Awesome chappie!
Gah I love it so much! =D Great descriptions on Sora's emotions! xD
Gah I love it so much! =D Great descriptions on Sora's emotions! xD
Fanfiction ► The Realm of Shadows
- Thread starter giuocob
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Awesome. Just awesome.
Giu, I look up to your amazing skills. Srsli.
<3
Giu, I look up to your amazing skills. Srsli.
<3
Nah, I look way up to your skills, and I've even modeled some of my writing style off of yours. How's that for a circular path?
- Joined
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Lmao, paradox xD
Wow, really? That's flattering =3
<3
Wow, really? That's flattering =3
<3
haha new chapter! really liked it, cant wait for the next one! :thumbsup:
BUMP.
This somehow ended up on the 5th page. How did we let this happen?
This somehow ended up on the 5th page. How did we let this happen?
I was too lazy to update >_>
Anyway, I tried to put some novice fluff in this one. It's not something I've really tried before. Snowy, can you grade me fluff for me?
Anyway...
CHAPTER XVI
Sora was deafened by the sound of Heartless scuttling about the ground all around him as he landed in the courtyard. The vile creatures were immediately on top of him, throwing themselves at his unprepared body from every direction, tearing at his clothes with their sharp claws. Caught completely off guard and overcome with confusion, he lashed out blindly at his adversaries with his keyblade. A year of almost no physical activity, save for his occasional sparring lessons with Riku, had taken its toll on Sora. He was much weaker than he had been a couple of years ago, and his reflexes had suffered as well. He could barely keep the Heartless off him as he madly struck anything that moved around him. His mind was overwhelmed with fear, and he now feverishly wished he hadn’t jumped straight into the fray like this.
Slowly, however, his old fighting skill returned to him. The familiar warm feel of the keyblade in his hand, and the sight of Heartless vaporizing into smoke before the blade’s deadly slice, brought his confidence back. He even grinned slightly as he weaved his keyblade back and forth through the mass of blackness before him as his fear was replaced by the familiar intense excitement. Suddenly, he realized that the Heartless were no longer getting anywhere near him; his keyblade kept them all at bay. Some of them actually began to back away from him. His confidence now back at its fullest, Sora dove directly into their midst, hacking and slicing at them like a swarm of gnats. Now, when his life was in jeopardy every moment, he felt better than he had in a long time.
Looking up, he saw that he had ventured within a few feet of Goofy. His faithful friend was as skilled as ever, bashing Heartless left and right with his shield, or pitching them high into the air to land on top of their hapless comrades. “You okay, Sora?” he asked concernedly as he spun around in a full circle, taking out nearly a dozen Heartless in one devastating blow.
Sora laughed as he cleaved an airborne Heartless in half. “Never better!” he said cheerfully, delving back into the black armies on every side. He didn’t know how many of them were left, but he didn’t care. He was savoring this moment dearly.
Suddenly, the soft hisses of the Heartless and the clink of Sora’s keyblade were washed out by an earsplitting screech that caused Sora to lose his balance and stumble backward. He listened to the terrible noise in horror. He had only heard that scream once before, but he identified it quickly. It was the Shadow detector, which Ajedel had left on his bedside table earlier that day. There was a Shadow somewhere in the castle. Sora instantly thought of Kairi, sitting on the bed in her zombie-like state, and realized what the Shadow was after.
Fueled by a sickening fear that jolted his heart into his mouth, Sora sprinted toward the staircase. He didn’t even bother using his Keyblade on the Heartless in his path; he just trampled them or kicked them out of the way. The battle had worn him out quite a bit, but not amount of fatigue could have stopped him from putting every ounce of energy he had into his dash. His mind was clouded by an overhanging dread that grew worse with each step. ‘I’m such an idiot! Ajedel warned me about this. I should never have left her alone, not for one second…’
He cleared the stairs in four great leaps, taking them six steps at a time, and continued sprinting along the carpeted balcony. On the way, he passed Donald, shooting giant balls of ice and fire at the Heartless below. “What is that infernal racket?” he screamed. Sora ignored him; there was no time to answer. The only thoughts in his mind were of Kairi. He had to keep her safe, had to keep Xehanort from possessing her again. In reality, there was a lot more at stake than that. If Xehanort got to her before Sora did, he would rise to power again…only this time as a keyblade master.
Just as Sora rounded the final corner and caught sight of his bedroom’s open door, the incessant screech of the Shadow detector was abruptly silenced. He had no idea why this could have happened, but it filled him with an even greater sense of dread. He summoned all the strength his tired legs could muster and sprinted the final stretch more quickly than he had at any other time in his life.
He reached his bedroom and skidded to a halt in the doorway, scanning the room wildly, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The Shadow detector lay on the floor…what was left of it, anyway. It had been reduced to small pile of metal shards and twisted wires by some explosive force. And there, floating in the air above it, was a female figure. It was the same figure that he had seen floating above the Heartless when he had first met Ajedel. She was as black as a Heartless, as wispy and smoky as a Shadow, and looked exactly like Kairi. She eyed the broken detector on the ground with a sort of satisfaction, then turned to the real Kairi. Kairi was sitting on the bed in the exact same position that Sora had left her, gazing blankly at the Shadow as it slowly floated toward her.
“No!” screamed Sora. He leapt toward the Shadow with all his might, his keyblade poised to strike, though he didn’t know what good it would do against an ethereal creature like this.
Surprisingly, however, the Shadow hissed at him and flew backwards hastily. It actually seemed to be afraid of his keyblade. Taking heart, Sora positioned himself in between the smoky creature and the bed. With some luck, he might be able to hold the Shadow off, but he wasn’t sure what else he could do. Even if his keyblade could somehow hurt it, it held Kairi’s soul…
The Shadow seemed to notice his hesitation, and flew over his head with lightning speed, plummeting toward Kairi’s body. Sora started and thrust his keyblade over Kairi’s head as the Shadow came down. It instantly averted its fall and flew back to the ceiling, staring at Sora coldly. “Give her soul back!” he shouted. “It’s not yours, and there’s no way I’m letting you take Kairi!” The Shadow wailed softly and began circling him like vulture. Sora stared at it intently and brandished his keyblade, knowing that it could strike at any moment.
At that moment, a voice exploded loudly through his mind. Take my keyblade, Sora! If you stab me in the heart with my own keyblade, I’ll be free!
“What?” cried Sora aloud, looking around the room for the source of the voice. “Who was that?”
He glanced at Kairi, and realized with a pang that she was no longer sitting on the bed. She was now standing next to it, staring at the Shadow hovering above her. And in her hand, she held a keyblade. It was beautiful, ornately decorated with a variety of multicolored flowers. “What?!” shouted Sora again. It was hard enough to believe that Kairi actually had a keyblade, despite what Xehanort had told him in his dream earlier that day. But how could she summon it now, when she was practically a zombie?
Do it now! The voice in Sora’s head was talking again. It didn’t seem to come from anywhere in the room. Do it now, or it might be too late!
The Shadow was also frozen to the spot, staring at the keyblade in astonishment in rage. Sora hadn’t been this confused in years, but he felt he could trust the strange voice. He grabbed the colorful keyblade from Kairi’s hand, vaulted into the air, and stabbed the Shadow through the chest.
With a terrible, heart-wrenching moan, the cloud of black smoke in Kairi’s form vaporized and dissolved into the air. All that remained what a shapeless blob of darkness, which hissed as it flew through the open door and out of sight.
The keyblade vanished from Sora’s grip and reappeared in Kairi’s hand as she fell back onto the bed. “Kairi!” Sora rushed to her side, catching her before she slumped to the floor. His heart raced as he lowered gently into a lying position, waiting for something…anything…to happen.
Kairi’s eyelids fluttered open, revealing the two radiant pools of blue beneath. “Hey, Sora,” she mumbled. “What, is it morning already?”
Sora stood over her in complete shock. He wanted to say a thousand different things in that moment, but he couldn’t force any words out of his mouth.
“Nah, it can’t be morning, I’m exhausted,” continued Kairi, rolling over in the bed. “I’m going to back to sleep…” Her eyes suddenly widened as she sat up and looked around the room sharply. “Hey, this isn’t our room! Where are we? And where’s Riku?” She stared at Sora, expecting answers.
Sora, however, was still incapable of speech. Was this real? After all these months, after being disappointed so many times…was Kairi really back again? It seemed impossible, almost surreal, and yet…here she was, talking with him. “Kairi?” he eventually squeaked. “Is that actually you?”
Kairi backed away nervously. “Sora, you’re starting to scare me…what’s going on here?”
So she had no idea what had happened to her. Sora gulped heavily, trying to hold back his tears, but his efforts were in vain. His eyes watered up, and soon tears of sheer joy were streaming down his face. “I just…I just can’t believe…that you…” He suddenly fell to sobbing as he fell to his knees from a mixture of fatigue and overwhelming happiness. This was it, this was the real thing, Kairi was alive…Unable to control himself, Sora threw his arms around Kairi and held her there tightly, crying silently.
Alarmed, Kairi jolted a little as Sora embraced her. But she quickly calmed herself. She had no idea what was going on, or where she was, but she could clearly see that something was wrong with Sora. “There now, it’s okay,” she said concernedly, patting Sora lightly on the back. “What’s wrong? You’re acting like you haven’t seen me in a year!”
Sora chuckled as he released and stood up slowly. “Oh, nothing, nothing…” He rubbed the tears out of his eyes, collecting himself as much as he could. “I’m so sorry, Kairi. It’s just that, you see…”
“Hello, Sora,” came a voice from the doorway. Ajedel stood in the doorway, staring at the two of them coldly.
“Ajedel!” cried Sora in glee. The words now tumbled out of his mouth like an avalanche. “I can’t thank you enough, Ajedel! You were right! Look, she’s back! If you hadn’t been here, none of this would have happened, and I definitely couldn’t have gotten my keyblade back, or…” He instantly ducked as a large rock hurtled over his head and crashed into the wall behind him.
Standing up, Sora now looked at Ajedel in a completely different light. “What? Did you just throw that at me? What were you thinking?” He suddenly noticed that there was something strange about the scientist. His face had changed and seemed to be somewhat narrower, almost in a sinister way. Especially his eyes…which were a snakelike green.
“Xehanort!” Sora snarled, summoning his keyblade and stepping toward the possessed scientist. “Let go of Ajedel back, now! What do you want with him? He’s not a keyblade master!”
Instead of answering, Ajedel laughed and ran out the door. Sora dashed after him, following him down the corridor. Ajedel was a slow runner; normally, Sora should have had no problem catching up with him, but his long sprint from the courtyard had left him completely worn out. He couldn’t manage much more than a jog.
Ajedel led Sora along the balcony for a few minutes, before opening a certain door and slipping inside. Before Sora could reach the door, he reappeared in the hallway, holding by the arm…Naminé. “Stop there, or she dies!” he commanded.
Sora hissed angrily and stopped in his tracks, unsure of what else to do. Naminé looked absolutely terrified, glancing back and forth between Sora and Ajedel with wide eyes. “What do you think you’re doing?” yelled Sora. “Let go of her!”
Ajedel laughed as he extended his free hand behind him, conjuring a dark portal in the air. “You’re right,” he chuckled as he stepped backward into the portal. “This scientist I’m holding isn’t a keyblade master…but Kairi’s Nobody is!”
With a pang of shock, Sora realized that he was right. “No!” he cried, dashing forward, hoping against hope that he could stop them. But it was too late…the portal closed and vanished, leaving Sora alone on the balcony. Ajedel and Naminé were gone.
Sorry to all Kairi haters out there...
Anyway, I know there's a lot left unexplained here, like the voice in Sora's head. Trust me, it will be explained later. But now, I'll show you all the biggest surprise in this chapter:
THE END
Yep, that's right! The Realm of Shadows is officially over!
Now, of course I'm going to write a sequel. I wasn't going to leave the ending like that, of course. But it won't be for a while, three weeks at least. I've got a ton of summer reading I haven't started yet, and I'd like to make a dent in that before I start writing again.
Well, that's it! Hope you all like the first installment of the story!
Wow, you ended this really well. You had a good cliffy, makes me really want to read the sequel.
And there were many exciting moments in this, and great description as always.
*leaves fluff critique for Snow*
Anyway, well done on this! *claps*
And there were many exciting moments in this, and great description as always.
*leaves fluff critique for Snow*
Anyway, well done on this! *claps*
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I have to fluff critique? Why me? xD
I don't mind. ~.^ I liked it a lot, to be honest. You did a great job!
Also, can't wait for the sequel ~<3 I shall be reading it all the way!
<3
I don't mind. ~.^ I liked it a lot, to be honest. You did a great job!
Also, can't wait for the sequel ~<3 I shall be reading it all the way!
<3
Because, of course, you're the fluff queen of [insert generic name of kingdom relating to KHInsider]!
Thanks, everyone else. Reading over this, I've made a shaky self-decision that it's a lot better than my last attempt at a story.
Also, just let this topic die once everyone comments. I'll make a new one for the sequel and put a fanfiction.net link on it for the original chapters.
haha, loved the last chapter; it was great! cant wait for the sequel
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