*DISCLAIMER - I DO NOT OWN THE COPYRIGHT OR CHARACTERS FROM THE KINGDOM HEARTS SERIES OR GENSHIN IMPACT. COPYRIGHT BELONGS TO THEIR RESPECTIVE COMPANIES.
Running as fast as they could, Sora and Eula continued making their way to Wolvendom. The atmosphere around them had changed and instantly became gloomy compared to not that long ago. What was once a beautiful clear sky was now enveloped with dark clouds and the wind starting to pick up. Along the way, Sora spotted more and more Heartless crawling out of the ground from scattered dark portals that were covering large areas with darkness.
Sora raised his keyblade and cast several Thunder spells back-to-back eliminating the Heartless spilling out of the ground. Sora scanned the area in front of him and noticed more and more Heartless were spawning. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to defeat every Heartless that appeared and was spreading out, Sora came up with a quick and easy idea to round up the Heartless by keeping his keyblade out in the open like a magnet attracting all the Heartless in the area.
Eula on her side was swinging her claymore side to side managing to slice the Heartless in half and freeze any other Heartless that tried to catch her off guard. Thanks to Eula's training and experience, her Favonius Bladework was both elegant and deadly giving her the advantage she needed to strike the Heartless and kill them with ease. She also used her momentum and footwork to kick any Heartless that got close to her and finished them off by slashing them in half. The two continued to make their way into Wolvendom until they came upon a trail of toppled trees.
Coming up on the destroyed area, a loud sound came from the destroyed tree trail. Stopping in her tracks, Eula called out to Sora asking if he heard the noise. Sora made a funnel around his ear trying to pick up any noise. A second passed and nothing could be heard. However, just as things seemed bleak, Sora did hear what sounded like something hitting a tree.
Taken aback, Sora began to dash in the direction of the sound with Eula following right behind him. The duo continued to run through the trail littered with fallen trees trying to find the origin of the sound. Right as soon as Sora got a couple of meters close to the sound, he spotted a group of Knights of Favonius scattered on the ground. Unsure of their status, Sora rushed over to the nearest knight and was about to check his pulse, but he saw someone a good distance away surrounded by Heartless.
The figure fighting the Heartless had a lean build with a tanned complexion and an eye patch on the right side of his face. The man was wearing a white-collared blouse with dark trousers, and the man had navy-blue hair with streaks of lighter blue.
Heartless were slowly moving towards the man who was shielding a downed soldier. Right before the Heartless could attack the man, Sora used his flowmotion ability and locked onto one of the Heartless and shot straight towards it while bringing his keyblade down for a vertical slash killing it instantly which alerted all the other Heartless to Sora's presence.
"Hey! How about this!" Sora exclaimed using his flowmotion again to shoot his body straight at a small party of Heartless which allowed him to use an Aerial sweep against the small group of Heartless. Once Sora was done spinning around, he rolled to the side slicing a Heartless in half, and then moved in front of the man who was protecting the hurt soldier and called out to him, "Hey, you alright? What happened?"
The man with the eye patch responded weakly, "Who're you? Never seen you around and I... always remember a face...ha... Yea, I'm good but the knights I came here with aren't doing so well."
"I noticed, don't worry Eula is with them" Sora replied trying to reassure the eye-patched man.
Caught off guard, the man muttered to himself something along the lines of Eula probably cursing him out for letting his squadron get surrounded. However, before the man could let out another word a bright green light surrounded him along with a feeling of a cool breeze that lifted his spirits and relieved him of his fatigue.
"Heal!" Sora yelled out casting a Curaga spell on the injured man.
The man stood up and grasped his sword feeling a renewed energy hit him along with his belt holding his vision start glowing a bright blue. The man turned to Sora who had a sly grin on his face, "Well now, that's something. You have my thanks..."
"Sora, my name's Sora."
"Well then, Sora, the name's Kaeya and I owe you one. Now, what do you say we deal with these lot?" Kaeya replied feeling in tip-top shape.
"You read my mind. However, be careful you won't be able to defeat them completely. These monsters are called Heartless and only my weapon can destroy them for good" Sora relayed to Kaeya preparing him to face the Heartless.
Quick on his feet, Kaeya let out a chuckle while acknowledging everything Sora had said, "Is that so, guess I'll need to step my game up."
"Yea! Let's do this!" Sora exclaimed feeling ready for a fight.
Sora got into his signature battle stance ready to make short work of the Heartless. Not wasting any time, he charged straight at a large body Heartless which knocked himself along with the large body and several other Heartless through some barely standing trees and into another part of the forest. Getting back on his feet, Sora rushed straight at the closest Heartless while Flash Stepping into another managing to knock it back. Sora then went for an aerial side sweep and launched the Heartless in the air while chasing after it and managing to kill it with a speed slash.
Falling to the ground, Sora rolled to his left and cast a Thunder spell that caught several Heartless and stunned them leaving Sora the chance to finish them off. Running to the other Heartless, Sora pulled his keyblade back and swung forward landing a Slapshot while managing to get several frontal slashes finishing the Heartless all while moving on to the next group of Heartless.
The next group of Heartless started rising from the ground and were moving quickly making it hard for Sora to cast a Fire spell at them. Out of nowhere, an unsuspecting Heartless launched itself at Sora forcing him to block the attack and counter-slash it. The impact knocked the Heartless back into the group of moving Heartless causing all of them to be bunched up next to a tree.
Sora saw this opportunity and immediately used his flowmotion to go hurtling towards the tree and started swirling around the tree's mid-section building up speed. After going around several times while building up his speed, Sora launched toward the bunched-up Heartless letting out a Buzz Saw attack managing to sweep all the Heartless off the ground and destroy them with his spinning attack.
Rolling on the ground several times thanks to his momentum, Sora regained his footing and spotted some Heartless positioning themselves up atop the trees, Sora recalled one of his special abilities that he used in his Mark of Mastery, Strike Raid. The special attack was an old classic of Sora's and a favorite of his that came in handy when it came to distance. However, Sora hasn't been able to use that attack since he lost his powers against Xehanort when he was about to become a vessel for Xehanort in Organization XIII.
Suddenly, Sora had an epiphany, he realized that he has lost most of his abilities at least three times now. Three times! If he wasn't fighting the Heartless right now, he would try to cheer himself up...with a bucket of sea salt ice cream.
But right now, Sora had a feeling crawling in his chest. A sort of spark igniting deep in his heart. Almost like something was calling out to him. Sensing that this feeling didn't feel threatening but warm, Sora closed his eyes and took a deep breath before slinging the keyblade back into a throwing position. All at once, Sora threw the keyblade straight at a Heartless in the tree striking it head-on and killing it.
Not a second later, the keyblade appeared in a bright light after hitting the Heartless. Sora immediately knew what was happening and had a giant grin on his face. Feeling a renewed resolve, Sora reached his hand out, and instantly his keyblade was back in his hands. Sora still had the grin on his face and started chucking the keyblade nonstop at the Heartless, enjoying the feeling that Strike Raid was back.
While Sora was busy dealing with the Heartless, Kaeya was fighting a group of Heartless and parrying most of their strikes while using his Cryo abilities freezing the Heartless where they stood and finishing them off with a forward strike. Kaeya also figured that he could grab the frozen Heartless by their antennas and throw them into a tree or slam them into the ground. Forceful but very effective at leaving the creatures stunned which allowed Kaeya to strike the downed Heartless.
Once Kaeya had cleared a number of the Heartless, he was getting ready to use his elemental burst ability but abruptly stopped when a large Heartless appeared in front of him. This forced Kaeya to dash to the side and try to find a sweet spot on the large creature. Taking a good look at the appearance of the large heartless, Kaeya noticed its' large spherical shape with massive hands and short legs. The large round heartless also had blue skin that seemed to be covered by a purple sleeveless bodysuit with gold trimming on its chest.
After dashing around the Heartless once, Kaeya was scanning the large Heartless and noticed something, Kaeya spotted an opening near its' back and decided that would be his target. Feeling a smirk grace his lips, Kaeya felt energy flow through his body as his belt which was holding his vision then began to glow brighter. Figuring that now would be as good of a time as any to launch his attack, Kaeya sprinted at the large Heartless and managed to get behind it while channeling his elemental burst.
Giving it his all, Kaeya hit the large Heartless with his Glacial Waltz managing to slash the Heartless with his ice shards surrounding his body. Kaeya also began to strike the Heartless with his Ceremonial Bladework putting heavy pressure on the Heartless while continuing to cut the Heartless around its legs and back causing it to fall on one knee. Seeing an opening, Kaeya quickly plunged his sword straight into the head of the Heartless killing it swiftly.
Immediately after Kaeya stabbed the large Heartless, its body started fading away leaving nothing left. Kaeya regained his footing and lifted his sword so he could examine it to see if anything like blood was left stained on his blade but to no avail, the sword remained untouched.
Chuckling to himself, Kaeya realized that these 'Heartless' were something else. However, Kaeya quickly became serious when he started to realize the threat that these Heartless could pose. If citizens were to encounter the Heartless, then that would lead to more casualties. Not to mention, if more knights encountered the Heartless then they would suffer the same fate as his team did.
The Heartless as simple as they looked were a dangerous monster that if underestimated then they could surround you and end up getting you. That's what happened to Kaeya's group thanks to a rookie mistake he made and now the knights' downfall is his responsibility. He would have to make things right.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Kaeya looked around to see how many more Heartless were left and noticed a couple of small Heartless moving around the trees in the area. Taking a quick look around the area trying to spot more Heartless, Kaeya was about to let his guard down when he noticed more Heartless started spawning from the ground a few meters away. The Heartless appeared to be scrambling towards something and were ignoring his presence. Kaeya let out a jaded sigh.
Nodding to himself, Kaeya was about to take off and finish the rest of the Heartless but stopped himself feeling something was wrong. Kaeya let out a set of coughs and had to prop himself on a nearby tree to gain his bearings. Realization set in and Kaeya knew that most of his old wounds were still present and the rush of energy he gained from Sora's ability was starting to wear off.
Several options suddenly became apparent to Kaeya about his next decision. Were Kaeya to continue his advance on the Heartless, there could be the off chance that he becomes too tired to fight and is surrounded. Another option Kaeya considered which honestly sounded like the best alternative was that he could stay back and find a moment to rest and regain some of his strength back.
Deciding to go with option two, Kaeya weakly limped to where the downed knight he was protecting still lay. That spot was also where he first encountered Sora. The area at least for the moment was devoid of any Heartless thanks to Sora. Speaking of Sora, loud sounds and explosions were coming from the direction that Sora took off in.
Back with Sora, he was making short work of the Heartless thanks to his use of flowmotion and bouncing off the trees and slamming into the Heartless. Sora would also slash the Heartless that appeared beneath him while in flowmotion with an Aerial Dive which killed them instantly leaving only a floating pink crystalized heart behind.
Once Sora landed and rolled back into his battle stance, Sora noticed only a few Heartless remained which would not last long since Sora shot a Thunder spell killing all the Heartless in the area. Scanning the area, Sora noticed no more Heartless were around and felt a job well done.
Only that Sora didn't believe that. He knew something was off and decided to hold that thought while regrouping with Kaeya and Eula.
Making his way back to Kaeya, Sora found him resting on a tree exhausted and doing his best to guard the downed knight. Jogging up to him while catching a glimpse of the fallen knight to see if they were still breathing, Sora called out to Kaeya.
"Hey, Kaeya, is everything alright over here?" Sora asked unaware of Kaeya's situation.
Barely able to stand upright and needing the support of a close-by tree, Kaeya peered at Sora while shooting him a weak smile, "He..hey Sora, yea we're good. I was able to clear the surrounding Heartless but guess the adrenaline from your elemental ability ran out."
"That's good to hear. What about the others? Is everyone still... you know?" Sora asked unsure whether he would like what he was about to hear.
Before Kaeya could speak up another voice beat him to it.
"Yes, their condition is fine. But they'll need help soon."
Sora turned towards the voice only to be greeted by Eula walking up to the duo. Glad to see Eula again, Sora spoke up.
"Eula! Are the other knights alright to be left alone? Did any Heartless attack you while checking up on the knights?" Sora replied growing worried for the injured knights.
"The knights are fine. They've been patched up and badly beaten but otherwise fine. The Heartless did not approach any of us. Your weapon must've attracted them away giving me the perfect chance to help the injured knights" Eula said while taking a look at Kaeya.
"Kaeya, mind explaining how your entire squadron was defeated? The knights assigned to your group were well trained and experienced" Eula asked curious about how all the knights were defeated.
"We...no, I underestimated these Heartless. I figured they were some sort of slime variation at first but upon closer inspection, I noticed they did not act at all like a slime. The small ones moved rather quickly and before I knew it the small monsters surrounded us. I didn't think the small ones could present a challenge, but I was wrong. The small Heartless managed to disrupt our tactical plan of attack. " Kaeya said while continuing to reflect on his failure as a leader.
"After we were surrounded, that's when the other variations of the Heartless started separating everyone leaving us scattered. The large Heartless were practically impossible to hurt and managed to throw some of the knights into the trees managing to topple over the tree. Other variations of the Heartless had different attack patterns and that left the rest of the knights defenseless. It's all my fault" Kaeya uttered feeling guilty.
"Kaeya, it's not your faul..." Sora started to say while empathizing with Kaeya before he was interrupted.
"Yes, it is. As the leader of this squadron, my job was to make sure we would be well prepared to eliminate this mysterious new monster. But I ended up leading the knights into a slaughter" Kaeya muttered feeling ashamed of himself.
Taking a good look at Kaeya, Eula merely scoffed at the man experiencing a moment of self-pity. Eula crossed her arms under her chest and gave Kaeya a stern glare before addressing him.
"Well now, as it stands you are still the Calvary Captain and leader of this squadron. So, get up off your arse and take responsibility for your men! They need you now and as their leader, it's your responsibility to get them home" Eula said trying to snap Kaeya out of self-loathing.
Taking a second to regain his bearings, Kaeya understood what was at stake. The lives of the knights that were assigned under his watch. Several of the knights were friends of his that he would see at a headquarters and even go out and enjoy a drink together. And he would be damned if he didn't get them back home. After his moment of self-reflection, Kaeya took a deep breath before rolling his arms back and cracking his neck. Thanks to Eula's words, Kaeya realized what he needed to do.
"Heh, thank you, captain. Your words were just what I needed now. And thank you, Sora. If you hadn't shown up when you did, then I would've been a goner" Kaeya replied gratefully for Sora and Eula's help.
"No problem, but where did all the Heartless go? I'm positive that there were still more running around" Sora said realizing something was wrong.
Looking around the area, Eula noticed that even with all the toppled trees there wasn't a single Heartless to be found. Before she could utter another word, a loud boom echoed throughout the forest. The boom caused the trio to turn their heads in the direction the boom came from.
"That's..." Eula didn't finish before she turned to Kaeya and started to inform him of what needed to be done.
"Kaeya, you need to stay with the knights and make sure their conditions stay stable and help any that require assistance. Sora and I will move forward to resolve whatever made that loud boom. The sound appears to be coming from Andrius's home" Eula explained to Kaeya who was slightly confused about why Eula was so intent on chasing down the origin of the boom.
Immediately after Eula reported her plan of action to Kaeya, he understood right away how dire things could get.
"Understood, Eula, you two need to go, now! " Kaeya said realizing that things could go from bad to worse.
Nodded back at Kaeya, Eula turned to Sora and explained the situation.
"Sora, we need to move now. The direction that the sound came from is in the same direction as Andrius's home" Eula stated to Sora.
"Andrius? Who is that?" Sora said confused by what Eula had said.
"Andrius is one of the Four Winds. Andrius is a noble soul that watches over Wolvendom. He was put in charge of defending the country on orders from the Anemo Archon, Barbatos. A" Eula finished hoping to catch Sora up to date on the situation.
Hearing Eula's explanation of who Andrius was and that he took the appearance of a wolf, Sora understood exactly how drastic the situation was.
"We need to hurry then. Eula, lead the way!" Sora exclaimed wanting to save Andrius before the Heartless could get to him.
Eula gave Sora a nod before telling him to stay close to her and took off in the direction of Andrius. Sora followed right behind her leaving Kaeya to lazily rush over and check on the rest of the downed knights.
After Sora and Eula took off towards Andrius's home where he would most likely be, Sora noticed that the weather was starting to become even more dark and gloomy. The wind was becoming gradually more intense, and Sora was beginning to become worried for Andrius.
Not that long after the duo was running for Andrius's home, they came across a large area out in the open that was shaped like a large empty circle space with strange designs scattered across the walls of the space.
However, coming closer to the open space Sora noticed something happening in the middle of the space. A large white and blue wolf, who Sora figured was Andrius, was growling at the Heartless that surrounded him. The Heartless were rapidly covering the ground beneath Andrius and leaving him in a pool of darkness while also managing to strike at Andrius causing him to wail out in pain before biting a group of Heartless killing them instantly.
Andrius seemed to be quite fed up with the Heartless and started glowing blue all around his body. His eyes distinctly glowed a bright blue along with his back shining brightly. He then let out a mighty howl before quickly spinning and causing blue light to surround him that was lashed out at the Heartless that surrounded him killing all the Heartless in the vicinity and destroying the pool of darkness beneath him.
Eula and Sora jumped down into the open space and approached Andrius who was still glowing blue around his body.
"Andrius, one of the four wind protectors, please calm yourself! We must speak" Eula called out to Andrius who was still growling at the two while still being in a defensive stance.
Andrius must've heard Eula's plea and started to calm himself while still glowing blue and speaking in a gruff voice.
"Knight of Mondstadt, explain yourself. What are these dark creatures that disturb my slumber? The forest of Wolvendom has been in disarray and is calling out in pain and despair" Andrius muttered while still being on guard.
Figuring now would be a good time to explain the situation, Sora stepped forward to address the large wolf.
"Those dark creatures are known as the Heartless. They are created from darkness and have the capability to cover the world in darkness while destroying everything" Sora explained hoping Andrius could see how dangerous the Heartless truly were.
Letting out a large sigh, Andrius shifted his head so that he could get a better look at the sky around them noticing the dark and stormy clouds.
"Creatures originating from the darkness. Do you claim these Heartless are beings that can bring an end to the world? Then answer me this, boy, why are these Heartless disturbing me in my slumber?" Andrius asked seeking an answer.
"The Heartless tend to be attracted to those with strong hearts. Which is most likely the reason why they regrouped and started to go after you once they sensed your heart" Sora reasoned trying to find a suitable answer to Andrius' question.
"A strong heart? Perhaps...Lord Barbatos could also sense within me that I have a strong heart which is why he granted me a position with the four winds" Andrius muttered trying to understand what the boy meant when he was told that he had a strong heart.
Sora nodded figuring that what Andrius was saying about this Barbatos person was most likely true. However, before Sora could say anything else the ground beneath him started to shake violently knocking him to his back while Eula landed on her knees trying to withstand the shaking. Andrius was crouched down on his hind legs while letting out a howl.
Within a moment's notice, several pools of Heartless started spawning around the trio leading to the floor within the open space to be tainted and covered in darkness. Sora could feel the darkness growing stronger, causing him to wince while summoning his keyblade and getting into his fighting stance. Eula also summoned her claymore while using it as a prop to stand up and try to assess the situation. Andrius was now snarling while still glowing blue.
Shadow Heartless started climbing out of the pools of darkness and then started piling onto each other while forming a massive cluster that formed into a cyclone-like formation. The cyclone was moving at an incredibly fast rate managing to pick up even more shadows into the cyclone increasing its size.
Once the cyclone was standing several meters tall, it started to make its way towards Sora and Eula before diverting and heading straight for Andrius who was prepared to strike at the tower and rip it to shreds only to be left utterly puzzled as the cyclone seemed to open near the bottom of its' body and enveloped Andrius entirely.
Bewilderment worked its way up Sora and Eula's faces as they just witnessed the Heartless cyclone engulf Andrius. Sora called out to Andrius and started running towards the cyclone ready to break its formation and rescue Andrius before something unexpected happened.
The Heartless cyclone started to instantly shrink from its tall form. The cyclone also appeared to be breaking apart all around and patches of shadows started to fall to the ground before scrambling back into the cyclone.
This left Sora utterly confused since he had never seen a Demon Tide behave this way before. Normally a Demon Tide would either break away and form other cyclones or it would continue to group up with other Heartless increasing its size to a large tornado. Now, however, this cyclone was not stable and was breaking apart all around its body. Moreover, the cyclone looked to be glowing at its core.
Immediately what followed was a bright flash that covered the entire cyclone and blinded Sora and Eula for an instant forcing them to cover their eyes. A second later, Sora rubbed his eyes and tried to readjust his eyesight to focus on what happened to the cyclone and Andrius. What Sora saw left him with his mouth open trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
The Heartless cyclone was toppled over and no longer spinning with the Shadows spilling all over the ground and sinking back into the pools of darkness. Andrius was located where he was previously. However, now he was hunched over, and his breathing was somewhat steady, but his body looked hurt with scrapes and bruises. However, something else was wrong as Sora noticed another large figure next to the wolf.
The large unknown figure looked to be hunched over and was completely covered by darkness. Sora tried to get a better look at the unknown figure, but the figure started to rise and four legs seemed to expand out and help the figure expand its body. Sora now realized what the unknown figure was and felt like the situation turned into the worst possibility.
"I have a bad feeling about this" Sora muttered feeling like things were going to get hectic.
The dark creature now had darkness coming from its body like a dark mist giving it an intimidating look. The darkness surrounding the creature then started to be pulled in and engulfed the creature. Glowing yellow eyes appeared from within the darkness and soon the dark mist faded away leaving the form of a large wolf. Except that the wolf now had a black and purple color palette while very closely imitating Andrius's appearance. Instead of the glowing blue outline along Andrius's body along with his eyes glowing blue eyes the dark wolf's body glowed with a purple color and its eyes were glowing yellow.
The paws of the dark wolf were covered in a dark purple color with the bottom of its paws covered in red. Now getting a better view of the wolf, Sora spotted what appeared to be small traces of red along its legs that looked very similar to the designs around Andrius' legs. Getting a clear picture of the wolf, Sora now realized that the Demon Tide must've tried swallowing Andrius but in the process failed and ended up creating a pureblood Heartless mimic of Andrius.
While the Heartless wolf was adjusting its new form, Sora summoned his keyblade and was ready to strike the wolf before it could become even more dangerous.
"Eula, we need to take that wolf down, now! It's different compared to the other Heartless we have fought. We have to destroy it before it becomes stronger or worse retreats away" Sora yelled out preparing to stop the Heartless wolf.
"Understood, we cannot allow for it to leave Wolvendom. Mark my words beast, we will destroy you and vengeance will be mine!" Eula exclaimed leaving Sora a bit confused about that last part Eula said but brushed it to the side ready to get to work.
The battle of Wolvendom was about to commence and all that was stopping the Heartless wolf from wreaking havoc amongst the rest of the forest around Wolvendom and even Mondstadt itself was Sora and Eula.
The two warriors prepared to bring an end to this Heartless plight.