Kingdom Hearts: Consumed by Darkness

Helios' silver spear Bríon na Lú gleamed with a pale, steady radiance. His hand was slick with blood where it clutched the shaft, crimson dripping down his coat from the wound at his ribs. His breathing was ragged, yet his smirk had not left his face. His eyes still burned, sharp and unyielding.

Kurai's newly transformed weapon radiated an opposite power. The Erebus Fang glaive towered in her grip, a serrated crescent blade that pulsed with violet energy. Its oppressive aura warped the air around it, each motion dragging shadow like smoke. The veins in her arms and neck glowed dark, her body trembling with the strain of channeling such monstrous power, but her stance was steady, her eyes locked on her prey.

Neither spoke. Neither needed to.

The Colosseum held its breath.

Then they moved.

Helios struck first, spear lancing forward in a silver blur. Kurai's glaive swept across her body in a vicious arc, catching the thrust and slamming it aside. The impact cracked stone, sparks spitting in every direction as the weapons screamed against each other.

Helios spun Bríon na Lú into a tight follow-up, thrusting twice in quick succession. Kurai answered with sheer force, each parry from the Erebus Fang sending shockwaves up his arms. She stepped into him, glaive crashing down with a weight that drove him to his heels.

He twisted aside, spear stabbing low to her knee. She dragged her glaive across the floor, shattering stone in a brutal sweep that met the shaft mid-arc and hurled his thrust wide. He pivoted, rolling into a spin, and stabbed again for her ribs. She brought the glaive down in a crushing overhead, steel colliding so hard the arena floor quaked beneath them.

Helios pushed off, spear spinning, point darting for her throat in a flash of silver. Kurai turned her weapon sideways, the crescent blade ringing against the tip, and shoved hard. He staggered back two steps, boots carving trenches. She ripped her weapon free in the same motion, pivoted, and unleashed a diagonal cut. The glaive shrieked through the air, a trail of violet light tearing across the floor in a line that ripped stone up like cloth.

Helios lunged sideways, narrowly avoiding being split in half. Dust and shards exploded past him, the wave carving a furrow all the way to the arena wall. He stabbed his spear down, vaulting himself into a dive, Bríon na Lú glowing as he came down. Kurai slid her glaive into place one-handed, catching the strike above her head. The impact shattered the stone at her feet, the ground splitting outward in jagged fissures.

She shoved upward. He twisted the spear loose, landing in a crouch. Kurai stepped in instantly, glaive whistling through the air in a horizontal sweep that threatened to cut him in two. Helios slammed Reflect into place at an angle, the barrier cracking but diverting the blow just wide. The glaive's wake still tore a trench across his shoulder, blood spraying as the Reflect shattered.

Helios spun, spear trailing silver arcs. Illusions flared around him, echoes of thrusts striking from three angles at once. Kurai snarled and swept wide. Her glaive cleaved through the illusions in a single brutal motion, scattering them like mist. She drove forward into the real Helios, glaive smashing against his shaft. The force hurled him back, his ribs shrieking in agony.

He planted Bríon na Lú into the ground, sparks screeching as the shaft scraped across fractured stone. He spun it, silver light bursting outward, a wave that forced her to shift her footing. He darted in behind it, spear flashing for her flank.

She met him head-on. Her glaive slammed down, catching his thrust, then twisted into a brutal hook. The serrated crescent dragged across the spear shaft, jerking his guard wide. She spun, backhanding the weapon into his side. The impact knocked the breath from him, ribs crunching, blood flecking his lips as he staggered.

Helios coughed, chest heaving, but his smirk returned as he thrust again. This time he layered a Magnet pull into the attack, dragging her balance off for the fraction of a second he needed. The spear darted for her chest—only for her to twist, glaive whistling down in a crushing chop. He barely got the butt of his weapon up to intercept. The strike rattled his bones, drove him to his knees, his arms trembling from the weight.

She wrenched the weapon free and followed with another strike. He slid Reflect panels into the path, detonating them one after another. Light exploded in bursts, forcing her back a half step, but the glaive still ripped through, tearing shallow lines across his arm and chest. He bled freely now, crimson soaking his coat.

Kurai's eyes burned violet, her veins pulsing darker. She swung again, her weapon splitting the air. The ground erupted in her wake, jagged fissures spitting shadow. Helios leapt aside, spear glowing, spinning in a fluid arc that carved a shining crescent. It slammed against her glaive, the shock blasting a wave of dust across the arena.

She grinned faintly through the strain, pressed forward, and unleashed a vertical smash. Helios ducked beneath it, his spear stabbing upward, the point glancing her cheek as she twisted. Her counter was immediate—a spinning sweep that would have decapitated him had he not dropped into a slide, sparks spraying as his boots carved through shattered stone. He spun on his hip, stabbing upward as he slid past.

She bent backward, the spear whistling past her chin, then whipped her glaive in a vicious overhead that crashed into the ground where he'd been a heartbeat before. The stage split wide, a fissure yawning outward, stone collapsing.

Helios rolled to his feet, chest heaving, blood dripping from half a dozen wounds. His arms trembled under the weight of his own weapon. His smirk remained, but his body screamed.

Kurai stalked forward, her own breaths sharp, her body quaking under the immense power flooding her veins. Still she pressed on, every step heavy, every swing of her glaive tearing more of the arena apart.

Helios spun his spear again, silver arcs flashing. He darted forward, stabbing, spinning, feinting, thrusting—each motion a desperate attempt to pin her down. Kurai smashed through every strike, her glaive roaring in brutal arcs that clashed against the shaft, tore through Reflect shields, shrugged off Magnet drags. Each blow battered him further, his guard fraying with every second.

She drove him to the stage's edge. He stabbed once more, light blazing along the spear. She batted it aside with contemptuous force, planted her glaive into the ground, and the floor split open.

Shadows erupted.

Chains burst upward from the cracks, jagged links snapping outward. They coiled around Helios before he could move—around his arms, his legs, his torso, even his spear. The silver light of Bríon na Lú flared, but the chains tightened instantly, crackling with violet energy.

Helios strained, blood dripping from his lips, his arms trembling as light blazed against shadow. The chains groaned but held fast. His wound screamed, his strength bled with every heartbeat.

He was caught.

Kurai's chest heaved as she raised the glaive overhead, veins burning black beneath her skin, her body quaking under the strain. The shadows writhed and convulsed with her will, the arena darkening under the weight of her next strike.

Her voice rang out, cold and sharp. "Abyssal Cataclysm."

She brought the glaive down.

The world split.

A tidal wave of shadow exploded outward, a wall of annihilation roaring from her weapon. The force shattered what remained of the stage, the protective barrier around the arena fracturing like glass before it disintegrated entirely. The attack surged beyond, a rolling tide of violet flame and darkness aimed straight toward the city beyond the Colosseum.

Panic erupted in the stands. Screams tore the air. People scrambled back, shielding their children, clutching one another as the abyss rushed for them.

But Sephiroth was already moving.

The Masamune was in his hand, gleaming faintly. His body blurred, vanishing from the stands, reappearing in the path of the oncoming cataclysm. His voice was no louder than a whisper, but it carried through the roar of destruction.

"God Slayer."

The blade moved once.

Impossibly fast.

A single slash wave hit the bottom of the tidal wave of darkness. For a breathless instant, the abyss shuddered, then veered skyward. The Cataclysm howled into the heavens, a towering beam of violet and black energy tore through the clouds before exploding into a storm of inky blackness high above the Colosseum. The night itself seemed split in two, the stars drowned in shadowed flame.

Sephiroth landed lightly at the arena's edge. The Masamune slid back into its sheath with a clean click. He stood silent, his face calm, but a thin line of crimson trailed from the corner of his lips. He coughed once, blood flecking the marble at his feet.

The Colosseum was silent. The entire city beyond had gone silent.

Then the roar began.

Terrified awe swept through the stands. Some screamed Kurai's name, others Helios', most too stunned to choose. A few whispered Sephiroth's, the name trembling in their mouths like prayer.

Phil could only stare, jaw slack. "That… that would've leveled the city…"

On the stage, shadows and dust writhed where the Cataclysm had struck. The air was thick with smoke, the ground unrecognizable, gouged and broken. Kurai stood at the center, the Erebus Fang still glowing in her hands, her chest heaving, veins black as tar beneath her skin. Her cold eyes glimmered with the remnants of power.

But where Helios had stood, there was only shadow and smoke.

The crowd craned forward, searching desperately.

Had he survived?