Enchanted Dominion
First Appearance: KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep (2010)
Origin: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Terra's first world is the Enchanted Dominion, a medieval kingdom dominated by a majestic castle sitting atop a hill. He encounters a sorceress named Maleficent, who reveals that Master Xehanort has been investigating the castle in search of pure light. The light can mean so many things, but in this case, she believes that Xehanort is referring to Princess Aurora, a maiden trapped in eternal slumber in the topmost tower of the castle.
Eventually, Terra finds Aurora's chamber and senses a powerful light emanating from her. Aurora is one of the seven Princesses of Hearts, maidens whose hearts completely lack darkness and are the key to ultimate power. Maleficent craves this power but requires a Keyblade to release Aurora's heart. Tapping into the darkness within Terra, she hypnotizes him and forces him to do the deed, leaving a traumatic scar on the man who has been raised to hate the darkness within himself. As Maleficent revels in the power she has obtained, the Wheel Master Unversed attacks the castle, but Terra makes quick work of it.
Racked with guilt, Terra decides to abstain from the darkness at all costs and vows to return Aurora's light to her. Meanwhile, Maleficent begins her hunt of the remaining six Princesses.
~Ventus~
Ventus is the second visitor to Aurora's chamber, where he is approached by the Three Good Fairies who have been watching over the sleeping beauty. The Fairies take note of the strong light within Ven, claiming that the young boy too must have a pure heart. Hearing of the princess's plight, Ven agrees to follow the Fairies to the Forbidden Mountain, Maleficent's terrifying fortress, where Aurora's heart lies captive.
Deep within the maze of the sorceress's castle, Ven is able to restore Aurora's heart, but contact with it causes him to experience her memories of meeting her true love, Prince Phillip. Enraged that her plot has taken a step backwards, Maleficent attacks Ven and the Three Good Fairies with her dark magic. She is ultimately wounded, but not destroyed. Relying on harsh truths to wound him instead, Maleficent reveals Terra's involvement in the theft of Aurora's heart. His faith shaken, and haunted by Vanitas's claims that Terra would change over the course of his journey, Ven abandons the Fairies and hurriedly leaves in search of his best friend. Not even Aqua's insistence that Maleficent is lying can assuage his fears.
~Aqua~
Led by the sight of Aurora's heart flying back towards the castle, Aqua enters the Forbidden Mountains, where she too hears of Terra's apparent dark deeds from Maleficent. Furthermore, she learns that the sorceress has knowledge of her friendships with Terra and Ven as she has spoken at length with Master Xehanort, hinting at a conspiracy between the two. When she rejects Maleficent's offer to join her on her pursuit of the Princesses of Heart, she is plunged into a dungeon beneath the fortress's floors.
Within the underground cell, she meets an imprisoned Prince Phillip, whose role as the only one who can break Aurora's curse has placed him in terrible danger. Aided by the Three Good Fairies' magic, Aqua and Phillip escape the Forbidden Mountains together. As her plans involving Aurora begin to collapse on itself, Maleficent becomes increasingly desperate. She surrounds Aurora's castle with a forest of thorns and confronts the heroes. Unwilling to believe that Terra has stolen Aurora's heart of his own volition, Aqua demands for answers about him and Master Xehanort, but Maleficent insists that Terra has succumbed to the darkness. She transforms herself into a massive dragon, and a brutal battle takes place on the castle bridge. Aqua weakens the dragon, but it is Phillip, armed with the Fairies' mystical Sword of Truth, who deals the final blow. Upon Maleficent's defeat, the forest of thorns fade away in green flames, leaving the path clear for Phillip to awaken his beloved Aurora with true love's kiss.
However, darkness is not easily defeated as Maleficent has survived Aqua's and Phillip's attack. Aqua triumphantly announces that the sorceress's dark powers is no match for true love, a testament to Master Eraqus's beliefs that light reigns supreme. Maleficent rebukes her, claiming that there always is a balance: As long as light exists, so will darkness, and so swears her return. As the sorceress flees to fight for another day, Aqua finds herself clinging to the increasingly dim ray of hope that Terra is able to overcome his darkness.
