Chapter 21: Make it count!
Sora and Felt both started to push Larxene back with everything they got, forcing the organization member to jump back as she was barely able to keep up against the two. Larxene jumped back with an angry facial expression since she still isn't doing any damage to the boy she hates with a passion. Meanwhile Julius uses an ability of his that creates a pure white light that unleashes a blow known as El Clausel. As he summons El Clausel to do some damage to Marluxia, managing to push back the organization member with both Waraki and Old Man Rom providing back up. The two would attack him when they see and open or protect Julius should he end up leaving himself open for a fatal attack.
"Not bad knight, that one actually hurt a little."
"Trust me Marluxia, as the knight of the Imperial Guard of Lugnica, I will defeat you."
"Bold statement but for someone who isn't Sora, I doubt it."
Marluxia quickly charged at Julius and began to force him into the defensive side of the battle when he started to overwhelm the knight with a barrage of attacks only for both Old Man Rom and for Waraki to assist in deflecting some of those attacks. With the three barely holding back some of Marluxia's truest strength, Waraki started to use some of Subaru's tricks he learned during their training in the capital, attempting to misdirect his attacks on purpose to trick his opponent into doing something when he is going to do something else. He was close on doing this as he attempted to make it look like he is going for the head yet he is actually targeting the chest yet Marluxia using wind managed to push Waraki towards a tree. As Waraki was taken out of the fight, Old Man Rom realized that he needed to be quick in his movements if he didn't want to end up getting killed. With his spiked club he moved with everything he got, trying his best to keep up with Marluxia only for the Organization member to easily send him flying with just one swift attack of wind.
"Seems like you are on your own now, knight."
"Don't worry, although my fellow knight and the giant were taken out of our fight, I shall not be discouraged by that. I will keep fighting to the very end."
"Very well then." Marluxia smiled as he enjoyed his fight with the knight yet he does feel that it should end at some point. While Marluxia allowed the fight to continue with the curiosity of seeing what Julius's most powerful attack is, Larxene quickly duplicated herself in an attempt to knock out the little girl from the fight in order for her to truly be able to make Sora pay. Sora anticipated this and quickly told Felt to follow his lead to which the little girl agreed. The two quickly went after one of the Larxenes with Sora providing defensive cover while Felt using all the strength she can muster to deliver the finishing blow.
Sora deflected a couple of Laerxene's attacks until he moved away from her in order to give Felt an opening to attack. Felt quickly charged at Larxene and with her divine protection of wind, she was able to move fast enough to catch her off guard. Felt attempted to slice off Larxene's head yet the organization member managed to dodge the attack barely. She was annoyed by this and quickly tried to hit Felt by throwing knives at the little girl's direction. Sora noticed this and quickly moved towards Felt's position in order to protect her from Larxene's throwing knives. As the keyblade wielder deflects off the attacks, the other Larxene attempts to take out Sora with a sneak attack yet the keyblade wielder was able to barely stop the attack.
"Nice try Larxene!"
"Damn you!" Larxene looked at Sora with anger before going on a barrage of attacks, forcing him to be focused on that Larxene rather than the other one who is now focused on Felt. Larxene thought if she could truly knock out or take down the little girl, she might be able to piss off Sora. Felt realized that Larxene was going all out towards her and quickly used her divine protection of wind to gain some distance from her, not wanting to be killed by her opponent. Sora also took notice of this and quickly gave it his all to find some way in defeating the Larxene in front of him to assist Felt on handling the other Larxene.
As Sora and his crew were holding back Larxene and Marluxia, Subaru and his group took on Petelgeuse with the young boy warning his allies that the Sin Archbishop of Sloth is using an Authority known as the unseen hands. This alert allowed the other warriors to rely on Subaru to take care of the unseen hands while they try to kill the sin archbishop. Subaru agrees on being on the defensive side while his allies take on the offensive. Mimi and Tivey both worked together in providing long range attacks while Yabuto did everything he could to finish off Petelgeuse.
"You won't beat me! I am the Sin Archbishop of Sloth!" Petelgeuse with his madman tone started to bite his fingers once again which caused a bunch of unseen hands to appear behind his back to attack Subaru's crew. Subaru noticed this and quickly casted Blizzard at some of the unseen hands before using the keyblade of his to slice up a couple of them, protecting Yabuto from being killed. Mimi and Tivey both waited for the right moment before firing their Resonance Wave with Subaru looking at their direction should Petelgeuse's unseen hands attempt to reach the two. As he continues to protect his allies, one of the unseen hands passes by the young boy and makes a quick move towards the twins, forcing Subaru to use Thunder to protect the two. The twins were surprised by this with Mimi praising Subaru for being able to cast amazing lighting. Subaru smiled before continuing his fight against the unseen hands, allowing Yabuto to get his first opening on the sin archbishop. As Yabuto attempted to stab Petelgeuse's head, the sin archbishop managed to use one of his unseen hands to punch the knight away from him, sending him flying a few feet with a bruised chest. Subaru noticed this and quickly closed in on Petelgeuse, being the one who could do some damage before the twins used Resonance Wave. As Subaru swings his keyblade at Petelgeuse's direction, he attempts to use the unseen hand to do something similar to what he did to Yabuto yet Subaru's ability to see the unseen hand gave him an advantage to dodge the attack which lead to the young boy landing a powerful hit on the sin archbishop.
"Take that you bastard!"
"Augh?! My brain trembles!"
"Tremble this you bastard! Fire!" Subaru casted a strong fireball at the sin archbishop, managing to hit him yet the unseen hands all together targeted the boy. Seeing that he is in trouble, he used Reflect to protect himself from taking major damage. As Subaru was able to block off the attacks and the light explosions destroyed all of the unseen hands, he told Mimi and Tivey to take the shot. The two nodded and quickly screamed in order to create their Resonance Wave. As the two shot a powerful wave of air, the sin archbishop was just getting up yet he would've been hit if his minions didn't take the attack for him, dying in the process.
"Darn, seems like we are a bit of a pinch, newbie."
Subaru noticed what Yabuto said and quickly looked around to see witch cultists surrounding the four of them. Subaru, Yabuto, Mimi, and Tivey all four stood back to back of one another, each of them ready to face death yet all of a sudden Ricardo joins in on the mix with Otto having tagged along with Patrasche and a bunch of other ground dragons.
"Ricardo? Otto? Patrasche? What are you all doing here?"
"What? You thought I was going to sit this one out and let you all have the fun? No way!"
"What about you Otto? Why are you here?"
"T-To help you all escape should you need the assistance!"
Subaru was surprised Otto was there yet he didn't complain since they now had enough of a force to push back Petelgeuse and his witch cultist. Ricardo and the twins quickly started to take care of the witch cultists with ease while Yabuto and Subaru both worked together to attack Petelgeuse with everything they got. As the two worked together with Subaru providing cover, Petelgeuse sent more unseen hands at the two, confident that this wave will take the two down yet Subaru with his strength and skills gain from his training with Sora was able to knock out all the unseen hands while Yabuto managed to land a hit on Petelgeuse's side.
"This time newbie and I will get you, ya ugly bastard!"
"As if I will lose! I will have the ordeal finished for my love!"
Petelgeuse's anger for having been stabbed caused him to summon an unseen hand to attack everybody. Subaru quickly jumped to destroy the unseen hand yet he left Yabuto to be opened to be attacked by another unseen hand just like he was previously. As Yabuto again gets sent flying with a broken nose, Subaru quickly casted Cure on him to heal his friend before charging at Petelgeuse on his own once again, confident that he will be able to land the finishing blow.
Sora and Larxene continued to have a heated battle with the two showing to be on equal footing with Larxene going on an aggressive offensive while Sora was able to keep up. Felt starts to run from Larxene, knowing that she needs to wait until she can get an opening to land a deadly blow on the Organization member she is facing.
"What's the matter, little girl? I thought you wanted to fight!"
"Shut up bitch, try to get me if you can!"
"You little...!" Larxene disliked the two she was getting from Felt, making her get angry enough that lighting started to spark all over her body. Felt noticed this and smiled since she managed to make her opponent extremely angry yet realized that she will need to be careful as Larxene starts to throw a barrage of throwing knives at the little girl. Sora eventually gained some distance from Larxene to cast Firaga at her, sending a large and deadly fireball at her location. She managed to dodge it yet left herself open to be hit by Sora strong enough to cause the her that is fighting Sora to disappear. Once this happened, Sora turned his focus on the other Larxene, knowing that he needs to finish this now before it is too late. He looked around and noticed Old Man Rom and Waraki getting up, preparing to return back to the fight against Marluxia. Old Man Rom was preparing to join in yet Sora quickly approached him and asked if he could throw him towards Felt's position. Rom looked at Sora before looking at Felt, barely being able to see where she is yet having a feeling that she was in trouble. He nodded and quickly grabbed the keyblade wielder before he threw him towards Felt's position with everything he had. As Sora was rapidly approaching Felt and Larxene, he quickly changed into his Wisdom form, causing his clothing to change to blue and black clothing. As he shifted into Wisdom form, he started firing arrow-shape magic bullets at Larxene, catching her completely off guard as her hatred was focused on Felt to have a much easier time in catching up with the little girl.
'This should do it!' Sora thought to himself as he noticed that some of his arrow-shape magic bullets managed to hit Larxene and do damage to her. She turned towards Sora and returned to focus on him, happy that she would get a chance to kill him this round yet as she was about to go and attack him, Felt managed to land a powerful slash at the organization member's back. Larxene screamed with agony before Sora quickly fired a barrage of magic bullets directly at Larxene, landing the final blows. She was sent flying down to the ground with many of the magic bullets hitting her a lot. Once they stopped, Sora and Felt both approached an badly injured Larxene who had her left arm grabbing her right arm. She looked at Sora with anger and attempted to approach him to continue the fight yet she looked at herself and realized that she was disappearing.
"Defeated again? By this twerp and the annoying little girl!"
"I'm not little!"
"You are little and annoying!"
"That's enough Larxene, you are beaten."
"Damn you 'hero', I will make you pay for this..."
"I don't want you to disappear hating me, after all I don't hate you."
"You should, after all I put you through in Castle Oblivion, you should!"
"Castle...Oblivion?"
"Do you honestly not remember? Well I guess it is for the best." Larxene said that as her last thoughts before disappearing is how she wishes to have done better instead of allowing her hatred to get the best of her. She fell to the ground before completely disappearing, leaving Sora completely unsure of himself since now he wishes to know what happened in Castle Oblivion. Felt smiled at Sora and started to shout victory before Sora smiled back at her. As the two rested for a couple of seconds, they quickly headed towards Julius's position to see how he, along with Waraki and Old Man Rom were doing against Marluxia.
Sora and Felt quickly looked from a corner and saw that a worn down Julius with his uniform a mess was still holding his own against Marluxia. Waraki had the same damaged uniform yet his left arm was bleeding with some parts of his head bleeding as well. Old Man Rom is the only one who looks unscathed. As Sora and Felt joined them in facing Marluxia, he smiled at first before speaking his mind.
"It took you awhile to join, Sora. I take it that Larxene was defeated. Why am I not surprised?"
"You are next, Marluxia."
"Am I? Very well, if you wish to fight me then let's see you arrive to save that precious half-elf friend of yours."
"What are you-" Before Sora could finish, a bunch of nobodies appeared and started attacking the group, giving Marluxia an opening to leave. This caused the group to worry and to quickly take care of the nobodies so they could inform Natsuki Subaru of what happened. Meanwhile Subaru and Yabuto continued to work in unison with Subaru providing the most cover while Yabuto continued to land minimal damage to the sin archbishop. As they kept doing this multiple times, eventually Ricardo and the twins were able to join in on the fight with Patrasche landing a sneak attack on Petelgeuse as he was focused on Subaru and Yabuto. As he was sent flying by Patrasche's attack, Ricardo and Yabuto both took the opportunity to take the finishing blow yet Petelgeuse was able to use his unseen hands to knock the two back yet he did not account for Subaru to jump into the middle of the frey and start beating him up with the keyblade. Each time he summoned an unseen hand, Subaru would quickly destroy it before continuing to hit the sin archbishop with everything he got.
"This time, you will lose! I won't allow anyone else to get hurt because of you, Sin Archbishop of Sloth!"
All Subaru could think of as he kept hitting his opponent is how he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt. He had seen a timeline in which Sora barely managed to save the children and Rem yet everybody else was killed because of the witch cult. The experience is a second timeline where everybody was killed by the witch cult and a third in which he failed to save Rem and Emilia due to his inability to fight. All those feelings surge into determination rather than rage, not ever wanting to lose anybody else like that again. Eventually Subaru was going to deliver the final blow yet Petelgeuse was able to sneak attack the boy with an unseen hand he hadn't noticed. As Subaru was sent flying a couple of feet away, he could see another unseen hand heading towards his direction while hearing Petelgeuse shouting for his death. The young boy managed to destroy the unseen hand yet he was unable to stop another one from grabbing him in the air.
"Hahaha! I got you! Now tell me, are you the one known as Pride?!"
"Sorry to disappoint you, crazy man but my name is Natsuki Subaru...apprentice to the Keyblade Master, Sora, and Emilia's knight!"
"What?!"
Petelgeuse was shocked that Subaru would be the knight of the half-elf he is trying to kill yet before he could act, Yabuto quickly freed Subaru by slashing the thin air near Subaru's body in an attempt to free him from getting killed. As Subaru was freed from the unseen hand, he landed on his feet before quickly charging at the sin archbishop, confident on his own that he could take down the sin archbishop. Ricardo and the others noticed this and quickly went behind him in order to cover the boy with Mimi and Tivey using another Resonance wave. With the waves heading towards Petelgeuse, many of the unseen hands were destroyed with Subaru being able to reach the sin archbishop to attack. As Subaru is about to land a hit, he quickly makes the Petelgeuse to summon multiple unseen hands to attack him, allowing Subaru to quickly slash all of the unseen hands and provide an opening for Yabuto and Ricardo to both take down the Archbishop.
"What?!"
"You fell for my trap, I wanted you to attack me thinking that I was going for you but in reality I was making you be open for the final blow!"
Ricardo and Yabuto combined their strength to slice the Sin Archbishop in half, killing him with Subaru sending a large fireball towards the body in order to make sure that he didn't survive the attack. Once this was done, Sora and the others just arrived at the scene. Sora and Subaru both noticed each other and the two nodded, both of them happy that the other is alright.
"Master Sora, I'm glad you survived the fight."
"I knew you could do it, Subaru. But we need to move fast."
"Wait, why? Where is Emilia?"
"She is in danger! We need to move."
Subaru nodded at Sora and quickly asked how they would be able to reach Emilia and the others in time to which Otto pitched into the conversation.
"May I say something? Right now, I'm actually in a desperate position. If you would accept a trade, I promise to catch up to the carriage that lef—"
"If there's anything I can do, I'll do it!" Subaru shouted out in desperation for needing help in saving Emilia. Otto was surprised by this at first but then he formed a smile.
"I like a man who can decide quickly, Natsuki-san!"
Otto quickly got his ground dragon and Patrasche while Subaru and Sora spoke with Felix, Julius, Waraki, and Yabuto. Felix said that they discovered that one of the carriages as stones that are set to explode, allowing Subaru to conclude that they would need to move extremely fast not only to face off Marluxia but to save the carriage that was Ketty's, being the villager and merchant who was helping the witch cultist. Sora asked for the description of the carriage and as both Felix and Otto explained it, he realized that it was the carriage he saw Emilia go in with the children.
"Subaru, Emilia is in that carriage."
"Well at least that helps pinpoint the stones."
"Sora-san, Natsuki-san, let's get going."
"Right." Both Sora and Subaru nodded before starting to make their way towards the carriage with Felt, Rom, Waraki, Ricardo, and the others wishing the two keyblade wielders good luck. Sora and Subaru quickly got in the wagon with Otto having the two ground dragons to start making heist in the forest, going faster than he thought he would go.
Emilia and the children were all together with the half-elf nervous since the last time she was with a child, it was afraid of her. As she was in her corner, the children all looked at Emilia and started to pounder on where they knew her approached Emilia to ask her if they knew who she was.
"Um..."
"Were you the girl that Subaru wanted to bring to the village?"
"Um yes but..."
Out of nowhere they all got closer to her and started to ask about Subaru and Sora, having a feeling that Emilia also knew the keyblade wielder that saved them from Elsa. As she was overwhelmed by the questions, the Meow Wow appeared and quickly took of Emilia's disguise. As all the children saw that Emilia was a half-elf, they were unsure what to do at first but then they continued to ask their questions, knowing that she was friends with two boys they all trust.
"How are they like?"
"Tell us!"
"We want to know!"
The boys were very persistent in wanting to know about the two keyblade wielders, making Emilia somewhat happy that they are not frightened by the fact that she resembles the witch of envy. As she told them about the training sessions the two boys had and all of the mischief they ended up in, the Meow Wow dream eater approached Emilia and started to show her that it wanted to be petted. Emilia was tempted to pet the cute dream eater until-
"Nope! You are not petting the spirit, Lia."
"P-Puck!"
Puck had appeared from Emilia's hair and quickly gave the dream eater a stare, jealous that her Lia was wanting to pet the dream eater more than him.
"Listen buddy, Lia is contracted with me! She is only allowed to-what the?!"
The dream eater started to squish the great spirit, causing all of the children to laugh with Emilia giggling as the dream eater is showing affection to Puck while the great spirit felt annoyed by the dream eater.
"G-Get off!"
"Seems like this dream eater wants to play with you, Puck."
"How is it wanting to play with me if it is squishing me?!"
The childrens laughed more as they saw Puck struggling for a bit to get the dream eater off. Once he was able to get the dream eater off, he put his paws up for a fight only for the Meow Wow to lick him. Emilia and the childrens were all surprised by this and laughed as they saw Puck completely stunned by this action.
"What in the-"
"I think it likes you." Petra added, having grown a bond with her dream eater. Puck stood silent for a bit before the dream eater again squashed Puck, wanting to play with the great spirit. As Emilia smiled at this, she looked outside to see that Wilhelm and the other knights began their fight against many witch cultists attempting to attack the wagons filled with innocent villagers. As she watched, all she can think about is whether Subaru was alright, making her conflicted in what she feels about the boy. She had always thought the boy as a lost child when they first met yet as they started to get much closer within the time in the mansion all the way until the battle of the capital, she has begun to view him more and more as a close friend yet she knows that the feeling she feels inside for the boy is more than just a close friend.
During the road, Otto was able to lead the ground dragons into the forest as fast as they could which made Sora and Subaru feel dizzy as they didn't expect the ground dragons to lead them down a cliff and through a bridge, destroying the bridge in the process. As both Sora and Subaru gained their composer, Subaru started to yell at Otto if he was insane for going the crazy route. Otto smiled with his eyes completely stunned that he managed to perform such a feat.
"What is this? I feel a wind hitting me. Honestly, even I had no idea I was capable of this-"
Subaru interrupted Otto by beginning to scream in agony, causing both Otto and Sora to completely be worried for the young boy. Sora asked his apprentice what was going on only for the boy to start shouting nonsense.
"What is going…?" Sora paused himself for a moment as he can tell that Subaru is fighting something off from the inside of his heart. As Subaru was shouting, Otto asked Sora if he should stop the wagon to which Sora told him to continue, having an idea in his mind to save his apprentice. He summoned Kingdom Key and pointed it directly at Subaru before firing a beam straight towards the boy's heart, allowing Sora to enter the boy's heart. As Sora entered Subaru's heart, he looked around and noticed the pillar he was in had Subaru but it also had someone else. He looked to see someone with green skin and green hair. Once he noticed this, he looked around and saw a man in the witch cultist robes approaching him with a madman expression on his face.
"The love, the ordeal, it shall all be done for Satella!"
"Who...Who are you?"
"Ah yes, I am a Sin Archbishop representing sloth, Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti! This body will serve as my finger!"
"You mean...you are taking Subaru's body?!"
"YES!"
Sora looked at Petelgeuse and saw him no different from Xehanort, both wanting to use others to accomplish their goals. He summoned the keyblade and quickly got into his fighting stance, ready to take on the sin Archbishop of Sloth to free his friend.
"I will free Subaru, then we will stop Marluxia!"
"No, I will have this body to bring my love! Authority of Sloth, kill this non believer of love!"
Petelgeuse summons a multitude of unseen hands and sends them directly at Sora yet the boy wasn't able to see anything. This caused a problem as Sora was knocked back a couple of times, confused on what was going on.
"Of course! Nobody can defeat Sloth! I will have the ordeal finished!"
"I won't...let you win."
Sora healed himself and prepared to face off Petelgeuse once again, knowing that he would need to time his attack right in hopes of finding a way to deal with his opponent's hidden attack. He charges and uses Firaga in an attempt to hit Petelgeuse. It manages to destroy some of the unseen hands yet a few of them were able to withstand the attack when combined together before charging at the boy and hitting him once again. Sora did another attempt using Thunderaga yet Petelgeuse was still able to use the unseen hands to protect himself from attacks like that, making him smile with such an evil facial expression that even bothered Sora a bit.
"Now die!"
"Urgh! I won't fail you, Subaru!"
As the unseen hands were about to kill Sora due to his inability to see them, a light quickly got in front of Sora and created a barrier to protect him from the unseen hands. He looked at the sparkling light and before he could say anything, he heard the sparkling light speak.
"You will not hurt Master Sora, Petelgeuse!"
As the sparkling light finished speaking, the light entered Sora's heart to allow both Subaru and Sora to be connected in order for Sora to be able to see the unseen hands. Once the barrier broke, Petelgeuse looked at Sora to see for a brief moment Subaru's body to be over Sora's as a spirit before Sora's body was the only thing he saw with both Kingdom Key and the Starlight in both his hands and with white clothing and orange stripes. This angered the Sin Archbishop which caused him to send a multitude of the unseen hands once again, only this time Sora was able to see them now. Using both keyblades he took down the unseen hands with ease, having Subaru's power by his side. The Sin Archbishop was completely angry by this and quickly started to go nuts.
"WHO ARE YOU?! HOW CAN YOU ALSO SEE MY AUTHORITY?! YOU DO NOT CONTAIN HER LOVE ON YOU, SO WHAT ARE YOU? ARE YOU THE VIRTUE ONE WHO IS AGAINST MY LOVER?!"
"I don't know what you are talking about but my name is Sora, the Master of Natsuki Subaru, and Keyblade Wielder."
Sora charges at Petelgeuse without hesitation, causing him to get even more mad and getting him to summon all the unseen hands he can summon. As a bunch more unseen hands attempt to attack Sora, the keyblade wielder uses the two keyblades he holds to wipe them out without hesitation. As he took down a bunch of unseen hands, he managed to get close to Petelgeuse with Sora determined to save his apprentice.
"No matter what happens here, I will defeat you Petelgeuse! I will save my apprentice, my friend, from losing his body from someone like you!"
Sora without hesitation began to hit the Sin Archbishop with everything he got, wanting to free his closest friend from Petelgeuse. As he hit him with a barrage of offensive attacks, one of the unseen hands attempted to sneak attack him yet he was able to fend off the attack by quickly throwing the kingdom key directly at it, managing to destroy the unseen hand in the process. As he does this, he uses the Starlight keyblade to continue on the offensive on the sin archbishop. After a couple of hits, he sends the archbishop flying up while quickly summoning Kingdom Key back onto his right hand. Once he has both keyblades he puts them together to create a bright light around the area. All Petelgeuse does for the first couple of seconds is admire the light before his anger and madness overtakes him once again, causing him to summon another large group of unseen hands. As he does this, all the unseen hands were easily destroyed the closer they got to the light.
"What is this light? WHAT IS THIS?! MY BRAIN...TREMBLES!"
"This is the light that'll save everybody, this is the power of Subaru's and mine combined. The power of our friendship!"
As Sora shouts this to give the sin archbishop an answer, he points both keyblades at him and ends up brightening the entire place which causes the soul of Petelgeuse to slowly start to be destroyed, leaving him screaming his head out for the last few seconds before he was no more. As the light begins to brighten down, Sora looks at the pillar once again to see that Subaru has returned back without Petelgeuse there. He notices that in the circle of the people he cares about, Emilia and himself are the top two people he treasures more than anything, making him smile before he begins to return himself back to the outside world.
Once he reached the outside world, the bright light had dimmed down which caught Otto's attention. This caused him to ask the two what was going on yet he knew that he had to keep his mind focused on the road. Sora and Subaru woke up with Subaru having remembered everything that happened in the odd place Sora and Petelgeuse were fighting. He looked up at his master after summoning the keyblade of his to make sure he still had his weapon with him.
"Master...you did a lot for me despite knowing that it could've gotten you killed since you couldn't see the unseen hands."
"I didn't want my friend to be lost, besides I knew that you would save me, after all we are friends."
"Hehe more like brothers to me, Master Sora. Ever since we met in the loot house, you have given me a chance to grow, a reason to not sit around and let others do the work for me. You gave me a reason to want to make myself a stronger person. You and Emilia are important to my growth which is why I want to make sure that you make it out unscath as well. Just as you risked your life to save mine, I'll risk my life to save yours!"
Sora looked at Subaru and was surprised by the determination he had in wanting to save everybody, the same determination he had during his time in the final world. This made him smile as he felt like he did a good job teaching this boy the ways of the keyblade despite having failed the Mark of Mastery himself. The two nodded at each other before making their way towards Otto's position, wanting to see where they are at. The three looked around the large field to see Wilhelm holding his own against the witch cultists alongside some of the Crusch camp's forces. As the old man noticed the wagon coming out of the woods, he knew that the witch cultists would target the three.
He quickly charged at any witch cultists nearby them and took them out without hesitation. Sora and Subaru thanked him before Otto quickly told the two to ride Patrasche to get to Emilia's wagon faster. The two listened and quickly got onto Patrasche, having her run faster than they expected towards the wagon they wanted to reach. As they are reaching the wagon, every single wagon stops on their tracks to see Marluxia with a Specter nobody is right in front of them, ready to destroy all of them. Sora and Subaru noticed this and quickly went to Emilia's wagon, knowing that they might need the stones to take down the Organization member.
Emilia and the children were all frightened as they could feel the threatening wind and the dream eaters all popping out to protect their owners. Emilia and Puck both nod and prepare to leave to face the new threat yet they along with the children were stunned and happy to see Subaru jumping into the wagon.
"Subaru!" They all shouted with joy yet they were all puzzled to see him looking for something. He quickly starts destroying the floor until he finds the stones glowing red.
"Ah, so that is why you are here, Subaru?"
"Indeed Puck, Sora and I will use this against that annoyance up there."
"Wait Subaru!"
"Yes Emilia?"
"Let me go with you, Puck and I can help you. You don't have to push yourself too much...why do you push yourself more than you are capable? I know you have Sora but why are you fighting?"
Subaru paused himself for a moment, thinking of the question properly before finally giving a response once he remembered the day he arrived in this world and was saved by Emilia.
"I fight because you are all important to me. You all gave me a home in this new world where I had nobody. You gave me a purpose where I had none. Back in that alley, I thought I was going to die but you saved me, then Master Sora somehow gave me the keyblade which allowed me to get more friends than I thought and to face off against impossible odds. I fight to get stronger yes but there is a much bigger reason why I fight. Emilia, I love you. That is why I fight."
"W-What?" Emilia looked at Subaru with a red face, embarrassed but completely stunned by hearing the boy she cares about and worries for say that his reason to fight is because he loves her. Subaru quickly joined with Sora on Patrasche to quickly approach Marluxia, both pulling out their keyblades to show the organization member that they were ready to face him off. As they got closer, Emilia and other warriors attempted to join the two keyblade wielders, yet Marluxia created a barrier to prevent anybody else from participating in the fight. Sora and Subaru both got off of Patrasche with Subaru setting the stones aside, feeling like they will need them later in the fight while Patrasche was preparing herself to assist the two keyblade wielders as best as she can. As Sora and Subaru both started to walk towards Marluxia with confidence, Marluxia smiled at the two, excited to get his chance in fighting Sora.
"As lightless oblivion devours you both, drown in the ever-blooming darkness!"