Kurai hovered as a shadow over Malefit, who y in deep, undisturbed sleep, her form bathed in the dim glow of the guest room. The fairy had cast a Hex of Silence around herself, perhaps to muffle the stant hum of Helios’s nighttime training. Kurai watched her, a quiet figure suspended in the dark, the slight rise and fall of her breath, faint traces of dark energy radiating from her form like a quiet pulse.

  Its miuro an earlier failure with Helios—an uling mystery, gnawing at it persistently. This time, it had anticipated Helios’s resistance, exerting more of its influence, weaving itself into his emotions, speaking words that seemed to resoh him. A, at the most crucial moment, its trol had not only been broken but was rebounded, even strohan the first time in the Dark Realm. How could it have failed twice?

  What was it about Helios that kept him so resistant, so… unyielding? The anger Kurai sensed from Helios afterward remained puzzling. To Kurai, its as were her intrusive nor deceitful; they were simply part of its nature. Manipution and persuasion were natural instincts, no more strahahing was to a human. A, Helios had reacted as if Kurai’s attempt was some kind of betrayal—a respohat tugged at the edges of Kurai’s awareness, almost like… curiosity.

  Pushing these thoughts aside, Kurai transformed into a thin wisp of dark smoke, letting itself merge into Malefit’s form. She stirred faintly, a shiver passing through her, but did not awaken. Her natural darkness weled Kurai’s presence, allowing it to settle within her as if it belohere.

  For the day or two, Kurai would remain fused with her, subtly amplifying her ambition, cruelty, and insatiable hunger for power. With careful influe would weaken her restraint and amplify her darkest desires until ation remained. She would bee, in time, aronger on to Helios, though she would never suspect it.

  Yet as Kurai sank deeper into her heart, an ued sensation took hold—something unfamiliar and strangely pelling: curiosity.

  Why had it failed to trol Helios, despite tless attempts? Why did Helios’s darkness remain stagnant, her growing nor weakening? After so much time, most humans would have surrendered pletely. Yet Helios’s darkness was stable, unging.

  As Kurai gently pulsed through Malefit’s thoughts, nudgient power into a slow cresdo, it found its mind drawn back to Helios. No matter how deeply Kurai reached within the boy, its influence was limited. It could unicate with him, yes, but attempts to expand its reach were met with fierce, inexplicable resistance.

  Helios was unlike any other vessel Kurai had entered, and that alone g it, sparking the first true curiosity it had felt in eons. Why did Helios’s mind remain so stubbornly closed, even to ay he had willingly allied with? Kurai was bound to him, ected in the deepest recesses of his heart, yet something preve from ever truly trolling the boy. It was vexing, to say the least. Why did Helios resist? Why, after all this time, was Kurai still kept at a distance, uo meld with him in the way it desired?

  It felt almost… vulnerable.

  Kurai refocused on Malefit, fusing deeper into her heart, letting her ambitions and cruelty swell to the forefront of her mind. If Helios proved impossible to trol directly, then it would exert influence elsewhere.

  Meanwhile, in the early hours before m, Helios sat quietly by the window of Merlin’s cottage, watg the gentle sky ge across Radiant Garden. As he took in the peaceful view, an unusual st caught his attention—a strange, almost intoxig aroma that leasant at first but grew increasingly sour, then putrid, the longer he inhaled. It felt unnatural, as if darkness itself had taken form and was wafting through the air.

  Curious and slightly uled, Helios stood, opening a dark corridor to the heart of the city. He emerged in a secluded alley, the st now stronger and more insistent, leading him toward the vast Great Valley just beyond Ansem’s castle. Determio find the source, he opened another corridor and reappeared in the valley, where the st grew thid overwhelming, filling the air like a dense fog.

  As he followed the trail, it led him to a figure lying on the ground—a young man, no older than Helios himself. The man wore a purple, high-colred shirt with shoulder armor, a heavy gau on his left arm, practical cargo pants, and sturdy, knee-high bck boots. Beside him y a massive bde, nearly as long as he was tall—a Buster Sword, its silver gleaming in the m light. His spiky blond hair was damp with sweat, and, more disturbingly, darkness seeped from his body, pooling around him in thick, smoke-like tendrils.

  Helihe young man immediately: Cloud Strife. But something was terribly wrong. The darkness spilling from Cloud was thick, malevolent, ing him from the i. Helios’s blood ran cold—Cloud was on the verge of being a Heartless. In his memories, Cloud was still human when he entered Sora, still fighting his own battles. If he fell to darkness now, it could unravel everything Helios had ted on.

  Having no other choice, Helios summoned his Keybde for the first time in ages. It gleamed softly, as arifying darkness with a ter of pure white light shone and it appeared as Helios felt its familiar weight settle into his hand. Helios approached Cloud, holding the Keybde over the young man’s chest, trating on pulling the darkness out of his heart before it ed him.

  “Hang on, Cloud,” he murmured, visualizing the darkness unraveling, being drawn out. A thin, bck beam shot from his Keybde, pierg Cloud’s chest. Helios gritted his teeth, feeling the dark energy resisting, twisting and writhing as it fought against his will te it.

  Gradually, the darkness coalesced, unwinding from Cloud’s body, densing in the air before Helios. As it densed further, the dark mass began to take on a humanoid form, its shape sharpening into distininous features.

  The figure that emerged had long, silver hair framing an angur face, wearing a bck leather coat with a high colr and tattered edges. Pierg, unnervingly calm blue eyes regarded Helios with a cold intelligence. His appearance bore a striking resembo Cloud, yet his aura radiated malid calcuted fury.

  Helios’s breath hitched—he reized this figure. Sephiroth, the warrior whose presence had driven Cloud to front his darkest fears. But this Sephiroth wasn’t a true person; he was a dark maion, a twisted proje of Cloud’s darkness, despair, and fear.

  Sephiroth’s gaze shifted from Cloud, who y still, to Helios, who held his Keybde ready. A faint smirk twisted his lips as he summoned a on of his own: a long, slender bde that gleamed menagly. In an instant, Sephiroth lunged, moving with unnatural speed, his eyes bzing with dark i.

  Helios raised his Keybde just in time to block, the force of the strike sending a shockwave rippling through the valley. He gritted his teeth as he fought to hold his ground, his feet skidding against the earth as he struggled to withstand the onsught.