Aqua's body refused to stop trembling.
Her hands pressed against the cold stone floor, fingers twitching slightly as she tried to force herself to move. Her breathing was erratic, and no matter how hard she tried, her lungs wouldn't pull in enough air.
Her heartbeat hammered inside her skull, loud enough to drown out the faint flickering of lanterns around them.
She had faced monsters. Darkness. Death itself.
But this?
This was different.
Just remembering its eyes made her feel like she was being picked apart at a fundamental level.
She heard a shaky exhale and realized it wasn't coming from her.
She turned her head—
Helios stood there, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. His face was neutral, almost blank, but Aqua wasn't fooled.
She could see it.
His pupils were too small, his shoulders too tense. He was still feeling it, too.
The moment he noticed her looking, his expression shifted.
A smirk pulled at his lips, forced but present.
"Well. That was unpleasant," he muttered.
Aqua's jaw clenched. That was the understatement of the century.
Before she could snap at him, a sudden burst of overwhelming light flared behind them.
A white smoke puffed into existence and from it emerged Merlin, his robe billowing as his feet touched the ground.
At the same time, Skuld ran out the door, eyes wide with concern.
"The hell was that?! I felt like something was very wrong." she blurted.
She froze as she took in Aqua's shaking form and Helios' unnatural stillness.
Something horrible had happened.
Merlin's sharp gaze swept across the area. "I sensed something… something that should not exist. At least not in the Realm of Light."
His old hands tightened around his staff. "Explain."
Aqua inhaled deeply, forcing herself to stabilize her breathing. "Something was here," she said, her voice unsteady. "Something… I don't know how to describe it… it was just wrong."
Merlin turned to Helios, his expression unreadable. "And you?"
Helios' smirk never quite reached his eyes. "…I don't know what it was," he admitted. "But I felt it. And I didn't like it."
That was enough to make Merlin's frown deepen.
Inside Helios' mind, Kurai stirred uneasily. "…That thing…"
Helios' thoughts were slowly settling. The initial nausea, the overwhelming exposure—he was processing it now.
"What was that?" Helios asked internally.
Kurai was silent for a long moment.
Then—
"I don't know."
Helios blinked. "…What?"
Kurai grumbled, but not in its usual annoyed way. No, this was different. "…I have never encountered something like that. Ever."
Helios narrowed his eyes. "You've been around since the start of everything. Since before the Age of Fairy Tales. You're telling me you've never seen something like that before?"
Kurai's voice was low, cautious. "Not even the Master of Masters could make me feel what I felt just now."
That gave Helios pause.
Even the Master of Masters, the single most mysterious and powerful entity in the world, didn't make Kurai react like this?
Helios clenched his jaw.
That meant two possibilities.
The first was that the entity wasn't a normal part of the natural darkness. Meaning it had no ties to Heartless, the True Darknesses, or anything previously documented.
It second option was that this thing was so ancient that it predated the 13 True Darknesses, the first beings that had shed their physical forms to become pure living darkness.
Both options were horrifying.
Helios gripped his chest as an odd sensation throbbed through his heart.
He still felt exposed.
Like something was still looking through him, even though the portal was closed.
Aqua had been watching him carefully.
She had seen a lot in her life. She had fought creatures beyond reason and stood against darkness itself.
But something about this—the way Helios had sensed it, the way the entity had focused solely on him—made something click in her mind.
She couldn't explain it, but—
That thing was drawn to him.
Not her. Not Skuld. Not Merlin.
Helios.
Aqua's voice cut through the silence. "…Why do you think it focused on you?"
Helios looked at her.
The way she said it.
Not 'why did it look at us?'
'Why did it look at you?'
Helios' smirk returned. "Flattered you think I'm special. I don't know maybe it's because I opened the portal."
Aqua wasn't amused.
She crossed her arms, ignoring how weak her limbs still felt. "You could sense it before anyone else."
Helios shrugged. "So? I just so happen to be the only person capable of using darkness here."
Aqua narrowed her eyes. "And it only looked at you."
Skuld blinked, glancing between them. "Wait. Whatever you saw about only focused on Helios?"
Aqua nodded.
"Doesn't that seem strange?" she pressed.
Helios simply smiled, tilting his head. "Weirder things happen every day."
Aqua glared.
Helios wasn't going to give her anything.
And that bothered her.
Helios let out a breath and stretched.
"Well. That was unpleasant," he muttered. "But we're wasting time. Aqua"
"…What?" Aqua asked.
Helios smirked. "You're a Keyblade Master, right?"
Aqua frowned. "Yes?"
He leaned forward slightly.
"I want you to teach Skuld and myself. Teach us how to transform our keyblades."
Aqua's eyes widened slightly. "…What? Wait, do you mean like the Keyblade Glider?"
Helios nodded. "Yes, we need to learn how to travel the Lanes Between Worlds."
Aqua hesitated.
But before she could answer Merlin said, "You should teach them. With such a being having seen you having allies could not hurt."
Far away, in the deepest part of the Realm of Darkness, the abyss that shallowed all eventually.
The shadowy entity stood motionless.
But this time—
It was not alone.
At its side, the giant Demon Hide tiny in comparison crouched, silent and still.
The void hummed, almost like a whisper.
Then—
The entity spoke. Its voice was whispered yet deafening like a beast's roar. It was smooth and elegant, yet somehow a chorus of countless voices—some yelling in despair, some laughing, some speaking in monotone, others screaming in pain.
Its words echoed in the abyss. "So he woke me, I like him. He showed me much. Hmm… the Kingdom Hearts game."