Kingdom Hearts: Consumed by Darkness

The air around them twisted and howled, the darkness itself pulsing with hunger.

The Dark Hide, enraged by Helios' Dark Firaga, let out a deep, bone-rattling growl. Its body pulsed with dark veins, its eyes changed from yellow to burning crimson.

And then—

It howled—a long, deafening cry that made the ground tremble.

From the shadows behind it—

Two Demon Towers erupted, their writhing forms of countless Shadows screaming and twisting into spiraling columns of destruction.

Helios' lips curled into a smirk despite his exhaustion. "Oh, come on. One wasn't bad enough?"

Skuld, spinning her Keyblade to her side, breathed steadily but narrowed her eyes. "You really made it mad this time, Helios."

Aqua, standing tall between them with the Master's Defender glowing faintly in her grip, declared, "Together. Focus, adapt—don't let them overwhelm you. Ready yourself."

The towers struck—

Without warning, the first Demon Tower sprang forward, twisting into a spear-like shape and lunging at Helios and Skuld.

"Move!" Helios roared, shoving Skuld aside and teleporting just as the ground where they stood was obliterated.

The other Demon Tower surged, twisting its form into a spiral and hurtling straight for Aqua.

She teleported—vanishing with a pulse of light and reappearing above it. Aqua's eyes flashed, "Not so fast…"

Her Keyblade twirled as she unleashed a spell and three flaming tornadoes erupted around her, circling and burning through the Heartless like a whirlwind of devastation.

Shadows shrieked as they were incinerated, but the Tower reformed, undeterred.

The first Tower twisted, scattering Shadows that surged toward Skuld.

Skuld planted her feet, her Keyblade flaring with radiant energy. He unleashed her Light Raids and golden keys of light shot from her Keyblade, carving through the swarm.

But the Tower, learning from its counterpart that attacked them before, split into two spirals, dodging her attacks as if it knew about them and converged from both sides ready to attack.

In a flash Aqua appeared beside her, casting her Seeker Mine causing multiple magical glyphs to form beneath the Shadows. The moment the creatures stepped onto them—

Boom! The mines detonated in a cascade of explosions, blowing the swarm apart and scattering the Shadows that made the Tower.

The other Demon Tower struck immediately, surging forward in a snapping vortex. Aqua teleported, reappearing above it in a flash "Triple Firaga!" Three blazing orbs of fire streaked down, exploding into the Tower's mass, burning dozens of Shadows.

The Tower writhed but reformed instantly, surging toward her. Aqua calmly smiled. "You'll need more than that." She cartwheeled away—then immediately transitioned into Firewheel, flames blazing around her as she spun and burned through the encroaching Shadows.

Her Keyblade glowed and began to hover with a wave of her hand. She started using her Spellweaver command style. Aqua danced through the air, her Keyblade spinning and slicing with dazzling speed, each arc of magic leaving trails of light.

The Demon Tower coiled and lunged, but Aqua vanished mid-attack reappearing behind it, "Seeker Mine." Glowing mines appeared beneath the Tower and—**BOOM—**exploded into bright arcs of magical light, scattering the Shadows apart.

The Demon Tower howled, regenerating but visibly weakened, but Aqua pressed her advantage. "Persistent. Good. So am I. You're through."

The second Demon Tower erupted toward Skuld and Helios and from the side, the Dark Hide pounced, its claws aiming straight for Skuld's throat.

Skuld's Keyblade blazed with pure light as she vanished into a flashstep, reappearing behind the Dark Hide. She launched spinning keys of golden light shot from her blade, slicing through the Dark Hide's back and slamming into the Demon Tower, halting its advance for a heartbeat.

The Dark Hide twisted, snarling, and then Helios appeared in front of the beast. He smirked. "I'll keep you busy. I hope you don't mind."

The Dark Hide tried to claw at Helios but he teleported, reappearing above it, "Thundaga!"

Bolts of lightning crashed down, illuminating the entire area around Helios striking the Dark Hide and the Tower. The Tower screamed—then retaliated—splitting apart into individual Shadows that swarmed toward him. The Dark Hide jumped back before rushing toward Skuld.

Helios dissolved into a cloud of darkness, slipping between the attacking Shadows—only to reform inside the swarm, his Keyblade cutting through the mass.

Then he used his Freezing Gale summoning a whirlwind of ice that erupted from his Keyblade, tearing through the mass of Shadows, freezing and shattering dozens on contact. But the Tower tried to reform again, its core frozen but still intact.

Defeating a Tower required light which Helios wasn't quite skilled in. Since he couldn't do it he decide to tag out with Skuld and used darkness to teleport between the Dark Hide and Skuld. He then launched Dark Firaga at the beast. "Skuld! Destroy the Core!"

Skuld's Keyblade flared with blinding light as she jumped into the air summoning spears of brilliant energy that rained down, piercing through the Tower's core.

The Dark Hide and Helios were battling fiercely against each other. It tried to bite him but Helios jumped back and dodged. The Dark Hide swiped at the air its claw covered in darkness and claw-shaped dark energy appeared behind Helios and struck him from behind.

The Dark Hide teleported mid-lunge, appearing directly behind Skuld. Its claws raked across her back, sending her flying into the ground with a cry of pain.

"Skuld!" Helios yelled.

The Dark Hide pressed the attack, its claws forming shadowed arcs that slashed through the air toward him.

Helios raised a Reflect barrier, but the sheer force shattered the shield, sending him tumbling backward.

 "Leave them alone!" Aqua flashed between the Dark Hide and her fallen allies, her Keyblade raised and released a barrage of elemental magic orbs fire, ice, and lightning fired from the keyblade and separated before homing and colliding with the Dark Hide from different angles and staggering it backward with a howl of pain.

Then Aqua's form flickered and she vanished only to appear instantly beside the Dark Hide slashing, vanishing, and reappearing to slashing again.

She was everywhere and nowhere at once, a phantom of magic and steel. The Dark Hide twisted, disoriented, but not defeated.

Its crimson eyes glowed and it let out a deafening roar.

New Demon Towers suddenly emerged, their bodies writhing and pulsing with new, darker energy. Aqua, breathing hard, stood with Helios and Skuld back-to-back.

The Dark Hide on one side—

The two Demon Towers on the other—

Helios, wiping blood from his lip, smirked. "Two new Towers and the Beast. Huh. This just keeps getting tougher and tougher. This is getting a bit excessive"

Aqua, her Keyblade burning with light, replied, "I've faced worse."

Skuld, despite her bruises, grinned. "Good. Because I'm not backing down either."

The Dark Hide howled and then as if obeying a command, the two Demon Towers, still writhing, suddenly flew upward—

They twisted—spiraled—and merged with the Dark Hide.

The fusion was monstrous—darkness folding into itself—

Then it emerged a new nightmarish form. Its body was now sharper, armored with jagged, metallic shadows. A mane of shadow tendrils whipped violently around it, each tendril tipped with shadows. Its claws were now permanently shrouded in seething darkness, corrosive to anything they touched. Its tail was now longer, serrated, spiked like a jagged blade.

The Demon Hide teleported and reappeared above the trio separating them. Then its shadow tendrils shot out opening small portals. Portals also opened all around the three, the tendrils emerged attacking from every direction all at once.

Helios barely dodged, one tendril grazing him—his armor sizzling, burning where it touched—

Aqua raised Reflect—but tendrils emerged inside the barrier, forcing her to dodge mid-spell—

Skuld leapt skyward—only for portals to open above her, the tendrils smashing her down—

The three landed hard—bloodied and cornered—

The Demon Hide loomed—

Its crimson eyes flaring with pure malice.