Kurai stood alone amidst the whirling darkness, the bdes of her fan floated in a circle behind her, orbiting like obsidian satellites. Across the ruined battlefield, Aqua and Skuld regrouped, battered but not broken. They shared a gnce.

  No words. Just trust and understanding.

  They split.

  Skuld rocketed skyward, ptforms of condensed wind forming in rapid succession under her boots. Aqua charged forward, casting Water Glide to zip across the battlefield, her bow ready, eyes fixed on Kurai.

  Kurai extended her hand.

  The five bdes shot forward like fangs.

  Aqua twisted left, spun mid-slide, and fired an arrow into the path of one. The bde collided with the enchanted projectile and ricocheted, striking another midair and causing both to veer off course. Skuld dove, intercepting a third bde with a wind shield, and curved into a high-speed arc.

  Kurai grinned. "Impressive."

  She raised her fan and sliced the air.

  The wind obeyed. Invisible currents of darkness erupted from all sides. The air screamed, twisted into bdes without form or sound until they struck.

  Skuld weaved through them, barely using her magic to sense changes in the air, her sleeves sliced open and skin grazed. Aqua cast Reflect just in time, one of the silent sshes bouncing harmlessly away. She leapt high—

  —right into Kurai’s path.

  Fan and bow met in a spray of sparks. Kurai twisted, using the fan's momentum to sweep Aqua’s legs. Aqua flipped backward midair, nded, and fired three shots—one to distract, one to corner, one to harm.

  Kurai blocked the first.

  Dodged the second.

  Caught the third.

  With a flick of her wrist, she imbued it with darkness and returned it.

  Aqua gasped and dodged to the side, the arrow scraping her cheek as it passed.

  Then Skuld crashed down from above.

  “Hurricane Splitter!”

  Twin bdes wrapped in wind magic hammered down on Kurai. Kurai raised her fan and caught them, but the force cracked the ground beneath her. Wind exploded in all directions. For a split-second, Kurai was forced into defense.

  That was all Aqua needed.

  “Blizzard Cage!”

  Frost surged outward, pilrs of ice erupting around Kurai, forming a crystalline prison.

  Kurai raised her hand to dispel it—

  —but too slow.

  Skuld detonated a wind bomb beneath her feet.

  The shockwave and the cage sealed together.

  For the first time in the battle, Kurai was trapped.

  Aqua took a breath and began casting. “Thundaga Barrage—”

  But before the spell was completed, the ice cracked.

  Then shattered.

  Kurai stepped out, her clothes further torn by the attack, her silver eyes glowing with fury.

  “No more games.”

  She hurled her fan—

  Not just the bdes. The entire weapon.

  It split apart mid-flight. Each bde fred with dark energy and twisted, turning into flying scythes of shadow.

  Skuld summoned a spiraling column of wind to rise out of reach. Aqua jumped, backflipping onto a summoned ice ledge.

  Kurai warped—instantly behind Skuld.

  She caught her by the hair and smmed her down with a shockwave. The girl gasped, barely cushioning the impact.

  “Skuld!” Aqua shouted.

  Kurai was already on her. Bdes returning to her hand like loyal birds.

  Aqua’s arrow nocked. She loosed it—

  —Kurai batted it away and closed the gap, sshing with her war fan.

  Aqua transformed her bow back to its tidal scepter form and parried with the scepter, but the force behind Kurai’s blows was monstrous. Blow after blow rained down, each heavier than the st.

  The ground cracked beneath her.

  And then Kurai twisted—

  —and vanished again.

  She reappeared behind Aqua, bde raised—

  —but Skuld intercepted, dragging her own bde through the air, creating a barrier of compressed wind.

  Kurai struck—

  —and the wind detonated, bsting them all back.

  Skuld and Aqua nded hard but Kurai nded easily. The battlefield steamed with residual magic.

  Kurai walked forward menacingly.

  She ughed.

  It was brief. Cold.

  “You’re bleeding and suffering. If you answered my question, you wouldn’t be suffering.”

  She cracked her neck.

  “Good. Maybe I can enjoy this more after all. If you will answer my question, feel free at any point in time.”

  She extended both hands.

  The shadows responded.

  They converged in the sky, forming a massive spiral.

  “Twilight Cyclone.”

  The vortex descended.

  Aqua and Skuld stood side by side. Aqua raised her bow. Skuld held her daggers in reverse grip.

  Kurai’s war fan flicked once—just once—and the battlefield obeyed.

  Soon the compressed darkness and air roared outward, shattering the stone beneath Aqua’s feet and sending both her and Skuld flying. Aqua tumbled through the air and skidded across the courtyard, barely managing to roll to her feet as Kurai surged forward.

  Skuld unched back into the fray, teeth gritted, her Phantom Wings slicing arcs of wind. But Kurai was already in motion, war fan spinning, her every movement precise and cruel. She met Skuld mid-air, catching both daggers with the ribs of her fan and twisting hard breaking her arm. Bones cracked. Skuld screamed.

  Kurai flipped over her, struck her spine with a heel drop, and drove her into the ground with a thunderous crash. Dust erupted.

  “Skuld!” Aqua cried, rushing in, magical light igniting around her. Her arrows fred—fire, ice, thunder—all unched in blinding succession. Kurai spun her fan, catching the arrows mid-air, siphoning the elemental energy into her weapon.

  And then, with a snap of her wrist, she flung them all back—only now infused with darkness.

  Aqua dove and cartwheeled, blocking what she could with her Barrier, but one slipped past, tearing through her side. Blood sprayed. Her momentum faltered.

  Kurai didn’t stop.

  She stalked forward, the fan unfolding like wings of night, and with each sweep, the very air screamed. Razor-thin gales ced with darkness carved through the battlefield. One smmed into Aqua’s chest, sending her crashing into a stone column that crumbled under the force.

  Coughing, trembling, Aqua dragged herself to her feet, bow raised. Skuld didn’t move.

  Kurai pointed her fan at Aqua. A swirling sphere of compressed darkness coalesced in front of her bded fan—pulsing, trembling with apocalyptic weight. Shadows writhed like serpents around her.

  “This is the consequence of your ck of an answer,” Kurai said ftly. “Oblivion.”

  She hurled the orb.

  Aqua braced herself. “Reflect!”

  Her shield shimmered into existence, but it buckled the moment the sphere collided. The explosion was blinding, a pilr of bck fire engulfing the courtyard. The ground cracked and peeled, chunks of rubble lifted into the air before crumbling to ash.

  The force would’ve ended her.

  But it didn’t.

  A fsh of golden light broke through the inferno.

  Yen Sid stood beside her, his cloak fluttering from the pressure. His barrier shimmered gold and blue, barely containing the bst—but blood ran from his palm.

  Aqua’s eyes widened. “Master Yen Sid—!”

  “I am fine,” he said, strained but resolute. “But she is far beyond even my expectations.”

  As the smoke cleared, Kurai stood untouched in the center of the battlefield, holding Skuld’s unconscious form in one arm, draped like a broken doll.

  She met Yen Sid’s eyes. “You allowed this confrontation to py out until now. Why interfere now?”

  Yen Sid didn’t answer.

  Kurai shifted her gaze to Aqua. “You refused to answer. So I’ll take this one.”

  “No!” Aqua shouted, forcing herself upright despite the pain. “Skuld—!”

  Kurai turned away, already sinking into swirling shadows.

  “Farewell,” she murmured without looking back.

  “No!!” Aqua screamed, stumbling forward.

  But the darkness closed around them.

  And then they were gone.