Chapter 11: Darkness Rising

Hey guys, I promised I'd put this chapter out faster and I kept to it. Just a quick thing though, there is a slight blood mention in this chapter. Nothing too extreme to make your stomach roil, probably, but just wanted to let you know.

Enjoy the chapter!

Despite the sun setting in the sky, the water seemed to already hold the darkness of night. Shadows spread out from huge underwater rock formations, looking already menacingly to those nearby. The vastness and depth of the ocean itself only highlighted the forthcoming blackness. The darkness only grew as the sun dipped beneath the horizon. The water now seemed like an endless abyss, ready to swallow any who got caught beneath the waves.

And now the abyss swallowed her. The once gorgeous waters which she swam in with joy now only brought horror and pain. The pressure was building up all around her, squeezing her body in painfully. Her lungs ached for air and she longed to be able to breath underwater once more. The saltwater stung her eyes, even when they were closed, only adding insult to the situation she was in. What once was a familiar environment to her had aggressively turned against her.

All of a sudden, the water parted from her face. A blast of cold fluid broke off of her skin and instead something else flowed by her lips. Without a moment's hesitation, they parted and her burning lungs sucked in as much air as they could hold. The air felt like sweet honey in her mouth and slowly the pain resided in her chest. However, the immense throbbing in her head only grew as she heard cackling penetrate her bubble and a slimy tentacle pierced the fragile walls before curling under her chin. Her stinging eyes could barely make out the grinning cecaelia holding her captive.

"Poor little princess," Ursula cooed as she stroked her face, taking glee as she squirmed even more. "Don't fret. It's not you I want. Quite the contrary, I've a much bigger fish to-"

"Ursula, stop!"

A glowing triton pointed at the sea witch's throat, halting her in her tracks before the burning, pointed tips could pierce her. There before her and staring angrily was the king of the oceans himself, king Triton. His strong, sturdy stature, combined with his weapon and facial expression, made him quite the fearsome and intimidating sight. Despite his sudden appearance, she remained to keep the calm in her face and voice.

"Why, King Triton! Ha ha ha. How are you," she asked, gentle stroking the tip of his pronged fork with her fingertips and gazing lovingly at it, until he irritability held it up closer to her throat.

"Let her go," he demanded. Her facade quickly dropped and she pulled the girl into a tighter grip.

"Oh, I wouldn't be too harsh and brash when running into these kinds of things, dear Triton." She let out a chuckle and gestured to her. "You see, your daughter made a deal with me, a voice for a pair of legs for three days. She signed a contract and everything." Her face then twisted into a scowl. "However, your little brat seemed to have found and exploited a loophole, thus breaking out of deal. And so here we are now."

Triton eyes turned for a moment off the sea witch and onto his youngest daughter. Dressed in strange garb humans wore, she looked very strange. No more so were the two, thinly stumps where he beautiful, elegant tail was. She had been infatuated with the human world for quite some time now, but he hadn't expected she go this far to learn more about it.

His eyes turned back to Ursula. His grip tightened on the staff and his inner rage made it glow even brighter. "I shall not tell you again, Ursula. Let her go!"

"Now now, Triton, let's not get our beard in knots. I sincerely suggest you improve your tone with me. After all, my hold around can get rather," he winced as Ariel writhed in pain as she started to suffocate, "tight." Seeing him not lowering his triton she drew her closer to her. "And don't even think about blasting me with that oversized fork of yours. Who's to say that you won't accidentally fry your daughter in the process too."

Seeing the stakes finally made him relent and slowly lower it down a bit. He looked down at Sebastian by his tail, waited a moment, before sighing and drew nearer.

"What would I have to do to make you release her?"

The look on everyone's face was shocked to say the least, but as both Ariel and Sebastian began pleading for him to reconsider, Ursula's face drew into a sinister grin.

"Well now you're getting interesting. I want something from you that's very precious. Something that once gone, you can never regain again. And, of course, I always was a girl with an eye for a bargain." Her finger stuck out and pointed. "You and the triton. Your daughter for both."

"No your majesty, please don't," Sebastian protested, begging him to reconsider. Triton held it back up and Ursula reacted aggressively. A knife encrusted with rust and barnacles suddenly materialized in a puff of inky black smoke before being pressed at the young princess's neck.

"One more move Triton and you can say goodbye to her. You'll live the rest of the life you couldn't save her. However," Ariel gasped as the blade was pressed closer to her skin, "while the daughter of the great sea king is a very precious commodity, I might be willing to make an exchange for someone even better." She snapped and a golden, glowing contract appeared in her tentacle. It was new and unsigned, yet the words on it were quite clear.

"So Triton, do we have a deal? You for your daughter's life?"

Triton glared at her, before giving a look towards his daughter. Though the bubble made her voice silence, her expression and tears falling from her face told it all. Ever since her mother died, he had sworn to take care of her and her sisters and protect them from harm. He had taken that vow on the day and he was not about to turn away from it now,

Turning away and closing his eyes in anguish, his triton pointed at the scroll and a beam shot out of it and onto the parchment. His signature appeared at the bottom, now legally binding him to the sea witch.

"Ha! It's done then." The scroll rolled up and melded into a swirling, gold vortex that shot straight at him. Ursula laughed as it twisted around and around him. Sebastian and Ariel could only call out and watch in horror as the mighty king of the sea shrank down and became withered. His triton fell down beside him and his crown fell over him, changing to the seabed around the fallen king.

Sebastian came in close and looked sadly upon him. "Oh, your majesty." Ariel just stared in horror at her father and whispered out to him, even though he could not hear her.

"Daddy."

With no longer anyone to stand in her way, the sea witch began to chuckle as she bent down an picked up the ground before setting it up upon her own head. Her tentacles brought up to her hand and it glowed when grasped.

"At last, it's mine," she said, gazing at the glorious new power she now wielded.

"You had a deal! Let Ariel go now," Sebastian called up, turning towards her and glaring furiously. Ursula turned slightly shocked at the small crustacean's tone, before a wide grin made its way across her face.

"Ah yes. The deal," she cooed as she slunk towards the bubble-headed princess. "You see here's the thing, Triton. I said I would let her go." The king watched in horror as a hand with pointed nails started coming closer to his daughter's face.

"I didn't say I would turn her back into a mermaid."

Ariel's eyes widened before shutting tightly once more as seawater smacked against her eyelids. The pressure of the water caved in all around her. That and the freezing temperature seized up her limbs, preventing her from moving. Worst of all, the air left her lungs and they began compressing in her chest. Numbness flooded all her senses. She knew Sebastian was calling out her name while her father moaned out in fright for her, yet she could hear nothing but the deepening pressure of the once familiar world.

"Ahh!"

Wisps of black blood suddenly leaked out into the water, the way made possible by a slit in the sea witch's lilac skin. Beside her a sharpened harpoon stuck pout of the rock, just a few inches away from stabbing through a tentacle. Her head turned back and her eyes narrowed furiously at the offender. The young man who the princess almost wed glared angrily through the stinging seawater, his body posed in a defensive position.

Her lips peeled back, revealing a feral grin before she turned towards her two eel minion, just floating nearby. "After him," she barked out and they swiftly followed after him. As the prince attempted to get back to the surface to breath, they curled their long, streamlined bodies around him and yanked him back under.

All of a sudden, one let out a hiss in pain as Sebastian snapped his claw down on his tail. Meanwhile, his twin had now gotten a whacking in the face from the tail of a determined Flounder before ending with a hard slap. The pair became distracted by the newcomers and their bodies unintentionally released their captive.

"You fools," Ursula called up to them, before brandishing the triton. "If you want things done properly, then you'll just have to do them yourself."

Energy gathered throughout the weapon before materializing as a bolt of lighting that broke out from the tip, heading straight towards the floundering prince. Ursula's eyes narrowed in glee as she watched it grew closer and closer, before they widened in shock. A red and yellow, blue-striped blur had crossed before her intended target, dragging the two eels in front of the shot. They screamed out as electricity coursed through them before exploding, leaving nothing left but several scales and bits of flesh.

"Babies," Ursula's cried out, letting the triton dropped to gather up their remains and hold them close to her. She then glared maniacally up at him and a cloud of ink began to squirt out from underneath her form. They tried to curl around the weapon to once again try to cause damage to the prince...

...only for her to turn around and stare dumbfounded as the blinded, weakened princess now grasped it tightly. She tried to reach out for it again, but backed away when another beam of energy shot out of it, heading straight towards the original target. It hit its mark, but instead of the same fate that the eels had found, a visible change appeared on the prince.

A glowing, gold aura surrounded and swirled around him and his eyes nearly popped out of his head and the rest of the air in his lungs escaped as he watched a transformation take place. His pants ripped and leather boots vanished as flesh came into sight. His legs suddenly came together and fused. Unlike Ariel's change, he felt no searing pain, but t was almost like a dunk into a bath of just a little too hot temperature. Clear scales appeared across his skin before deepened in hue and changing from warm tan to a deep navy blue. Lastly, fins sprouted by his weight and at the end of his tail.

The gold, sparkly vortex dissipated and the prince's merman form stood out before everyone. As he stared stunned at his new form, Ursula took advantage of his distracted state and proceeded to yank the triton out of Ariel's weakening arms before taking a much more deadly blast at him. Luckily, his reflexes took hold and he barrel-rolled out of the way. Once again realizing his enemy and the state of danger his fiance was in, he dove down towards them. He soon realized how powerful his tail was as it shot him through the water at dizzying speeds. As the sea witch kept firing blasts at him, he dodged each one.

Flips, barrel-rolls, twists and turns, he soon made it down to her level. She swung her weapon at him before attempting to jab the ends into his chest. He swam down to the bottom and retrieved his harpoon before arming himself with it against her. Ursula might had been larger with her tentacles and a much more powerful weapon, but he had years of sword-fighting and more determination. As the weapon came down, his came up and blocked him. He caught it underneath the hilt of the fork and twisted it out of her grasp. Before she could get it back, he jabbed the pointed end of the harpoon into her arm.

As Ursula howled in agonizing pain and desperately tried to pull to hooked end from her flesh, Eric seized his opportunity to get behind her and get towards Ariel. She had stopped moving and her form drifted lazily in the water. His arm swung around her waist and pulled her close to him before his tail beat madly, propelling them both up and towards the surface. Before they ascended up he noticed the triton sticking up from the seabed and within grasp. He reached out and clenched it, instantly feeling a burst of energy and power that surged through his body before he took off strongly and swiftly.

A larger puff of black blood escaped her skin as she forcefully maneuvered the blade out. She let out a screech as she removed and tossed it to the side where to hit the seabed with a clang. Her crown had fallen off her head in the tussle and now lay beside it. As her hand went to cover the large wound on her arm, her eyes traveled towards the transformed prince taking his bride up to the surface. Her teeth clenched together so tightly they nearly cracked.

She then swung her head back furiously towards the withered sea king. He was now staring up at the two, his expression hopeful as he prayed they would get out and be safe. He cowered back in fear once he saw the much taller and bigger which grew closer to him.

"You think that you have won, don't you Triton." He saw her eyes turn read with fury and her face become ablaze with maniacal rage. "Think again! I managed to absorb enough energy from that overgrown fork of your to gain enough power."

Her tentacles then brought up three items to her hands. One was the crown and the second was the the harpoon with her blood still leaking off the top of it. The last one was a clear, skull-shaped bottle with a glittering black liquid inside it. His eyes widened fearfully as he understood what it was and watched her bring it up to her face.

"I just need a little more to exact my revenge on you, your daughter, and this entire ocean."

She uncorked it and swiftly brought it up to her lips before downing it before it could leak into the ocean. Ink clouds began to squirt out beneath her against, fogging up the water and darkening his view of the world. Through the murky water he could see flashes of yellow electricity the lowly turned to green before he sensed the shadows around him growing darker and darker. He quickly sent out a silent prayer to Oceanus himself that everything would turn out alright in the end.

Air flooded his lungs and he panted for a moment as they adjusted to the seemingly much cooler temperature. He looked down his his love and desperately tried to hold onto her and keep her head above the waves while also trying to hold onto the triton. His hands clumsily fumbled on her face as he tried to her to become responsive and start breathing.

His heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he saw began coughing and spitting out water as she dispelled it from her lungs. She weakly grasped onto his shirt with her fingers and leaned her head against his broad chest. Her wedding dress was torn to shreds, with just a few pieces of fabrics clinging onto her. He held her tightly in his embrace, fearing if he slackened his arms just for a moment she would slip away from him again.

"E-Er-"

"Shh, Ariel. Don't try to talk or move," he replied, gently pushing her mouth closed. "I've got you. We'll get out of this safely. Together."

"No, p-please," she half-choked, half-whispered out. "You've... got... away.. from here."

He just shook his head firmly and pulled her closer. "No. No, I won't leave you."

All of a sudden, the world around them trembled. The waves began to ripple and the space between them bubbled and began to glow. She clung to him, but soon found herself being forcefully pulled away. She soon found herself holding onto dear life on a gold cone rising out of the ocean. Her head looked to the other side where Eric was doing the same,then down where she swam in horror, a now monstrous-sized Ursula cackling deeply and rising from the water. The object they were holding onto was her father's crown, now warped in the sea witch's liking and fitted upon her head. It glowed with an eerie grey light, just like the rest of her form.

Seeing nowhere else to flee, she soon found herself free falling through the air with Eric just a few feet away from her. The two plunged into the ocean and submerged before emerging and finding each other again. They stared up at her as she focused and pointed the harpoon from earlier at them. It had been transformed to look like black branch coral was sprouting from the staff and the hooked blade looked longer and more menacing. It too glowed with the frightening aura.

"YOU PITIFUL, INSIGNIFICANT FOOLS!"

The two broke off and swam furiously away as her tentacles raised up and came crashing down on top of them. Waves rose up and crashed down, growing increasingly more powerful and dangerous. Ursula raised her weapon to the sky and swirled it around, directing the storm clouds and lightning along with the sea itself.

"NOW I AM THE RULER OF ALL THE OCEAN! THE WAVES OBEY MY EVERY WHIM!"

The ravaging winds directed the water between them, yanking them out of each others grasp.

"Ariel," he screamed as she was flung by a wave and sent tumbling into the swirling maelstrom as the sea witch dipped her weapon into the water and swirled up the waters into a massive whirlpool.

"THE SEA AND ALL ITS SPOILS BOW TO MY POWER!"

He watched as long-forgotten and broken shipwrecks rose to the surface and began following within the path of the vortex. Yet in the all this wrecking havoc upon the world around him, past all the whipping winds, pelting rain, and untamed sea, he could only think of saving one thing and one thing alone.

Ariel.

And he would risk his life doing so to at least know that she was safe.

"Cliff hanger! Hanging from a-" Oh wait. Sorry, already did this reference. Between the Lions if you didn't get it.

Just an interesting thing; Triton prayer to Oceanus actually took a good bit of research. According to the wiki, Triton's father is Poseidon and his grandfather is Neptune. Apologies to fellow Christians if this offends you, I just thought their might be some sort if religion the merfolk believe in and I thought it might be necessary to use a water-related deity for it to be understood. And since I couldn't use the Roman/Greek gods of the sea for this due to canonical reasons, I had to go searching.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter, I had lots of fun with the plot twists. Please leave a review and tune in for the exciting conclusion! Sincerely, v.t.7