Kingdom Hearts: Heart of Heaven
Chapter Twenty-One: Night Terrors
Day 5- Night
'Stupid, Stupid! This world isn't a video game Ethan! Of course, they are going to freaking attack me in my sleep!' I mentally berated myself as I swung out again, impaling a shadow on the blade of my scythe, forcing the others to back up or risk getting skewed themselves.
As I finished the arc of my swing, I rolled off the side of my bed to avoid the clawed strike of the two that managed to slip past the blade. Landing on my feet, I crouched low as my Everlight shifted to a machete and the threads in my left hand intertwined and changed to match as I charged at the two shadows that stood where I once slept, having to take the briefest of seconds to remove their claws from the mattress.
A second I was all too happy to take advantage of as I swung with both blades at their necks, the Everlight machete making a clean cut through while the shroud-made one only partially cut through, getting stuck halfway in.
And even though it would've been a fatal wound to anything living, I had to take a step back from its retaliatory swipe as the shroud weapon undid itself.
'Okay, so the Everlight is much more effective at killing heartless than my shroud is… even though it seems unable to hurt me and wasn't that effective before I bought Moth and the Flame.' I briefly pondered as I the Everlight shifted to a fire axe and cut the wing off a bat heartless's body.
Was there just something about the nature of the Heartless that made the Everlight effective against them? I was going to need to look over my purchases again to try and figure it out, but first-
My shroud shifted again as metal plates coated my boots, giving my kick a little extra oomph as I punted a Shadow across the room that tried to strike me from my shadow.
First, I had to kick these monsters out of my home…SHIT!
"HEARTLESS!" I shouted, trying to get the attention of my three roommates as I started to rush towards the door. Shit, Shit! They were asleep! I got lucky when I woke up when I did but they were defenseless! I hope that my nature as a psychopomp dragged most of their attention on me and left them for later.
Then I felt claws rake across the back of my outfit, cutting the threads but unable to completely break through the enchanted cloth. Spinning on my heel, the Everlight shifted into a hammer as I turned around and slammed it into the Shadows head that struck me from behind, sending it flying into the wall, and splattering it into umbral smoke.
'Damn it.' I thought to myself as I took in the room again, eyeing the dark mist that drifts through the air and covers everything in this room. Whatever was going on, this fog was draining the light of everything inside it, making it harder to see my attackers. If it wasn't for the Everlight, I probably would be fighting blind right now.
The house shook for a moment as something Roared, the sound reverberating and causing the heartless to stumble. Taking the opportunity, I pushed off against the ground to rush the closest I could see, cutting off its head as I swiftly followed up with a diagonal strike that cut another from shoulder to hip.
God, I needed to get to the others but I knew if I turned my back again the heartless would attack me from behind again.
'So, fast and deadly it is' I thought as I pushed off the ground, charging at the remaining vague shapes that the mist hid, swinging a wide arc with my scythe as I hoped to cut down as many as I could with one swipe.
Then I heard a sharp crack of wood as I turned to see my bed coming to life. The wooden frame was split in half with all the broken parts becoming makeshift teeth for its now long maw, as the headboard now hosted two malicious yellow eyes.
And as the now-possessed bed launched towards me, it spun a bit mid-air as its jaw opened sideways to leave me as little room as possible to dodge.
So I didn't.
My threads lashed out, twisting together until they formed a wide metal bar and as the possessor heartless bit down, the roof and bottom of its mouth hit each end of the bar, unable to close its maw anymore.
And jumping forward, keeping my shroud connected to the bar with a thin string, I lifted my Everlight into the fire axe again, cutting straight down into the wooden frame that connected the upper and lower jaws, only able to cut about a third of the way in before it stopped.
'God, these fuckers are tough once they inhabit something' I thought to myself as I quickly shifted the Everlight between its orb form and back into an axe, the shift allowing it to easily remove itself from the frame. I lifted it again to cut down once more on the joint connecting the two halves when I heard the metal bar strain as the possessor began to overpower the metal and was about to snap its jaw shut around me like an alligator.
Thinking quickly, I had my shroud create more threads as they interweaved and changed into metal spikes as they shot out from my sides, slamming into the bed and buying me a few more precious seconds.
This time when I swung down again, the wood cut completely down the middle as the two halves of the bed trying to eat me stopped moving all together as a dark mist poured out of the cut. It billows and twists together as the smoke gains a pair of yellow eyes and shifting my Everlight into a bat, I swung up at the reforming possessor, scattering its smoky body to the point it couldn't reform anymore.
But I didn't get the chance to breathe as from both sides, two heartless jumped out from the shadows, jumping towards me with outstretched claws. I swiftly bashed the head of the right one, slamming it into the ground while grabbing the other one out of the air with my left hand.
It squirmed and clawed at my sleeve to try and break free but to no avail as what little damage it was doing against my enchanted threads was fixing itself just as fast. All the while the threads started to gather and wrap around its body, encasing it into a cocoon in seconds.
As I felt it struggle against my will, against my Capture attempt, I created thorns on the inside to try and weaken it, to impale it enough to speed up the capture attempt while trying not to damage to the point of dispersing.
The I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as my Everlight shifted into a hammer and knocked another bat heartless right out of its dive towards me, before shifting it again into a knife and throwing it at another, going straight into its chest.
Gritting my teeth in frustration, I called the Everlight back to me and focusing on what I wanted, the symbol of the Spiritfarers complied as it turned into a staff, the lantern adorned at the top of the staff burning brightly as it pushes against the dark mist within my room.
The few heartless left flinch back as their cover is dispersed and leaping towards them, I spun the lantern staff in my palm, swinging it in a wide low arc and sending them flying into a wall.
I spun the Everlight again, the weapon feeling right in my hands, as I saw another small cloud of dark smoke head towards my nightstand and not wanting to destroy another piece of furniture in my room, I swung the lantern at the possessor, the end of my staff trailing light as I scattered it into dissipating wisps of darkness.
Giving my room one last look over, I turned back to my shroud cocoon as the Capture should be complete any momen-
Only for my eyes to widen as I saw the Shadow Heartless halfway out of its prison, its lower body was two-dimensional while its upper body was already reformed, its claws reared back ready to stab into my face.
Thinking quickly, my Everlight shifted again and rushed to my face, shifting and reforming into iron mask as its claws impacted against the metal, a loud screech making my ears ring as its claws scrapped across its surface.
Reaching forward with my right hand, I grabbed the little monster as the threads of the cocoon opened up like an iron maiden, the threads inside lashing out and grabbing at the upper torso of the shadow as wel.
As it was being shoved back into it's prison, I could see the little fucker try and slip back into the shadows to escape again and my Everlight shifts again, turning into a long chain as it wraps around the ant-like heartless, its glow keeping it from retreating and shortly after it was locked back into the cocoon of enchanted threads and glowing chains.
A second passes as I watch the cocoon to make sure it doesn't escape again, then another second as I feel my will press down on the already flagging creature…
Then with a small *click* I felt the capture go through as I quickly interfaced with my phone and not wasting a single second, sold the monster to the Company.
[Captured: Heartless; Shadow, Value- Unnamed Tier Four. 6/2 +3 points.
Sold: Heartless; Shadow- 2/2 +1 point. 21 points remain]
The cocoon of threads goes slack as the heartless is teleported to a Company holding cell and I shifted my Everlight back to its staff form, grabbing the staff/lantern combination and holding it up to light up the dark mist that hid everything in my room.
A moment passed as I scanned every corner, every shadow for even the smallest glimmer of glowing yellow eyes… before I let out a sigh of relief once I knew I wasn't going to get jumped again.
Jesus, I didn't expect the heartless to be able to crawl out of the Shroud like that, if it weren't for the Everlight I wouldn't have been able to contain it long enough for capture. But the fact that I needed both my Shroud and Everlight worried me. The Shroud requires my focus for it to be effective and the Everlight, while semi-autonomous could only be in one place at a time.
This means to capture a Heartless, I would need to utilize both, effectively leaving me without a weapon in the middle of combat… God, I hope that it was only the Shadows that could pull that stunt because if all the purebloods could slip through my shroud like that, it just made earning points that much harder.
My head snaps to the door as another Roar echoes through the house, the high-pitched howl filled with pain and anger as I rush to the door and threw it open.
"Eda! King! Luz!" I shouted out into the dark hallway, hoping that they were alright as I exited to run towards their rooms, only to be interrupted by the sound of a shattering wood and I was forced to shield my eyes from the pieces of wooden debris that were formerly apart of Eda's door.
I lowered my hand and froze at the sight of the hulking four-legged beast that broke through Eda's door. The feathered creature was smiling down maliciously at the lizard-like heartless with a glow-tipped tail that struggled against the creature's grip.
Then with a sickening crunch, the heartless is crushed underneath the weight of the creature's paw, dissipating into wisps of darkness that tried to hold onto the Heart it stole, only for the glow of my Everlight to release it into my care.
But that flash of light caught the attention of the creature as its head twists unnaturally towards me and as the dark mist that choked the light slowly vanished the creatures slowly stalked into view.
Feathers black as night covered its entire body, sharp claws attached to elongated fingers, two long bat ears that twitched at the slightest sound, and void-like eyes that looked me up and down, wondering if I'd make a decent meal.
And All of it… was attached to Eda's face, her form overtaken by her curse, leaving nothing but a hungering beast in its wake.
Jesus Christ, of course, I'd have to fight the owl beast the exact day I was told about it. Am I just cursed? I really hope this isn't a fate thing because those universes were a pain in the ass to deal with and Destiny Defense was expensive as hell.
Then the owl beast started to crouch low and my eyes widened as I moved, knowing it was about to pounc- OhGodItsFast!
The creature launches itself at me at speeds I haven't had to contend with since my last fight in Blood War. As it shot through the air towards me, I rolled forward and dived underneath its lunge as it crashed into the wall behind me, just barely missing by inches.
I heard it scrambling for a moment, and I shifted the Everlight again as I spun and slammed the head of a sledgehammer into its side, knocking it into the wall as I jumped backward trying to create space between us.
The creature let out a yelp of pain and shook its head, before it snapped its gaze on me and let out a high-pitched screech as it charged at me.
Panicking at how fast it was moving, I shifted my Everlight into a net and threw it at the owl beast, but the creature seemed to expect your trick as she jumped sideways and latched onto the wall, the net only able to skid off her side as her toothy smile grew as if it was mocking me.
Then she pushed off the wall and launched herself towards me as I ran towards the stairs, jumping towards it to dodge one of her clawed swipes at my back, falling a couple of feet and almost stumbling as I landed halfway down the stairs.
"Eda! Eda Stop!" I heard Luz cry but I couldn't pay it any mind as I continued to rush down the rest of the steps, thankful that the downward slope wasn't made with Chimeric beings in mind as Eda stumbled after me, unable to get proper footing with her inhuman hands.
As I stepped into the dining room, I reached into my pocket and grabbed one of the few blood glyphs I made earlier, focusing my divine fire and intent onto it, it flashed for a moment before igniting into a bigger ball of flames than I can produce on my own.
I ran halfway through the room before I heard the owl beast stumble the last couple of steps and taking this chance, I turned and threw the fireball straight at her fallen form.
*BOOM!*
The divine fire hits dead center as it explodes and completely covers the front of the owl beast. The creature screams in agony as it claws at its burning feathers trying to put out the fire that burns her.
Taking this chance threads grew out of my outfit and intertwined with each other forming long stretches of cloth before the enchanted scarves launched themselves to the distracted owl beast.
The cloth wrapped itself around her wings, legs, and body, trying to restrict her movements but the beast just snarled as she powered through the attempt, slowly standing back up, only looking slightly singed from your attacks.
Goddamn it, I was hoping that the Purification Flames would push back the curse but no dice. The only hope I had now was to hold down Eda long enough to get her to drink that Elixer.
Eda struggled, trying to stand up and launch herself towards me, but every time it tried to get its footing, I pulled on the scarves wrapped around her legs, throwing off her balance and keeping her from standing back up.
Realizing that I needed a bit more to hold her down, I mentally called my Everlight back, the orb of light zipping down the stairs and flying towards Eda, shifting into a hard-light chain as it reformed around her trying to lock body parts in place.
Then the owl beast spread her wings wide, knocking the chain away and pulling my shroud apart with her sheer strength, and even though she was unable to tear the enchanted cloth, it was enough to pull against the length of the scarves and yank me towards her.
With a sharp grin, she rears back her clawed hand, and even with the shroud trying to keep her from moving, she takes a swipe at me with her long arm, trying to gut me for daring to try and stop her rampaging.
Then suddenly the ground flashes green for a moment before several tree-like roots grow out of the floor and wrap around Eda, stopping her from finishing her blow and dragging her towards the ground. The owl beast growls with rage as Luz's comes down the stairs, pressing another Plant glyph against the wall and creating another root to wrap around Eda's body, pulling her toward the ground.
"King Hurry!" she cried as I threw the Everlight again, burying it into her feathery side and changing it into chains, wrapping itself around her as it formed.
The beast struggles but with the three different binding attempts against her, Eda's strength finally fails as she is forced to the ground, all her limbs pulled against her body as she wiggles in place, trying to break apart the chains that held her.
"I Got It!" King's voice cried out as I created more and more cloth to replace the roots Eda breaks apart. Running down the stairs, King carries a beaker of Eda's glowing Elixer and running around Eda's large form, he runs up to her face only pausing for a moment in fear as Eda growls at him.
"Okay, Eda" He says as he uncorks the potion in his hands and starts to lift it to her mouth, having to pull back a couple of times as she tries to bite him. "I know you are having a bad dream but you need to take your medicine and Wake Up!" he says as he shoves the entire bottle into her mouth as she tries to take another bite out of him.
With a loud crunch, the elixir shatters in her mouth, releasing its contents as the owl beast stills. It screeches as its body begins to shrink, the potion doing its job as the curse slowly recedes.
For a few moments, I held my breath as I watched Eda slowly shrink down, waiting for any sign, anyway for this to go wrong. For the potion to suddenly stop working and for Eda to turn back and try to kill us all in her rampage.
Then she turns back to normal, clothed in her pajama pants and torn sweatshirt, lying on her side and completely knocked out-cold.
I finally let out a breath as my threads unravel and slowly reel themselves back to my outfit as I watched Luz lean against the wall in relief and King falls on his back, the two releasing their breaths as well.
"Fuuuuucking hell, you two had to deal with this before?" I asked as rubbed my head, the adrenaline wearing off and just leaving me feeling exhausted.
"Language" King stated, raising a clawed finger in reply while staring up at the ceiling, "You might teach us bad habits," he said with a joking tone before his hand fell back to the floor and he just stared up at the ceiling.
"It only got this bad one time" Luz explained as she walked up to Eda and quickly checked her over for injuries. "And that was when King stole her elixir, thinking that it was a magic-boosting potion rather than medicine."
"I said I was sorry. Plus, I had to do all those gross chores as punishment" King said as he shivered a bit. "I didn't know a sink pipe could get so nasty"
Luz smiled through her exhaustion as she rolled Eda onto her back. "Yeah, all sorts of nasty stuff can build up over time. My mamá once showed me, so I would stop washing food down the sink." She says before freezing, "Ethan, I think you need to see this"
Raising an eyebrow, I walked over to her, looking down at the two before as Luz reached over and pushed aside part of her torn sweatshirt.
Revealing dark veins, spreading across her chest, right over where her Heart would be.
"She didn't have this before did she?" I asked Luz shook her head in negation. Did the heartless get her… that.. that should've killed her. How did… did her curse save her?
"Luz, King, did the heartless attack you as well?" I asked as I kneeled down over Eda, looking over the veiny black scar that now rested on the left side of her chest…
"Yeah, one did." Luz admitted as she looked towards King. "King saved me. He did some kind of magic and blasted the thing off of me. I didn't even know you could use magic King!" she said, getting back a bit of her enthusiasm despite how late it was.
"I… I didn't know either." King admitted as he lifted his arms up and stared at his paws. "I just saw Luz in danger, and I wanted to yell for her to wake up, to call for help, to do something and... well… it came out as a Roar instead."
Ah so that first roar was Kings, I thought to myself as I pulled a bit of Hestia's flame and let burn within my palm. Reaching down, I pushed my smoldering palm against her dark scar, as the prismatic flames flowed into her.
"What are you doing?" Luz asked as she kneeled down next to me watching my flames with curiosity as they weren't burning Eda like flames normally would.
"My flames are also known as the flames of purification," I explained as King lifted his head off the floor in see what I was doing. "I'm hoping that they can burn away the darkness that the heartless might've left behind"
And slowly, I lifted my hand away as the three of us watched with bated breath… and saw the dark veins were gone, replaced with darker but more natural tones as whatever lingering effects at the attempted theft of her heart burned underneath my flames.
"… Has the heartless ever attacked people while they were asleep?" I asked aloud as Luz and King looked at each other, silently asking each other the same thing.
"I've never heard of it before," King says, crossing his arms as he tilts his head back and forth as he thinks about it. "Then again, if they can be this stealthy about it, then maybe that would explain some of the disappearances that have been happening around town."
"So, nowhere is safe then?" Luz asks with more than just a little worry as I see her eyes shift about looking at each shadow as if it was a potential enemy.
I shook my head. "No, we should've been safe underneath Mary's lights. But there was a heartless in Eda's room that, when killed, returned all the lights back to normal. I think it was the thing that let the heartless enter our home."
And where there was one heartless, there was bound to be more of its kind and if targeting people in their sleep was a part of the Heartless's normal operation then the population would know about it. Their ability to yank hearts out of people's chests wasn't exactly quiet.
So, there were two possibilities here. One was that this attack was targeted, someone controlling the heartless commanded them to attack me where they otherwise wouldn't have. Or two, the effects of my purchase 'Moth and the Flame' made the heartless able to sense me even when I was asleep, picking me out as an easy target to satisfy their hunger.
Either way this… this wasn't sustainable anymore. I know it was my fault that they were attacked. Eda and her children lived here peacefully for months and suddenly when I show up, they were attacked twice in just a week and it was only pure luck that they didn't lose anyone.
I was heartless bait now and the sheer number of heartless I had to deal with compared to the other three was proof of that.
"Luz, King…" I started to say, getting the attention of the two as I took a moment to steel myself. "I don't think I can live here anymore," I say as the looked at me in shock, before they open their mouths to protest but I raise my hand to cut them off.
"Look, Luz, King…. You guys weren't the only ones keeping secrets." I say as I take a breath, just let it out Ethan they will understand. "I'm Heartless bait guys" I say as their eyes widen. "My soul… and I suppose my heart is like catnip to them. I thought I was safe underneath these lights but with this new heartless I can't afford to stay under the same roof as you guys."
Slowly I pushed myself off my knees and with a thought, the hard-light chain turned back into a small star and zipped back to my side. "Could you tell Eda when she wakes up that I am grateful for all her help? You guys didn't have to take me in when you did but thank you for helping me when no one else would."
"Wait!" Luz called out as I started heading towards the door. "You don't have to go. I can… I can come up with a Ward Glyph! I just need to find the right combination and make it big enough for the house but… but I can do it! You don't have to go Ethan…"
"I do Luz." I say shaking my head but feel a sad smile grow on my lips as some part of me feels… glad they were still trying to get me to stay. "Even if you come up with something the heartless will just keep trying now that they have a way to get around Mary's light. Can you come up with a glyph before tomorrow night? Or the one before that?"
Luz stayed silent which was answer enough but I smiled at her as I patted the top of her head "Thanks Luz but I do have to go. Besides it's not like I won't come over to visit. This is still the best potion shop in town remember? And isn't there another glyph class tomorrow?"
Luz thinks that over for a moment before nodding. "Yeah… yeah you're right. I still have a lot to teach you so don't even think about skipping alright?" She says as she stands up confidently… for a few seconds before she wilts a bit. "Ethan… I don't want to lose any more friends to them, so… you stay safe okay?"
"I… I will" I promised and as I was about to turn to leave I heard a small call of 'Hold on!' come from the stairs as King's little feet tried to climb down them as fast as he could.
"Wait!" he says as he runs up to me and taking a moment to catch his breath, he holds a pink stuffed rabbit with mismatch button eyes up to me. "In order to stay safe against the ever-present threat of darkness, you will need the best protection. So, I hereby entrust Fran-swa Junior into your command, may he keep you safe even in the darkest of times." He says as he bows his head and lifts his toy up a little higher for me to take.
And I knew how important this toy was to him… "Are you sure King? I know he's your favorite." I say as I see King hesitate for a moment.
"I- will miss him. As part of my grand army, sometimes my loyal must leave on dangerous missions and I see no greater mission than this one. I will have to find a replacement though… Maybe General Mumba will be up to the task?" he mumbles to himself before holding up the toy again, shaking it a little to try and make him look more enticing.
And. Well… How could I no to that? So, I picked up the small toy and forming a small backpack out of my shroud, I slipped him inside as I smiled at King. "Thank you, King"
And right before I turned to head out the door, I felt two pairs of hands grab onto each of my own, and feeling the two pull me down, I obliged as they wrapped their arms around me, giving me a big hug and slowly, feeling a bit unsure, I wrapped my arms around them as well.
"Come visit soon, okay?" Luz asks as we let go and I nod as I turn towards the door.
"Yeah, I will. See you later guys" I say as I say as I start to walk towards the exit of the house. Taking a deep shuttering breath as I just… tried to settle my emotions
I guess I didn't realize just how attached I got to this small group of goofballs. But this needed to happen, there was no safe zone for me anymore.
'I only have one option left then.' I thought to myself as I walked out into the street and started to head towards the abandoned areas of town, going on the hunt once more.
After all, I needed nine more points to purchase my own safe zone.