In The Belly Of The Beast (Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories) in Gamer's Gaming

The Road So Far…

Riku proceeds through the halls of Castle Oblivion, assaulted from within by the darkness within his heart, and from without by the Organization. Riku has been working to whittle away at the darkness in his heart, piece by piece. He has defeated Maleficent, the Guard Armor, and Jafar’s genie incarnation, all formed from the darkness within him. However, with the more he destroys, it seems that what is left grows more powerful, at least according to Vexen, the Chilly Academic, number four within the Organization. Vexen encountered Riku and goaded him into fighting, only in an effort to draw out the darkness within the boy and to gain data for some purpose. As Riku makes his way through sublevel 9 and Monstro, questions arise anew. Why is Riku so steeped in darkness and can he ever fully be rid of it? What is the connection between Ansem and the Superior of the Organization? Just what does Vexen plan on doing with the information that he gained from fighting Riku? Why, in God’s name, are we having to walk through a whale bladder again?!? Well, maybe not that last one so much. In any case, Riku progresses forward through the castle, hoping to find his own answers and, perhaps, find his missing friends, Sora and King Mickey…

Now…

Riku wandered into the innards of the great whale, Monstro, and received the Key of Beginnings card, once more. Riku took out the Heartless in the world’s first room with relative ease before moving north, using a Martial Waking card to enter the next room. After exercising the strength of his deck against the Heartless in the room, Riku realized there were two doors. One led north, but Riku decided to go east, using a Mingling Worlds card to move on to the next room. The card created a Sleeping Darkness room, where Riku made short work of the napping Heartless, before moving east once more. Riku used a Lasting Daze card to synthesize the next room in which a multi-leveled room full of Heartless pushed Riku to his limits. However, his ability to score multiple first strikes allowed Riku to finally defeat the Heartless in the room and move north using a Looming Darkness card. In the next room, Riku dealt with an almost unending amount of Heartless, but still managed to make it through all of the groups before heading west, using a Meeting Ground card to move forward. Riku managed to continue forward with the help of Mickey’s power, defeating the Heartless and making his way west once more with the help of a Moment’s Reprieve card. Riku steadied himself for one final showdown before going to the room’s northern door, the Key of Beginnings door. Riku opened the way forward and found himself in battle with the Parasite Cage Heartless. The Parasite Cage got up to it’s old tricks within the room with the acid floor, attempting to shrink and destroy the platforms that Riku used to keep out of the acid while also trying to suck Riku in. Riku, using a combination of his Jafar-Genie card, to keep the cage from breaking his attacks, and his dark powers, using sleights to take away large chunks of health, finally managed to defeat the giant Heartless, claiming the Parasite Cage enemy card as his reward. Riku returned to the previous room and backtracked until he found himself inside the Conqueror’s Reprieve room. Steadying himself for whatever may lay outside the door to the halls of Castle Oblivion, Riku moved on.

Meanwhile, in the Organization’s underground sanctuary, Zexion and Lexaeus pondered Riku’s progress before Lexaeus asked Zexion what was going on aboveground with Sora. Zexion told him that Namine’s powers were being used to shuffle Sora’s memories as they were speaking. Zexion assumed that Marluxia would be able to get his puppet. Zexion said that Sora would be a valuable asset to the Organization, but Marluxia and Larxene’s actions had left him uneasy. Lexaeus chimed in that there was also Axel to think about. There was no way to know what that one was thinking. Zexion said that Vexen should be able to take care of the matter. His replica was soon to be completed. Lexaeus mentioned that Vexen despised Marluxia and that Vexen might end up making a mess of the whole thing. Zexion figured the best thing to do was to tell Vexen. After all, wasn’t it better for him to clean up the mess than for it to be left to them?

Riku, meanwhile, had made his way to sublevel 8. With only one world card remaining, Riku walked up to the door and opened it using his Neverland card, hoping to find more answers, both in this world and in the halls beyond…