The clash did not end with the first strike.
It evolved.
Each moment rippled like thunder through the broken valley — light cutting through shadow, shadow devouring light, neither yielding.
Seraphine descended first, her wings of radiance unfurling in full glory. Every feather burned like molten gold, trailing embers as she swung her staff.
"By the Dawn's will, be cleansed!"
A spear of light burst forth — sharp, absolute.
Sora's form flickered. He raised his hand, and darkness coiled to meet it. The spear pierced through the first layer of shadow, then the second — until it shattered against a wall of swirling abyss.
He stepped through the smoke, unscathed, eyes glowing like twin amethysts.
"Light, so eager to erase what it doesn't understand."
He flicked his wrist.
The ground rippled. From the soil, a thousand shadow blades rose — thin, elegant, whispering as they curved through the air.
Seraphine moved like a hymn in motion. Her staff spun, each sweep of her arm carving sigils that bloomed into radiant shields. The blades struck — and the world filled with sound.
Metal, light, and void sang in violent harmony.
They moved faster than human eyes could follow. Each step carved scars into the land.
Sora's strikes came like falling nights — silent, consuming.
Seraphine's counters burned like morning bells — fierce and pure.
Their voices echoed amid the chaos —
Seraphine "You've fallen too far, Sovereign!"
Sora"No… I've risen where light feared to tread."
A collision — their palms met mid-strike, shadow and light clashing in raw equilibrium. The shockwave tore trees from the ground, shattered stone, and sent dust spiraling into the heavens.
For an instant, time itself seemed to fracture.
And in that fracture — they saw.
A flash of memory.
A temple bathed in dusk.
Two souls, standing side by side — laughing, studying, dreaming.
Her voice soft. His eyes kind.
And then, fire. Screams. Betrayal.
Sora gasped. Seraphine staggered. Their powers faltered.
> "That vision…"
she whispered, her eyes wide.
"Who were you… before all this?"
Sora's answer came like a broken echo.
"Someone who once believed the light could save him."
The world roared again before they could speak more — their unstable magic erupting outward, consuming the field. Light and darkness entwined, spiraling upward into a blinding sphere that swallowed sky and earth alike.
Then — silence.
When the dust settled, the valley was gone — only a crater remained, rimmed with glass and ashes.
Seraphine knelt at its edge, her armor cracked, wings fading.
Sora stood opposite her, half his form dissolving into mist.
Neither spoke.
The wind carried only the faint whisper of their intertwined powers fading into the night.
"We were never meant to destroy each other,"
Seraphine breathed, her voice trembling.
"No," Sora replied softly.
"Only to remember."
He turned away, and as the last light faded, his voice lingered — half sorrow, half promise.
"When next we meet, Seraphine… it won't be as enemies."
The moon shone through the storm clouds, dim and trembling.
And beneath that pale light, the Shadow Sovereign vanished once more — leaving behind a world split not by power… but by the haunting truth neither could yet face.