The impact slammed Helios into the jagged coral wall with bone-cracking force. His body crumpled against it before rebounding slightly, blood clouding the water around him. Pain lanced through his ribs and shoulder—something had fractured.
But there was no time to assess. No time to breathe.
"Kurai! Get Thalen and Ariel out of here!" he shouted, voice sharp and commanding through gritted teeth.
Kurai didn't hesitate. She swam toward Thalen and the still-unconscious Ariel, her expression devoid of emotion, but her movements swift and decisive. A swirling vortex of shadows spiraled open behind her—her dark corridor.
"Dead weight," she muttered coldly.
With one motion, she hurled both Thalen and Ariel through the portal. It snapped shut instantly, vanishing into a wisp of black mist. The chamber no longer had distractions. Only fighters remained.
Helios turned his eyes back toward the possessed Triton and his corrupted army. He gritted his teeth and surged forward, pain stabbing his side as he raised his Keyblade. His powers were still unbalanced—light and darkness refused to flow in harmony—but his magic was still a weapon, and his mind was sharp.
A blast of Aero magic sent three possessed soldiers spinning backward. Helios weaved between spear thrusts, deflecting some with his blade, dodging others narrowly. But it wasn't enough.
A jagged trident tore through the side of his torso. He gasped, blood spilling into the water as he dropped lower, but he kept moving. His fingers tightened around Equilibrium, forcing another spell from his lips—Sleep.
The spell pulsed outward, a ripple of magic stunning half the force, forcing the corrupted soldiers into unconscious drifting. He ducked under another swing and retaliated with Blizzaga, freezing several in place, then followed it with a short-range Firaga blast to break their weapons.
Even as exhaustion clawed at his body, Helios forced himself forward. With a final roar of will, he activated Maleficent's orb. The emerald glow pulsed out in a wide radius, like a shockwave of searing wind, breaking the parasite's hold over the remaining soldiers in one sweep.
All around him, soldiers collapsed—free but unconscious. Triton fell last, his body limp, the light returning faintly to his eyes before he faded into unconsciousness.
Helios barely managed to stay afloat, panting, body torn and bleeding.
Across the chamber, Kurai faced Ursula—now wielding Triton's stolen trident, its radiant power curving around her grotesque form like regal armor. Her laughter echoed through the broken cavern, a sound too large for her throat.
"You think you can stop me, little shadow?" she sneered.
Kurai's only response was a blast of Dark Firaga. The water steamed as the heat collided with the cursed weapon. Ursula retaliated instantly, her trident calling down forked bolts of lightning that shook the chamber to its foundations.
Kurai dodged nimbly, her own dark barrier absorbing one strike, but the next sent her tumbling backward, blood trailing behind her. She countered with a sharpened spear of solidified shadow, narrowly grazing Ursula's shoulder.
"You fight well," Ursula taunted, circling like a storm. "But you're not strong enough. None of you are."
Kurai prepared another spell—this time Void Fang, her custom technique that devoured light and magic—but she never got to release it.
From behind her, Flotsam and Jetsam emerged from the shadows, their eel-like bodies flickering between visibility and smoke. They struck like vipers, synchronized and precise. One latched onto her tail, teeth ripping into it, while the other slammed her shoulder with a blunt tail, fracturing her arm.
Kurai screamed, twisting away, barely managing to sever the connection with a burst of defensive magic. Blood bloomed around her in coils.
Before Helios could reach her, Ursula's form began to dissolve into dark mist. Her voice, now fully overtaken by the parasite, echoed one last time:
"Your strength is wasted. Leave the boy and join me. If you do, you'll get everything you desire."
Flotsam and Jetsam vanished with her, trailing mist and mockery in their wake.
And just like that—they were gone.
The chamber fell into deafening stillness. A thick silence replaced the violence, broken only by Helios' ragged breathing and the soft groans of the injured.
Kurai floated near the shattered coral wall, bleeding and barely conscious, her arm hanging uselessly. Helios reached her side with what little strength remained, pressing one hand to her wound, stabilizing her with a brief, flickering Curaga.
It wasn't enough. This power imbalance was even affecting his spells.
Triton and his soldiers lay strewn around them, unconscious and scarred. The parasite's influence was gone—for now—but the damage was irreversible.
"She has the trident," Helios muttered grimly. "The very sea answers to her now."
Kurai didn't respond at first. Then, with a dry, blood-choked laugh, she whispered, "So... we lost. This is the second loss I've ever suffered and it was to a mind-controlled insignificant octopus."
Helios closed his eyes. "I get you. Completely."
No tactical victory. No captured enemy. Ariel was safe, but at what cost? Ursula had vanished with the greatest weapon in the sea, and now wielded the power to command the oceans themselves. And worse—she was no longer Ursula. She was something worse, something deeper.
This wasn't a victory.
This was a colossal failure on his part.
Helios gritted his teeth. "She didn't run because we scared her. She ran because we weren't worth the time anymore."
Kurai nodded faintly, blood curling around her like ink in water.
"I've never hated the sea more than I do now," she whispered.
Helios turned his eyes upward. Triton stirred faintly, his breathing shallow but steady.
"We need to get everyone out," Helios said. "No place in this world is safe any longer."
Kurai didn't move. "You do that. I'll just float here and contemplate my many mistakes. I need to rectify them if I'm to win next time."
He allowed himself a bitter laugh, even through the pain. "No. We do this together. As always. Come on."
The two wounded warriors hovered above a battlefield that wasn't a victory.