Every drop of water became a weapon, every gust of wind a blade. Pressure split the coral mountains in half as two forces clashed—divinity and destruction made flesh.
Kurai's glaive struck first, cutting through the deep like lightning through clouds. The Eclipse Glaive left a streak of violet darkness in its wake, a crescent slash that tore the water apart. Skuld spun her keyblade, quickly transforming it into her Phantom Wings. She then crossed it in an "X," deflecting the cut as light sparked from the collision. The recoil hurled her backward, but wind gathered beneath her feet, forming glowing platforms of current. She kicked off them, reversing her momentum instantly.
A column of light and water spiraled behind her as she lunged, blades dancing in mirrored arcs.
Kurai met her head-on—shadow met wind, and the water turned to steam.
Their movements blurred—two streaks weaving across a collapsing battlefield. Every clash detonated the sea around them. Sand and molten rock flew upward, suspended in a field of raw energy that bent gravity itself.
Yuna joined in, dropping from above like a meteor. Her Inferno gauntlets flared red-hot as she struck down, the flames bending around her body. Kurai pivoted, twisting her glaive to catch the blow and redirect it, but the heat seared across her arm. She gritted her teeth and swung back with the pole's base, striking Yuna square across the chest.
The blow sent Yuna hurtling through a coral ridge—her impact lighting the reef ablaze.
"I guess fighting multiple people on this level is still tough," Kurai muttered.
Before she could move, the ocean above her folded inward—Skuld descending in a spiral of blinding radiance.
"Blinding Ascension!"
Skuld vanished in streaks of light, appearing in a dozen places at once, each slash releasing beams that bent through the water. Pillars of sea erupted in unison, controlled by Te Vera's power, forming a storm-wide lattice of wind, water, and holy fire.
Kurai barely managed to move between them. She blocked one beam, dodged another, then used a Shadow Step, vanishing into darkness just before an entire tidal column ripped through where she had been standing.
The blast cracked open the ocean floor.
Kurai reappeared behind Skuld, sweeping her glaive in a wide arc. Skuld parried mid-spin, but the impact sent a shockwave that tore open the current. Their weapons locked, eyes inches apart.
"You're getting slower," Kurai hissed.
"I just don't want to hurt you. Stop, and we can end this," Skuld answered.
Kurai aura became darker and colder, as she twisted her blade to break the lock—and released a Dark Pulse point-blank. The explosion sent both spinning in opposite directions. Skuld tumbled, rebalancing midair, but saw black veins creeping up Kurai's arms, glowing faintly under her armor. The corruption pulsed, showing that her dark power was slowing reaching levels her body could barely handle.
"Kurai…" Skuld whispered, almost pained. "You need to stop."
"Hand over the water child," Kurai spat, reappearing in front of her. "And I will."
The glaive came down like judgment.
Skuld caught the strike at the last instant, blades locking against the descending edge. The impact shattered the water into shockwaves, collapsing coral towers for miles. The force drove her backward through the current, feet grinding across glowing sea-glass as cracks webbed beneath her.
The pressure broke her guard. Her arms buckled. Kurai pressed in—merciless, faster, more exact than any mortal rhythm. The glaive swept in a diagonal cross, then reversed in a blur, spinning like a crescent storm. Sparks and silt spiraled with every clash.
The third strike slipped through. Pain split across Skuld's ribs, blood misting the water.
She pivoted, twisting her body with the momentum, twin blades sweeping upward in a luminous arc. The Phantom Wings left streaks of blue feathers that sliced the dark like moonlight, raking across Kurai's shoulder. Blood bloomed in red and violet clouds.
Kurai staggered a step, but her smirk lingered even as crimson trailed from the cut. Her glaive flared with violet light. She blurred—and vanished.
Darkness erupted behind Skuld. Reflex took over. She crossed her blades and braced. The glaive met them mid-swing, the collision detonating with enough force to vaporize the water around them. Both were hurled apart, silhouettes lost in the blinding surge.
Skuld steadied first, twirling through the pressure field. Above, the dim light of the ocean's roof flickered—and through it descended fire.
Yuna struck like a meteor. Her Inferno Rod burned molten gold, the surrounding water boiling to steam in her wake. She landed beside Skuld in a shockwave of flame and ash, their movements synchronizing instantly.
Kurai shot forward again, cutting through the flame as her glaive carved an eclipse into the sea. Skuld dove under, pivoting in a spiral of wind that caught Kurai's strike and redirected it upward toward Yuna. Yuna caught the redirected strike with a fiery gauntlet, twisting her body in a half-turn that melted through the dark energy's edge.
The water between them ignited in bursts.
Kurai lunged again, every motion a streak of violet steel. Skuld parried the first, dodged the second, then slashed downward as Yuna's fist struck upward from below. Their combined attacks met the glaive mid-swing—one of wind, one of fire, compressing shadow between them until it imploded in on itself.
The detonation flung all three apart again.
Kurai reappeared before they could recover, using the debris as steps, spinning her glaive in a deadly cyclone. Each rotation cut the water apart, collapsing the battlefield into distorted whirlpools. Skuld somersaulted backward through the chaos, forming glyphs of air beneath her feet to regain balance. Yuna dashed through the collapsing currents, her flames streaking gold behind her, striking through the eye of the vortex.
Fire and shadow collided again, turning water into vapor.
Kurai's glaive broke through, grazing Yuna's shoulder, leaving molten cracks through her armor. Yuna retaliated instantly, punching her gauntlets together, sending out a pulse of molten energy that expanded like a shock ring. Skuld dove through that expanding circle, riding its momentum, her blades spinning.
Wind and water swirled in seamless motion—Skuld using Yuna's thermal updraft to accelerate. She shot forward like a storm missile, her twin blades slicing through the black mist Kurai left behind. Kurai twisted her glaive to intercept, but Skuld's afterimage was already moving elsewhere.
She appeared to the left, both Phantom Wings crossing as they glowed white-hot. The strike cut through the side of Kurai's cloak, drawing a line of blood beneath. Kurai responded instantly, pivoting on her heel and swinging the glaive horizontally in a shockwave of violet fire.
Yuna intercepted the strike, summoning burning claws that clamped onto the glaive mid-swing. The water hissed into vapor as flame met shadow. Kurai kicked off the seafloor, spinning midair and tearing her weapon free, the movement dragging molten trails through the water.
Yuna followed. She flickered between currents, her body leaving shimmering embers in her wake, fists blazing as she exchanged blow for blow with Kurai. Skuld weaved around them both, darting in with precision strikes—cutting arcs that deflected Kurai's counters just long enough for Yuna to land another hit.
Every impact distorted the world around them. Pressure bent light. Heat turned to steam. The ocean groaned under the strain of their existence.
Kurai's corruption surged. The veins crawling across her body throbbed violently now, feeding her speed and power in bursts of shadowed fury. She slashed in a wide circle, creating gravitational pull that dragged both her opponents inward.
Skuld felt her body yank toward the vortex but used it. She twisted, spinning into the momentum. Her wind magic spiraled outward, amplifying the pull, funneling the drag until she flipped the vector. The pull collapsed inward instead—right where Yuna aimed her next strike.
The result was cataclysmic.
Yuna's flaming claws shot through the vacuum, tearing into the void at point-blank range. The explosion consumed everything—lava, shadow, and light. Kurai emerged through it, armor half-shattered, eyes alight with unholy focus.
She kicked off a collapsing platform of dark energy and came down again with her glaive raised high. The weapon carved through the sea like an eclipse descending. The cut split the battlefield in half, opening a trench of violet fire.
Skuld and Yuna split in opposite directions, narrowly escaping the centerline. The trench collapsed into a rift of boiling darkness that swallowed the ruins beneath.
They regrouped midair, one above, one below. Skuld extended her hand upward, Yuna downward. Light and fire merged into a spiraling helix—wind feeding flame, flame igniting wind.
Kurai shot straight through it.
She punched through the helix with a roar of displaced energy, glaive spinning. The strike passed through both women in a blur—but as she turned to follow through, Skuld had already inverted above her, diving back down, blades gleaming in twin arcs.
Yuna mirrored her from below, punching upward.
The three collided in the eye of a storm.
Wind, fire, and darkness detonated together, the sea folding into itself from the blast. The trench below melted into glass, its walls glowing crimson under the residual heat.
Through the chaos, Kurai stood unyielding, shadows whipping around her like a storm cloak. The corruption now crawled across her face, black lines glowing violet beneath her skin. She planted her glaive into the seafloor; a ripple of darkness pulsed outward, turning sand into shards.
The water began to twist around her, forming a cyclone of obsidian mist. The pull grew immense, dragging Yuna's flames toward her like a black hole devouring light.
The seabed split open.
A chasm erupted, glowing from within.
Kurai rose above it, shadow bleeding from her armor in endless waves. The glaive in her hand elongated, the air humming with raw gravitational pressure.
The ocean bent.
Abyssal Cataclysm.
A blade of darkness tore from her strike—enormous, curved, devouring everything in its path. It consumed light, water, sound—an eclipse born of violence.
Skuld launched upward, propelled by spiraling gusts. The Phantom Wings glowed like twin stars, her entire body dissolving into a streak of wind and light.
Blinding Ascension.
She vanished, reappearing across the battlefield in bursts of radiance. Each slash released beams that cut through the current and into the Cataclysm's wave. Every impact birthed new explosions of wind and sea.
Te Vera's energy surged within her. The beams transformed into columns—water and light spiraling upward like divine pillars. They clashed against Kurai's darkness, cracking the sea like shattered glass.
Below, Yuna extended her hands.
Infernal Pyre.
Flames erupted from the rift beneath, not chaotic this time—but focused, deliberate. Massive claws of molten fire tore from the abyss, converging around Kurai's attack. Yuna guided them like living extensions of her will, each claw interlocking to form a ring of searing magma that closed around the shadow wave.
The ocean turned white-hot.
Light met shadow. Flame met void. Wind and water screamed together in blinding unity.
Then everything exploded.
The blast swallowed the world.
The deep trembled like a dying god. Every fragment of the seabed was obliterated. The sky above—the one no one could see—shook with thunder that reached the heavens.
A wave of light and color—white, red, and violet—erupted outward, flattening everything in its reach. Coral disintegrated. Mountains of glass rose and fell. The current rolled outward until even the farthest waters rippled from its echo.
When the brightness finally faded, only ruin remained.
The sea floor was unrecognizable—an endless desert of scorched glass and drifting embers.
Skuld hovered in the aftermath, her armor cracked and glowing faintly, her breath shallow. Yuna knelt in the water beside her, flickering, fading, her fire reduced to gentle sparks that danced like falling ash.
The flames died first. Then Yuna's form dissolved into motes of ember and gold, scattering into the current. The battlefield dimmed.
Skuld fell to her knees, the glow from her white flower flickering like a dying heartbeat. Beside her, Te Vera's small, translucent body floated—dim, motionless.
A shadow fell over them.
Kurai descended through the fading light, landing hard on the fractured plain. One knee buckled; her armor split in several places. The glaive wavered in her grasp, half-transparent, pulsing with unstable darkness.
The corruption had spread across her face entirely, black veins pulsing beneath her skin like liquid lightning. She stared down at them through the violet haze—breathing ragged, yet still composed enough to stand.
She stared at them as she took a step forward, dragging the glaive behind her. The sound was like steel scraping bone.
Skuld tried to rise, but her strength failed. "Kurai… don't—"
But Kurai had already moved.
In a blur of darkness, she stood over them. Her shadow fell across Skuld and Te Vera like an eclipse.
For a moment, her glaive rose—then lowered. Instead of striking, she reached down and lifted Te Vera's limp form by the wrist. The child goddess stirred faintly, the ocean's light flickering around her.
"She's too dangerous to leave in your hands," Kurai said quietly. "I'll finish her off quickly."
Skuld's eyes widened. "You can't—she's just a—"
Kurai looked down at her with something that might have been contempt. "Don't make me finish what we started."
A dark corridor spiraled open beside her, its edges crackling with unstable energy. The pull of it distorted the water, dragging loose debris inward.
Kurai stepped toward it, Te Vera's form cradled in her arm like a flickering star. Before she vanished completely, she glanced back one last time.
"Use your light to heal fast," she said. "You'll need it. My residual darkness has called the heartless."
Then she was gone.
The corridor sealed behind her, leaving only silence.
Skuld drifted alone in the ruins of a dead sea, light dimming around her. Her blades dissolved into streams of blue feathers that scattered into the dark. She closed her eyes, the echo of Te Vera's voice still trembling in her mind.
"…Skuld…hurt…"
The word faded with the last shimmer of light.