"That was great! Looks like Phil's trained another great hero!" Hercules said with a proud, impressed tone to the newly crowned champions of the Pegasus Cup.

Sora was glad somebody as powerful as Hercules was recognizing his strength. If only Phil would be a bit more supportive in that regard. Rather than bring that up however, he instead opted to ask the satyr a question. "Is strength the most important part of a hero?"

"Well, what you really need is a strong heart." Phil answered with a shrug. His answer drew a look of confusion to Jaune's face. "Soooo, what makes a strong heart?" he asked. Phil looked to the blonde in disbelief, answering back with a pointed finger and tone. "If you have to ask, you're not a hero yet."

"Hey! Stop talking in riddles!" Sora said to him in annoyance "It's not a riddle!" Phil shouted back in equal annoyance.

The display drew a myriad of reactions ranging from nervous tugs of the collar, to shaking of heads, to staring in disbelief from everyone else. Thankfully, Hercules interceded and said, "You'll find out one of these days. It took me a long time to find the answer myself, but with how much stronger you're getting, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough." Hercules encouraged. "And hey, who knows? You may even be facing ME in the games."

That was enough to make Sora relax and smile with a determined nod. "Alright. And if we do, we'll give you everything we've got!" he said in an enthusiastically challenging manner. The offer made Phil scoff and say, "Good luck with that, kid. Yer gonna need it if ya do." Suffice it to say, Phil was more than a little skeptical about any of them being nearly tough enough to so much as hold more than a second against Hercules. But far be it from him to disparage Herc encouraging potential heroes.

With that, the team said their farewells to Hercules and Phil and made their way back to the Gummi Ship. Along the way, Sora stopped for a moment, looking at his right hand, with which he often held the Keyblade. He couldn't help but wonder how he managed to do these increasingly incredible things. That sliding dash was one thing, but the bursting Stun Impact, that dashing Sonic Blade, and now that throwing and returning and repeating of his Keyblade. He could tell it had something to do with the Keyblade itself, but he still didn't quite understand what it took to be a hero. How does one get a strong heart? So many questions, and so few answers. Which was sadly par for the course in this adventure thus far.

"Sora? You okay?" Sora snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Ruby looking at him with concern. Shaking off his thoughts, Sora grinned at her and said, "Yeah, Ruby. I'm okay. Come on, let's go." he said, walking confidently back to the ship with her. There would be time for such introspection later.

As they walked to the gates, Yang was in the farthest back and smiling with Jaune beside her, the two of them respectively speaking with relief. "Looks like he's back to his normal self."

"Hopefully he stays that way. Something about Sora being sad is just...well, sad." Weiss said as she joined the group. Nora and Pyrrha turned toward her with the biggest grins on their face. "Awwwww, Weiss." Nora said adoringly, followed by Pyrrha laying her hand on the Schnee heiress's shoulder. "That's so nice of you to be concerned for Sora." Even Ren couldn't help smirking with amusement. Weiss's eyes widened and an embarrassed blush touched her face at their teasing. "W-Well, of course! I mean, if he's depressed, we'd have to rely on Ruby to keep morale up! And her childish antics get old."

"Uhhh, Weiss?" Jaune said in a warning tone, pointing to a...rather displeased blonde beside the heiress. Yang crossed her arms with an unamused frown as she leaned over toward her teammate. "You really wanna say that kinda stuff about by sister when I'm right here?" she asked in a challenging manner.

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" Fortunately for Weiss, she was spared the wrath of Yang as Ruby called to them before walking through the gates with Sora, followed by Donald and Goofy, respectively yelling, "Hey! Don't touch anything!" "Wait for me!"

Blake was the first to follow, only to pause as she turned toward everyone else as a grim thought crossed her mind. "We're likely going to face Riku again. I hope Sora will have been more resolved by then. If not, we need to be there for him."

Her words brought a serious exchange of stares from the other huntsmen and huntresses. They all gave a mutual nod, knowing that if Riku did show himself, he wouldn't be nearly as amicable to discussion as he was before. They could only hope they'd be able to settle differences without harming Riku. For now, they made their way back to the Gummi ship, and resumed their adventure.

They went beyond the point of Agrabah and in the direction they initially started...before a certain giant aquatic mammal interrupted them. Donald kept his eyes peeled as he steered, with Weiss doing the same while standing at one edge of the cockpit, Ren doing the same at the other, and Jaune covering the rear. "No sign of Monstro." Ren informed them, his narrow eyes scanning the void.

"Maybe he's gone?" Jaune said, in a hopeful tone.

"Please don't jinx us, Jaune..." Blake said, glaring at him. The last thing she wanted was to be eaten by that whale again. "Then let's not stick around for him to possibly show up." Weiss said with mild grimacing with equal discomfort at the thought.

Fortunately, the ship flew on, coursing through the stars in the colorful void with no whales to ruin things. With no sign of Monstro, everyone relaxed with a mutual sigh. Eventually Donald spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Okay, guys. Prepare for landing."

Everyone turned to the front of the ship to see the new world that awaited them. It looked like a rocky world with immense holes on the surface, beneath it being an entire world full of water. One portion showed what looked like a city made from coral and other underwater stones. In an upper corner was a wrecked, sunken ship and the other showed a skeletal sea dragon. Such a world made everyone look skeptical and/or confused before they all glanced at Donald, either questioning his sanity or looking at him like he was crazy, Sora doing the latter especially as he said, "Land where? In the sea? We'll drown!"

Donald however smirked confidently and raised an the index finger of his left hand, holding his staff in his right. "Not with my magic, we won't. Just leave it to me." Donald assured." Nobody had any idea what Donald planned on doing, but they didn't really have any reason to doubt him. Of course, that did beg the question as they were transported down into the watery world. What kind of magic was Donald going to use that would help them?