was thoughtful for a moment while he rubbed his beard with his hand.
"The Fallen… I hadn't heard from them for a long time. And you say that Elrena, a former member of Organization XIII, investigated the cult that revered them before she became Nobody?"
"We know what we know from what she told us," Lea said.
"Master Yen Sid. Do you know these creatures?" Roxas asked.
"Yes. I once had an encounter with them. They are beings of pure darkness. Not even Xehanort or Maleficent can control them, as they only obey their lord, the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness."
"You mean this Dracula ?" Aqua asked.
"Yes, that's it," Said Yen sid. "In his days, Dracula tried to plunge the worlds into darkness through the Fallen, but he was defeated, and his world trapped forever with his monsters, where neither light nor darkness could come."
"Well, what a way to trap them, if they're wandering around," Lea said.
"Yes, and it is the most worrisome of all this," Yen Sid explained. He soon saw Kairi somewhat confused. "You must not believe what that woman told you. The Fallen are liars and treacherous, they only help themselves. It is something that is best forgotten."
Kairi didn't reply.
That night, in the Destiny Islands, everyone was asleep except Kairi, who was unable to sleep with all that she knew that day. Her strange feeling about the emblem of the Fallen, and how she that strange woman knew part of her past. A past that she did not know since she barely remembered her parents, only an image of what she believed was the face of her mother. She decided to write a note about her and left it on her bed, saying that she was leaving her, until she could clear her mind of her doubts, asking that they not worry about her.
Kairi soon reached the island near the village. There she remembered everything that happened even before her world was engulfed by the darkness that day. She walked and soon came to the Gummi Ship there. It was supposed to be Sora and Riku's, but now that they had disappeared, she was the only one who used it, especially since she started training with Aqua. As she approached, she noticed a presence, and as she turned around she met Yen Sid.
"I guess you know what I'm going to do," Kairi said.
"So is. I know perfectly well that now I will not be able to dissuade you," Yen Sid said. "But let me tell you this. If you decide to follow this path and try to find out your past, you will have to leave alone."
"I know," Kairi said, riding into the Gummi Ship.
"Don't forget, when you need it, you could visit me for advice," Yen Sid said.
Without responding, she launched the gummi ship and soon left that world, under the gaze of Yen Sid on the island beach.
"Do you think it's a good idea?" An old voice behind Yen Sid asked.
"Merlin..." The wizard muttered without turning around.
The wizard Merlin advanced to stand beside her, staring at the wake left by the Gummi Ship. "Do you think it's a good idea to let her go, knowing that 'he' will do the impossible to erase her from existence?" Merlin asked.
"What she does or decides is no longer in my hands," Yen Sid said, and then turned around, walking across the sand.
"By the way," Merlin said. "Do you think that one day she will remember the memories we took from her that day sixteen years ago?"
"Only the worlds can decide that now, Merlin," He responded, looking at a part of the sky, a gap between the stars, as if he expected to see something, or not see, what was in that gap between all the bright stars in the sky.