Helios turo Malefit, his curiosity piqued. “Do you have any idea what’s going on ihat barricaded b?”

  Malefit’s sly smile widened. “Since I am in such a good mood,” she said, her voice dripping with mock benevolence, “allow me to show you a spell that might satiate your curiosity.”

  She raised her staff, its green lowing ominously, and with a deliberate wave of her hand, an image began to form within its swirlihs. The image was blurry at first, swirling in indistinct patterns of light and shadow.

  “This spell is called sg,” Malefit expined, her tone almost instrual. “It serves two purposes. The first is to locate something or someohe sed is to reveal the image of any location the caster is familiar with. Both, of course, require a suitable medium. An object with a clear surface like a gss orb or water.”

  Helios watched ily as the image sharpened, his mind already analyzing the spell. When the picture finally became clear, his breath caught.

  The view revealed Isa and Lea, unscious and strapped into peared to be lifeboat-like maes. The apprentices worked feverishly around them, adjusting trols and preparing the devices. When the maes activated, the process was unlike anything Helios had seen before. There was no prolonged separation of heart and body—Isa and Lea simply vanished in an instant.

  “That’s new,” Helios muttered.

  Malefit’s smirk deepened but she said nothing, allowing him to focus on the se. Even’s triumphant ughter echoed through the orb as he decred, “We’ve do! The process is perfected!”

  Suddenly, a loud bang shook the barricaded doors in the b. Braig’s voice cut through the otion. “That door’s not going to hold! Let’s get this over with already.”

  Xehanort stepped forward, his calm demeanor unwavering. “Braig, Din, and Aeleus—you’re .”

  The three stepped into the maes without hesitation. As the devices activated, their forms vanished, one by one, into the ether.

  Even and Ienzo quickly followed. Xehanort, meanwhile, approached the sole and typed some code, he then pulled out a strange gray orb from his coat. He pced it delicately inside one of the maes before strapping himself in. As the process began for Xehanort, the barricaded door burst open, aless flooded the room.

  Helios didn’t wait to see what happened . He immediately opened a dark corridor to the b, stepping through just as Malefit joined him, her preserailing ominous green and bck fmes.

  The b was a se of chaos. The maes were still humming with residual energy, the Heartless already tearing apart the equipment in their relentless assault. Helios rushed to the sole, ign the chaos around him. His fingers flew over the keys as he tried to dis the st input ands.

  The sole dispyed nothing useful—just a deyed startup and. There were no logs about the strange gray orb or its purpose. Helios sighed in frustration, muttering under his breath. Whatever Xehanort had do was beyond Helios’s immediate prehension.

  “Well,” Helios said, straightening, “it seems our deal is cluded.”

  Malefit surveyed the destru with a satisfied expression. “Quite,” she said, her voice rich with amusement. “This castle shall serve me well.” With that, she turned and walked away, her ente of Emblem Heartless following closely.

  As soon as she was gone, Helios turned back to the sole, pulling out the hard drive he had brought with him. He quickly began copying all the data on the lifeboats, Nobodies, aless. This was the first of the two objectives he o plete before leaving Radiant Garden.

  With the data transfer plete, Helios spotted a nearby data disk, the bel catg his eye. Grabbing it, he ied it into the mae aered the password: "Another." He then typed in six additional passwords—the inal names of the six apprehe sole beeped, and a se of the b floor shifted, revealing a hidden passage beh the Heartless Manufactory.

  Helios desded the long, spiraling staircase cautiously, his Keybde ready in case of ued surprises. The air grew colder the further he went, the faint hum of maery eg off the walls. At the bottom, he found himself in a long hall, its walls lined with eleically locked doors bound by s.

  At the end of the hall was a room unlike any other. It arse, almost ceremonial, with a sihrone-like seat at its ter. Helios’s eyes were immediately drawn to the Keybde and armor dispyed reverently on a pedestal. He reized them instantly—these beloo Aqua. Here was his sed objective.

  Helios’ hand hovered over the armor for a moment before he gently picked it up. The Keybde, too, felt heavy in his grasp, its presence almost rejeg him.

  Helios opened another dark corridor, stepping bato the b above and carefully sealing the secret passage before he left. With his objectives pleted, he activated the corridaiurning to Merlin’s cottage.

  Ba his room, Helios pced Aqua’s armor and Keybde on the desk beside him. Sitting down, he ected the hard drive to his personal sole and began bing through the data he had copied from the b. There was a wealth of information—schematics, test logs, theories, and much more.

  Kurai’s voice broke the silence. “Satisfied now? Or do you still feel like you’re missing something?”

  Helios didn’t look away from the s. “Xehanort’s too meticulous to leave everything behind. That gray orb—it’s something important. Something I don’t have text for yet.”

  Kurai chuckled, its toeasing. “A you took your prize, didn’t you? The armor and the Keybde. Seal, are we?”

  Helios shot a gre at the shadowy figure. “Se has nothing to do with it. These will be useful ter when I search for Aqua.”

  Kurai’s ughter faded into a low hum, leaving Helios aloh his thoughts. Helios stepped out of his room, as he walked into the main living area of Merlin’s cottage, he stopped short at an ued sight: Skuld, sitting nervously across from Sephiroth, carefully p tea into a delicate cup.

  Sephiroth sat in his usual predatrace, his pierg eyes fixed on Skuld as though disseg her every move. The sight was oddly domestic, yet tinged with an unmistakable tension that made Helios’s brow furrow.

  “I didn’t think tea parties were your thing,” Helios remarked, his tone dry as he approached.

  Skuld gnced up, relief fshing in her eyes at Helios’s arrival. “He was just… sitting here when I came out,” she expined, her voice a bit rushed. “I thought it’d be polite to offer him tea.”

  Sephiroth smirked faintly, lifting the teacup with an elegahat trasted with his imposing presence. “Quite the hospitable gesture,” he said, taking a slow sip. His gaze flickered to Helios, assessing him in silence.

  Helios decided to skip the banter. “We’re ready to leave,” he announced, his tone brisk.

  Skuld set the teapot down, a hint of fusion crossing her face. “What about that dy Malefit?” she asked hesitantly.

  “She’s decided to stay,” Helios replied. “She has the castle and her pns. She doesn’t need us anymore, and we don’t need her.”

  Skuld’s eyes widened slightly. “Are you sure? She might—”

  “She’s staying,” Helios interrupted, his voice firm. “And we’re leaving. No more deys.”

  Sephiroth’s smirk deepehe fai hint of amusement in his expression. “Leaving, are we?” he drawled. “And where, pray tell, are you pnning to go?”

  Helios met Sephiroth’s gaze steadily, refusing to be intimidated. “Somewhere far from here. This world will soon fall to darkness, there is no reason to stay.”