Chapter 77: Charging into battle
A few days prior to the meeting between Vincent and the others, someone was walking around the forest, having managed to escape the hell that was the heartless attack on the city of Chaosflame.
He turned back to make sure the creatures that attacked the city aren't following him at all.
Once this was secured, he started to slow down in order to reserve energy.
As he started to go from running for his life to walking with calmness, he looked up at the sky, wanting to see if the stars would tell him anything.
'...seems like all of this wasn't originally predetermined by fate. I know that the alignment of the stars change at every moment but why last-minute change?'
This man wearing an oversized dark long-sleeved robe and pants of the same color as well as a white-striped purple undershirt thought, having found it odd that a change in destiny would suddenly happen.
He had foreseen a great calamity that would be the destruction of the empire but now he sees that something had change this fate, an outsider had hijacked the original destined path.
The man looked closely once again at the stars, hoping that they guide him to his purpose, to help the Emperor retain as much peace in the nation as possible.
After a moment of reading the stars, he could see that there's a new threat that puts the Empire at risk of being destroyed.
'If what I'm able to see is current, then we are all doomed...' The man stopped on his footsteps as he felt a bit of fear in him. Normally he wouldn't care since he had survived many crazy encounters and has seen a lot of death but seeing that the end could possibly be near, he starts to think on what he could do.
He was able to escape the gladiators of Island of Ginunhive. the failed rebellion of that island, and just now with the heartless attack on Chaosflame. This situation requires more than just running away. He looked back at the city of Chaosflame, seeing that the fight was still going on despite the distance he had gained from the city.
'Whatever those creatures are, I, Ubilk, mustn't get captured by them or killed. My role is important, making my life important. Although his exile was suppose to be necessary for the safety of the empire, I must now get to the emperor and tell him of the new information the stars have told me.'
With this in mind, he continued to walk towards the direction away from the city of Chaosflame, confident that Yorna and her people will be able to handle the heartless with ease.
Ubilk walked for an hour before running into a couple of travelers. He didn't pay them too much attention since they didn't seem important but as he was passing by them, one of them turned towards his direction before asking,
"Sir, could you tell us where we are at?"
"Hm?" Ubilk turned towards the voice, picking up that the person asking him this question was someone from Kararagi just by their voice alone. "What are you doing out here in the Vollachia Empire?"
"What do you mean?" The unknown young man asked with a curious voice. Ubilk thought back on his question, noticing that it might sound a bit hostile which was something he didn't intent to. This forced him to quickly back-pedal by saying,
"Sorry about that, I mean to sound hostile. Where do you need to go?"
"We are looking for a person rather than a place."
Ubilk stood on his guard secretly, unsure on what the intention between these three travelers were. He cautiously asked:
"Who exactly are you looking for?"
As Ubilk had asked the trio this, he prepared to run in the case they are looking for him. As he waited for this response, he was surprised when the small one responded with a sweet and beautiful voice,
"We are looking for a boy with spikey brown hair."
'A boy with spikey brown hair...that's a rare one.'
Ubilk was able to lower his guard down since he wasn't their target. As he lowered his guard down, he responded to their question with,
"No, I haven't seen anyone with that description. Sorry."
"It's fine." The third person spoke with such a calm yet intimidating tone of voice. "We shall keep looking."
As the third and tall one said this, the three travelers were beginning to head towards the direction Ubilk just came from.
The Stargazer was prepared to leave the three travelers off towards Chaosflame, unsure if the city had even recovered from the attack or had finally fallen.
Just as the two sides were walking separate paths, the stargazer had a feeling that he should warn them about Chaosflame.
"You three should turn around, that place is under attack right now."
The three travelers stopped on their tracks as they heard what Ubilk had said. The first person who talked to Ubilk turned towards him to say,
"Thanks for the warning."
"Yeah...no...problem..."
Ubilk paused himself as he was caught off guard by something.
'Why do I feel this...odd connection to two of the three?'
The Stargazer just stood silent for a moment before turning forward and leaving off to continue on his destined path.
'I felt something within the two, something like me. The Evil Eye...'
A day and a half passed as Vincent lead the large army of Shudraq soldiers, the two keyblade wielders, and the other warriors that have chosen to join the fight. As they were closing in towards the capital, the groups all started to split up. Sora turns towards Louis as he noticed her starting to look nervous.
"Louis. Are you okay?"
"Y-Yes...w-we are just a little nervous, that's all~tsu."
"There's no need to be nervous. Everything will be okay." Sora said with a positive tone of voice, which help calm Louis down a bit. She was still nervous since she has an important role as the communications to all of the groups but the smile and confidence she saw from the Keyblade Master helped severely lessen this nervousness she was feeling.
"We won't let you down!" Louis said with determination and a smile on her face. Sora smiled back before patting her on the head. She felt a warmth in her heart as she felt Sora's soft hands rubbing her head, making her smile.
As this happened, Cloud tapped the Keyblade Master on the shoulder to let him know that they need to head towards their designated location. Sora nodded at Cloud before looking back at Louis, wishing her good luck before heading with Cloud and Zarestia.
As Louis watched the three head towards the entrance of the capital, she turned towards Subaru's direction to see him speaking with Beatrice, Naoko and Kenichi. She wanted to approach the Natsuki household but was stopped when Vincent grabbed her shoulder with little force.
"Y-Yes?" Louis asked, unsure what Vincent wanted to do or ask. He looked at her with a sharp look before responding.
"I need you to follow my group first. I will let you know when to start moving around to the other groups."
"Ok..." Just as it seemed like the conversation was done with that, Vincent continued to hold Louis's arm as he continued.
"I want you to pay close attention to Natsuki Subaru."
"Why?"
"There's something about him that I don't trust."
"..."
Louis stood silent as she heard what Vincent had said, not liking that he wants her to spy on Natsuki Subaru. Before anything else could be said, Medium approached the two while asking,
"Is everything okay here?"
"Yes. I was just telling this girl to follow our group first before doing her job as the messenger."
"Is that what was being told to you, Louis-chan?" Medium asked since she had a feeling that this wasn't the case. Louis stood silent for a moment before just nodding, knowing that distrust within the group will cause a lot of problems.
Medium took note of this, prompting her to grab the teen girl's hand before leading her away from Vincent. After the two were away from him, she turned towards Louis Arneb and started to speak to her in a gentle voice.
"Hey, don't let that man get to you. If he makes you uncomfortable, let one of us know and we will take care of him."
"...okay."
Louis nodded with appreciation before both her and Medium approached Subaru, his spirit, and his parents, with Medium curious to know how her allies are holding up before their big fight ahead of them.
"Subaru-san! How are you doing today?"
"I'm good."
"That's good to hear, how about you two? Are you both ready for today?"
"Yes, we sure are." Kenichi said with a proud and confident tone of voice. "With the Natsuki household united, nothing can stop us."
"That is correct. Together we shall win any obstacle ahead of us." Naoko said with a smile on her face. Medium liked this attitude, confident as well that they will come out on top on this upcoming battle.
"That's the spirit! We are going to win!"
Subaru, Kenichi, and Naoko all cheered as well as they felt motivated by Medium's cheerful shouts while Beatrice had a blank facial expression, not wanting to cheer as she would feel dumb.
Flop noticed from a distance his sister cheering on that they will win, making him have a smile before turning towards Otto, having noticed the merchant next to him.
"So, you must be Otto Suwen, Subaru's merchant friend."
"Subaru-san mentioned me?" Otto asked with a surprised tone.
"Yes, you are one of his closest friends."
Otto smiled as he heard this, seeing a bit on how Subaru views him. Flop put out his hand as he continued to speak:
"The name's Flop O'Connell. Pleasure to meet you."
"Pleasure to meet another fellow merchant."
Otto shook Flop's hand for a moment before Otto asked,
"How did you meet Subaru-san?"
"He needed some help entering the city of Guaral from a couple of Vollachian warriors."
"I suspected as much. Natsuki Subaru-san does love to get himself into trouble." Otto said as he was chuckling a bit, finding it a bit amusing how his friend always gets into trouble. "I assume Sora-san was also by his side when this happened."
"Yes. The two wouldn't have gone far without my sister and I interfering."
"Well, as their friend, I appreciate for having helped those two." As Otto said this, he bowed in respect towards his fellow merchant. Flop was caught off guard by this, prompting him to quickly respond,
"I-It's no big deal. I want to help as many good people as I can. That is what I desire."
Otto just smiled at Flop, hearing how slightly flustered his fellow merchant was. As the two were silent for a moment, Garfiel approaches Otto.
"Brotto, time fer us t'split with our group."
"Alright Garfiel-san, I'll be right there."
The demi human boy nodded at what his best friend told him before going with those from his assigned group. Otto noticed this and quickly turned towards Flop to ask him,
"Think you can keep Subaru-san out of trouble for me?"
"Sure. I'll keep an eye on our mutual friend."
"Thank you, Flop-san."
Otto bowed at Flop one last time before going off to catch up with Garfiel and the others. Flop looked at Otto and could see that him and Subaru are not only close like brothers but have a deep-rooted trust towards each other.
This made him smile since that is what he wants from others, to trust and care for one another. He turned towards his sister's direction before quickly approaching her and the Natsuki family, knowing that he should join them now since everyone was splitting up into their respective groups.
Priscilla watched as everyone was gathering into their groups and heading towards their respective areas. She looked at Sora, Cloud, and Zarestia all three walking towards their designed area. She took a closer look at Sora, noticing his confidence but also determination. This had her attention for a moment before sensing Arakiya approaching her.
"What do you want?"
"I just want to speak before we split up."
"About?" Priscilla spoke sharply, even Al felt bad for Arakiya since she was making an honest effort to mend her and Priscilla's broken trust. Arakiya continued to hold a calm facial expression despite how harsh Priscilla was speaking to her.
"I know this isn't necessary but I do wish you good luck on your part. I know you'll do just fine."
"Of course I will. The world has blessed me with victory before the battle as even begun."
"...of course, princess."
Arakiya nodded at Priscilla, figuring that this was as best as she was getting when conversing with the sun princess.
Olbart and Yorna called her name, alerting the second divine general that it's time to head towards their assigned location.
She looked at them for a moment before looking at Priscilla for a few seconds, noticing that she isn't interested in her at this time.
She accepted this and just bowed at her with respect before turning back towards Yorna and Olbart to head towards their direction. As she was leaving Priscilla's presence, the sun princess looked at her former guard and surprisingly said to her,
"Try not to die a stupid death."
Arakiya couldn't help but be happy when she heard this from Priscilla, seeing that there might be a chance for the two to be close once again.
"I won't."
As Arakiya said this with a hidden smile, she went with the other divine generals towards their designated location. Priscilla looked at the three divine generals leave before turning towards Al and Mizelda, seeing that the two along with an army of Shudraq warriors were ready to go.
"Are you ready, princess?"
"I'm always ready, Aldebaran."
"Please princess, the name is just Al."
Priscilla ignores what Al says while she turns towards Mizelda, wanting to confirm with the Shudraqian leader that her people are ready.
"I want all of your warriors to be ready for a fight. If there is even a little tiny bit of doubt, I don't want them on my group."
"All of them are ready, Priscilla-sama."
"We shall see. Let's go."
Priscilla took charge and lead the group towards their designated location. While this was going on, Garfiel and Otto both joined up with their group comprised of a warrior named Rowan, Heinkel, Theresia, Carol, Grimm, Kafma, and Kyda.
As the two caught up with them, Theresia turned towards the two with a confident expression.
"Are you two ready for the upcoming battle?"
"Hell yea we are!" Garfiel boasted. "Brotto n'my amazin' self's ready fer anythin'!"
Although Otto himself isn't a loud and energetic person like Garfiel, he did nodded with determination.
"That's the spirit." Carol said, seeing that this demi human boy is ready for anything. Theresia just nodded at this, liking the confidence the boy has.
Kafma looked at his teammates, seeing that they are all unique in their own way though he was curious on Heinkel, having noticed him keeping his distance from the group. With this curiosity in mind, he approached the drunk to tell him,
"You should stay close to us. This battle is going to need everyone to work together."
"...Like I'll ever fight alongside a Vollachian."
"At the moment, you are in Vollachian territory, Lugnica scum." Kafma spoke with an intimidating voice. Heinkel kept his guard up as he heard Kafma continuing to speak, "We are going into a dangerous battle. Putting our prides aside, we need you to work with the group. I could care less if you have problems with some or all of the members. We need you to focus. Or is that too hard for a Lugnica warrior?"
Heinkel stared at Kafma with distain since he knows that the Vollachian warrior was right yet he didn't want to tell him that he is right about what he said.
All Heinkel did was walk away, remaining silent. Theresia noticed this, seeing that her son was keeping his distance from them. This made her feel guilt since she feels like its her fault that her son was keeping her distance.
("I'm not angry at you. Why would I? It's not your fault. I just...I need some time to process this. Please excuse me, mother.")
'I know you said that my son...but I still feel like I'm to blame for this.'
Although Theresia felt this guilt, she knew that at this moment she needed to push those feelings to the side in order to focus on the fight ahead. She turned towards Carol and Grimm, wanting to know how the two were holding up.
Unlike her, Grimm and Carol were older physically so she is aware that they can't push themselves too much. She turned towards the two to ask them,
"How are you two holding up?"
"We are doing fine Lady Theresia. The more important question is how are you feeling?"
"I'm okay. Just glad that everyone made it out alive in the last battle." Theresia said, taking the moment to think back on that fight and how they had encountered the Witch of Vainglory.
'Why is she even here in Vollachia? Could she be after something or someone? Who knows...but this is very troubling.'
Having this in mind, she knows that she'll have to be on guard, especially considering that the Witch of Vainglory won't go down easily. While this was on her mind, she also started to think about Xehanort and how far he has fallen.
'Xehanort...what happened to you?'
She realized now after having seen her old friend that he is now on a path that contradict her own, the dark path.
'We will face each other at some point, won't we?'
This saddens her since she doesn't want to face Xehanort, but rather save him from this path. Before she could think more into it, she reminded herself that she needs to focus on the battle ahead of them.
Sora, Cloud, and Zarestia all three arrived at the front of the capital, seeing just how many heartless have invaded the heart of the Vollachia Empire.
Zarestia just stood blank, not feeling any sort of threat from the heartless while both Cloud and Sora were on their guard, knowing that this amount of heartless are even more than the ones from Radiant Garden.
"With this many to face, it almost feels overwhelming." Cloud said with a serious tone of voice, knowing that the battle ahead won't be as easy. Sora also felt this, knowing that this was more than even in the keyblade graveyard and yet he was still confident that they will win.
"Together we can overcome anything. I believe in us."
Cloud and Zarestia both looked at Sora, feeling the strong spirit within the boy has he says this. Cloud smiled as he always enjoyed seeing this side of Sora while Zarestia looked forward, enjoying the little confidence boost she got from the Keyblade Master.
The three all looked at the large amount of heartless surrounding the entire capital before slowly making their way towards the entrance. As they were closing in, Sora closed his eyes for a few seconds as he set his hand onto his heart.
'Donald, Goofy, lend me your strength.'
As Sora called upon his strength from his friends using the bonds he has with them, he pointed his sword up as he shouted,
"Thundaga!"
A large and powerful lighting was summoned from the sky and landed on the ground, destroying a group of shadow type heartless.
Zarestia was completely surprised by this, yet she was impressed by Sora's ability, prompting her to show off her attack.
She sends off a powerful wind attack towards the large group of heartless, managing to take out a couple of different type of heartless.
Sora and Cloud were impressed by this but quickly noticed that all the heartless were making their way towards them since they caught the attention of the Great Spirit of Murder's attack.
Cloud held his sword tightly as he charged into battle, quickly eliminating a couple of bandit, soldier, and Armored Knight type heartless before they had a chance to attack. As he did this, two separate heartless attacked him from two sides, forcing Cloud to block off the attacks swiftly.
While Cloud was in the middle of battle on his own, Zarestia and Sora were quickly making their way towards his position to back him up only for Zarestia to look up to see that a few flying heartless were making their way towards them.
She quickly started to float up to deal with them on her own, confident in her own abilities. As she closed in on the heartless, she noticed that they were all preparing to attack her in unison.
This prompts her to quickly raise up her wind barrier to block off the combined attacks of the Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, Yellow Opera, and Emerald Blues type heartless. As her wind barrier was able to block off the attacks from the four different heartless, she took note on something.
'Hm. These disgusting creatures can use different elements...isn't that interesting.'
Having noticed this, she quickly waited for the heartless to attack once again before taking down her wind barrier, indicating that she's going for the offensive now. The second she saw an opening, she charged up her most powerful wind attack before easily disposing of the four types of heartless she was dealing with.
"Ha! That was way too easy!"
As Zarestia was confident that the rest of the heartless were just as weak as the ones that she took out, she noticed a couple of watcher type heartless were heading her way, surrounding her. She looked at each of the heartless with a less than interested facial expression before preparing another powerful wind attack.
She pointed her hand directly at one of the watcher type heartless but before she could act, the heartless all around her pointed their guns at her before firing lasers. Zarestia at first wasn't scared of these lasers until one of them hit her leg, causing the Great Spirit of Murder to feel extreme pain.
"Y-You fucking worms! I won't let you get away with that!"
An intense raged Zarestia charged at each of the watcher type heartless attacking her, destroying them all one at a time.
Sora noticed this and wanted to help her out, but he first needed to assist Cloud, noticing the sheer number of heartless all trying to attack him at once.
The Keyblade Master jumped behind Cloud as he took down a couple of high soldier type heartless attempting to sneak attack Cloud while his back was turned.
Cloud noticed Sora coming in for the assist, making him appreciate the boy by giving him a nod before turning forward and eliminating a couple more heartless with a few swings of his large blade.
As both warriors were able to push the heartless back, Cloud once again thought back when he was fighting back to back with Leon, how the two held back the heartless for a long period of time.
Seeing himself in the same position with only Sora being his ally backing him up made him feel confident and a bit of déjà vu.
This gave him temporary joy before remembering that he needs to be on the lookout for Sephiroth, prompting him to have a more serious facial expression.
'I mustn't let my guard down. He can be here and attack us if he wants.'
As Cloud had this in mind, he began to increase his strength and speed, managing to take out a lot more heartless than before.
While he was doing this, Sora turned towards Cloud for a moment, wanting to check how his friend was holding up.
As he looked at Cloud, he could see that he was worried about something.
'Could it be that he is worried about Sephiroth coming in? Or about our other friends?'
Sora wasn't sure though he wanted to give Cloud some confidence in order to make sure his friend doesn't push himself too far with his power. He turned around and easily eliminated a couple of heartless with a few swings while shouting,
"We got this, Cloud! Together we make an amazing team!" Sora said with confidence and with a smile on his face. Cloud took note of this, prompting him to smile as well, always feeling confident whenever he's around this boy.
"Right!"
Cloud turned towards the large amount of heartless that are all gathering to attack him in one unison attack.
A small bit of electricity was being created from his body as he was powering up before suddenly blitzing over each heartless in front of him, taking about twenty within three seconds.
Sora noticed this, leaving him impressed for a moment before turning towards the large amount of heartless preparing to attack him.
He looked at his Kingdom Key, tempted to switch into another if not a more powerful keyblade yet he recalled something he had told Reinhard a long while back.
("It's because I trust this keyblade, it has been there from the very beginning and I will continue to trust its power along with that power that all my friends, including you, give to me.")
'I don't need to switch my keyblade, this one's the strongest. Not because it has more power than the others but because this was the first Keyblade I got.'
As Sora thought back to the very beginning, he smiled as he charged directly at the heartless with his own impressive skills.
After a couple of swings within a few seconds, he took out ten strong heartless such as the Large Body, Defender, and Morning Star type heartless.
As Sora managed to do this, he turned around to see that a powerful heartless known as Dual Blade was trying to attack him.
Noticing the type of heartless he was facing one on one only for two other heartless coming in from his left and right side.
A neoshadow from the right and an armored knight from the left tried to attack him only to easily be destroyed with one swift attack.
As the two heartless were eliminated, the dual blade type heartless charged at Sora once again only for the Keyblade Master managing to evade the attack.
'This one's a lot faster but I won't easily be beaten.'
He quickly swung his keyblade with great speed to land the killing blow, managing to destroy this heartless only for another one that was similar to this one to come charging at him.
'Another one?!'
Sora was a bit surprised though that was for a brief moment before he regained his confidence. He looked at the heartless with a smile as he said,
"I won't lose to you! None of us will! We are giving it our all to defeat you heartless! We won't falter!"
While these events were going on, Subaru and his group managed to reach their designated area.
As they arrived, they all waited until the heartless started to act on Sora and his group's frontal assault.
While they wait, Subaru turned towards Beatrice first, noticing that she was speaking with his mother.
He felt joy seeing this before turning towards Louis to see how she was holding up.
As he turned towards her, she could see that she was trying to look serious, knowing that her job is very important.
He still felt very off about talking with her, considering she was the reason many failed loops had happened and yet he was prompted by his own will to help her out.
"You seemed troubled."
"Huh? Oh. It's nothing. We are just overthinking~tsu."
"Overthinking? About what?" Subaru asked with a curious tone, surprised that someone like Louis could even over think. The teen girl was hesitant to say at first but eventually she answered the boy's question.
"We want to do our very best...but fear we might mess it up~tsu. Is that normal?"
"To feel like that? Yeah. For something that you feel that's important, anyone would tense up. Heck, even I'm a bit tense."
"That's because you're an idiot." Abel added as he caught a bit of the conversation. Subaru just ignored him and continued on talking.
"Regardless, it's normal to feel like this."
"...okay."
Louis turned forward as she prepared for her part of the mission to start. While she waited with diligence, Subaru started to think about something.
'That's odd she would be questioning her own feelings. I mean, she wanted to get out of the Hall of memories so I'd assume she would be happy and all—' His thoughts paused as he started to really think about this. 'Right, she has experienced other people's emotions, thoughts, and struggles but not her own. She must be overwhelmed with all that's going on.'
Subaru having realized this was tempted to help but was also tempted not to help. A part of him has forgiven her but a part of him still distrusts her. Before he could even make a decision on this matter, he tapped on the shoulder which caused him to change focus onto the person tapping him.
"Medium? How are you?"
"Good. I just wanted to make sure you were ready. You and Louis-chan!"
"Yeah, we are ready!" Subaru said with a thumbs up and a confident smile. Medium smiled back confidently before turning towards Louis, wanting to see her reaction.
Louis Arneb turned towards Medium with an uncertain facial expression at first until she noticed the smile Medium had, prompting her to smile with a bit of confidence while also nodding at the female warrior.
Medium took this as a yes, prompting her to pat the teen girl on the head before turning towards Abel, asking him if he is also ready for the battle ahead. Abel was silent for a couple of seconds before looking at Medium with a stern look while responding with,
"I'm always ready for a fight."
Subaru, Medium, and Louis could tell that Abel was being honest with what he said, considering that he was being kicked from his own throne while the heartless started to cause problems for the kingdom.
Before anything else could be said, Naoko looked at the kingdom and noticed something was going on with the heartless.
It was as if the heartless's hive was suddenly attacked, causing all of them to start moving around in a defensive like state.
As she noticed this, she quickly pointed out to everyone a few that were leaving the capital and heading straight for them.
"Watch out!"
"Hm?"
Subaru and the others all turned towards the capital to see a few possessor, Flame Core, Earth Core, Fluttering, and Rapid Thruster type heartless all making their way towards their location and fast.
Since this was without warning, Abel was forced to use the power of the Yang Sword Vollachia.
He pointed his hand directly at the heartless closing in on them and quickly managed to explode a large amount of them, destroying most in the process except for the Flame Core type heartless due to their connection with fire.
"I got this!" Subaru shouted as he quickly summoned Rebirth into his hand. He pointed the tip of his keyblade towards the Flame Core type heartless before shouting, "Blizzard!"
As he did this, the tip of his Rebirth keyblade created a powerful surge of ice towards the heartless still charging at them. Most were eliminated by Subaru's attack yet two managed to avoid the ice attack and close in at the boy.
'Well this isn't good.'
Just as the two heartless were going to land an attack on him, Kenichi quickly reacted to this by pushing his son out of the enemy's range of attack while also avoiding getting hit.
As the two were able to avoid the attack, Medium quickly got out her two swords and started to swing at the two remaining heartless.
One of her blades was able to make contact with one of the two heartless yet it wasn't enough to eliminate it.
This forces her to quickly land a couple more hits before managing to land the finishing blow, destroying the heartless in the process.
As she succeeds in this, Subaru recovered fast enough to eliminate the other heartless with one swift and powerful strike.
Once Subaru's heartless disappeared, a heart appeared for a moment before disappearing in thin air.
"That should take care of that."
Subaru looked back at the capital to see that Zarestia was taking on the heartless that can fly all by herself. Abel also noticed this, meaning that it's time for the former Sin Archbishop of Gluttony to start delivering his orders to the others. He turned towards her and started to say,
"It's time for you to do your job, Louis Arneb. Tell the others to start their assault and tell the Keyblade Master's group to keep pushing forward. The goal is to reach the center of the city from all sides."
Louis nodded nervously before activating Lunar Eclipse, allowing her to use someone else's speed to move around to the other groups quickly. As she was making her way towards the nearest group, Abel turned towards both Flop and Naoko.
"You two should only help as support. Since you two have no real combat power, try to not get yourselves killed."
"Hey! We can help out in other ways than just being in the back!" Naoko said, a little annoyed by Abel's comment. Abel just looked at her with an unfazed facial expression before putting on his mask.
"Try not to be a liability then. Now, let's make our way in."
Abel started to make his way towards the capital from the area they were from. Kenichi looked at Naoko, noticing that she was mad for a moment before following the emperor of Vollachia.
Subaru, Medium, and Flop also started to follow him with Subaru looking at the direction Louis went off, curious on whether she can handle the task given to her at first before remembering that Sora trusts her similarly how he trusts Elsa.
'Man Master Sora, you really have a lot of faith on those that don't deserve it...shows your kindhearted nature.'
Subaru looked back at where his group was going and started to walk alongside them. As he was starting, he felt the soft hands of his spirit grabbing his hand tightly.
"Beako."
"You better not leave my side, I suppose."
"I won't."
He nodded and smiled at the spirit, prompting her to just look serious at him before giving a nod. The two walked for a bit before ending up side by side with Natsuki Subaru's parents. As the two were with them, Subaru turned towards his father while saying to him,
"Thanks for the save, dad."
"No need to thank me, son. It's part of my job as your father to make sure nothing bad happens to you! Besides, the fighting is just beginning. You'll need to be at full strength once the tougher fights come up."
"R-Right. Still, thanks."
Kenichi just smiled at his son before messing with his hair for a moment.
Naoko looked at the two and smiled, enjoying how close her husband and her son have gotten since her and Kenichi arrived in this world.
This brought her joy that her family is as strong as ever, making her confident that whatever trails ahead, they'll make it out together.
Theresia and her group had reached their designated location a minute before Sora and his group started their assault on the capital, giving them little time to prepare for the fight ahead.
Garfiel and Otto both noticed the heartless all starting to scatter around first, allowing them to alert the others that they have to be ready for battle.
"Seems like Sora-san and the other two have started their fight."
"Man, I wish we were with 'em!"
"Don't worry Garfiel-san, you'll get your chance to fight soon."
"I hope so!"
Garfiel starts to get his blood boiling, ready for the fight ahead. Otto just sighed though he did enjoy seeing his fellow best friend all ready for battle.
As they watched the heartless all scatter around for a bit, the group noticed a few of them starting to make their way towards their location.
The group looked closely to see many different types of heartless approaching them, those being a couple of darkball type, two invisible type, a few soldier type, ten large body type, and a ton of shadow type heartless all charging at them.
"Oi, female Master Swordsman! Ya ready?"
"Yes, I'm ready."
Theresia nodded at the demi human boy, finding him quite the interesting and energetic young warrior before looking at both Carol and Grimm, wondering if they were ready.
Before she could say anything to her two closest friends, she noticed that they were determined by their fighting stance while also having a strong determined facial expression.
This was enough to tell her that they were more than ready for a fight. Before looking forward, she did notice her son was getting his sword out, looking ready as well.
She had mixed feelings about this since she wished her and her son could've talked, have a conversation about life before the battle began but knowing how dangerous this fight was going to be, she set aside these feelings in order to focus on the fight ahead.
She looked forward and smiled with confidence as she said to her group,
"Okay everyone, let's do our best and win!"
"Hell yea! Let's win th's!"
Garfiel's cheer did got the other's attention yet it was enough moral to get everyone's blood boiling, readying themselves for the clash with the heartless.
Garfiel started the attack by stomping his foot to the ground, causing a few heartless to suddenly explode onto the air. The group was caught off guard by this yet Kafma saw this as a chance to take care of a few heartless while they were unable to defend themselves while they fall to the ground.
He used a couple of his vines to grab majority of the falling heartless tightly before slamming them to the ground with intense strength. This alone was able to destroy the heartless, catching the attention of the other warriors of the group.
"That was pretty impressive." Otto said, surprised by the attack yet impressed. Kafma just nodded at the merchant before they all were mere seconds of clashing with the enemy. As this happened, Otto avoided a couple of heartless by using Dona. By using that ability, he created an earth wall to block off the heartless.
This gave him a chance to pull out three red crystals before throwing them over the wall, giving them a moment before exploding on the heartless, managing to do enough damage for Garfiel to come in and destroy them with only one hit on each of them.
Kafma noticed the teamwork, causing him to be extremely impressed by this since he had noted that the merchant wasn't much of a fighter.
'I didn't understand at first why a merchant would join a group of warriors but seeing how well in sync he is with that demi human boy, I understand now. He's the brains and the other is the muscle. What a unique duo.'
Kafma turns back towards the fight, starting his assault alongside the others by charging directly at the heartless with his own physical strength, trusting that he doesn't need the vines for now.
Kyda continued to fight on her own, confident in her Shudraqian skills to hold her own meanwhile Heinkel swung his sword against a few shadow heartless, destroying them in the process.
This show of strength made him confident to take on a few soldier type heartless, seeing them as a little more difficult than the shadow type yet nothing too tiresome.
"Pathetic."
Heinkel was disappointed in what he was facing until he came across one of the two invisible type heartless. At first he was going to charge at it, thinking nothing of the creature except as annoyance until he felt a strong aura from the heartless which forced him to jump back.
'This one I can't take on without some planning.'
With this in mind, he continued to deal with the shadow heartless thrown towards him while making sure the invisible type heartless keeps its distance from him.
'With the weapon its carrying, I will need to use some skills rather than brute forcing it like with these lesser and more annoying creatures. If I learned anything from the attack on the capital of Lugnica a little over a year ago. These things are persistent.'
Remembering for a brief moment on how things went during the attack on the capital, the rage and hatred in his heart increased, prompting him to use this rage as motivation in defeating the powerful looking heartless.
As he was closing in, the invisible heartless started to glow a dark aura around its body before charging towards Heinkel. As the two were closing in on each other, the warrior suddenly felt a hint of fear in his soul.
'The hell?! Why am I feeling this?! I should be angry!'
Despite feeling the small fear in his soul, he did not waver. He clashed his sword with the invisible heartless's weapon for a few seconds before he quickly dropped his sword, noticing that it was destroyed.
He pulled out his second and remaining sword before attempting to stab the creature in the face. As he managed to pull this off, Heinkel smiled.
"You're done for!"
As he tried to stab deeper into the heartless's neck, he realized within a few seconds that this wasn't going to do anything at all.
The invisible heartless prepared itself for an attack only for Theresia to quickly jump in and save her son's life.
She swiftly attacked with everything she had on her, managing to destroy the heartless.
Heinkel was shocked by this briefly only to feel complete anger that he had to be saved by his mother.
"Are you okay, my son?" Theresia asked with a concerned tone of voice. Heinkel was silent for a moment, noticing the hand that was being extended to him. Although he wished he could take his mother's hand, he chose to ignore it, wanting to prove to himself that he can fight without having to rely on his mother's amazing strength.
"I'll be fine. Just keep fight, Theresia van Astrea."
As he said this, he noticed the other invisible type heartless making its way towards Grimm and Carol's positions while the two old warriors were taking on a couple of large body type heartless on their own.
He quickly passed by his mother to go and face the invisible type heartless, wanting to show not only himself but also his mother that he is a strong warrior as well.
'I'm an Astrea! I have to show it! I'm not weak!'
He closes in on the heartless before swinging his sword, trying to land a hit before it notices his presences. As his sword manages to connect to the heartless's head, it was unfazed by this attack.
It turned towards Heinkel's direction while also swinging its own weapon, forcing the warrior to back away to avoid the attack.
As he did this, Grimm and Carol both noticed what was going on, forcing the two to quickly come up with a plan to not only deal with the shadow heartless they were currently facing but also assist Heinkel in fighting the stronger looking heartless.
As they were attempting to figure something out, Grimm noticed that Heinkel was trying to charge at the heartless once again.
'He's getting reckless!'
Grimm with his shield quickly managed to get close to the powerful heartless in order to block off its attack, giving Heinkel the opening he needed to land another hit.
As the Astrea warrior connected his sword with the heartless's head. Although this was much stronger than his previous attack, it only did minor damage.
The invisible heartless looked at Heinkel with its dark aura increasing, causing Heinkel to feel an enormous amount of fear all of a sudden.
'How the hell is this damn creature still alive after my previous attack?!'
Before the heartless could do anything, Carol had managed to eliminate a bunch of the shadow heartless on her own before using all of her strength to attack the invisible heartless's head.
As her attack connected, Heinkel felt that the heartless was weakened by this attack, prompting him to go all out on his third and final attack on the heartless.
'I hate that these two joined in...but this is my chance to land the finishing blow!'
With everything he had, Heinkel was able to swing his sword hard enough to slash the heartless in half through the chest area.
As this was a success, a few of the shadow type heartless took this chance to try and attack the three of them while they were trying to recover from their fight against the invisible heartless type only for both Kafma and Theresia to quickly help the three.
Kafma using his vines to hold the shadow heartless down while Theresia used her speed and strength to eliminate them. As this happened, the previous Sword Saint quickly turned towards the darkball type heartless rapidly approaching them.
"Stand back! I'll handle them!"
As Theresia was about to go attack the ten darkball type heartless, suddenly Louis Arneb appeared and took down each of the ten darkball type heartless within three seconds.
Theresia and the others were at first shock by this yet they all appreciated Louis's assistant. Garfiel and Otto noticed her, prompting the two to fight with even more determination. Theresia looked at Louis to ask her,
"How are you holding up?"
"We are good~tsu. We have some information from Abel-sama. Reach the center, that's the goal."
"Understood. We shall accomplish this." Kafma said which caught Louis's attention. She was preparing to go off and tell the other group yet both her and Theresia were the once to sense something off.
"Everyone...be on your guard."
Heinkel, Kafma, Kyda, Carol, and Grimm were all a bit unsure on how to take what the previous sword saint had said until they saw her quickly block off an attack from Xemnas's laser like sword.
"Hm. Impressive."
"..."
"Lady Theresia!"
Carol, Grimm, Kyda, Heinkel, and Kafma all were shocked to see an organization member suddenly appear, prompting them to quickly get their weapons out and ready.
"Where are your friends?"
As Heinkel was saying this, he turned towards his left side to see that there was another organization member trying to attack them.
Grimm quickly used all of his strength with his shield to block off Ansem's powerful darkball attack. Grimm gave it his all and barely managed to block off the attack yet he was sent flying a couple of feet away.
Kafma noticed this and quickly started to shoot all of his vines directly towards Ansem's direction. The Organization member smiled as he allowed the vines to get him for a brief moment before using darkness to easily break free.
"If this is the best you have, then you are as good as dead."
As Ansem prepared two giant dark balls, ready to finish off the weaklings. Just as he was about to attack, he suddenly saw three red crystals thrown towards his face.
"Hm?"
Before the Organization member could analyze what was going on, the crystals started to glow until they blew up.
Ansem was ingulfed with fire for a moment, surprising the others since they weren't expecting some crystals to suddenly be thrown towards the Organization member until they saw both Garfiel and Otto join their location.
"We took care of those creatures. Now Brotto and my amazin' self'll help fight th's bastard!"
"Yes. Garfiel-san and I can handle this man ourselves."
"Yea!"
Garfiel patted Otto's back as he heard him say that the two of them can handle Ansem. Heinkel disliked this since he wanted to prove his own worth meanwhile Kyda, Kafma, Carol, and Grimm all three wanted to provide assistance to the two boys.
They were prepared to join the fight against Ansem as they see the man look unscathed from the explosion only for Otto to turn towards them while saying,
"I understand you want to help us, but we need to achieve the goal of reaching the center. Subaru-san, Sora-san, and the others are relying on us to finish our objective."
"Wait but—" Before Carol could respond back to what the merchant had said, Theresia interrupted her.
"Go! Allow those two to face that man while I face this man!"
As she says this, she continues to block off every attack thrown towards her, managing to keep up with Xemnas's speed and strength. Carol and Grimm wanted to assist their friend yet they understood what their friend was saying.
Considering how dangerous the organization are from what they were told, they can see that Theresia is the best person to take on Xemnas while Garfiel and Otto with their teamwork can handle Ansem.
Kafma respected Theresia, Garfiel, and Otto's wishes before turning towards Carol, Grimm, and Heinkel. Kyda wished she could help out, but she knows that her own skills wouldn't be enough in this fight against either powerful foes.
Rowan himself had noticed what was going on while keeping a distance from the fight, seeing that this was going to be a tough battle without the female Sword Saint assisting the group in pushing back the heartless in the capital.
Although he would think his skills as abnormal, he is aware of the slightly big distance his skills are compared to Theresia van Astrea. He waited for a moment before jumping into battle, managing to not only get in between the two.
"Huh?"
"You are needed with them. Allow me to handle this threat."
"Are you sure?" Theresia questioned, uncertain if she should leave this fight to this mercenary yet the man continued to go on the offensive against Xemnas while responding to Theresia's question.
"You are strong, skilled, a very proud warrior. Those skills are needed once the divine generals under control make their arrival. I can handle this nuisance."
"Me? A nuisance?" Xemnas said with a bit of a surprised tone of voice, "That's quite the view you have."
"I just call 'em how I see 'em."
Rowan responded to what Xemnas said, wanting to make it clear that he means no real harm with what he said. Xemnas didn't care and started to fight against Rowan, seeing that the mercenary was indeed pretty skilled.
"Don't think this'll be an easy fight just because I'm much older looking."
Xemnas ignored what Rowan said and continued to block every attack.
While this was going on, Theresia was hesitant to let Rowan fight alone against Xemnas, having felt his power first hand but she understood that her strength will be needed against the divine generals under the control of Xehanort and his group.
She turned towards Louis's direction to tell her,
"Get out of here! Alert the others that we have a few of those Organization guys attacking us."
"Okay!"
Louis nodded at Theresia and quickly got out of there, understanding that she needs to alert the others of what's going on.
As she did this, Theresia joined and led Kyda, Carol, Grimm, Kafma, and Heinkel towards the capital.
As they were heading off, Ansem looked at both Garfiel and Otto, having noted that these two were responsible for Saix's defeat.
"Hm. You two were there when Saix was defeat."
"Yes. We were the ones to defeat him." Otto said with a serious facial expression, preparing a plan in beating Ansem. The Organization member stood silent as he observed the duo, noticing that Otto was analyzing the situation. He pointed his right hand towards the duo while saying,
"Let's see what you two are capable of."
As he finishes speaking, he creates a powerful fireball. Garfiel notices this and quickly prepares to punch it with everything he has. While he was preparing himself, he began to ask his best friend,
"Ya got a plan ready?"
"Not yet. This one is a lot more calculative than Saix. I also have a feeling that this one is much stronger. You'll need to be on your guard at all times for this fight, Garfiel-san."
"Hm. Don't ya worry, my amazin' self'll make sure t'stay on guard."
As Garfiel said this, he slammed his fists together while smiling confidently. Ansem noticed this confidence from Garfiel, prompting him to send his attack towards the duo.
The demi human boy notice this and quickly reacted by using his shields to push back the attack with everything he had in him. As this attack was pushing the boy back a bit, he quickly planted his feet firmly to the ground and used everything on his arms to push away the attack.
"Yer gonna have t'try harder than th't if ya wanna beat me!"
Just as he said this, Garfiel noticed Ansem suddenly appear in front of him.
"Wha—"
"Too slow."
Ansem with intense strength and speed lands a hit on Garfiel's face, causing the demi human boy to be send flying a few feet away. Otto was shocked by this, surprised by how powerful this Organization member is compared to the one him and Garfiel had faced in Priestella.
'We are in big trouble!'
Ansem turned towards Otto and prepared to attack the merchant, forcing him to quickly react by using Dona in order to protect himself. As an earth wall was created, Ansem easily disposed of it with a simple kick.
He looked around as he destroyed the wall only to see that Otto wasn't around except a couple of red crystals laying around. Just as he noticed them, they set off and exploded with Otto just barely being out of range.
'I know this won't exactly beat him but it should buy me some time to get to Garfiel-san.'
Otto ran towards Garfiel's position to check on him.
"Garfiel-san? Are you okay?"
"Yea, Yea. Just got surprised by th't attack of his."
"Okay."
Otto assisted Garfiel in getting him back on his feet before the two turned towards Ansem, noticing him approaching the two while he was still floating in the air.
"He's a lot tougher than Saix, we will need to be careful."
"Aight, I'll follow yer instructions, Brotto."
Otto nodded at Garfiel before the two turned towards Ansem, noticing that he was preparing to attack.
"Foolish boys. You two have no chance against the Darkness."
"Don't count us out just yet!"
Garfiel and Otto both charged together at Ansem, both ready for the tough fight ahead of them. Ansem smiled as he himself prepared for the fight.
While that was going on, Louis continued to run with everything she had while being worried for Theresia's group's sake. Seeing the two Organization members cause trouble for Theresia's group made her worry since she knows how troubling those two specific Organization members can do.
'We have to warn the others~tsu! They need to be ready for the other Organization members!'
With this in mind, Louis used everything she had in her to increase her speed, managing to reach the three divine generals' location. As she arrived within a few minutes, she noticed that they were being attacked by a couple of heartless.
Olbart was taking on a few Bandit, High Soldier, and Rapid Thruster type heartless, Yorna was taking on a behemoth and two Wyvern type heartless, and lastly Arakiya was taking on the Kurt Zisa heartless type.
'We have to help them!'
Knowing that these heartless are wasting precious time, Louis quickly sprung into action and started to fight them off by first assisting the strongest of the group, Arakiya.
Although the heartless wasn't going to easily beat her, she was having trouble getting closer to it. Every time she destroys the barrier it creates, the heartless manages to use it's sword skills to keep her away from it long enough for another barrier to appear.
Louis noticed this as Arakiya was trying to close the gap once again after destroying the barrier only to be forced back all of a sudden. Louis saw this opportunity to quickly assist.
Using her gluttony authority, she continued to use her speed skill she acquired by using lunar eclipse and quickly charged at the heartless. She closed in at the heartless's location and managed to get inside the barrier just as it was about to appear.
Arakiya noticed Louis inside the barrier of the heartless, surprising her for a second before realizing that she can help in taking down this nuisance of a creature.
Louis Arneb took this chance to land a couple of powerful kicks and punches on the heartless while using the barrier to move around easily.
These attacks were slowly taking effect on the threat, causing it to focus on Louis rather than Arakiya. The second divine general saw this and knew that this was her opportunity to attack.
'While this little girl distracts the creature, I'll make sure to use everything I have to eliminate it!'
Arakiya quickly used some of the powers of the spirits that she had absorbed to destroy the barrier, catching the attention of the Kurt Zisa type heartless.
This distraction was long enough for Louis to deliver a powerful uppercut. This stunned the heartless, allowing Arakiya to charge at the heartless and finally close the gap.
Once she was near the heartless's head, she pulled out her tri-pronged wand in order to channel the magic she wanted to use against her opponent.
She thought for one second which magic would be effective against her opponent before channeling a specific spirit's power to use against her current opponent. She quickly shouted to Louis,
"Get out of the way!"
As she said this, a powerful yang magic was shot out of the second divine general's wand, managing to do enough damage to destroy the heartless. As this happened, Louis's eyes widen as she was impressed and shocked by what she was seeing.
'So awesome!'
As the heartless disappeared, Arakiya landed near Louis unscathed. She looked around to see how the other two divine generals were holding up before turning her attention towards the teen girl.
"I assume you are here as a messenger?"
"Yes." Louis responded with a serious tone.
"Okay then, what is this message?"
"Abel-sama says for all of you to push your way towards the center of the capital~tsu."
"Abel...oh, you mean that horrible man...okay, I understand." Arakiya spoke with anger in her voice, hating Vincent for being one of many key factors that destroyed her relationship with Prisca. Despite this hatred, she understood that he's in charge of this battle that determines what happens to the Empire of Vollachia. Before she turns to assist Olbart and Yorna, Louis quickly added in,
"There's more...two of those bad men, Organization men, are attacking one of the groups~tsu."
"What?" Arakiya stopped herself from joining into the fight as she looked back at the teen girl, processing what she had told her.
'So the Organization members are starting their move...this is a problem but which group was it?'
"May I ask which group is currently attacked?"
"The one with the Sword Saint woman~tsu."
Arakiya crossed her arms as she thought back on who exactly was on the group.
'The Sword Saint, The mercenary, that demi human boy and his merchant ally, Kafma, and that drunken warrior. Hm. Depending on which of the two Organization members are causing them trouble will depend on whether the group will reach the goal in time.'
With this information in hand, she knows now that she needs to get the rest of her group moving if they want to face the other Organization members and the divine generals under their control. She looked at other two divine generals while asking Louis Arneb,
"Okay. I understand what needs to be done. Before you go, would you assist me in destroying these annoying creatures?"
"We shall help!"
Louis nodded with confidence as she wished to be useful. Arakiya smiled as she heard this before charging towards the heartless attacking Yorna and Olbart with Louis joining her side. As the two assisted Olbart's fight, the old shinobi wasn't having too much trouble with the heartless he was handling, he was still dragging the fight far longer than he needs to.
'Hm. I should finish this up.'
Just as he thought this, Arakiya and Louis had quickly attacked a couple of the heartless, with Louis having attacked a high soldier type heartless and Arakiya attacking a Bandit type heartless. Olbart was surprised by this but welcomed it, seeing this as a good opportunity to not use up all of his moves right at the start.
He closed in on two of the heartless before easily destroying them by a simple tap on their heads. One of the bandit type heartless swings its sword near his left side only for the old shinobi to easily dodge the attack. As he dodges the attack, using a stick he taps the chest area of the heartless, causing it to be destroyed without much effort on the old man's part.
Arakiya and Louis both assisted in attacking majority of the heartless attacking Olbart with the Spirit Eater using a couple of Earth and Wind magic while Louis used Lunar Eclipse to pull out some different set of skills, allowing her to take down many of the different type heartless.
Once the heartless Olbart was taking on were destroyed, he looked at Louis and Arakiya with a smile before saying to them,
"Thank you for the assist. Much appreciated."
"No problem~tsu!"
"We have a situation, Olbart. Those Organization freaks are on the move, they are attacking one of the groups already." Arakiya said with a serious tone of voice, ignoring the praise she was getting from the third divine general.
"Really? Which group?" Olbart asked with a curious tone of voice.
"The female sword saint's group."
"Hm."
"We also need to get to the center of the city. That's an order from the emperor himself."
"I see. Then we must push through."
With that being said, Olbart used his superior shinobi skills in play, understanding that if they wish to save their homelands from the creatures, they can't get distracted from these creatures and the Organization.
He swiftly moved towards the two Wyvern type heartless attempting to attack Yorna from her back side. Once he closed the gap, he threw a couple of spirit stone bombs at the two before gaining some distance from them before they blew up.
The explosions from the spirit stone bombs were powerful enough to cause the two heartless to be destroyed. Louis, Yorna, and Arakiya took notice to what had happened, impressed by the old shinobi's skills. Yorna looked back at her opponent, prepared to give it her all.
As she prepared to attack the behemoth, Louis uses one of the skills to boost her speed for a moment before using her abnormal strength to land a powerful uppercut.
'We must be grateful for Beli Hainelga's Carnivorous Beast~tsu.'
With this in her thoughts, she quickly gains her distance by landing next to Yorna while Arakiya uses Earth magic to destroy the heartless with one powerful move.
Once the heartless was taken care of, Yorna looked at the capital to see the same creatures that destroyed her home make a mess of another city.
"Those creatures...I'll make sure that they pay for what they did to my people...!"
Yorna spoke out with hatred coming from her tone of voice, holding a tight fist. As this anger ran through her blood, she managed to cool down when she looked at Louis, noticing that the girl was looking at her with an innocent look.
This was enough to take away the anger she had in her blood, prompting her to pat the girl's head.
"Thank you for the help, little one."
Louis just smiled as Yorna continued to pat her head before turning towards Arakiya and Olbart.
"Yorna, we must hurry. One of the groups is already being attacked by those Organization guys."
Yorna had a moment to pause herself, having heard what Arakiya had said. She stopped patting Louis's head and began to look serious towards the capital, understanding that the situation has gotten dire.
"I assume that bastard emperor knows about this."
"No. He sent this little girl to inform us that our primary goal is to reach the center of the city. It's just unfortunate that the Sword Saint's group was the ones to be attacked by the Organization."
"Well then, let's do our job before we get held back any longer."
Arakiya and Olbart nodded to this. Olbart and Yorna began to make their way towards the capitla. Before Arakiya caught up with them, she turned towards Louis to tell her,
"Be careful, little one. I fear that the longer this fight gets drawn out, the more danger lies ahead."
"Don't worry about us, we will be super careful~tsu."
Arakiya had a surprised facial expression for a moment before giving Louis a quick smile before turning towards her allies. As she turns with a serious face, she goes to catch up with them while Louis watched as the three divine generals walked side by side towards the capital.
As Louis saw the three closing in on the capital, she turned towards the last location she needs to head towards and without a second thought she moved faster than she's ever ran before.
'We must get there. We must alert the last group. Then we must alert Sora-sama about the Organization~tsu.'
Priscilla and Al were both leading the group of Shudraq warriors alongside Mizelda into battle as a large amount of heartless charging towards them after Sora and his group started their attack.
As they were dealing with shadow, soldier, high soldier, bandit, possessors, and Defender type heartless, Mizelda and Taritta both worked together side by side in taking down a couple of the heartless with Taritta using her bow and arrow to attack those from a distance while Mizelda took on the ones close to them.
Priscilla didn't hesitate to use her Yang Sword Vollachia on the heartless, easily taking them out in waves. Al noticed this and was amazed by what he saw before turning towards three bandit type heartless.
'I better pull my own weight before the princess gets mad at me again.'
He waited for a moment before deflecting off the attacks from the three heartless, wanting them to go on the offense first. As he was blocking each of the attacks, he thought on how events are too different than they originally were with the first anomaly being Sora himself. Al as no trouble with Sora, if anything he feels more motivated to be the best thanks to him.
The issue he saw was that things have gone a completely different way, prompting him to work harder than he has ever done. Considering that he was able to keep up against an Organization member in Priestella after having worked hard to become the best he could.
Seeing that this is his chance to once again show his new improved skills, he quickly summoned Earth magic to knock one of the bandit heartless up on the air. While one was flying up, he sliced off the bandit heartless to his left side, having noticed it closing in on him.
As his sword connected, the heartless disappeared within seconds. Once this happened, Al threw his sword towards the other heartless, managing to also destroying the bandit type heartless to his right side. The Bandit type heartless was closing in towards the ground only for it's head to be grabbed by Al's only hand with a tight grip.
'This is what I can do. I may not be the strongest. I may not have that crazy power the Sword Saint or the Keyblade Master have but I alone will have the strength to protect the sun princess!'
With all these emotions reaching their boiling point, he used every ounce of strength to slam the bandit type heartless onto the ground.
Priscilla looked at Al and noticed what he had done, managing to destroy the heartless with such a brute like attack.
Seeing that Al was able to take down a heartless with his bare hand, she sees that he is still useful to her.
She approached him as a couple of large body type heartless were attempting to attack him while his back was turned.
Using the power of her yang sword vollachia, she managed to easily take down the five large body type heartless by burning them to bits without Al receiving any damage from the attack.
"Princess."
"You should be more on guard, you buffoon."
"Right. I won't make the same mistake again."
"Hmph."
Priscilla just turned her attention back at the heartless before easily destroying them. Al was left completely impressed by this but also motivated to do his part in taking down the heartless. He went to grab his sword before joining back into the fight, completely confident in his skills.
As he joins back into the fight, Kuna alongside her Shudraq friend and fellow warrior Holly led a couple of Shudraq warriors in taking down a Behemoth type heartless that randomly appeared near their location, forcing them to be distracted from the main goal of reaching towards the city.
The two started to fire arrows at the large heartless, giving it their all in hopes of taking it down the giant heartless. As they were shooting a ton of arrows, Louis manages to arrive to the scene and had noticed the giant heartless.
'We must help them out~tsu!'
Louis quickly charged at the giant heartless and without any warning landed an uppercut. Holly, Kuna, and the Shudraq warriors were all surprised for a moment before seeing an opportunity the teen girl had given them to throw everything they got on the heartless.
Al saw this and immediately gave the shudraq group a chance of victory by summoning an Earth wall on the stomach of the behemoth type heartless, sending it up on the air.
Priscilla saw this as an amateur way of helping the Shudraq warriors, prompting her to turn towards the giant heartless before swinging her sword directly at the heartless's location.
The power of the Yang Sword Vollachia obeyed Priscilla's will of destroying the heartless, creating the most powerful of flames to complete the job.
As the heartless was destroyed under the flames of the Yang Sword Vollachia, Priscilla looked around to see that the other Shudraq warriors managed to take down the remaining heartless without her assistance.
This pleased her since she saw that there were worthy warriors in her group.
Once she confirmed that there were no heartless around, she turned her attention towards Louis Arneb, having noticed that she had joined the fight. She approached her while putting away her sword. As she stood next to the teen girl, she looked at her with a serious facial expression while asking,
"I assume 'Abel' had asked you to come here, right?"
"Y-Yes. We are here to deliver a message~tsu."
"Alright then, what is it?" Priscilla spoke with a sharp tone of voice, not wanting to waste time in chit chat. Louis was taken aback for a second since Priscilla's attitude and aura was completely overwhelming. She managed to get her mind back on track as she responded to Priscilla's question,
"Abel-sama said that the objective is to reach the center of the city~tsu."
"Hm. That sounds simple enough." Priscilla spoke with a disappointed voice, figuring that the orders would be something so obvious. "Anything else?"
"The Organization has started their attack on one of the groups~tsu."
Priscilla's attitude change when she heard this.
"Which group?" The sun princess questioned with a stern voice, temporarily scaring Louis.
"Th-The Sw-word saint's group."
"Hm. That's a bold move to attack the young female sword saint first...but they also made a fatal mistake going after her group."
The sun princess turned towards the capital, watching as the darkness the creatures were casting was starting to dim down. She pulled out her Yang Sword Vollachia high up as she shouted,
"Follow me! We shall eradicate this annoyance!"
The Shudraq warriors all followed behind Priscilla with Al walked by her side, all of them motivated to defeat the heartless. As they were walking away, Louis stood standing by herself as she took a moment to process what had occurred.
'What an intense woman. Scary~tsu!'
With the message having been delivered to almost every group, the next person she needs to inform is Sora and his small group, knowing that he needs to be informed of the Organization starting their move on Theresia's group.
As she begins to run towards the direction that leads towards the entrance, she senses a random dark ball thrown towards her.
Using lunar eclipse, she dodges the attack with great speed. Once she did this, her mind was thinking on the few possibilities on why a random dark ball would be thrown towards her, with the main one being that one of the Organization members is attacking her.
'We must not be delayed! We must warn Sora-sama~tsu!'
Louis once again used lunar eclipse to try and run away from the attacker yet somehow this attacker was still managing to catch up with her.
She turned around and noticed that a sword was trying to aim for her neck, forcing her to quickly change from running into defending herself.
She blocked off the attacks thrown towards her while seeing who her attacker was.
"Who are you~tsu?"
"A fellow bishop like you."
"..."
Louis was unsure on how she should respond to this since she doesn't know who this person is, considering that the threat in front of her was covered with darkness. Even the threat's sword was covered with an overwhelming darkness.
"What's your name?"
The threat stood standing still for a moment has he heard this question once again, understanding that Louis wouldn't know who he is.
The threat lowered his weapon as the darkness around his body to disappear in order to reveal himself.
Louis was shocked since she recognized this boy.
"Wait, aren't you Riku~tsu?"
"Not necessarily. I'm just a replica...but one that has finally found his purpose..." Replica Riku closed his eyes for a brief moment, thinking back on all the moments he was just a puppet for someone else. After a moment had passed, the darkness started to cover him while he said with a serious tone of voice, "My purpose is to serve Pandora-sama as the Sin Archbishop of the Witch's cult, representing Pride!"
Without hesitation, Pride charged towards Louis with great speed while the darkness around him had covered his body. Louis was scared at first since she isn't sure if she could even survive a fight against another Sin Archbishop.
("Not just that but I believe in you Louis. I believe that there is good in you.")
Louis recalled what Sora had said to her, how she believed in her and that there's good in her. This caused her to stand her ground, preparing herself within the few seconds she had before Pride reached her location.
As she saw Pride's sword about to reach her neck, she used her lunar eclipse ability to quickly avoid the attack. As she did this, she gained some distance while shouting at the Sin Archbishop of Pride,
"We still have a long way to go before we can make up for all the wrong we had caused~tsu. Which is why for us this is our chance to make up some of that wrong by stopping you, a Sin Archbishop. Our name's Louis Arneb, the one who will stop you~tsu!"
As Louis said this proudly, she charges at the Sin Archbishop of Pride, prepared for her most fearsome battle yet.
Author's note:
Well, it's been a while since I've posted on this story. So there are a few things I will say:
1. I'm aware of the Q&A's from the Re:Zero 10th anniversary; will it effect the story? To a small degree but not by much.
2. What do I think of the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary trailer? Pretty interesting, especially since Kingdom Hearts IV has now been confirm.
2.1 Will that have an effect on the story? Same as the Re:Zero Q&A, to a small degree.
3. When will the Emilia camp get involve? Soon, they will be coming soon to back everyone up.
4. How can Louis use gluttony's authority? Let's just say that unlike the canon timeline, she didn't lose her authority.
5. Can Subaru use glide because of last chapter? Yes but he would suck at it.
That should answer any possible questions. Now that we have passed the halfway point of this arc, I'll make sure the next chapters are amazing in quality! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.