A frontal attacked proved not to be a winning strategy, despite Xion's best efforts. She had lunged towards the golem with keyblade held high, only for the monster of stone and magic to drive a fist into the ground right in her path. The shockwave knocked Xion off of her feet and hurled her across the large chamber, where she slammed into the side of a stone wall and collapsed to the ground.
'That looked painful,' Sombra told Xion as the girl picked herself out of the sand, breathing heavily as she glared through her bangs at the golem, which was standing in the center of the room. She then glanced down at its lower body and found that it had no legs, so it's lower base was attached to the floor of the room. Realizing that it couldn't get to her and that she was, at the moment, out of its range, Xion took her time rising back up to her feet.
"Yeah, it was. Good thing that wasn't a direct attack or else I'd probably be a stain on the wall," Xion noted before she pointed her keyblade at the golems head, smirking to herself before she muttered," Fire."
A ball of fire shot out of the end of her keyblade and soared right into the face of the golem, exploding with a roar. Smoke and flames consumed the head of the golem, allowing Xion to smile as she watched it rock back and forth.
'What are you smiling about?' Sombra asked Xion, who lifted Sombra's horn so that she could look at him.
"See how the golem's stuck to the floor? That means he can't come to get me," Xion said with a smile as she pointed her blade at the golem's base. "All I need to do is stay out of his range and keep using long range spells to wear him down. Eventually the damage will add up and we'll be able to proceed with little to no effort."
'Puppet, I'll give you credit for being clever. Against any other opponent, that would be a brilliant idea,' Sombra praised while a clapping sound emerged from his horn. 'But I fought the golem before when I was at the peak of my power and yet I didn't manage to beat him. Do you know what my primary weapon against him was?'
"Magic," Xion said through gritted teeth, before she looked up at the golem to find that aside from some soot, the face of the golem was perfectly fine. "So he's immune to magical attacks?"
'Seems like it. Golems were created originally to combat powerful magic users like moi,' Sombra revealed to Xion, who bit back a curse as she predicted what he was going to say next. 'No, the only way to defeat a golem was either to destroy it with physical force, not my forte, or find a way to imprison it. Which this one seems to be. So puppet, looks like we've got only one option available to us. You think that toothpick can take down a monster of stone like that?'
"It'll have to."
Xion resumed her attack by dashing across the ground towards the golem, using quick movements to the left and right to make sure that the stone sentinel had trouble tracking her. She watched it wind up its fist and quickly leapt into the air, right as the fist came crashing down where she had been standing a moment ago. She landed on the back of the golem's fist and used its arm as a bridge, one that lead her right to its head.
"TAKE THIS!" she roared once she reached the head, swinging the keyblade down for all she was worth into the side of the monsters head. The force of her blow knocked the golem's head to the side, but to her disbelief the keyblade failed to scratch the brick that made up the head of the golem. The golem then slowly turned its head towards Xion, glaring at her with its yellow eyes. A blast of light erupted from its eyes, a blast that hurled Xion off of the golem's shoulder and to the sand below.
"Well that didn't work!" Xion yelled at Sombra as she landed in a roll, allowing her to spring back up to her feet in time to turn around to see another punch coming her way. Xion slammed her keyblade into the ground and summoned a barrier around herself, but when the fist struck the barrier the barrier shattered, once again hurling Xion across the room. Her side clipped the edge of a pillar and she fell to the ground, pain lancing in the side that caught the pillar.
'No, I didn't. Wow this is quite the golem. I've never seen one be so fundamentally sound,' Sombra said in an impressed tone while Xion cast Cure on herself to recover from the impact. 'Not only is it completely magic resistant, but it also is built incredibly tough. We may not actually manage to defeat this foe.'
"You've got to be kidding me. I didn't come this far just to lose to a giant chunk of rock!" Xion roared as she returned to the fray once more. She closed her eyes and focused on her fondest memories, memories which summoned an aura of light around her. Xion's eyes snapped open as a blade of light formed around her keyblade, while the power of the light coursed through her veins.
Xion shot towards the golem in a burst of light, arriving at the base of the creature in a heartbeat. She used the enhanced power of her blade to slice into the base of the golem, gaining its attention. The golem brought back an arm and slammed it where Xion had been standing, but by the time the fist struck at where she had been, the girl was already in the air over the golem's head.
"Time to fall!" Xion roared as she thrust the keyblade towards the golem, firing four chains made of light out of the end of her keyblade. The chains of light drove themselves through the golems head, getting it to roar as the light coursed through it. Xion then yanked back on the chains to pull herself towards the golem's head, where she aimed her blade right between its eyes.
With one last yell she thrust the keyblade through the head of the golem, driving the blade of light clean through the other side of the creature. She then roared as she ripped the blade out of the head of the golem, causing brick and magic to fly around her. Xion then back flipped off of the golem and landed on the ground, spinning her keyblade in victory as the golem collapsed to the ground behind her.
'That...was impressive,' Sombra said with actual amazement in his voice.
"Like I said Sombra, I'm not going down until I make it to the beach," Xion said with determination in her voice. "And there's no way I would lose to a giant pile of bricks. Now come on, let's grab the core and get out of this dusty-"
The next thing Xion knew she felt something large and solid strike her in the back, ripping her feet from the ground and hurling her into one of the temple walls. Her back cracked hard against the wall and she slumped to the ground, barely able to feel what was going on in her body.
'Xion! Are you alright?!' Sombra's horn asked Xion, who struggled to get out an answer.
She and Sombra turned to see what had struck her, only for the both of them to be shocked by the fact that the golem was getting back up. A crack filled with light was still in the center of the creatures skull, yet despite that would the golem was moving around like nothing had happened.
'That can't be right. You stabbed it through the head! It shouldn't be able to move anymore!' Sombra roared as Xion tried to push herself back up to her feet, yet the damage done was making it hard for her to do so.
"Then I guess I have to cut it's head clean off," Xion snarled as she pushed herself back up, closing her eyes and starting to channel the light once more.
'Puppet, cease that at once,' Sombra said to Xion, who cracked open her eyes to look down at the horn. 'Stop channeling the light. It's doing more harm than good at the moment.'
"What do you mean? It increases my power, speed and magical abilities. Why wouldn't I use it?" Xion asked Sombra, before pain washed over her and she nearly collapsed to one knee.
'It's draining your stamina too quickly. Remember, you still haven't adapted to the power yet and using it too much could knock you out cold,' Sombra reminded to girl, before the two of them looked towards the golem once more. The golem slammed both of its fist into the ground and sent out a shockwave that tore towards the pair. Sombra's horn flashed and a barrier of darkness constructed itself around the both of them, just in time to protect the both of them from the wave.
"So what should I do, tap into the power of the darkness?" Xion asked Sombra, who wracked his brain in an effort to think of an answer.
'It doesn't make sense, the golem should have gone down. Even if they seem invincible on the outside, they are not...puppet, toss me at the golem's joints!' Sombra roared as Xion as he lowered the barrier, getting Xion to look at him like he was crazy. 'Just do it!'
Figuring that she had nothing left to lose, Xion picked up the horn and chucked it at the golem. While her aim was a little off, Sombra used his dark magic to adjust his flight path so that his horn fell through a joint area around the golem's neck. The golem looked down at where the horn vanished, before it turned its attention back to Xion.
"Alright, I've fought Heartless, I've fought Nobodies and I've fought the biggest threats the worlds have had to offer. I will not allow myself to lose to you!" Xion roared as she took a few steps forward, only for pain to lance up her side and force her down to one knee. Xion grit her teeth as she leaned against her keyblade for support, before looking up at the golem which was cocking back another fist.
Then the golem's fist stopped in mid swing, getting Xion to tilt her head with some confusion. The golem then let out a roar as its body began to spasm back and forth, while it's hands clawed at its chest. Just as Xion was wondering whether or not the golem's actions had anything to do with Sombra, a blast of darkness erupted from the center of the golem's chest, spitting out a small black ball of darkness with yellow eyes and sharp teeth.
'Haha! So that's what was keeping the golem moving!' Sombra yelled with excitement as his horn came tumbling out of the golem's chest and onto the ground. 'Puppet, your strike to the golem's head did finish it off. The problem was this little bugger was inside controlling the actual thing like a...well, puppet. Finish it off and we can finally leave this Faust forsaken place!'
"So you're what was causing the golem to keep going," Xion said with a small growl as she glared down the Heartless, which slowly backed away from her key. The creature turned around and tried to flee, but a single slash from Xion cleaved the ball of darkness into two. It let out a weak cry before it vanished into darkness, finally finishing off the golem.
'Well I'll be damned, puppet. You actually managed to do what I could not. You slayed the golem,' Sombra said with praise in his voice as he looked at the giant pile of stone that had once been a foe he couldn't overcome. 'Of course, the keyblade played a huge roll in slaying this beast. What an incredible weapon. What I wouldn't give to have one of those for my own. Too bad they have to chose their wielders and you just can't steal them.'
"No, you can't. And with you being around, I'm very grateful for that fact," Xion said with a tired smile as she limped over to the horn, scooping it up and placing it into her pocket. She then looked around at the stones that had burst out of the golem's chest, eventually finding one that was spherical in nature and glowed with a warm, orange light. "So this must be the Golem's Core, eh? Smaller than I thought it would be."
'Good eye, puppet. That is what we came here for,' Sombra said as Xion picked up the core, holding it in her hands for a moment before she placed it into her inventory. 'With that I finally have all the components needed to fix what was once the greatest and most sought after body in all of Equestria. I cannot wait to return to my godly form once more.'
"Yeah...sounds good," Xion muttered weakly before she sat down hanging her head and breathing heavily as she felt exhaustion and pain wash over her. "You think, now that we've got everything, we'll be able to take a break? I'm not feeling so hot."
'Yeah, let's get out of here. There's a good amount of darkness in this place, so I should be able to...' Sombra muttered before a portal of darkness appeared in front of the both of them. Xion pushed herself back up to her feet and walked over to Sombra slowly, gathering him up before the two of them walked into the darkness. 'Something's wrong with her. She shouldn't be that damaged from simply taking a punch. I wonder...does it have anything to do with her constant use of the light?'
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No. I
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Xion enjoyed watching the stars. She especially enjoyed watching them in Equestria, where there were so many in the sky that she felt like they could cast away the darkness of the night. Every once in a while a comet would fly by or the moon would do something weird, but Sombra told her that it was just the princesses being stupid.
What she wasn't enjoying was the pain that refused to leave her body. Even as she laid on her back under the starry sky, simply relaxing, the pain was still there. She could still feeling her skin burning or her muscles hurting and she had no idea why. She winced in pain after she moved her head slightly to the left, resulting in some grumbling of hers that gained the attention of Sombra.
'Body still hurting?' Sombra asked Xion, who let out another moan of pain as her answer.
"I don't get it. I've recovered from the fight and even cast Cure myself a few times incase my body wasn't healing, but I still feel...like I'm hurting," Xion grunted as another wave of pain washed over her. She then cast a glanced at Sombra, who was resting on an open book with the three items they had fought for around him. "You have any idea what could be wrong with me?"
'There are plenty of things wrong with you, puppet. But if you are asking what is wrong with you at the moment, I may be able to offer a few ideas,' Sombra put forward, but his tone left Xion hesitant to ask. 'Yeah, I don't think you'll like any of my theories, but fortunately for you they're just theories.'
"Lay them on me."
'The first is that you are a being of darkness using an incredible amount of light. Even if you have a connection to the light, it still can't be good for your body,' Sombra began and Xion realized he had a point. 'The second is far darker, however. The second possibility is that Maestro created your body to function for a certain period of time, just long enough to get him the information he needed. Perhaps we are getting close to your time limit and soon your body will start to fall apart.'
"So...I'm falling apart? Again?" Xion asked, her voice sounding like a person who was crushed. She lifted her hands and looked up at them, finding that they were starting to shake with fear. "No...no this can't be happening again! Why?! Why is it every time I feel like I'm start to get a hold of things, it all just comes crumbling down?! What did I do to deserve this kind of existence?! Where I'm just...a puppet?!"
Her last question was screamed up at the sky, but there was no answer from the uncountable number of stars in the heavens. Xion then choked back a sob as she rested her arms and head back down on the ground, closing her eyes and breathing shakily. All the while Sombra watched from his book, unable to answer any of the questions that she had asked. But while he didn't have any answers, Sombra was never without something to say.
'Look...Xion. I know things seem terrible right now. And trust me, I know what it's like to have a body that doesn't work the way you want it to. I've gone through it before. Right now, as a matter of fact,' Sombra said to Xion, but the girl didn't answer. 'Also, don't take what I've said too seriously. Remember, they're just ideas. I have no idea whether they're true or not. I could be wrong.'
"I thought you were never wrong?" Xion spat back in a sad voice.
'Well, you've got me there,' Sombra admitted with a chuckle, before he let out a sigh and thought back once again to the city. He then glanced over at Xion once again, finding her staring at her keyblade. 'Alright puppet, I'm going to make you a promise,' Sombra began before he used his dark magic to take on a shadowy form.
"A promise?" Xion asked as Sombra walked over to her, getting the girl to sit up and give Sombra a suspicious look.
'Yes, and despite what you may think of me, I do keep my promises,' Sombra said with a smile of confidence, but all that made Xion do was point the tip of her keyblade at him. 'Still don't trust me?'
"Of course not."
'Smart girl. I see I'm rubbing off on you,' Sombra said with a laugh before his face took on a more serious expression. 'But look, you've been an invaluable...assistant to me these past couple of weeks. More so than any other assistant I've had in the past. Not to mention you've been an endless source of entertainment and intrigue. Your keyblade alone is enough to thank you for.'
"Get on with it."
"Fine, fine. What I will promise you is that I will find a way to fix whatever the Maestro or the darkness did to you," Sombra said with conviction, more conviction that Xion had ever heard in his voice before. "I can respect the Maestro for creating a puppet that he would use for his own, evil ambition, heck, I might do it myself. But where he made a mistake was when he messed with MY puppet, the one that has been helping me. And I cannot allow that to stand."
"Wow, really making me feel good here," Xion said with a smirk.
"But that is my promise. I will not let one of the best and strongest beings of darkness be lost to this land of endless light like so many others. I will find a way to fix you, and if I cannot do that, I will change this world so that you do not need to be fixed. This is my promise to you pu...Xion."
Xion's eyes widened slightly at Sombra's words, amazed that a creep like himself could be saying them. She then lowered her head and thought about what he had said, never noticing that Sombra had his eyes closed as well. She then lifted her head with a smile and extended her hand to him, one that still held the keyblade in it.
"Are you sure you're not saying all of this stuff just to get the keyblade?" Xion asked, getting Sombra to chuckle before he placed a hoof on the keyblade to push it to the side.
'No, if I want your keyblade I would have taken it already. But getting you repaired is my...first priority,' Sombra promised before he held out his hoof to Xion. "Not like I can repair my body at the moment. Even with all the materials, I still have to preform the ceremony "When the moon blocks out the light of the sun" or some crap like that. There's always a catch with these kind of spells. Stupid, rule making wizards."
Xion shook her head at Sombra's words with a small smile, before she reached out and grabbed hold of his hoof to shake it.
"Alright Sombra, it's a promise. Just stay away from my keyblade."
"You're no fun."