After tless days of treacherous travel through the twisted ndscapes of the Realm of Darkness, Helios and the shadowy figure finally reached the shattered remains of Ented Dominion, the world of Sleepiy. Once a pce of beauty and magic, it now y in ruins, ed by the ever-encroag darkness. The sky hung heavy, thick with despair, and the remnants of what was once a vibrant kingdom y scattered across the nd like broken dreams.

  Helios stepped into this forsaken world a an all-too-familiar pang of sorrow. The crumbling ruins reminded him of his parents, of Nightfall—the city that had been his home and the memories that now haunted him. Everything he loved had been swallowed by the darkness, just like this pce.

  The figure, however, moved forward without hesitation, ued by the desotion around them. It guided Helios to a half-standing house, one of the few structures that hadn’t pletely fallen apart. After a quick survey, the figure firmed that less lurked within.

  "Rest," the figure said coolly. "This pce is safe for now."

  Helios colpsed onto the dusty floor, utterly drained. His muscles ached from the relentless journey, and his mind heavy from the stant threat of darkness. Exhaustion weighed him down, but his thoughts were a whirlwind of fear, anger, and grief. He needed a moment to breathe, to find a way to anchor himself in the reality he now faced.

  Across the room, the figure observed him, its glowiureless face tilted. Finally, it spoke, a note en its voice. "You must uand, Helios—the darkness around us is uing. If you don’t learn to trol it, it will e you. If that happens, then you are of no use to me."

  Helios looked up, meeting the figure’s gaze. His heart raced with fear as the mental exhaustion was slowly taking over. "I don't want to lose myself," he muttered. "I don’t want to be swallowed by the darkness like everything else. How I protect my heart?"

  The figure sighed, its voice tinged with frustration. "You 't deny the darkness, Helios. It’s part of who you are now. Avoiding it won’t make it disappear. To survive, you must front it. Only by fag it you prevent it from taking trol. A strong individual fears her the light nor the dark."

  Helios ched his fists, grappling with the truth in the figure’s words. He couldn’t keep running from the his own inner darkness. "You're right," he admitted. "My parents taught me to face things head-on. I won’t hide from this anymore. I know their light is still within me, helpihrough."

  "Unlikely," the figure interrupted, indifferent. "Your parents are goheir light, whatever it was, has vahey left nothing behind to protect you." The figure tilted its head, curiosity flickering in its tone. "Still, why do you only speak of your parents from this life? You lived in another world before this one, didn’t you?"

  Helios sat up, fusion crossing his face. "I didn’t have parents in that life. I grew up in an orphanage. You said you read my memories—how could you not know that?"

  The figure’s voice held a note of dismissive disdain. "I only focused on the parts that ied me. Love and passion are frailties I find irrelevant. They only make you vulnerable so I skipped them."

  Helios’s jaw tightened. "Love and passion may make us vulnerable," he said softly, "but they also give us strength. I’ve seen it in my memories of Sora, how love and friendship gave him the power to overe anything."

  For a moment, the figure paused, something flickering in its dark aura, but it quickly returo its cold, indifferent demeanor. "That dull boy—yes, Sora—did gain power through those things, though how remains a mystery to me. Very well, Helios. If you insist on ging to such foolish notions, I will still teach you to trol the darkness. But uand this: it is a power that requires discipline. You must learn its ways, or it will overwhelm you."

  Helios nodded, resolute. "I’m ready. Show me how to use it."

  The figure floated closer, its voice low and sharp. "Darkness grant you strength, but it also e you if you’re not careful. The first step is to aowledge the darkness within you. Accept it as part of who you are—only then you shape it."

  The following days were spent within the hollowed-out ruins of Ented Dominion, Helios and the figure moving from one crumbling structure to the as the world itself seemed to fall apart around them. Each day, Helios immersed himself deeper into the teags of the figure, pushing himself to the brink as he learo el the darkness without being ed by it. Every lessht him closer to uanding the delicate baween his emotions and the power he now wielded.

  Together, they ventured out into the deg world, where Helios tested his newfound abilities against the relentless Heartless. Battle after battle, he learo trol the darkness, eling it through his emotions. He fought to keep his heart anchored in light, tempering his strength with resolve and discipline.

  The days blurred into weeks, the weeks into months. In that time, Helios began to uncover more fragments of his fotten past, memories of his time as an orphan iher world slowly resurfag. But they were fleeting, like glimpses of an old photograph—distant and difficult to grasp.

  Still, he pressed oermined not to lose himself to the darkness. He would survive, not just for his own sake, but for the memory of his parents, and the hope that somehow, in some way, he could restore what was lost.

  On a cold, desote night, as they moved through another ruined part of the world, Helios stopped. He stood in silence, his breath visible in the chill air. "I don’t know who I truly am yet," he said, his voice steady, "but I do know ohing—I won’t let this darkness trol me. After I leave here I will find out how to el and trol light so that I may find a bance. And I’ll protect the things that matter."

  The figure hovered beside him, its preseill and unreadable. "We’ll see," it murmured. "But do not mistake strength for invulnerability. Evero hearts fall to darkness if they are not careful."

  Helios said nothing, only tightened his grip on the resolve that kept him going. He had e too far to falter now. The path ahead was filled with danger, but he had faced the worst before and survived. Whatever the future held, he would meet it head-on.

  He would survive, no matter what.