Riku And The Olympians (Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories) in Gamer's Gaming

The Road So Far…

Riku continues making his way higher and higher through Castle Oblivion’s underground levels, approaching the first floor and a possible escape as rapidly as he can. While Riku has finished making his way through Wonderland, one of his basement level antagonists, Vexen, has made his way above ground, where he has decided to use his Riku Replica to challenge Sora. However, much to the Replica’s horror, that involves erasing the memories in his heart and replacing them with the ones Namine is being forced to put in there. Using the Destiny Islands world card created from Sora’s memories, the Orgnaization’s doomed above ground contingent creates the memories that will set the Replica against Sora for the remainder of Sora’s journey through the castle. We already know how that turns out. Axel destroys Vexen, the Replica is defeated time and again by Sora and eventually turns on the Organization to aid Sora against Marluxia. Back below ground, Riku makes his way to the sixth sublevel and uses the Olympus Coliseum world card to synthesize another world in an attempt to erase even more of the darkness from his heart. Will Riku succeed in freeing himself from the darkness? Will Lexaeus and Zexion attempt to hinder him? Will Riku ever find a nice place to eat something? Why doesn’t this castle have windows? Anyhow, on with the show…

Now…

With the Key of Beginnings card in hand, Riku made his way through the first room in the Olympus Coliseum, facing off against groups of Large Bodies, Blue Rhapsodies, Bouncywilds, Powerwilds, and Shadows. After defeating this initial onslaught, Riku made his way north and opened the door with a Strong Initiative card. Riku took aim at the Heartless, making sure to get the jump on them at every available opportunity, beating all the groups until the room stood empty. With the option to go east or north, Riku went north, using a Stagnant Space card for the first time. With the Heartless moving at half speed, striking first and wearing the Heartless down became an easy task, allowing Riku to move on quickly to the room’s only exit in the east. Given the ease he had getting through the room, Riku created a Teeming Darkness room to give himself a challenge in preparation for the coming battles. With Heartless seeming to come out of every corner and wall in the room, Riku stood his ground and, with his Soul Eater, put the creatures of darkness down for good. Riku, with the option to go south, east, or north, moved north by using a Moment’s Reprieve card at the door. After a brief rest, Riku continued on to the east, where he created an Almight Darkness room to test himself further. Though the Heartless provided a stiff challenge, Riku persevered and stood tall among his fallen enemies. Though he had the option of going south, Riku backtracked to the Teeming Darkness room and went south, proceeding forward with a Looming Darkness card. With the Heartless in full effect, Riku tested his limits, but still managed to come out on top. Making his way back a room, Riku finally made his way east with the use of a Mingling Worlds card. However, his plan backfired as the card created a Bottomless Darkness room. Stuck in the void of light and attacked relentlessly by shadows, Riku still managed to defeat his enemies before making his way to the east and the Key of Beginnings door. Inside, Riku faced down his darkness once more, this time in the form of Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Though Hades attacked with a few fire spells, Riku stayed on top of breaking his sleights and, with the aid of the Jafar-Genie card, made very short work of such a dangerous foe. With Hades defeated, Riku received the Hades enemy card and was returned to the Bottomless Darkness room. Backtracking to the Moment’s Reprieve room, Riku found a new doorway leading north into the Conqueror’s Respite room. Steadying himself for whatever he might face back in the halls of the castle, Riku stepped forward and through the world exit.

As Riku made his way to sublevel 5, Larxene was found above ground asking Namine why she was so glum. As Larxene mocked Namine and asked if she was feeling guilty for having tinkered with Sora’s memory, the Riku Replica entered the room and told Larxene to knock it off. He told Larxene that Namine didn’t want to remember Sora and told Namine that, whatever was hurting her, he would make it go away. He swore it on the good luck charm that she had given him…ya know, the fake one that she created in both his and Sora’s memories. With that, Riku walked back into the hallways. After the Replica left, Larxene said it was amazing how Namine seemed to have made the Replica’s heart from scratch. She hadn’t realized that Namine was able to use memories to transform objects, like the Destiny Islands world card, into keepsakes. Larxene asked if Namine had used the same trick on Sora to transform Kairi’s good luck charm. Namine just sat there, glum and saddened at the trouble her powers were causing. Larxene said it wouldn’t be long until Sora forgot about Kairi completely, but Namine told her that would not happen. No matter how much Namine changed his memory, Sora would never forget about Kairi. The more false memories of herself that she put into Sora’s heart, the stronger his feelings for Kairi would be. After all, she was the shadow of Kairi. Larxene wondered what was wrong with that. All Namine had to do a good job of rewriting Sora’s heart and it would allow Namine to be somebody. She would be real in Sora’s heart. Namine stared at the Savage Nymph with eyes full of hate. Back on sublevel 5, Riku made his way to yet another world door, this time using the Atlantica card to open the way forward. As the door closed behind him, Riku wondered if he could ever defeat the darkness inside himself and, consequently, if he would ever find a way out of the castle.