Raid #61 [Inside Raid]

Ferser [Leader]
Chaos

(OOC: Hope you guys don't mind if Sora goes ahead and pulls Ferser's dagger out of the Cornerstone; if Darkness wins they can stab it back in, but if it upsets too many people I can re-edit it. Just makes sense to me that if Sora saw the dagger causing the darkness, he'd try to remove it.)

The Hall of the Cornerstone. The keyblade master had only been here a few times before, both covered in darkness and in light, but never in a darkness like this before. Only the illuminescent glow of the Kingdom Key he had to summon to his side could he see through the thick, smoldering darkness blinding his vision of the width of the room. But he also had it out because he was running, sprinting full-pelt towards his destination, slashing down folds of minor Shadow Heartless before his path. His breath was labored, and sweat knotted his brow, but he could not stop his pace despite his excertion. The other heroes of Light were on the outside of the castle, creating a distaction for his group, and Sora knew he could not waste a moment's breath on a single Heartless. For every moment he wasted his friends were risking their lives to give them more time, putting themselves at risk of getting hurt or worse, all for the sake of restoring Disney Castle back to it's former grandeur.

After the splash of the last Shadow had disapated, Sora looked up at what had once been the Cornerstone; now it was nothing than a enormous black orb, so pitch black and dense it was almost hard to tell there was darkness within it compared to the surrounding darkness if it was not for the light radiating from his keyblade. The spiky-haired youth looked with darkened azure eyes to the small dagger that had been inserted into the stone bracketing the orb; the very place he remembered seeing the unnamed Heartless man stab it into, before immense tendrils of darkness threatened to swallow their group whole. Even now the smothering darkness coiled around his very being, wrapped around his limbs which made Sora feel like he was back in the Underworld again, adding to his exhaustion of the heavy air weighing down in his lungs and slowly sapping his strength. The brunette boy was doing all he could to hold back the darkness; not just with the light from his keyblade, but it was his own light focusing through the weapon coming from his own heart. All he had to do was be brave and keep it strong, and his light would piece through the darkness stronger than the many millions of stars above. Not forgetting his purpose for being here, Sora quickly placed his grip on the handle of the short blade, and in one quick, swift movement jerked it out of it's resting place.

And then... nothing happened.

The young man threw the dagger away, squinting his eyes at the deep ebony of the orb in front of him, but it still remained the same. His head tilted slightly down in realization and shame, shame that he had set out to do had ended up in failure... unless there was another way Light could be brought back to the Cornerstone? His eyes fell upon his own shiny Kingdom Key, pulsing with it's own illuminescent light, and Sora suddenly felt his intuition spark as the mystical guardian of the worlds shimmered in his right hand. If it had worked for the Heartless to use a weapon of darkness on the Cornerstone... surely the keyblade being a weapon of the Light would work to reverse the enchantment? He took a leap backwards as he spun his keyblade in his left hand, the gold and silver weapon stopping it's rotation pointed straight forward in both hands, pointed at the small stab mark the dagger had been slotted into moments before. The keyblade intuitively responded as a beam of light shot out from the tip, shooting into the small incision as it turned into the shape of a keyhole, and waves of Light whipped up around the young Keyblade Master while a large symbol of a keyhole traced into the floor around him.

The beam disconnected as the Light around him died down, and instead of hearing the lock click as if to seal it, a small speck of Light began to spark in the middle of the black orb. It was small at first, about the size of a pinhead, but was bright as it gradually grew larger and larger as it began to fill the orb while pushing back the darkness trying to snuff it out. Sora's eyes brightened, and he began to feel a small speck of hope, almost like when he had heard Kairi's and Riku's voices call out to him in the darkness during his previous adventures. But as if to remind him how he was currently alone and to stomp that hope out, shadows began to form around him from the silhouettes the dancing light was creating, growing and shaping into more Heartless. Larger Purebloods, such as the Mega Shadows, and the eerie humanoid Neoshadows formed a tight circle around him in response to protect the Cornerstone from being an oriface to the Light again. Sora tensed, resuming a defensive position with his keyblade, feeling more presences coming closer to him from the large chamber of columns and stone surrounding him that was now alive and flickering with the conflicting contrasts of darkness and light.

Last time, when he thought he wasn't coming back, he had been lucky... Sora clutched the place where his crown pendant once hanged from his neck, instead remembering the lucky charm in his pocket, and wondered... was his Light still with him?

A battle was about to begin. And Ferser just couldn't wait.

He knew very well that the Castle was being infiltrated from both the outside and inside. He knew very well that there were intruders in the Castle. And he knew very well they were heading for the Cornerstone. But Ferser wanted to give them a little time to mess around. See just what they would do. Plus some Heartless were guarding the Cornerstone. It might be amusing to watch the invaders 'play' with the Heartless. In short, Ferser was not worried the slightest bit. He was confident that he would be able to crush whoever was invading with ease. They wouldn't stand a chance. Ferser was just being overconfident, as usual. Probably too overconfident, since this was a very important matter. Having the Castle be dark was a big step for the Heartless. This was a key world and now it was Dark. And it was going to stay dark. Ferser was sure of that much. He wasn't going to let some damn punks try and bring any pathetic light to this Castle.

Figuring that they probably made it to the Cornerstone already, Ferser thought it might be good to head down there himself. He didn't want to give them TOO much time. Then he might actually lose. Plus the invaders were probably relatively strong. They had to be pretty strong if they were coming here to challenge him. Either that or they had to be pretty damn stupid. He would be pretty amused if it was the latter, but he did hope that they were somewhat strong. He wanted a bit of a fight. And the ones that were stronger were always more fun to fight. They even caused him pain some times. Ferser loved to feel pain. The feeling he got from it was just amazing. And he was looking forward to hurting them, making them feel the pain as well. He was glad that he was alone. He always preferred fighting by himself. Other people just got in the way.

Ferser made his way to where the Cornerstone was and saw two people ha come to fight. He looked to the teenage boy first. Even if he was just a kid, he did look pretty strong. And he had that weapon...the keyblade. The one that was supposed to be super-powerful. Ferser was eager to see just how 'powerful' this keyblade was. Taking his eyes off the brat, he turned to the other man who seemed sort of...odd. Ferser watched as he killed one of the Heartless and then did some odd pose. He smirked while watching him. "What a jackass..." He thought to himself. Looking to the Cornerstone, he noticed that someone had removed the dagger. Ferser was not very worried about this. Once he took care of these two punks, he could just place it right back in, bringing back all of the Darkness.

"So...which one of you little punks removed my dagger?" Ferser paused and he drew some kunai from his pocket. He still wore that smirk on his face as he looked to both of them. "Looks like you damn punks need to learn a lesson!" Ferser cried out and he threw several kunai at them, each of the kunai being infected with a poison spell. Thinking it best to start out simple, Ferser drew his sword and held it in a defensive matter, waiting for them to start attacking him. Let the fun begin.

Dashing forward with his counter-attack, slashes of light streaming behind the tip of his keyblade teeth as they lit up and tore through the darkness, Sora inhaled and gasped slightly at the same time in surprise. He did not expect the Human Heartless to completely dodge his attack altogether, as fast as it had been, recycling the recoil of energy he had endured from the obvious daggers that were thrown his way. Much like the Light it left behind from the attack, Counterguard was a very rapid attack... but Sora had been right when he had the feeling this guy was just as fast and powerful as some of the many opponents he had faced before... and having evaded his hasty attack had only proved that fact. But now wasn't the time to dwell on how accurate his attack was or not, he had to keep his head in the battle, the past didn't matter. Only the now, and he took a moment as his mind caught up with his body, letting sink in the information he had took in during the past few seconds.

So the man helping him fight the Heartless was... Gilgamesh? What a strange name, but he didn't dwell on that either. Like Auron, he was a mysterious warrior that had come to help Sora that gave little about himself, despite the fact he had a very high confidence that they were going to win. Either he was extremely brave, had a high opinion of himself... maybe both, but it didn't matter. Sora felt he would get to know him one of the best ways he got to know most of his closest friends, and that was fighting side-by-side along them in the thick of combat. As long as Sora and Gilgamesh quickly adapted and learned not only from their opponent's fighting styles, but that of each other, they could defend the Cornerstone until it's light was restored.

All of this registered within the young man's spiky brown head as he blew past the human Heartless and turned around quickly to react to the villain's own counter-attack... this one was a lot faster than Sora's, and was more successful because the keyblade master had his back to the Heartless at the time as he executed his counter-attack. He felt the sting of the sword slice through his back, his back arching and spiky head thrown backwards in pain, as the momentum of the force and his body screaming at him to immediately get away from the source of the pain his muscles and nerves felt sent him staggering forwards away from the Horseman, creating some distance between them. Sora stumbled forward as his recoil from the attack, sent his head thrusting forwards as his large shoes dug into the paved floor to stop his balance from being lost and tumbling clumsily into the floor, his leg muscles only adding to the pain. Having felt the sensation several times over, Sora was more used to the sensation though, and changing his mind un-anchored his feet and let the momentum instinctively barrel him into a dodge roll. As he tumbled literally head over heals as he righted himself, he curved his roll back towards Ferser to follow up with another quick attack, in order to quickly close the distance between them and save himself from getting hit by another volley of what looked like poisonous daggers that had slowed Gilgamesh.

He had magic to heal himself and Gilgamesh, but didn't think it would cure poison effects, so he would have to watch Gilgamesh's condition and rejuvenate him if his damage started to look critical. Handling what he could for the moment, which was himself in retrospect to the powerful Heartless man, he pushed away the stinging sensation of the blow inflicted on him his nervous system was yelling at him in agony for. Pushing off with his feet, he instantly closed the distance in a matter of seconds, sliding across the floor and attempting to hit Ferser with his Sliding Dash technique. His keyblade was held diagonally down at an angle in front of him as he plowed forward, like a cowcatcher on front of a speeding train, in preparation for his finishing move on the ground. Having more freedom and speed with his attacks in the air, much like his name translated into, Sora flung his keyblade upwards towards Ferser in case his first combo strike missed to fling him upwards towards the ceiling with his ability Upper Slash.