The descent into the earth began with silence.
A swallowing hush that consumed even the sound of footsteps as Helios, Jafar, and the five accompanying guards pressed deeper into the cavern beneath the beetle-shaped dune. The only noise was the soft crunch of sand and the chattering teeth of one soldier still reeling from the chill outside.
The Beetle Cavern wound like a throat of ancient stone — spiraling downward into the belly of the desert. The light from their lanterns flickered along walls etched with half-erased glyphs and broken murals of forgotten gods. The air turned thick, pungent with the stench of salt, rot, and… something else.
Something that smelled of rot and decay.
Helios smelled it long before he saw it.
Soon he felt a gaze lock on to him. A prickle down his spine. A whisper behind his heartbeat. A breath that didn't belong to anyone in the group.
His fingers twitched.
Jafar marched ahead with rigid pride, his staff held high, the ruby eyes of the cobra head glowing faintly. The guards clustered just behind him, lanterns swinging, their swords sheathed but their hands tense. One of them muttered a prayer under his breath.
Helios didn't speak.
He counted them again.
Five.
His eyes narrowed. 'We brought three. How did I not notice until now?'
They reached a wider chamber where the ceiling opened into an uneven dome of black glass and porous rock. The lanternlight shimmered across patches of crystalline dust and half-crushed bones. Broken amphorae littered the corners. The scent grew worse.
Something once lived here.
Something still did.
Helios drifted toward the rear of the group. He studied the guards in silence, one by one.
The first — an older man with a long brow and a crooked scar over his jaw.
The second — missing two fingers on his right hand, clenching a blade handle too tightly.
The third — short, twitchy, eyes darting.
The fourth — taller than the others, but unfamiliar. Too quiet.
The fifth — face half-covered, speaking not a word.
His breath slowed.
'No. Something's wrong. Those two weren't here a moment ago but no one reacting and treating them like they belong here.'
Then, in one smooth motion, Helios summoned Equilibrium, the blade manifesting in his palm like a falling star.
Without hesitation, he slashed diagonally at the silent guard.
The man howled—not from pain, but rage—as his form melted, skin peeling like parchment, bones cracking outward.
It grew. Twisted. Snarled.
Behind him, Helios snapped his other hand forward, releasing a Firaga that slammed into the second imposter.
The blast cracked the wall—ash and fire splashed across the second shape as it leapt away, form shifting mid-air.
Two creatures now stood among them.
Their skin was corpse-gray and hung in loose folds. Long-limbed, digitigrade legs ending in black claws. Faces split vertically at the mouth, revealing rows of curved, canine teeth. One bore scraps of the uniform it had copied, still clinging to its spindly frame like a sick joke.
They laughed.
A guttural, animal mockery of human joy.
Jafar gasped, "Ghuls!"
Then— FLASH.
One of them released a pulse of light from its chest, a sudden, searing explosion of silver that turned the chamber white.
The guards screamed, swords raised too late.
Helios turned, eyes squeezed shut—
A scream echoed behind him.
Not one of the monsters. One of the guards.
When the white faded—
The monsters were gone.
Jafar whirled, staff raised. "Where are they?!"
Helios was already scanning.
The three remaining guards were stunned, one bleeding from the brow, another muttering curses.
Jafar turned to him. "You should have killed them!"
"I tried to," Helios replied coldly. "But they got away in the end."
"Then where did they go?"
Helios said nothing.
He looked over the guards again.
Counted.
Now three. Did they leave?
The Ghul's magic was precise.
He examined their faces. Their movements. Their posture.
Something had changed.
Jafar was raging again. "We should fall back and burn this entire place—"
"No," Helios said, calm but final. "We move forward."
Jafar turned toward him. "You would trust a path guarded by illusions and monsters?"
Helios' gaze was steady. "I trust patterns. And they've shown theirs."
Jafar hesitated—but the dark look in Helios' eyes was something he was ready to challenge at this moment surrounded by Ghuls.
With a snarl, he waved the group forward.
They marched deeper.
The cave narrowed again—this time into a black hallway of arching stone and sharp, glistening rock. The path was uneven, carved not by hands but by claws. Bones littered the edges, picked clean.
Helios led now.
Behind him, the guards walked carefully, blades drawn, eyes flicking toward every corner.
But Helios was no longer watching the path.
He was watching them.
One moved perfectly in rhythm. Never wiped sweat. Never blinked.
Another muttered prayers. Every third step. Like clockwork.
The third stumbled, cursed, hissed that his boots were too tight.
The last two acted human but it could easily be a trick of the creature.
Was it really so easy or was it deliberate to get him to attack one of the guards leaving his back turned?
It wasn't enough to make a move yet.
Not yet.
They entered the final chamber.
The heart of the Ghul's den.
A sunken arena, circular, with a pit of bones at its center. The air shimmered with residual magic — ancient runes lined the walls, pulsing faintly with trapped power.
There, nestled in the roots of a petrified tree… was the other half of the golden scarab.
Helios stepped toward it.
"Wait," Jafar hissed.
The guards circled wider, spacing out.
Helios glanced sideways.
Then stopped.
One guard's shadow didn't match.
It was moving a heartbeat behind his body.
Helios smiled thinly.
"Found one."
Helios' eyes locked on the guard with the late-moving shadow.
The man noticed and froze — just for a second.
Enough.
Helios summoned Equilibrium once more. The keyblade didn't clang against stone or hiss with flare — it appeared like judgment.
Without warning, he moved.
A burst of light flared around him as he lunged, driving his blade through the imposter's chest.
The "guard" screamed, but the sound twisted halfway through into something guttural, unhinged — the tone of something caught between pain and fury.
Its face contorted.
Its form melted.
The Ghul burst forth, lashing out with long, barbed claws — catching Helios' side and slashing through the outer edge of his coat. Sparks flew from a protective glyph beneath the fabric, the magic absorbing most of the impact.
"NOW!" Jafar shouted.
The remaining guards surged forward. One of them hurled a spear — it hit the creature's shoulder but only slowed it.
The Ghul spun into the air and smashed into a stone column, shattering it with brute force. It bellowed as it landed, mouth gaping wide, then turned to flee down one of the narrow side tunnels.
Helios cast Stopga — a pulse of temporal magic froze the creature mid-dash, suspended like a puppet in invisible strings.
For six seconds, it hung there — snarling, seething.
Jafar strode forward, staff glowing with dark fire. "You should have killed it earlier. This whole mission's at risk."
"I am doinf it now aren't I?" Helios muttered, walking past him. Helios slice the Ghul in half.
He didn't even look at the frozen Ghul before turning around.
Instead, he walked to the petrified tree at the heart of the cavern and reached into the roots.
The scarab half shimmered like a flame made solid. It pulsed as his fingers closed around it — like a heartbeat… responding to him.
The moment he took it in hand, the chamber's runes flared, casting the room in golden light.
Time resumed.
The Ghul collapsed to the floor—dead.
"That's one now where is the other?" Helios asked, holding the fragment up to the light. "They were guarding it, just like the old man said. So it should be attacking us to retrieve the scarab."
Jafar's hand twitched at the edge of his robe. For a moment, he considered attacking — maybe while Helios was distracted.
But Helios turned before he could act.
Their eyes met.
And in Helios' stare, Jafar saw it — not fear, not arrogance… but knowledge. Like Helios had already counted out every move he might make.
So Jafar smiled instead.
"Well done," he said. "Let's return to Agrabah and combine the halves."
Helios tilted his head. "No."
Jafar's jaw tensed. "What?"
"I'll hold onto this half," Helios said. "Until I'm ready for us to use both halves."
Jafar's voice dropped into something colder. "You don't trust me."
Helios turned to leave. "You finally understand."