The first bolt of lightning cracked the sky before anyone spoke. Rey didn't wait for orders or plans. He surged forward, sheathed in blue electricity, his figure vanishing and reappearing mid-stride with every step. The forest seemed too slow to keep up with him.
Kai met him head-on.
Sparks collided with wind. The sharp ring of steel echoed across the clearing as Kai parried three, four—five strikes in the span of a heartbeat. Rey moved like a living lightning storm—wild, unrelenting. Each blow carried weight and fury.
Kai didn't falter. He unleashed a deliberate, slicing arc meant to cleave, not test.
Rey flipped back to evade, the motion launching him into the air. High above, he twisted mid-kick. His right leg—already tense—snapped toward Kai like a whip.
Kai caught it, his palm buzzing with electric residue. With a sharp twist, he tried to slam Rey into the ground. The motion tore something in Rey's leg, but he gritted through it, dislocating himself midair to twist free.
His counter-kick arced in low and fast, aimed to dislocate Kai's jaw. At the last second, a burst of wind launched Kai upward—an escape layered in instinct and mastery.
"Shit," Rey muttered, eyes burning with irritation.
Rey landed hard, one leg half-buckled from the dislocation. He barely had a second to reset before a flicker caught his eye—Kaida.
Blue fire spiraled toward him from the side.
He pivoted to face it—like a shadow drawn to chaos, he intercepted the blast, his fist crashing into Kaida's flame-wreathed strike.
The impact detonated outward. Bark sheared off nearby trees. Leaves turned to ash in the burst of heat and pressure.
Kai and Kaida locked eyes across the chaos.
She didn't speak—she didn't have to.
Kai's breath came slow, steady. He gave a small nod.
Her silence was enough. He moved.
Rey turned, eyes still fixed on Kai, ready to pursue—then the world lit up in blue. Flames burst from Kaida, flooding the air with eerie silence and searing heat.
Viper appeared in a blink, crashing into her path. Their fists met like falling stars. The shock split the earth beneath them.
Behind her, Rey's voice cut through the chaos.
"Get lost. I'm not interested in you." Kaida didn't even turn. She just smirked. "What's wrong, Rey? Don't tell me you're scared of a little heat."
His eye twitched.
She saw it. That flicker. That fracture in his focus. Kaida had seen enough of him to know—his temper wasn't just a weakness. It was a weapon waiting to be turned against him.
And just like that, she lit the match.
Blue fire erupted from her palms, spiraling forward like a silent storm.
Rey reacted instinctively—his body flaring with lightning, discharging violently in every direction. The detonation blasted through the treeline, igniting leaves, filling the air with smoke so thick the world vanished behind a wall of grey.
Kaida stepped forward through the haze, senses flaring.
Rey was already moving towards her, electricity crackling around his limbs, face unreadable.
But something else appeared, too.
Tafari.
His voice carried no malice, only regret. "What a shame, Kaida. I was hoping Blaze was wrong about you. I didn't want to kill someone I know personally."
He ripped a tree from the earth with one hand and hurled it.
"Damn it," Kaida muttered, staggering slightly. Her body was still reeling from the last exchange—too slow to dodge, too drained to counter.
Then light screamed through the haze. A blinding arc, sudden and merciless. A single beam carved through the air, cleaving a tree in half. No flames, no debris—just erasure. As if it had never existed.
Lyra landed between them, wings of golden light unfurled, casting the battlefield in sanctified brilliance.
"You..." Tafari began, stepping back.
She answered with a second blast. Tafari flew, crashing through trees and disappearing into the forest. Lyra didn't wait.
Spreading her wings wide, she soared after him like divine retribution.
"Leave him to me, Kaida!" she called as her silhouette shrank into the sky.
Kaida didn't respond. She just smiled.
The opportunity had been carved.
And now—now—it was hers.
Poof.
In an instant, Rey and Viper were gone.
One moment: the scent of ash, the crackle of burning leaves. The next: blistering heat and endless dunes.
The ground had become sand. The sky, a bleached void. A dead sun hung high, and the air shimmered with mirage-like distortions.
Rey hit the ground hard, injured leg buckling. Blood bloomed beneath him, soaking into the sand.
Viper landed beside him, scanning the barren horizon. His eyes narrowed.
"…Where the hell are we?"
A voice answered, cool and cruel.
"Somewhere quiet."
Kaida stood several paces ahead, hair tousled by the dry wind, her expression unreadable.
"Now," she said, "no one will interrupt us."
Rey's eyes narrowed. Viper's fingers twitched at his sides.
They hadn't expected this.
They didn't understand how she'd done it.
But Kaida did.
Minutes earlier — before the Nullborn arrived
"There's something I don't get," Kai had said, watching her.
Kaida tilted her head. "What?"
"You said you need to siphon magic from two of them. You also said Lyra and I have to hold off Blaze and Tafari. But… what if we can't? What if one of them breaks through?"
Kaida had smiled then. Not warmly. Not with hope.
"I don't need to win a whole battle," she'd said. "Just a moment. If I reach them—if I catch them off guard—I can pull them into my domain. Isolate them."
She wasn't lying.
And now, she'd done exactly that.
Viper was tense, unsettled by the unfamiliar terrain. He didn't know what kind of spell had brought them here—only that it was Kaida's.
Rey, meanwhile, kept his focus locked on her. His voice was low, annoyed.
"So… you split us off. You understand what you just did, right? You left Blaze behind."
He stood, his leg trembling but firm. "I thought you were smarter than that."
He wasn't wrong. Kaida had gambled everything on Kai. On Lyra. On the chance that they could stall Blaze long enough.
She didn't know if they could. But she had no choice. This was the only path forward.
As Rey spoke, Viper kept shifting, assessing. Sand poured through his gloved fingers.
None of them had noticed it yet—but their magic was already starting to drain.
Only four more minutes.
***
The battlefield had splintered.
Tafari had vanished into the forest's depths, chased by divine fury. Rey and Viper were sealed in Kaida's conjured hellscape. And Blaze...
Blaze stood alone, his cloak gently shifting in the windless air.
Opposite him, Kai inhaled sharply, eyes tracking the aftermath. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his blade. A faint hum trembled beneath the earth—subtle, steady. The wind curled at his heels, responsive, almost sentient.
"She created a whole dimension..." Blaze muttered, gaze distant. His tone was calm, but a rough edge crept in beneath the surface. "Kaida… just how far does your magic reach?"
Kai tensed, sensing the sudden shift in pressure. The man across from him radiated something else entirely—something worse than raw power.
Inevitability.
Blaze's gaze finally settled on him—sharp, analytical. For the first time, it felt like he truly saw Kai.
He stepped forward, voice mild, but cutting.
"You're not just here to fight me… are you?"
A beat.
"What's her plan?" Blaze asked softly, almost to himself. "A diversion? A delay?"
He tilted his head, eyes narrowing.
"How much did she tell you?"
There was no rage in his tone—only curiosity. Cold, methodical curiosity. Like a surgeon probing for a pulse.
Kai didn't answer. The forest began to wail.
A vortex of air twisted around him, leaves scattering in reverse spirals, trees bending backward as though resisting gravity. The earth itself groaned under the unseen force.
Blaze kept walking, unhurried.
And then—Kai moved.
He vanished in an instant, the wind shattering sound itself.
Blaze tilted his head—too late.
Kai reappeared directly beneath him, crouched, his blade already swinging upward from point-blank range.
Their eyes met.
There was no fear in either.
Only resolve.
The wind screamed.
A dozen uprooted trees, wrenched from the earth with violent force, tore through the air like spears. They curved mid-flight, converging from every angle—an assault orchestrated by Kai, meant to trap Blaze in a crushing cage of wood and momentum.
Kai moved with them, his blade slicing cleanly through the dense foliage.
For a moment, Blaze was completely surrounded.
And then—nothing.
No warning.
No flare of magic.
No visible defense.
Just... erasure.
A pulse—silent, absolute—rippled through the world like a god exhaling.
The trees vanished before they landed, reduced to splinters and ash. The wind fell still. The earth cracked open. Light bent, flickered—and died.
When the dust cleared, the forest was gone. A crater stretched for miles, scorched and lifeless.
At its center stood Blaze—untouched, expression unreadable, his cloak billowing softly in the dead air.
Kai lay at his feet, broken and motionless. Bones twisted at unnatural angles.
I can't move...
Blood pooled beneath him, soaking into the stone.
He didn't even scream.
Blaze looked down, neither amused nor cruel. Another day, perhaps, he might have delivered the final blow. But today?
He stepped over Kai's body and leapt outside the crater.
Kai's thoughts fluttered like dying embers.
What... the hell... was that...?
His body didn't answer. His limbs ignored him. His consciousness frayed at the edges.
[3 minutes and 45 seconds until Kaida completes the siphoning]