Chapter 3: Around every corner
Ventus opened a door which led to another hallway after having chosen one of the two splitting paths.
'I have to stop him.'
Having interacted with Vanitas has put him in a very worried state, concerned that Vanitas will find a way to hurt Aqua and Terra. As he was speed walking around, he passed by a few hallways before interacting with a door that led into another hallway.
'How many hallways are there?!'
Ventus thought has he started to get a bit impatient. He began to speed walk towards the end of the hallway only to be caught off guard by a random cardboard of a devil like cartoon character popping up.
"...!"
Ventus pulled out his keyblade as he saw this as a threat at first before managing to calm himself down. Once he calmed himself down, he went to check on where the cardboard cartoon had popped up from. As he reached the hallway, he saw that Borris was standing on the door to the next area.
"Borris!"
Borris looked at Ventus and just waved at him, showing that he was happy to see the young boy. Ventus smiled as he saw that his ally was alright.
"Good to see you here, I was getting worried something might've happened to you."
"..." Borris just nodded at Ventus, appreciating the boy's worry about him. Ventus turned his attention towards the door behind Borris, prompting him to ask,
"Where does the door lead?"
Borris just stood silent, not being able to respond. It took a couple of seconds before remembering that Borris doesn't speak.
"Sorry...let's just keep going."
Borris nodded to this and quickly went to open the door. As they go through onto the next area, the duo find themselves in a room filled with shelves and ink on the ground. The keyblade wielder felt uncomfortable being in this area, sensing a strong ties to darkness.
He slowly walked around the room with Borris walking by his side, being on guard as well.
Upon observing the room, Ventus found that in most of the shelves there were plushies of three specific characters, Borris, Alice Angel, and some other character with devil-like horns.
Some of these plushies varied in size along with the devil plushie having a clock version of itself. After a bit of exploring, he and Borris left the room and started to make their way into another long hallway.
"This place sure loves their hallways." Ventus spoke as he started to notice how tedious the studio is with their long hallways. As he explored around, he noticed a fuse box that was connected by two different levers, one close by to them and another that seemed to be far off.
"Seems like we will need to split up." The Keyblade Wielder said, having figured that this would be the outcome. "You can do this one, I'll do the other one."
Borris nodded at the boy before making his way towards the lever close by. Ventus nodded back at him before making his way towards the other lever. While doing this, he was thinking about how Borris reminded him of Goofy for some reason.
'They share a similar...feeling...'
This thought would eventually leave his mind as he finds himself in another hallway though one that doesn't seem to have an exit since at the end of it had a poster of the butcher gang.
He approached this poster with a curious look, intrigued by the designs of the three butcher gang members before turning his attention towards the lever to his left side.
'There it is.'
Just as he was about to pull down on the lever, he suddenly felt a threat nearby which prompted him to pull out his keyblade and get himself into defense mode.
As he turned towards the poster once again, he saw one of the three butcher gang members suddenly pop out, ripping the poster apart and charging right at him.
Without hesitation, Ventus with two swings of his weapon, he took out the threat. It fell to the ground, looking lifeless.
The keyblade wielder was a bit wary but he was confident enough that his attacks were strong enough to beat the creature down.
Just as he was about to go back towards the lever, he noticed that a dark aura was being created around this inky creature.
"What?"
Ventus was caught off guard by this development, prompting him to keep his guard up as he saw the creature slowly standing up.
Once it was back on its feet, it was revealed to have a heartless symbol now in its chest area.
The eyes that were nothing but a dark void had now color of dark yellow as he started to charge at the keyblade wielder, trying to attack him.
The keyblade wielder blocked each of these attacks, noticing that they are strong for any heartless.
After a few attacks, he waited for the right moment before using all of his strength to eliminate the threat.
With one strong swing through the chest area, Ven was able to take out the heartless, watching as the ink creature started to wither away. As this was happening, the boy had a simple question on his mind,
'What exactly just happened?'
The boy looked back at where the butcher gang member was once at before fading away before looking at the destroyed poster, confused on what kind of heartless could do that.
This thinking only helped to further worry about Terra and Aqua, not knowing what other type of heartless could be roaming around the studio. He quickly joined back with Borris, making sure that his new ally is alright, before continuing on deeper into the studio.
As they continued, they passed by a room before the duo arrived at an even larger room. Ventus explored for a bit, wanting to see if there were any signs of Terra or Aqua before joining Borris down the stairs and into the elevator.
Before entering, Ventus was feeling a bit uncomfortable entering the elevator since it looked very old and could suddenly drop.
'This looks extremely dangerous. Someone could get hurt if it suddenly breaks...but it looks like the only way to continue on.'
Borris the elevator first, wanting to make sure it's safe before letting Ven know that it's okay to walk in. The Keyblade Wielder walks into the elevator and looks at the buttons, leading to different floors.
"Where do you want to go?" He asks Borris in a kind and friendly manner. Borris didn't respond as he was unsure what floor they should go to.
Before him or Ventus did anything, the elevator doors started to close. Ventus pulled out his keyblade as he was unsure whether to preserve what's going on as a threat.
As he was on guard, he along with Borris began to hear the voice of a woman. Ventus recognized this voice as the one before he encountered Vanitas.
"You're so interesting...so different–no, very different. I have to say I'm an instant fan."
"Who are you?" Ventus said in a serious tone of voice.
"Just a fan...I'm so interested in you. You are truly special." Angel spoke as she was fascinated by Ventus's existence. Ventus wasn't sure how to even respond to what was being told to him. Angel continued to speak, "Seems like you have a date with an angel!"
"..." Ventus stood silent while keeping his guard up, sensing an intense darkness as the elevator was reaching the floor it was designed to move towards. Just as the elevator was reaching its location, Alice continued to speak,
"Come to me now. Level nine."
Just as she says this, the elevator would eventually reach level nine. Once reaching the level, the elevator doors began to open while Alice was speaking.
"Come on, step out of your cage. There's a whole twisted world out here. Mehehehe..."
Ventus didn't like the smile laugh Alice did at the end of her sentence...he in fact did not like hearing what she said. He looks around the area for a moment with his keyblade out and ready for a fight. As he took a glance around, he turned his attention towards Borris.
"Do you think this could be a trap?"
Borris looked at Ventus before nodding, a bit positive that this is a trap for them. The keyblade wielder figured. He turned towards the buttons and was about to click one of them in order to take Borris and himself somewhere else only for another voice to speak out.
"I wouldn't say trap, more like a meet up."
Ventus turned towards the voice with a slightly angry facial expression, knowing full well who this was.
"Vanitas!"
"Someone's on edge." Vanitas said as he was enjoying how intense his 'brother' looked. Ventus stood looking at him for a moment before turning towards Borris.
"Let's go, Borris."
As he said this, he and Borris began to go explore the ninth level with Vanitas watching from a distance.
"What? Nothing to say to your dear brother?"
"...you are not my concern right now." The keyblade wielder said while still looking forward. Vanitas didn't like this, prompting him to say in an annoyed tone of voice,
"You really aren't no fun. Oh well, I'll just have to watch you fail some more, brother."
Ventus looked at Vanitas's direction as he finished speaking, feeling annoyed by his presence. As he looked, he noticed that Vanitas had disappeared once again. This gave an uneasy feeling for the keyblade wielder, not liking that his other half was able to just appear whenever he felt like it.
'Whatever you are up to, I'll make sure to stop you, Vanitas. I won't let you hurt my friends.'
Having this strong desire to stop Vanitas from trying to harm his friends, he turned forward and made his way deeper into the level he was in.
He headed down the stairs and passed a small bridge that led to a door with a large version of Alice though not looking evil.
This Alice model was holding a sign saying She's Quite A Gal! on it. Ventus and Borris kept their guard up, having a bad feeling of the place.
Once arriving at the close door, the two heard a couple of noises of machinery moving.
This prompted the keyblade wielder to get in front of Borris with his keyblade ready for battle.
After a few seconds, the doors open with Ventus still on guard while Borris has an odd feeling.
The two enter to see a cardboard of Alice Angel in the connected hallways before reaching a room that not only had a large amount of ink on the ground but had a couple of dead ink creatures, one of them being another Borris.
"Wha...What is this place?"
Ventus was in complete shock by what he was witnessing, a dead Borris missing his heart and having some bones sticking out of his chest area along with other ink creatures like members of the butcher gang.
Borris approached the closest dead Borris and just proceeded to stare at it. Ventus was unsure what his ally could be thinking yet all he could think is how could someone do something so cruel.
'Who would do such a thing?'
"Honestly I don't know why you are freaking out this much." Vanitas said in a calm tone. Ventus looked at him with an angered facial expression before looking back at the amount of death in the room. Vanitas continued, "This honestly feels home to me."
"Of course you would say that."
Vanitas smiled underneath his mask with Ventus having a feeling that he's doing that. He looks at Borris once again before hearing Alice's voice.
"Look around it. It took so many of them to make me so beautiful. Anything less than perfect was left behind."
"How...How could you be so heartless and do this?!" Ventus yelled out in anger, hating everything he was seeing. Alice responded swiftly with a different type of voice,
"I had to do it. She made me."
"Who?" Ventus questioned.
"..."
"Who?!"
As Ventus yelled his question in fury, he had no response given, prompting him to jump high enough to glide across the large amounts of ink and react the platform to the next room.
He walked around a couple of small hallways before reaching the room where Alice was located. He noticed one of the butcher gang members was tied to a table, still alive and looking like its being tortured.
"Hey!" Ventus yelled as he swiftly entered the room. "Let him go!"
"No, it would be dangerous to let him out." Alice said in a very sweet tone yet Ventus wasn't fooled by this. He pointed his keyblade at her as he said,
"You can't just hurt them like that!"
"Oh. Is there a better way to hurt them then?"
"N-No that's not–"
"Haha, you walked into that, Ven." Vanitas said as he appeared in front of his 'brother', enjoying the scenery. Ventus would only look at Vanitas in a threatening look. Alice tilted her head as she looked puzzled by the way the keyblade wielder was turning his attention to something else.
"What are you looking at? Focus on me!"
As she yells this, Ventus looks back at her, having shifted his expression to a less angry looking one. Alice continued,
"Normally there would come a question, should I kill you? Or tear you apart to my heart's delight?"
"Wouldn't that be fun to see." Vanitas added, continuing to antagonize Ven. The keyblade wielder ignored him and just continued to look at Alice, noticing that she didn't really acknowledge Vanitas's comment. She just continued to speak,
"It would be a question for the sake of beauty...but you aren't like the others. You are more...of a fighting spirit."
"What do you mean?" Ventus said as he tilted his head.
"You have a strange weapon and your presence...it attracts things. It's almost like...you were made to exterminate these pests."
Ventus stood silent for a moment, not wanting to give any information to this woman related to the keyblade, the outside world, or about his friends. He took a step back as he pointed his keyblade at her.
"What do you want?" As Ven said this with a sharp tone, Alice couldn't help but smile as she liked the fierce spirit the boy was possessing. She looked back at the disgusting ink creature while responding to the keyblade wielder's question:
"I want to be beautiful. I don't want to go back to that ink form..." Alice's voice shifted from confident into a more concerned one, "Do you know what it's like? Living in the dark puddles? It's a buzzing sound, screaming well of voices! Bits of your mind, swimming...like...like fish in a bowl! The first time I was born from its inky womb, I was wiggling, pussing, shapeless slug."
"..." Both Ventus and Vanitas remained silent by this, Ven starting to feel bad which prompted him to lower his keyblade while Vanitas couldn't help but find this intriguing. Alice continued:
"The second time...well...It made me an angel!...I will not let the demon touch me again. I'm so close now. So...almost perfect. Yes. I will spare you. For now. Better yet...I'll even let you ascend and leave this place. If you will do a few eensey weensey little favors for me first."
"What kind of favors?" Ventus questioned, not liking where this is going at all. Alice didn't look at Ven as he asked this question, continuing to speak in a dead like tone:
"Return to the lift my little errand boy. We have work to do!"
As Alice finished speaking, she clicked a button that closed her window off from being viewed what she was up to. While this happened, the door that allowed him to enter the room opened. Ventus looked around and noticed that Vanitas was no longer around, leaving him all by himself in this room.
'I don't trust that Vanitas is roaming around...I don't trust her, she's up to something and the amount of darkness I sensed in her...'
Ventus was left uncertain on what he should do though he knows that finding his friends Terra and Aqua are his main priority. He quickly ran all the way back towards the lift, thinking that maybe if he explored all the levels, he might encounter either Terra or Aqua.
Henry and Aqua both started to get up, having been unconscious for an unknown amount of time.
The two at first were on edge since they had no clue what had happened, especially Aqua since the last thing she remembered seeing was a dark version of her, smiling.
She pulled out her keyblade and kept her guard up as she was in search of the dark version of her.
Henry saw this and could only interpret that an enemy was nearby. As the two were on guard for about a minute, Henry turned towards Aqua to see that she was anxious.
"Are you okay?"
"..."
Aqua remained vigilant, not having heard Henry's concerned question.
This prompted him to tap her on the shoulder, wanting to get her attention.
As he tapped her shoulder gently, Aqua's instincts prompted her to swing in that direction, thinking that her evil self was trying to grab her.
Henry was able to see this just barely in time, allowing him to jump back to avoid getting hit.
As he dodged the attack, Aqua noticed that there wasn't anybody there except for Henry that was on the ground, looking a bit intimidated. This helped her snap back to reality, prompting her to put away her keyblade while also checking on her ally.
"I'm so sorry about that!"
"—I-It's fine. At least nobody got hurt." Henry said this with an optimistic outlook on things. Aqua remained silent as she helped the man get back on his feet before looking around the room.
"What had you all spoked by the way?" The man asked, knowing full well that something was troubling Aqua. "Was it that creature we escaped from?"
"No. It wasn't...It was something else..."
Aqua did her best to speak in a calm tone though thinking about Anti-Aqua made her anxious.
Henry could see this, making him drop the subject entirely and turn his focus on finding an exit.
It took him a few seconds before noticing a door covered with wood.
Without a second thought he destroyed the barrier covering the door, allowing him and by extension Aqua to access the door.
He opened the door to check for any dangers before turning towards Aqua.
"We should head this way."
"...Alright."
Aqua approached the door where Henry was located before taking the lead, wanting to make sure that if they run into any danger, she will be able to protect her ally.
As the two walked for a bit, Henry was curious about the weapon his ally was holding, never seeing anything like it before.
"That weapon you hold, I've never seen anything like it. What's it called?"
"...It's just something used to eliminate those dark creatures."
"The ink ones or the other ones?"
"...both."
"Hm." Henry was a bit skeptical when he heard this though he noted that Aqua was hiding something in relation to the key shaped sword. "Does your weapon have a name?"
"..."
Aqua remained silent as she didn't want to reveal anything about the keyblade. Since this conversation wasn't going to lead anywhere, prompting him to stay silent for a moment only for Aqua to ask her own questions.
"Why would this Joey Drew send you to this place?"
"Not sure...I thought it was those dark creatures but then I saw the ink machine...I'm unsure now."
As Henry took a pause, Aqua could tell that the man was bothered.
"How do you know this Joey Drew person? Was he your boss or friend?"
"...I used to be his partner." Henry said with a blank expression.
"Partner? In what?" Aqua asked with some curiosity in her voice.
"We worked on creating Bendy and his friends."
"As in those ink creatures?"
"No! Not those things. We created these cartoon characters together...or well I drew the character for the most part though he was in charge of the production side of things."
"Hm. I don't think I'm aware of these cartoons."
"You aren't?" Henry asked with a surprised tone, not thinking that there wasn't somebody aware of Bendy.
Then again, it could be possible Aqua is from a place that didn't broadcast Bendy.
As these thoughts were on his mind, the two were suddenly surrounded by shadow heartless.
This prompted Aqua and Henry to get their respective weapons out in order to deal with the current threat at hand.
Aqua swiftly took out most of the shadow heartless with ease while Henry was only able to take out two of them, having a bit of trouble since combat isn't really his thing.
As the two were on their guard, a couple of ink creatures started to form on the puddles of ink laying around.
Henry swung his axe at a few of them, hoping to do some damage but to his surprise, he was able to take a few of them out in one hit.
"Huh..."
That left him a bit surprised yet he returned his mind in focusing on helping fight off the ink creatures.
Aqua continued to fight off the ink creatures until she sensed an attack coming from her back side.
She swiftly turned around to block an attack coming from a dark version of her, anti aqua.
"Wha—?!"
"..."
Anti-Aqua looked at Aqua with a sinister smirk before throwing a barrage of attacks with the dark version of Aqua's Rainfall keyblade. Aqua was not only extremely focused on her new opponent but also frightened, disliking the look on her dark counterpart.
"What's wrong? Has something frightened you?"
Anti-Aqua asked in a clearly mocking manner, putting Aqua some fear in her heart. Henry took out one of the remaining ink creature's before turning towards Aqua's direction.
"Hey Aqua! Watch out!"
Henry swiftly ran towards the Keyblade Master's direction to knock one of the ink creatures away from her.
"...huh?!"
Aqua was caught off guard by this, prompting her to look forward again to see that Anti-Aqua was gone.
'What's going...?'
Before she could even finish her thought, she returned her focus on the fight ahead. She got back up and charged at the ink creature.
With only one swing of her keyblade, the ink creature was eliminated.
With no other ink creature or heartless appearing, Henry was able to lower his guard and put his attention on Aqua.
He isn't sure what happened to her to have paused all of a sudden yet he knew this could cause trouble later down the road if they encounter a dangerous foe.
"Hey Aqua, what happened there?"
"What do you mean?" The Keyblade Master asked in a calm manner, curious on what Henry was referring to.
"It just looked like you were seeing a ghost or something."
"A ghost—?"
Before Aqua could truly process what Henry had said, they felt the room suddenly shake violently with ink dripping in certain parts of said room. This prompted the two to be on their guard, with Aqua expecting Anti-Aqua to appear once again.
As they were looking around for the possible threat, they noticed that something was coming out of the ink puddle far off on the hallway connected to the current room.
"...We should get out of here." Henry suggested, having a bad feeling about the creature coming out.
Aqua understood what was being suggested to her, prompting her to nod at her ally.
Henry began to lead the way, wanting to gain as much distance from whatever was coming out of the ink puddle.
As they were running around a few hallways, they eventually encountered a large number of shadow and soldier type heartless.
"What—?!"
Henry stopped on his tracks as he felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of heartless surrounding the large hallway.
"I got this!"
Aqua shouted confidently as she pointed her keyblade towards the hallway filled with heartless before casting a powerful magic attack.
"Blizzaga!"
The moment she shouted this, her keyblade managed to fire a powerful ice attack that was able to easily eliminate all of the heartless in the hallway. Henry was completely taken aback by this, shocked to see something like this.
'This attack...is like from a game...'
Henry was impressed to see a video game like attack in person. He turned towards Aqua to see that she was looking a bit tired out.
"Are you okay?"
"...Yeah...I'll be okay...let's keep going."
Henry was concerned for Aqua's safety but since they aren't in a safe place, he understood that they can't slow down, especially if the creature that came out of the inky puddle is catching up to them quickly.
He and Aqua started to run down the frozen hallway and onto the room.
Before Henry had entered the room, he turned back to make sure Aqua entered what seemed to be a safe room first while also seeing if the ink creature was behind them.
As he looked down the hallway they had gone through, he saw that there was something going on far off in the distance.
This made him cautious, prompting him to wait for Aqua to enter before entering himself.
Just as he was about to go inside, he was knocked in the head by some unknown attack.
As Henry collapsed to the ground, Aqua turned around and saw that someone was holding a shovel and wearing a worn down Bendy mask.
"Henry!"
Aqua attempted to save her ally only for the person to close the door to the room.
She quickly tried to open the door yet the door knob wasn't moving, prompting her to point her keyblade at the door.
While attempting to open the door with the keyblade, someone grabbed her shoulder which caused her paranoia to increase once again.
"Who's there?!"
"Who else?"
Aqua's eyes widened as she switched her Rainfall keyblade into the The Master's Defender keyblade while looking for Anti-Aqua's location.
"Show yourself!"
"..."
There was no response to her demand, causing Aqua to be even more on guard, not liking that her evil version was remaining silent.
As she was looking around, a few heartless, nobodies, and even unversed appeared around her.
'The unversed?!'
Aqua knew that the unversed were only around if Vanitas was around, prompting her to be worried that he hadn't truly been eliminated in the Keyblade Graveyard.
'He's always managed to come back...'
Aqua as always disliked Vanitas, not being able to stand him, especially after he possessed Ventus during the first fight in the Keyblade Graveyard.
She held a strong grip on the Master's Defender keyblade as the heartless, nobodies, and unversed jumped towards her, trying to gang up on her from all sides.
As they were closing in on her, she quickly created a barrier to protect herself from the attack.
Once the heartless, nobodies, and unversed were pushed back from this barrier, Aqua took the opportunity to strike at the heartless first, seeing them as the easiest once to eliminate before turning her attention to the nobodies.
As she looks at the next target, she points her master's keyblade at them before firing a powerful Firaga, knowing that this would do the job.
As her attack connected with one of the dusk nobodies, it caused a blinding light to be created for a few seconds before half the dusk nobodies were taken down.
The remainder of them all scattered as they tried to attack the Keyblade Master from different locations.
Aqua was not fazed by this and was easily able to block each of their attacks before counter attacking them.
The unversed were the remaining creatures in the room but rather than just go into a suicide fight with the Keyblade Master, they just left the room by jumping onto the ground and disappearing.
She noticed this yet her attention was more on Anti-Aqua, knowing that she was watching her fight.
"Show yourself!"
"That won't change anything if I do or don't. Your friends are missing again. The person you were supposed to protect is now gone. You are all alone again, Aqua."
"I'll find Terra and Ven! I'll also rescue Henry!" Aqua declared with confidence, not wanting to allow her darkness to take control of her emotions.
She turned towards the door that had shut with Henry on the other side.
She pointed the Master's Defender keyblade at it before managing to open the door.
Once it opened, Aqua looked at the hallway that Henry was captured in and saw how the hallway became covered in ink.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Anti Aqua mockingly asked. "Go and be the hero. Risk your life for others. It's not like they would do the same for you."
Aqua remained silent for a brief moment before entering the inky hallway, filled with determination but also fear.
She's afraid of being on her own again, especially after roaming the realm of darkness for a decade on her own, fending off the darkness.
Henry was waking up, everything pitch black at the moment since he was recovering from the hit to the head he had received.
'Where...am I?'
As Henry questioned this in his mind, he could hear a voice speak to him.
"There we go now. Nice and tight. We wouldn't want our sheep roaming away now, would we?"
As the man was finishing his question, Henry was able to finally see. He looked around to see that he was tied up, in a whole new room, and right in front of him was the one responsible for knocking him out in the first place.
'Who is he?'
This was a question that ran in his mind. He recognized the voice and yet he couldn't put his finger on it. The man with the bendy mask held Henry's axe tightly while continuing to speak.
"No, we wouldn't." There was a small pause with the atmosphere feeling tense. "I must admit I feel honored you came all the way down here to visit me. It almost makes what I'm about to do seem cruel."
"What...are you planning to do?" Henry questioned. The man didn't respond, if anything he turned around to set the axe down while continuing to speak without even addressing Henry's question:
"But the believers must honor their savior. I must have him notice me."
After setting down the axe, he turned around and approached Henry once again. He was about to continue on about the savior he mentioned only to pause when he took a good look at Henry's face.
"Wait. You look familiar to me...that face..."
The man with the worn out bendy mask took a closer look at Henry's face, feeling that he's close to figuring out why the man he's sacrificing is familiar to him. Just as he was closing in on figuring it out, his mind snapped him out of this train of thought and returned him back into the purpose of Henry's sacrifice.
"Not now. For our lord is calling to us, my little sheep. The time of sacrifice is at hand! And then, I will finally be set freed from this...prison. This inky...dark...abyss I call a body."
"Wha—?!" Before Henry could even speak, the man with the worn out bendy mask interrupted him immediately.
"Shhhh...Quiet! Listen! I can hear him. Crawling above. Crawling! Let us begin. The ritual must be completed! Soon he will hear me...He will set us free."
As the man finished speaking, he walked onto the door to his right side and left the room, leaving Henry tied up.
"Wait a minute, you can't just leave me here like this!"
The man closed the door without listening to a word Henry said, almost like he was intentionally blocking everything out. After a few seconds, the man spoke:
"Sheep, Sheep, Sheep. It's time to sleep. Rest your head. It's time for bed. In the morning, you may wake. Or in the morning, you'll be dead."
'Oh fuck this.'
Henry did everything he could to free himself from his current situation. While he did this, the man continued with his nonsense.
"Hear me, Bendy! Arise from the darkness! Arise and claim my offering! I summon you, Ink Demon! Show your face and take this tender sheep!"
Hearing this made Henry panic for a moment since the room was increasing the amount of ink falling from different areas of the ceiling as well as some ink puddles beginning to form. Just as it seemed like it would be his end, he could hear the man panicking.
"No! My lord! Stay back! I am your prophet! I am you—AHHH!"
As he heard the man scream in agony, Henry managed to break free from being tied up.
Prompting him to quickly grab his axe and to make a run for it, having felt the room shake violently.
Just as he was about to leave the room, an ink creature appeared from the puddle above him and began to crawl towards him.
This frightens him despite having an axe on his right hand.
Just as his fight or flight kicked in, he remembered when he saw the deadliest ink creature back at the beginning of his time in the twisted studio.
He remembered how determined and brave Aqua was when facing death itself.
This memory helped him fight off the ink creature, managing to somehow slice the head off of the ink creature in one swing.
As this happened, he ran from the room and into the hallway.
As he was trying to gain his distance from the room, he cut down any boards on his way before arriving at the end of the hallway.
The door he needed to enter was a few feet away from him but the floor between the door and Henry was filled with a large pool of ink.
'I...don't like this...'
Henry's senses were telling him that something's in the large amount of ink on the ground. He slowly moved towards the ink only for his senses to be correct. The creature from the beginning had popped out from the ink puddle.
"Bendy!"
The creature didn't hesitate in starting to go after Henry, moving faster than the man expected.
"Stay away!"
Henry shouted as he turned around and just started to run aimlessly, unintentionally heading towards some other hallway. As he was running for his life, Bendy was closing in on him, each step closing the gap quickly.
'I don't want to die...!'
Henry was so afraid of dying since he knew that the creature was within reach from him, making him think back to all of the good memories he had in his life.
That ranged from the time he was making Bendy all the way prior to him meeting up with Joey.
Just as Bendy was about to grab him, a sudden keyblade had landed a strong hit to the ink demon's head.
Henry turned back to see the ink demon, noticing that a weapon was suddenly thrown towards him. Upon a further close examination, he saw that the weapon resembled a keyblade.
'Wait. Does that mean Aqua managed to find me?'
As his hopes were getting up, he saw that it wasn't Aqua but someone else. It was a young adult with brown hair that's around the base of his neck in terms of hair length.
Henry was caught off guard by this but recalled that Aqua was looking for her friends, that being the reason why she's even in this hell hole of a place.
'That's got to be one of her friends!'
Henry kept his distance as the keyblade wielder landed a few more hits on Bendy, sending the ink demon back. Once this happened, the keyblade wielder turned towards Henry to ask him:
"Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah...but we need to get out of here and fast!"
"Just start running. I'll catch up."
"...okay."
Henry understood this, knowing that he's a liability being around since he doesn't have any powers like this Keyblade Wielder or like Aqua.
The only thing he had was an axe, which won't do much to an ink demon like Bendy.
As he was about to run, Henry had one question to ask the Keyblade Wielder.
"What's your name?"
"Terra. Now go!"
Henry nodded as he allowed Terra to take care of things in regards of Bendy.
Prior to this, Terra had managed to move from the floor he was in towards the following floor, using his connection to Ventus and Aqua to guide him around.
He just so happened to be around when he heard someone shout in fear.
He got his keyblade out and managed to reach Henry in time.
He was standing tall as he waited for Bendy to attack.
The ink demon was at a pause, looking a bit off about the keyblade, the same weapon that did damage to it.
As it was looking like it was thinking, a dark aura could be shown around the ink demon.
'Darkness.'
Terra had his guard up, preparing himself for whatever Bendy would do.
The ink demon rapidly started to approach the keyblade wielder, Terra charged at the ink demon.
He wasn't fazed by the way his opponent was looking.
Once the two were within each other's range, Terra swung his keyblade at the ink demon while Bendy attempted to grab the young man.
As Bendy was able to grab Terra's neck, Terra was able to land another strong hit to the ink demon's stomach area.
As Bendy was sent flying away once again, Terra was suddenly stuck in place for a moment.
'...What...is...?'
Bendy once again tried to grab the keyblade wielder, Terra pointed his Earthshaker keyblade up in the air, having some fear all of a sudden.
"Meteor!"
A large meteor appeared in between both him and his opponent, blocking the path for Bendy to do anything.
Once this happened, Terra took a brief moment to relax himself, still feeling some odd effects from having been grabbed by the ink demon.
'What...is...?'
Terra couldn't help but feel lucky that he managed to push away the ink demon in time, having an odd feeling that if he was held for any longer, something bad would've happened.
He turned around and started to catch up with Henry, remembering that he told the man to run off without him.
As he ran in the direction Henry had gone to, he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to use the connection to his friends in order to find them.
It took him a bit before finally reaching Henry, seeing that he was waiting for him in a safe room with his axe on hand.
"There you are."
Terra approached Henry, catching his attention.
"Did you manage to kill that thing?" Henry asked, curious.
"No but that ink creature won't follow us. I can assure you that." Terra said as he wanted to reassure the man. Henry understood, causing him to lower his guard for a moment.
He was somewhat relieved to still be alive though the fact that he had been separated from Aqua still bothered him.
As he was thinking of the Keyblade Master, it prompted him to turn towards the Keyblade wielder.
"Do you know someone named Aqua?"
This question had Terra's complete attention. He was at first thinking about the ink demon, trying to think of what the creature was trying to do. The moment he heard Aqua being mentioned, he turned towards Henry to question him.
"You've seen her?! How is she? Have you also met up with Ven?"
"No, I haven't met someone named Ven. Aqua was okay, she actually saved my life from that creature before."
"...that's good to hear." Terra said, happy that at least one of his two friends were okay. "How come you are not with her? Did you get separated?"
"...Yeah...someone hit me in the head with something, knocking me out. All I remember last about Aqua's whereabouts was her entering what seemed to be a safe room."
"Do you think you can help me find her and my other friend, Ven?"
"Of course!"
Henry didn't hesitate when he responded to Terra's question since he wants to not only make sure Aqua's okay but also he wants to repay her for having saved his life multiple times.
Terra smiled at this, liking that this man was so eager to help him out in finding Aqua and Ventus.
"I never got your name."
"Oh. Right. My bad." Henry said as he scratched the back of his head. "My name is Henry. It's nice to meet you, Terra."
The Keyblade Wielder nodded at the man before the two went into a random hallway, with Terra being the one leading the duo since he's following the connection he has with his friends.
Henry looked at his axe for a moment before looking forward, feeling determined to find Aqua and the other missing friend, Ventus.
Author's note:
Sorry that I haven't posted/put a lot of attention to this story. Life has sort of been busy and I've only been able to work on two stories at a time. Now that I have posted this, it'll be a month at most for the next chapter but don't worry, I haven't abandon the story. I want to finish this and all of my other stories, reach the conclusion to them so no need to worry about that. Hopefully you all enjoyed the chapter. Until the next one.