(I was really busy last weekend so I wasn't able to finish this chapter and post it on time. I'll be posting the next chapter, too. Since this is a battle between the main character and antagonist, it's going to be a long chapter. Just thought you all should know.)

Chapter 32:

A look of interest crawled across Xemnas’ face as he saw Tylor’s transformation. He smiled and said, “It seems as though you have become stronger. Perhaps you may prove to be a challenge after all.”

“We will not lose to the likes of you. You will die this day.”

“Tell me, do you know how you obtained your powers?”

Tylor opened his mouth then closed it. The truth was he really didn’t know where his powers had come from. He didn’t know if it was his power, the swords’ powers or if they came from another source all together. For as long as he could remember he had powers that others did not.

Xemnas smiled, as if he could tell what he was thinking. “You don’t know, do you?”

“If you know, then why don’t you tell us?”

“When a sorceress takes someone as her knight she grants them power. In turn the sorceress gains power from her knight. It is a pact, one becomes stronger with the other.”

Tylor’s voice changed as he spoke. It didn’t change completely back to his normal voice, but it was close. “Are you saying that you and I are the knights of a sorceress?”

“Not of the same woman, but yes. A pact between sorceress and knight can only be made between two people, no more.”

“Seifer is Edea’s knight. You cannot be her knight as well.”

He chuckled. “Who ever said I was her knight?”

Tylor muttered, “Ultimecia.”

Xemnas chuckled again. “You know much, Daimon.”

Tylor glared at him. “I’m not a knight. I never made a pact with a sorceress.”

“How ironic,” Xemnas sighed. “You know so much about the future, yet you know very little of your past.”

Tylor held his sword to one side and prepared to jump. His voice went back to the way it was before they started talking. “All this talk has become tiresome. Once we finish with you we will go after the sorceress.”

Xemnas closed his eyes and laughed. Two long, black katanas formed from darkness appeared in each of his hands. “I agree. Let us finish this little feud once and for all.” He opened his eyes.

His eyes were no longer eyes anymore. They were deep black holes which darkness spilled out in constant streams. His swords suddenly extended to twice their length. Black wings, formed from darkness, grew from his back. Armour, similar to the kind on Tylor’s arm, formed around his body. It was black and covered everything except his head.

Tylor realized that Xemnas had transformed like Tylor had. He didn’t fuse with his weapons physically like Tylor had. Instead he fused his power with his two swords. But if it was the same power, why did it work differently for him? That’s when Tylor realized that it wasn’t the power that made the difference. Unlike Tylor, Xemnas had more time to discover and learn to control his powers. Tylor focused all his power into increasing his physical and magical strength. Xemnas, on the other hand, focused his own power into enhancing both his strength and defence.

Tylor couldn’t dwell on it any longer. Xemnas leaped off the balcony and lunged through the air. Tylor blocked the attack with the side of his sword. He found it difficult to move his giant sword as he blocked. The weight of the sword slowed his movement and offset his balance. It wasn’t until now that he realised focusing all his power into strength was a bad idea. In the past he would overwhelm his enemies with strength. Now, he had too much and couldn’t move his weapon as freely.

Tylor pushed Xemnas away only to be met with another attack. He kept blocking his attacks as they came, but with each strike he found his arm feeling weaker and weaker. If this went on any longer he wouldn’t be able to even hold his sword.

Tylor had to find a way to push Xemnas back enough for him to counter attack. He held his hand that wasn’t fused with his sword at Xemnas and yelled, “Fira!” A ball of fire shot out of his hand and hit Xemnas in the chest. It knocked him back and threw him off balance. Tylor took this chance to attack. He lifted his sword high over his head and brought it down over his opponent.

Xemnas jumped back so fast that he became invisible to the naked eye. Tylor had swung the sword so hard that he couldn’t stop it until the attack finished. The blade crashed into the floor with a loud ‘thud’, sending bits of dust and concrete into the air.

Before he could move he saw something at the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see Xemnas charging from behind. Tylor lifted his giant sword and let out a loud grunt us he swung his weapon with all his might.

Xemnas brought up his swords to block the attack because he didn’t have enough time to move out of the way. The force of Tylor’s attack shattered his katanas and threw him a few yards across the floor.

The attack left Tylor panting heavily for air. “Had enough?” he asked.

Xemnas rose to his feet and chuckled. The shards of his broken swords melted into black smoke and reformed in his hands. “On the contrary,” he said, voice echoing with power, “I am just getting started.”

Black smoke began spewing out of his swords as he lifted them over his head. Two waves of black and red energy came out of each of his swords when he brought them down one by one. The ground instantly melted when touched by the energy. Tylor lifted his sword up to block the attack.

The waves slammed against his weapon one after another. The first one pushed him back but didn’t throw him off balance. The second one slammed even harder than the first one and caused him to lose his footing and take a step back.

Xemnas was suddenly inches away from Tylor’s face. One of those moments passed where it felt like he had all the time in the world to move. He yelled, “Protect!” and a magical green barrier appeared in front of his body. Xemnas slashed through the barrier, shattering it like glass. A metaphysical wave of power rushed out of his swords and threw Tylor into a wall.

Tylor had a moment where he was knocked senseless. He shook his head to clear his mind in time to see Xemnas charging again. He had just enough time to cast another spell. He held out his hand and shouted, “Aero!” A sudden gust of wind swirled up and around Xemnas, throwing him into the air. Tylor aimed his sword and sent out a blast of energy. He didn’t have enough time to charge like he had with Cerberus, so it wouldn’t be as strong.

Xemnas’ body turned into a horde of bats before the attack could reach him. The beam of energy missed its target and blew a gaping hole in the roof. Xemnas’ body reformed on the other side of the hole. If this fight were to continue Tylor would have to follow him to the roof.

Tylor reached into his magic and shouted, “Float!” His body became weightless as he began to float away from the ground. He flapped the wing attached to his sword to propel him threw the air.

From the roof he could see the battle that raged on below between the two gardens. Xemnas was waiting for him, a smile trickling along his face. “This is much better. Now we have more room to move.”

Tylor moved into a defensive stance and said, “A larger battlefield makes no difference. We will defeat you no matter what the terrain.”

Xemnas let out a humorous hum before lunging forward to attack. Tylor had anticipated the attack. He swung his sword and released an energy wave at his opponent. Xemnas cris-crossed his swords to stop the attack before slashing it out of his way. Tylor already had his hand out and ready to attack. He shouted, “Firaga!” and shot a giant fireball at his opponent.

The attack slammed against Xemnas in a large explosion, throwing him into the ground. He pushed off the ground with his hands and lifted his legs to flip onto his feet. Tylor didn’t give him a chance to regroup and rushed his opponent, swinging his sword as hard as he could.

Xemnas parried the attack and struck out at Tylor’s body. Tylor lifted his sword arm in time to block the swords with the armour fused to his arm. Xemnas began to push to make Tylor lose his balance. Tylor pushed back and tried to do the same. Now it was a battle of sheer force to see who could knock the other off balance and attack first.

As luck would have it, Tylor won. He forced Xemnas to take a step back before swinging his sword. The motion caused his arm to push his opponent’s swords out of the way. Tylor let out a burst of energy as his sword cut across Xemnas’ armour. Xemnas was thrown back again, but this time he didn’t flip back to his feet like he had before. Tylor’s attack created a thick, long fissure across the front of his armour. He could see Xemnas’ skin through the crevice.

Xemnas rose to his feet, his eyes now glowing red. Rage showed clearly on his face. “I have grown tired of these games. It is time to end this.” One of his katanas disappeared from his hand. He held his hand out toward Tylor.

Tylor went into a defensive stance and prepared himself for whatever he would throw at him. Xemnas merely smiled and lifted his hand into the air. His hand began to glow with a dark red light as he yelled, “Meteor!”

The sky suddenly turned red with black clouds. Large objects began to fall from the sky toward Galbadia Garden. Tylor knew how much trouble he was in. Meteor was the third strongest spell in the world, the second being a close tie between Holy and Flare and the first being Ultima.

Tylor lifted his sword over his head to protect himself as the smaller chunks of fire and rock. The small meteors pounded one after another against the sword. The vibrations of the impacts ran through the sword and up Tylor’s arms. The ones that didn’t hit him landed on the roof, creating small cracks and fissures.

Tylor’s heart stopped when he saw the biggest meteor of them all. It was about half the size of Galbadia Garden and was heading toward him at an incredible rate. If he didn’t do something quick the meteor would crush him and half the Garden. There was a good chance that many of the students still in battle would be killed by the impact. He couldn’t let that happen.

Tylor still had some time before the meteor hit. He lifted his sword toward the giant flaming rock and focused all his power into one attack. “Hear me gatekeepers of Heaven, where the Gods reside. Bring judgement upon thy foe. Ritual Cannon!” He forced all his power through the sword and into a gigantic beam of energy and light. As the beam left his sword he felt all his strength going with it. The beam ripped through the meteor and blasted it to bits.

The attack had drained Tylor’s strength, leaving him weak. When he realized that chunks of flame and rock were still raining from the sky it was too late. A large chunk of rock slammed into Tylor’s body. The force of the impact was so great that it destroyed the roof under his feet.

As Tylor fell to the bottom of the giant room he had taken as much as he could. His strength failed him and he reverted back to his normal self. The giant sword unfused from his arm and turned back into Armageddon and Apocalypse.

Tylor had enough sense lift in him to notice that he was in the auditorium before he slammed into the ground. Armageddon bounced off the floor and landed somewhere else while Apocalypse’s blade stuck into the ground beside Tylor’s body.

He fought hard not to black out from the pain. As he slowly got to his feet he heard a voice call out his name. He looked to see that it was Squall. He and the others were on the auditorium’s stage fighting Sorceress Edea.

Tylor tried to say something but a sword pierced his shoulder, going in the back and coming out the front of his body. From the blackness of the blade he knew who it was who stabbed him.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Xemnas’ smiling face. His eyes had returned to normal but the rest of him stayed the same. Tylor grunted with pain as Xemnas pulled the katana out of his shoulder. Tylor fell to the floor and felt the first hint of a black out crawling over his eyes.

Xemnas chuckled as he always did, the evil sort of laugh that someone makes when everything was going their way. “This battle was over the minute you picked up your weapons. It’s insulting that such a weakling like you was once the same being as I. Elena was a fool to put all her hopes in you.”

Elena… Armageddon and Apocalypse had mentioned her when they appeared in his dream. He didn’t know why, but the name was familiar. Tylor turned his head to look over his shoulder at Xemnas. The floor was cold against his cheek. “Before you kill me, there’s something I have to know. Who is Elena?”

His smiled widened. “She is the sorceress who created your weapons and made you her knight.”

“I’ve never seen or heard about her before.”

“That is because my mistress and I keep her sealed away, like we had with you. She has spoken to you once or twice in the past, but her powers are weak, and she can do nothing to save you.”

“Why does she want to save me in the first place?” Tylor asked.

Xemnas gave a gallant shrug and said, “Why does one walk to the gates of Hell just to see the one he cares for? Is it compassion? Affection? Love? I would not know. I do not let these things weaken me.” He pointed his sword at Tylor and said, “But we have talked long enough. There is nothing you can do to stop Edea from killing your friends, just as there is nothing they can do to stop me from killing you.” He lifted the sword over his head and prepared for the final strike. “Farewell, Daimon.”

A scream from across the room tore him away from Tylor. A look of sheer horror showed plainly on Xemnas’ face. “Mistress!” Tylor looked and saw Sorceress Edea lying on the stage, small streams of smoke rising from her body. Squall stood with his hand outstretched on the other side of the stage. He had used a spell on Edea.

Tylor wasted no time. This was the only chance he had. Without thinking, he pushed himself away from the floor, pulled Apocalypse out of the floor and lunged it into Xemnas’ body through the large crack in his armour.

Everything stopped. It was as if time itself was holding its breath to see what would happen next. Xemnas turned his head slowly to meet Tylor’s eyes. A look of sheer wonderment and disbelief showed clearly on his face. He moved his mouth to form words, but they were almost too quiet to hear. “But… how…? I’m… stronger than you…”

“True strength is not determined by the size of one’s muscles or the power of their magic. It’s determined from the strength of one’s heart.”

“I… do not… understand…”

“And you never will, Xemnas. Because you don’t have one.”

Xemnas closed his eyes and let out a painful sigh. His body melted into black fog and faded from existence. All that was left behind was his sword and armour, which disintegrated soon after falling to the floor.

Tylor dropped his sword and collapsed to his knees. The battle exhausted him so much that he found it difficult to breathe. He lifted his head to see his friends rushing over, calling his name.

Then suddenly, they stopped. Everything stopped. It was like they were frozen in time. Tylor tried to get to his feet to make sense of what was happening. He found that even the slightest movement caused echoes to bounce all throughout the auditorium.

“I knew you would win.” Tylor turned to see a woman standing behind him. “I never gave up hope.”

She had long, black hair that ran down her white dress to her thighs. Her hair shined like fine threads in the light of the auditorium. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of violet that left Tylor staring. He had never met this woman before, but as she looked at her a name popped up in his head.

“Elena?” he said.

She gave him a warm smile. “You know my name.” She began to walk closer to Tylor until they were standing face to face. Her face and body made her look almost the same age as Tylor, older by one year at the least. But the way she stood and the subtle stride in her walk made her look about a decade older. “You defeated Xemnas. Without him I was able to break free of the seal that bound me from you.”

“There’s so much I need to ask-” Elena placed a finger on his lips.

“I know you have many questions, and I’ll answer them all in due time. But right now, you should see if your friends are OK.” Tylor looked over his shoulder to see Squall and the others still frozen in time. When he turned back to Elena, she was gone. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. Her last words echoed through his mind, “We will meet again.”

Everything went back to normal in an instant. It was like someone had flipped a switch and time resumed its natural current. Tylor turned back to the others when he heard their voices again. To them, nothing had happened.

Squall was the first to say, “Tylor, are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“That was awesome, Tylor! I didn’t know you had it in ya!” Zell began to give Tylor a congratulatory punch in the shoulder but stopped when he saw his wound.

Selphie started jumping up and down. “We all thought he was going to kill you!”

Quistis crossed her arms and gave him a look of displeasure. “I’m surprised you didn’t die when you fell through the ceiling.”

Irvine patted Tylor on the shoulder and gave him a childish smile. “That’s some wound you got there. It’ll make a pretty good battle scar to show off to the ladies.”

“Thanks for being so concerned about me, everyone.” Tylor looked around and noticed that someone was missing. “Hey, where’s Rinoa?”

They looked around but couldn’t find her. It wasn’t until Tylor looked in front of the stage that he saw Rinoa approaching Seifer. Seifer had fought along side the sorceress during the battle and was lying on his back.

Rinoa walked as if she were possessed. She dropped to her knees beside Seifer and took his head into her arms. She whispered something that the others couldn’t hear. Seifer slowly got back to his feet before a dark portal opened up and swallowed him. Once he was gone Rinoa fell on her stomach with a hard ‘thud’.

Everyone rushed up to help her. Quistis kneeled down beside her and placed a hand on her back. “Rinoa? Are you all right?”

“…Squall, Quistis, Selphie…” They all looked up and saw Sorceress Edea standing on the stage. “…Irvine, Zell. You’ve all grown so much… and become so strong… I have waited for this day to come. And also feared this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day? Where is Ellone? Have I protected Ellone?”

“Squall!” Quistis’ voice tore everyone’s attention away from Edea. “It’s Rinoa…”