The deep trench waters were eerily still now, their silence betraying the violence they had just borne witness to. Kurai floated ahead, cutting through the fading shadows of the abyss, her pace unhurried but deliberate. Behind her, Thalen followed with cautious glances.
Eventually, they reached the cliffside ledge where they'd stashed Ursula's unconscious form, surrounded by coral wards Kurai had woven in her own twisted magic. The wards shattered as she waved a hand, and Ursula's body floated free, still motionless. After retrieving her, they swam away from the area with eyes occasionally flicking to the chained, unconscious figure trailing them—Ursula, tightly bound in black ethereal bonds, her aura dulled to near nothing.
"Ready?" Helios asked.
Kurai gave him a curt nod. "Let's go. I wish to leave and never return."
With one hand gripping his keyblade and the other raised toward the space before them, Helios conjured a dark corridor. This one shimred like a dark ocean mirror. The current caught them all, and in a flash—they were gone.
They erged into Radiant Garden's outskirts, the corridor spitting them out near the woods behind rlin's cottage. As they stumbled onto solid ground, their forms shifted—tails vanishing, gills receding. Legs returned. Clothes readjusted. Human again. Water poured out for a second before the corridor was sealed yet again. Luckily, none of the water spilled on them
Kurai stretched dramatically, arms overhead. "Surprising," she muttered, rolling her neck, "but I missed my legs."
Helios set Ursula's chained body down and scanned the distance. "Co on. We'll use rlin's place to regroup."
But as they approached the path, Helios stopped abruptly. Light flickered inside the windows of the cottage.
He narrowed his eyes. "Aqua and Skuld."
Kurai tilted her head. "You're not going to say hello? I'd like to et them in this form."
"They'll ask questions," Helios muttered. "The kind I'm not in the mood to answer."
Thalen crossed his arms. "You are… avoiding them?"
"Do I look like I want a lecture?" Helios retorted.
With a sigh, he turned, summoning another portal—this one much deeper and colder in hue.
"Go ahead," he said. "Both of you. Head to Olympus for now and I'll co find you later."
Kurai's gaze lingered on him, her silver eyes sharp with sothing unreadable.
"Don't take too long. That man Sephiroth might try to fight after all," she said finally, before stepping into the corridor.
Thalen gave Helios a half-skeptical nod, then followed as the portal closed.
Once they were gone, Helios turned toward the chained sea witch lying at his feet.
He opened a third portal.
This one led to Maleficent's castle.
The throne room was draped in darkness and green firelight, its tall gothic windows framing a sky forever storm-laced. Maleficent sat languidly on her throne, staff resting beside her, one leg crossed over the other. The room was empty but for her—a rare quiet for the mistress of manipulation.
As Helios stepped through, dragging Ursula's body, her lips curled upward.
"Well, well," she cooed. "If it isn't the errant little star. Did you stop by rlin's? Catch up with your old friends? How was the little reunion? Was it fun?"
Helios didn't dignify that with a reply. He marched forward, dragging Ursula until he was a few paces from the dais. With a forceful shove, he tossed the bound witch at Maleficent's feet.
"She's yours," he said coldly. "Ursula. She tried to claim the ocean and lost."
Maleficent raised an eyebrow, leaning forward. "And this is ant to impress ?"
"You wanted Atlantica," Helios said. "Now its queen is gone, its king is mourning, and its armies are scattered. The world is yours for the taking. All it needs is a puppet ruler." He gestured down at Ursula's unconscious form. "She'll do won't she?"
Maleficent humd, tapping her lip with a claw. "The arrangent was for you to conquer the world for . Not gift so soggy leftovers and a half-dead octopus."
"I gave you what you wanted," Helios replied, tone like ice. "It's broken. Ready for you to step in. Ursula still has so level of influence. Send a few heartless with her—tie her to your will—and it's done."
"And how generous you are, hurling burdens at my feet. Very well, I will accept," Maleficent said, standing with fluid grace. Her heels echoed ominously on the stone floor. "Yet still I find you in my debt. What will you do about your other debt?"
"You won't for long."
Helios turned, snapping his fingers—and a fourth portal opened behind him. Helios entered the portal but as it stayed open it could be seen he didn't plan on staying there for too long.
The wind that burst through it was hot, dry—sandstorm-heavy. And within thirty seconds, Helios reerged—dragging a beaten, grumbling man in red and black robes and a cracked golden cobra staff.
Maleficent's smile widened into sothing feral.
"Who is this?" she mused.
The forr vizier glared up at her, weak and bloodied.
Helios dumped him unceremoniously beside Ursula. "You wanted power in the desert world. This is Jafar and he knows the court, the politics, the palace. Bind him like her, and it's yours."
Maleficent's fingers danced along the top of her staff, glee and cunning twinkling in her green eyes.
"My, my," she said. "You do know how to deliver gifts. So much more efficient than armies and battles."
"I'm not interested in pageantry," Helios muttered. "Just results."
Maleficent descended the steps of her throne slowly, like a predator savoring a al. She stopped beside Helios and reached out—touching his chin lightly with her claw.
"You've gotten sharper since we first t."
"Sharper people survive longer."
"Indeed," she purred. "But they also make more enemies."
Helios smiled faintly. "Then it's a good thing I'm not out of tricks."
She turned her gaze back to the fallen bodies of her new pawns. "What now, my dear boy?"
"I've paid both debts," Helios said. "Try to collect again and we'll see how long you keep your throne."
Maleficent's laughter was a soft, sinister lody. "So bold. So reckless. No wonder the light despises you."
He turned, cloak billowing.
"And the dark?" he asked, not looking back.
She smirked, eyes glowing. "It watches who knows what might try to reach out to you this ti. I look forward to it."
With a final flick of his wrist, Helios opened one last corridor and disappeared into it, leaving behind a throne room now populated by puppets—and a queen who smiled as though she already saw the next move.
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