The city was a graveyard of ash and broken stone. Towers lay split open, their steel bones exposed to a sky stained blood-red by fire. The air tasted of smoke and copper. In the ruins, two monsters faced each other, breathing hard.
Lucifer was wrapped in shifting shadows, a living armor that pulsed with each breath. Across from him, Nythra bled light. Molten veins glowed beneath her cracked skin, and smoke curled from her wounds. Both were smiling. Neither was human.
The wind whistled through empty streets, the only sound before they moved.
They came together in a blur. Her claws left searing trails in the air. His shadows met them, sparking black and red. Every impact shook the ground. Every miss carved another scar into the city.
He ducked under a sweeping wing, drove an elbow into her spine, and sent her flying into a half-collapsed building. Stone dust billowed like fog.
