The room was silent but heavy, the kind of silence that pressed down on the lungs like a storm waiting to break. Aqua's barrier shimmered faintly around the chamber, its edges rippling as if resisting unseen pressure. Skuld knelt at Helios' side, her hands trembling but steady, light glowing faintly between her palms. Beside her, Aqua stood rigid, her eyes focused, every fiber of her body honed in on the young man convulsing under their care.
Helios' body writhed, his breath ragged, every rise and fall of his chest strained. The glamor from Circe's trick still lingered on his features, making him appear whole, but beneath the surface the truth was laid bare — black veins pulsed under his skin, surging like a tide against Skuld's light.
"Hold him steady," Aqua said, her tone controlled but edged with urgency.
Skuld pressed her hands harder against him, her light digging deeper into his body. It was like trying to hold back a raging flood with nothing but a lantern. "It keeps pushing back," she whispered, sweat dripping from her brow. "Every time I force it down, it surges stronger."
Aqua nodded grimly. "It's not just corruption. This is darkness — it's willful. It wants to stay and spread."
The name hung in the air like a curse.
Aqua raised her keyblade. The light at its tip glowed a brilliant green as she invoked another Curaga, waves of healing magic flowing into Helios' battered body. For a moment, his breathing eased — but then the veins convulsed violently, fighting back. The green glow fractured, splintering into bursts of shadow that lashed outward.
Skuld gasped as one of the tendrils of darkness clawed up her arm. Aqua quickly slashed her keyblade downward, severing it before it spread, but the sight only confirmed what she already feared: this wasn't a simple infection. It was a parasite, a living fragment of someone's determination to remain.
Inside, Helios drifted in and out of awareness. The visions still lingered at the edge of his mind — Baldr's screams, Hoder's death, the burning ruin of Scala ad Caelum. But his own voice — stubborn, defiant — echoed louder. If time doesn't allow it, break time. If the laws of the universe forbid it, break them too.
The darkness surged again, wrapping around his lungs, his heart, choking him from the inside.
Aqua staggered slightly. "It's resisting every purge. It won't let go."
But then something shifted.
Helios' chest heaved, and from within, a darker pulse erupted. It wasn't Baldr's corruption — it was Helios' own darkness. The shadows rippled out from his core like a beast stirred awake, slamming into the invasive corruption. The glamor of health flickered and shattered completely — revealing his broken body writhing under the strain.
Aqua and Skuld froze for a moment as they felt it. Skuld whispered, "His… darkness… it's fighting back."
At first it seemed chaotic, uncontrolled, as if his inner shadows were lashing out at everything, ready to consume anything in reach. Aqua braced herself to intervene. But then, to her astonishment, the darkness stabilized — coalescing, focusing only on the foreign corruption, biting into it like a predator into prey.
The invasive veins screeched — the sound not of flesh, but of something alive being devoured.
Aqua's eyes widened. "Impossible…"
Skuld looked to her. "What's happening?"
"His darkness," Aqua said, her voice almost reverent. "It isn't rejecting our help. It's… protecting him."
The chamber shook as the two forces clashed within Helios. The foreign darkness lashed outward, birthing jagged spikes across his arms and chest, trying to pierce through his skin. His own darkness surged in waves, devouring piece after piece, pulling it inward and erasing it completely.
Helios groaned through clenched teeth, his body arching. The air around him warped, shadows bending and collapsing in unnatural patterns.
Skuld pressed her light deeper, weaving it through his form, aiding his darkness by isolating the invasive fragments, trapping them so his own power could consume them more efficiently. "Come on… you can do this…" she whispered.
Aqua added her strength, her keyblade glowing with radiant brilliance. "Helios, listen to me! Control it — guide it. Don't let it overwhelm you!"
Within his half-conscious mind, Helios felt the two forces warring. He clenched onto the only thought that had kept him alive this long — No one takes anything from me. Not again.
His darkness howled in answer.
The corruption broke apart further, splitting into smaller and smaller fragments, each one swarmed and devoured. For every shard consumed, the black veins across his skin faded, retreating back into nothingness. His shallow breaths deepened, his heartbeat steadying.
But the process was brutal. Helios' body shook with each devouring wave, like his soul was tearing itself apart to stitch itself back together. Skuld's tears fell silently as she pushed her remaining strength into him, refusing to falter.
Finally — after what felt like an eternity — the last fragment was devoured.
The black veins receded entirely, leaving only faint scars across his skin. The glamor Circe had cast was no longer needed. Helios lay there, pale and exhausted, but whole. His chest rose and fell with steady, unbroken rhythm.
Skuld collapsed against the bed, gasping. Aqua caught her, steadying her with one hand. Her own face was pale, her body drained from the effort, but her eyes never left Helios.
"…He did it," Skuld whispered hoarsely. "He fought it off."
Aqua exhaled slowly, lowering her keyblade. Relief touched her features, though it was tempered by awe. "No. He didn't just fight it. He devoured it. His darkness… it's unlike anything I've ever seen. Not chaotic. Purposeful."
Skuld brushed Helios' hair back from his face, her lips trembling into a small, exhausted smile. "That's him. He always… finds a way."
Helios stirred faintly, his eyes fluttering open for just a second. His lips curved into the ghost of a smirk. "Told you… I don't lose." Then he slipped back into restful unconsciousness.
For a moment, neither woman spoke. The room was filled only with the quiet rhythm of Helios' breathing.
Finally, Aqua stood, her voice low but firm. "He'll recover now. But this… this changes everything. If his darkness can act like this, then the darkness in others might also. I wonder… if Terra could..."