The desert burned.
Fire from the wrecked hunter ships flickered across the battlefield.
Smoke drifted through the broken canyon.
In the middle of it all stood Maxruell and Juvy.
Crimson darkness.
Blinding light.
For a moment… neither of them moved.
Wind howled between them.
Juvy's voice trembled slightly.
"Max… this isn't you."
Maxruell stared at her through glowing red eyes.
"You think I chose this?"
Shadows twisted around his arms like serpents.
"You think I wanted to become a monster just to survive?"
Juvy stepped forward slowly.
"You're not a monster."
Maxruell looked around at the dead hunters scattered across the sand.
Blood.
Broken armor.
Bodies torn apart by shadows.
His voice dropped.
"Then what do you call this?"
The surviving hunters moved quietly around the battlefield.
The commander spoke through his headset.
"Both targets located. Begin capture formation."
Energy cages began charging again.
They were waiting for the twins to clash.
Juvy raised her hands.
Light flowed around her fingers like liquid crystal.
"I'm not here to fight you."
Maxruell shook his head.
"You're standing in my way."
"Your way to what?" she asked.
He pointed toward the burning hunter ships.
"To tearing down the people who did this to us."
Juvy clenched her fists.
"Revenge isn't the answer."
Maxruell laughed bitterly.
"Yeah? Tell that to the bodies in those soul cages."
The wind picked up violently.
Lightning cracked above them.
The ground began to tremble.
Both of their powers reacting.
The first attack came suddenly.
Not from the twins.
From the hunters.
"FIRE!"
Energy cannons blasted toward both of them.
Maxruell moved first.
Shadows swallowed the beam aimed at him.
Juvy raised a crystal shield that shattered the second blast.
More hunters rushed forward.
"CAPTURE THEM NOW!"
Energy chains shot across the battlefield.
Maxruell crushed them with darkness.
Juvy burned them away with light.
For a brief moment…
They fought side by side.
Shadow tearing through soldiers.
Light blasting weapons apart.
Hunters fell left and right.
The battlefield became chaos again.
Then Maxruell turned toward Juvy.
"You should leave."
She shook her head.
"I'm not abandoning you again."
His voice hardened.
"I didn't ask you to stay."
Darkness surged forward suddenly.
Juvy barely blocked it with a wall of crystal.
The impact shattered the ground between them.
Her eyes widened.
"You're serious?"
Maxruell's shadows rose higher.
"If you stand in my way… I won't hold back."
Lightning exploded from Juvy's hands.
"Then don't."
Their powers collided.
Light and darkness crashed together like two storms.
The shockwave blasted hunters off their feet.
Sand erupted into the sky.
Even the ships above shook from the impact.
The commander watched in disbelief.
"Energy readings are off the scale…"
One of the soldiers whispered,
"They're going to destroy the whole canyon."
The commander activated the final weapon.
"Then we end it now."
A massive device unfolded from the main ship.
A satellite cannon.
Its targeting laser pointed directly at the twins.
Above the clouds, Mother Cain watched calmly.
Serah frowned.
"They'll both die if that weapon fires."
Cain tilted her head.
"Not necessarily."
The cannon charged.
Blue light gathered into a massive beam.
Serah realized the truth.
"You're forcing them to separate."
Cain smiled.
"Exactly."
Back on the battlefield…
Juvy suddenly felt the energy building above them.
She looked up.
Her eyes widened.
"MAX!"
Maxruell followed her gaze.
The sky glowed blue.
A beam of pure energy descended.
Straight toward them.
For the first time that night…
Both twins hesitated.
If they stayed—
They would both die.
Juvy shouted,
"Move!"
But Maxruell stood frozen for a split second.
The red stone inside his chest screamed.
Take the power.
Take her power.
Become the only Significant.
Maxruell clenched his teeth.
"No."
At the last second—
Juvy blasted the ground beneath them.
A pillar of crystal launched her away from the blast.
Maxruell vanished into shadows.
The satellite cannon fired.
The entire canyon exploded.
A blinding blue light swallowed everything.
When the dust finally settled…
Half the canyon was gone.
The battlefield was a crater.
The hunter commander scanned the ruins.
"No visual on targets."
Far away on the edge of the desert…
Juvy crawled out from beneath shattered crystal.
"Max…"
No answer.
Miles away in the darkness…
Maxruell emerged from a shadow portal.
Breathing heavily.
The explosion still echoing behind him.
He looked toward the destroyed canyon.
"…Idiot."
Neither of them realized the truth.
The explosion had pushed them farther apart than ever before.
And the world had now witnessed their power.
High above…
Mother Cain turned off the screen.
"Perfect."
Serah asked quietly,
"What now?"
Cain folded her hands.
"Now the world starts hunting them both."