as they made their way to the bridge linking the hill and the manor, a sharp rumble spread through the earth, knocking everyone off their balance with cries of shock all around. Everyone tried to stay upright as the tremors grew more powerful, but that was the least of their worries. The instant that Jack looked behind himself, he saw a great big cloud of smoke surround Oogie's manner. The entire building seemed to twist and contort by some bizarre force. Something he'd have probably found impressive were it not for what he saw next. "Ooooooooo~!" A ghostly yell from a familiar voice drew everyone's attention, and everyone's faces contorted with shock as they saw...Oogie Boogie's sack-like body merged with his manor!
"He's still alive!?" Blake exclaimed. "Whoa! How did he get so big!?" Sora asked with disbelief, though his new size probably wasn't the main concern. "Look!" Donald called out, pointing to the revived boogieman. Or more specifically to the bizarre globs of dark, purple, swirling energy scattered around his body. "It's brimming with the power of darkness! Oogie Boogie is drawing power from those dark globs!" "Could it be because of the heart?" Jack wondered. It was the only possible explanation. "So we just have to destroy those things, right?" Sora said, brandishing his Keyblade and jumping off the destroyed bridge to finish Oogie Boogie off once and for all. "Sora, wait!" Ruby called, jumping after him. "Wak! Hey!" "You dolts! Don't just go off on your-Ugh...Why do I even bother?" Both Weiss and Donald sighed as they jumped after the reckless pair, soon followed by everyone else.
As they landed, they rushed for the double doors between Oogie's feet. Only for Goofy to notice a bit of a wrench in their initial plan of attack. "The door doesn't have the handles anymore. We can't get inside." Everyone skidded to a halt when they realized, he was right. They wouldn't be taking him out from the inside. "Something tells me we wouldn't want to, even if we could." Blake said just as Gargoyles emerged from the darkness around them.
"I saw at least seven globs when we were on top of the bridge. If we dispose of those, we might be able to stop Oogie." Jack said as he leaped up and thrust his bony fist at one of the Gargoyles when it flew near him.
"There's twelve of us. No need for us all to stay in the same spot to take them down one at a time," Ruby said before cutting through one of the Wight Knights coming at them from the ground. "Let's split up into groups to search those blobs and destroy them. At least two, no more than three."
Jaune blocked a Gargoyle with his shield then impaled its shoulder, making it flinch back enough that Pyrrha could jump and cut it in half. "We should start from the bottom and work our way up, to make it fast and easy. Pyrrha? You and me will handle the first one on that ledge under his left arm. The rest of you guys climb."
Trusting Jaune's judgement, Pyrrha nodded and together everyone moved up the first area they could. The left limb of Oogie's giant body move, making the spider shaped cage filled with fire. As it did, slow moving balls of fire came towards them. Just as Pyrrha rolled aside to avoid getting hit, the others were climbing but Donald did something before getting too far: he used an Aero spell on her and Jaune, both. It wouldn't last forever but at least this way they had some extra defenses for some time.
As the first half of JNPR handed the blob, the next one was only a few meters away in front of his belly and being cut up by Ren or smashed at by Nora, the latter saying with confidence, "We've got this one. You guys keep moving!"
Sora and Ruby nodded to Team JNPR, climbing the monstrous manor together to find the rest of them. "Hey, there's one over there!" Ruby pointed toward a glob precariously mounted on a narrow ledge. As if the footing that they had to work with wasn't bad enough, the Heartless surrounding it certainly were. "I'll take care of them. Yang-" "No need to ask. I'll pop it like a balloon." she said, pounding her fists together. With the two of them going to deal with that, the group continued to climb. "There's another one!" Weiss called out, looking to Ruby, pointing to another precariously positioned glob. The partners both nodded to each other before Ruby looked at Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "You guys keep climbing. We'll catch up with you." she said, earning a firm nod from the trio who wasted no time leaping up the twisted, bizarre edges and ledges of Oogie Boogie's manor.
As Ruby and Weiss made their way to the glob that Weiss pointed out, several Heartless emerged to stop their attack. "Cover me, Ruby. I'll deal with the dark glob." Weiss said, undaunted as she used a glyph to glide down to the target. Ruby switched Crescent Rose to firearm mode, and began sniping any Gargoyles attempting to strike Weiss. The Schnee heiress stabbed the blob then clicked one part of Myrtenaster to freeze it entirely. With the blob now made of ice, it was switched to fire and caused it to shatter.
Leaping back down to where her partner was, just as she'd finished sniping the last of those Gargoyles. "That's the last of my flame and ice dust. I certainly hope we won't have to fight anything else in this world after this." she said as she examined her dust reserves. "Same for me. I'm almost out of bullets," Ruby said, examining her nearly empty cartridge. "We're definitely going back to Traverse Town after this." Unfortunately, the continued emergence of Heartless reminded them that before they could do that, they'd have to survive this first.
As Sora, Donald, and Goofy continued to climb, they found themselves only being subjected to more unstable and unsettling footing. But at the very least, "There's one!" Goofy pointed out one glob that was at least simple enough for them to reach. Resting upon one of the wooden plank walkways, or what used to be a walkway, was a glob resting out in the open, easy pickings. Easy of course, not counting the Heartless hovering around it. "Donald! Goofy! Keep me covered!" Sora instructed as he jumped over to the glob, swinging his Keyblade into it with as much force as he could. Every strike made the surging darkness inside of it shudder and fade ever so slightly. The Heartless attempted to stop him, only to be intercepted by an incoming shield, as well as a Gravity spell that forcefully pushed them onto the ground, flattening them from the sheer pressure. Eventually, Sora's onslaught destroyed the glob completely. "Alright! There's one down. I hope the others are doing alright."
Pyrrha was firing upon the heartless with Miló in gun form. With her much appreciated fire support, Jaune continued to slice at the dark glob before him. Every time he did, he couldn't help noticing the way it pulsed almost as if it was feeling pain. Or perhaps it was whatever shred of Oogie Boogie that was left feeling the pain? A...most unsettling thought. One that almost allowed a Gargoyle to get the drop on him, but fortunately Pyrrha shot through its head, destroying it, allowing Jaune to deal the final blow and burst the glob. "Okay! Ours has been taken care of!" he called out.
Pyrrha passed Jaune a thumbs up before looking toward where the rest of their team were, Nora was repeatedly smashing her own glob while Ren kept her protected with his Stormflower, gunning down the flying Gargoyles. It was then, Pyrrha noticed the flames from Oogie's swaying lantern suddenly surging with a ball if fire flying out of the lantern and flying toward Nora! "Ren! Nora! Look out!" she warned them.
Ren fortunately noticed the flames approaching his childhood friend and instinctively leapt toward Nora, grabbing her and causing them to tumble away from the fire. Nora, surprised from the sudden grab, realized how close they were and suddenly started blushing with a wry grin. As if she was enjoying the way Ren was suddenly hovering over her. "You okay Nora?" Ren asked, looking back at her. Her eyes lidded slightly as Nora replied with an oddly faraway sounding tone, "I am now." which made Ren blink in confusion. Why did Nora sound like she was...swooning?
They were drawn out of their little...moment when they heard the bursting noise from the blob being destroyed. They looked back to the Jaune and Pyrrha, noticing that that sure enough, they finished it off. "Alright, let's go join the others." Jaune said, not wasting a step. Phrrya helped Nora and Ren up as they followed after their leader.
Jack and Blake were fending off the Heartless with fire magic and the kusarigama of Gambol Shroud respectively as they followed Ruby and Weiss along the twisted walkway, eventually reaching the top. And there was the dark glob, with yet another batch of Heartless defending it. "I'll keep us safe, Blake. You take care of this glob." Jack assured her, raising a finger to the heavens and striking the Heartless with a noticeably more powerful Thunder spell.
Blake nodded and switched her Gambol Shroud to the bladed form, using the sheath as well and moving as fast as she could with her precise hits. She made every hit count as she precisely sliced and smacked the glob. Jack kept the pesky Heartless off of her, practically dancing and prancing around them as they failed to maul him. Even now, Blake couldn't help being impressed with Jack's dexterity. It was also a relief that he showed absolutely no compunction about fighting the Heartless after seeing what they were capable of. But she could respect all that stuff later. She had a glob to destroy, and destroy it she did as she drove Gambol Shround's blade down through its center, making it burst like a balloon. With the last of the Heartless plaguing them slain Jack let out an exuberant, "Alright!"
Meanwhile, Sora, Donald, and Goofy had succeeded in destroying another one that rested upon Oogie Boogie's left armpit. There were just a few more to go now. "Come on, guys! We're almost there!" Sora called out to everyone as the three of them continued the ascent. "Gaah!" "Whooaoooaaaaoooo!" "Waaaaaaaak!" As they did however, Sora, Donald, and Goofy flailed about as they were subjected to an even more bizarre bit of footing as the planks of the upper walkway began to violently swing down and up as if trying to dump them down to the ground. "Donald! Goofy!" Sora yelled out with worry, barely managed to stay on the planks as they stopped. An audible thud from down below made him wince, but thankfully, he heard the rather silly dazed noises Donald and Goofy let out. At least they were okay. While Sora tried to get his bearings, he looked up to notice a seventh glob laying between two gruesomely moving spikes that looked almost like a rib cage. "There it is! That's gotta be the last one!" Sora said to himself, quickly running and jumping onto a part of twisted roofing as the planks once again bobbed and swing. And just like before, a flock of Heartless surrounded it.
Wight Knights and Gargoyles emerged near Sora and laid their glowing yellow eyes on him. One of the Wight Knights leaped at him with its thin arms flailing around. Just as its claws were about to reach him, a gunshot went off before a bullet ripped through its head, making it dissolve. Ruby was in line where it came from, using Crescent Rose in sniper form. Emerging beside her was Nora, firing a grenade from Magnhild and blowing most of the Gargoyles in the air. The rest were shot down by Ren. When they were gone, he looked to his Stormflower with a mild frown. "That's it. I'm spent."
Bolts of electricity flowed to the Wight Knights, coming from Weiss' Myrtenaster. "And so am I. I don't have anymore ammunition, either."
"That's fine. We're just about done here." Sora said before focusing the last of his magic into one attack: Sonic Blade. Every strike he made was precise while keeping himself on the boards where the bulb was. At his last one, it blew up like the rest. "Yes!"
Just as Jaune and Pyrrha joined them on top, there was shaking from the manor like before. An agonized wail emerged from Oogie Boogie, or what was left of him, followed by the sound of crumbling stone and splintering wood. "Uhhh, I think that's our cue to leave!" Jaune said anxiously as he and the others witnessed parts of the manor start to break down. "Yup, time to go!" Ruby said with worried agreement leading the way as everyone darted down the way they came.
Fortunately, everyone managed to get off the building. Weiss utilized a glyph to aid in her retreat, gliding past Donald and Goofy who were still recovering from their rather inelegant landing strategies. Fortunately, she had the decency to pull them to safety. As everyone else landed on the ground, they ran as fast as they could to avoid any debris from the crumbling manor. Within moments, the manor was in complete shambles and Oogie's giant sack-like face was a shredded mess. Dust billowed all around the shattered manor as everyone watched in awe from a safe distance as, eventually there was not a piece left.
They had won the day...or...night, perhaps was more accurate.
"YAAHOOOO! We saved my birthday!" Ruby cheered raucously, jumping into the air with her fists pumping. The rest of her team looked at her with varying emotions of annoyance from Weiss, surprise from Blake, and embarrassment from Yang. Team JNPR looked at her with surprise equal to Blake's, while Sora, Donald, and Goofy couldn't help smiling at her. Yes, even Donald. The only person who was just as happy about it as she was, was Jack as he grinned at her in an adoring manner. It was rare he found anyone who loved Halloween half as much as he did, and in such a youthful soul too.
Just then, in place of the villainous boogieman's manor, everyone saw the most important thing that they came here for...or at least most important for almost everyone. Jack in particular was quite fascinated by this unusual sight. "What's this?" he asked, looking curiously at the thing that had been hidden under their defeated foe.
Lighting up on the ground where Oogie Boogie's manor once stood was the shining outline of a large Keyhole. Everyone else's surprise was replaced with a knowing smile as they looked to Sora, exchanging a unanimous nod to the young Keyblade wielding boy. Stepping forward, Sora raised his Keyblade and aimed it upward toward the moon. Light gathered at the tip of his Keyblade, launching toward the moon only to scatter and fly down toward the Keyhole. A bit different from how they had done it before, but all the same, the keyhole faded, and an audible locking noise rang throughout the moonlit valley.
Now, like all the other worlds before this one, Halloween Town was safe from the darkness.