Chapter 5 - Corruptions

Riku ran towards Sora with haste, skidding across the floor to a stop right beside Sora. He quickly knelt down and examined the situation.
"Sora! What's wrong!?" Riku worriedly asked him, clutching him on the shoulders.
Sora was shaking violently, beginning to scream in immense pain. His hands were holding tight on his head. He then suddenly lifted his head up towards Riku. Riku's eyes widened in horror; Sora's right eye was pitch-black, with the pupil of the eye turning golden yellow. Riku noticed that a dark, oozing aura began to slowly cover Sora’s skin and clothes. Riku instantly jumped back, he could not believe what he was seeing; Anti-Form is attempting to take control of Sora’s body. Riku had to act quickly and swiftly; otherwise Sora may not turn back to normal. He took out his Keyblade and pointed at the transforming Sora. Riku was hoping for this to work; he never tried this power before, but he had no other choice.
“Release!” He bellowed, clenching his Keyblade tightly.
A ring of golden energy circled around Sora and shot into the air. Sora's arms dropped to his sides, his head was facing the ceiling. Then, he fell on his hands and knees, coughing and spluttering. His body began turning back to normal, the dark aura disappeared and his eye was restored back to how it should be. Sora was panting heavily; sweat dripping like rain from his skin and whole body still violently shaking. Sora steadily sat up onto his knees, he took in a large amount of oxygen in his lungs and finally got on his feet.
"Are you okay now, Sora?" Riku asked him, standing by his side. “What happened?”
"I-I’m fine now, thanks." Sora answered, still breathing heavily. “I don’t how it happened, one minute I was fine then the next my Anti-form was taking over. I could hear a voice in my head, telling me … something. It was like someone had entered the depths of my mind.”
"Well, the last time you transformed into Anti Form, you weren't screaming and shaking or on your knees in agonizing pain." Riku pointed out. “Could it be that this ‘voice’ you heard had some kind of influence on the Anti-form?”
“I … don’t know, nothing was making sense. But I’m fine now; it might just be that my Anti-form is getting stronger.” Sora assured him.
"...Right... listen, let's just get going, the sooner we get out of this place, the better." Riku concluded, curious about what's going on with Sora.
Sora and Riku continued heading towards the door at the end of the hall in silence; Sora was going through his mind, trying to remember, about what the voice in his mind said. But then something more important popped up in his mind, causing him to start worrying. Riku, on the other hand, felt that this place had many tricks and traps up its sleeve waiting to be triggered and knew they had to get out of here as soon as possible. He turned back to Sora, gazing at him curiously.
"Is there something on your mind, Sora?" He wondered.
"Huh? ... Oh, it's nothing, just thinking." Sora answered, almost lost in thought.
"What about?" Riku asked curiously.
"... About what happened to Kairi and the Island." Sora admitted drearily, feeling that it needed to be brought up.
"Kairi’s a tough nut; we both know she won’t go down easily. I bet she got off the island fine, and waiting for us safely back at home. Don’t worry about it, hopefully we can get back soon and live our normal lives again.” Riku assured him, keeping himself positive.
"Yeah." Sora nodded, cheering up.
He and Riku finally reached the door; it was tough to open and took both of their strength to push it. One done, they stood there, next to each other, gazing out in horror.
"What the..." Riku blurted out, not finishing his sentence.
Outside, the sky was blood red, pitch-black clouds covering various areas, but that wasn't what made them surprised. The reason was that there was no land in the horizon at all; no path to follow, no way of getting out. The building, realizing it was a Castle, was floating in mid-air. Sora took a step back, seeing enough.
"Looks like a dead end, we best head back." He stated, but Riku didn't move. "Hey Riku, like you said before! The sooner, the better! Let's get going!" Sora told him, but he still didn't move. "Riku … are you ok?"
Riku then suddenly snapped out of it.
"Yeah, just blanked out there, let's move!" Riku agreed.
They closed the door shut, pushing hard for it to move. They turned and headed back to the other room. Once there, Sora opened the door and entered the room, Riku following him. Suddenly Riku stopped; he turned back and examined the room they had just gone through.
... I think we're being followed He thought.
"Riku! If we stay here, more Nobodies are going pop up!" Sora called to Riku.
"Sorry!" Riku replied to him.
He shut the door behind him and caught up with Sora. Sora took a flame torch down from the wall to light the way; Riku took another torch from to wall to use as back up. They continued along the corridor which was taking ages to get through. But as they continued, they spotted descending steps in the distance. They nodded to each other, as to say they agreed to continue, and headed down the steps. Riku heard a howling sound coming from behind him, he turned around, but nothing was there.
"It must be my imagination tricking me." He told himself, shaking his head.
"Hey, Riku! Are you coming down or what!?" Sora called out again, he was further down the steps waiting for him.
Riku caught up to him.
"Why do you keep looking back for?" Sora asked, curiously.
"I just have this feeling that something ... or someone is following us." Riku answered, having suspisions.
"What makes you say that?" Sora wondered.
"It doesn’t matter, let's just get going." Riku denied talking about it any further.
Sora shrugged and continued down the steps with Riku following him.
Finally, they reached the bottom of the staircase. Suddenly, like magic, a row of torches lit up around the room in front of them.
"Woah... This place is ENORMOUS!!!" Sora shouted in amazement, his voice echoed even loader than ever.
The room was basically a large, towering dome, about 100m in radius from where they were. The floor had been extremely flooded with water, so they didn't know how deep the water is to the bottom. Streams of water were running freely down the walls from openings high above.
“It looks like we'll have to swim to the other end." Riku suggested, pointing at the passage on the other end of the room.
“Huh!? I don’t want to get my clothes wet!” Sora began to argue, not liking to feeling of having wet clothing.
“But … you jump into the sea in your clothes all the time back at the island.” Riku replied back at him.
“Yeah … but it was hot back at the island so my clothes dry off fast. Also, it’s not like we were in any danger back there.” Sora continued, crossing his arms.
“There’s not really any time for argument and excuses, Sora. Besides, there’s no other way of getting across this.” Riku sighed.
Sora groaned. He reluctantly tried to dip his foot in the water, but he then slipped and fell. But, there had been no splash. Sora opened his eyes and gasped. He wasn't in the water but on the top of it. He steadily got up to his feet, wobbling as though he was on thin ice. Riku placed his foot on the water, and it didn't go in.
"What the..? How is this happening!?" Sora asked, confused.
"It must be the magic in this world; causing us to be able to stand on the water without any difficulty." Riku guessed. He was intrigued by how the water was so calm when they were standing on it.
"So kind of like in Hollow... I mean, Radiant Gardens when I had first visited there, the place with the rising waterfalls below the castle." Sora suggested, feeling all powerful standing on the water.
"It could be, but now that I think about it, I’m not that sure if it is magic after all." Riku answered, feeling something else was causing the water to be like this.
Then, from out of nowhere; Riku heard a familiar voice echo the dome, calling out his name. He hastily turned round, and was shocked to see the man he hated the most stand right behind him.
"Xehanort!!!" Riku bellowed in alarm.

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