"This way," Mickey said, opening the door to the throne room, which was really only a small opening, masked to seem like part of the greater door.

"The Hall of the Cornerstone, Your Majesty?" Sora observed, seeing that a huge slab of stone floor had been rolled aside to reveal the stairway that led down into the Hall of the Cornerstone, the place where the Cornerstone of Light was kept.

"Shhh!" the King warned fiercely, waiting until the last of them shuffled through the door; he stuck his head out into the colonnade and looked both ways to make sure no one was near, then pulled the heavy door to silently. "Yes, Sora," Mickey said in a more friendly, quiet sort of tone. "The Hall of the Cornerstone. Come on." The mouse continued to talk as they walked the length of red carpet toward the Stair of the Cornerstone. "Do you know what the Cornerstone is?" he asked them. "The Cornerstone is Pure Light. You remember when the Heartless first appeared, and the stars began blinkin’ out one by one? Those stars were actually worlds. Worlds that had been destroyed by the Heartless. Those worlds have been restored now, and the stars are back in place. Back in the old days, folks used to believe that the worlds were Pure Orbs of Light, because they looked so much like stars from a distance. Of course, that’s not true. But there are such things as ‘Pure Orbs of Light’."

"And the Cornerstone is one of them," Sora remarked.

"Exactly," the King replied.

"But, Your Majesty," Riku began as they descended the dark stairway. "…What does that have to do with us?"

"See for yourself." Just as Mickey spoke these words, the six of them were reaching the bottom of the stairs. There, in the center of the underground chamber was the pedestal of the Cornerstone. But the Cornerstone—was dark!

"Wha—!?" They all, with exception of King Mickey, staggered back a step and their mouths dropped open.

"The Light!" Sora exploded. "It’s gone! How did it go out?!"

"That’s just what we’ve got to figure out," Mickey said, sounding troubled. "The Cornerstone was Pure Light, and so it attracted tremendous Darkness to itself, just as The Radiant Garden did. ‘The greater the circle of Light, the greater the circumference of Darkness around it’. But this isn’t right. No matter what, Light always survives Darkness. If I start a fire, there’ll be Light every time. The Darkness never keeps that from happening. But this…somehow the Darkness has quenched the Cornerstone’s Light. That shouldn’t happen."

"So…" Riku began slowly, trying to form a solid thought in his brain. "If the Darkness put out the Light, then…Darkness is stronger now?"

"I don’t think so," Mickey replied. "I don’t think the Darkness has gotten stronger…but maybe, the agents that work for Darkness are becoming bigger in numbers."

"The Heartless," Sora said quietly. "The Heartless are multiplying. Which means…"

"The Nobodies are multiplying to," Riku finished for him. "As long as there are Heartless, there’ll be Nobodies."

"…And as long as there’s Darkness in people’s hearts, there’ll be Heartless," Sora continued. "So, we’ve got a Heartless problem…but what do we do about the Cornerstone?"

"The Cornerstone attracted Darkness to itself because it was Pure Light," Mickey stated. "That’s always happened, but Pure Light like this has never fallen before. So, if the Cornerstone can fall, then the Heartless will be trying to destroy other bright sources too."

"Well, uh, maybe we can relight that there Cornerstone?" Goofy suggested. Donald eyed the Captain of the Royal Knights oddly.

"What kinda crazy pitch is that, Goofy?" the duck demanded, stamping one webbed foot.

"Well, I was just tryin’, Donald, uh-hyuck," Goofy replied.

"Relight the Cornerstone..." Sora muttered, staring down at the Keyblade. "Light…"

Suddenly, Sora held his Keyblade up over the Cornerstone; a spark of Light danced at the tip of the Weapon. Mickey, Riku, and Kairi exchanged glances. The other three Keyblade wielders summoned their weapons—Kingdom Key, Way to Dawn, and Divine Garden—and formed a circle around the Cornerstone of Light, pointing the Keyblades to the center. Seemingly out of nowhere, two more Keyblades joined the circle. Sora looked up to see the faint image of his other half, Roxas, directing his two Keyblades, Oblivion and Oathkeeper, toward the Cornerstone. Sora and Roxas exchanged quick, pleased smiles as the Keyblade Wielders raised their blades upward, and six beams of Light raced into the Cornerstone.

They all grinned in satisfaction (though none so pleased as Goofy) as the Cornerstone once again began to glow in its radiance, the essence of Pure Light. But, somehow, it seemed to gleam less brightly than it had before. They all raised an eyebrow to it, but Riku was the first to speak.

"Six Keyblades," he said solemnly. "Six Weapons of Light…and they still didn’t restore the Cornerstone."

"The Cornerstone cannot be fully restored," Mickey explained, "until the Darkness stops attacking it. And the Darkness won’t stop attacking until its agents, the Heartless, are weaker."

"So…what do we do now, Your Majesty?" Kairi asked pensively. The King waited a long time before he answered, and he seemed lost in thought.

"Ya know what?" he said at last, staring down at the floor. "I really don’t know."