The moment went on as Cerden and Flora were walking through the factory. Everything seemed quiet on the floor that they were on. Both would look at each other from time to time. The silence, while welcomed, was off in some aspects. The fact that they were met with no more resistance be it soldiers or high-ranking officials on-world. Another thing that made it seem a bit off was the fact that the alarm hadn’t gone off. Surely if something had happened, an alarm of some sort would be sounded off. That made Cerden wonder exactly if there was another force at work.

[b]“Does it strike you a little off that nothing has happened?”[/b] Cerden asked Flora as he stopped.

[b]“It does seem a little off, but it could be that this entire floor is clear of any Empire soldiers.”[/b] Flora said.

Cerden wanted to believe that Flora was right. Hell, maybe she was, but that still didn’t change the fact that no alarm went off. “Maybe you’re rig--” Just as Cerden was going to respond, he heard noises. He turned around and behind both him and Flora was a group of Defender Heartless, each with the intent to strike and kill. [b]“Um, honey..”

“I thought I told you not to call me that!”

“Look..” [/b]Cerden tugged on Flora’s jacket and pointed.

[b]“Oh..”[/b] Flora said, almost speechless.

As they both turned around, the Defender Heartless all lined up in a straight line and that was when Cerden and Flora noticed that there was about six of them and he could see that shadows were starting to rise. That gave the white-haired man the indication that behind the line of six Defenders were more ready to join the crop. They all just looked at Cerden and Flora as if waiting for them to make the first move. The duo exchanged a glance and both of them nodded to each other. It was like they were communicating telepathically as both turned their heads to face the Defender Heartless. Cerden would take out his twin short swords and Flora her two daggers. 

As if it were on cue, both the duo of Flora and Cerden and the six Defender Heartless ran in for a collision. The two heartless on the far sides of the line took a frontal position and a their Dog Shields opened and shot out three fireballs each at the duo. Cerden jumped and as soon as he did, he was riding glass in spirals. Each line of the spiral would defend the six fireballs, to which didn’t even break a single piece of the glass. The distance that Cerden was able to get allowed him to get close to one of the Defender heartless and on the moment that he was able to get close, he sliced the air, and glass shards flew from the tip of his blade. The Defender Heartless, of course, raised their shields up and tried to defend, but the pure force of the shards proved to be too much for them and instantly they fell victim to Cerden’s power, which made only four of the six remaining. At least, for now that is.

While Cerden did his thing, Flora would take some of the spotlight as she came in from behind him, jumping over his head with Cerden looking overhead and being able to see Flora’s business. He smiled at that for a short while. Flora would then land on top of one of the Defender’s shieds. They were taken by surprise and Flora stuck one of her daggers into the heartless’ chest, causing it to fade to darkness. Right before it did, however, Flora jumped back and landed in front of Cerden. Not even wasting any time, Flora rushed forward, gripping her two daggers tightly. She would embrace her magical prowess and surround both with aeroga. The wind was spinning rapidly around her body and by result, her weapons so fast that any physical contact would cause harm to anyone, which was why Cerden stepped back. As she went for a right piercing motion, the wind would not only aid to the cutting potential of her blade, but due to the speed at which the wind was spinning, it would send a slight shockwave to the other two heartless nearby, causing them to be pushed away three feet. As for the one that her dagger hit, it would scream out in agony, and be sent back ten feet, hit the wall, and it faded into blackness. 

The two remaining heartless were ready to strike as one faced Cerden and the other Flora and the latter two had their backs against each other. [b]“Just like old times, wouldn’t you agree sweetie?” [/b]Cerden said smiling.

[b]“If I remember correctly, last time we were surrounded by five-hundred times this amount.” [/b]Flora said.

Cerden laughed as he faced the heartless in front of him. [b]“Let’s do this.” 

“Whatever.”[/b]

Both rushed forward to their respective heartless. Each heartless would fire seven consecutive fireballs. Flora would counter it by using waterga, which would come in the form of a jet stream of water magic, to which shot right through the fire balls, reducing them to smoke, and drowned the poor thing into the wall until it was nothing but a memory. For Cerden, would dodge each fireball and with one arm, and one short sword, he knocked the heartless up in the air as he sweeped with the sword and his leg. As it was airborne, Cerden jumped up, and front flip-kicked it with his leg coated in magic-enforced glass, causing the heartless to hit the ground hard and it fading into darkness.

As he landed, Cerden looked at Flora smiling. [b]“Like I said, just like old times.” [/b]Cerden said.

Flora smiled and laughed slightly. [b]“And this time you didn’t almost die. Good job on that.”[/b] She said bluntly.

As they were about to celebrate, Cerden noticed something odd going on. [b]“Um, honey..” [/b]Cerden said pointing. Flora looked on and saw several shadows rise up from the ground. There were multiple kinds of heartless’. Cerden saw Defenders, Invisibles, Large Bodies, Shadows, Neoshadows, and what seemed to be a miniature Darkside. 

[b]“Yeah, we should get out of here.” [/b]Flora suggested.

Simply nodding, Cerden and Flora jetted out of the floor they were on since the heartless had yet to see them. It was like they were in the process of emerging from the shadows, and hadn’t yet been aware of their pressence. Whatever the case, the duo would take the chance to get the hell out of dodge. They had other things to do, anyway. Hopefully they would make it in time or they would miss their only chance to see their son.