Kael’Dros snarled, rage flashing through his molten veins.
That an inferior creature had managed to wound him, even a single scratch, was unthinkable.

His tail swept the battlefield like a hammer—
but Kenneth had already vanished.

He reappeared at Kael’s left.
Then his right.
Then behind him.

Each strike left a mark.
Silver etched in shallow arcs.
With precision, not enough to kill.
They reminded him that he could bleed.

Kael roared, sweeping a claw in a wide arc that shattered the broken street around him—
but Kenneth blinked again, disappearing into the fractured shadow of a collapsed streetlamp.

Kael’s claws curled tighter.
“You’re fast,” he growled.
“But speed without power is meaningless.”

Nova answered first.
“Don’t forget—you’re fighting me too.”

A burst of black-violet flame tore down from above, spiraling in a tight corkscrew.
It slammed into Kael’s wings, searing the edge and driving him two steps back.

Kael slammed the ground with one foot.
His gaze locked onto Kenneth, cold and precise.

In the next instant, his tail whipped forward—
sharp as a spear.
It drove straight through Kenneth’s chest.

But what met him was only an afterimage.
A flicker of silver.
A phantom.
Moonlit Refraction.

The real Kenneth dropped from above—
upside-down, katana drawn, spinning like a falling star.

CLANG
The strike rang out—
a shock through Kael’s armored chest.

It dented the core.
The impact didn’t break it—
but it staggered him.

Kael grunted.
He felt that.

In over five thousand years of combat,
no one had ever forced him to give ground.
Until now.

Kael surged upward, wings flaring wide.
He hovered above them—
motionless.
Breathing slow.

“You think coordination makes you strong?” he called down.
“You think tricks make you equal?”

His chest lit from within.
The gem at his core pulsed—deep, rhythmic, alive.

“The Obsidian Gem was forged in the death of countless worlds.
I have killed millions.
You are children.”

Nova spat blood to the side.
“Yeah. I’ve seen firsthand what you’ve done.”

Kenneth kept his gaze.
“You picked the wrong world this time.”

Kael smirked—
the kind of smile that didn’t reach the eyes.
“I’ve seen enough. I know all your tricks.”

He raised both arms toward the sky.
Above him, the air trembled.
Space cracked.

And from his hands, a sphere of obsidian energy began to form—
slow, massive, alive.

It pulsed like a second heart.
Like a black sun.

Light bent around it.
Then vanished.

Shadows stretched longer.
Then disappeared entirely.

The sky dimmed.
The world went dark.

Kael vanished.

The next moment, he had Kenneth by the throat mid-air—
and slammed him down through twenty floors of a ruined high-rise.

The concrete cracked.
Steel bent.

Nova caught the fall, sliding across rubble, slowing them both as they tumbled through dust and rebar.

Nova turned toward him, breathing hard.
“Why didn’t you Blink?”

Kenneth exhaled, voice low.
“Without light… there’s no shadows.”

She nodded like she understood more than she let on.
“Got anything else up your sleeve?”

He looked down at his hands.
“Afraid not.”

A sharp pulse moved through the mask.
A hairline fracture split across one side—then another.
The silver sigils flickered.

Kael vanished from the sky—
and slammed down into the earth like a meteor.

Kenneth stepped forward.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said to Nova.
“But I’ll need your help.”

He drove the katana into the ground.
White light flared.
From the shadows it cast, copies of him flickered into place—half a dozen, maybe more—each one moving in different directions.

Kael burst out of the rubble, vicious and blind with rage.

He struck down each copy in seconds.
One after another—ripped apart, shattered, destroyed.

By the time he paused, Kenneth and Nova had already pulled back, farther down the broken avenue, breathing hard.

“Throw me into that thing,” Kenneth shouted, pointing at the black sphere above.

Nova looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
“Are you insane? That thing’ll swallow you whole.”

Kenneth smiled beneath the cracked mask.
“Second craziest thing I’ve done today.”

Nova gritted her teeth and hurled Kenneth with everything she had.

A silver streak cut through the smoke—
straight toward the black sun hanging in the sky.

But Kael moved instantly.
He lunged.
His fist slammed toward her—
and she caught it, arms crossed, skidding back through the rubble.

“Leave it to the devil to turn on his ally,” Kael growled.

Nova smirked through the blood on her lip.
“Better the devil than your puppet.”

Above them, Kenneth flew higher—closer to the burning core.

The heat intensified.
Every breath scorched his throat.
Even blinking felt like dragging glass across his eyes.

“I trust you,” he whispered to the voice inside.
“If we get out of this… tell me your name.”

Silence.
Then—

“You already know it.”
“I am thou… and thou art I.”

Kenneth closed his eyes.
“Then let’s end this, Tsukiyomi.”

He roared.

UMBRAL RIFT.

The blade of the katana turned black—
not coated in darkness,
but carved from it.

A tear in space bloomed at its tip,
and the rift swallowed the obsidian sphere whole—
light, flame, gravity, all pulled inward and gone.

The sky cleared.

Below, Kael and Nova clashed again—
wings snapping, claws grinding against horns.

He roared and surged forward.
“Time to end this!”

He launched his tail forward, aimed straight for her heart.

But his shadow shifted.

Kenneth stepped out from it—
silent, fast, katana raised.

The blade cut clean through.

Kael’s tail hit the ground a second later.

He roared, swinging wildly toward them—
but Kenneth grabbed Nova and vanished again,
reappearing in the shadow cast by a broken rooftop.

Below them, Kael’s gem was glowing brighter now.
Unstable.
Throbbing with energy too volatile to contain.

“I’m ending this planet,” Kael bellowed,
“and all of you with it!”

Nova’s eyes went wide.
“This is bad. He’s going to overload the core.”

“If he detonates,” she said,
“the explosion will be worse than what he launched in the sky. A hundred times worse. It’ll scorch the entire planet.”

Kenneth stared up at the pulsing light, his voice cold.
“I know.”
“I’ve felt that thing up close.”

He turned to Nova.
“We have to stop him.”

Nova’s eyes locked on the gem overhead.
“We’ve got thirty seconds.”

Kenneth nodded.
“Then let’s make every second count.”

Below them, Kael’s body surged.
Crimson light leaked from the growing fractures across his armor.
His frame was swelling, power warping the form that once held it in check.

Kenneth and Nova vanished.

Then reappeared—
right in front of him.

Kenneth gripped the katana with both hands.
The blade burned black.
A crescent of pure energy shimmered from its edge—razor-thin, wide enough to split a mountain in two.

He lunged.

Kael blocked with both arms.
Bone and obsidian resisted the strike—
but the blade didn’t stop.
It pressed in.
Piercing.
But not enough.

Kenneth grit his teeth.
“UMBRAL SLASH.”

The energy he’d absorbed earlier burst from the blade’s tip—
a violent pulse of moonlit darkness.

The shockwave tore through the city, vaporizing what remained.

The katana drove halfway into the core.
Fractures spidered out across the gem.

Kael’s eyes went wide.

Then, Nova came down like judgment.
She drop-kicked the hilt—
every ounce of her weight and fury behind it.

The blade sank deeper.
And the gem cracked.

It was silent for half a heartbeat.

Kael’Dros  erupted—
a blinding burst of light tearing out from his core.
It spread fast.
Unstoppable.

The light engulfed the city whole.
Vaporized.
Buildings, streets—
everything gone in an instant.

All that remained was a crater, miles wide and scorched black,
with deep fissures carved into the earth like open wounds.

Kenneth’s mask cracked—
a silver fracture splitting down the center.
Then it crumbled.

Ash, carried off by the wind.

The katana didn’t survive either.
Its blade had melted away,
leaving only the hilt behind—
warm, still humming.

Kenneth groaned, still flat on his back.
“Remind me never to follow my own ideas again.”

Nova didn’t lift her head.
“Agreed.”

He let out half a breath that might’ve been a laugh.
Then they both passed out.