Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Ananta finished her ice cream and looked at the stick. She wasn't a winner. She sighed and turned back to the ice cream stand, buying two more. She heard Steel talk, so she returned with one for him. She extended the ice cream to him and was already licking on hers. "If yours says winner, you get something. Dunno what it is, though." she shrugged. "Probably another ice cream."

She looked at Steel and decided to at least ask him one question that'd been bothering her. "This one has been bothering me awhile, but I've been wondering...." she looked down for a second and gathered some strength to ask. "I have a feeling Steel isn't really your actual name...? I mean, that's the case on my world, we don't usually name people after metals....What I'm asking is if you have another name you go by? Or like...your full name, if you want me to put it bluntly."

(29/31)​

 

"Thanks." He voiced his gratitude and took the ice cream, listening to her question as he did. "I do have another name. A couple of them actually. It's uh... sort of up in the air which is really mine at the moment...

Spoiler: Conqueror's Respite 3/?

"In this timeline, I was born into the Garden of Rivers as a normal citizen." Leonidas made something of a face. "Well, a relatively normal citizen... As per usual, I was born with Artisian powers, and it was not long after my birth that my sister entity, Alice, manifested within my mind. We quickly learned of this new iteration; of it's government and history. It is... quite different from the world we knew, even as it looks almost exactly the same."


"How so?" The question came unbidden from Steel's mouth before he could notice, but he didn't really have any reason to regret asking such. He was curious.


"Well... the city behind you is known as 'Fort Cleanth' for one thing: St. Carnelian is still alive, and he lives in the city." That was certainly a difference Steel had to admit. It meant that the timeline for the garden was likely shifted around in several possible ways. "The country is also ruled by a monarchy: the 'Light' family, and the only trace I can find of our battle against the sorrows is a legend about a conflict known as the 'War of the Absolved.' The legend also involves the nobles; something about a crystal that went missing not too long ago. A few years into our childhood actually."


...Sorrows?... Did he mean the Disturbed? Had Steel been so out of it that he had even given them some false name? Or was it that Leo's memory had equally been corrupted by this... phenomenon? Well, either way things were clearly far more different than he had realized. The legends were definitely of some interest, but he would hold his questions for now. The Leo image still clearly had much more to tell, and it would be best if he let it say its piece before he quizzed it too much.


"As we grew up and learned the ways of this place, our own memories of our friends and a unique variation of the garden caused us to grow... lonely."

25/31

 

"Eh? A couple different names?" she stopped licking her ice cream, wondering what the heck that meant. She sighed and went right back to the ice cream, looking at Steel and trying to figure out what he meant. "Maybe I ought to ask something else." she said. "Maybe, um...maybe you could start by letting me know what's up with the black...miasma fog...smoke...stuff?" she always knew it was there, but she kind of forgot about it. "I mean, why'd it change your eye color?"

(30/31)​

 

As Faust gazed at the pile of ice shards where the the blob creature stood he could only smile at the pile of ice. looking over the where Ignis and the others were giving a his usual simile saying " Well can't say it was ice to meet him but maybe we should freeze this guy to be sure."

 

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Ignis could feel the corners of her mouth drop lower and lower at the moment of Faust's pun. She seriously doubted that did anything, but just to get a head start on the creep that was likely going to survive being buried in ice, she walked over and bonked Faust on the head.
"That pun of yours hurt more than that pile of ice you dropped on him. And I'm betting you it didn't help any."

 

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rubbing the back of his head from the sudden strike that Ignis gave him. looking over at her irritated expression only made him laugh harder on the inside. Taking a second, he began to collect his thought he came up with a better response while taking a quick glance over at the pile of ice to make sure the slug thing didn't already start to seep back out of. "Well, I guess it wasn't my best work but no need for such a cold response"

 

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Ayame had reached her breaking point with Faust and his puns, having to deal with that mouse thing as well, and decided it was time to beat the lesson into him, literally. Ignis walked up to Faust, put her hands on his shoulder, then squatted down and uppercut him on the chin, sending him flying and crashing into the ceiling, indenting the ice, and letting him fall back the the ground.
She looked up at him coldly as he fell, "How's that for a cold response?"

 

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After taking such a forceful blow from Ignis Faust started to tumble mid air on the way down during the split seconds of weightlessness. right before Faust meet the ground head first his keyblade appeared in a flash impaling itself into the ground taking the brunt of the force from the fall. As the blade sunk into the floor up to the hilt a large scraping sound resounded through the entrance hall as a few large cracks formed in the once pristine smooth icy floor. turning to look at Ignis bleeding slightly from his face first contact with ceiling he gave a small laugh as he replied "Well, that's one way to sweep me off my feet I guess?" while still hand standing off the handle of keyblade.

 

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Ignis felt her face flush red from Faust's comment, thinking back to the party and how he introduced himself to her. She knew he was joking, but it still got to her. Unable to keep her emotions in check, she started swinging her fists and threw kicks at Faust, trying to knock him out. At this point she felt like she was dealing with her siblings who kept teasing her.
"Would you stand still so I can hit you!?" screaming as she tried to land a blow.

 

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As Faust dodged and weaved through the wild swings of the ignis in her flustered state. As he ducked under one of her punches laughing slightly the cracks in the ground slowly grew in size creeping along the ground. unnoticed by the duo from within the pile of broken pieces of ice black slug began to seep out reforming into its blob like shape. When Faust hoped back out of the way of what felt like the tenth kick Ignis threw towards him in their little chase around the entrance hall the cracks began to spread even further beginning to climb up some of the ice pillars in the room. "I thought I told ya bub" Mortimer growl out with a irritated posture when he finally reformed into his original shape "These little tricks of your's are only making me..." he was cut off as one of the pillars in the room broke off at the base landing square on top of the sentient ink pile squashing it once again. looking over at the toppled pillar while still dodging Ignis's blows Faust let out "Huh, was that pillar always there?"

 

For a moment, Ananta was waiting on Steel to reply and she remembered something she had forgotten. She looked down at the hand she put the SOS ring on and saw a small ring on her finger next to the SOS ring. "Wait, what..." she mumbled, gazing at the ring. She saw there were words written in old writing from her world. The words wrote out as a promise she agreed to with a man. Realization hit and she bit down hard on her ice cream. She had completely forgotten about her promise and she felt hear eyes water a little. She wiped the tears away and sighed to herself. How could she forget something like that? This was a promise made long ago...sure she was being forced into it, but she could at least give the guy a chance. The only problem she had now was trying to remember his name, but she looked to Steel, still awaiting his response.

(31/31)​

 

Steel thought carefully about his answer, considering that calling it a 'magical reactor' would make it sound... dangerous.

Granted it was pretty dangerous under the wrong circumstances, but... well... it was only a small piece of something much bigger so...

Though he was momentarily thrown when she seemed to have had some sudden realization and started, he resumed when she made it clear she still expected an answer.

"I guess you could describe it as a shard of a powerful magical artifact. It changes my eye color because..." He shrugged. "It's magic, and it likes showing off." He wasn't sure how else to explain it.

(26/31)

 

Steel's thoughts momentarily wandered once more...

Spoiler: Conqueror's Respite 4/?

"It came to our attention that the essence of our fellow Artisians had come to rest..." Leonidas trailed off and shifted his gaze out to sea. "...On that Island..." Steel and his siblings followed his gaze to see the island he spoke of. It looked relatively normal, but he felt as if something was... off. That in itself was strange since this was all memory based projection, but perhaps it was the memory himself that told him that the island was different.


"The Edge." Leonidas stated briefly. "The Edge... of this reality: Where the world we remember bleeds into the world of hearts... I've often wondered since I discovered it; are all worlds born that way? Is this reality truly so malleable? Or is it just in between that many others?" Leo shook his head in dismissal. "...But whatever the matter, after careful research into that island and several related factors, we determined it would be safe to... experiment." Steel froze, his mind instantly catching on to what his friend meant with little effort.


"Leo... our bodies, did you... make them?" The subsequent silence was all the answer he needed. His current self was no different than the former: a monstrous geist haunting a shambling lab experiment, the very substance of which was barely corporeal dark matter. His hand reached unconsciously to his eye.


Was he still just a monster, after all this?

(27/31)

 

"Well how did that happen? People aren't usually born that way." she said, being brought out of her own thoughts. "I know I'm prying, but I want to know more about you Steel. I promise I'll answer any questions you have of me later." She then thought of the way he worded it and calling it a magical reactor made her think. "Magical reactor kind of makes me think of...this. "she said, pulling her crystal out of her vest. The chain it was on was sturdy and the crystal was smoothed out. It wasn't as jagged as it used to be and it was probably due to the recent events. It had a faint glow to it, with a blue core and purple specks inside of it. "Would you call it the same?" she asked.​

 

Well, she had apparently pulled 'Magical Reactor from his head, so he really didn't understand why he needed to explain any of this. Nevertheless...

"Yeah, that's a better example than you think actually. It's a shard of something greater, and it still holds a connection with the whole." He remembered some of the explanations she had given him before, and the shard of the mother crystal seemed like a reasonable comparison to an eye of the storm replica.

(28/31)

 

"Well, what's the whole called? Do you know?" she asked, finishing off her ice cream and finding her stick didn't say winner. She sighed and tossed it in the trash, giving up on finding a winner today. She used a napkin she got from the ice cream stand to wipe her face and tossed it as well, looking back at Steel. "What's your world like, anyway?" she asked, not sure if that was a little out there to just suddenly ask that. "Mine was either cold or warm, no in between." she shrugged.​

 

"The whole is called the 'Eye of the Storm'. Like I said before, it always rains there." He chuckled. "Fitting really. It always feels like a spring day around home; sometimes a temperate one, sometimes colder." His eyebrows raised briefly in a moment of consideration. "Except up north at Winter's castle. It's freezing there, but it sleets instead of the normal rain it sleets." He shrugged. "Not even snows or hails. Sleets."

(29/31)

 

"Does that explain the sudden rain when I uncovered your scarf and mask?" she asked, referencing that a long time ago. "I thought that was weird, but...it ended after 10 minutes, just as you said. Will that happen ever again or what?" She chuckled, thinking about that. "Sleeting doesn't sound very fun. At least, not sleet all the time."​

 

"Yeah, that's pretty much why." He waved his hand in a more dismissive manner. "I don't think that'll really happen anymore. It's a lot more stable now than it used to be. As for the sleet, I don't think it really bothers her, but she's the only one who actually lives up there if I recall correctly... which I might not."

(30/31)