The battlefield was silent but for the rasp of breath and the thrum of shadows. Kurai stood poised, her fan half-folded in dagger mode, its edge shimmering with malignant energy. Across from her, Baldr lifted No Name in a single hand, the blade black as the void, his golden eyes burning with inhuman patience.
Then the silence shattered.
Kurai blurred forward first. Her Umbral Step snapped her from reality, reappearing at Baldr's flank with a downward stab meant to pierce between his ribs. He was already moving, No Name flashing into a block that screeched against her blade, the recoil jolting up her arm. She flowed with it, twisting, fan unfolding into full form and snapping across his throat in a decapitating arc.
Baldr ducked. The fan whistled over his head, carving a deep trench in the stone behind him. He pivoted low, his own blade lashing out to sever her leg at the knee. Kurai launched herself upward, planting a shadow platform midair to avoid the cut — had she been a heartbeat slower, her leg would have been gone.
"Sloppy," Baldr muttered, his voice flat, alien.
Kurai laughed coldly. "If I were sloppy, I'd already be dead."
She hurled Dark Firaga point-blank, black fireballs streaking from her fan in rapid succession. Baldr moved into them instead of away, No Name carving through flame after flame. Each strike detonated explosions that could have reduced a lesser wielder to ash. Heat washed across his face, shadows splitting around him like waves on a stone.
Kurai was there again, bursting from the smoke. Her dagger fan struck straight for his heart.
Baldr caught her wrist in one hand. His grip tightened until bones creaked. Kurai snarled, twisting, and let her fan-blade dissolve into mist, freeing her hand. She summoned it again in her other, stabbing upward at his jaw.
No Name flashed sideways, knocking the weapon from her grasp. The counterstrike would have split her skull if she hadn't hurled herself backward in a roll, shadows dragging her clear. Sparks rained where the keyblade struck, the ground exploding into shards.
Kurai rose slowly, blood trickling down her arm, her smile still in place. "You missed."
Baldr's golden gaze didn't waver. "No. I chose not to finish it."
She barked a laugh. "Really, I doubt that. Regardless, you'll regret it."
Darkness surged at her feet. She spun her fan wide, conjuring Nightfall Vortex — a cyclone of shrieking shadows that expanded violently, dragging stone, dust, and even air into its spiral. The ground split open, the gale howled like a living beast.
Baldr didn't resist. He stepped into it, coat tearing, his body pulled toward her. His blade rose high, and when he brought it down, the entire vortex ruptured. The cyclone burst apart, darkness exploding outward in a storm of knives that tore open Kurai's arms and face. She shielded with her fan, but blood still spattered the ground in ribbons.
And still she advanced.
Her fan snapped back to dagger mode, thrusting in tight, merciless arcs — throat, liver, artery, heart. Every strike was a killing strike, her movements relentless, suffocating.
Baldr countered with surgical precision. No Name deflected her blows by millimeters, the counters always aimed not to wound, but to kill outright. A horizontal sweep nearly severed her at the waist; she folded herself backward, the edge grazing her abdomen and spilling blood. A downward chop would have split her skull; she sidestepped, the blade tearing through her hair instead.
Kurai responded with Umbra Aeroga, her fan spinning to whip up a razor-sharp whirlwind around them both. Blades of black wind shredded stone, whistling with such force that any exposed flesh would have been stripped raw.
Baldr slammed his free hand to the ground. Darkness surged upward into a Firaga Wall, gigantic pillars of flame erupting in a line. The storm split, the fire shielding him and driving Kurai back with searing heat.
She snarled, skin blistering, but she hurled Dark Thundaga through the fire. Bolts of corrupted lightning speared down, slamming into the barrier. Baldr grunted as one bolt pierced through, arcing across his arm. For a moment his grip faltered.
Kurai was there instantly, her dagger stabbing low for his lung.
Baldr twisted and caught her blade with his own, forcing her arm wide. He lashed out with his knee, connecting with her stomach. The blow folded her in half, blood spraying from her lips as she flew backward.
She landed in a crouch, coughing, and wiped her mouth. Shadows already wrapped around her stomach, knitting the ruptured tissue.
"Good," she rasped. "That almost hurt."
For the first time, Baldr's expression flickered. His golden eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched.
Kurai straightened, shadows crackling off her like smoke. She spread her arms wide, the darkness forming chains that writhed outward like serpents.
Black Hole Chain.
The spectral links snapped toward Baldr, dozens of them, binding his arms, legs, torso. The ground cratered as the chains pulled taut, dragging him toward her.
Baldr roared, darkness exploding from his body. The chains strained, some snapping under the pressure, but others dug deeper, coiling tighter, carving into his flesh. Blood welled where the links bit into him.
Kurai raised her fan high, condensed darkness swirling along its edge. She brought it down with a scream —
Abyssal Severance.
The slash split the air, a blade of shadow energy screaming across the battlefield, cleaving through the chains, the stone, everything in its path.
Baldr tore free just as it hit, No Name braced. The impact still hurled him back, his body slamming into the stone, shattering them to dust. The ground erupted, a trench carved deep and smoking.
For a moment, there was only silence. Kurai stood heaving, blood streaking her arms, her fan trembling with residual power.
Then Baldr walked out of the rubble. His cloak was gone. He looked like a youth with pale skin, silver eyes, and long, feathery white hair that reached his shoulders in the back and was shorter in the front, framing his face. He wore a white jacket with a very large hood with a gold clasp, a thin black band around his upper left arm, and large gold-embroidered lapels bridged by an orange cord that ends in a tassel on the left side. Under this, he wore a black vest over a white undershirt, with loose, criss-crossing blue straps around the waist, a silver chain at his left hip, black fingerless gloves, dark grey pants, and tall black boots with gold buckles.
The attack has been devastating as his body was cut and burned, golden eyes blazing hotter than ever. He lifted No Name in both hands, and for the first time, his breath came ragged.
"You're strong," he said, voice low, rumbling with both his own will and the alien will of the Darkness inside him. "Stronger than the others."
Kurai tilted her head, her smile razor-thin. "It's a shame I'm still unable to use the true depths of my power… if I could, you wouldn't still be alive. Annoying."
They moved again.
This time the exchange was faster, more savage. Kurai's fan and dagger whirled in relentless arcs, each one aimed for a vital point. Baldr countered with the precision of a master, his blade always where it needed to be. Sparks and blood filled the air with every clash.
A thrust at his throat forced him to arch back — the blade nicked his jaw, spilling blood. His riposte slashed her hip open, nearly severing her side.
A downward stab from her dagger aimed to pierce his heart; he caught her wrist and twisted, breaking the bone with a snap. She screamed but dissolved her weapon into shadows, reforming it in her other hand mid-strike.
They were killing each other piece by piece, wounds piling, shadows and blood mixing on the broken battlefield.
And still, neither gave an inch.
Finally, they locked once more, fan against keyblade, weapons grinding, eyes burning. Shadows and darkness boiled off their bodies, warping the air itself.
Both knew it: one mistake, and this fight would end in death.
And neither was willing to be the one to fall.