Kingdom Hearts: Consumed by Darkness

The Colosseum ground trembled with every shockwave.

From the edge of the crumbling Colosseum, Helios watched as blades of shadow and silver slashed through the battlefield, carving the air and shaking the ancient stone pillars. Sephiroth and Kurai clashed in a brutal dance of brutal violence, their battle already spilling into the surrounding streets of Thebes. Columns buckled. Marble fractured. Spectators fled. Only echoes and afterimages remained—of blades, of wings, of shadows.

Helios sighed, running a hand over his forehead as he stepped onto the ruined stage.

"That's enough."

Neither fighter paused.

Kurai's hand was wrapped in a spiral of inky darkness, tendrils snapping at the edges of Sephiroth's glowing Masamune as she parried a flurry of cuts. Her counter-strike sent shadowed claws erupting from the ground. Sephiroth danced above them, teleporting mid-air, his blade slashing downward in a wide arc.

Helios raised his voice. "I said stop! You're going to bring the whole city down!"

Both turned to him.

Kurai's silver eyes burned. Sephiroth said nothing—but pointed Masamune directly at Helios.

Helios narrowed his gaze. With a motion of his hand, his Keyblade—Equilibrium—materialized, the two-toned black and silver weapon gleaming ominously.

"I'm not asking."

He gripped the weapon tighter, channeling darkness through it. The blade shimmered, twisting and re-forming into its segmented whip-sword form—Slánú na nDoimhneacht. The blade uncoiled like a serpent, pulsing with malevolent energy.

Kurai tilted her head. "You really think you can stop both of us?"

"I hope I don't need to." His voice was calm. "But I can and I will."

With a crack of his wrist, the whip-sword lashed out—forcing Kurai to leap back and Sephiroth to block. The Colosseum shook again as the three-way battle began.

The clash was chaos.

Sephiroth moved like a phantom, blinking across the battlefield in bursts of speed, his Masamune a blur. Every slash was deliberate, a surgical strike designed to kill. Kurai met him with pure aggression, wreathing herself in spirals of darkness, launching tendrils, claws, and spears of shadow that tried to bind his movement.

But Helios?

Helios thrived in the storm.

He danced between them, dodging a dark firaga from Kurai that detonated behind him while parrying one of Sephiroth's lunges with the fluid whip-sword. Its segmented form allowed him to strike from impossible angles, lashing and twisting around Kurai's defenses to push her back while rebounding off Sephiroth's flurries.

When Kurai sent a field of spears at him, Helios snapped his fingers. "Aero!"

A blast of wind exploded outward, knocking the darkness away. He lunged in with a spinning lash of his whip, slashing Kurai across the ribs, drawing blood.

She staggered—but grinned.

"Not bad."

Sephiroth dove from above, blade drawn high. Helios turned—too slow.

"Reflect!"

A barrier of light shimmered into place just in time. Sephiroth's blade struck and rebounded with a violent clang, and Helios twisted his arm and responded with a counter. "Dark Firaga!" A ball of dark fire surged from his free hand.

Sephiroth sliced through it—but the momentary distraction gave Helios room to breathe.

He shifted again, forcing the whip to its full extension. The black segments glinted, slashing toward Kurai in a jagged spiral. She dodged—but the tail caught her shoulder, cutting deep.

Sephiroth rushed forward again. Helios ducked under the swing and cast Sleep—a bubble of swirling magic aimed at Kurai to keep her distant. It struck—but her eyes flared with defiance. She stumbled but didn't fall.

"Try harder," she growled.

She lunged forward, dark claws forming around her fingers. Helios side-stepped and used Blizzaga—a storm of ice crystals burst around him, forcing Kurai to recoil.

Before he could recover, Sephiroth appeared behind him.

"Heartless Angel."

The words echoed like death.

A glowing glyph appeared above Sephiroth's hand, his energy crackling ominously as the sky above shimmered with celestial light.

Helios' eyes widened. "Not today."

He cast Thundaga, summoning a lightning bolt that slammed into Sephiroth mid-cast, disrupting the spell before it could drain his strength.

The impact forced Sephiroth back—but only briefly.

Then came the turning point.

Helios twisted his blade, converting the whip into its sword form, and twirled it to deflect both Kurai and Sephiroth's simultaneous attacks—blades and darkness crashing together in a perfect crossfire.

He blinked between them with Teleport, sending a spray of afterimages to confuse both combatants.

Then—he tricked them.

Feinting to Kurai's left, he baited her into swinging wide. He ducked, then forced Sephiroth into her strike path.

Masamune clanged against Kurai's Shadow Sovereign keyblade. The two flinched as sparks flew.

"You—" Kurai glared at Helios. "Are you playing both of us?"

Helios grinned coldly. "I said I'm trying to stop both of you."

The battle raged on.

Kurai, wild and vengeful, unleashed a dome of pure darkness. Shadow chains spiraled outward in all directions, threatening to trap anything they touched.

Helios leapt over one, then landed on a broken pillar. He raised his hand. "Freezing Gale!"

A spell born of experimentation—Blizzaga and Aerora melded—erupted around him. A whirlwind of biting frost formed, casting a shimmering cyclone across the field. Ice shards flew like arrows, forcing Kurai and Sephiroth to defend or retreat.

Sephiroth teleported above the storm—his final trump card ready.

"Super Nova."

The sky darkened. Massive meteors began to materialize around him.

Helios cursed. "No you don't."

He snapped his fingers—Earth Breaker. A spire of stone materialized inside an aero spell and rocketed upward like a drill, piercing one of the forming meteors and causing a premature explosion that staggered Sephiroth mid-air.

He dropped like a comet—but landed on his feet.

Before either Sephiroth or Kurai could reengage, Helios' whip blade surged forward again, blocking them both.

His breathing was ragged. Blood streaked his cheek. His jacket was slashed. But he stood.

"Enough."

He slammed the whip into the ground. The energy it released rippled like a shockwave.

The three of them stood at opposite ends of a shattered arena—scorched, scarred, and burning with power.

Sephiroth gave a faint smirk.

Kurai narrowed her eyes.

Helios lowered his weapon but didn't drop his guard.

"No more of this or the city will fall. If you're still mad or upset—fine. Deal with it. But you're not destroying Olympus over it."

The wind howled through the ruined arena.

Kurai's darkness flickered.

Sephiroth's blade glinted.

Silence fell—for now.