Raid #99

The doors to the large open ballroom slowly creaked open, the once darkened room gaining a long streak of light across the floor from the candles burning away within the entrance hall. The echo of the creaking door continuing to bounce around the grand room several times before dying down, returning the castle to silence once more. A shrill howling of the wind was echoing outside the massive windows at the far end, the glass rattling within their frames slightly from the force of the cold breeze outside. Other then that, the castle was deathly quiet. The roars of the supposed 'beast' were no longer present, unlike the first time a certain silver-haired youth arrived in this world to help assist a young boy by the name of Emil. Such fond memories. But alas, no beast roars obviously meant there was no beast. And since this castle no longer had a supposed 'owner' and with thanks to the Human Heartless gathering the attention of the Heroes of Light, Kadaj, Leader of the Remnant's was left unchecked and free to do what he pleased. And, what else was better then finding a new base of operations for the Remnant Brothers?

Sure, the Forgotten City was an ideal place. Remote. Quiet. Undisturbed. But a nice big castle? The choice was obvious. However, the world stunk of the Light so there were more pressing issues to attend to. Defeating the Light and claiming this world for the Darkness. For the Remnants! Kadaj had many plans he needed to carry out and doing so in a world full of Darkness would only further his progress. The Light needed to be exterminated and ways to do so were at hand, they just needed some extra fine tweaking before being put into action. A nice large castle with some peace and quiet as well as an abundance of Heartless, would work wonders as well. For now though, it was just a simple matter of waiting for the Light to come and preach to him about his wrong doings.

The silhouette of a slender young man came into view as the figure stepped into the light that was shining into the large ballroom. The silver-haired youth glanced down at the floor and smirked at the sight of his long shadow stretching long across the ground below him. Suddenly the ballroom was lit up magnificently as bolt of lightning crashed down from the heavens above, a loud rumble echoing throughout the entire castle which in turn caused the windows to rattle slightly. The Remnant Leader smirked as he strode into the ballroom. Two balconies either side of the main entrance housed several, perhaps thousands of books. Those would make good advantage points and the wide open area at the far end of the grand room would be suitable for close combat. This room was far more adequate then fighting within the entrance hall back through he door he just stepped through. A subtle nod of the Remnants head and he continued to walk through the room, glancing up to see the large unlit chandelier hanging overhead.

A subtle grin appeared on his lips, made barely visible by another bright and sudden flash of lightning shining in through the massive windows. Lifting up his left arm, the leather covering his attire creaking when it started to tighten around his figure, a green glow began to shine out from within the Remnant's forearm, a piece of Materia being activated. The ballroom was suddenly lit up a fiery orange as a large ball of flame formed itself within the Remnant's hand, a Firaga spell the sole reason behind the change in colour as well as why Kadaj's hair and attire began to whip out behind him from the winds coming from the swirling mass of fire. A quick swing of his arm and the Firaga shot up towards the ceiling, circling around the chandelier before zipping off towards a second hanging from the ceiling closer to the entrance door. After the majority of the candles had been lit, giving a much needed sense of light to the room, the Firaga spell changed course and headed right for the Remnant himself, who merely raised an arm and swatted the Firaga spell away into nothingness when it drew near. Narrowing his eyes and turning to face the large door which was still open and the only entrance to and from this room (bar smashing the windows), Kadaj waited to see who would be foolish to venture here and oppose him.

A large storm had seemed to gather outside across the French countryside, it's peak raging over the this cursed castle within the Forbidden Forest just outside the small village. Storm grey clouds remained that color until a streak of white hot lightning zipped overhead, illuminating the entire area and yet making the shadows grow even larger than they had once been. A cold, unforgiving wind assaulted the ground below when the lightning was not striking a random tree or the many tall turrets at the top of the tower, shaking cold glass within their delicate French windowframes. Not a soul was in sight on this eerie night, save for a few Heartless lurking within the black of silhouettes the lightning made, but not even they stayed long from their Corridors to Darkness. Wherever the occupants had gone, there was no-one left to stop outsiders from walking right into the castle, and it had seemed indeed that the very darkness this world always seemed steeped in would claim this hopeless world.

And yet, where there was darkness, there was light. Not only from the lightning above in the fulmulating storm, but exuding from a warrior that had come to explore this world. Travelling in darkness was not unfamiliar to this small boy... he had done so many times more than he could remember. Seemingly unphased as he walked straight into the entrance hall to venture through this grand castle, the legendary hero known as Onion Knight had his head bowed slightly as the large doors of the entrance of the castle slammed upruptly shut behind him from the force of the gale whipping outside. It was good to seek shelter from the storm, even if there had been no rain, the chilling breeze had caused goosebumps to make the fine hairs on his bare arms and legs stand up on end. But even that did not seem to shake the short knight from his thoughts, as he followed the path before him to the stairs, thinking about if he would ever find a familiar face or that of his crystal.

Memories were slowly coming back to him, like the very nipping wind outside, familiar but fleeting and uncomforting at the same time. Because he had been in a few of the cycles himself, he recalled some of his memories from his time in at least a few of them as a Warrior of the Goddess Cosmos, but not all of them. There had been two significant cycles which must have been very important to not just him, but to all his friends who were also summoned to fight on behalf of the goddess of harmony, but they were not the only cycles in which had turned the entire war overall around. Where were his friends now that their worlds were connected, or at least estranged ones such as this, and what cycle were they in if they were still continuing? He couldn't even remember if they had been put to an end or if discord was still raging, but had found hope he could see his friends again when he had come across Cloud a while back in a underworld. But since then he hadn't seen anyone he recognised, not even the enemies fighting on behalf of the god of discord... Cecil, Tidus, Firion, Squall, Bartz, Zidane, the Warrior of Light and most of all Terra Branford... where were they all, and why hadn't Cosmos appeared before him yet?

Within the dank depths of ink black before him, just as he considered exploring the six parlour doors to his left and right, there came a brief flash of fire illuminating which made him aware of the aura of a presence. Not just any old flame, but that of a fire spell similiar to his own... was there a battle going on? Luneth felt with his senses he had developed over the years, but only felt one aura, that of a terrible darkness. So if the enemy was setting the castle on fire, there was only one thing left to do, and the Onion Knight marched straight into the large double-doors into the ballroom as they, too, sealed loudly behind him with a sealing energy. The result of the fire spell revealing to be lit candleabras in the high domed roof above, illuminating a quaintly resembling youth with silver hair and black leather before him, the Keeper of the Light of Courge summoned his golden and azure Onion Sword with the grip of his right hand as he swished it out horizontally parallel to his shoulder.

"Feels like we have met somewhere before." he stated, not a question, realizing the aura was a lot like one back in the world of Radiant Garden.

Entrance theme: Event / Dissidia by Dissidia OST
(OOC: Sorry Kadaj, couldn't help myself. Heheh.)

(OOC: Only to give you a fight worth winning this castle for, and because no-one else did. Someone's gotta come save the day and initiate the battle at the last minute. [; )

Yeah, the guy standing before him now did look familiar somehow... but he couldn't quite place it. His armor shifted as he held out his sword alongside him, staring down the user of dark, who looked ready or even victorious in taking over his castle. Well, another enemy trying to usurp a castle... it wasn't like he hadn't dealt with that before. All the time on Surface World Xande had sent out villain after villain to curse or force a keep or village into submission, but he and his fellow Warriors of Light had taken down those flunkies every single time. And he was sure if he defeated this soldier and lifted the apparent darkness looming around the castle, whoever owned it would be grateful to him. But there was a powerful aura around this silver-haired male... he wasn't so sure what he was capable of, but he wouldn't have approached him if he didn't think he would beat him.

The other youth let out a indirect insult about how stupid it was to come to challenge him, but the Onion Knight was not only smart enough to understand it, but come up with a clever comeback as the warrior fell silent. "Yeah, it does seem brainless for anyone to come to challenge you when you're so obviously strong." his voice dripped with fake reverence and sarcasm, smirking slightly. "But in your case, for a poor sap like you, I was willing to make an exception." The tension built as silence was cast between the two, the candlelight in the chandeliers above flickering the light acrosss the room below, making the shadows waver in turn. Another condescending remark came his way, this time about his age, and the knight couldn't help but chuckle slightly. The man hadn't stopped talking yet, so he let him finish, watching as he placed his hand on his sword in his sheath before listening for his turn to speak.

He started to pace across the room slowly, head bowed, his head bowed and chin tucked as his tone came across feigning innocence and pleading. [color=Gold}"Oh no, I am just a kid! You wouldn't attack a boy. would you? Please spare me, oh mighty and powerful one!"

Another flash of lightning streaked across the darkened sky outside, casting the light astray and highlighting the shadows of the archways and glass of the immense ballroom in which the battle had started. His Multi-Hit had been guarded against, but the enemy actually lowered their guard on purpose and let the attack hit. The legendary Onion Knight was true to his name, as he landed his direct hit, he sped around the user of darkness at a immense speed faster than the average eye could keep up with, slashing at him from all angles around him until he landed the final blow and pushed him back. Ironically the same as his friend Cloud did in a similar manner to this person's predecessor, Sephiroth, with Omnislash Version Five many years ago. But that was not something the Keeper of the Light of Courage would know, or even be told by Cloud with his travels with him.

More retorts came as the antagonist recovered, and Luneth as the annoying little kid he was couldn't help but laugh inwardly to himself at the judging and the contradiction he heard. "Sorry, but no-one died and made you king. Who are you to judge me?" A grimace sported over Onion Knight's face as he kept running for the pillars on his left-hand side of the room. "Sounds like you're speaking for yourself... literally. There's always a first time for everything, but either people are too stupid or not brave enough to face you... you really don't think too much, do you?" he remarked. How'd this guy expect to take over a castle if he couldn't even be definite about making up his mind? His answer was short-lived as a flurry of black feathers appeared before him from out of nowhere.

Ebon feathery down fluttered upon the still air of the ballroom, accompanying partners in this dance to the death, the boy inconspicuously known as Luneth watching as the silver-haired male appeared from the whirlwind. Clever trick... it reminds me of someone, but who? he considered, at the same time digging his sandals into the sandy titled floor, reacting the only way he knew how to a new attack by gut feeling. He lifted up his golden Onion Sword to parry the incoming blade, either successfully blocking it, or being punished for his guard being crushed if it was a powerful blow. Thankfully it was the former, and the two blades clashed and ricocheted off each other, Onion Knight staring down the other youth jubilantly. "Hmph, not bad yourself. Could be better, though." he smirked, and with the momentum pushed his blade forward to push the man away from him, so he could continue gaining the higher ground.

Having blocked the strange two-pronged sword of his dark foe, Onion Knight recovered quickly to counter-attack as he spun his sword around in his hand and with a singular thrust of it coming out of the spin, frost magic formed into the shape of a bullet and flew towards the leather-clad warrior in the form of Blizzard. He ran up the pillar in a vertical wall-walk, and jumped over the railing to the higher balcony, which made up most of half the room above the entrance. It would have looked rather amateurish if he had gotten hit with that simple sword-strike, and he was going to let the warrior of chaos learn that Luneth would speak of his strength through action and make him pay for every second he continued to under-estimate him. Likely the simple spell was a distraction easily countered that would not connect, and so the main attack while he finished dealing with the Frost came in the form of a arching giant fireball known as Firaga hurling down to detonate on the spot the Remnant stood last.

"Singe!" he called the instant after he had cast the spell, so the verbal uttering to summon the old magic would be too late to give warning of the incoming spell, himself thrown backwards into the balcony wall from the sheer force of the blazing projectile lighting up the room.

---

Multi-Hit:One-post cooldown.

Blade Torrent: Two-post cooldown.

Blizzard: Two-post cooldown.

Firaga: Two-post cooldown.

You would think with all the lightning striking the castle and the surrounding area, that the tumultuous storm would eventually rip the entire castle apart. The room seemed to flash white and black as the tormentous lightning flashed in arcs across the blackened sky outside, it’s only predecessor the roar of thunder as loud as the echo of an unknown beast within the depths of the castle. The castle itself seemed to shake alongside the thrusts of wind against the tempered paneled glass, as if all hell had broken loose outside and threatening to shatter the very windows itself, if it wasn’t already hell breaking loose inside. Already the temperature in the room had drastically risen after the drop of the Blizzard spell, which the legendary Onion Knight had been right to assume had been quickly deflected. The ice frozen around the pillar now melting to water, he watched as the Firaga ball exploded into a large radius below, unfortunately missing it’s intended target.

The man in black had flipped away forwards towards his position on the horseshoe-shaped balcony ringing half of the ballroom’s wall above, and he couldn’t see him or what he was up to. This couldn’t be good, but he was confident the kid couldn’t reach him until he was up on his level, which he was probably trying to figure out how to get up to. This meant he could have mimicked his ascent or more likely, was about to teleport next to him again, so he had to keep moving. He was about to sprint around the balcony to the opposite side of the room so he could see the Remnant and possibly figure out his next action, but felt his intimidating dark aura still underneath his person, followed by an intense heat. Three columns of blazing fire burst through the platform beneath his feet, and instantaneously he felt himself be lifted up by hot air and lashing flames, seering heated pain into his skin and clothing before he was swatted into the ceiling amongst the cherub fresco painting painted there.

A kid amongst child-like angels. How ironic.

A small yelp of pain exhaled from his lips, the impact from where the force of the blast had cracked part of the ceiling, and more of it could be seen as the kid dropped from the ceiling. Controlling his fall and having suffered worse before, his skin and clothes covered in black charcoal smudges, he watched as the caster of the immense fire spell jumped up through the holes in the platform and landed on the balcony beneath him. A little worse for wear, but he could use the higher ground to his advantage. As he dropped, he instantaneously landed on the circular chandelier Kadaj had lit with his Firaga spell earlier, and grabbed the chain that it hung from the ceiling with in his right hand. Luneth noticed the moment his weight was placed on the unsafe platform, the chain holding it high near the ceiling started to give some slack from the crank reel nearby holding it up, making him drop quickly earthward. Riding on pure adrenaline and with some rapid thinking, as he had meant to use the chandelier as a stepping stone to launch from, he instead adjusted the position of his feet and the balance of his weight to swing it around harshly into the leather-clad enemy on the platform below.

But that was not all. Not allowing for time to witness if the chandelier had knocked into the adolescent and shoved him away with as much force as he had just received, he jumped off and flipped away to evade any counterattack that might have been waiting in retaliation. In mid-air, he swatted his Onion Sword downward as three orbs of lightning fanned forwards and downwards, in unison with the crack of thunderbolts outside. Thunder thrummed through the air and tracked after Kadaj, as Onion Knight landed gracefully on the platform facing him. ”Oh, I can play with you up here. I’m just heating things up!” he replied to the earlier taunt, watching the chandelier swing around in a circular pattern low around the floor as it had for Sora many years before when fighting the Dark Thorn Heartless.

---

Multi-Hit:Finished cooldown.

Blade Torrent: One-post cooldown.

Blizzard: One-post cooldown.

Firaga: One-post cooldown.

Thunder: Two-post cooldown.

(OOC: No worries, I'm busy with things myself.)

Any sounds softer than the actual battle itself were dwarfed by the massive crash of thunder peeling outside, striking one of the taller towers of the castle, but it was not felt nor seen in actual damage in the interior of the castle itself. The storm was barely noticeable as background noise to the Onion Knight as he focused on the intensity of the battle, always planning ahead what to do next after reading his opponent's movements. The chandelier had been a good idea to use the momentum of his fall to strike back, his white and gold cape trailing behind him as he fell with the candelabra, but the other youth had seen it coming in time and miraculously dodged it. He watched momentarily as he flipped through the air, and himself leaping behind him as the chandlier hit empty balcony and slid to the floor. Making sure the spinning somersalt that turned his opponent into a whirling blade wasn't an attack in itself, he waited until the right moment before stretching his arm back, and casting the three blue thunderballs that would bend and track the target once it became stationary.

He watched with anticipation as the Thunder spell drew closer, hearing as the silver-head male called out in glee at the creativity of the knight's attack. So he was enjoying this? This wasn't some game, nor some warm-up practice match, and the Onion Knight felt the resolve to be even more agile and deadly in his attacks to show his seriousness in his actions. He was here to stop this castle from falling into the hands of malice, but his words could be the dry humor though, to distract his opponent more than his foe was trying to distract him now. He would have said something cocky in return, but savored it as the Thunder spell closed in on the enemy just as he touched ground on the adjacent side of the 'U' -shaped balcony, and crouched while bending one of his knees into a kneeling position to absorb the recoil gravity slapped upon him.

For a moment though, he felt that the man in black's aura had suddenly relocated closer to him, but the his image was still on the other end of the balcony. For a moment, the boy who's alias was otherwise known as Luneth had to guess that the youth had teleported again, but this was slightly disproven as his connecting spell passed through it's intended target. In a split second later as he turned his head away from the fake Remnant waving a 'tsk-tsk' gesture at him which went entirely ignored, running on pure adrenline, spotting the re-emerging young man appear in his original starting point when he came up through one of the three 'bowling ball' holes his fire spell had made in the platform. Good thing he had remembered they were there, too, as an instant new spell came towards him in the form of a dark pair of parallel energy waves projected off the twin blades of his adversary, in a horizontal fashion. A clever trick... if Onion Knight hadn't been able to read auras, and relied on his vision more than anything else, he would have been in big trouble.

As the twin cresent-shaped slices of energy sailed through the air towards him, he remembered what he had said to the Darkness user earlier, about being a kid having it's advantages. Pushing off from his crouching position, the young adolescent broke into a sprint for no more than a second, to get his momentum going towards the attack. Once he had momentum, he went into a baseball slide down into one of the holes that had been created from Stigma, the sneak attack sailing safely over his head. But he was not finished there, as he grabbed hold of the edge and swung himself underneath, vaulting out another one of the holes all in a down-up motion very similar to his speed dodging the Cloud of Darkness's attack in the only battle between all the Warriors of Cosmos and Chaos. Launching out of the hole, he sailed towards Kadaj with Turbo Hit, testing the mini-Sephiroth as he flipped up-side down an assailed with a string of blows. "Pretty clever trick yourself. I was almost starting to get bored!" he finally retorted his saved line from before, and watching his enemy's movement, pushed on the Onion Blade to send the mysterious figure veering backwards as he began to spin around in mid-air to perform a target-tracking Comet.

He could have cast it under the platform like Kadaj had to surprise him... but he wasn't going to stoop to his destructive level. When he won this castle back, it's residents would want it back in one piece. He didn't know if he could say the same for himself, however, but he had avoided that nasty razor-looking energy projectile. He had used the destruction against the Remnant this time, and it had been enough to utilize his agility and shortness to evade damage this time around. He might want to prove he wasn't a kid who was going down in some 'warm-up' match to himself, but next time he might not be so lucky.

---

Blade Torrent: Finished cooldown.

Blizzard: Finished cooldown.

Firaga: Finished cooldown.

Thunder: One-post cooldown.

Turbo Hit: Two-post cooldown.

Comet: Three-post cooldown.

(OOC: Just to clarify, if you scroll up and read back, you blocked Multi-Hit. It was Blade Torrent that you let land, hehe.)

This time he was lucky... or so he thought, at first. His Turbo-Hit landed as he bolted down on his opponent from his momentum, almost as quickly as the lightning flash outside but his opponent didn't seem to be resisting or reacting painfully to his blows. He couldn't be that strong, that wasn't it; he was only blocking certain attacks towards his head and not his body. Strange, but he dodged backwards from the final blow, even thought the flurry of speedy attacks had only happened within the breadth of two seconds. He shrugged it off at first, thinking it was just this man's way of trying to prove how tough he was.

Without his opponent to push off of as he jumped backwards into the air, he had to flip back upright from his up-side down position, which was a bt harder to pull off. But despite the strain to pull off a feat against gravity, he did it, and began twisting his entire body in a spiraling circle as a portal formed in front of him. "Stars, unite!" he had called out, and responding to his verbal command, instantaneously small chunks of space rock came flying out the wormhole like a stream of overpoped popcorn. Only these would hurt much more, except when they did launch out at high speed, his silver-haired opponent thought himself as clever to stand in one spot, and negate the Comet spell by slicing through solid enchanted rock! Was such a feat even possible with that spell's strength?

At least when he had dodged his opponent's last attack, he had used the environment creavity to his advantage, instead of trying to destroy his opponent's attack recklessly head-on. Doing something like that was completely reckless, and went against Onion Knight's initcial thought, but admitted maybe the young man had learned to fight on how he felt which was stronger than reason. He had learned that lesson all too well, and considered that cutting through his empowered attack impossibly or not, it would have been the same as if he dodged it's slow homing capability. Past was the past and he had to let it go to move on quickly, or else not be able to keep up with what was being thrown at him, and untwisted his body as he allowed himself to drop back to the platform for the enemy's next movements. But what was awaiting for him next, was almost as unbelievable as a sword chopping through an attack which normally crushed through his opponent's guard.

Having ignored the earlier taunt the leather-clad youth had made to focus more on combat, the next flash of thunder almost seemed to break the flow of battle, along with the other male's proclamation. However, he kept moving forward to assault, a look of sheer disbelief - and then recognition - crossing his face. The katana-wielder had taken a hit before, somehow slicing through his devastating spell sure, but now he wanted the Knight of Light to try 'free move'? Either it was a trick, or more likely, he was taking the damage for a reason. Throughout his adventures he had seen his friends and enemies, as well as himself, draw on a power that was unleashed from gathering enough strength to reach a threshold in their unique potential.

Was his foe trying to use this hidden strength as his trump card? The Keeper of the Light of Courage let out a confident 'Huh' as he quickly closed the gap and reached close-range with the glowing-eyed adolescent, hopping into the air with one foot and began to spin about once more. Only this time instead of twisting his body into a circle, his blade swung out horizontally around his body as it spun hastily in the same direction as it picked up speed, Wind Shear sucking in Kadaj with just as much vaccum force as his Flame Pillar had to attempt to strike him with a whirlwind of devilish blows. He wasn't finished however as thunder rumbled explosively outside in the storm, and regardless of if his initial attack had pulled in the antagonist or not, he came out of his spin and landed on the platform just before Kadaj and exploded Firaga once more. Only this time it was at point-blank range, and the width of it's attack would be more difficult to dodge than at long range. "Whatever inner strength you are building up for, allowing me to hit you and relying on it to win is the foolish mark of an amateur. Nice try, but I'll conserve my strength, and take you seriously when you've earned it!" he remarked after he performed his attacks, so his words would not give his actions away, and grinned a little smugly under furrowed blond eyebrows.

If the Remnant was so confident his next move was going to end the match right then and there, which he highly doubted as long as he could anticipate what to do, he couldn't wait to show him is own special powers that the avatar of Sephiroth wouldn't even see coming. Or much less, stop with any slices of his twin-bladed katana. He was going to regret letting the Onion Knight getting a free shot in, which would only tack down his stamina more. He should have tried to finish him off when he had the chance. But such a harsh lesson Onion Knight had learned countless times himself on the battlefield, and could only be taught the hard way even if the villain won the castle from it's rightful owners, and stopped his prisoners who were currently escaping.

---

Thunder: Finished cooldown.

Turbo Hit: One post cooldown.

Comet: Two post cooldown.

Wind Shear: Three-post cooldown.

Firaga: Two-post cooldown.