The cavern shook with the weight of darkness. Shadows poured across the stone floor, their yellow eyes gleaming like embers in a sea of tar. Soldiers clanked forward, claws dragging sparks as they spun and lurched with mechanical hunger. Overhead, Hook Bats screeched, their chains rattling as the cruel red hooks swung like pendulums of death.
Aqua's breaths came shallow, already ragged. She had felt it even more the moment Hecate cast her into this pit: the curse of the Underworld gnawed at her strength, like invisible hands tightening around her limbs, pulling her down. Every swing of her keyblade demanded twice the effort, every step dragged like she waded through mire.
Still, discipline carried her. "Thundaga!" she cried, her voice sharp and clear despite the tremor in her body. Bolts of crackling light rained from the cavern ceiling, scattering through the ranks of Shadows. Several burst into smoke, shrieking as their forms unraveled, but more rose to take their place.
"Aqua!" Skuld's voice cut through the din. She pivoted, Ravenveil Whisper flashing with streaks of silver-blue wind. "Stay close to me!"
Aqua tried to respond, but a Hook Bat swooped, chain whipping forward. She brought her blade up, parried—only for the curse to rob her strength halfway through the motion. The hook crashed against her guard, rattling her bones. She staggered back, teeth gritted.
Skuld was there in an instant, her keyblade whistling as it carved a crescent through the air. Wind surged around her strike, slicing the Hook Bat in two. The creature shrieked and dissolved into black motes.
"They'll overwhelm us if we don't push!" Skuld shouted.
She didn't wait for an answer. Her body blurred into motion, her strikes efficient and brutal. Ravenveil Whisper cleaved through a Soldier's spinning kick, silver feathers of wind bursting outward in a miniature gale. With a flick of her wrist, she unleashed Aeroga, a dome of whirling air blasting Shadows back across the cavern.
Aqua tried to follow, summoning Blizzard, but her keyblade slipped in her hand. The curse pulsed harder, her grip weakening until the weapon fell from her fingers, clattering to the stone floor.
Her knees buckled. She gasped, staring at her trembling hands. "No… not now…"
Shadows swarmed, sensing weakness. Yellow eyes crowded in, claws raised.
Skuld's armor flashed to life in a burst of light — raven-feathered and wind-streaked, encasing her from head to toe. Her visor lowered, and with it her hesitation. She became motion itself, wind incarnate.
"Stay down, Aqua. I've got this!"
She planted her feet and thrust her blade into the ground. "Thundaga!"
Bolts of lightning lanced out from the cavern floor, searing through three Soldiers and scattering a pack of Shadows into charred mist. Hook Bats shrieked and descended, chains swinging, but Skuld met them mid-air — Umbral Step, wind-wrapped speed propelling her upward in a blur.
Ravenveil Whisper sang as it cut through one Bat, then another. A third dove in, hook spinning in a brutal somersault. Skuld's wings flared, and she spun, silver veins of wind crackling along her keyblade. She parried, then countered with a blinding arc that severed chain from body. The Bat dissolved before it hit the ground.
On the cavern floor, Aqua forced herself upright. Sweat dripped down her brow, her vision swimming. "I… can't…"
"You can't because you're cursed," Skuld said between breaths, her voice hard but not unkind. "So let me carry it. That's why I'm here."
Wind surged again as she extended her free hand. "Reflega!"
A dome of mirrored light snapped around Aqua just as a Soldier lunged. Its claws struck the barrier — and were thrown back in a crackling explosion. Skuld whirled, hurling Firaga, a great roaring fireball, into its chest. It screeched, staggered, and vanished in a burst of sparks.
Up above, more Hook Bats gathered, their shrieks rising to a pitch that made the air quiver. Ultrasonic waves rippled downward, shattering loose stone and sending Aqua to her knees with her hands over her ears.
Skuld gritted her teeth and crossed Ravenveil Whisper before her. "Aeroga!"
The gale she unleashed shredded the soundwaves mid-air, scattering them into harmless wind. Then she leapt, her blade catching one Bat by the hook, dragging it downward in a spiral. She slammed it into the cavern floor with a crash that sent dust blasting outward.
Hecate's laughter echoed faintly in the distance, like the cavern itself carried her voice. "Well, well, the little raven spreads her wings at last. Look at her — all flurry and fury. Better than I expected, though still tragically beneath me."
Skuld ignored the voice. She couldn't afford to split her focus.
She spun, eyes blazing under the visor, and swept her keyblade through a crowd of Shadows. Wind burst from the strike like a storm breaking its cage. Their shrieks drowned in the roar of the gale as they scattered into smoke.
But the fight was relentless. For every Heartless cut down, more clawed their way from the darkness. Soldiers spun in vicious storms of kicks; Hook Bats rained down like living chains. Aqua was weakening by the second, her light barely sustaining her against the curse.
Skuld planted herself at Aqua's side, her blade raised in defiance. "If you want her," she shouted at the swarm, "you'll have to go through me!"
The Heartless surged, a wall of black forms and gleaming eyes.
Skuld surged forward to meet them. Waterga burst from her palm, torrents of spiraling water engulfing a cluster of Soldiers and slamming them against the cavern wall. She pivoted, a swift Blizzaga following, ice crystals erupting and splintering through the frozen remains.
Another Hook Bat dove. She ducked, wings scraping sparks off the stone, then slashed upward in a furious crescent. The Bat split in two, dissolving before it hit the ground.
Her movements flowed like the wind her blade commanded — relentless, seamless, precise. Strike, spell, strike. Every swing carved another path through the swarm. Every spell bent the battlefield to her will.
Still, her chest burned, her arms ached, her breath came harsher with each moment. The blessing of Hecate shielded her from the curse, but not from exhaustion.
She risked a glance at Aqua. The older woman was on one knee, her keyblade faintly flickering back into her hand. Her lips moved in quiet determination. Even weakened, she wasn't giving up.
Skuld's jaw set. "Then neither will I."
She drew deep, silver veins of light racing up Ravenveil Whisper. The raven-shaped pendant at its chain glowed with blue fire.
"Reflega!"
The shield snapped around them again just as another wall of Shadows lunged. Their claws struck, and this time the barrier detonated outward, a ring of explosions consuming the swarm. Smoke filled the cavern, motes of darkness spiraling into nothing.
Silence fell.
Only the sound of Skuld's heaving breath remained, her armor cracked in several places, the glow of her spells dimming. Aqua lay half-conscious beside her, still alive but clearly at her limit.
From the dark ceiling above, Hecate's voice purred. "Well, well. Perhaps you're not entirely useless after all. You've made a little of the vermin infesting my realm vanish. Consider me… mildly entertained."
Skuld deactivated her armor, the plates dissolving into streaks of light. Her body shook, but she raised her keyblade one last time, pointing it at the empty dark.
"We're not here to entertain you," she spat. "We're here to collect what we need."