//------------------------------//
// Heartless: End of the World 
// Story: Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

As soon as they were done with Hollow Bastion, and Leon's group wanted to stay there since it was their childhood home, Sora and the others departed from the world as Sombra stood near the main console, pointing out a path that would bring them to where Ansem had fled to. She was sure that the World wanted them to bring down the mad Heartless, thus it was willing to bend a few rules to make sure they caught up with him before he did anything drastic, but she wasn't about to argue with what they were seeing right now. Sora, of course, really didn't understand how she knew where to find the path in question and decided that it was due to her connection to Darkness, which was why he focused on flying the ship while taking out the more powerful looking Heartless gummies that were blocking the way. Once they started along the path Sombra made sure that the others were prepared for whatever might be waiting for them, since she was sure Sora would find Ansem's hiding place in no time at all, while Radiant made sure Fluttershy's Heartless was safely resting inside their private world with the animals tending to her.

Sombra did find that Squeak, of all the animals, wanted to come along with them, no doubt because it could find treasure and loot them while they were focused on their enemies, something she wasn't about to argue with as she turned her focus towards preparing for what had to be the final battle. Another thing she discovered was Cid's way to improve their ship also came with a way to add or improve the weapons of the ship, in fact it came in the form of a 'merge' game, group two orbs that were the same weapon and they'd merge to form the next tier. Sombra had no idea why he wanted to add such a thing to their ship, but it gave Donald and Goofy something to do while Sora was flying the ship, as one focused on flying while also firing at their foes, another improved the attack power of their weapons, and the third focused on the defenses, which seemed to revolve around the same principle. She guessed that Cid wanted to make sure the others had something to do while they flew through the space between worlds, something that caused her to focus on preparing some food while she and Radiant waited for them to reach their destination.

It took some time to reach the end of the path, revealing a world that looked like it was a vortex of energy, where Sora did what he always did, he made sure their ship was safe before warping them down to the world's surface, which appeared to be a flat watery surface with circular rocks seeming to form a path forward, with a dark purple sky.

"Gawrsh, is this all that's left of the worlds that have been taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked, because they knew that when the Heartless found the core of a particular world it was devoured by Darkness, going out like they had seen when Sora's was taken, though it was odd to see what might have become of them.

"Don't worry, the worlds should be restored once we beat Ansem and stop his plans." Sora stated, which Sombra agreed with, that once they brought down their main foe, and did whatever they could to this place, they should be able to bring all of the fallen worlds back to the World, before he considered something, "Do you think what Leon said before we left is the truth? That once we beat Ansem the worlds will become disconnected from each other?"

"No. With the amount of damage gone to the worlds, they can never truly go back to the way they were before the barriers were broken... they'll be connected in a new way no doubt." Sombra replied, as that seemed to be how things would go once they brought down their foe, because she was sure that one of the rules of the World would change once Ansem was taken out, even if she didn't fully know how things might change in the future, before she shifted her stance, "Come on, we had best get going... there's no telling what we might find on our way to Ansem's lair."

Sora nodded as he and the others readied their weapons, where the boy took a moment to look at the shell charm that he had been given by Kairi earlier, before they walked into the unknown, something that allowed them to see that they could walk on the water's surface, as weird as that sounded. While they did that Sombra found something interesting, dark orbs fell down on top of them and pulled the group into a sealed zone which had a number of enemies for them to fight at any given moment, like how the first set of foes happened to be a bunch of Invisibles that stayed visible. Everyone found that the Heartless of this world were definitely stronger than the ones they had fought before, especially in the Coliseum, a fact Sombra was sure of since the dual blade wielding Heartless seemed to have more power and forced them to be far more focused than before. Another thing they discovered was that chests were their reward for winning in one of the orbs, why she had no idea and she found that everyone else happened to be as lost as she was, though Squeak wasted no time in collecting everything that was inside each chest, which triggered sending them back to the watery area.

With that in mind they focused on making their way down the path that was in front of them, which seemed to be far too easy since the stones that were beyond the starting area of this world happened to point in the direction of another stone, a path of sorts, even though each one pulled them into another fighting area. There were also Darkballs in some of the fighting orbs, which was an annoyance that Sombra didn't need since the dark fiery orbs didn't release hearts when they were brought down by a Keyblade, though her thoughts were dashed in a good way when they finally found a Behemoth in one of the dark arenas. She was more than fine with getting the heart of an empowered Behemoth, her personal label for a Heartless of this dark world, and since there was nowhere for the Heartless to go she and the others attacked the large beast like they had done to those that had gotten in their way previously. Of course this time around they had to be more careful of it's lightning attacks, since it was definitely more powerful than what they were expecting, due to the fact that it could blast holes into the ground that happened to be around them, but Sombra brought it down by bringing her Keyblade down into it's head, turning it into smoke in an instant.

She made sure to capture the heart before it departed, which would give her more strength and defense when she finally decided to absorb the collection that she was forming right now, and had to smile as they fought more Angel Stars, since those Heartless would allow her to empower her light magic.

Of course Sombra made sure that everyone had some periods of rest to make sure they weren't overwhelmed by what they were doing, though Sora didn't want to waste too much time on that since Ansem could be anywhere and he wanted to make the worlds safer by bringing him down. They also discovered something interesting, there were more Behemoths on this dark and twisted world than any other the group had been to so far, though while they happened to be tougher to bring down Sombra knew it would be good for all of them, as Sora and the others learned from constant battle, Radiant had her walking skill that improved her the more she walked around, and she captured hearts. It was a good thing since fighting the Behemoths allowed Sora to refine his technique, delivering more powerful attacks over the various battles he and his friends were taking part in, Donald placed his spells better, Goofy struck better locations to weaken his opponents for the others, and Radiant practiced boosting her speed to make sure she didn't get hit. Such a thing ended up netting Sombra about three Behemoth hearts and ten Angel Star hearts, which she gladly added to her collection as they finally reached the end of the path that the stones had been leading them on, a bunch of crystals, or stones that looked like the gems, that ended up warping them elsewhere.

The area it brought them to seemed to be a dark chasm that had all sorts of gems growing out of the sides and long stone walkways that seemed to connect the two sides together, where they glanced around the area for a time as they sought out a sign of sorts that would tell them that they were on the right track.

"This world is massive... where do you reckon Ansem went?" Radiant asked, because if the rest of the world was like this, and took a lot of time for them to get through so they could make any sort of progress, she was sure that they would be unable to reach him before he did whatever foul deed he was trying to accomplish.

"We must delve into the deepest and darkest place to find our target." Sombra replied, as she could feel the path in front of them, her own dark powers trying to figure out the true path that Ansem had taken as he moved deeper into the dark depths of this world, before she opened her eyes and continued to walk forward, "Even if that means wiping out each and every Heartless that dares to get in our way."

As they made their descent, however, the group found that there were no Heartless in the area, oddly enough, which only made everyone keep their guards up since they didn't want to be overwhelmed by a sudden attack out of nowhere, but Squeak did find a number of chests that he looted before catching up with them. At the bottom of the chasm they found a purple geyser, or what looked like a geyser, that actually teleported them into a darker portion of this world when each of them jumped into it, in an area that looked like it might have some teleport stations for them to fight through. Sora and the others decided to ignore the toothy nature of the edges as they noticed a blue orb that warped them over to another area that was identical to the one they had just been in, as Sombra confirmed that there were more than just one, but the difference between this one and the old one was that this had a purple beam of energy in the center. The beam was yet another form of teleportation as it warped them to what appeared to be Traverse Town, with the raised walls when they encountered each other, and had more Heartless for them to fight, like a final gauntlet of sorts before the main event, and Sombra was all for it as she found that many were the emblem types.

Of course Sombra was a little annoyed that the phantom Traverse Town only had Soldiers and Large Bodies to fight, but it was fine as she collected more and more hearts from their enemies, and once they were done with the defenders of the area the group was warped back to the platform they had been on before stepping into the beam.

The next one brought them to Wonderland and happened to have some of the more magical Heartless for them to clash with, as in a couple of Wizards with a number of Nocturne that were all different colors, showing the group that they had to take them serious least they be brought down instead. As Sombra expected Deep Jungle was just Powerwilds, along with a number of Bouncywilds and even a purple variant that she called 'Sniperwilds' since they seemed to love to try and snipe them from afar, not that it mattered since Radiant tracked them down and eliminated those Heartless. The phantom Coliseum had a number of Defenders and Flying Soldiers for everyone to clash with, along with a few Wyverns that tried to sneak attack them, even though Sombra grounded them with her gravity magic and opened the way for the others to take them out so she could claim even more hearts. Agrabah, surprising no one, had Bandits that were accompanied by Fat Bodies and Pot Spiders, which all but confirmed that each phantom world they had to fight through had enemies that also came from that world, even though the world was based on their memories and the Heartless were real.

Monstro had more of the Ghosts and Barrel Spiders, Atlantica had the Sea Soldiers and the Sea Neons, Halloween Town was full of Wights and Gargoyles, while Neverland had more of Ships and Pirates for them to do battle with, and they even went into a phantom version of Hollow Bastion to fight a number of Defenders, Wizards, and more Wyverns.

"Why... does it feel like we're unlocking the path to wherever Ansem is waiting?" Radiant asked, though after saying that they found a green beam that warped everyone to a world that looked like a wood of some kind, one Sora recognized, a fact that told them that this had to be Pooh's world.

"Because we likely are. If he was smart Ansem would have locked the door behind him and ensured that there was a set of trials for pursuers to overcome to reach him." Sombra remarked, as it made sense to her when she thought about it, and it appeared that their foe was being smart about things, though she was thankful for a short break since it meant that they would be ready for whatever might be waiting for them in the depths.

"I really don't know what he's trying to do, but we're going to kick him out of Riku's body and break his plans." Sora said, as it was a simple truth, he was sure that they would be able to bring down Ansem before he could complete whatever it was that he was working on right now, while at the same time he knew that Sombra would be able to help direct them to the area their target was waiting in.

After resting in the rest area for a few moments they moved to the next area and found that it had a fiery red pillar that brought them to an underground area, a lab with a device of some kind, one that had three chambers inside it that were totally dark at the moment. Sombra found a piece of paper nearby that seemed to detail bringing all hearts together, into one form, one great heart to encompass all, something called 'Kingdom Hearts' that made a smile appear on her face as she read the rest of the page, as it claimed that the entity was a source of untold power and wisdom. Suddenly everything seemed to connect in her head as she thought about it, the Heartless devouring worlds, Maleficent being tricked into the quest to find the Princesses of Heart to awaken the Final Keyhole, and why the Kingdom Key was so important that the World itself told her to seek out Sora. Ansem was after a font of potentially infinite power, something that would no doubt allow him to rewrite reality however he wished while granting him all the knowledge that the World had to offer, and now Sombra knew about it as well, which meant there was no way she was going to let him take the Heart of all Worlds.

With that in mind the group discovered there was no way forward and retraced their steps to the previous zone, only to discover that the fiery beam had vanished and had been replaced by a vortex of energy, causing them to jump into it and appear in the air of a great dark place. In that instant they found a massive muscular being standing before them, where all of them were half the size of the creature's head, who had black skin and two large demonic wings, though this time Sombra could tell that it wasn't a Heartless, it was something else that had a heart shrouded by darkness. Of course the odd thing was that he just seemed to stand there with his arms crossed as the group flew around him, striking at his head and the sides of his chest before he could do anything, and when he attacked it seemed like all he could do was breath fire on them, or at least until he caused the volcano he was standing in to detonate. He could also summon orbs of light to throw at the group, which Sombra caught in her magic and destroyed so they didn't do any harm to the group, though the sheer amount of damage they were able to do to the being meant that he was unable to actually bring them down.

In the end Sombra, Sora, Radiant, Goofy, and Donald brought down the beast and he was consumed by dark flames, which seemed to reveal a path for them to take to move forward, though as everyone moved forward Sombra caught the being's heart, because while it wasn't a Heartless she wasn't about to let it be reborn and fall to the Darkness. Following that they headed down into the now dormant volcano and found a dark path that seemed to be winding and just twisted, the dark energy of this world doing something weird to everything, only to find no Heartless waiting for them. It was like Ansem had assumed that the 'god' creature, as that was the only way Sombra could even think to label the winged beast, would stall all of them for a long period of time or maybe even take them down, hence why there were no more enemies between it and where he was resting. That only remained true until they found a chamber where they had to fight another Behemoth, a fair amount of Darkballs, at least six more Invisibles, and a good number of Angel Stars, all of which Sombra and the others just wrecked since they were used to fighting these enemies at this point.

Once those foes were brought down they entered another opening and found that it brought them to a small cavern that seemed to be just a small spring and an elegant door that Sombra knew would bring them to Ansem, to which they decided to pause for the time being and rest a little before they finally brought an end to this adventure.