Kingdom Hearts: To The Bitter End [Part One]

Xianghua, Ventus, Ike
He turns his glower on you meeting your eyes squarely with just a naked challenge written in them. Facing you squarely, he pauses his advance, considering you, then pointedly looks you up and down. "If you value your life, you'll keep out of my way." He says, then keeps on walking towards the gates. He rolls his shoulders as he does, and the chains flare bloody crimson, burning with a dull light.
You can either trust Fayt and Terra to deal with that and keep looking for Hades, or you can go back and keep watching his pawn. If you had to guess, Kratos was the more dangerous of the two, while he wasn't as wily or able to call on as much, he was very direct and therein lay his danger.

Cloud Strife
You are helped out of the arena. It's almost more then you can stand, this is your only lead. Sora talked about Sephiroth being here, and you can believe it. Hades promised to give you his location a long time ago. Again, you can believe it. Wherever he is now, he was here.

But you'll have to find another way to look.

Zhou Yu
The tall, gaunt, cadaverous man shakes his head, and turns back to face the river again, his ship bobbing slightly in the river. If you do not concern his purpose, then he has no interest in you.

Terra
"Sensible." He replies. He flashes you a boyish smile. "If we win our fight, we'll probably be up against him, so it makes sense to work out a strategy. Now, the knight is almost impervious to physical damage, so it makes sense to attack him another way, but remember, he's also very fast. Trying to focus on one or the other is what leaves you vulnerable. The trick is to perform both at once, wear him down and keep adjusting, always forcing him to adapt to you."

Zhou Yu
"So be it." He says, and turns to Auron. "If we are to search this river, we will need a boat. He has one." Zhou Yu had lived his entire life in the riverlands. While he couldn't sail as well as, say, Gan Ning, he was quietly confident in his abilities, even given this rive like no other.
"While we have no right to it, and he has done nothing to provoke us, he will not be reasoned with. I see little choice in the matter."

Mickey
"Kefka? I thought your kind didn't get involved in this part of space; there's no great magic here, ho ho!" Mickey knew quite a few warriors; even a few like Kefka; but most didn't come to his sector. Most of his worlds lacked what they sought, so they were rarely something he needed to defend against. It was one of the few things Mickey could always be thankful for, because, unlike the Heartless and the erstwhile allies of most of the Powers that rose up to fight him, they were strong. Very strong. Where, say, Ursula or Jaffar wanted to submerge a world in darkness, Kefka's ilk would outright destroy worlds. Kefka, in particular, at least last Mickey had met him, seemed to exist only to destroy.

Wild Flower and Odie
“Get thee behind me Satan.” It's short and to the point, which is just how she felt like being with Facilier. Indeed, such an offer was tempting in the least, specifically because it came from the devil, and she had learned throughout her life that the devil was not to be trusted. It was why she kept her magic to herself and didn't offer or strike up deals, whether with humans or loa.

Wild Flower tilts her head, “....Parents?” Wild Flower was the spirit of an orphaned girl, alone except for the beings battling for control of her soul. She was an innocent, with litle idea of what the rest of the world had to offer, so frequently did she lose control to one of the spiri- “Her soul-” Her voice has gone deep now, like a frog with a snake stuck in it's throat, her eyes glowing red. After a moment her eyes are blue, a voice more like a beautiful beast, one that sang to the grass beneath the building, and all the small creatures withen it, “Is her own, demon.” With that, the girl is normal again. She looks confused, and in pain-any time control is seized, she seems to default to confusion and pain.

Xianghua, Ventus, Ike

They watch him go as Xianghua and Ventus slowly stop their shivering as Ike watches the warrior go. He then says, "Come on we have a job to do." Ventus the speaks up as he says, "B-but what about Fayt and Terra. That guy looked really mad and really s-strong." Xianghua nods her head in agreement as Ike shakes his, "We can't get in to the tournament anyway, the only thing that we could do is watch from the bleachers. Fayt and Terra can handle this. They are counting on us to find out what Hades is up to. Now come on, if he is not up here then he must have gone down into the underworld. Ven do you have that emergency ship teleporter Fayt gave you?" Ventus nods his head showing the small round device that Fayt had given him upon the completion of their ship for just in case they needed a quick way back to the ship and his scanner wasn't working. Ike nods as he says, "Alright then we need to be careful. After all we're going into the devil's domain." They all then descend down into the underworld.

Fayt

He nods his head while he scratches his chin as he stores the information Terra just fed him away. He then proceeds to take out his scanner and start typing in battle strategies to use. After he does so he proceeds to put it away and wait for their bout.

Mickey, Scrooge
"Oh, I know that. But you of all people should know there are many types of power. And if you don't like it..." He turns around, bends over with his back turned to face the king, and slaps his own butt. He turns to see that the screaming is still going on as the ship sinks and people burn to death, and rolls his eyes.
"Come on! Haven't you ever heard of the healing power of laughter?" He says, summoning another two handfuls of fire and tossing them down carelessly.

Wild Flower and Odie
"Suit yourself." He replies with an easy shrug. Then he looks at Wild Flower, and with a quick, spasmodic action, flipped the first card, which showed a stylized image of the young girl herself, pierced by four blades which were upside down from her vantage point.
"A reversed Four of Swords. Looks like you've been suffering a great loss in the recent past." he says. "Lets see what that leads on to?"
A two-faced woman stands on a symbol for Yin and Yang. One face is kind and beautiful, her expression inscrutable and benevolent, the other twisted and malevolent, laughing maniacally. "Well lookit that. Two of Hearts. Duality. Not something you see every day. You, young lady, are in conflict, trapped between two extremes, unable to escape. You're at war with yourself, and if either side wins, they'll burn you up, and leave nothing left."
He lets that sink in, as his finger rests on the narrow line between the two extremes. There is no room, the line is too fine for anything to exist. "No room for you. No room at all." He says, and smiles like a crocodile hiding beneath the swamp until something young and tender wobbles by.
"But there is hope." He says, flipping the last card to show a queen of hearts. "Be captain of your own ship again, escape and be yourself. Get rid of them both." He extends a bony hand, and grins. "Shake this poor old sinners hand, and I'll make it all go away. You'll be all alone in your head again, no voices calling you from either side, no strings attatched. What do you say?"

Zhou Yu
Auron glances up at Charon, then shrugs and draws his big sword an inch. "If that is the only way forward." He says in his gravely voice, in the tone of one who thinks nothing of fighting anything that lives and can kill anything that bleeds.
The boatman himself ignores you, simply standing atop his ship, silent and cold, his great scythe resting on one emaciated shoulder, a golden mask clutched in his right hand.

Terra, Fayt
Hercules walks on, and Kratos walks on the other side. Already having established himself as the most brutal participant, you can't help but feel a little worried for his opponent. Hercules is strong and fearless and quite a bit more skilled then he initially appears, however you don't like his chances in this match, and Kratos looks ready to kill. He bears his teeth in a flat, ugly grimace, then frees his chains from around his wrists with a jerk of his hands, then begins swinging them, the whips writhing like snakes, weaving a pattern of death between the two of them.
Anyone trying to approach would get flayed to the bone, the blades on the end making it all the worse. And Kratos was a master, not leaving so much as a single opening, no weakness to exploit. Speeding his moves, he advances on Hercules, leaving no opening to exploit, no way of angling past the blades of Chaos or escaping their reach, and is being forced against the wall. It seems he has no way to counter.

Xianghua, Ventus, Ike
The crack that leads to the underworld looms before you, an enormous fissure that leaks a terrible green mist that resembles nothing so much as grasping fingers, with a hiss that sounds like escaping screams. A narrow curving set of narrow stairs cut into the rock lead down beneath the world. You believe Hades is somewhere below.

Mickey
Mickey draws on his magic, trying to stop the fireballs from doing any more harm to the civilians than they already have. He doesn't bother with words after that. Words about evil, or trying to stop Kefka. Because Mickey has dealt with his kind before. Not the power hungry, nor the evil. He'd dealt with both often enough. No, Kefka's type was different. They didn't lose their humanity, nor did they sell it for power or wealth. No, they simply looked at it one day, laughed, and said 'f*** it.' Tore it asaid just to laugh as it burned, along with any life they came across.

Mickey just jumps at Kefka, Keyblade ready. If he could, he'd kill the clown. Because some things just need to be finished.

Odie and Flower
"Child. His deals are not always as they appear." Is all Odie says; because there was nothing else to be said. This was the child's deal. The child's life. And it was leading to this point. Her entire life had been leading to this decision.

To Flower, though, the choice is a strange one. The man wanted to make the voices go away. But one of the voices was nice. She knew that. It was comforting, and didn't mean to hurt her. The Guardian, it was nice. But the Spirit, the other one. It was mean. It wanted to hurt her. It did hurt her. She didn't like it. But for them both to go away? But then...but what would be left? She...she wasn't sure; what was she without the Guardian? Without the Demon?

"Do you know what you're offering!? You'll upset the balance!" Indignation.

No. No, he'll maintain it. If he does away with both of us. Fear.

That is not freedom for the girl. That is slavery in another form. Anger

I can make you powerful sinner; do not do this. Barganing.

Odie, Wild Flower
"Got one debt, don't much want another." He replies, though his eyes flash. "But you're both confusing the issue." He turns two cards and looks down at them. "Trias and Fhjull." he says, somehow knowing your true names. "So keep your forked tongues between your teeth.
"It's up to the girl. If she wants to do without you, that's up to her. Not either of you." He looks at her. "Don't you miss it? Don't you miss other people, not having to be afraid all the time? I can give you that back. You go back to being a girl, they both go, and then I'll let you leave and do most anything you please. How about it then?"

Mickey
You miss one of the fireballs, but Siegfried catches it for you, knocking aside. You silently thank him, it would be much, much harder without him. Kefka sees you coming as you leap, and simply floats higher so the blow misses. Grinning, he calls more fire, then more, and more, until he's holding a ball the size of a car, and tosses that down, almost sinking the entire ship with an explosion, and making it dip precariously in the water.
You can't reach him, you'll need a way to get higher. But there is nothing you can...
You look over at Siegfried. He must be very strong to be able to spin that sword around. Maybe he can help.

King Mickey
Mickey looks at Sigfreid...and gets an idea.
"Get ready! I think you're about to get a shot at him!" Mickey activates his magic, sending it through the keyblade, as he invokes the Gravity spell, trying to slam Kefka down to the ground.

Madame Odie; Wild Flower
Wild Flower tilts her head, confused, "But there's nothing outside but the shadows. And I can't live with the shadows. Not without them."

Fayt

He watches the proceeding battle in a cold sweat from seeing the utter ferocity that is Kratos. The thing that scares Fayt the most however is the pure hatred that is emanating from the man, almost as if he was hatred incarnate. However he beats those thoughts back at seeing what the man is doing and his fear is replaced with anger at seeing the intent to murder in his eyes. His forehead pulses slightly as it always does when he is angrier than usual at this brutal display. He had not known what had crafted Kratos into the hateful murderer that he was, all he knew was that he would not allow that man's past to impact the future of anyone here.

Ike, Xianghua, Ventus

Seeing as the had little other choice the group of three head down into the Underworld to search for Hades in the belly of the beast.

Fayt, Terra
The fight begins in ernest as Hercules catches the scything blade with his wrist, the chain wrapping around and dragging him towards the other one that lashed out at his face, tearing a line along his square jawline in a spray of blood, nearly tearing off half his face.
Hercules is half-divine. He's never bled before, as far as you know, and it's kind of disturbing to see him bleed. Beings like him are supposed to be untouchable, legends weren't supposed to get hurt. They weren't supposed to be at risk of losing.
Just the same, it's only the first blow and there is a lot left of the fight yet. Hercules yanks the chain and drags Kratos towards him, then swings a great round house of a punch at his face, that The Ghost of Sparta catches in an open hand, and the two push against each other, legs braced wide, arms bent at the elbow, each man exerting all their power against the other. They were well matched, Hercules a trifle thicker and taller, Kratos a trifle more defined. It was bear opposed to tiger. like two statues they stood straining, neither yielding an inch, the two matching his bull-like strength against Kratos's tiger-like power.

Ike, Xianghua, Ventus
You make your way down the narrow passageway towards the river Styx, gateway to the underworld. Written above the door is 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here'.
The inky waters of the subterranean river lapped against the slimy stone at the bottom of the steps. Reflecting torchlight casting rippling shadows onto the walls of the cavern. The damp limestone walls glowed luminous green from the witch-lights that danced across the surface, and jagged stalactites hang above your heads like the fabled sword of Damocles.
You see two massive gates ahead around the river.

King Mickey
King Mickey was a sorcerer, and one who'd had a long time to work his abilities and hone his talent, to the point that he could do far more with his powers then most people would imagine. But tangling magically with an arcmage of Kefka's power was not something he'd tried before. It was one thing to know magic enough to memorize a few spells, and quite another to tangle with someone who read the very flows of power and reworked it as they desired. Even your mentor would struggle against someone like Kefka.
That said, even an arcmage can be caught unprepared. The spell hits him, knocking him out of the air to plummet into the deck with a crash and a muffled curse. He manages to get his legs beneath him and sway to his feet before the azure knight comes at him with six feet of steel and ninety kilos of muscle, smashing into him like a lead-pipe hitting water and knocking him back off his feet and off the ship as well, into the water bellow. You run over to look, where bubbles burst to the surface of the river in a mountain of white froth, and then goes still. He does not surface.
Somehow, you don't believe it was that easy.

Madame Odie; Wild Flower
"Shadows are everywhere. But these ones will leave you well alone. I'm a man of my word, and I say if you want to, you walk out of here all on your own." He looks down at his out-stretched hand, and smiles his white smile, then waves his hand over a candle through the smoke so that it formed vague images. "Maybe it seems a bit hard to believe. hard to accept maybe. But do you really want to fade away?" As he speaks, a little girl forms in the smoke, one that you can see through. "Do you really want to watch yourself get eaten up by both of them, 'til all that's left is an empty shell and some memories in a few people you knew?" He swipes an open palm through the image, effectively destroying it. "I can set you free."

King Mickey
"It's not over. Not by a long shot, ho ho." Mickey calms himself, as he jumps overboard; better to fight Kefka in the lake, where there would hopefully be far fewer potential casualities. He'd need everything to take Kefka down, and didn't want to focus on protecting the innocent. Not with Kefka around.

Wild Flower
Wild Flower looks at Facilier; to most people, this would be a choice between devils. The devil before her, who offers her freedom but all too likely also her soul. On ther other hand, the devil withen her who would devour her, body and soul. But Wild Flower isn't most people. She's far more innocent than she should be. Naive, and yet, understanding. Living, yet dead. "But without them...I'm just...Wild Flower. Without them...I'm alone."

Wild Flower
"We're all alone. We live alone, and we die that way. It's lonely in my head too." He replies, a touch desperately, stretching his skills as far as they'll go. He really needs her to take this deal.

King Mickey
You land at the bottom of the river, where you stare around.
Kefka is floating above the bottom, legs crossed, long arms dangling at his sides. He waves as you land, and then snaps his fingers, creating a bubble of air around the two of you, that stretches like a dome at the two of you. "Not strictly necessary, but I can't really do this without an audience. If we can't talk, it's so tiresome."
He reclines back on empty air, then stretches out a hand. "Now, I came here for the princess of heart, but got distracted. It was just so much fun to burn them all. They're probably still up there, screaming and begging, as the flames scorch them until they are only ashes..." His gaze wanders away, looking wistful, then snaps back to the present.
"But it's not fun anymore. Look at me, I've stopped laughing. So I'll leave them alone. Just give me that big key, and you'll never hear from me again. I'll go destroy someone else's backyard. How's that sound?"

Fayt

He watches the bloodbath with a look horrified awe. It was a blood bath in the almost literal sense. However there was one disadvantage that Fayt knew was against Hercules. It was the fact that Kratos was all to willing to kill. It Herc happened to be knocked out it was just dandy with him. Herc however had to hold himself back however slightly while Kratos had no such qualms. This fact could make or break the stalemate between the two.

Ike Ven Xianghua

They head to the gates as Xianghua shivers slightly from the almost imperceptible chill that enters her bones. As they come up to the gates Ike and Ven give two mighty shoves to try and open the gates.

Ike Ven Xianghua
"It's locked." The God of the Dead says from behind you, arms folded and eyebrows raised. He's smiling the smile of one who knows he's won. "I mean, sure, you could try that blade of yours, but you've kinda got other problems."
Behind him a massive shadow detaches itself, as a deep, powerful roar echoes through the cavern, three voices laden with menace in usion. Cerberus is a massive, three-headed dog with black fur and short, cropped ears. His three heads are identical, each sporting the same enormous mouths filled with a row of teeth as large as you. All three heads also feature glowing red eyes that slant downwards, burning with hateful malevolence.
"Sic 'em, boy." He says, and the dog leaps towards you, mouths agape. Hades' smile widens. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm not going to stay down here and watch him tear you apart. Instead, I'm going to go release the titans, now that the stars are aligned. Once Hercules is down, Olympus is mine. After that I figure I'll sort of merge the three realms down here, make it all my town, then I suppose I'd better look at expanding." He shrugs. "Anyway, get used to it, because I think you're about to become permanent residents!"

Terra, Fayt
Kratos kicks him in the knee, and in the brief moment he loses his balance takes advantage of the lapse, tossing Hercules onto his back, and taking his two blades in his hands for close work, both of them glowing a hungry crimson as they flare with his rage.
The two of them trade a few blows, But Kratos is the only one of the two armed, so it's very much in his advantage. A blow from Hercules flattens his crooked nose, and another hammers his jaw, knocking out teeth and cracking the bone, but in response Kratos carves a bloody cross along his chest, and another series of cuts on his forearms from trying to block.
"We are not so different, you and I." He boasts, the blades together in a shower of sparks to form the blade of Artemis, the same as the smaller blades but writ large. "The difference is that I was cast out to die, while you were welcomed back in the fold, heaped with honors and acclaim, while I was abandoned to the empty places of the world to die. Well no more shall I be a paraih to dwell in the shadows. Now I shall show my father which of us is the strongest before he follows you to the depths of Tartarus."
With that he drives the sword down, which Hercules catches between his two palms, and the struggle begins again, this time very much in Kratos' favor.

Metaknight
He vanishes before you touch him, and reappears behind you, where he changes styles, and, in a few, quick movements, he has you in a hold that the only way you can see of getting out is to dislocate both your shoulders. Your stronger then him, but he's a lot more skilled then you, and he knows how to use that strength against you.

"Submit." He tells you blandly, tightening it a bit so your shoulder blades grate painfully together.

Zhou Yu
"Then the time has come for us to draw swords together." He says, drawing a blade very similar in design to Auron's, and swinging his arms to warm them up. There seems no need to approach this simply, rather he would strike directly.

Walking up to Charon again, the Guardian at his side, he points the sword at him. "I have no quarrel with you, nor desire to see you dead. Give us the ship, and once I find my friend, I shall return it."

Terra
He's been here before. His entire musculature is tense with barely controlled fury, and his eyes are narrowed, his teeth clenched together. Just the same, he does not move, except to put a comforting hand on Fayt's shoulder. "He won't thank you to interfere. It's his fight, and coming to a friends aid is another thing. Wait."

Terra, Fayt
Hercules looks up at him, one of his blue eyes puffy and swollen, the left side of his face caked with blood, but still defiant. "Actually, killing people doesn't make them like you. It just makes them dead." That said, Hercules charges forward, driving his shoulder into Kratos's midsection, tossing Kratos to the edge of the battleground with ease, and then reaching down, his muscles straining under his skin like steel cables. With a grunt of effort, he lifts the entire fllor, and throws it on top of Kratos, burying him beneath tonnes of stone. It's possibly the most impressive feat of strength you've ever seen.
It's not enough. Kratos smashes through, not trapped afterall, and begins brutally smashing Hercules face, knocking him down and standing over him, well in the process of beating him to unconsciousness. When at last he stops moving, Kratos takes his blade and places it against the heroes neck. A hush has fallen over the crowd, as they wait for the final blow that will end their beloved champions life.

Cloud Strife
In a town of no real importance, long ago, was born a cheerful boy named Zack, who above all else had longed to be a hero. Not for the usual reasons, but because even then, he was strong and had an innate sense of justice. Above all, he aspired to help people who couldn't help themselves, and as soon as he was old enough he'd set out to do that, eventually coming to the Colosseum to look for instruction.

Like many men who never knew their fathers, he collected father figures, forcing the role on any who it served. But though he never met his father, it was none other then Zeus, king of the gods, and he had two half-brothers, Hercules and Kratos. He never learned of their connection, though he did meet Hercules when he came to the Colosseum to learn how to be a hero, and they developed a friendly rivalry that was a close bond.

He trained for a while, but soon decided that it was not his place, and so took his search further, having many adventures before he left the world and came to Radiant Garden, where he was mentored by a man named Angeal, and eventually joined SOLDIER, attaining the rank of first class. He lived a long and happy life before his body died on the wasteland outside Midgar atop the broken bodies of those who slew him.

But he was not gone altogether, and what remained lived on within Cloud, a ghost of memories and fragments of personality in his subconscious. But what remained and could not bear to watch his oldest friend die like this. Cloud himself found he was thinking of that day where he had watched Zack die, unable to do anything, and his hand clutched the sword so hard his bones creaked in protest. Then he couldn't take it anymore and stood up in the stands, drawing the sword as he did.

Then he leapt from the stands like a bolt of lightning or a star falling from the heavens, channeling his rage, his love and all the contents of his soul in the terrible blow that followed. Kratos sensed him coming and brought the massive blade between them in a desperate counter, but it availed him not, for Cloud would not be stayed this time. A moment before impact, he hit the assembly, as he used Omnislash, The fusion sword breaking apart completely, so that only the central blade was left in his hands. The heavenly metal that composed the Blade of Artemis shattered as he hit it, fragments whizzing lethally across the ground, then Cloud discarded the blade and grabbed the next one out of the air, then the next one, then the next one, each blow so fast that all six hit Kratos at the same time. The blades clove through metal, flesh and bone, as if they were nothing more than paper. Kratos stared blankly for a moment before his armor fell away, torn from his body, and his chest began bleeding fiercely from the blows. It was all he could do to stand.

"The fight is over." Cloud says, catching the first blade in his free hand as the others fall around him in a perfect circle. "Get out of here."

Scrooge McDuck
He doesn't follow Mickey down. One of them had to be practical, and it looked like it would have to be him. They were all trapped on a sinking ship, many of them were dead, and if they didn't get off soon the rest would be. His first step was getting them off the ship and onto dry land. His second was making sure his king got by. He had a lot more faith in Mickey's ability to take care of himself then he did these.
He needed a bridge.

Fayt

Fayt looks at Kratos a livid look on his face. The symbols that usually show up on his head before he fires a beam of destruction. He was surprised at Kratos' hardiness but if the man made a move to kill Cloud, especially when he was right about this situation would reward him with a beam of destruction in his back. He would aim for a non-lethal area to be sure but it would at least give him reason to pause.

Ike, Xianghua, Ventus

Ven looks up at Cerberus as he say, "I always was more of a cat person." Xianghua groans at his bad joke as Ventus leaps up and materializes Wayward Wind as he tries to smack Cerberus across the nose using his power of wind to act as a fly in the great beasts face. With Ventus distracting it Ike runs towards the beast front paw and attacks the joint of it. Xianghua meanwhile runs under the torso of the beast and sticks up Soul Caliber upwards as she keeps running under the it's stomach running it through.

Knuckles

Knuckles grits his teeth as Metaknight holds him in an impossible situation. He thinks about the emerald shards that Metaknight will keep if he gives up. He then speaks, "I-I....I REFUSE!" He then uses the one advantage he has on Metaknight, his height. He snaps his legs which were kneeling to floor staining his muscles to the extreme, possibly breaking a bone or two as he slams his back, and opponent, into the ground stiffening his spikes so they jut out and stick into as many places in Metaknight's body as possible with only a few managing to find openings in his open.

(Is the floor of the Halberd wooden? Cause if it is it might have collapsed... if that's okay?)

Cloud
Kratos sways but doesn't fall. His pale skin is covered in his own blood now, his armor has been cut away leaving him just his loincloth and bracers, and his flesh is so ripped and cut it's a miracle he's still alive. judging from his expression, spite is all that is keeping him that way.
Then his hands begin to glow, and the Blade of Olympus appears in his hands, glowing like an open forge.

Colosseum
"Well, that's a shame. Dead was the target, but I suppose I'll have to settle for not well." The voice of Hades booms across the expanse, as the Lord of the dead appears in the center, towering above the combatants at twenty foot tall.
"Darkness, come unto me! Awake titans! Awake Typhon and the monsters of old! Come now, and burn Olympus to the ground! Have your vengeance! As promised."
The sky begins to boil with rolling black winds. The ground begins to shake, sleet blows across the wind, as though the very elements are at war with each other, and you see the five hulking forms of the titans materialize around the Colosseum, each one heading towards the mountain on the horizon. And around their feet is an army of the dead, rank upon rank of a skeletal legion whispering the name of their master.
Hades smiles and lights himself a cigar. "Now we're cooking."

Ike, Xianghua, Ventus
The heads snap at Ventus with mouths like castle gates, stopping him from getting too close. A paw the size of a barn door bats at Xianghua, knocking her aside, before it roars in agony and hate as Ike sticks a blade in it. Drawing back it's heads, it breaths a huge gout of fire at the three of you.

Metaknight
If he wasn't wearing so much armor, your spines would hurt a lot more. As it was, a few do punch through his mask and into his skin beneath, which proves to be surprisingly soft. There is a sound not unlike air escaping a slowly deflating baloon, but he doesn't seem all that much worse for it, and drags your shoulders out of place to the point you almost collapse with pain.

"Submit. I can do this as long as I need to." He says, his voice slightly strained with effort, but only slightly.

Terra
"Knew something like this had to happen." He mutters, summoning his keyblade, then stands up to look at all the other contestants, most of whom were heroes in their own right who had come here to test themselves rather then love of battle.

They just needed to be rallied. "Haven't you heard enough? Are you going to let him stand for this?" He yells, lifting it above his head, then pointing it at Hades. "We can beat him. Come on!" That said, he jumps down into the pit, and makes his way towards the towering figure of Hades.

Terra
"The kiddy gloves are off now." Hades replies, looking down at you, hands clenching unconciously. "Don't start what you cannot finish."
That said, he takes a massive helm of tarnished bronze, opening into a grille and decorated with a pair of curving horns, and places it on his head, lighting it from within with a fierce red glow, and taking a pair of long chains ending in terrible hooks like talons.

Colosseum
Whether it's Terra's words or their own disgust with what was proceeding, most of the warriors who had fought through the rounds get to the feet and draw their blades, attacking the massive army of reverants Hades commands, the battle begining in ernest. Hades seems to have unlimited waves of them, but many of these warriors are champions without compare, having long surpassed the limits of the possible.

Halberd
You hear the unmistakable sounds of battle outside.

Zhou Yu
He summons his scythe with a wave of his hand, then places his golden mask on his face, in a strange way making himself seem larger, more dangerous, more alive and more powerful.
It's clear he is not willing to accept your proposal.

Zhou Yu
The strategist faces him squarely, eyes half-closed, hand on his drawn sword. Taking it, he holds it to his lips, as though about to kiss the blade. "The sword is a simple tool, but in the hands of a master it becomes the most versatile of weapons. And just as the imagination is limitless, so too are the possibilities of the sword." He muses in his calm, quiet voice, before lowering it.

"But it is the sword that is the ervent of the mind. Not the other way around. What is a weapon without the hand that weilds it? To win a hundred battles is not of the supreme excellence. To subdue one's enemy without fighting is the highest form of skill."

"Please. I have no quarrel with you, but my honor to a friend demands I do all that is possible to search for him. I cannot without a boat, and if you will no take me I have no option but to take the ship from you. So I ask you again. Please, will you show compassion and assist me?"

Terra
"I couldn't agree more." He replies, eyes blazing as he takes his keyblade in both hands. "You are going down."

Fayt

Using the power that he was just seconds from letting go on Kratos he instead aims at the Lord of the Dead and fires upon his face. He then takes his place at Terra's side as he says, "Ready to go, partner?" with smile on his face. He then takes out the scanner as he says, "EX transfer, Sword of the Steppe!" A mid-sized cylinder appears in front of Fayt and materializes the sword. Fayt takes it in his hand as he checks the weight and balance before finding it acceptable. He then gets into a ready position alongside Terra. "Your reign of terror ends here and now Hades!"

Ventus, Ike Xianghua

Xianghua is sent rolling back, groaning in pain from being hit with a paw from a hellbeast as big as she was. Ventus flies down beside her to make sure she is okay. With a shaky nod she indicates that she is still okay to fight. She stands back up proud and tall. As she does Ventus sees in her a lot of what he saw in Aqua. His face hardens as he turns towards Cerberus and says, "Bad dog." He then throws the keyblade at the heads of the beast "Spark Raid!" as it hits the Keyblade splits into beams of light that fly around and slam into the heads with a small explosion. Seeing as another frontal assualt won't work Ike runs around to the back of the beast while Ventus is attacking and once there cries out "Aether". When he does he tosses his blade spinning up into the air above the tail he then jumps up to follow it and then grabs it bringing it slamming down towards the tail. Once the beast inevitably turns it's attension towards Ike attack Xianghua rushes towards it's exposed side and runs her blade along it.

Knuckles

Hearing the sounds from outside Knuckles perks up as he says, "What the heck is going on?" Feeling Metaknight grind his shoulderblades harder he says, "Alright I give, but there's no time for that my friends might be in danger!" When the honorable knight lets go Knuckles rushes towards the window to see what is going on. When he sees the bloody battle that is going on he jumps out the window to help knowing that at least some of his friends are down there. He then glides towards the rock titan and introduces it to his fist.

Knuckles
Metaknight lets you go, then summons his sword in a flash of light, taking it in both hands and pushing back his cape. Without a word, he slams the doors open and sees the chaos, then leaps into the air, taking flight and raining blows down on the enemies.

Fayt, Terra
Hades swings, the hooks sinking into you, but rather then tear flesh they reach deeper, then catch on to something ephemeral and pull taunt. With a heave of his shoulders, he drags something from the two of you, something transparent, tangible as a soap bubble, with light pouring from it and through it. It’s a spectral image of you yourself, held in place by his hooks as he rips your souls from you on his long chains. As they come closer to him, they were falling apart, like mist before a strong wind, parts of it peeling away and vanishing.

Ventus, Ike Xianghua
Cerebus pulls back it’s center head, pawing at it as Ventus’s attack damages it, pawing at it with it’s rightmost paw as it’s other two heads continue to snap and growl at the group. Ike tears it into it’s flank along with Xianghua, and the massive guardian growls again furiously, before lowering it’s three heads and breathing a terrible stream of darkness down at the three of you.

Knuckles, Metaknight
A scene of utter chaos greets your eyes. The three score heroes battle literally thousands of skeletal legionaries that surround the titans, each one performing Herculean feats, fighting like warrior poets and devastating the army that Hades had released from the Underworld.

Liu Bei and his two brothers fight in tandem, with the familiarity of those who have fought together so long their partners movements are as familiar as their own, carving through the skeletons faster then they can move, Guan Yu slaying by the score with every sweep of his polearm, his phoenix eyes flashing as he tears through them like the god he was known as. Zhang Fei lets loose a roar that shakes the very earth, the force sufficient to knock the undead off their feet, then lowers his shoulder, bulling into them and tossing them into the air like leaves on the wind, while the oldest brother’s twin swords flicker like light playing on a pond, darting here and there so fast he doesn’t seem to move at all, leaving a trail of corpses behind them sufficient to

On a mound of corpses nearly twenty feet high, Mitsarugi stood like a statue, holding a pair of nauseating, fleshily organic katana's, both with teeth along the blades. Both of them are identical, and give off a feeling of evil enough to turn stomachs with bile.
He is duel wielding Soul Edge.
His chest is heaving with exertion, his body caked in sweat. Undead skeletons in legionary armor and ghosts like wraiths who had attacked his very soul where piled beneath his feet, along with Monsters of all shapes and sizes, from every corner of imagination.
He'd cut through them all like a combination harvester going through a field of wheat.
His brows are shadowed, as he recovers, from both his bloodlust and the toll fighting like that had taken upon him. He's panting like a bellows, his muscles shaking with fatigue. And he's still not satisfied.
“More.” He demands. “Give me more!”

Marth has joined the fight himself, and stands back to back with Lord Captain Cecil Harvey, the two of them reaping a bloody toll as their swords move in usion, Marth dressed all in blue while the paladin king wears an ivory cape and white-blue armor with gold linings. Cecil whirs to save Marth as the prince does the same for him, and the two carve up a fearsome tally between them, Cecil occasionally throwing streams of magic between sword strokes. The Black clad wanderer simply draws the life from them, leaving them to fall to the ground motionless as he drains the life from them, puppets with their strings cut. A short man in red and blue with the most impressive mustache you've ever seen grinds them to powder with his fists. And other tales of heroism can be seen wherever you look, as the spirit of man refuses to give in to death, and go quietly into the night.

Cloud Strife
If your right arm had still been functional, the blow would have killed Kratos where he stood. However, Garland shattered your shoulder and chest, leaving you with only one arm to properly fight with, robbing the blows of much of their force. As ti was, he was now in even worse shape then you, and it showed, his powerful strikes were clumsy and unbalanced as he carved at you with the blade of Olympus, roaring incoherently the entire time.

Zhou Yu
"If it were in my power, I think I would be sympathetic." The boatman replies. "But it is not. I am charged with a duty, and I will not fail in it, though it is almost too much to bear, the gods will not release me from my fate and torture. For what it is worth, I wish it could be otherwise."
There was nothing else to say. He takes his scythe in both hands and waits for you to come to him, patient as death.

Nameless, Sheik
Making your way into the cavern, you see a wan light ahead, the flickering light of some wan brazier or lambert coals in a hearth. Heat radiated off the walls without you needing to touch them.
Beyond the threshold of the room were mountains of gold the likes of neither of you have ever seen. So vast an immeasurable was the hoard that the cavern appeared to have no end. Before you even knew what you were doing, you have wandered into the room, stepping into a diffuse shaft of natural light coming from above.
Aladdin simply walks through, barely glancing at the treasure. "I should mention there are trials." He says as you come to a gateway. "It looks after itself."