The endless sea of dark water stretched into infinity, untouched by wind or tide. The sky above them was an abyss of bd violet, faint stars flickering through the haze like dying embers. There was no sun, no moon—just aernal twilight that felt both serene and hauntingly empty.

  Skuld, still her Keybde armnced around, her eyes trag the distant roations barely visible in the void. She exhaled softly.

  “You know… I thought a pce full of darkness would be terrifying, twisted—maybe more nightmarish,” she admitted. “But this… it’s beautiful.”

  Helios, standing beside her, crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly, as if sidering her words. “Yeah… it is.”

  And it truly was.

  The smooth surface of the water beh them reflected the sky like a mirriving the illusion that they were walking through a suspended void. The faint glows of distant stars shimmered in the refleaking it feel like they were surrounded on all sides by the vast os.

  But Helios knew better.

  His expression turned serious as he adjusted his stance, his boots making no sound against the water’s surface. “It’s beautiful, yeah… but also dangerous. Especially to Keybde wielders.”

  As if the realm itself had been listening, the moment those words left his lips, the first shadows began to stir.

  The darkness shuddered.

  The surface of the water rippled, the distortions moving outward as if something underh was awakening.

  Then, from within the inky depths, bck portals of swirling mist tore open the space around them.

  Heartless.

  Helios' eyes narrowed as two distinct types of Pureblood Heartless emerged.

  The first creatures slithered forth like floating nightmares—Darkballs.

  Ten of them hovered in the air, their pitch-bck, spherical bodies streaked with dark blue tendrils. Their jagged, toothy maed open as they released an eerie, gurgling sound, their small glowing eyes locked onto their prey.

  The sed wave of enemies was far deadlier.

  Fifteen Invisibles followed, their movements fluid and precise, as if they had been lurking in the abyss, waiting for the perfeent to strike.

  Helihem instantly—they were stronger, faster, and more intelligent than normal Heartless. Unlike Shadows or Neoshadows, these weren’t just feral creatures attag instinctively. They were hunters.

  Eavisible bore a muscur b, the gold-tipped feathered wings on their arms twitg as they hovered just above the surface. Their purple horns curled into a sharp heart shape, and the fmes beh their feet flickered unnaturally.

  But the most dangerous part? Their swords.

  The scalloped, blue-bded ons they wielded glowed ominously as the Heartless shifted into battle staheir unreadable, emotionless expressions fixed oargets.

  The attack was instantaneous.

  Helios reacted first, his Equilibrium Keybde fshing into his grasp.

  A Darkball lunged, its thick bck tentacles whipping through the air toward him. He dodged left, twisting midair, and sshed downward. His Keybde carved through the creature, its form unraveling into bck mist, disiing into the darkness from which it had e.

  Skuld moved , her Ravenveil Whisper Keybde f in her hands as she swung wide, sending a crest of wind magic toward an approag Darkball. The energy struck true, causing the creature to let out a shrieking wail before bursting into shadow.

  But the Heartless didn’t hesitate.

  The Invisibles rushed forward in unison, their ons gleaming as they moved with deadly precision.

  Two of them struck at Helios from both sides, their bdes cutting through the air in synized arcs. He barely mao parry the first strike, twisting his wrist and defleg the attack, but the sed bde came from behind.

  He ducked at the st sed, feeling the rush of dispced air as the sword nearly took his head.

  Skuld wasn’t faring as well.

  An Invisible darted toward her, sword raised, moving faster than anything she had fought before. She barely had time to react, lifting her Keybde to block—but the force behind the blow sent her skidding backward.

  Before she could recover, another one was already on her, sshing from above.

  She dodged right, feeling the searing energy of the bde slice mere inches from her face. The enemy moved without hesitation, its wings propelling it forward as it sshed again.

  They didn’t stop.

  They didn’t fight like people.

  They didn’t react like normal enemies.

  They just kept ing, their movements relentless, their only instinct to e aroy.

  For the first time since arriving, Skuld felt overwhelmed.

  Her fights before had always been against human oppos—ones who could be staggered, fooled, or thrown off by tricks and magic. These creatures had no such weakness. They did not care about wounds or death. They existed only to take hearts. And hers was .

  She ched her jaw, f herself to move, but an Invisible nded a kick to her stomach, sending her flying backward. She crashed onto the surface of the water, her armor abs the brunt of the impact, but the pain still rang through her body.

  "Tch—damn it—!"

  Two more Invisibles closed in immediately, swords raised.

  Bolts of lightning tore through the air.

  Skuld barely registered the fsh of violet and white before Helios nded in front of her, Keybde raised.

  "You okay?" he asked without looking back.

  Skuld groaned as she pushed herself up. "Not my best moment."

  Helios smirked. "Yeah, these guys aren’t like the usual people you’ve fought."

  He spun Equilibrium in his grip, flig his wrist as tendrils of darkness coiled around the bde. "They’re dangerous, aren’t they?"

  Skuld, now ba her feet, took a deep breath. She watched the remainiless regroup, the Darkballs cirg like vultures, the Invisibles gripping their ons with calcuted i.

  She now uood.

  This wasn’t a normal fight.

  This realm wasn’t just a quiet, beautiful abyss.

  It was a hunting ground.

  She ched her fist around her Keybde, her resolve hardening. "Yeah. I get it now."

  Helios grinned. "Good because they won’t ever stop while we’re here and there are worse things hiding in the dark than these chumps."

  And together, they rushed forward once more—into the heart of battle.