Never did a journey to a new world feel as long as it did now. Sora, Ruby, Donald, and Goofy felt as if they'd been drifting through the stars for hours. The tension in the gummi ship was thick enough for Crescent Rose to cut. "How long do you think it'll be until we get to where Ansem is?" Ruby asked, trying to break the tension.
"The princesses said he'd likely be at the deepest depths of darkness," Donald said, gripping the wheel ever so firmly. "We keep flying into the darker parts of this corridor between worlds and we'll find it, eventually." Despite the look of determination on his face, he couldn't deny he was rather anxious about what they might find. Especially after everything they faced so far.
The long trip was soon filled with silence again as everyone mentally prepared for what was likely to be the fight of their lives. More so than any other. Soon they found themselves...unable to see even a single star now. A great, eerie void of pitch blackness. Sora eventually noticed something out of the corner of his eyes. Something that caused him to shift lean closer to the cockpit window. A faint shimmer "Are those... hearts? Moving in a trail?"
Looking out into the void, Ruby followed Sora's gaze toward what looked to be several streams of what, sure enough, looked to be hearts. They were converging on some bizarre yet unnerving light veiled in dark clouds. Almost like a black hole, but strangely only pulling in the hearts. "I think...Uncle Qrow was more on the nose than we thought when he said Ansem could be at the 'end of the world.' Looking at...THAT, it kinda makes me feel like that's where we are." Ruby couldn't hide the nervousness she felt spreading through her as she looked out at their destination. It felt so...wrong. So...cruel and oppressive. That left no doubt in their mind. This was where Ansem dwelled.
As the Gummi Ship drew in closer, everyone steeled themselves before being beamed down into...a small, cramped alcove. The instant the four of them stepped outside of it, they were greeted with...a most desolate sight. Several drifting rocks which appeared to be...only capable of being described as a mixture of floating in water and floating through the air. There was no clear way for them to describe it, but the entire...world, if it could be called that, was illuminated by a dark, grim, purple light that dominated the horizon. And in the distance, was the great, swirling vortex that the hearts were being drawn into. There was an oppressive sense of sorrow weighing down on them the instant they stepped outside. As if this place truly was, both physically and spiritually, the End of the World.
"Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked, looking out at the ruined rocks in the distance, and the hearts flowing into the vortex on the horizon.
"And those hearts...are all the people that they've taken too." Ruby said sadly, putting a hand upon her chest. The poor innocent people of the worlds they never knew, the people of Sora's home, and her own. All of it was taken here. And somewhere within the center of it all, was the madman that sought to let the darkness consume all others. Ansem.
"Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora asked, trying to think optimistically.
The positive thinking was what Donald and Ruby smile as they respectively. "You betcha!" "Yeah! And the hearts from those worlds, too!"
Though optimism was helpful and often necessary, realism was just as effective at times. That's what Sora learned as he realized something. "But if we do beat him and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what's gonna happen to this place? And to us?"
Donald and Ruby's smiles fades as their thoughts were on Sora's words, another respective set of replies. "Well, uh..." "That's...a good question... what will happen to us?" she asked. After all...she and her friends still had so much to do when they got back home. Even if Ruby wouldn't have her team together, she knew she'd have to face what was on the horizon when Remnant was restored. But...would she?
"This is a Heartless world. So maybe it'll just disappear." The three up front turned to Goofy with surprise. Surprise that turned to worry as, once again, it begged the question what would happen to THEM when this world disappears. Goofy, however, walked up to Ruby and held shoulder with his typical, warm smile. He could tell she had the most on her mind with everything that happened, so she needed to hear this most among all of them. "But no worries. Even if this world goes 'poof', our hearts aren't going nowhere," he said before looking to the horizon. "I'm sure we'll find our pals again. Yup, I just know that we will."
Thinking back on it, Ruby remembered her world was consumed and likely became part of the world she was currently in. She survived though as did many people from her home. Sora and Riku as well, the former being somebody she met in Traverse Town after it happened, which was a world that was a sanctuary for those who lost their worlds. The optimism was returning as she smiled and looked ahead with Goofy. "Yeah. If we can survive our homes being lost, we can survive this world disappearing to bring them back!" she said, finally managing to channel the optimism that had been evading her.
Whatever trepidation Sora had in his heart faded away hearing the words of his friends. Especially since there was something else, something of utmost importance, driving him to see this through to the end. Pulling it out of his pocket with his right hand, Sora looked down and smiled at Kairi's lucky charm. The precious thing he promised to bring back to the person who was most precious to him. More than before, he was determined to see this through to the end. 'I'll return this...I promise.'
Seeing him clutch Kairi's lucky charm, Ruby smiled at Sora, placing a hand upon his shoulder. Though she couldn't hear his thoughts, she suspected what and who he was thinking about. With a small nod between each of them, the four friends took their first steps forward.
The moment they stepped upon the purple void, they were surprised by the faint splash that emerged from their feet landing. It felt like...water. And yet, it looked as if there was nothing to stand on. This was even more bizarre than walking on the water at Hollow Bastion. But they didn't have time to think about the logistics of this unnatural world. They had to push forward.
As they made their way to one of the drifting rocks covered in...what appeared to be sand, Ruby looked up and saw a bright, purple, surging sphere of some kind, outlined with a pitch black ring, drifting right above them. "Guys, look!" The instant Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked up, the sphere suddenly plummeted down toward them. They raised their hands to shield themselves as suddenly they were enveloped by it. After that, everything went dark.
A moment later, vision returned to them as they moved their arms out of their lines of sight, suddenly standing upon a small batch of sand. "Wh...What the heck just happened?" Ruby asked, looking around their new, equally dark setting. Surrounding the sand they stood on was a collection of what could only be described as purple hexagonal rock formations with an occasional pink, red, or green.
"We've got company!" Donald exclaimed as he turned and drew his staff. The others turned to where Donald looked, and were immediately greeted by a new variety of Heartless.
Sora noticed they were similar with their muscular frame to the giant Heartless he saw in his dream, and before his world was lost. The pitch black skin and a heart-shaped hole in their torsos in particular, despite being smaller and more embellished. These new Heartless also had sharp purple and blue horns formed the outline of a curled heart came out their head, small blue bat-like wings were on their back, gold-tipped feathered wings on their forearms, long scaly looking tails ended in a sharp crescent-shaped blade and there seemed to be bluish-purple fireballs under their feet. The last detail of note were the scalloped, blunt, blue-bladed swords in their right hands.
"These are some of the least friendly looking Heartless we've seen, yet." Goofy said as he kept his shield up, feeling quite intimidated by them. Of course, it wasn't like the Heartless were friendly to begin with...apart from one mushroomy exception, perhaps.
One flew up and immediately attempted to strike at Donald. "THUNDAGA!" But before the blow could hit, Donald retaliated with a powerful thunder spell which struck it and another near them with bolts of lightning almost the size of the ones Ursula unleashed upon them.
Ruby leapt back, readying Crescent Rose's rifle mod, and opened fire at one while Sora tried swiping another. Unfortunately the devilish looking Heartless was quite nimble as well. The one Sora attacked stuck it's blade into the ground and seemed to vanish. He didn't know what it meant but he had a bad feeling. Especially as a ring of bluish-purple flame spun around him before conecting with a ring and shrunk in, bringing a burning sensation over Sora as the power vanished a moment afterwards. The Heartless appeared again while taking it's blade from the ground and continued assaulting them.
"These are definitely some of the toughest ones, too!" Sora said with a grunt of pain as he healed himself with a cure spell and tried continuing the fight. These weren't even half the size of some of the big ones they fought, yet they were giving the group so much trouble.
Donald waved his staff, unleashing a Firaga upon the Heartless facing him. Just as it was about to hit, the Heartless suddenly vanished as it sword moved seemingly by itself, thrusting at Donald. Donald barely managed to duck with a shocked quack, but a moment later, the sword reared back up with the Heartless reappearing and slamming its sword down, creating a shockwave that threw him and Goofy off their feet.
Goofy tumbled from the unexpected shockwave, only to realize he was surrounded by two Heartless. Narrowing his eyes firmly, he reared his shield back and with a valorous cry, began spinning around, slamming his shield into them rapidly. Donald quickly recovered as the Heartless were distracted and raised his staff, destroying them with a raging Thundaga.
Ruby used her semblance to dash out of the way of a lunging thrust from one of the Heartless. Narrowly avoiding the slash that followed, she reared Crescent Rose back and slashed. To her shock,it barely seemed to flinch. As it tried to counter her, Ruby ducked and quickly reared back for another strike. This one seemed to hit home more forcefully than the previous one, though it was still standing. Like Sora said, these had to be some of the toughest Heartless they faced yet. And this was just the vanguard.
As Ruby dashed about with the aid of her semblance to avoid its trikes, the Heartless seemed to pick up on her movements. For the next instant, its body was surrounded by dark, purple flames. It thrust its blade into the ground and suddenly vanished. Ruby was confused by its sudden disappearance, but fortunately, it seemed to leave one less enemy to plague them. So switching Crescent Rose to rifle mode, she pivoted on her heel and fired at the Heartless Sora was occupied with. It flinched just enough to be open to a finishing blow by Sora.
Just as the Keyblade Master turned to look at her, his eyes widened with shock when he noticed something rising around her. The same dark flames that arose when that other Heartless vanished. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew it was bad! "Ruby! Look out!"
Sora's call couldn't have been timed better as Ruby turned to look at him, only to see herself surrounded by the dark flames. Reacting quickly, she performed a backflip just as the flames began to surge and converge on where she was. Though she managed to get out of harm's way in time, her cape ended up getting singed at the edges, causing her to let out a short cry of alarm. When she landed, she quickly patted down the smolders, turning toward the suddenly reappeared Heartless with a furious glare. "Hey! This is my only cape! Don't you DARE ruin it!" Ruby shouted furiously as she dashed toward the Heartless, and with a great and furious yell, cleaved it in two.
The four friends were forced to recognize just how dire their situation was. Their enemy was stronger than any other Heartless they faced up to that point, and were certainly relentless on top of that. But at least they managed to finish the fight as they all took a moment to collect themselves. Looking around at where they were now, Donald crossed his arms and tapped his left foot. "So now what do we-?"
His question was cut off as a flash of light briefly blinded the four of them. When the brightness finally faded, they were now...back at the entrance of this dark, Heartless infested world. "Hey, we're back where we started!" Goofy observed most obviously.
Sora turned to the edge they intended to head towards then to the sky and back at the horizon again. "We've gotta be careful. More of those falling spheres are dropping all over. Something tells me we'll keep running into enemies if we get consumed. Come on, guys!"
As they ran, Ruby wondered out loud, "We're in enemy territory, this time. And there's only four of us. If they're all as troublesome as those others we saw before, we're in for a rough time. But we can't give up!"
Donald and Goofy nodded to the two youths, and with their hearts firmly steeled, they continued on their way. More and more of those giant spheres of dark energy fell upon them, taking them to similarly strange arenas to the one they just escaped. The Heartless here were far stronger than any they'd faced before. Several of them even had a bizarrely angelic aesthetic about them. Four, light feathered wings, a curled stringy top of its head, almost akin to those magic casting Heartless, three glowing yellow, and a body which looked almost like an angular light bulb. A complete contradiction to the devilish ones with a penchant for turning invisible, but no less dangerous.
They had only just gotten through the first hurdle, and they were already weary. Thankfully they stockpiled on potions and other supplies so they didn't have too much to worry about yet. 'Yet' being the key word here, of course. As they finally made their way closer to the vortex on the horizon, yet another dark sphere descended. This one bigger than the previous ones. And this time, the group found themselves in a much darker ring. And before them...was another one of those Behemoth Heartless. "Not another of these things!" Ruby exclaimed, brandishing her weapon along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
Sora remained calm, keeping his eyes firmly upon their foe. "Remember, everyone! It's slow! Distract it while I climb up its back!" Sora called out as the beast lumbered toward them.
"Uh-huh!" "You got it!" Goofy and Donald replied, nodding along with Ruby. Now that they knew how to fight this massive beast, they could fight it much more effectively. And Ruby knew how to best distract it.
"Hey! Over here!" she called out to the Heartless, running out in front of it as she switched Crescent Rose to rifle mode, taking a few shots at its horn, followed by a blast of fiery magic from Donald. The Behemoth glared at her and reared up to stomp on her. In a blink, Ruby used her Semblance to dash out of the way, followed by Goofy diving in front of Donald to intercept the shockwave that rose from the impact.
Sora used that opening to run around the distracted Heartless, climb up on its back, and took a swing at the horn with all his might. The creature groaned before collapsing to the ground, vulnerable. In that moment, everyone leapt up to pulverize its weak point with their weapons, or magic in Donald's case, until finally the Keyblade cleaved the horn in two, destroying the large Heartless.
With the Behemoth slain, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took the time to catch their breath again. But a moment later, Ruby realized that...they weren't where they were before...which she wasn't even sure of before. Now instead of the scattered pieces of rock and sand, they were now standing in a large void of purple. Before she or anyone else could wonder aloud about it, they were suddenly immersed in complete darkness.
Fortunately, it only lasted a moment as their vision returned...only for them to find that they were, yet again, elsewhere. Now they stood within a large canyon of dark purple sand on small cliffs on the side and grimly colored gems jetting around all over. They stood at what the top of what seemed to be the highest point, looking over the great, dark ravine before them. "Whoa...That's a long way down." Ruby said with a mixture of awe and nervousness.
"I wonder where that Ansem fellar went?" Goofy asked out loud as he looked out in the distance with a squint.
Donald looked ahead with him, squinting as well as he spoke in an almost in a disgusted way, "Dive into the most dangerous place and we'll find him." Suffice it to say, he wasn't looking forward to doing so at all.
"I agree. If the princesses were correct, then Ansem is probably in the deepest, darkest pit of this place." Sora said as he remembered what the Princesses of Heart said. The princesses told them Ansem was swallowed by the darkness as it was spreading through the castle. No doubt the worst part of a world like this was his headquarters but also where he felt most at home. Right as Sora took one step, they were encountered by more of the devilish and angelic Heartless. A sigh of annyance came over Sora as he spoke again. "After we've dealt with this group."
Fortunately, Sora had a way to help them deal not only with the Heartless, but navigate this place safely. Using the power of the little elephant's summon gem, he called forth Dumbo, who wordlessly understood the situation as Sora hopped on his back. Without hesitation, Dumbo charged the Heartless, releasing a nigh endless stream of water from his trunk upon them. As Donald and Goofy followed suit, Ruby took a quick look at her supply of ammunition. There was still a fair amount that could last her, but she knew it probably best to conserve her shots.
With that in mind, the group continued to cut, and bash, and slice, and soak (in Dumbo's case) through the Heartless as they continued along their way. The sheer surplus of Heartless they were facing right off the bat was staggering. Keyblade, scythe, magic, and shield, all together they had faced these things, and now the weapons and their wielders were being put to their biggest test yet. And even as they cut their way through the Heartless barring their path, more and more were likely around the corner.
But with their combined efforts, once again the fight was won. Dumbo smiled and gave Sora a hug with his trunk, before vanishing back into his summon gem.
Now that they had another moment to take in their surroundings as they went deeper and deeper, Sora, Ruby, Donald, and Goofy found themselves...unable to shake the chills they felt. The atmosphere of this...world, if it could truly be called one, was so...oppressive. It felt as if their hearts were being constricted. Crushed slowly in the grip of the darkness upon which this place was built. The pain, the fear, the suffering of the worlds and the people whose hearts were taken by the Heartless. They must have been feeling it all around them.
As they glided further into the cavernous gorge, Ruby noticed something in the most distant part up ahead of them. "Guys, there's something shimmering over there." Sora, Donald, and Goofy followed where she pointed, and sure enough, as they glided down to it, they looked down to see a shimmering vortex of some kind.
"Oh boy. Where do ya think it leads?" Goofy wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but I don't trust it." Donald obstinately stated, crossing his arms before looking around for some other place to go than...the foreboding vortex to potentially nothingness.
Sora, however looked down into it. Despite not seeing a clear destination down there, they didn't have time to deliberate. Looking to Ruby, Sora could see she was of the same mind as both of them gave each other a nod. And without wasting any more time, Sora leapt down into the vortex.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy called after him. The duck barely had time to let out a shocked, "WAK!" as Ruby followed suit barely a second later. He couldn't help groaning at the recklessness of the two youths. Even now, they went with impulsive action rather than critically thinking.
"Well...I guess we better follow em." Goofy said with a gulp as he stepped back to get a running start. "Whoa!"...only to trip over his own feet after he started running, and stumble into Donald, sending them tumbling into the vortex after the youths.
"WAAAAK!"
"AAAAHOOHOOHOOHOOEEEE!"