The scent of sulfur stained the air.

  Atop a cracked ridge just below Mount Olympus, Helios stood still, his Keybde resting at his side, his breath calm despite the battlefield he’d just carved through. Behind him, the sky was beginning to brighten with the first signs of dawn—but in front of him, darkness burned blue.

  “HEL-looooo, sunshine.” The Underworld god’s arms were spread wide, like he was welcoming an old friend to brunch. “Wow, look at you. Hero pose and everything. What’s next? Speech about the power of friendship?”

  Helios’s fingers twitched slightly on his Keybde hilt.

  “Hades,” he said, evenly. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “Oh, I bet it is.” Hades’ grin widened, and so did the fmes climbing his shoulders. “You know, I just love it when my guests vanish in the middle of working for me like bad dates. Adds a little drama to the day.”

  He started pacing back and forth, boots crunching on the gravel, fire trailing behind him like a bridal train. “Let me guess. You had a sudden epiphany, a crisis of conscience, and thought: ‘Hey! Let’s go sightseeing on Mount Olympus. Maybe stop in for a frappe.’”

  Helios gave a faint shrug. “We couldn’t sleep. Thought we’d stretch our legs.”

  “Oh-ho-ho! Stretch your—oh, that’s cute.” Hades jabbed a fming finger in his direction. “But you know what’s not cute? Lying to me, working with my enemies, and triggering my stress-induced firestorms!”

  Blue fmes roared around him as his hair fred skyward like a geyser.

  Helios took a cautious step back. “We didn’t mean to offend. We were pnning on retrieving your item but a woman named Hecate transported us out of the Underworld.”

  “Oh, no, no, no!” Hades chuckled, waving it off. “Offend me? Nah! You betrayed me, lied to my face, made backdoor deals with that lunatic moon-witch Hecate, and fled to Mount freaking Olympus—but hey, no offense taken!”

  Helios exhaled slowly. “We didn’t make a deal.”

  Hades stopped. Dead still. Fmes hissed.

  “Try again,” he said coldly.

  Helios raised his hands. “She appeared before. We didn’t summon her. She offered us a way out. Your Underworld sapped our strength, handling one demi goddess sure, but two even you must know we were out of our league. So what could we do but hear her out.”

  “Oh, that’s adorable. You think she does anything without a cost. You used her escape hatch and thought it wouldn’t leave a calling card? Come on, kid. I’ve met naiads with better excuses.”

  Helios held his ground. “We didn’t pn it. But we weren’t going to die either.”

  Hades’ fmes guttered for a moment, then fred back with a roar. “Die? Die? I gave you a chance to make it up to me! Redemption! Honestly, this is why I hate doing favors. No one ever appreciates the effort I go through.”

  He paced again, muttering: “First Pain and Panic, now this… good help is hard to find.”

  Helios took advantage of the distraction. “You don’t want things to spiral out of control messing everything up. We’re just trying to fix the same mess. So let’s makeup and each keep our word.”

  Hades froze.

  Turned.

  Smiled slowly.

  “You really think I care about your word, kid?”

  The fmes around him curled tighter, thinner, hotter.

  “I care about winning. You know how long I’ve waited to get Olympus on its knees? Eighteen thousand years. And I was this close!” He held two fingers up a sliver apart. “Then you and your white-haired banshee and One-Winged Ballerina show up and blow half my pns to Tartarus!”

  Helios swallowed. “So let me fix it.”

  “Oh, sure. Fix it.” Hades began snapping his fingers. “Let’s have you waltz right up to big bro Zeus, get him to kiss and make up, then we all go to a group therapy session and sing campfire songs.”

  Another step forward. “What’s your angle, Sparkles? Buy time while your buddies circle Olympus?”

  Helios didn’t answer. Which was answer enough.

  Hades’ grin turned predatory.

  “Ohhh. That’s what this is.” He cracked his knuckles. “You’re stalling me. Pying the charm card. Gotta say… not bad. You almost had me there.”

  He stepped forward until the heat of his fmes licked Helios’s jacket.

  “But you know what I do to people who lie to me?”

  Helios met his gaze.

  “I didn’t lie,” he said softly. “I just… redirect expectations.”

  A pause.

  Then Hades ughed. Not a chuckle—full, shoulder-shaking cackle.

  “You’re good, kid. You got the delivery, the deadpan, the smolder. If you weren’t so doomed, I’d consider hiring you again.”

  Helios stayed quiet.

  Hades’ grin vanished like a candle snuffed in a storm.

  “But unfortunately… it’s time to burn.”

  Fmes surged outward.

  Helios barely raised his Keybde in time.

  The ground ignited.

  A blue inferno erupted from Hades' feet, splitting the hillside in twin arcs of fme. The air warped under the heat, and molten rock bubbled through the cracks as if the Underworld had reached up to breathe.

  Helios leapt back just in time, sliding across the gravel. The fire licked at his boots, his coat caught the edge of the bze, smoldering—but he didn’t stop.

  “Alright!” Hades roared, his voice booming across the canyon. “Let’s take the gloves off, sweetheart!”

  He raised his arms.

  Boom.

  Four massive pilrs of fme exploded into being, swirling like fming tornados around him. They shifted suddenly, hurtling toward Helios like battering rams.

  “Reflect,” Helios muttered under his breath, recognizing it just before impact.

  He sprang to the side, flickering in a burst of darkness. A well-timed teleport put him behind one of the marble spires—but the entire thing was obliterated as a wall of fire smashed through it like sugar gss.

  “Aw, c’mon!” Hades shouted gleefully. “You’re not gonna make me sweat, are ya?”

  Helios didn’t answer. He was already mid-air, cloak swirling, Keybde drawn.

  “Blizzaga!” he cast, sending a frozen shockwave downward.

  The ice spread in a jagged, spiraling web, racing across the scorched ground—and for a moment, the fire slowed.

  Hades scowled. “Ugh, ice. Always with the ice. What are you, a Khione wannabe?”

  He clenched both fists, and the fme surged higher, melting through the frost like it was butter.

  Helios touched down and instantly cast again.

  “Reflect!”

  A shimmering dome snapped up just as another pilr smmed into him. The force bsted smoke and debris in every direction, but when the fire cleared, Helios was still standing, inside a cracked but holding barrier.

  Inside, Helios gritted his teeth. The pressure of Hades’ raw magic was overwhelming. He wasn’t built to tank gods—he had to out-think them.

  “I’m guessing this is you calm,” Helios called out.

  “Oh, this?” Hades twirled in the air, leaving a trail of fire like a comet. “This is me doing warm-ups. Wait until I start caring.”

  He cpped his hands once.

  A circle of runes fred beneath Helios’ feet.

  Helios’ eyes widened. “Trap—!”

  Too te.

  The runes ignited in a burst of blue fire, and a column of burning chains erupted upward, trying to ensnare him like a snake’s jaws.

  Helios shouted in pain.

  He vanished in a flicker of shadow—barely escaping the trap. He reappeared behind Hades and sshed down hard, aiming for his back.

  But Hades turned, caught the Keybde with one fming hand.

  It didn’t burn him.

  “Oh-ho! We’re doing melee now? Cute.” His other hand punched forward.

  Helios spun and warped again, dodging the fming fist by inches.

  He skidded backwards, panting now.

  “Let me guess,” Hades smirked, nding a few feet away. “This is the part where you say something dramatic like, ‘You’ll never win!’ and I say, ‘I already have,’ and then we fight in the rain for symbolic effect?”

  “You’re stalling too,” Helios replied coolly. “You could’ve burned me alive, but you haven’t. You’re afraid of something.”

  That hit.

  Hades’ grin tightened.

  “Not fear, kid,” he said, voice suddenly cold. “Strategy. You got your friends climbing Olympus, right? One of them’s gotta reach Zeus.”

  Helios narrowed his eyes. “So what?”

  “So…” Hades spread his arms and snapped his fingers.

  A new portal opened—one not of fire, but bck, shifting shadow.

  From it came the unmistakable screech of a high-level Heartless.

  “Let’s raise the stakes.”

  A Darkside leapt out, followed by three Invisibles and a pair of twisted, shadow versions of Helios. All of them bristled with darkness.

  “Meet your new test proctors. Let’s see if you pass.”

  Helios braced himself.

  Hades vanished in fire and smoke, his ughter trailing behind like a curse.

  The six Heartless circled him, eyes gleaming, weapons twitching.

  Helios smirked to himself. “Great. Boss fight after boss fight. This day just keeps getting better.”

  He flipped his Keybde into a reverse grip and whispered, “Let’s dance.”