Re: The ORG [36/40]
joe you need to calm down, somebody (me) is going to have a seizure
joe you need to calm down, somebody (me) is going to have a seizure
Fanfiction ► The ORG [Completed]
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Re: The ORG [36/40]
it is not my fault the posts count is wierd-SFDGDSAGSDG HOLY bonk PAGE SEVENTEEN
I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE IT
anyway is this a good seizure or is this a pokemon thing and i'm gonna get sued
it is not my fault the posts count is wierd-SFDGDSAGSDG HOLY bonk PAGE SEVENTEEN
I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE IT
anyway is this a good seizure or is this a pokemon thing and i'm gonna get sued
Re: The ORG [36/40]
o.o...O.O...*0*...*O*
BEST.CHAPTER.EVER.
OMG!! This is beautiful beyond words... Joe-kun <3, you write the best fighting scenes. This is mah all time favorite *U*. period.
*seconds I need to catch my breath from reading this*
o.o...O.O...*0*...*O*
BEST.CHAPTER.EVER.
OMG!! This is beautiful beyond words... Joe-kun <3, you write the best fighting scenes. This is mah all time favorite *U*. period.
*seconds I need to catch my breath from reading this*
Re: The ORG [36/40]
welp people never shut up about my fight scene prowess i GUESS it's true
huehue my english teacher said my essay was awesome today soon "the introduction...can i put little hearts around it"
But yeah of course this fic was basically made for sillyness and cool fights. And, well, this was meant to be the epitome of over-the-top ridiculousness.
welp people never shut up about my fight scene prowess i GUESS it's true
huehue my english teacher said my essay was awesome today soon "the introduction...can i put little hearts around it"
But yeah of course this fic was basically made for sillyness and cool fights. And, well, this was meant to be the epitome of over-the-top ridiculousness.
Re: The ORG [36/40]
shoosh
it was rushed it was all rushed i suuuck
shoosh
it was rushed it was all rushed i suuuck
Re: The ORG [36/40]
Fic should be finished within the next six days.
Chapter 37 - Grief is Like a Chain
No one was really too keen on talking to Xeyla after that exchange. All eyes were off her, and the levels of awkwardness did not lower in the slightest. The fact that she had made Cinollex leave on such harsh note meant that she had some powerful, damaging information at her disposal. If it was enough to hurt Cinollex of all people, they wanted nothing to do with her.
Learning about the father-daughter thing was distressing, too, to say the least
Noraxeen was mostly unphased, though. She walked across the room to sit near Xenjin and Xanele, but the latter wordless stood up and left the room, headed towards the manufactory, without a word. Made uncomfortable by the gesture, Xeyla left as well, into the corridors instead. There was a collective sigh of relief among the remaining Nobodies. Kurix went to bandaging his arm on his own, while Xenjin uncrossed her legs and reclined a little. Xoje removed his visor and went about polishing it. Noraxeen was just a little confused on Xanele’s leaving, and smiled shyly. She remembered something funny she had been meaning to tell Xenjin.
“You know,” she started, leaning back in the same way as the redhead, “it’s funny that she left, you’re like, everyone’s best friend.”
Xenjin did not really entertain her; at least until something hit her. Well, less hitting, more slamming in the back of the head with a cinderblock.
“Um.”
“My best friend especially, get it?”
“Where did you hear that?”
Noraxeen was confused again.
“I…heard it from Jynx. He made it up. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, right? It’s a joke.”
Charxai chuckled wearily off in his seat. Kurix rolled his eyes and punched him in the arm.
“It’s…it’s not that much of a joke! You’re really one of my best friends-”
“I get it, Nor, I get it.” Xenjin said reassuringly, cutting her off. “It’s funny. Tell Jynx I liked it.”
“Sure!” She chimed, glad to hear the positive review. “Wonder where he is.”
Kurix shook his head.
“Was in the corridors last I saw him. Go look around.”
Xenjin looked at him discouragingly, but he ignored it. Noraxeen thanked him for the advice, though, and left the office to go find Jynx.
It was pretty unlikely she was going to find him.
~~~~~
The explosion across the city had settled down by the time Jynx settled in front of Memory’s Skyscraper. He sat on the bottom step, staring at his shadow on the pavement, cast by the bright neon lights behind him. What exactly brought him there? He was not too sure himself. It felt like the right place to go to mourn, and things could not be all too bad. He came through the blind spot, after all.
Little did he know that being able to sense the essences of all living things in the same world as you, sort of made that point moot. Dryxaim materialized at the skyscraper’s entrance, at the top of the stairs. His wounds had healed in the past half hour, and he was feeling as lively as ever.
“I remember you.”
Jynx jumped, and shot up to his feet, Keyblade held in front of him. Dryxaim eyed the weapon.
“Alright, now I really remember you.”
Dryxaim looked from side to side, and shrugged.
“…And, what, just you? What brings you here, Jynx?”
The level of familiarity irked him, but Jynx wondered why there was less fighting happening. He was okay with not being killed, but the bracelet he saw glowing on Dryxaim’s wrist meant he was in constant dangers.
“I,” talking so casually to him felt weird, “felt like the castle was getting too crowded.”
Shit, did he just say castle?
“So you came for a stroll around these parts? How brave. Didn’t you just see your friend get killed here a little while ago?”
Jynx had to seriously consider why he had chosen to come to this world of all places. Was it really better than staying with the others? He could never look at Kurix in the eyes again, nor Xemnas. Even if the fault had switched between them, they both were holding him back. All of them were. Xoje, Cinollex…if they were so strong why did they get to do what they wanted? Jynx looked down at the Keyblade.
Because he was the only one who had that powers.
Jynx chucked the Keyblade up at Dryxaim, who flinched, but noticed what was happening was a little more unorthodox. The sword clattered as it skidded onto the small plaza, and Dryxaim watched it. He then gave Jynx a very disappointed look.
“What? I don’t want it.” He turned around, however, to pick it up. “Not like I could steal it from you or anything.”
“Take it! You like taking powers, so take this one! I don’t need it. It’s holding me back. They’re holding me back, all because of it.”
As Dryxaim’s hand came an inch away from touching the Keyblade, it vanished in a flash of light, and reappeared in Jynx’s fist. For this was neither the time nor place for a Keyblade-bearing villain. Dryxaim would not yet know that kind of power, and Jynx would not yet give up his place as protagonist so easily.
“Couldn’t if I tried.” He came down the stairs slowly while pulling something from his pocket. He revealed it; a small, blue key, with a skull adorning the top. “But I am interested in something else.” Dryxaim tossed the key, and Jynx caught it. It pulsated in his hand, with little veins of blue almost throbbing, as well as the eyes of the skull.
“You have a pretty cool power, and I could always use more numbers. So if you love handing over powers to me, why not make you one of them?”
Jynx remembered the telekinesis he displayed earlier, and wondered what was so special about it. Dryxaim saw the clueless look in his eyes as he stared in thought at the key.
“You’re a medium, Jynx. Your shell of a body can channel the energy from Mirage tech.”
The blonde was not gloating that he knew this or anything. In fact, he thought it was sort of obvious. Jynx gripped the key and looked at him.
“I’ve known for a little, while the rest of my team was clueless. All they had to do was ask me, but nope.” He closed his eyes for a moment in reflection. “…Back on the bridge, I could tell you were absorbing something from Kaxsra. Maybe it’s happened before, too. Who knows.” Dryxaim held out his hand, asking for the key back. Jynx tossed it back.
“But! That’s kind of boring too. I guess we don’t have much chemistry. Noraxeen, on the other hand…”
Jynx scowled, not liking that he was bringing her up, especially with the suggestive talk.”
“I’d rather tap into the power directly, let’s say. Easier than what you got, or at least it would be if I could get anything out of her.”
Was he targeting Noraxeen? Had he been this whole time? Jynx felt stupid that he had missed out on that, but knew he had to protect her now. But wait, there was something else in what he had said. How were his and Noraxeen’s powers related? They were both kind of blue, apparently, but that was all he saw.
Though, back at the mansion, there was that explosion when her fire reacted with Kaxsra’s staff. The staff was pretty odd-looking, and glowed like the key and the mirror and a lot of peculiar stuff they had come across in the past couple of days. The ruins, too, pointed to some correlation; they sprung to life around her, and the place looked like it was built out of the blue technology. And if his interaction with the mirror, and what Dryxaim was saying, were any indication, he could channel the same stuff Noraxeen used to fight with. Whatever power was in him, if there was any left over from the mirror, was similar to the fire that flowed through her.
Jynx wondered if Kurix knew about this. It only gave them all more reason to keep him locked up. Kaxsra was afraid of the Eternus Ignis, Dryxaim wants it, and there were a lot of powerful artifacts that ran on it. He was a walking battery for them.
Maybe he did not just need to learn how to be responsible with the Keyblade. Maybe he was too dangerous.
“Jynx.”
He snapped out of his thought process.
“I know how you feel, you know.”
~~~~~
Xanele took the elevator down into the manufactory to join up with Xemnas’s tour group. She was expecting to see Xemnas looking stern, and Brixan paranoid with his gun at his side, but as it turned out the atmosphere was far more relaxed. For whatever reason, the new Nobodies were intimidated by Xemnas just not petrified by his presence. Whatever went on over at their castle, they obviously fought Xemnas out of respect, rather than fear or anger.
Ryjemex turned around to see the newcomer. He respected her a lot less, seeing that she had his gauntlet on. Xanele stopped and bit her tongue when his gaze caught her.
“That.” He announced. “Is mine.”
Xanele disagreed, holding her armored hand to her chest and making a fist.
“I found it. Made it mine.”
“It was stolen and should be returned to its owner.” His voice was rising.
“I found it on the ground in a sewer!” So was Xanele‘s. “If you’re leaving stuff around there maybe someone should be taking better care of it for you.”
They were much more up-close and person now. The others watched. Now Brixan had his crossbow out and at the ready, loaded with sedatives in case someone went berserk.
“The thief misplaced it. I wasn’t responsible for it being left there.” He reached out and put his hand on it, trying to tug it off. “Return it to me.”
“She did more with it than you ever did.” Xade called out. “Maybe she deserves it more.” Xando joined her in smirking, more at his expense than to make Xanele look good.
“It was a prototype. No one was meant to use it yet.” He pulled, and Xanele pulled back, stepping backwards as she clutched her arm to herself.
“I got it to work, maybe I know it better, huh?”
“Preposterous!”
“No, you!”
“That word doesn’t- argh!”
They fought, tearing the glove off of Xanele’s hand, only for it to be slipped back on, then pulled halfway off, then shoved on, then nearly stolen but Xanele tackled him so that ended quickly.
The remaining Nobodies saw the moment as unifying and the contagious smirk spread to them all, except with a little more warmth to them.
~~~~~
“What?”
“It sucks. Your entire time as a Nobody, and you have never been able to live up to all of your potential. Same happened to me.”
Dryxaim held up the key between his thumb and forefinger. His eyes slowly turned to a pale shade of blue, and the thin veins on the key lit up again. He kept it that way for a minute, then blinked, making the aura leave him.
“Not bad.” He returned it to his pocket. “They’d never let me do that. Just like they would never let you use that.” Dryxaim pointed to the Keyblade. Jynx looked off to the side; he was not falling for the sob story very well.
“Are you trying to say something?”
“Just that we’re kind of alike. We just want to be what we were meant to be. You want to learn about the Keyblade, and I want to feel the cornucopia of Nobody essence in my blood.” He had this eerie smile on.
“So I’ll make you a deal. I want one more power.”
Jynx felt nervous again.
“Just one. Your pink-haired girl’s fancy blue light.”
It was a trap, he knew it. It was a trap and all he had to do was speak to spring it on him. Damn it.
“I don’t think she’d like the idea of me turning her over.”
“Jynx, Jynx. ‘Turning her over’, not at all. All I need to do is be in the same room as her for a minute or two. Easy as that. Then I’ll leave.”
Of course it still sounded shifty as hell.
“Why should I?”
“Because then I won’t kill you.”
That.
That was solid leverage.
But, he could not. That would be trading his life for those of everyone else at Radiant Garden. He was also sure that Dryxaim would just kill him, too, while he was at it. No, he had to…stand right there. And die. Oh god. He was going to die because he was about to say no. The word was coming out of his lips. It was slipping out. Slipping. Slipping.
It would be to save them, though. Save the organization that held him back, the organization that he had been rebelling against all this time in his own, angsty way, but it was not like they deserved death for it. If he was really as powerful as he was starting to think he was, however, was he maybe the one being protected the whole time? The Keyblade was one thing, and while he knew it made him a target, his actual power was enough to make their be a manhunt out for him.
Kurix was trying to pass down responsibilities. Xoje taught him all he could to help him function around the mansion. Xemnas never directly scolded him. Cinollex always sort of lauded his Keyblade prowess. Brixan, Xenjin, Xanele, Charxai- none of them outright disliked him, at least not more than anyone else. Noraxeen was his best friend and never viewed him differently.
Maybe he was respected a little bit.
Surely he could never be seen on the same level as this asshole.
“No.”
Dryxaim sighed. The bright energy blade sprung from his wrist like it did before he took the life of another Nobody not too long ago.
“Then I’ll just kill you first.”
“…First?”
“Well, I don’t take rejection well. After you I’ll just go and eliminate everyone else at their little hideout. I’m almost omniscient now, Jynx. Should only be a matter of hours before I track them down. My sight transcends those silly blind spots.”
Well, shit. Really only one option now.
Maybe he could give them some warning when they got to the castle.
Fic should be finished within the next six days.
Chapter 37 - Grief is Like a Chain
No one was really too keen on talking to Xeyla after that exchange. All eyes were off her, and the levels of awkwardness did not lower in the slightest. The fact that she had made Cinollex leave on such harsh note meant that she had some powerful, damaging information at her disposal. If it was enough to hurt Cinollex of all people, they wanted nothing to do with her.
Learning about the father-daughter thing was distressing, too, to say the least
Noraxeen was mostly unphased, though. She walked across the room to sit near Xenjin and Xanele, but the latter wordless stood up and left the room, headed towards the manufactory, without a word. Made uncomfortable by the gesture, Xeyla left as well, into the corridors instead. There was a collective sigh of relief among the remaining Nobodies. Kurix went to bandaging his arm on his own, while Xenjin uncrossed her legs and reclined a little. Xoje removed his visor and went about polishing it. Noraxeen was just a little confused on Xanele’s leaving, and smiled shyly. She remembered something funny she had been meaning to tell Xenjin.
“You know,” she started, leaning back in the same way as the redhead, “it’s funny that she left, you’re like, everyone’s best friend.”
Xenjin did not really entertain her; at least until something hit her. Well, less hitting, more slamming in the back of the head with a cinderblock.
“Um.”
“My best friend especially, get it?”
“Where did you hear that?”
Noraxeen was confused again.
“I…heard it from Jynx. He made it up. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, right? It’s a joke.”
Charxai chuckled wearily off in his seat. Kurix rolled his eyes and punched him in the arm.
“It’s…it’s not that much of a joke! You’re really one of my best friends-”
“I get it, Nor, I get it.” Xenjin said reassuringly, cutting her off. “It’s funny. Tell Jynx I liked it.”
“Sure!” She chimed, glad to hear the positive review. “Wonder where he is.”
Kurix shook his head.
“Was in the corridors last I saw him. Go look around.”
Xenjin looked at him discouragingly, but he ignored it. Noraxeen thanked him for the advice, though, and left the office to go find Jynx.
It was pretty unlikely she was going to find him.
~~~~~
The explosion across the city had settled down by the time Jynx settled in front of Memory’s Skyscraper. He sat on the bottom step, staring at his shadow on the pavement, cast by the bright neon lights behind him. What exactly brought him there? He was not too sure himself. It felt like the right place to go to mourn, and things could not be all too bad. He came through the blind spot, after all.
Little did he know that being able to sense the essences of all living things in the same world as you, sort of made that point moot. Dryxaim materialized at the skyscraper’s entrance, at the top of the stairs. His wounds had healed in the past half hour, and he was feeling as lively as ever.
“I remember you.”
Jynx jumped, and shot up to his feet, Keyblade held in front of him. Dryxaim eyed the weapon.
“Alright, now I really remember you.”
Dryxaim looked from side to side, and shrugged.
“…And, what, just you? What brings you here, Jynx?”
The level of familiarity irked him, but Jynx wondered why there was less fighting happening. He was okay with not being killed, but the bracelet he saw glowing on Dryxaim’s wrist meant he was in constant dangers.
“I,” talking so casually to him felt weird, “felt like the castle was getting too crowded.”
Shit, did he just say castle?
“So you came for a stroll around these parts? How brave. Didn’t you just see your friend get killed here a little while ago?”
Jynx had to seriously consider why he had chosen to come to this world of all places. Was it really better than staying with the others? He could never look at Kurix in the eyes again, nor Xemnas. Even if the fault had switched between them, they both were holding him back. All of them were. Xoje, Cinollex…if they were so strong why did they get to do what they wanted? Jynx looked down at the Keyblade.
Because he was the only one who had that powers.
Jynx chucked the Keyblade up at Dryxaim, who flinched, but noticed what was happening was a little more unorthodox. The sword clattered as it skidded onto the small plaza, and Dryxaim watched it. He then gave Jynx a very disappointed look.
“What? I don’t want it.” He turned around, however, to pick it up. “Not like I could steal it from you or anything.”
“Take it! You like taking powers, so take this one! I don’t need it. It’s holding me back. They’re holding me back, all because of it.”
As Dryxaim’s hand came an inch away from touching the Keyblade, it vanished in a flash of light, and reappeared in Jynx’s fist. For this was neither the time nor place for a Keyblade-bearing villain. Dryxaim would not yet know that kind of power, and Jynx would not yet give up his place as protagonist so easily.
“Couldn’t if I tried.” He came down the stairs slowly while pulling something from his pocket. He revealed it; a small, blue key, with a skull adorning the top. “But I am interested in something else.” Dryxaim tossed the key, and Jynx caught it. It pulsated in his hand, with little veins of blue almost throbbing, as well as the eyes of the skull.
“You have a pretty cool power, and I could always use more numbers. So if you love handing over powers to me, why not make you one of them?”
Jynx remembered the telekinesis he displayed earlier, and wondered what was so special about it. Dryxaim saw the clueless look in his eyes as he stared in thought at the key.
“You’re a medium, Jynx. Your shell of a body can channel the energy from Mirage tech.”
The blonde was not gloating that he knew this or anything. In fact, he thought it was sort of obvious. Jynx gripped the key and looked at him.
“I’ve known for a little, while the rest of my team was clueless. All they had to do was ask me, but nope.” He closed his eyes for a moment in reflection. “…Back on the bridge, I could tell you were absorbing something from Kaxsra. Maybe it’s happened before, too. Who knows.” Dryxaim held out his hand, asking for the key back. Jynx tossed it back.
“But! That’s kind of boring too. I guess we don’t have much chemistry. Noraxeen, on the other hand…”
Jynx scowled, not liking that he was bringing her up, especially with the suggestive talk.”
“I’d rather tap into the power directly, let’s say. Easier than what you got, or at least it would be if I could get anything out of her.”
Was he targeting Noraxeen? Had he been this whole time? Jynx felt stupid that he had missed out on that, but knew he had to protect her now. But wait, there was something else in what he had said. How were his and Noraxeen’s powers related? They were both kind of blue, apparently, but that was all he saw.
Though, back at the mansion, there was that explosion when her fire reacted with Kaxsra’s staff. The staff was pretty odd-looking, and glowed like the key and the mirror and a lot of peculiar stuff they had come across in the past couple of days. The ruins, too, pointed to some correlation; they sprung to life around her, and the place looked like it was built out of the blue technology. And if his interaction with the mirror, and what Dryxaim was saying, were any indication, he could channel the same stuff Noraxeen used to fight with. Whatever power was in him, if there was any left over from the mirror, was similar to the fire that flowed through her.
Jynx wondered if Kurix knew about this. It only gave them all more reason to keep him locked up. Kaxsra was afraid of the Eternus Ignis, Dryxaim wants it, and there were a lot of powerful artifacts that ran on it. He was a walking battery for them.
Maybe he did not just need to learn how to be responsible with the Keyblade. Maybe he was too dangerous.
“Jynx.”
He snapped out of his thought process.
“I know how you feel, you know.”
~~~~~
Xanele took the elevator down into the manufactory to join up with Xemnas’s tour group. She was expecting to see Xemnas looking stern, and Brixan paranoid with his gun at his side, but as it turned out the atmosphere was far more relaxed. For whatever reason, the new Nobodies were intimidated by Xemnas just not petrified by his presence. Whatever went on over at their castle, they obviously fought Xemnas out of respect, rather than fear or anger.
Ryjemex turned around to see the newcomer. He respected her a lot less, seeing that she had his gauntlet on. Xanele stopped and bit her tongue when his gaze caught her.
“That.” He announced. “Is mine.”
Xanele disagreed, holding her armored hand to her chest and making a fist.
“I found it. Made it mine.”
“It was stolen and should be returned to its owner.” His voice was rising.
“I found it on the ground in a sewer!” So was Xanele‘s. “If you’re leaving stuff around there maybe someone should be taking better care of it for you.”
They were much more up-close and person now. The others watched. Now Brixan had his crossbow out and at the ready, loaded with sedatives in case someone went berserk.
“The thief misplaced it. I wasn’t responsible for it being left there.” He reached out and put his hand on it, trying to tug it off. “Return it to me.”
“She did more with it than you ever did.” Xade called out. “Maybe she deserves it more.” Xando joined her in smirking, more at his expense than to make Xanele look good.
“It was a prototype. No one was meant to use it yet.” He pulled, and Xanele pulled back, stepping backwards as she clutched her arm to herself.
“I got it to work, maybe I know it better, huh?”
“Preposterous!”
“No, you!”
“That word doesn’t- argh!”
They fought, tearing the glove off of Xanele’s hand, only for it to be slipped back on, then pulled halfway off, then shoved on, then nearly stolen but Xanele tackled him so that ended quickly.
The remaining Nobodies saw the moment as unifying and the contagious smirk spread to them all, except with a little more warmth to them.
~~~~~
“What?”
“It sucks. Your entire time as a Nobody, and you have never been able to live up to all of your potential. Same happened to me.”
Dryxaim held up the key between his thumb and forefinger. His eyes slowly turned to a pale shade of blue, and the thin veins on the key lit up again. He kept it that way for a minute, then blinked, making the aura leave him.
“Not bad.” He returned it to his pocket. “They’d never let me do that. Just like they would never let you use that.” Dryxaim pointed to the Keyblade. Jynx looked off to the side; he was not falling for the sob story very well.
“Are you trying to say something?”
“Just that we’re kind of alike. We just want to be what we were meant to be. You want to learn about the Keyblade, and I want to feel the cornucopia of Nobody essence in my blood.” He had this eerie smile on.
“So I’ll make you a deal. I want one more power.”
Jynx felt nervous again.
“Just one. Your pink-haired girl’s fancy blue light.”
It was a trap, he knew it. It was a trap and all he had to do was speak to spring it on him. Damn it.
“I don’t think she’d like the idea of me turning her over.”
“Jynx, Jynx. ‘Turning her over’, not at all. All I need to do is be in the same room as her for a minute or two. Easy as that. Then I’ll leave.”
Of course it still sounded shifty as hell.
“Why should I?”
“Because then I won’t kill you.”
That.
That was solid leverage.
But, he could not. That would be trading his life for those of everyone else at Radiant Garden. He was also sure that Dryxaim would just kill him, too, while he was at it. No, he had to…stand right there. And die. Oh god. He was going to die because he was about to say no. The word was coming out of his lips. It was slipping out. Slipping. Slipping.
It would be to save them, though. Save the organization that held him back, the organization that he had been rebelling against all this time in his own, angsty way, but it was not like they deserved death for it. If he was really as powerful as he was starting to think he was, however, was he maybe the one being protected the whole time? The Keyblade was one thing, and while he knew it made him a target, his actual power was enough to make their be a manhunt out for him.
Kurix was trying to pass down responsibilities. Xoje taught him all he could to help him function around the mansion. Xemnas never directly scolded him. Cinollex always sort of lauded his Keyblade prowess. Brixan, Xenjin, Xanele, Charxai- none of them outright disliked him, at least not more than anyone else. Noraxeen was his best friend and never viewed him differently.
Maybe he was respected a little bit.
Surely he could never be seen on the same level as this asshole.
“No.”
Dryxaim sighed. The bright energy blade sprung from his wrist like it did before he took the life of another Nobody not too long ago.
“Then I’ll just kill you first.”
“…First?”
“Well, I don’t take rejection well. After you I’ll just go and eliminate everyone else at their little hideout. I’m almost omniscient now, Jynx. Should only be a matter of hours before I track them down. My sight transcends those silly blind spots.”
Well, shit. Really only one option now.
Maybe he could give them some warning when they got to the castle.
Re: The ORG [37/40]
Chapter 38 - Higher Purposes
Dryxaim had tracked Noraxeen’s position; she was in some dark, dusty room amongst the pipe-lined corridors of the castle. Jynx was discouraged having learned this, it meant no one would be nearby to receive any sort of warning. As if he was going to just leave them alone after copying her power.
It was a much deeper part of the castle. Puddles were frequent, and it was so dark that it only ever seemed to look brighter in front of or behind you. The air was wet, and the only sounds were the splish-splashing of footsteps and some faint dripping noises. In the middle of one of the old corridors was a single door, which did not look at all different from any other door. Dryxaim told Jynx that Noraxeen was held up in there, doing who knows what.
Jynx carefully walked up to the door, and knocked.
“Come in!” Chimed her voice.
Jynx looked nervously to his side. Dryxaim was standing there, in the shadows, his eyes unnervingly bright. He opened the door and slipped in, shutting it behind him. He had told Dryxaim he just wanted to reason with Noraxeen first, tell her what was going on so she would not freak. Dryxaim was fine with this; he could just listen in if he became too suspicious.
The room barely had any light. There were some computer screens along the wall, as well as flickering lights on the ceiling. The only consistent source of light was Noraxeen, sitting in an old, wooden chair, looking perfectly happy, with a blue flame held in her palm. It made her face look pleasant and soft. The other face not so much.
Jynx faltered, not expecting this at all. There was Kaxsra, seated opposite her. They had both been caught up in conversation before Jynx entered.
“Oh, Jynx!” She smiled. “Perfect timing.”
Kaxsra looked towards him, in a strangely friendly way that made him uncomfortable.
“What..?” He had trouble finding the words to express his disbelief. “Him! What! What are you doing here?” The Keyblade was in his hand. Kaxsra looked at the weapon, then back to Jynx’s face, perfectly calm. This, compared to the crazed look he had whenever either of them had been near him in the past.
“I’m here to talk to Noraxeen.”
“Jynx, it’s fine! We’ve just been talking. He’s cool!”
It goes without saying that this was hard to take in.
“How is he cool? He’s been trying to kill us. More you than me, so how are you okay with this?”
“We found common ground.” Kaxsra interjected, shrugging. Noraxeen nodded pleading for Jynx to understand with her eyes. “In fact, we spoke of you a little. She really does enjoy talking about you.” He chuckled. The boy shook off that creepiness and looked behind himself anxiously, suddenly worried more about Dryxaim. He needed to get to talking about that first.
“Okay. Fine. Whatever. We can discuss how that’s even possible later. I need to tell you something, though.”
The other two had managed to accept the presence of one another so they were content with changing the subject as long as Jynx was.
“I was at The World That Never Was, and, um, Dryxaim found me?”
Kaxsra stared at the door as the words came from his mouth. Noraxeen looked afraid.
“He…he threatened you guys, so I had to make a deal with him. But worry or anything! Because it’ll be okay!” Oh boy they were not shooting him the kindest nor the most sympathetic of expressions.
Fortunately Jynx had no time to be berated by them because the door burst open a second later.
“Time’s up.” Dryxaim said. He looked confident and cocky like he usually did when he shifted the atmosphere of a room into his favor. It was pretty awesome for him. Unfortunately for his ego, that sensation disappeared in an instant when he saw Kaxsra.
Noraxeen backed up to the wall, and Jynx went to console her. Kaxsra just sat where he was, arms crossed.
“Jynx! You lead him here?”
“No, no! I made sure-”
“Nice to see you, traitor.”
Kaxsra’s comment and Dryxaim’s resulting glare made everyone be silent.
“Says the one that’s hanging around with these ingrates.”
“Oh, trust me, I never abandoned my obligations.”
Dryxaim’s eyes narrowed more and more. Evidently his wit did not come as easily when he spoke to certain individuals.
“I don’t care. I just came for one thing.” He motioned to Noraxeen, then held out his hand. “Then I’ll be…going.”
Yeah he said that as suspiciously as possible. Noraxeen stayed in place, but Jynx, either heavily delusional or just desperate to find a safe way out of the mess, tugged at her arm to make her go to him. She looked at Jynx like he was crazy.
“How about you just go?” Kaxsra asked, standing up. Dryxaim let out a short laugh.
“Hah! Sure! Make me.”
“Don’t you have everything you need?”
He scoffed.
“You of all people…You know exactly what kind of power she has. I want it. I want to track down every single remaining one of them and get a taste of it.”
Kaxsra had a faint look of surprise. Dryxaim smirked back, wordlessly saying to him something along the lines of “yes, I know”.
“So you get out.” Dryxaim put up his other hand, the one with the bracelet, and without even looking charged it up to fire a blast-
And a silver beam did fire.
Except it came from the other side of the wall. And blew it up. And sent chunks of plaster and pieces of piping everywhere, knocking everyone down but Kaxsra, who smiled very casually and went over to Dryxaim’s wet and dusty body.
“You cannot kill me. Fate. Stop trying to do what you know is impossible. Don’t pick fights you have no hope of winning.”
Dryxaim lifted himself up on his hands with a manic glint in his eyes.
“Don’t go off fighting Eastxi. Don‘t get in over your head.”
The blond shouted at him, glowing intensely. He wanted to kill him so badly.
Boom. Another beam annihilated what remained of the wall. Part of the ceiling collapsed and covered Dryxaim. Kaxsra noted that the room was nearly-destroyed, so I figured it was time for him to take leave. He gave a bit of a salute towards Jynx and Noraxeen, who were just coming to their feet after the series of explosions.
“See you kids later. You’ll have to trust me next time we see each other, for the good of our kind.”
He left through a portal. It was not a true Corridor of Darkness, but they both felt that it lead to the plane between worlds. Neither of them had any idea what he meant, though, but they also noticed that Dryxaim was down and it was the perfect time for them to escape.
When they made it to the hallways, they saw daylight, which was strange considering they should have been underground, or at least partly. Something had turned the basement levels of the castle into Swiss cheese, and had gone about blowing up the place without regard for those in there. They ran as fast as they could for the office where everyone else was.
Well, that was not completely true. She did have regard for one person, even though she was trying to vaporize him. Cinollex felt the ping in the back of her head. Dryxaim was still there, somewhere. How he had the audacity to just teleport to their world without even- it, it just sickened her.
He was going to suffer. No, his death would be painless; he would have nothing left to feel pain with. That would be the only way she could assure he could never come back.
~~~~~
“What is going on?!” Kurix shouted, assisting Charxai in getting up. Right as Xenjin had gone to check outside the lab, the entire opposite wall was blown up. She thought it best then to close the door.
Explosions shook the castle. In the manufactory downstairs, Xemnas, Brixan, Xanele, Ryjemex, Xade, and Xando were all taking cover from the random beams that pierced the towering machines. Xeyla was standing at the computer terminal, watching the room be torn apart. At one point she saw Cinollex fly out from one of the holes she made, look around frantically, then zoom away. Her eyes were sinister and gray like granite. She confronted Xemnas about it.
He understood. He looked uncomfortable, but he understood. Xoje rushed in to meet them coming from the lower level.
“It’s Cino, she went berserk and we don’t know why. My tracker hasn’t gone off, though Xenjin says something’s up-”
The terminal shook, and creaked a dangerous amount. Another beam, wider than those before, pierced the wall and hit the floor, melting the metal plating. It was brighter than the others, which was more worrying.
The tracker in Xoje’s hand started beeping loudly. Before he could check it however, something more pressing came up. There was Dryxaim, with his silver wings, descending from above. His almost-white eyes focused right on the group behind the window, making them freeze in place.
Xoje shoved the tracked into Xanele’s unarmored hand.
“Take it. Go.” He turned to his superior. “Xemnas, sir, go with them, Kurix can get you all out of here. Evacuate! Go!”
Brixan objected, and wished to stay, but Xoje was convinced that none of them were prepared to fight such an enemy. They quarreled while Xoje pushed them out, Xanele doing the same, viewing her receiving the tracker as a blessing of obedience.
Meanwhile, Dryxaim charged up another devastating attack. The corners of his mouth stretched from ear to ear in a nauseatingly sinister way. The blast erupted from his hand and hit the wall under the terminal, making it quake and rumble and sending everyone in it into the air for a full second. Xanele almost dropped the tracked, but she grabbed it, her other hand hitting one of the terminals and releasing the gauntlet from her arm. She gasped, but then the room shook even more.
“Go!” Xoje shouted. The room trembled and creaked, then the floor went on an incline. Everyone stampeded out the door, but another bolt of silver slammed into the bottom of the room. It detached from the platform, and plummeted, with Xoje and Ryjemex still inside.
~~~~~
Outside the castle, on the innocent streets of Radiant Garden, a group of Nobodies had shown up that prompted the tracker to deep so incessantly. Nevex cackled, not even trying to hold it back, and was nearly dancing around the creation he brought along. Kinxu joined in as well, laughing and lauding Nevex with a hauntingly sharp voice.
Sujnax and Txamt were a little more reserved, and watched the behemoth in front of them stomp forward.
It is what the reader may recognize as a Twilight Thorn, that Nevex had augmented. It was covered in, what else, orange armor, with tubes and wires threading its hulking arms and legs. Jutting out of its chest was quite the large cannon, which pulsated and hummed and looked unnatural on the organic, monstrous Nobody.
“Haha! Go! Fire! Hahaha!”
The creature did what it was told, and braced itself for the recoil. The ten-foot long cannon was aimed right at the old castle, and it only took a few seconds for it to charge up and fire. A ball of bright orange sailed towards its target, and Nevex looked like he was about to have an aneurism as it collided with one of the towers.
“Yes! Yes!”
The artillery continued to lay waste to the outside of the castle, assuring that it would soon match the interior in terms of holiness.
~~~~~
The group from the manufactory made it back into the office with heavy breaths. Kurix was already formulating a way out. Xemnas interrupted him to explain what happened.
“Where’s Xoje?”
“Still there, I trusted he would find a way out.”
“Not enough.” He said, shaking his head.” We’re going back there. Let’s go!”
Kurix pretty much jumped through the entrance, and turned back. Xeyla was behind him.
“Don’t.” She said. Her ‘former’ members looked at her in astonishment.
“What? No, not going to listen to you. We don’t need you.”
“One of my own is back there.”
That made Xando and Xade realize who was missing.
“Dryxaim is my fault. Let me at least buy you some time. You have them to lead.”
Kurix looked around her and saw Xemnas, Brixan, Xenjin, and Xanele, trying to make the tracker tell her what was wrong. He had no idea where Jynx or Noraxeen were. Had he failed with them? Were they okay?
“I already messed up, let me go!”
She decided against using her power to make him leave, but it still hit Kurix somewhere deep down. He shut his eyes and punched the doorway. He had to trust Xoje; that he would escape or do something beneficial. He had to trust Xeyla to act as a meat shield like she said. They were both really the last chance they had to get out of what was very quickly turning into a deathtrap.
“Alright.” He said quietly. “Your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”
Why did he have to put it that way oh forget it time to do something useful for once.
“Kurix, I’ll go with.” Charxai said, coughing. Xenjin stepped in front of him and basically tried to push him away. Kurix advised against it as much as anyone could.
“No, you just got better. You’re too weak to do- No! Why would you even? I won’t let one of us do something like that.”
“Cino healed me up pretty well.”
“No, no, no.” Xenjin begged, pushing him towards the door. “Stupid!”
“Yeah!” Kurix added on, the one time those two agreed on something. “We just lost you, no one wants to go through that again.”
That was actually pretty touching, and made everyone a little too uncomfortable to speak. Charxai rolled his eyes, and moved Xenjin aside.
“I should be dead. I got an extra life for a reason, so I’ll use it the way I think it’s gonna help us best.” He did not look any of them in the eye until he was standing next to Xeyla and addressed them all. “You all got to cope already. This won’t be too hard. Let me do this for everyone.”
Kurix was steadfastly against it, still.
“You can’t, I-”
“I’ll keep fighting. No matter what I’m going to do what I need to.” He nudged Xeyla, and they both turned and walked away. “I still have a score to settle with him, anyway. We’re both one for two.”
All that stuff about being able to cope with a team mate’s death does not feel like it applies when you have to sit there and listen to them opt to die.
Both sections of the group were equally morose at losing people they valued highly, but conditions were growing worse. They had to leave the castle before it gave away and crushed them all under it. Xemnas, Kurix, Xenjin, Xanele, Brixan, Xando, and Xade filed out, avoiding craters and dark, impassible fissures in the halls.
Xanele, having found out where the new intruders were, found the optimal way out. Within a few speechless, nerve-tightening minutes, the Nobodies made it back to the surface, where they inhaled fresh air. Where the quaking was only barely noticeable.
The red-haired girl pressed buttons and turned the screen in every direction before she came to the conclusion that everyone else had come to when they saw the giant Nobody in the streets in the distance. It was apparent they were not given the easy road it seemed like they were.
~~~~~
Xeyla and Charxai stood where the terminal room once was. Dryxaim had his back turned to them, far down on the floor. The wrecked room was only a few stories directly below.
“You shouldn’t be doing this.” Xeyla whispered, going to the edge of the platform where the remains of the elevator were. “People like you.”
“You make it sound like this is the end.” He said, smiling.
“Well, we’re just going in to get him out, and if Ryj is alive…”
“So?”
“It’s…it’s a do or die mission! And doing is probably gonna mean dying!” She caught herself from raising her voice too high. Dryxaim would have difficulty hearing them from such a distance, alongside the explosions unless she started screaming.
“What do you consider ‘doing‘?”
“Holding him back. Letting the others escape.”
“Oh.” Charxai mumbled, finding a good place to climb down.
“What?”
“Well, we’re not going to just hold him back. We’re gonna beat him.”
They began their descent.
Chapter 38 - Higher Purposes
Dryxaim had tracked Noraxeen’s position; she was in some dark, dusty room amongst the pipe-lined corridors of the castle. Jynx was discouraged having learned this, it meant no one would be nearby to receive any sort of warning. As if he was going to just leave them alone after copying her power.
It was a much deeper part of the castle. Puddles were frequent, and it was so dark that it only ever seemed to look brighter in front of or behind you. The air was wet, and the only sounds were the splish-splashing of footsteps and some faint dripping noises. In the middle of one of the old corridors was a single door, which did not look at all different from any other door. Dryxaim told Jynx that Noraxeen was held up in there, doing who knows what.
Jynx carefully walked up to the door, and knocked.
“Come in!” Chimed her voice.
Jynx looked nervously to his side. Dryxaim was standing there, in the shadows, his eyes unnervingly bright. He opened the door and slipped in, shutting it behind him. He had told Dryxaim he just wanted to reason with Noraxeen first, tell her what was going on so she would not freak. Dryxaim was fine with this; he could just listen in if he became too suspicious.
The room barely had any light. There were some computer screens along the wall, as well as flickering lights on the ceiling. The only consistent source of light was Noraxeen, sitting in an old, wooden chair, looking perfectly happy, with a blue flame held in her palm. It made her face look pleasant and soft. The other face not so much.
Jynx faltered, not expecting this at all. There was Kaxsra, seated opposite her. They had both been caught up in conversation before Jynx entered.
“Oh, Jynx!” She smiled. “Perfect timing.”
Kaxsra looked towards him, in a strangely friendly way that made him uncomfortable.
“What..?” He had trouble finding the words to express his disbelief. “Him! What! What are you doing here?” The Keyblade was in his hand. Kaxsra looked at the weapon, then back to Jynx’s face, perfectly calm. This, compared to the crazed look he had whenever either of them had been near him in the past.
“I’m here to talk to Noraxeen.”
“Jynx, it’s fine! We’ve just been talking. He’s cool!”
It goes without saying that this was hard to take in.
“How is he cool? He’s been trying to kill us. More you than me, so how are you okay with this?”
“We found common ground.” Kaxsra interjected, shrugging. Noraxeen nodded pleading for Jynx to understand with her eyes. “In fact, we spoke of you a little. She really does enjoy talking about you.” He chuckled. The boy shook off that creepiness and looked behind himself anxiously, suddenly worried more about Dryxaim. He needed to get to talking about that first.
“Okay. Fine. Whatever. We can discuss how that’s even possible later. I need to tell you something, though.”
The other two had managed to accept the presence of one another so they were content with changing the subject as long as Jynx was.
“I was at The World That Never Was, and, um, Dryxaim found me?”
Kaxsra stared at the door as the words came from his mouth. Noraxeen looked afraid.
“He…he threatened you guys, so I had to make a deal with him. But worry or anything! Because it’ll be okay!” Oh boy they were not shooting him the kindest nor the most sympathetic of expressions.
Fortunately Jynx had no time to be berated by them because the door burst open a second later.
“Time’s up.” Dryxaim said. He looked confident and cocky like he usually did when he shifted the atmosphere of a room into his favor. It was pretty awesome for him. Unfortunately for his ego, that sensation disappeared in an instant when he saw Kaxsra.
Noraxeen backed up to the wall, and Jynx went to console her. Kaxsra just sat where he was, arms crossed.
“Jynx! You lead him here?”
“No, no! I made sure-”
“Nice to see you, traitor.”
Kaxsra’s comment and Dryxaim’s resulting glare made everyone be silent.
“Says the one that’s hanging around with these ingrates.”
“Oh, trust me, I never abandoned my obligations.”
Dryxaim’s eyes narrowed more and more. Evidently his wit did not come as easily when he spoke to certain individuals.
“I don’t care. I just came for one thing.” He motioned to Noraxeen, then held out his hand. “Then I’ll be…going.”
Yeah he said that as suspiciously as possible. Noraxeen stayed in place, but Jynx, either heavily delusional or just desperate to find a safe way out of the mess, tugged at her arm to make her go to him. She looked at Jynx like he was crazy.
“How about you just go?” Kaxsra asked, standing up. Dryxaim let out a short laugh.
“Hah! Sure! Make me.”
“Don’t you have everything you need?”
He scoffed.
“You of all people…You know exactly what kind of power she has. I want it. I want to track down every single remaining one of them and get a taste of it.”
Kaxsra had a faint look of surprise. Dryxaim smirked back, wordlessly saying to him something along the lines of “yes, I know”.
“So you get out.” Dryxaim put up his other hand, the one with the bracelet, and without even looking charged it up to fire a blast-
And a silver beam did fire.
Except it came from the other side of the wall. And blew it up. And sent chunks of plaster and pieces of piping everywhere, knocking everyone down but Kaxsra, who smiled very casually and went over to Dryxaim’s wet and dusty body.
“You cannot kill me. Fate. Stop trying to do what you know is impossible. Don’t pick fights you have no hope of winning.”
Dryxaim lifted himself up on his hands with a manic glint in his eyes.
“Don’t go off fighting Eastxi. Don‘t get in over your head.”
The blond shouted at him, glowing intensely. He wanted to kill him so badly.
Boom. Another beam annihilated what remained of the wall. Part of the ceiling collapsed and covered Dryxaim. Kaxsra noted that the room was nearly-destroyed, so I figured it was time for him to take leave. He gave a bit of a salute towards Jynx and Noraxeen, who were just coming to their feet after the series of explosions.
“See you kids later. You’ll have to trust me next time we see each other, for the good of our kind.”
He left through a portal. It was not a true Corridor of Darkness, but they both felt that it lead to the plane between worlds. Neither of them had any idea what he meant, though, but they also noticed that Dryxaim was down and it was the perfect time for them to escape.
When they made it to the hallways, they saw daylight, which was strange considering they should have been underground, or at least partly. Something had turned the basement levels of the castle into Swiss cheese, and had gone about blowing up the place without regard for those in there. They ran as fast as they could for the office where everyone else was.
Well, that was not completely true. She did have regard for one person, even though she was trying to vaporize him. Cinollex felt the ping in the back of her head. Dryxaim was still there, somewhere. How he had the audacity to just teleport to their world without even- it, it just sickened her.
He was going to suffer. No, his death would be painless; he would have nothing left to feel pain with. That would be the only way she could assure he could never come back.
~~~~~
“What is going on?!” Kurix shouted, assisting Charxai in getting up. Right as Xenjin had gone to check outside the lab, the entire opposite wall was blown up. She thought it best then to close the door.
Explosions shook the castle. In the manufactory downstairs, Xemnas, Brixan, Xanele, Ryjemex, Xade, and Xando were all taking cover from the random beams that pierced the towering machines. Xeyla was standing at the computer terminal, watching the room be torn apart. At one point she saw Cinollex fly out from one of the holes she made, look around frantically, then zoom away. Her eyes were sinister and gray like granite. She confronted Xemnas about it.
He understood. He looked uncomfortable, but he understood. Xoje rushed in to meet them coming from the lower level.
“It’s Cino, she went berserk and we don’t know why. My tracker hasn’t gone off, though Xenjin says something’s up-”
The terminal shook, and creaked a dangerous amount. Another beam, wider than those before, pierced the wall and hit the floor, melting the metal plating. It was brighter than the others, which was more worrying.
The tracker in Xoje’s hand started beeping loudly. Before he could check it however, something more pressing came up. There was Dryxaim, with his silver wings, descending from above. His almost-white eyes focused right on the group behind the window, making them freeze in place.
Xoje shoved the tracked into Xanele’s unarmored hand.
“Take it. Go.” He turned to his superior. “Xemnas, sir, go with them, Kurix can get you all out of here. Evacuate! Go!”
Brixan objected, and wished to stay, but Xoje was convinced that none of them were prepared to fight such an enemy. They quarreled while Xoje pushed them out, Xanele doing the same, viewing her receiving the tracker as a blessing of obedience.
Meanwhile, Dryxaim charged up another devastating attack. The corners of his mouth stretched from ear to ear in a nauseatingly sinister way. The blast erupted from his hand and hit the wall under the terminal, making it quake and rumble and sending everyone in it into the air for a full second. Xanele almost dropped the tracked, but she grabbed it, her other hand hitting one of the terminals and releasing the gauntlet from her arm. She gasped, but then the room shook even more.
“Go!” Xoje shouted. The room trembled and creaked, then the floor went on an incline. Everyone stampeded out the door, but another bolt of silver slammed into the bottom of the room. It detached from the platform, and plummeted, with Xoje and Ryjemex still inside.
~~~~~
Outside the castle, on the innocent streets of Radiant Garden, a group of Nobodies had shown up that prompted the tracker to deep so incessantly. Nevex cackled, not even trying to hold it back, and was nearly dancing around the creation he brought along. Kinxu joined in as well, laughing and lauding Nevex with a hauntingly sharp voice.
Sujnax and Txamt were a little more reserved, and watched the behemoth in front of them stomp forward.
It is what the reader may recognize as a Twilight Thorn, that Nevex had augmented. It was covered in, what else, orange armor, with tubes and wires threading its hulking arms and legs. Jutting out of its chest was quite the large cannon, which pulsated and hummed and looked unnatural on the organic, monstrous Nobody.
“Haha! Go! Fire! Hahaha!”
The creature did what it was told, and braced itself for the recoil. The ten-foot long cannon was aimed right at the old castle, and it only took a few seconds for it to charge up and fire. A ball of bright orange sailed towards its target, and Nevex looked like he was about to have an aneurism as it collided with one of the towers.
“Yes! Yes!”
The artillery continued to lay waste to the outside of the castle, assuring that it would soon match the interior in terms of holiness.
~~~~~
The group from the manufactory made it back into the office with heavy breaths. Kurix was already formulating a way out. Xemnas interrupted him to explain what happened.
“Where’s Xoje?”
“Still there, I trusted he would find a way out.”
“Not enough.” He said, shaking his head.” We’re going back there. Let’s go!”
Kurix pretty much jumped through the entrance, and turned back. Xeyla was behind him.
“Don’t.” She said. Her ‘former’ members looked at her in astonishment.
“What? No, not going to listen to you. We don’t need you.”
“One of my own is back there.”
That made Xando and Xade realize who was missing.
“Dryxaim is my fault. Let me at least buy you some time. You have them to lead.”
Kurix looked around her and saw Xemnas, Brixan, Xenjin, and Xanele, trying to make the tracker tell her what was wrong. He had no idea where Jynx or Noraxeen were. Had he failed with them? Were they okay?
“I already messed up, let me go!”
She decided against using her power to make him leave, but it still hit Kurix somewhere deep down. He shut his eyes and punched the doorway. He had to trust Xoje; that he would escape or do something beneficial. He had to trust Xeyla to act as a meat shield like she said. They were both really the last chance they had to get out of what was very quickly turning into a deathtrap.
“Alright.” He said quietly. “Your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”
Why did he have to put it that way oh forget it time to do something useful for once.
“Kurix, I’ll go with.” Charxai said, coughing. Xenjin stepped in front of him and basically tried to push him away. Kurix advised against it as much as anyone could.
“No, you just got better. You’re too weak to do- No! Why would you even? I won’t let one of us do something like that.”
“Cino healed me up pretty well.”
“No, no, no.” Xenjin begged, pushing him towards the door. “Stupid!”
“Yeah!” Kurix added on, the one time those two agreed on something. “We just lost you, no one wants to go through that again.”
That was actually pretty touching, and made everyone a little too uncomfortable to speak. Charxai rolled his eyes, and moved Xenjin aside.
“I should be dead. I got an extra life for a reason, so I’ll use it the way I think it’s gonna help us best.” He did not look any of them in the eye until he was standing next to Xeyla and addressed them all. “You all got to cope already. This won’t be too hard. Let me do this for everyone.”
Kurix was steadfastly against it, still.
“You can’t, I-”
“I’ll keep fighting. No matter what I’m going to do what I need to.” He nudged Xeyla, and they both turned and walked away. “I still have a score to settle with him, anyway. We’re both one for two.”
All that stuff about being able to cope with a team mate’s death does not feel like it applies when you have to sit there and listen to them opt to die.
Both sections of the group were equally morose at losing people they valued highly, but conditions were growing worse. They had to leave the castle before it gave away and crushed them all under it. Xemnas, Kurix, Xenjin, Xanele, Brixan, Xando, and Xade filed out, avoiding craters and dark, impassible fissures in the halls.
Xanele, having found out where the new intruders were, found the optimal way out. Within a few speechless, nerve-tightening minutes, the Nobodies made it back to the surface, where they inhaled fresh air. Where the quaking was only barely noticeable.
The red-haired girl pressed buttons and turned the screen in every direction before she came to the conclusion that everyone else had come to when they saw the giant Nobody in the streets in the distance. It was apparent they were not given the easy road it seemed like they were.
~~~~~
Xeyla and Charxai stood where the terminal room once was. Dryxaim had his back turned to them, far down on the floor. The wrecked room was only a few stories directly below.
“You shouldn’t be doing this.” Xeyla whispered, going to the edge of the platform where the remains of the elevator were. “People like you.”
“You make it sound like this is the end.” He said, smiling.
“Well, we’re just going in to get him out, and if Ryj is alive…”
“So?”
“It’s…it’s a do or die mission! And doing is probably gonna mean dying!” She caught herself from raising her voice too high. Dryxaim would have difficulty hearing them from such a distance, alongside the explosions unless she started screaming.
“What do you consider ‘doing‘?”
“Holding him back. Letting the others escape.”
“Oh.” Charxai mumbled, finding a good place to climb down.
“What?”
“Well, we’re not going to just hold him back. We’re gonna beat him.”
They began their descent.
Re: The ORG [38/40]
Yeah, uh.
This is it.
Chapter 39 - Descend
The colossal Nobody fired another blast from the cannon on its chest. The ball of energy soared through the sky, and everyone outside the castle could feel the heat coming off of it as it went over their heads. The castle shook violently as another chunk was blown off, and the enhanced Twilight Thorn continued to lay siege to the stronghold.
Xade put her hand over her eyes and saw Nevex dancing around. She pointed this out to Xando, who felt their presence and stared out with a face full of contempt. They had betrayed their organization, and even managed to kill their own kin. He was disgusted. So were his swords.
“Score to settle.” He hummed. Both of the former-villains ran down the path to the town. Kurix watched them leave, with a tight feeling of regret in his chest. They did not stand a chance alone, and would need help. Who were they to lend assistance, though?
“They’re gonna destroy the castle at this rate.” Xenjin mused to Kurix from his side, snapping hm back into reality. She looked up to him. “If Xoje and Charxai are okay, they won’t be able to get out at this rate.”
“If we can at least take that thing down, it would be good for us.”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s do it.” Brixan said, holding up his crossbow.
“Yes!” Xanele agreed, nodding happily, even though she had just discovered her Power Glove was lost.
“Alright, alright.” Kurix mumbled to them all; he was glad they had justification for this. “Xenjin and Brixan, flank. Xanele and I will join with the other two.” Xenjin and Brixan ran off, and Kurix turned to Xemnas.
“Xemnas, I’d like you to stay out of this. I think it goes without saying-”
“Of course.” Said the blond old man, waving off Kurix’s noble attempts. “This is up to you. I’ll be safe.”
Kurix nodded, and Xanele sprinted ahead of him.
“And Kurix.” Xemnas added on. “Keep up the responsibility act. It suits you.”
~~~~~
Xeyla and Charxai scaled the remains of the elevator shaft, landing at the crushed, fallen room. Xeyla immediately went to Ryjemex when she saw him crawl out, his Mirage Gauntlet glued to him; even while shaken up, he was slipping it onto his non-mechanical hand as a symbol of triumph.
“Heheh…”
“Shh!”
Charxai searched for Xoje, and finally found him hidden deeper in the debris. He seemed uninjured, just nearly-unconscious. He was aware of the trouble they were all in right away though, and started looking for an escape route. His eyes landed on the series of holes in the ceiling, or at least, the people in one of them. Jynx had poked his head out and was trying to send a signal. Xoje saw this as incredibly stupid, and threw his voice up.
“Jynx! Get out now!” He whispered, even though only the two of them should have been able to hear him speak. That was not the case. Dryxaim heard.
He snapped around, looking as inhuman as ever. The glow of his eyes made them look shiny and alien, and the wings and veins of silver light creeping around his torso made him look like a brightly-colored demon.
A sphere of white formed in front of him, and with a bat of his hand the mass of energy was launched towards the four Nobodies. It was coming hopelessly fast, leaving them all with strikingly little hope of living. But, before they could even brace for the impact, something intercepted the attack. A streak of dark gray, landing in the middle of the sphere’s path. It quickly took the form of Cinollex, with a grizzly array of dark gray tendrils spiraling off of her, and her eyes cold and nearly black. Her hair was shaggier than it had been before, and her teeth had obviously sharpened and elongated into fangs; her bracelet made the space around her look wavy and distorted.
She raised her hand to stop the blast. The pulsating ball disappeared in a flash. What human facial features of Dryxaim’s remained went into something resembling a scowl. He looked up at Jynx and Noraxeen peering from the ceiling, and thrust his hand upwards, channeling a beam of silver towards them. Cinollex barely had time to react, but the beam never hit the two up above. Rather, it paved into the ceiling around them, causing both of them to fall out. Cinollex took off to save them, but a wave of white from Dryxaim flung her out of the way; that is not to say he wanted Jynx and Noraxeen to fall to their deaths. Both of them stopped mid-air by Dryxaim’s doing. He smiled towards Cinollex, who was ready to enforce her own telekinesis.
“Give it.” He ordered, voice echoing in an haunting way. He tightened his fist, and Noraxeen shrieked in pain from whatever forces were holding them up. Cinollex reeled, and growled to herself, but proceeded to shed the weapon.
“…May as well just give him the other one.”
She made it float above her hand, and sent it over psychically. Everyone behind her were in shock that she would do such a thing, and felt fear of their enemy as the dark aura left Cinollex, and she was left only with her more feral and toothy appearance.
Dryxaim slipped it on bare wrist, and felt a jolt run through his body. His aura and tendrils and all other sorts of magical details turned half-black on top of the silver and white. His eyes were a milky swirl of gray. Feeling the power course through him, he laughed, loudly…in fact really damn loud in a really damn freaky way. Jynx and Noraxeen were released from his grasp, and they fell to the ground. It hurt, but at least their spines were not in splinters.
They still wanted to fight, though.
Jynx had his Keyblade and Noraxeen her runic blade. Cinollex was still a contender, too, and joined them at Jynx’s side; she no longer had a weapon but she still could wield some of her Non-Existence essence. Swayed by the courage, and knowing they had to make a last stand, Xoje and Charxai followed, then Xeyla, tailed by Ryjemex. Their swords and talons and musical instruments were all equipped. They had numbers, courage, and heart.
Such a bad pun.
~~~~~
Xade and Xando were furious and vengeful. Txamt spotted the outmatched Nobodies a mile away, and pointed them out to the gleeful Nevex.
“Do it! Kill them! Hahaha!” He commanded the super-Thorn.
The cannon aligned itself with their path and fired full-blast at them. Xade summoned an enormous mound of rock to shield them, but it exploded into pebbles, knocking back both of them as well. It had no effect, and things were not looking positive. But they still wanted to fight. It meant everything to them. More rocks came up, this time flying at the four in control. Nevex hid behind his creation, with Txamt following after, while Sujnax ran off. Kinxu walked up proudly, unloading her gatling guns and shredding every boulder that came too close.
Her wicked smile stretched broadly on her face, while the purple eyes of Xynras showed true thrill in battle. They were the one thing Xando remembered from the Nobody he considered loyal. Xando strafed expertly, homing in on the long-ranged fighter to hit her where it hurt. One of his claymores struck down hard against Kinxu’s metal-plated arms. Metal hammered against metal over and over, while earth and plasma were exchanged overhead.
Txamt was being devious from what he considered a safe distance. Sneaking up around the leg of the super-Thorn, a series of chains dropped from his sleeves; his bolas, and he started to spin them. He wanted to catch Xando off-guard and watch Kinxu turn his head into a pulp and what is that thing over there-
Something black and on fire hit him from a distance, making the chain-weapons fly out of his hands. It was a Dark Firaga spell cast from far away, joined by more a few seconds later. Txamt was now the one dancing, much to Nevex’s entertainment, but once the giggles cleared he came to realize that the numbers were even now, even if they had his wonderful pet. Nevex barked at Txamt to do something against the quickly-advancing Kurix and Xanele. He reluctantly obliged.
Xanele gave suppressing fire to assist in Xando’s duel. Rainbow beams of light poured from her hands and pushed Kinxu back at the worst possible times, allowing Xando to managed in more hits. It felt horribly wrong because yes that was Kinxu she was attacking holy shit.
Charxai had filled them in, but why did she look so damn angry and scary? It was so wrong. She knew Kinxu and that was not her, it could never be. It obviously was not. So why was it so hard to support Xando?
Kinxu, cursing at the girl shooting at him, backed up and took the very opportune moment to shower her with bullets. Xanele woke up from her shock and dived off to the side as the laser bullets tore the ground up where she previously stood. Two targets, yeah, Kinxu could totally handle them. She had two guns, after all.
A few more chains slipped out of Txamt’s sleeves, but these straightened out and locked in place, functioning as two long, thick staves. Txamt met Kurix not too far off from Xando and Kinxu’s fight, and threw everything he had at him. Literally, actually; as in he fired chains before coming too close, hoping he could win prior to actually coming into contact with Kurix. It did not work out, and Txamt had to play defensively as he waited for Kinxu or someone to finish their skirmishes and help him out. Nevex was not about to do anything and where was Sujnax damnit?!
~~~~~
Brixan lined up his sights from afar, and fired a barrage of darts, loaded with the strongest poison he had available. They landed in the most unarmored places he could spot, and since it was so distracted attacking everyone on the ground, they had nothing to worry about-
“Found you.”
Sujnax came right the hell out of nowhere to ambush the sniper. Too surprised to act right away, he was easy pickings for Sujnax, who planned to use the needles on his wrists in a most unconventional way; there would certainly be penetration, just no injection. Other than his blood spraying. His eyes glinted insanely, which he did not normally get when in his calmer state.
What he also ended up getting was the breath knocked out of him. Xenjin leapt from her position and checked Sujnax to the ground, then delivering a punch to the gut before burying the toe of her boot into his side. Sujnax could take injuries pretty well, though, and latched his hand to her ankle without skipping a beat. He reversed their positions, pulling her to the ground as he stood and aimed one of his needles. Brixan cocked his crossbow, but Sujnax was prepared, and without looking used his other nozzle to douse him in corrosive acid. The kind that tears up metals. Brixan’s gun was reduced to wet pieces, falling out of his hands.
Xenjin was the next victim; Sujnax would leave her in pieces as well. He jabbed down with the long needle, but Xenjin protected herself with her lance just in time, converting it to a shield of diamond. When stabbing through that did not work, Sujnax shook his head and squirted acid right at it. Of course, it did nothing, and Sujnax raged at this.
The redhead on the ground brought her leg up to deliver a strong groin kick, making Sujnax feel a whole lot of other things. Brixan snuck up behind the howling man, and brought his fist to the side of his head, clocking him and knocking him down. He assisted the shaken Xenjin, and they both backed away as Sujnax immediately went to his feet. His eyes were pinkish and he looked way more irritated than he had before. Sujnax glared at the both of them, then to the castle to their right, and finally the ensuing battle out near the town.
“Where. AM I?”
Xenjin and Brixan were a bit too freaked to answer.
“WHO.” He squinted at the orange color of the giant Nobody. “Nevex. I will KILL HIM that damned so-called GENIUS he will DIE DIE DIE.”
He turned and ran off the precipice Brixan had been sniping from, leaving the remaining two very confused. They both thought they could just join the others and that work itself out, especially since Sujnax was acting pretty pissed towards his own team, but that felt like the worst idea. Xenjin grabbed Brixan’s arm and pulled him towards the way Sujnax had left.
“This is still bad, come on!”
~~~~~
Jynx lead the charge. Dryxaim was motionless, hunched over, not with the posture his usual self had. His eyes flashed, and a strong gust forced everyone around Jynx to struggle to stay on their feet. Jynx did not notice, and swung his Keyblade upwards at Dryxaim’s face.
But a black blade slashed across and parried the strike effortlessly. When Jynx dashed up again, a white blade, the one he was used to, hit the Keyblade with such force it was knocked out of Jynx’s hands and sent him to his knees Without mercy, Dryxaim drove both of his energy blades at Jynx, ready to slice him to bits. Jynx did not lose hope, though. He knew he had power in him, and it was all thanks to the guy trying to kill him that instant. Jynx brought his hands up, and his Keyblade appeared right into them, blocking the magical blades; he pushed and pushed at Dryxaim until their weapons were unlocked, and then he swiftly swung at an unexpected angle, cutting Dryxaim in the side.
Feeling legitimate pain he did not think he was physical able to feel, Dryxaim yelled from the slash, and whipped out at Jynx with one of his growing black and white tendrils. Jynx flew backwards, then finally skidded to the charred, metal floor before he fell into someone’s arms. He looked up and saw Ryjemex indifferently supporting him. It felt sincere, but soon he was shoving him back up. Before Ryjemex moved away, Jynx‘s hand brushed against the blue gauntlet on his wrist. He thought he recognized it as Xanele’s.
Dryxaim’s breaths came out as gasps, and he called his weapons off to grab at the cut on his shoulder. His blood was dark, and trickled, but he knew he could heal it. It took him a long time to focus enough on Serox’s powers to even begin to close up the wound, though, which was enough time for Xoje to blast him with a concussive wave. Dryxaim was lifted off the floor, flipping over a few times before the tentacles of Non-Existent matter recovered for him.
His head was pounding, and it was not just because of the deafening sounds he was being bombarded with. His arms were on fire; nerves crying out without end, until they went numb all at once. Dryxaim felt nothing after his elbows ended.
He had no time to contemplate the strange sensations as Charxai lunged. The Lone Avenger swung his sword with much more grace; he was alive and fresh and it was filling every part of him with vigor. Whenever Dryxaim blocked he blasted his face with subzero air, even going as far as to mess with that Dryxaim was breathing in to slow him down, if the gasps were any indication that he still breathed at all.
Noraxeen supported him from afar, making her blue flames circle Dryxaim and singe his new extremities. She took her sword in one hand and butchered anything that leapt from the gory mass that was Dryxaim. If she was not fast enough to swing her sword, they were fried instead.
Charxai finally tackled him as Cinollex joined in to deal with the flailing tentacles or whatever was whipping around off of Dryxaim’s body. A simple touch stunned and disintegrated them, and Dryxaim was in agony each time she did so. Charxai stabbed all he could, the edge of his sword searching for a vital of some sort on the decreasingly-human form in front of him. He knew he hit something good when Dryxaim screeched, and had to punch him off. Cinollex and Xoje positioned themselves in front of him for cover, all three of them proud of his moves.
Heal, heal, heal. That was all Dryxaim could think of in his deteriorating state. He stumbled around, not seeing the sharp blade, attached to a chain attached to a metal arm, come whirling towards him. His other-worldly cries filled the room as it pierced his shoulder, stuck in his silver hide. Dryxaim thrashed about until Ryjemex could no longer stay in place from all the tugging, and realized he had to release the chain. Reluctantly he started to activate that mechanism, when Dryxaim yanked the chain just a little harder than it should have been.
The whole projectile was ripped from its socket, and Ryjemex grasped his now-malfunctioning arm. Xeyla jumped in to protect him, and rushed forward to take care of the other shoulder. Dryxaim could only fight back with one of his swords, now, and Xeyla’s skill with one-handed fighting outmatched his. She only retreated when Ryjemex was threatened by a few snaking tendrils.
Her rapier chopped off one of them, then another tentacle, and Dryxaim kept waving his unfeeling arms in pain. He finally stumbled back to the railing over the manufactory, and held into it for dear life. Heal, heal, heal. He needed to buy time. The brighter of the two bracelets looked awfully useful.
It glowed brighter than it ever had before. The silver light dripped and splashed off of the bracelet, pooling on the floor and flowing to the machinery below. Somehow, the Heartless manufacturing devices turned on with its control panel ruined. It was coming to life by Dryxaim’s will alone, and the life he was putting into it. Cinollex noticed what he was doing first and moved in on him, but Dryxaim reached behind himself and blaster her back. Xoje and Charxai attempted to interrupt him as well, but met the same fate.
“St0p!” Xeyla yelled, trying anything to prevent him from making some big and dangerous move. Dryxaim, for a moment, thought he felt an impulse to drop what he was doing; he had to work to keep the sound powers up, but soon it was too late anyway, and the machines were working on their own. It occurred to him that it would be too hard to take them off, anyway. He could not feel anything past his shoulders.
The pods and once-dormant machinations glowed silver and white, and the platforms that lined the floor started functioning after years of gathering dust. What appeared as Heartless were conjured on the platforms; they were black and silver, with yellow eyes and staccato-like movements. They were also all shaped like the pre-transformed Dryxaim.
They marched up and jumped up and filled the battlefield.
~~~~~
The guns started to whirl up again. Kinxu, not condoning any amount of time for her enemies to relax, steadied her aim. Xanele started strafing, ready to avoid the blasts, and to fire back with her own charged weapon. In her other hand, a ball of rainbow-colored light grew in intensity, until she lobbed it, so that it arced perfectly and landed in front of the white-haired girl. She grunted, blocking with her arm and taking the explosion in stride, and began to fire upon Xanele, who was already taking cover behind one of the downed rocks.
Xando had to avoid the shooting meant for him as well, but foresight allowed him to know where the bullets would be way ahead of time. That meant a lot less when Kinxu just showered bullets in all directions, though.
Nevex, enraged that his child had been under assault and was too distracted to do anything, took matters into his own hands and fired bolt after bolt after bolt of bright orange electricity around the rock. She pinned herself against the hard surface and felt the static in the air. Xade saw her in distress, and flung piles of boulders at the mad scientist. There was not much he could do other than cower back behind his behemoth and let its leg armor get smashed.
“Kurix, watch out!” A voice called. Kurix turned to find the source, and was met with the sight of a furious Sujnax rampaging in his direction. He jumped back with such haste it almost knocked him over, but Sujnax was more interested in those that he now considered his enemies.
His charge lead him straight into Txamt, who tried to stop him, unaware of the personality swap, and only received a sharp needle through his stomach. He coughed and spluttered, but Sujnax filled his insides with his organic-killing acid, and threw him aside, leaving Txamt to writhe in pain for only a short while before fading into nothing but a wisp of blackness. Nevex, tense, scrambled up the leg of his Nobody, levitating with his electromagnetic-controlling accessories. Sujnax stabbed at the appendage, aiming to bring Nevex to him.
Brixan met up with Xanele and tended to her, essentially useless without his crossbow for the time being. Xanele assured him she was fine and ready to help; and with that she lobbed another light grenade towards Kinxu, who was already starting to fall back as the enemy reinforcements arrived. Brixan saw the girl being blown up, and knew he could still do something. When Xanele returned to take cover, Brixan was gone.
~~~~~
The super-Thorn swung its arms. It had lost most of its natural mobility, being weaponized and all, so all it could do was flail. Kurix went for the leg that was not being attacked and scaled it, using the armor to easily climb up. When he made it as far as the shoulder, though, Nevex had a field day zapping him and trying to knock him off. He laughed uncontrollably as the electricity arced off of his gem-encrusted gadgets.
“NEVEX!” Sujnax bellowed from below.
Nevex was a bit anxious, but he still chortled at the idea of trying to make Kurix fall to his death. Oh, he was such a try-hard, this stupid white-haired caveman thinking he could best him. Hah! Impossible. Look at him, staring up so stupidly, wishing he could make it so far.
Something hit him from behind, sending him onto his front. Nevex struggled to look behind him, and saw Xenjin pinning him down, smirking in triumph. Angered, Nevex set his whole body into a flurry of sparks, forcing Xenjin to step off. As he went in to kill her, though, he had forgotten he gave Kurix all the time he needed to reach the head. That resulted in another blindside attack.
Zap-zap.
That did a lot less when Xenjin and Kurix were attacking at once, in harmony, disabling his equipment with precise jabs and magic. He was seething.
“MINE.” Shouted a familiarly loud voice. Sujnax was hanging onto the cannon, pointing his nozzle at the three in their fight. Nevex shouted in the most girly way and ducked, but Xenjin stepped forward and generated her diamond shield once more, ready to take the brunt of the shot. The acid sprayed, hit, and completely destroyed the shield. She certainly did not expect that.
The acid also did some collateral damage, splashing on the Twilight Thorn underneath all of that armor, meaning it started to die. Which meant there was nothing left to support the tons of armor covering it, that they all were standing on. Nevex screamed very effeminately once more and started hopping down his tragically dying gift from above.
The cannon was actually designed in a very fragile way, and the power source was pretty volatile, so when all of the armor became displaced and started to collapse in on itself, it was bound to overload and explode. Kurix and Xenjin figured this out when Sujnax had to let go of the cannon because of the intense heat, and fell to his death.
They were much more careful when descending the nuclear monolith, and joined back up with the rest of their group as the armor’s cannon started to shoot into the air and glow brighter and brighter…
~~~~~
Kinxu had come to terms with the fact that she was outnumbered. Fortunately, she, or, well, he was prepared for these times when he was in his original body. There was a self-destruct function on the gatling guns, that would take out everyone in a pretty sizeable radius. Xando winced, seeing a devastating explosion happening in his mind’s eye. He motioned for Xade to back up
Kinxu laughed in that very creepy little girl laugh that was even more creepy with the deep voice she, or he, insisted on using. Time to blow u…uhhhh. Uhhhp? Uuuup. Uuuuhhmmmzzzzzz.
Th-that was def-f-finitely someth-thing in h-h-her n-neck…
Brixan came out of his stealth mode, still holding one of his darts in the side of Kinxu’s neck. He kept it pushed in until he was sure she was unconscious, and then for another thirty seconds. The other three, pretty damn surprised considering they had never seen Brixan use invisibility before, and assuming it was not a bad plot device, congratulated him and then became very aware of what the actual explosion was Xando had predicted. Brixan picked up Kinxu, and once Kurix and Xenjin showed up, they all ran for cover.
~~~~~
The team had grouped together. The Heartless, or the clones, or whatever, surrounded them. All they could do was clear them out and make their way to the boss. Cinollex told them that she could sense Dryxaim weakening on the inside, even if he was exerting so much power through the bracelets. All of them were also getting the idea that his stolen powers were becoming less and less effective.
Xoje reached for the neck of one of the clones and squeezed hard, making it burst just form his grip. He then let out a powerful wave from his hand that knocked back the adjacent Heartless-abominations. Jynx came up next to him and cut up more, followed by Noraxeen, exterminating the clones with barely any effort. Her sick fires left the floor cleansed of the swarm.
On the other side, Xeyla stabbed and jabbed while Charxai slashed and chilled any Heartless that came too close. Ryjemex used the spare blade in his arm to do some cutting himself, and Cinollex could pop a few enemies at a time with a snap of her fingers.
Dryxaim stayed in place the whole time. His legs were numb, now, so it was difficult to be too mobile. Floating was really his only option and with the way his body was morphing into some amorphous blob he was unsure how to keep his balance was doing so. While he was healed up, he was unsure what he would do when his distractions where depleted.
Why not make more?
Dryxaim chuckled under his breath with a voice that was nothing like his at all. The pool started to grow, and the machines worked harder, straining to pump out as many Heartless as possible. If he overwhelmed him he could finish them off, easily. However, those were just Heartless, and there was a boy with a Keyblade on their side. All things considered, that was a bad sign for the person on the side of the Heartless.
Jynx hacked through the clones at a higher rate than anyone else, too. Fighting his way through the jungle of black and white, he found Dryxaim first. Jynx shouted his position, and soon his team mates cleared through to face Dryxaim without any tricks. To make sure of this, Noraxeen used her biggest cast of Eternus Ignis yet; an oval of blue flames that made a nice arena for them all while keeping the pesky Heartless out. Any of them that tired to pass through it were gone in an instant.
Her eyes were a brighter shade of blue than ever, and her body even radiated heat. The wall of fire grew taller and more intense at Dryxaim’s end. He roared, and sent out a high number of tentacles and tendrils and silver bolts, both light and dark. Xoje blocked, Cinollex eviscerated, and Charxai turned them into hardened blocks. Xeyla cut with precision, and she and Ryjemex went forward to hold back more attacks. Noraxeen forced the fires to narrow around Dryxaim, and she let out strained sounds of exhaustion as she did so. Dryxaim was visibly trying to escape, but could not.
Jynx saw his opportunity. He had to do something big, something important. He closed his eyes, and dug down deep inside for some power that could manifest itself like they often conveniently do, and he found it. Yes, there it was. It was that gauntlet the tall guy had on; the one that Xanele was wearing earlier. It was special. So amazingly special. Special enough that it made a power rise up within him. When Jynx opened his eyes, his right hand was coated in blue, like he was wearing a transparent version of the Mirage gauntlet.
He knew what to do right away. Jynx aimed, and fired; the hand, with sharp talons, launched from the wrist, and sunk right into Dryxaim’s chest. He was too numb to even feel it go in. The power was nullifying his senses and making his body transform into something that could personify the powers of death he was given. It was only a matter of time until he would become death itself, but that required that his form could handle it.
Dryxaim loved the power too much, though. It was too good. He was not going to let it go. He could feel nothing, but that was just how good it felt. A blob of a hand tore the claw out of his chest, and black blood spurted in a stream in front of him. The hologram shattered in his grasp.
Another roar. Another, inhuman, snarl. Dryxaim finally uprooted himself from the floor, struggling because he could not tell if his legs were just that numb or actually gone, and lunged towards the person at the middle of the group. Xoje and Charxai and Xeyla and Ryjemex were off to the sides, whereas Jynx was catching his breath from the forced use of his powers. There was only Cinollex, defending Noraxeen with her godly touch, that stood directly in front of the beast. She stayed where she was, protecting Noraxeen while having the confidence she could win. Her hands turned silver, and she held her ground.
Dryxaim roared and howled and groaned like a nightmarish monster.
Cinollex, part-werewolf, part-demigod, was ready to take it on.
He never came close.
Dryxaim stopped moving before he could reach Cinollex or any of the others. One of his hands, once raised like a killer, now looked outstretched and in need of help. His changed body flopped the floor, and melted into a convulsive puddle.
Something was rising out of it though; a lump between what remained of Dryxaim’s wings. It grew taller, or maybe the remains of the monstrous form just spilled away more, and a head of familiar blond hair was revealed first, followed by a pale face with eyes shut. It was Dryxaim, his normal self, kneeling in the remains of his ultimate form. Around his wrists were the bracelets, only dully glowing. Out of them were chains that wrapped around his body, keeping him immobile. All of his senses were gone by this point, though, so it hardly mattered.
Gradually, he became paler and paler, and his hair lost pigment. The only color to be seen on him was the blue glow from the fires around them. A pool of black and silver formed a perfect circle around him, and apparently gained depth. Slowly, Dryxaim was sucked into the pool. The seven Nobodies watched as he was up to his neck, then his chin, then eyes, then disappeared. The pool started to smoke, or steam, and evaporated into nothing.
Where Dryxaim had once been, the two bracelets remained.
~~~~~
A blindingly-orange fireball rose up where the armor once stood. Kurix, Xenjin, Xanele, Brixan, Xando, and Xade, having found refuge at the castle walls, watched the valley near the town burn up, leaving a flaming crater. It was an impressive sight. The white-haired girl asleep on the ground was less of one.
Kurix knew she, or he, was an enemy, and had to be taken out, but wondered if there was any way to fix her up. Xenjin was unsure if it was a safe idea, Xade doubted it, and Xando shook his head. Even Xanele was pessimistic about it.
“Should we just put her out of her misery?” She suggested.
“It’s no longer your friend.” Xando reminded. “You have to see past the exterior and realize that it is not the person you know.”
But she was unconscious, and looked as innocent as ever.
“Then I’ll take care of it, if no one else will.” Xando compromised, pointing one of his swords at her chest.
No one said anything against him, since they knew he was right. Their hearts were just not in the right place-
Okay that is enough word play.
Xando drove the sword into her sternum with one quick thrust, making her inhale sharply but not exclaim one bit. Kurix, Xanele, Xenjin, and Brixan felt something sharp in their chests too. Kinxu, or whomever she was, faded away without a sound. She had already died way more times than anyone had wanted her to. The sight also brought back memories of Arxyn being killed earlier, as well as Serox’s enigmatic departure, so Xade and even Xando felt some remorse.
Xenjin turned to look at the castle. Some sections were smoldering, while others were just ablaze, but it was safe for the time being. Hopefully, everyone inside was as well. Kurix, in the most sincere way he had ever spoken to her, assured her they managed, whatever they did. Xenjin, also calm and honest, thanked him for the reassurance.
~~~~~
Cinollex walked up, sore and drained, and just stared at the bracelets like they carried the plague. If Dryxaim’s bit of metamorphosis was any indication, they pretty much did. She knelt and picked them up, not putting either on.
Ryjemex limped over, nursing his damaged arm while making sure his tired leader was stable. She brushed him off, which was enough of a signal for him to go back to his precious limb.
To their side, Xoje was carrying Noraxeen, who had exhausted herself in the process of using her powers. Jynx was tired as well, using what strength he had left to keep standing, but also make sure his friend was soundly asleep. Charxai was in front of those three, and stepped forward. He kneeled next to Cinollex.
“Incredibly stupid, huh?”
She nodded, smiling just a little bit.
It was. The amount of power the two bracelets held was too much for one person to handle. Being a master of death was too much responsibility, because, as Cinollex now knew, humans underestimate how important death is. Funny how she thought you really could top bringing the dead back to life; defy an irreversible aspect of nature. And for what, “power”? What a vague definition. What power was there in reviving the dead, and what was there to gain by controlling pure death in your hand? There was no way they could ever work alone in a flawless manner, let along with each other. Too much of a risk.
There were two sides, but she wanted to stay in the middle for now.
Yeah, uh.
This is it.
Chapter 39 - Descend
The colossal Nobody fired another blast from the cannon on its chest. The ball of energy soared through the sky, and everyone outside the castle could feel the heat coming off of it as it went over their heads. The castle shook violently as another chunk was blown off, and the enhanced Twilight Thorn continued to lay siege to the stronghold.
Xade put her hand over her eyes and saw Nevex dancing around. She pointed this out to Xando, who felt their presence and stared out with a face full of contempt. They had betrayed their organization, and even managed to kill their own kin. He was disgusted. So were his swords.
“Score to settle.” He hummed. Both of the former-villains ran down the path to the town. Kurix watched them leave, with a tight feeling of regret in his chest. They did not stand a chance alone, and would need help. Who were they to lend assistance, though?
“They’re gonna destroy the castle at this rate.” Xenjin mused to Kurix from his side, snapping hm back into reality. She looked up to him. “If Xoje and Charxai are okay, they won’t be able to get out at this rate.”
“If we can at least take that thing down, it would be good for us.”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s do it.” Brixan said, holding up his crossbow.
“Yes!” Xanele agreed, nodding happily, even though she had just discovered her Power Glove was lost.
“Alright, alright.” Kurix mumbled to them all; he was glad they had justification for this. “Xenjin and Brixan, flank. Xanele and I will join with the other two.” Xenjin and Brixan ran off, and Kurix turned to Xemnas.
“Xemnas, I’d like you to stay out of this. I think it goes without saying-”
“Of course.” Said the blond old man, waving off Kurix’s noble attempts. “This is up to you. I’ll be safe.”
Kurix nodded, and Xanele sprinted ahead of him.
“And Kurix.” Xemnas added on. “Keep up the responsibility act. It suits you.”
~~~~~
Xeyla and Charxai scaled the remains of the elevator shaft, landing at the crushed, fallen room. Xeyla immediately went to Ryjemex when she saw him crawl out, his Mirage Gauntlet glued to him; even while shaken up, he was slipping it onto his non-mechanical hand as a symbol of triumph.
“Heheh…”
“Shh!”
Charxai searched for Xoje, and finally found him hidden deeper in the debris. He seemed uninjured, just nearly-unconscious. He was aware of the trouble they were all in right away though, and started looking for an escape route. His eyes landed on the series of holes in the ceiling, or at least, the people in one of them. Jynx had poked his head out and was trying to send a signal. Xoje saw this as incredibly stupid, and threw his voice up.
“Jynx! Get out now!” He whispered, even though only the two of them should have been able to hear him speak. That was not the case. Dryxaim heard.
He snapped around, looking as inhuman as ever. The glow of his eyes made them look shiny and alien, and the wings and veins of silver light creeping around his torso made him look like a brightly-colored demon.
A sphere of white formed in front of him, and with a bat of his hand the mass of energy was launched towards the four Nobodies. It was coming hopelessly fast, leaving them all with strikingly little hope of living. But, before they could even brace for the impact, something intercepted the attack. A streak of dark gray, landing in the middle of the sphere’s path. It quickly took the form of Cinollex, with a grizzly array of dark gray tendrils spiraling off of her, and her eyes cold and nearly black. Her hair was shaggier than it had been before, and her teeth had obviously sharpened and elongated into fangs; her bracelet made the space around her look wavy and distorted.
She raised her hand to stop the blast. The pulsating ball disappeared in a flash. What human facial features of Dryxaim’s remained went into something resembling a scowl. He looked up at Jynx and Noraxeen peering from the ceiling, and thrust his hand upwards, channeling a beam of silver towards them. Cinollex barely had time to react, but the beam never hit the two up above. Rather, it paved into the ceiling around them, causing both of them to fall out. Cinollex took off to save them, but a wave of white from Dryxaim flung her out of the way; that is not to say he wanted Jynx and Noraxeen to fall to their deaths. Both of them stopped mid-air by Dryxaim’s doing. He smiled towards Cinollex, who was ready to enforce her own telekinesis.
“Give it.” He ordered, voice echoing in an haunting way. He tightened his fist, and Noraxeen shrieked in pain from whatever forces were holding them up. Cinollex reeled, and growled to herself, but proceeded to shed the weapon.
“…May as well just give him the other one.”
She made it float above her hand, and sent it over psychically. Everyone behind her were in shock that she would do such a thing, and felt fear of their enemy as the dark aura left Cinollex, and she was left only with her more feral and toothy appearance.
Dryxaim slipped it on bare wrist, and felt a jolt run through his body. His aura and tendrils and all other sorts of magical details turned half-black on top of the silver and white. His eyes were a milky swirl of gray. Feeling the power course through him, he laughed, loudly…in fact really damn loud in a really damn freaky way. Jynx and Noraxeen were released from his grasp, and they fell to the ground. It hurt, but at least their spines were not in splinters.
They still wanted to fight, though.
Jynx had his Keyblade and Noraxeen her runic blade. Cinollex was still a contender, too, and joined them at Jynx’s side; she no longer had a weapon but she still could wield some of her Non-Existence essence. Swayed by the courage, and knowing they had to make a last stand, Xoje and Charxai followed, then Xeyla, tailed by Ryjemex. Their swords and talons and musical instruments were all equipped. They had numbers, courage, and heart.
Such a bad pun.
~~~~~
Xade and Xando were furious and vengeful. Txamt spotted the outmatched Nobodies a mile away, and pointed them out to the gleeful Nevex.
“Do it! Kill them! Hahaha!” He commanded the super-Thorn.
The cannon aligned itself with their path and fired full-blast at them. Xade summoned an enormous mound of rock to shield them, but it exploded into pebbles, knocking back both of them as well. It had no effect, and things were not looking positive. But they still wanted to fight. It meant everything to them. More rocks came up, this time flying at the four in control. Nevex hid behind his creation, with Txamt following after, while Sujnax ran off. Kinxu walked up proudly, unloading her gatling guns and shredding every boulder that came too close.
Her wicked smile stretched broadly on her face, while the purple eyes of Xynras showed true thrill in battle. They were the one thing Xando remembered from the Nobody he considered loyal. Xando strafed expertly, homing in on the long-ranged fighter to hit her where it hurt. One of his claymores struck down hard against Kinxu’s metal-plated arms. Metal hammered against metal over and over, while earth and plasma were exchanged overhead.
Txamt was being devious from what he considered a safe distance. Sneaking up around the leg of the super-Thorn, a series of chains dropped from his sleeves; his bolas, and he started to spin them. He wanted to catch Xando off-guard and watch Kinxu turn his head into a pulp and what is that thing over there-
Something black and on fire hit him from a distance, making the chain-weapons fly out of his hands. It was a Dark Firaga spell cast from far away, joined by more a few seconds later. Txamt was now the one dancing, much to Nevex’s entertainment, but once the giggles cleared he came to realize that the numbers were even now, even if they had his wonderful pet. Nevex barked at Txamt to do something against the quickly-advancing Kurix and Xanele. He reluctantly obliged.
Xanele gave suppressing fire to assist in Xando’s duel. Rainbow beams of light poured from her hands and pushed Kinxu back at the worst possible times, allowing Xando to managed in more hits. It felt horribly wrong because yes that was Kinxu she was attacking holy shit.
Charxai had filled them in, but why did she look so damn angry and scary? It was so wrong. She knew Kinxu and that was not her, it could never be. It obviously was not. So why was it so hard to support Xando?
Kinxu, cursing at the girl shooting at him, backed up and took the very opportune moment to shower her with bullets. Xanele woke up from her shock and dived off to the side as the laser bullets tore the ground up where she previously stood. Two targets, yeah, Kinxu could totally handle them. She had two guns, after all.
A few more chains slipped out of Txamt’s sleeves, but these straightened out and locked in place, functioning as two long, thick staves. Txamt met Kurix not too far off from Xando and Kinxu’s fight, and threw everything he had at him. Literally, actually; as in he fired chains before coming too close, hoping he could win prior to actually coming into contact with Kurix. It did not work out, and Txamt had to play defensively as he waited for Kinxu or someone to finish their skirmishes and help him out. Nevex was not about to do anything and where was Sujnax damnit?!
~~~~~
Brixan lined up his sights from afar, and fired a barrage of darts, loaded with the strongest poison he had available. They landed in the most unarmored places he could spot, and since it was so distracted attacking everyone on the ground, they had nothing to worry about-
“Found you.”
Sujnax came right the hell out of nowhere to ambush the sniper. Too surprised to act right away, he was easy pickings for Sujnax, who planned to use the needles on his wrists in a most unconventional way; there would certainly be penetration, just no injection. Other than his blood spraying. His eyes glinted insanely, which he did not normally get when in his calmer state.
What he also ended up getting was the breath knocked out of him. Xenjin leapt from her position and checked Sujnax to the ground, then delivering a punch to the gut before burying the toe of her boot into his side. Sujnax could take injuries pretty well, though, and latched his hand to her ankle without skipping a beat. He reversed their positions, pulling her to the ground as he stood and aimed one of his needles. Brixan cocked his crossbow, but Sujnax was prepared, and without looking used his other nozzle to douse him in corrosive acid. The kind that tears up metals. Brixan’s gun was reduced to wet pieces, falling out of his hands.
Xenjin was the next victim; Sujnax would leave her in pieces as well. He jabbed down with the long needle, but Xenjin protected herself with her lance just in time, converting it to a shield of diamond. When stabbing through that did not work, Sujnax shook his head and squirted acid right at it. Of course, it did nothing, and Sujnax raged at this.
The redhead on the ground brought her leg up to deliver a strong groin kick, making Sujnax feel a whole lot of other things. Brixan snuck up behind the howling man, and brought his fist to the side of his head, clocking him and knocking him down. He assisted the shaken Xenjin, and they both backed away as Sujnax immediately went to his feet. His eyes were pinkish and he looked way more irritated than he had before. Sujnax glared at the both of them, then to the castle to their right, and finally the ensuing battle out near the town.
“Where. AM I?”
Xenjin and Brixan were a bit too freaked to answer.
“WHO.” He squinted at the orange color of the giant Nobody. “Nevex. I will KILL HIM that damned so-called GENIUS he will DIE DIE DIE.”
He turned and ran off the precipice Brixan had been sniping from, leaving the remaining two very confused. They both thought they could just join the others and that work itself out, especially since Sujnax was acting pretty pissed towards his own team, but that felt like the worst idea. Xenjin grabbed Brixan’s arm and pulled him towards the way Sujnax had left.
“This is still bad, come on!”
~~~~~
Jynx lead the charge. Dryxaim was motionless, hunched over, not with the posture his usual self had. His eyes flashed, and a strong gust forced everyone around Jynx to struggle to stay on their feet. Jynx did not notice, and swung his Keyblade upwards at Dryxaim’s face.
But a black blade slashed across and parried the strike effortlessly. When Jynx dashed up again, a white blade, the one he was used to, hit the Keyblade with such force it was knocked out of Jynx’s hands and sent him to his knees Without mercy, Dryxaim drove both of his energy blades at Jynx, ready to slice him to bits. Jynx did not lose hope, though. He knew he had power in him, and it was all thanks to the guy trying to kill him that instant. Jynx brought his hands up, and his Keyblade appeared right into them, blocking the magical blades; he pushed and pushed at Dryxaim until their weapons were unlocked, and then he swiftly swung at an unexpected angle, cutting Dryxaim in the side.
Feeling legitimate pain he did not think he was physical able to feel, Dryxaim yelled from the slash, and whipped out at Jynx with one of his growing black and white tendrils. Jynx flew backwards, then finally skidded to the charred, metal floor before he fell into someone’s arms. He looked up and saw Ryjemex indifferently supporting him. It felt sincere, but soon he was shoving him back up. Before Ryjemex moved away, Jynx‘s hand brushed against the blue gauntlet on his wrist. He thought he recognized it as Xanele’s.
Dryxaim’s breaths came out as gasps, and he called his weapons off to grab at the cut on his shoulder. His blood was dark, and trickled, but he knew he could heal it. It took him a long time to focus enough on Serox’s powers to even begin to close up the wound, though, which was enough time for Xoje to blast him with a concussive wave. Dryxaim was lifted off the floor, flipping over a few times before the tentacles of Non-Existent matter recovered for him.
His head was pounding, and it was not just because of the deafening sounds he was being bombarded with. His arms were on fire; nerves crying out without end, until they went numb all at once. Dryxaim felt nothing after his elbows ended.
He had no time to contemplate the strange sensations as Charxai lunged. The Lone Avenger swung his sword with much more grace; he was alive and fresh and it was filling every part of him with vigor. Whenever Dryxaim blocked he blasted his face with subzero air, even going as far as to mess with that Dryxaim was breathing in to slow him down, if the gasps were any indication that he still breathed at all.
Noraxeen supported him from afar, making her blue flames circle Dryxaim and singe his new extremities. She took her sword in one hand and butchered anything that leapt from the gory mass that was Dryxaim. If she was not fast enough to swing her sword, they were fried instead.
Charxai finally tackled him as Cinollex joined in to deal with the flailing tentacles or whatever was whipping around off of Dryxaim’s body. A simple touch stunned and disintegrated them, and Dryxaim was in agony each time she did so. Charxai stabbed all he could, the edge of his sword searching for a vital of some sort on the decreasingly-human form in front of him. He knew he hit something good when Dryxaim screeched, and had to punch him off. Cinollex and Xoje positioned themselves in front of him for cover, all three of them proud of his moves.
Heal, heal, heal. That was all Dryxaim could think of in his deteriorating state. He stumbled around, not seeing the sharp blade, attached to a chain attached to a metal arm, come whirling towards him. His other-worldly cries filled the room as it pierced his shoulder, stuck in his silver hide. Dryxaim thrashed about until Ryjemex could no longer stay in place from all the tugging, and realized he had to release the chain. Reluctantly he started to activate that mechanism, when Dryxaim yanked the chain just a little harder than it should have been.
The whole projectile was ripped from its socket, and Ryjemex grasped his now-malfunctioning arm. Xeyla jumped in to protect him, and rushed forward to take care of the other shoulder. Dryxaim could only fight back with one of his swords, now, and Xeyla’s skill with one-handed fighting outmatched his. She only retreated when Ryjemex was threatened by a few snaking tendrils.
Her rapier chopped off one of them, then another tentacle, and Dryxaim kept waving his unfeeling arms in pain. He finally stumbled back to the railing over the manufactory, and held into it for dear life. Heal, heal, heal. He needed to buy time. The brighter of the two bracelets looked awfully useful.
It glowed brighter than it ever had before. The silver light dripped and splashed off of the bracelet, pooling on the floor and flowing to the machinery below. Somehow, the Heartless manufacturing devices turned on with its control panel ruined. It was coming to life by Dryxaim’s will alone, and the life he was putting into it. Cinollex noticed what he was doing first and moved in on him, but Dryxaim reached behind himself and blaster her back. Xoje and Charxai attempted to interrupt him as well, but met the same fate.
“St0p!” Xeyla yelled, trying anything to prevent him from making some big and dangerous move. Dryxaim, for a moment, thought he felt an impulse to drop what he was doing; he had to work to keep the sound powers up, but soon it was too late anyway, and the machines were working on their own. It occurred to him that it would be too hard to take them off, anyway. He could not feel anything past his shoulders.
The pods and once-dormant machinations glowed silver and white, and the platforms that lined the floor started functioning after years of gathering dust. What appeared as Heartless were conjured on the platforms; they were black and silver, with yellow eyes and staccato-like movements. They were also all shaped like the pre-transformed Dryxaim.
They marched up and jumped up and filled the battlefield.
~~~~~
The guns started to whirl up again. Kinxu, not condoning any amount of time for her enemies to relax, steadied her aim. Xanele started strafing, ready to avoid the blasts, and to fire back with her own charged weapon. In her other hand, a ball of rainbow-colored light grew in intensity, until she lobbed it, so that it arced perfectly and landed in front of the white-haired girl. She grunted, blocking with her arm and taking the explosion in stride, and began to fire upon Xanele, who was already taking cover behind one of the downed rocks.
Xando had to avoid the shooting meant for him as well, but foresight allowed him to know where the bullets would be way ahead of time. That meant a lot less when Kinxu just showered bullets in all directions, though.
Nevex, enraged that his child had been under assault and was too distracted to do anything, took matters into his own hands and fired bolt after bolt after bolt of bright orange electricity around the rock. She pinned herself against the hard surface and felt the static in the air. Xade saw her in distress, and flung piles of boulders at the mad scientist. There was not much he could do other than cower back behind his behemoth and let its leg armor get smashed.
“Kurix, watch out!” A voice called. Kurix turned to find the source, and was met with the sight of a furious Sujnax rampaging in his direction. He jumped back with such haste it almost knocked him over, but Sujnax was more interested in those that he now considered his enemies.
His charge lead him straight into Txamt, who tried to stop him, unaware of the personality swap, and only received a sharp needle through his stomach. He coughed and spluttered, but Sujnax filled his insides with his organic-killing acid, and threw him aside, leaving Txamt to writhe in pain for only a short while before fading into nothing but a wisp of blackness. Nevex, tense, scrambled up the leg of his Nobody, levitating with his electromagnetic-controlling accessories. Sujnax stabbed at the appendage, aiming to bring Nevex to him.
Brixan met up with Xanele and tended to her, essentially useless without his crossbow for the time being. Xanele assured him she was fine and ready to help; and with that she lobbed another light grenade towards Kinxu, who was already starting to fall back as the enemy reinforcements arrived. Brixan saw the girl being blown up, and knew he could still do something. When Xanele returned to take cover, Brixan was gone.
~~~~~
The super-Thorn swung its arms. It had lost most of its natural mobility, being weaponized and all, so all it could do was flail. Kurix went for the leg that was not being attacked and scaled it, using the armor to easily climb up. When he made it as far as the shoulder, though, Nevex had a field day zapping him and trying to knock him off. He laughed uncontrollably as the electricity arced off of his gem-encrusted gadgets.
“NEVEX!” Sujnax bellowed from below.
Nevex was a bit anxious, but he still chortled at the idea of trying to make Kurix fall to his death. Oh, he was such a try-hard, this stupid white-haired caveman thinking he could best him. Hah! Impossible. Look at him, staring up so stupidly, wishing he could make it so far.
Something hit him from behind, sending him onto his front. Nevex struggled to look behind him, and saw Xenjin pinning him down, smirking in triumph. Angered, Nevex set his whole body into a flurry of sparks, forcing Xenjin to step off. As he went in to kill her, though, he had forgotten he gave Kurix all the time he needed to reach the head. That resulted in another blindside attack.
Zap-zap.
That did a lot less when Xenjin and Kurix were attacking at once, in harmony, disabling his equipment with precise jabs and magic. He was seething.
“MINE.” Shouted a familiarly loud voice. Sujnax was hanging onto the cannon, pointing his nozzle at the three in their fight. Nevex shouted in the most girly way and ducked, but Xenjin stepped forward and generated her diamond shield once more, ready to take the brunt of the shot. The acid sprayed, hit, and completely destroyed the shield. She certainly did not expect that.
The acid also did some collateral damage, splashing on the Twilight Thorn underneath all of that armor, meaning it started to die. Which meant there was nothing left to support the tons of armor covering it, that they all were standing on. Nevex screamed very effeminately once more and started hopping down his tragically dying gift from above.
The cannon was actually designed in a very fragile way, and the power source was pretty volatile, so when all of the armor became displaced and started to collapse in on itself, it was bound to overload and explode. Kurix and Xenjin figured this out when Sujnax had to let go of the cannon because of the intense heat, and fell to his death.
They were much more careful when descending the nuclear monolith, and joined back up with the rest of their group as the armor’s cannon started to shoot into the air and glow brighter and brighter…
~~~~~
Kinxu had come to terms with the fact that she was outnumbered. Fortunately, she, or, well, he was prepared for these times when he was in his original body. There was a self-destruct function on the gatling guns, that would take out everyone in a pretty sizeable radius. Xando winced, seeing a devastating explosion happening in his mind’s eye. He motioned for Xade to back up
Kinxu laughed in that very creepy little girl laugh that was even more creepy with the deep voice she, or he, insisted on using. Time to blow u…uhhhh. Uhhhp? Uuuup. Uuuuhhmmmzzzzzz.
Th-that was def-f-finitely someth-thing in h-h-her n-neck…
Brixan came out of his stealth mode, still holding one of his darts in the side of Kinxu’s neck. He kept it pushed in until he was sure she was unconscious, and then for another thirty seconds. The other three, pretty damn surprised considering they had never seen Brixan use invisibility before, and assuming it was not a bad plot device, congratulated him and then became very aware of what the actual explosion was Xando had predicted. Brixan picked up Kinxu, and once Kurix and Xenjin showed up, they all ran for cover.
~~~~~
The team had grouped together. The Heartless, or the clones, or whatever, surrounded them. All they could do was clear them out and make their way to the boss. Cinollex told them that she could sense Dryxaim weakening on the inside, even if he was exerting so much power through the bracelets. All of them were also getting the idea that his stolen powers were becoming less and less effective.
Xoje reached for the neck of one of the clones and squeezed hard, making it burst just form his grip. He then let out a powerful wave from his hand that knocked back the adjacent Heartless-abominations. Jynx came up next to him and cut up more, followed by Noraxeen, exterminating the clones with barely any effort. Her sick fires left the floor cleansed of the swarm.
On the other side, Xeyla stabbed and jabbed while Charxai slashed and chilled any Heartless that came too close. Ryjemex used the spare blade in his arm to do some cutting himself, and Cinollex could pop a few enemies at a time with a snap of her fingers.
Dryxaim stayed in place the whole time. His legs were numb, now, so it was difficult to be too mobile. Floating was really his only option and with the way his body was morphing into some amorphous blob he was unsure how to keep his balance was doing so. While he was healed up, he was unsure what he would do when his distractions where depleted.
Why not make more?
Dryxaim chuckled under his breath with a voice that was nothing like his at all. The pool started to grow, and the machines worked harder, straining to pump out as many Heartless as possible. If he overwhelmed him he could finish them off, easily. However, those were just Heartless, and there was a boy with a Keyblade on their side. All things considered, that was a bad sign for the person on the side of the Heartless.
Jynx hacked through the clones at a higher rate than anyone else, too. Fighting his way through the jungle of black and white, he found Dryxaim first. Jynx shouted his position, and soon his team mates cleared through to face Dryxaim without any tricks. To make sure of this, Noraxeen used her biggest cast of Eternus Ignis yet; an oval of blue flames that made a nice arena for them all while keeping the pesky Heartless out. Any of them that tired to pass through it were gone in an instant.
Her eyes were a brighter shade of blue than ever, and her body even radiated heat. The wall of fire grew taller and more intense at Dryxaim’s end. He roared, and sent out a high number of tentacles and tendrils and silver bolts, both light and dark. Xoje blocked, Cinollex eviscerated, and Charxai turned them into hardened blocks. Xeyla cut with precision, and she and Ryjemex went forward to hold back more attacks. Noraxeen forced the fires to narrow around Dryxaim, and she let out strained sounds of exhaustion as she did so. Dryxaim was visibly trying to escape, but could not.
Jynx saw his opportunity. He had to do something big, something important. He closed his eyes, and dug down deep inside for some power that could manifest itself like they often conveniently do, and he found it. Yes, there it was. It was that gauntlet the tall guy had on; the one that Xanele was wearing earlier. It was special. So amazingly special. Special enough that it made a power rise up within him. When Jynx opened his eyes, his right hand was coated in blue, like he was wearing a transparent version of the Mirage gauntlet.
He knew what to do right away. Jynx aimed, and fired; the hand, with sharp talons, launched from the wrist, and sunk right into Dryxaim’s chest. He was too numb to even feel it go in. The power was nullifying his senses and making his body transform into something that could personify the powers of death he was given. It was only a matter of time until he would become death itself, but that required that his form could handle it.
Dryxaim loved the power too much, though. It was too good. He was not going to let it go. He could feel nothing, but that was just how good it felt. A blob of a hand tore the claw out of his chest, and black blood spurted in a stream in front of him. The hologram shattered in his grasp.
Another roar. Another, inhuman, snarl. Dryxaim finally uprooted himself from the floor, struggling because he could not tell if his legs were just that numb or actually gone, and lunged towards the person at the middle of the group. Xoje and Charxai and Xeyla and Ryjemex were off to the sides, whereas Jynx was catching his breath from the forced use of his powers. There was only Cinollex, defending Noraxeen with her godly touch, that stood directly in front of the beast. She stayed where she was, protecting Noraxeen while having the confidence she could win. Her hands turned silver, and she held her ground.
Dryxaim roared and howled and groaned like a nightmarish monster.
Cinollex, part-werewolf, part-demigod, was ready to take it on.
He never came close.
Dryxaim stopped moving before he could reach Cinollex or any of the others. One of his hands, once raised like a killer, now looked outstretched and in need of help. His changed body flopped the floor, and melted into a convulsive puddle.
Something was rising out of it though; a lump between what remained of Dryxaim’s wings. It grew taller, or maybe the remains of the monstrous form just spilled away more, and a head of familiar blond hair was revealed first, followed by a pale face with eyes shut. It was Dryxaim, his normal self, kneeling in the remains of his ultimate form. Around his wrists were the bracelets, only dully glowing. Out of them were chains that wrapped around his body, keeping him immobile. All of his senses were gone by this point, though, so it hardly mattered.
Gradually, he became paler and paler, and his hair lost pigment. The only color to be seen on him was the blue glow from the fires around them. A pool of black and silver formed a perfect circle around him, and apparently gained depth. Slowly, Dryxaim was sucked into the pool. The seven Nobodies watched as he was up to his neck, then his chin, then eyes, then disappeared. The pool started to smoke, or steam, and evaporated into nothing.
Where Dryxaim had once been, the two bracelets remained.
~~~~~
A blindingly-orange fireball rose up where the armor once stood. Kurix, Xenjin, Xanele, Brixan, Xando, and Xade, having found refuge at the castle walls, watched the valley near the town burn up, leaving a flaming crater. It was an impressive sight. The white-haired girl asleep on the ground was less of one.
Kurix knew she, or he, was an enemy, and had to be taken out, but wondered if there was any way to fix her up. Xenjin was unsure if it was a safe idea, Xade doubted it, and Xando shook his head. Even Xanele was pessimistic about it.
“Should we just put her out of her misery?” She suggested.
“It’s no longer your friend.” Xando reminded. “You have to see past the exterior and realize that it is not the person you know.”
But she was unconscious, and looked as innocent as ever.
“Then I’ll take care of it, if no one else will.” Xando compromised, pointing one of his swords at her chest.
No one said anything against him, since they knew he was right. Their hearts were just not in the right place-
Okay that is enough word play.
Xando drove the sword into her sternum with one quick thrust, making her inhale sharply but not exclaim one bit. Kurix, Xanele, Xenjin, and Brixan felt something sharp in their chests too. Kinxu, or whomever she was, faded away without a sound. She had already died way more times than anyone had wanted her to. The sight also brought back memories of Arxyn being killed earlier, as well as Serox’s enigmatic departure, so Xade and even Xando felt some remorse.
Xenjin turned to look at the castle. Some sections were smoldering, while others were just ablaze, but it was safe for the time being. Hopefully, everyone inside was as well. Kurix, in the most sincere way he had ever spoken to her, assured her they managed, whatever they did. Xenjin, also calm and honest, thanked him for the reassurance.
~~~~~
Cinollex walked up, sore and drained, and just stared at the bracelets like they carried the plague. If Dryxaim’s bit of metamorphosis was any indication, they pretty much did. She knelt and picked them up, not putting either on.
Ryjemex limped over, nursing his damaged arm while making sure his tired leader was stable. She brushed him off, which was enough of a signal for him to go back to his precious limb.
To their side, Xoje was carrying Noraxeen, who had exhausted herself in the process of using her powers. Jynx was tired as well, using what strength he had left to keep standing, but also make sure his friend was soundly asleep. Charxai was in front of those three, and stepped forward. He kneeled next to Cinollex.
“Incredibly stupid, huh?”
She nodded, smiling just a little bit.
It was. The amount of power the two bracelets held was too much for one person to handle. Being a master of death was too much responsibility, because, as Cinollex now knew, humans underestimate how important death is. Funny how she thought you really could top bringing the dead back to life; defy an irreversible aspect of nature. And for what, “power”? What a vague definition. What power was there in reviving the dead, and what was there to gain by controlling pure death in your hand? There was no way they could ever work alone in a flawless manner, let along with each other. Too much of a risk.
There were two sides, but she wanted to stay in the middle for now.
Re: The ORG [39/40]
Went on an hours-long writing binge, so I would hope so.
Went on an hours-long writing binge, so I would hope so.
Re: The ORG [39/40]
Oh so you caught up? If not man it will only get better. In fact, even if you did finish it it will only get better.
also duh yeah this is the idealized version of all the failed rp's~
Oh so you caught up? If not man it will only get better. In fact, even if you did finish it it will only get better.
also duh yeah this is the idealized version of all the failed rp's~
Re: The ORG [39/40]
joe I love you (also, happy birthday c
joe I love you (also, happy birthday c
Re: The ORG [39/40]
feelings are mutual
flood it
<3
joe I love you (also, happy birthday c
feelings are mutual
flood it
<3
Re: The ORG [39/40]
End of Part One
Twilight Town was under a rare blanket of dark sky, still filled with overcast, preventing. any light from the moon or stars from breaking through. With such blackness covering the town, the Corridor of Darkness that opened in front of the ruined mansion was hardly noticeable. A Nobody in his black cloak stepped out of it, and surveyed the mess his battle resulted in behind through a face-hugging visor.
He had returned to search for precious items left behind, suspicious activity, and his missing leader. After digging his way into a half-caved-in basement and laboratory, he knew he could check two of those off his list.
So he climbed out and sat on what he recognized to be the mansion foyer, even though two walls had collapsed onto it and a few rocks jutted up from the floorboards. But, he had not been gone for long, so he did not regard it as admirable that he knew where he was. He reveled in the natural silence, not having to resort to manually giving himself peace.
Being so sensitive to sound, he heard the footsteps on the other side of the ruins without effort. A pin dropping was like a gunshot to him.
He was on his feet in an instant, and a conical weapon appeared in his left hand. There was the distinct sound of metal crunching on dead leaves and splintered wood, coming nearer and nearer. Whoever was out there was not making any attempt to conceal themselves. He muffled his own steps and carefully went towards the source of the noise.
When he reached them, his head darted back in a double-take. They were clad in armor, mostly black, with sections of it crimson. He thought he saw their head shake, probably missing him in the black of night as well.
Traditionally black armor did not represent a friend, though the Nobody was not necessarily a good guy. He had met enough people in the past week that had tried to kill him to make him quite cautious, though. He held his weapon in front of him, prepared for confrontation.
The armored figure eyed him, then the weapon, and raised their hand.
~~~~~
In a concealed room in the depths of a castle far away, another Nobody carefully slipped in. Dust covered everything, for he was the only one to have visited the room since he left so many moths ago.
The monitor flicked on, as did a number of lights and buttons around him. He typed away, inputting passwords and verifying identifications, as he was one of the only ones allowed to speak to his superior directly. Finally, navigating the intense security, he connected, and the screen turned a deep blue. It shone on his face, making the normally garish scars fade in against his skin. A large “M” in an elaborate font appeared on the monitor.
“It’s been a while.” Spoke someone on the other side of the connection. The Nobody breathed a sigh of relief.
“My Master, it has.”
“How was it?”
Such a vague question. The details of his mission required far more intricate explanations.
“Ultimately…I cannot say it was a success.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I know you gave up a lot.”
The Nobody had been fiddling the drawstring of his cloak, but the hand pushed back, clenching his chest, when the voice mentioned that.
“It was not in vain. It’s repairable.”
“I would enjoy tracking your progress on that.”
“You may, Master. Personally, if you wish.”
“I just may take up on that invitation.”
It would be the highest of honors for the Nobody.
“How are your students treating you? Would be a shame for your preaching to backfire on you.”
The Nobody was glad that his Master could not see his expression.
“Indifferently, but it doesn’t matter.” He insisted; however, no one had seen him since he returned to his home, but he was not about to let his Master know that. He needed to show that he was correct in his stance.
“I was and will always be a Keyblade master.”
~~~~~
And from the black hand a Keyblade formed from a smoky mist. The weapon was dark red and sleek, just like its owner. The Nobody facing the stranger down looked at the Keyblade with what he had to admit was distress.
~~~~~
“Is that so? Without a heart, too?”
“I was! And shall continue to be!” He cleared his throat, ashamed he had spoken so loudly. “It will never change. We are fated for greatness and honorable rewards, and I have irrefutable evidence of us being destined to destroy those wretched creatures that oppose us.”
The Nobody thought he heard a short laugh on the other side, but the low hum of the computer made it hard to tell.
“Of course. Answer me this, though, Kaxsra.”
~~~~~
The Keyblade wielder gripped the hilt, and slowly lowered into a fighting stance. The Nobody across from them did the same. Both waited for the other to make the first move, judging when it would be best to strike when the other was too stubborn.
~~~~~
“Yes, Master?”
He stared at the big blue “M” for nearly a minute before the voice asked him the question.
“What happens when both sides hold a Keyblade?”
~~~~~
The Nobody and the wielder started moving at the same time, both of them impatient and similar in their predictions. When they neared each other, weapons locked, strengths equal. Their attentions were precise, and their constant outmatching of the other only meant neither could gain the upper hand.
~~~~~
“You’ll find fate can be indecisive.”
Intermission
End of Part One
Twilight Town was under a rare blanket of dark sky, still filled with overcast, preventing. any light from the moon or stars from breaking through. With such blackness covering the town, the Corridor of Darkness that opened in front of the ruined mansion was hardly noticeable. A Nobody in his black cloak stepped out of it, and surveyed the mess his battle resulted in behind through a face-hugging visor.
He had returned to search for precious items left behind, suspicious activity, and his missing leader. After digging his way into a half-caved-in basement and laboratory, he knew he could check two of those off his list.
So he climbed out and sat on what he recognized to be the mansion foyer, even though two walls had collapsed onto it and a few rocks jutted up from the floorboards. But, he had not been gone for long, so he did not regard it as admirable that he knew where he was. He reveled in the natural silence, not having to resort to manually giving himself peace.
Being so sensitive to sound, he heard the footsteps on the other side of the ruins without effort. A pin dropping was like a gunshot to him.
He was on his feet in an instant, and a conical weapon appeared in his left hand. There was the distinct sound of metal crunching on dead leaves and splintered wood, coming nearer and nearer. Whoever was out there was not making any attempt to conceal themselves. He muffled his own steps and carefully went towards the source of the noise.
When he reached them, his head darted back in a double-take. They were clad in armor, mostly black, with sections of it crimson. He thought he saw their head shake, probably missing him in the black of night as well.
Traditionally black armor did not represent a friend, though the Nobody was not necessarily a good guy. He had met enough people in the past week that had tried to kill him to make him quite cautious, though. He held his weapon in front of him, prepared for confrontation.
The armored figure eyed him, then the weapon, and raised their hand.
~~~~~
In a concealed room in the depths of a castle far away, another Nobody carefully slipped in. Dust covered everything, for he was the only one to have visited the room since he left so many moths ago.
The monitor flicked on, as did a number of lights and buttons around him. He typed away, inputting passwords and verifying identifications, as he was one of the only ones allowed to speak to his superior directly. Finally, navigating the intense security, he connected, and the screen turned a deep blue. It shone on his face, making the normally garish scars fade in against his skin. A large “M” in an elaborate font appeared on the monitor.
“It’s been a while.” Spoke someone on the other side of the connection. The Nobody breathed a sigh of relief.
“My Master, it has.”
“How was it?”
Such a vague question. The details of his mission required far more intricate explanations.
“Ultimately…I cannot say it was a success.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I know you gave up a lot.”
The Nobody had been fiddling the drawstring of his cloak, but the hand pushed back, clenching his chest, when the voice mentioned that.
“It was not in vain. It’s repairable.”
“I would enjoy tracking your progress on that.”
“You may, Master. Personally, if you wish.”
“I just may take up on that invitation.”
It would be the highest of honors for the Nobody.
“How are your students treating you? Would be a shame for your preaching to backfire on you.”
The Nobody was glad that his Master could not see his expression.
“Indifferently, but it doesn’t matter.” He insisted; however, no one had seen him since he returned to his home, but he was not about to let his Master know that. He needed to show that he was correct in his stance.
“I was and will always be a Keyblade master.”
~~~~~
And from the black hand a Keyblade formed from a smoky mist. The weapon was dark red and sleek, just like its owner. The Nobody facing the stranger down looked at the Keyblade with what he had to admit was distress.
~~~~~
“Is that so? Without a heart, too?”
“I was! And shall continue to be!” He cleared his throat, ashamed he had spoken so loudly. “It will never change. We are fated for greatness and honorable rewards, and I have irrefutable evidence of us being destined to destroy those wretched creatures that oppose us.”
The Nobody thought he heard a short laugh on the other side, but the low hum of the computer made it hard to tell.
“Of course. Answer me this, though, Kaxsra.”
~~~~~
The Keyblade wielder gripped the hilt, and slowly lowered into a fighting stance. The Nobody across from them did the same. Both waited for the other to make the first move, judging when it would be best to strike when the other was too stubborn.
~~~~~
“Yes, Master?”
He stared at the big blue “M” for nearly a minute before the voice asked him the question.
“What happens when both sides hold a Keyblade?”
~~~~~
The Nobody and the wielder started moving at the same time, both of them impatient and similar in their predictions. When they neared each other, weapons locked, strengths equal. Their attentions were precise, and their constant outmatching of the other only meant neither could gain the upper hand.
~~~~~
“You’ll find fate can be indecisive.”
Intermission
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