The crushing weight of magic squeezed Uma’s chest, her body shrinking, withering into a tiny, shriveled form. Her fingers curled in on themselves as she struggled against the dark magic wrapping around her like a vice. She gasped, her voice barely a whisper.

Above her, Ursula loomed, her violet skin glowing with the power of the contract in her grasp. “Now! Do we have a deal?” she demanded, her voice a sickly sweet purr, oozing with triumph.

Uma turned her head, eyes pleading. King Triton’s expression hardened with grief as he turned away. A heavy silence followed before he raised his trident, the golden light illuminating his weary face. The contract glowed in response.

With a slow, resigned stroke, Triton signed his name over Uma’s with the tip of his trident.

The moment the signature was completed, the golden currents binding Uma vanished. She fell forward, her body rapidly expanding back to her true form, breathless and weak. But the relief was fleeting.

A new glow enveloped Triton.

“No…” Uma’s voice cracked. “Oh, no!”

The golden current that had once ensnared her now turned its grip on Triton. The mighty King of the Seas gasped as his body convulsed, shimmering before collapsing inward. His form shrank, twisting into something small and pitiful.

When the magic settled, only a single, trembling polyp remained where Triton had once stood.

Uma’s stomach lurched. “Daddy?”

Sebastian’s voice was barely a whisper. “Your Majesty…”

Above them, Ursula cackled.

“At last…” she hissed, reaching down to pluck Triton’s crown from where it had fallen. She turned it over in her hands before setting it atop her head, the golden metal gleaming against her thick white locks.

Uma’s fists clenched.

“No.”

Ursula met her glare, a cruel smirk curling on her lips. She twirled the golden trident in her grip, spinning it as if testing its weight.

“It’s mine,” Ursula purred.

Rage burned through Uma’s veins, white-hot and all-consuming. She surged forward, teeth bared.

“You—You monster!”

Ursula snarled as Uma tackled her, nails clawing at her arms. With a vicious growl, she flung Uma backward with a flick of her tentacle. The younger sea witch tumbled through the water, her head smacking against a jagged rock.

Before Uma could recover, Ursula raised the trident, its tip glowing with power. “Don’t fool with me, you little brat! Contract or no, I’ll blast—OW!”

A harpoon grazed Ursula’s arm, slicing a thin line of red against her lavender skin.

Ursula hissed and snapped her head upward.

Above the water, Harry stood in his rowboat, harpoon in hand, eyes burning with defiance.

Ursula’s lip curled. “Why, you little fool.”

Uma’s heart clenched in terror.

“Harry!” she screamed. “Harry, look out!”

Ursula’s yellow eyes flicked toward her pet eels. “After him.”

Flotsam and Jetsam slithered through the water with terrifying speed. Harry barely had time to react before they coiled around his legs, yanking him under.

Sebastian cried, “Come on!”

The tiny crab darted forward, pinching one of the eels’ tails with all his strength. Flounder followed, smacking his fins into the other eel’s face.

Ursula sneered. “Say goodbye to your sweetheart.”

She raised the trident and aimed it at Uma, ready to strike.

Uma gritted her teeth. Thinking fast, she lunged and grabbed a fistful of Ursula’s thick, white hair, yanking it hard.

Ursula shrieked as the blast of energy veered off course—striking Flotsam and Jetsam instead.

The eels screamed, their bodies twisting in agony before disintegrating into nothing but blackened bones.

Ursula froze. She stared at the remains, her chest heaving.

“Babies…” she whispered, her voice trembling with rage. Her golden eyes darkened, her pupils shrinking into furious slits. “My poor, little poopsies…”

Uma’s blood ran cold.

The water around them shifted, darkening into thick ink. The currents trembled as a shadow expanded, growing larger—growing monstrous.

Then, with a sudden, violent burst, Ursula began to rise.

Above the surface, Harry gasped as a spike from Triton’s fallen crown wedged itself between him and Uma.

The sea rumbled.

A shape loomed behind him.

Harry turned, his heart hammering. A towering Ursula rose from the depths, her massive tentacles writhing through the water.

She grinned, her mouth stretching into a wicked, unnatural smile.

“You pitiful, insignificant, fool!”

Harry barely had time to react before one of her tentacles came crashing down.

“The sea and all its spoils bow to my power!”

She spun the trident in her grip, conjuring a violent storm. Waves crashed, lightning cracked through the sky. A massive whirlpool formed beneath them, swallowing the ocean floor into its abyss.

Uma and Harry were pulled apart.

“Harry!” Uma screamed.

Harry fought against the waves, grasping onto a sinking ship’s wreckage. His fingers found a rope, and he hoisted himself up onto the deck, panting.

Uma clung to a jagged rock at the whirlpool’s edge.

Ursula’s laughter echoed through the storm. “So much for true love!”

Uma gasped as Ursula turned the trident on her. The lightning crackled, ready to strike—

But then, from above, a shadow moved.

Harry.

Steering the burning ship straight toward Ursula.

The wood groaned, the flames crackled. The sharp bow of the ship cut through the storm, aiming for its target.

Ursula’s grin faltered. She turned just as the ship made contact.

The sharp wood pierced her abdomen.

A scream—long, raw, and filled with agony—ripped from her throat.

Her tentacles convulsed, wrapping around the ship as her eyes burned with white-hot electricity. The storm swelled, then collapsed inward, sucking everything into a dark, spiraling abyss.

From the shore, Harry was thrown onto the wet sand, unconscious

A dark cloud billowed above the sea.

Silence followed.

Then, the first light of dawn broke through the storm, touching the waves with golden light.

It was over.

The sea was calm once more.