Kingdom Hearts: Consumed by Darkness

The dawn light filtered weakly through the waters above Atlantica, painting the city in dusky silver hues. Most of the city still lay in mourning—quiet, rebuilding, healing. But at the coral-bound gates of the upper district, Helios and Kurai prepared to leave.

Kurai adjusted the wrappings on her forearms, the last of her injuries bound with pressure-infused sea-thread. She looked impatient, already bored.

Helios, meanwhile, fastened a dark leather satchel over his chest, filled with potions just in case. His magic and control of his light and darkness were still unreliable so he could only rely on these potions. His expression was unreadable as always, though his gaze lingered on the horizon. Something waited for them out there. He could feel it like a breath caught in his throat.

Thalen approached, a worn satchel over one shoulder and determination could be seen in his movement.

"I'm coming," he said plainly.

"No," Helios replied without looking at him. "Someone needs to stay behind and make sure this place doesn't fall apart again."

Thalen frowned. "I can help."

"No you can't, you are useless," Kurai said flatly, stepping forward. "You're weak. You can't fight. Half the time I can't even tell if you're capable of independent thought. That's what makes you useless."

Thalen didn't flinch.

Helios sighed. "She's not right and she's not wrong—but that's not the point. We need eyes here. And someone needs to keep watch on things here and report to us when we return."

Kurai narrowed her silver eyes. "Try to be somewhat useful, or I'll dispose of you."

With that, she turned and sliced the water open with a motion of her hand—an unstable, jagged corridor of swirling dark energy forming in the trench wall.

Helios swam toward it, but before vanishing, he looked back at Thalen.

"You're not useless. Trust me. Soon you'll prove it to her."

Then he disappeared into the dark corridor as it closed.

The portal expelled Helios and Kurai into the darkest reaches of the sea, where even sunlight dared not tread.

The abyss before them yawned like a scar across the ocean floor—twisting fissures that spiraled downward endlessly. The water here felt colder. Denser. The pressure closed around them like a clenched fist.

The remnants of Ursula's previous lair lay beyond the trench's lip, hidden beneath a collapsed shelf of blackened coral. But the path to it was no longer empty.

Bioluminescent anemones flickered sickly, pulsing in erratic rhythms like dying hearts. Long strands of kelp twisted upward from the sea floor—writhing when none of the current touched them. The air shimmered with strange heat, though they were in the coldest depths.

"They're here," Kurai said, drawing her shadow around her like a second skin.

"Yeah," Helios muttered. "I felt it too."

A hissing screech cut through the water—and then they came.

Heartless.

Not just the mindless Screwdriver and Sea Neons of old. These were corrupted, spined abominations—hybrid creatures stitched from sea life and dark magic. A Heartless with the shell of a crab, the fins of a barracuda, and a massive, serpentine body lunged at Kurai.

She met it with a single dark blast to the face, then spun backward and conjured two spears of sharpened void. They launched and skewered two smaller ones trying to flank her.

Helios was already surrounded.

He raised Equilibrium and spun, firing off a burst of Thundaga that rippled outward, cracking the armored hide of a massive squid-shaped beast. He followed it with Blizzaga, but unfortunately, the spell failed and he was struck multiple times before attempting again managing to freeze the water around several foes and shattering them with a snap of his wrist.

But they kept coming.

Ten. Twenty. Thirty.

"They're protecting the lair," Kurai realized aloud, flinging a cluster of Dark Firagas that detonated in a spiral.

"They were left behind," Helios muttered. "Or maybe… bred."

"Cute."

As more swarmed, Helios gritted his teeth and released a wave of Aeroza, clearing a wide path in front of them. He turned to Kurai, who had already begun charging forward through the debris field.

"Let's go!"

By the time they reached Ursula's former lair, the sea around them was silent again—but not still.

The lair was abandoned. The black coral throne had been shattered. Enchanted ward-stones that once guarded the entry corridors had been melted, their magic bled dry. The place felt looted—emptied, not destroyed. Deliberate. Surgical.

Helios floated over the cracked remains of the main chamber. "She didn't just leave. She erased every possible trace of herself."

"No trace. No signature. No portal residue," Kurai muttered.

But then she stopped. Her fingers twitched faintly—eyes narrowing.

"Wait."

She turned, slowly, like a predator sensing prey. Her hand brushed against the cracked wall, and her expression hardened.

"There's something here. Something just beneath—like it was hidden under the top layer."

Helios moved beside her and held up his hand, pressing his fingers into the stone.

A pulse of energy flickered.

His eyes widened. "It's a hex of some sort. Anchored to someone... not here. Mind control maybe?"

He stepped back.

"Who?"

Kurai said nothing, but she pointed upward. Toward Atlantica.

Helios' expression darkened, "Damn, it's Ariel. No wonder she didn't seem distraught that we got her back. She was a trap the whole time. This is bad we need to head back quickly."