After skimming along the massive foundations, I finally emerged from the water, foam dripping from my shoulders. I rose into the air, turning invisible. Higher, and higher still, until I floated over six hundred meters above the surface, the wind's breath lashing against my face. The bridge unfolded before me—an endless construction of stone and steel.
Landing atop the thick wall bordering the wide road, I crouched low, on guard. On one side stretched the endless horizon of the sea; on the other, far off, I saw commotion. Figures bustled around makeshift cranes and carts dragged by exhausted slaves. Convoys passed in steady rhythm, bringing stone blocks, beams, and cement, all driven forward by the barked orders of overseers.
I lingered in the shadows, invisible, before activating my Royal Collar. A discreet halo wrapped around my body, my features blurred, and my Keyblade returned to its original, simple, unassuming form. I decided to use the Flying Soldier's wings to separate my abilities from Sora's, buying myself time before being discovered.
Closing my eyes, I searched the bridge for a lock, a flaw… Nothing. This colossus had no sealed heart, only the heavy imprint of thousands of men in chains.
I summoned twenty Darksides and sent them toward the side where the supplies arrived, ordering them to call forth Shadows as they advanced. The colossal beings marched, the stone bridge trembling beneath their steps as more and more Heartless poured ahead of them.
The first convoy stumbled upon them and fled—but my Heartless never touched the slaves. The overseers and slavers, however, were mercilessly consumed as the advance rolled forward.
I wasn't idle either. Raising my Keyblade, I summoned other servants: Shadows, Heartless Pirates, creatures with glowing blue eyes born from Krieg's Heartless ability.
To move more discreetly, I called forth a Sneak. Its huge, muscular silhouette emerged from my shadow, agile and graceful despite its size. It crouched in utter silence, and I climbed onto its back. Since facing hard mode, its camouflage had become perfect, absolute—only Haki perception could detect its presence.
The Sneak ran at a light pace, devouring distance without a sound. With each step, I spread more darkness: already, more than a thousand Shadows swarmed beneath the colossus of stone and steel, slipping into crevices, crawling along rivets, seeping between the foundations like an army of black insects.
Four hundred Heartless Pirates with blazing blue eyes formed a vanguard—solid, menacing, their swords larger than their own bodies.
A kilometer further on, the heart of the slave camp appeared. The overseers hadn't been slow to react. My Darksides, striding like giants with their fists buried in the bridge itself, had drawn attention. A defensive line was immediately raised: three hundred soldiers, perfectly aligned, flintlock rifles leveled at my creatures. Their boots hammered the massive planks in unison, like a single entity.
Behind them stood a massive man, his torso clad in a black officer's vest, a transponder snail clutched in his hand. His aura revealed him even before his words did: a black heart, a wretch of the foulest kind. Around him, every soldier's heart shone gray, proof that none were innocent.
His voice boomed across Tequila Wolf, carried by loudspeakers hidden in the structure."Sora!" he bellowed with certainty. "This bridge is no ordinary construction. It is the work of the Celestial Dragons themselves. Begun eight hundred years ago, it will link every sea, unite the world under their rule. Turn back now, and we'll consider nothing happened. Resist, and you'll find only your grave here."
His words rolled like thunder over the bridge's steel, echoing from pillar to pillar. But I did not answer with words.
With a gesture, I raised my hand, gathering flames. In the air above me, fire twisted into shape, sculpted into blazing letters. A single reply, searing and absolute:
"NO."
The fiery word hung for a few seconds above the enemy line, reflected in their eyes before bursting into a shower of sparks.
I vanished as completely as the Sneak beneath me, disappearing from their sight as my mount leapt onto the side of the bridge, climbing one of its adjacent walls.
Behind me, the darkness surged forward. Shadows slipped straight into the structure, intangible, phasing through wood and steel to emerge behind enemy ranks. The Heartless Pirates formed the frontal wave, taking the full brunt of the flintlock volley. The bridge itself quaked beneath the collective detonation, a deafening roar reverberating through its bones.
From atop the wall, unseen by the soldiers, I watched the chaos unfold. Shadows erupted at their feet, clawing their ankles, while my Heartless Pirates descended on them like a nightmare tide. Screams, gunfire, and the clash of bayonets mixed with the deep groan of the bridge, as though the structure itself lamented under the weight of war.
I'd already lost nearly half of my Heartless Pirates in the first volley of gunfire, but I kept summoning more through the Shadows, watching the soldiers falter and, one by one, be consumed—only to rise as part of my army.
The officer merely confirmed what my Haki had already whispered to me: a wretch. When he saw the battle turning into a disaster, he fled, abandoning his men to their fate. The slaves scattered in panic, but my Heartless let them pass. They stopped about five hundred meters from the camp, a trembling knot of fear and hope—around eight hundred women and fifteen hundred men of all ages, huddled together, shivering.
The camp emptied quickly. Soldiers fell here and there, transformed, their ranks collapsing. I estimated the garrison at four thousand men at the start; now the structure barely held. Explosions thundered in the distance—likely stores and reserves going up—and my creatures began to dwindle, victims of counterattacks and sheer overload.
A chill ran down my neck—my Haki screamed. I leapt aside just as my Sneak took the blow meant for me, too close to the enemy and invisible. The shockwave pulverized its form in an instant. As the shadowy body dispersed, I recognized the presence behind the strike: an immense man, his fist drenched in Armament Haki, standing tall like a statue of wrath.
He hadn't hidden at all. Striding through the wreckage, face like stone, he declared in a voice so cold it seemed to freeze the air around him:"Don't bother with hide and seek. I see you. You dared to defy the Government by attacking this bridge. For that, you'll pay with your life."
I dropped my invisibility in a single motion, landing from the bridge's edge. Behind me, the black wings of the Flying Soldiers spread wide, while I raised my hand and unleashed a volley of spells. The heat of fire, the crack of lightning, the biting chill of ice—all manifested around me, ready to crush him.
As he advanced, I felt the depth of his heart's corruption: violet. Not just wicked—pure malice, the very quintessence of darkness. To him, life was nothing more than insects.
He laughed, voice heavy as an anvil."You think your toys will stop me? Come! Show me what your monsters are worth."
I answered coldly, without the faintest smile:"I'm not here to impress anyone. Your existence irritates me."
At my words, a thousand elemental spirits of fire, lightning, and ice burst forth around me, a swirling, dazzling storm of color.
He reacted instantly, using Geppo to walk on air, bounding upward with virile arrogance as he dove straight toward me. His speed was frightening, his fist ready to crush anything under his palm. He wanted me dead first. But I slipped away, combining my wings with Peter Pan's ability to push my flight speed even higher.
"You won't escape me, boy," he snarled as he accelerated. "I've killed pirates far more seasoned than you."
A second shadow streaked through the sky: another Cipher Pol agent launched himself from the bridge's summit, his boots hammering the air with chilling precision. He too wielded Geppo with surgical mastery, and he was already rushing me, joining his comrade. Their violet hearts pulsed in my Haki like twin furnaces of horror.
I clenched my teeth and thrust out my hand."At my command… First Wave: Inferno!"
A deluge of fire erupted around me, crackling like a miniature sun. To it I added a swarm of a thousand Red Nocturnes, each one hurling blazing fireballs. The air vibrated with heat, the atmosphere itself rippling until it seemed as though a fragment of the sun had crashed onto the bridge. But the two agents, swift as shadows, split the sky in precise zigzags. Their mastery of Soru let them slip through the conflagration untouched. Not a burn. Not a scratch. They reappeared in front of me, unscathed, their gazes harder than iron.
"Second Wave: Blizzard Storm!" I roared.
A freezing breath burst from my throat and hands, a dense blizzard spreading like a shroud of death. A thousand Blue Rhapsodies joined the dance, each elemental amplifying the storm's reach and bite. The air cracked under the cold, frost creeping even across the clouds. The two agents were swallowed by the storm, their forms frozen for a heartbeat… then a blood-red shiver rippled through their bodies. Armament Haki cloaked their torsos and arms like black armor, shattering the ice around them into a rain of fragments.
They tore free of the blizzard like enraged beasts, propelled by fury and speed. I twisted away, spiraling through the sky, each beat of my shadowed wings carrying me higher, farther, until I disappeared into the clouds. But they never slowed. They pursued relentlessly, their silhouettes cutting through the mist like assassins from hell.
Then, in a single lapse of focus, they caught me. Two fists coated in black Armament smashed into me at once—one slamming my ribcage, the other my shoulder. The shock ripped the air from my lungs, a metallic taste flooding my mouth as my body spun wildly through the air. The pain was like an anvil crashing into my skull and chest.
One agent laughed, his voice echoing across the sky:"So this is the infamous Sora? A bargain-bin demon… In the end, you're just a child playing with fire and shadows."
His partner sneered, lips curled in a predatory grin:"And children always end up falling from the sky."
Their Haki-charged fists rose again, convinced my fate was sealed.
"THUNDER!!!" I roared, and fear instantly shifted sides. I had released several Green Requiems into the clouds just before—tiny luminous figures that now mended my flesh and steadied my breath. The mass of clouds above us blackened, then lightning began to dance between them, a chain of sharp, cracking bolts. The two agents, caught off guard, were forced to split their focus: sustaining full-body Haki while shielding against the storm drained their stamina. Their strikes faltered.
Seizing the brief opening, fully restored by the Requiems, I caught the fear flashing across their faces and dove. My Keyblade came down in a savage vertical arc, all my strength behind it.
The first agent, even cloaked in Armament, couldn't withstand it—his skull cracked like glass, his body hurled like a comet through the clouds before vanishing under his comrade's horrified gaze.
The second tried a desperate escape, his legs faltering in Geppo as he sought open air. But exhaustion gnawed at his will, his Haki draining, his dodges slowing.
I followed, relentless in his wake. He thought breaking free of the clouds would save him—a foolish illusion. A fireball surged, engulfed him, and hurled him back toward me. My Keyblade slammed into his back with crushing force, sending him crashing into the sea below, the impact rippling the water so violently I saw the wave from my height.
I never left potential threats alive. While their broken shapes floated, limp and helpless, I commanded my Yellow Operas to strike. A rain of attacks poured down on their bodies, blackening them, burning away the last spark of danger. When the surface finally stilled, the forms nothing more than charred remnants, I ordered my Torpedo Pilots to drag the remains and convert them.
The two dissolved into twin flames of deep violet darkness. From my shadow, the giant Crocodile Heartless and Krieg's Heartless emerged of their own accord. Both engulfed one flame each, their forms swelling, growing more imposing by the second.
"What the hell is this?!" I shouted, watching the thick flames coil around the bodies of my two Heartless.
(Author's note: attaching the new images for these two Heartless here.)