Kingdom Hearts: Consumed by Darkness

The battle raged on in the heart of the coliseum, where fractured stone and scorched marble bore the scars of battle. Helios stood at the epicenter, his breath steady but shallow, surrounded by two of the most dangerous warriors he had ever faced—Kurai and Sephiroth.

His jacket whipped with each gust of residual magic. The dust and ash made the air heavy, yet the silence between each clash made every heartbeat deafening.

Sephiroth blurred first—his movement more like flickers of silver and malice almost like teleportation. He reappeared behind Helios and slashed downward with Masamune, a meteor of steel splitting the air.

Helios twisted mid-spin, using Slánú na nDoimhneacht the segmented blade snapping out like a serpent to intercept Masamune's arc in a shower of sparks. The ground cracked from the force alone.

Kurai moved next. From the opposite direction, she swung Shadow Sovereign, her own blade soaked in condensed malice. A dozen chains of darkness erupted behind her, lashing toward Helios like starving vipers.

"Come on then," Helios muttered.

He activated Reflect just in time, forming a spherical shield of light that deflected the chains with loud clangs. Then he leapt high, flipping backward. In the air, his hand drew a wide arc.

"Freezing Gale!"

The spell erupted around him—a violent whirlwind laced with glittering ice shards. Kurai's eyes narrowed; she had seen this trick before. She threw a pulse of darkness into the ground, launching herself backwards. Simultaneously, Sephiroth spun Masamune in a tight circle, forming a Firaga Wall to melt the ice shards that approached him. The wave of heat met the cold storm in a burst of hissing steam.

Helios landed in the eye of the gale. He grinned.

"Figured you two would learn," he said aloud.

Sephiroth responded with a blur, appearing directly in front of him with an upward strike. Helios stepped aside, barely dodging, then used his whip-sword to wrap around Masamune and wrench it slightly off balance.

Kurai didn't hesitate—she blinked through shadow behind him and swung. Helios threw his body into a sideways roll, taking a graze along his ribs but managing to cast Thundaga upward, bolts crashing down at random vectors.

Sephiroth dodged left, but one bolt caught Kurai's shoulder. She hissed and vanished again.

Helios hit the ground, grunting. He couldn't keep this up forever. His strength wasn't in brute endurance—it was in control, as he focused on the tempo of the fight. He needed to turn this dance on its head.

Time to improvise.

He summoned Aerora in one hand and Thundaga in the other, muttering a spell under his breath. The two magics spun together—swirling winds charged with volatile lightning. He called it Tempest Reaver. When the spell released, it was a spiraling lance of storm magic that tore through the field like a divine javelin.

Sephiroth reacted instantly, teleporting away. Kurai sent a wall of darkness to meet it, and the lance exploded on impact, sending both combatants flying backward.

Helios pulled himself off his feet and used the breif opening to rush forward, whip-sword lashing out in a corkscrew strike toward Sephiroth's midsection. But Masamune twisted around it, redirecting the blade. Sephiroth's knee met Helios' stomach a second later, and the younger fighter was launched across the arena.

He landed hard, coughing, his ribs screaming in protest.

Before he could recover, Kurai descended on him like a guillotine. Her blade swung in a wide arc—but Helios vanished in a flicker of afterimage, reappearing at her side.

"Sleep," he whispered, releasing a targeted Sleep spell.

Kurai caught the glimmer too late—it grazed her temple. She staggered, eyes fluttering for a moment. It wasn't enough to knock her out, but it slowed her rhythm, just as he needed.

Sephiroth appeared behind him.

Helios expected it.

He activated Reflect again and jumped away mid-spin. The explosion of counter-light caught Sephiroth squarely, but only for a second—Sephiroth recovered with inhuman calm.

Kurai was already back in motion, but her timing was slightly off now. The Sleep spell had dulled her edge. Helios used that. He deflected her next strike, then turned her momentum against her by teleporting mid-parry—just in time for her blade to slam toward Sephiroth.

He blocked it, sneering. "So easily manipulated."

"Shut up," Kurai hissed, her eyes blazing.

The crack widened.

Helios danced between them again, a conductor of chaos.

His breath was burning in his lungs now. Blood dripped from his mouth. Still, his stance remained firm, whip-sword poised like a predator waiting to strike.

Not yet, he told himself. Just a little longer.

He needed something… bigger and more distracting.

Masamune met Slánú na nDoimhneacht's sword mode again and again, the sound like screaming metal. Kurai's blade struck from blind spots, riding shadows like waves, but Helios twisted and spun, deflecting her attacks while parrying Sephiroth's flurries.

A normal fighter would've been overwhelmed by now. But Helios wasn't fighting like a duelist. He was fighting like his life depended on it as it really did.

He vanished in bursts of afterimage, appeared midair, used Aerora not just for defense but to redirect himself through the sky like a skipping stone. Each spell wasn't a tool—it was a part of his movement.

Blizzaga erupted behind Sephiroth—but the One-Winged Angel simply blinked away.

Kurai hurled twin spears of darkness, but Helios countered with a spinning Tempest Reaver, ripping through the spears with wind-charged lightning and forcing Kurai to retreat, cloak billowing like wings.

Still not enough.

They were adapting. Learning. They had faced him before and it was only a matter of time before he would fall.

Helios skidded to a halt and looked up, sweat trailing down his jawline. His eyes burned with intensity.

Then… the plan.

He thrust both hands into the air.

"Freezing Gale: Ring Variant!"

Instead of a massive storm, Helios restructured the spell's formation—flattening it into a circular field of subzero winds that surrounded all three fighters, acting as a barrier.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. Kurai blinked.

"It's a prison," Helios said coldly. "You want to keep fighting? Fine. Let's see what happens when you don't get much space to run around."

Kurai scoffed and charged.

Sephiroth lunged.

Helios met them both.

He dodged Kurai's wild strike and parried Sephiroth's stab in the same motion, ducked low, rolled, and twisted his whip-sword like a coil, forcing Kurai to leap over it—but Sephiroth was already there, slashing down.

Helios cast Reflect at point-blank range, creating a shimmering burst of protective force that threw both opponents back.

As they skidded, Helios extended his hand again. This time, he combined Blizzaga and Waterga—two opposing flows. Ice and water.

The spell that emerged: Crushing Tide.

A dome of crushing, freezing water surged up and over Kurai, freezing as it collapsed. She crossed her arms just in time, protecting herself in a shell of darkness—but she was momentarily trapped.

Sephiroth teleported behind Helios, readying Heartless Angel.

Helios noticed the stance. No you don't.

He snapped his fingers, casting Slow and then Thundaga—but not in Sephiroth's direction.

Instead, the lightning struck the ceiling, cracking it. Loose marble tumbled from above—Helios used Aerora to send the debris straight into Sephiroth's path.

The spell broke.

Helios turned and lashed out with his whip-sword, slicing across Sephiroth's back. Blood sprayed. Sephiroth hissed in pain but teleported away again.

Kurai burst out of her watery prison, hair dripping, eyes murderous. She conjured half a dozen decoy shadows, each mimicking her form, and they all rushed Helios at once.

He grinned.

"Let's dance then."

Helios leapt into the air, spun, and slashed downward in a corkscrewing arc, calling Dark Firaga into his blade. The explosion lit up the entire arena, obliterating the shadows.

But the real Kurai was above him—waiting.

She kicked him down mid-air, sending him spiraling into the broken ground.

Helios groaned, blood dripping from his mouth. His body screamed.

Yet he smiled.

"You're both... strong," he muttered, pushing himself up. "Too strong to waste on this."

Sephiroth and Kurai were already flanking him again.

Now.

He closed his eyes. Focused.

"Let's change the stage."

As they were about to strike the lightning on the ceiling rained down with massive bolts as the energy seemed to have built up. The bolts struck all three of them.

Although his skin burned from the lightning Helios managed to keep focus enough to cast the spell—not offensive, not defensive—but a massive multi-target corridor warp.

Space rippled around them.

All three vanished in a pulse of swirling void.

Darkness.

Stone.

A red sky as the sun set.

They landed—hard—on cracked obsidian earth before a pair of towering, rusted gates.

The Underworld.

A sulfur wind howled from the gates. The air was heavier here. Bleak. Final.

Kurai blinked, her stance faltering. "What the—?"

Sephiroth's brow furrowed as he scanned the decayed landscape. "These gates."

A dark figure emerged from the gloom, his flaming blue hair flickering with furious magic.

"YOU AGAIN!?" Hades bellowed, his eyes bulging with rage. "I knew I smelled something rotten in the air!"

Helios stood slowly, bloodied but unbowed, Slánú na nDoimhneacht still humming with dark power.

He cracked his neck and gave a smug, tired smile.

"Hello, Lord Hades. A pleasure to see you again."