Knigdom Hearts 3 extract

“Ahh, Larcxieh” Called Diamere.
“I have something to ask you” he stood as upright as he could, holding his cane-like stick in its normal pose. Larcxieh, intrigued, glanced at the perculier walking stick. It was the second time that she had seen it, and normally she would have just passed it off as a normal walking stick used by a general old man. But seeing it for the second time she observed a small spiked wing attached to the top, which was clearly being concealed by Diamere.

The mild environment stood unmoving around her. The cold metal structures that were common sights in Radiant Garden towered over her, their frames as tall as giants. The towers loomed over her as she stood on a balcony at the peak of the castle set up by the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee.

“Do you remember that Xemjas Fellow?”
“Yes, I do Diamere, but don’t worry, he’s gone now.” She answered. Relief crossed her face as she said it. Diamere took note.
“How...did you say he died again?”He challenged. The girl thought for a while. What seemed like years of constant thinking actually were moments of time.
“Well, he was killed, his physical form faded away as the Elite and I watched him die”. She could never forget that look on his face, those blood-red eyes staring at her. It felt at that point that a giant key had unlocked the seal placed upon her vast and darkened past.
“I see.”
The young girl and the elderly man stood at the balcony together for minutes watching the battle that raged on in the crystalline plains south of the town of Radiant Garden. The girl stood there with an expression full of emotion. Her short skirt fluttered with joy in the light breeze matching her facial expression, relieved and happy that her worst enemy, and a part of herself, had been conquered.

The old man looked over the violent battle occurring below, his mind clearly on some bigger picture or grander design. He still wore the blackened out sunglasses, masking the eyes from the rest of the world. And maybe himself. He stood there with his walking stick, his dark robes draped over the top of it, his hand still being hidden from view.
“Larcxieh..”
“Yes?” She asked.
Diamere removed his blackened glasses.
His eyes.
One eye was the colour of a familiar bloody red. A yellow tint spiralled in the middle, giving a sinister look and making the man look slightly mad. The other was a pure white eye. No colour was visible in it, although there was an iris; it showed no signs of colour, making that eye sparkling and pristine white. Larcxieh recognised the man instantly.   
“It can’t be. It just can’t be” She cried, horror showing as the primary emotion in her face.
“Hello Larcxieh. Yes, I did become your friend. To trick you. To deceive you. To find out your weaknesses. How cliché that your main flaw is your friends.” Larcxieh fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face in two long lines.
“Sniff..Xemjas...how could you...how could you!” She screamed at the top of her voice. She backed away from him. And then realised what he really looked like.
His appearance was still that of an old man, his silver hair longer at the back and still spiked on top, though white hair covered his ears and reached to the shoulders. His face had the same look as before, though it was beginning to show signs of old age, shortly stretched wrinkles lining his face. A permanent scar was imprinted on his left cheek bone, and he revealed his hand from under his black sleeve. The hand was blackened and singed, as though it had a nasty case of frostbite. It looked as though it was not working as well as it should have been either, its movements in slow motions in an attempt to stretch itself. Larcxieh remembered what she had done to him in her last duel. She froze his hand to stop the contact with the Kingdom Sceptre.  But he must have found it again, as she recognised the evident wing on the side, and the seven holes where the crystals should have been placed.
“How, how did you come back. How did you come back after I killed you with Diaxvds’ Elite Team?!” She exclaimed.
“Came back? Who says I am really alive?” He smirked. The girl still understood nothing.
“W-What do you mean?”
“Oh I wouldn’t say that I came back from the dead my dear friend. If it helps you to, think of me as re-created.”


“But in spite of all that, I decided that I wanted my old self back. You know, might as well have yourself whole and powerful rather than divided and weakened.” He smirked “which suits me just fine.
“But then, in order to stop my worst enemy, Charlotte, from coming back into existence. Well, it works both ways actually. If I combined both heartless and nobody together to make my original form, then if I eliminated one of the two from Charlotte’s true form, that would stop her from existing! Clever, isn’t it?” James smiled, triumphant in the explanation he had just accomplished. Larcxieh gave up at that point.
“Grrrr, ENOUGH OF THE GAMES XEMJAS!!” She threw her hands upward. An icy wave formed from the air and charged toward James. Surprised, the old man made an attempt to leap off the building out of harms way, but stumbled in mid process, still missing the icy wave, but plummeting off the balcony to his doom. Larcxieh saw this coming, and with much more agility than her combatant leapt after him.

Meanwhile, Xadej and Caxjob ran through the arctic plains trying to locate their leader. Something black and moving quickly caught Caxjob’s eye.
“Xadej look up there!” He pointed to the makeshift castle ahead of them. They made the connection that it was James. They gasped simultaneously.
“Sir no!” They both cried and ran though the labyrinth of ice to James’s location, with him helplessly falling to the ground, Larcxieh following closely behind him shooting numerous chilling ice bolts at her target.   

Still falling through the air, Larcxieh found that her streamlined body was forcing her to travel to the ground faster than that of her opponent, who had spread his out to stop himself. She held her arms in front of her and prepared for her splattered end.