Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

"Why would you even think about coming back here!?" The old bard questioned Aria. "Don't you know where you are!? Haven't you seen him!? We should run and save ourselves while we have the chance!" Fflam exclaimed, clutching the instrument strung to his chest. The sounds of footsteps coming closer from down the dungeon echoed closer and closer. "Oh no! Someone's found us!"


Meanwhile, as Illiana followed after Thallasa, the woman watched as Taran began to run ever faster until the boy overtook Illiana and dragged her forward down the path the master was leading them. "No!" Taran skidded to a halt seeing that they had ran into a dead end where the path ended. Before them was a circular pit that was a straight drop down into a sealed off stone room. Even if they jumped down there would be nowhere to go. "We have to turn around! Maybe there's another way out!"

"You're right. There's no way forward." Thallasa commented, placing her finger on her chin. "It's a shame though. I really thought we had a connection but alas, your journey is at an end. Though I am surprised you felt no sense of trepidation upon being led here. Children are so willing to accept what is easy but I suppose you will not get the chance to learn from your mistakes." Standing before them now was a man who took off his hat to give the two a short bow before returning his hat to his head, flashing a sinister grin towards. "I do believe I put on quite an impressive performance, don't you say?" Before Illiana and Taran could react the man extended his palm and a wave of darkness knocked the two down the pit where they would make a hard crash into the dark and cold stone room below.


Meanwhile, back with Aria and Qamar. Master Thallasa had arrived before the trio, her keyblade drawn and looked at the group with some confusion. "I'm glad to see you both well but Qamar, I thought I told you to go with Illiana. And..." She paused, looking at the bard. "Excuse me, who is this you've found?"

 

Tinarah took the cloak and looked at it for a long time. "I haven't worn one of these since I got my keyblade back." She spoke quietly mostly to herself. It was true however, the last time she was close to the darkness and protected from it was when Stamatis pushed her to the limits, in a space a little too close to the darkness. Tinarah couldn't help but wonder how that darkness compared to the darkness that Torrin was trying to bring to Eventide when she had arrived there and trained there. She was in no such protection in that world, so she wondered how she would fair comparatively. It was a question that she wanted to ask, but a question that could wait. Tinarah honestly wasn't even sure if Torrin would have an answer for her, not when he didn't have any idea what the other Torrin did to the world, and what was happening in that universe.

Slipping on the coat and gloves Tinarah tried to not think of the past, but instead the here and now. About the cloaked woman and the core of the world, the issues they would be facing. Flexing her fingers a bit, Tinarah slowed her breathing and cleared her mind, meditating a little bit to calm herself down. She knew that she was being stupid going into this and not agreeing to the rest, she was out of magic and she was worse for wear, but she didn't want to wait and see other people get hurt, so she was willing to pay the price. Pushing back a dull ache in her arm she looked over at the others. "Do you think he will actually give us anything more? Perhaps it is best if we just head out now?" She tried suggesting.​

 

​

"I don't know!" Bowler Hat Guy called out in response to Boreas. "She was a woman and wore a black coat. Like the ones you kids have! Kefka talked to her the most and he's gone!" To no surprise, the villains were of no help identifying the woman who helped them manufacture the magitek device.

"You've worn one of these before? That's surprising." Torrin commented towards Tinarah before moving forward to hold his hand up. He looked over towards the heroes who were now busy trying to clean up the mess left behind by the villains. "We'll be able to say our goodbyes to them once we're through here. Just be prepared for some heavy combat and stick together." He hesitated for a moment and looked back at the group beside him once more. There was no point in trying to hide any of it now that they knew where he was from. With a quiet sigh he created a portal of darkness in front of them. "Come on. The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can regroup with the others." Without waiting any further Torrin was the first to step through the portal and once the last of the group went through the portal closed behind them.

​

Once the group stepped through the other side they found themselves amidst a large ethereal place where darkness swirled above them and their only source of light was the glassy floor beneath them which was covered in just enough water to make their footsteps splash but not enough to actually them wet. In fact, even if they reached down to touch this "water" they would have found that it wasn't really wet at all and would not cling to their skin or clothing. "Yeah...there's definitely a lot more darkness here than there should be." Torrin commented, taking a few steps forward as he looked around the area. "I'm sensing Heartless but I don't see them." He looked back at the others, his eyes glowing gold. "Stay on guard."

 

Tinarah looked up surprised that Torrin heard her. She stared at him for a long moment before finally figuring out how he wanted to explain. "When training with Stamatis, I couldn't summon my keyblade for a long time. He was desperate to find a way to get me my keyblade back, so he employed a method he believed that Uncle Fost would use. He took me to the edge of darkness and let the heartless attack, I had a sword at the time and it didn't do much.. I wasn't able to do it... but I think wherever Chrono was, he lent me strength. It was the last time that I wore one of these." Tinarah explained to him. She still didn't know what to think of it. At the time she was happy to have it back, now she knew that it was weakness that kept her from gaining her own back, that she still had lacked the ability to believe in herself. It wasn't until much later when she couldn't look to anyone at all that she learned to believe in herself.

She had to remember that as they stepped into the heart of the world. The darkness was close and unsettling. She had felt the darkness close and bothered her. She felt this darkness before and it was unsettling when she was with Stamatis. She went to summon her keyblade, but hesitated. With the other Torrin he always told her it would attract the heartless, and Tinarah wasn't convinced she wanted to speed up that process. It all felt so wrong. Tinarah glanced at Boreas and Torrin, it was familiar, it was home to them. She found the concept a little strange, hard to grasp when for them it was so foreign being this close to the darkness.

As Torrin looked back at them and warned them to be on guard, she caught the slight glow to his yellow eyes. She still found it a little unsettling to look at . At least he was able to see things a bit better, meanwhile, those not raised in the Realm of Darkness would sit at even more of a disadvantage to the situation. While it wasn't so dark that she couldn't see anything, it was dark enough that she strained her eyes to see all around. If Torrin didn't see the heartless, she definitely wouldn't see anything. Tinarah took a step closer to her brother and friend, Take. At least they were in the same boat as she was, if they stayed close hopefully they would be able to defend themselves and this world. ​

 

Taran shifted and groaned in pain. The boy's eyes slowly opened and his vision began to return to him. "W-what happened?" He rubbed the back of his head and winced. "Ow!" The boy turned his head from side to side to examine his surroundings and found that the stone room they were in held no way out. Even the hole which they were thrown through had now collapsed and was blocked off. "We're trapped..." The boy sounded defeated as he pushed himself to sit up. "I failed Dallben and Hen Wen..." Taran frowned and stared at Illiana before speaking again. "I'm sorry I brought you into this. If I had just kept a better eye on Hen Wen you wouldn't be in this mess."

​

Thallasa shook her head slightly in disappointment but refrained from making a comment. Now was not the time for scolding. "Hm. Well it's good that you have taken Hen Wen out of harm's way for now." She turned towards the older man standing behind Aria and Qamar and gave the man a short nod. "A pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine. But...not to be rude but...can we leave now? I don't want to be captured again."

"Of course. Finding you was easy enough. The presence of dark magic here makes Aria stand out like a torch in the dark." Already as she spoke she was walking forward, pausing for a moment to decide where to go from there. Heading back upstairs would only lead back into a fight and blindly walking around hoping to find another way out seemed like a poor plan. "We're going to have to make a new path if we're going to avoid the Horned King's thugs." Thallasa knelt by a wall and knocked her hand against the stone. The sound that rang out was thin and high pitched leading her to assume that there was nothing behind the wall. Rather than smash through it with her keyblade she figured the use of magic would be fine for a situation like this. After all, Fflam already knew magic existed.

Thallasa held her palm to the stone wall and a shimmering liquid flowed from the tips of her fingers and began to form a circle along the cracked stone. The keyblade master pulled her hand back and stepped away to watch as the water started to spin faster and faster as it cut away at the stone wall and in seconds the glowing water vanished leaving a visible outline of a circle cut into the wall. Thallasa pushed on it and, like a cookie cutter, the circular piece of stone wall was budged backwards. She gave it a harder push and the circle of stone slid back and fell backwards onto a dirt floor revealing a dark series of tunnels beyond. The woman ducked her head and stepped through the newly made hole in the wall before motioning for the others to follow her.



Pagos and Zeno casted Blizzaga, taking off chunks of the Demon Plague. After seeing Koa knocked unconscious they realized that if they were going to have any chance of beating the Heartless they would have to let Koa stay down for now and attack with all they had. "I know you're right!" Avra shouted, believing that Chrys was right in switching to pure offense. Avra jumped in right after her fellow Chaser and struck at the Heartless swarm with everything she had. Following her were Pagos and Zeno who brought down their keyblades immediately after Avra. As the final blows were dealt the Heartless swarm rose to the sky looking to be unstable as Neoshadows were shed off the main body of the Demon Plague and dissipate into puffs of black smoke. The Demon Plague exploded and hundreds of hearts floated up into the sky before disappearing.

Koa, Avra, and Pagos gained 7 Levels!
Zeno gained 6 Levels!
Chrysanthemum gained 5 Levels!

Claim your rewards in the OOC Thread.​

​

A green light bathed over the students and Koa began to stir back into consciousness and soon enough he was back up on his feet looking dazed and bruised but fine nonetheless. The Light Chaser clapped as he approached his students. "Good. Good work, all of you. You've made tremendous progress. All of you." The man placed his hands on his hips. "At everyone's current rate, you all should be able to pass your Mark of Mastery Exam within twenty-four hours. This is good news indeed." He reached up to scratch his chin with a gloved hand and contemplated for a moment.

"The power of a master will be required for a task down the road." The Light Chaser explained. "It's no secret that there are other keyblade wielders, other masters, standing in our path. Unfortunately, they already have possession of a Princess of Heart. Soon to be two. Naturally, they will keep one of those Princesses of Heart within their home base, a world known as Illusia. My abilities are beyond those of any other but that world is home to the most powerful keyblade masters in this realm and doing battle against them would be...messy." This was the first time he ever mentioned Illusia or even referenced the Council of Lights to his students. "By having the lot of you trained as masters, a show of force would persuade them that fighting the side of light would be a fruitless endeavor. Having all of you young keyblade wielders show your conviction would be the very thing that convinces them to stand down and see reason." The master explained.

 

​

"Huh. That's...that's an interesting experience to say the least." He commented on Tinarah's anecdote and, now that he thought about it, when he saw her fighting that he noticed something odd about her style. Some of the techniques she used were similar to his basic tactics of fighting. It was uncanny to see some of his moves mirrored through her and it definitely made him uncomfortable. He tried to shrug it off but in the back of his mind he couldn't help but think of how she could have learned that kind of style. He knew but he refused to allow the thought to linger in his mind.

Before he could say anything more towards Tinarah he could feel the pressure of the surrounding darkness increasing. Torrin called for his keyblade and split it in two to prepare for combat but even as his golden eyes scanned the area he saw nothing. "Hey Boreas. You getting anything?" The world's core began to grow darker and darker as the faint light around them began to fade. Sets of yellow eyes began to materialize around the group and within seconds over a hundred Heartless surrounded them. "You know what? Never mind. Pretty sure you're seeing what I'm seeing now. Everyone stay together!"

• Round 1
• Torrin
• Chrono
• Tinarah
• Takehiko
• Boreas

• Heartless Remaining:
  66 Darkballs (12AP)
  51 Neoshadows (16AP)
  12 Yellow Operas (4AP)
  7 Red Nocturnes (4AP)
  12 Blue Rhapsodies (4AP)
  
• 
  Shin-Zantetsuken – An instant attack that destroys 10 random enemies. Deals 160 fixed damage to bosses and cuts all effects down to 1 turn of duration or ends them if the effects were on their last turn.
  
  HP: 160/160
  AP: 76/76
  MP: 49/50
  DP: 5/5
  
  FORMS
  None active.
  
  PASSIVE ABILITIES
  Guard
  Combo Plus x2
  MP Rage
  MP Hastera
  Doublecast
  Yellow Mage
  Yellow Wizard
  
  ACTIVE ABILITIES
  Dodge Roll
  Blitz+
  Over the Horizon
  Sonic Blade
  Strike Raid
  
  STATUS
  None.
  
• 
  Temporis Imitatio – The more AP left unused at the end of the turn, the higher the chance Chrono will dodge an attack by leaving an afterimage of himself instead of Guarding. The Time Clone will attack with a random Active Ability Chrono has learned when activated.
  
  HP: 85/85
  AP: 54/54
  MP: 15/30
  DP: 3/3
  
  FORMS
  None active.
  
  PASSIVE ABILITIES
  Guard
  Defender
  Combo Plus
  Red Mage
  
  ACTIVE ABILITIES
  Dodge Roll
  Blitz
  Vicinity Break
  Judgment
  
  STATUS
  None.
  
• 
  MY FRIENDS! – Whenever casting Cure on someone other than herself the spell heals 15 more HP.
  
  HP: 58/80
  AP: 58/58
  MP: 5/30
  DP: 0/3
  
  FORMS
  None active.
  
  PASSIVE ABILITIES
  Guard
  Defender
  Cure Boost
  Black Mage
  MP Haste
  White Mage
  White Wizard
  
  ACTIVE ABILITIES
  Dodge Roll
  Blitz
  
  STATUS
  None.
  
• 
  Provoke – Once per battle Takehiko can draw enemy attention from 2 allies. His defenses are boosted during this.
  
  HP: 120/120
  AP: 42/42
  MP: 30/30
  DP: 0/3
  
  FORMS
  None active.
  
  PASSIVE ABILITIES
  Guard
  Defender
  Reaction Boost
  MP Rage
  Wall
  
  ACTIVE ABILITIES
  Dodge Roll
  Blitz+
  MP Gift
  
  STATUS
  None.
  
• 
  Inspiring Presence – Boreas makes a call to arms increasing the party's AP by 10 and Evasion by 1 Tier for 3 Turns.
  
  HP: 110/110
  AP: 50/50
  MP: 29/30
  DP: 3/3
  
  FORMS
  None active.
  
  PASSIVE ABILITIES
  Guard
  Defender
  Combo Plus
  Finisher Plus
  Black Mage
  Black Wizard
  Doublecast
  
  ACTIVE ABILITIES
  Dodge Roll
  Blitz+
  
  STATUS
  None.
  

​

Thallasa nodded at Aria. "Correct. Some naturally have senses stronger than others in that regard and it is only with training that masters can clearly see the light of a Princess of Heart. Even then...sometimes it can still be hidden." She scratched her chin and stepped forward. She looked back at Qamar and took the torch from the young woman. "Thank you. That will help."

"A-a-are you ladies witches?" Fflewddur spoke quietly, his body now hunched over further towards his instrument as he crept after Thallasa.

"Not exactly. But you have nothing to fear from us, Mister...Fflam was it?"

"Y-yes! That's me haha...Fflewddur Fflam, bard extraordinaire!"

"Quaint." Thallasa gave a small smile towards the bard causing the man to blush and stammer before retreating to the back of the group. "Hm. I'm afraid we will have to get out of here first. Glyde is in trouble and we need to get to him. Hopefully Illiana and Taran will have made their escape by then but if they haven't we'll have to come back for them."

"Come back!? Are you mad!?" Fflam exclaimed, the fear clearly set in his eyes.

"Sh. We may be under the main structure of the castle but I don't know if our voices will carry to where someone can hear us." She cautioned as she led the way, holding up the torch to light their way as they walked through the dirt path. They came to an four-way intersection of tunnels. Thallasa held out her torch to the left seeing nothing but darkness beyond. She held it out to the path directly ahead and once more saw nothing but darkness ahead. Who knew how far these tunnels went? They did not have the time to get lost. She held the torch to the right and as she set her focus towards yet another dark path she could hear a very faint and distant whistling sound. She raised her eyebrow and took a step towards the right path. It was barely audible but a muffled whistle, the sound of wind, could be heard off in the distance. "Come. I think there's an exit down here."

"Really? How can you be certain?"

"Just follow me."

 

The look on Torrins face showed there was more going on in his mind than he was letting on, but this wasn't the time or place to question it, not when the darkness was closing in. She had spent far too much time in darkness for her liking, and while the darkness in Eventide was different, not as suffocating, it still made her uncomfortable to think about. Her hand twitched at her side, torn between summoning her keyblade and not. She stared out at the darkness until yellow eyes started to materialize and what seemed like a couple hundred heartless appeared. This was not good, not good at all. Her magic supplies were running low as it was, she could only do so much. She wondered if they should have taken a rest, but at the same time she was wondering how long until these Heartless would have emerged, if it was for the best that they were dealing with this now.

Summoning her keyblade to her hand, she took a bit of a defensive stance. Fighting heartless, that was what Torrin trained her for. She spent a month on daily patrols dealing with the heartless between her regular training, and while her physical body rotted for some time after that and was still recovering, the skills she learned were still sharp. She would start strong, from there it was just a task of maintaining and not doing anything too stupid. She was still hurt from the last battle, if she pushed herself too far here, she might put herself at risk, and a dark space like this was not where she wanted to take her last breaths. Holding her keyblade out she launched herself at the heartless unleashing a blitz of attacks on them before turning around taking a few more swings of her sword to see what sort of damage she could do before taking up a defensive position.
​

Tinarah used Blitz

HP: 58/80
AP: 28/58
MP: 5/30
DP: 0/3

Tinarah Killed:
2 Neoshadows
2 Blue Rhapsodies

Remaining Heartless:
66 Darkballs (12AP)
49 Neoshadows (16AP)
12 Yellow Operas (4AP)
7 Red Nocturnes (4AP)
10 Blue Rhapsodies (4AP)