The ocean boiled around them. Each impact between the two colossal beasts generated waves that rose like ephemeral mountains, crests of white foam tearing against a storm-tinted sky. Uriel—the corrupted version, the twisted shadow of who once was a companion—moved with a sickly grace, his two-hundred-meter dragon-serpent body undulating through the depths as if the water itself were his ally.
Sunny felt Nephis's fire burning in his chest, a persistent warmth that kept the darkness threatening to consume him at bay. But it wasn't enough. It was never enough.
"Do you think this changes anything?" Uriel's voice resonated directly in his mind, mocking and cold as the abyss. "You're still the same slave as always. You just wear shinier chains now."
Sunny roared, launching himself at the gigantic serpent. His fangs—long as lances—sought his enemy's throat, but Uriel twisted with impossible agility for his size, his tail wrapped in shadows striking Sunny's flank with the force of a meteor. The impact sent him spinning through the water, his body contorting as he tried to regain control.
"Always so predictable," Uriel continued, his dark form reforming as he approached. "Always so desperate to prove something. What are you trying to prove, Sunny? That you're not a failure? Look at yourself. You can't even protect those you claim to love."
Rage blinded Sunny. He lunged again, this time faster, more savage. His claws—each the size of a ship—tore into Uriel's side, ripping strips of darkness that dissolved in the water before reforming. The corrupted serpent let out a hiss that could be felt in the bones, and his jaw opened, revealing rows of teeth gleaming with purple light.
Sunny barely managed to dodge, but not enough. Uriel's fangs tore into his flank, and for a moment, the world turned red. He felt the darkness seeping into his wound, cold and venomous, seeking his essence core.
"Let me help you," the corruption whispered in his ear. "Stop fighting. What's the point? She'll always see you as her tool. They all do."
"SHUT UP!" Sunny shouted, and his voice became a roar that made the waters tremble.
---
In the remains of Twilight, Nephis stood with effort. Her legs trembled, her essence nearly exhausted. She had given everything she could, and still, watching the chaos in the distance, she knew it wasn't enough.
Columns of water rose like accusing fingers toward the stormy sky. The roars—both human and bestial—thundered across the waves like war drums. And at the center of it all, two shadows danced their dance of death.
Nephis clenched her fists. Her flames barely sparked in her palms. How many more times would she have to lose? How many more times would she have to stay behind, watching others fight while she could do nothing?
"Since the Forgotten Shore," she thought bitterly. "I've always been the one left behind."
She remembered the day Uriel had stayed behind to cover their retreat. The regret in his eyes when the corruption began to take his body. "Go," he had told them. "I'll cover you." And he had. Until the end.
Now she fought that same Uriel. Against the friend who gave his life for them.
Nephis watched as Sunny was thrown again, his body contorting as he tried to hold firm.
"I'm useless," she murmured to herself, but her words sounded hollow even in her own ears.
The essence she had left was barely a thread. She could feel the emptiness inside her, the deep exhaustion that came after giving everything you had and still failing. But even so, even with tears of frustration burning her eyes, Nephis took a step forward.
She didn't know what she could do. She only knew she had to try.
---
Cassie moved through the harbor debris with silent determination. Her Silent Dancer—the curved blade that had killed so many—weighed in her hand like a promise.
She had had the vision during the first exchange of blows. Short, brutal, but crystalline. The kind of vision that left no room for doubt. The path only she could take.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to the wind, though she wasn't sure who she was saying it to. To Sunny. To Nephis. To the Uriel who was once their friend.
She knew what she had to do. And she knew she probably wouldn't survive to see the result.
Visions always had a cost. The clearer they were, the higher the price. But this one... this one was different. This wasn't just clarity. It was certainty.
Cassie remembered the first time she met Uriel. It had been in the Dark Castle, when everything was new and terrifying, and he had been the first to make her laugh. "Don't worry," he had told her, with that confident smile he always wore. "No one's getting left behind. Promised."
And now, the irony. The one who promised no one would be left behind was the one who had fallen the farthest.
"You made a promise too," Cassie murmured, her fingers closing tighter around her weapon's handle. "You said you wouldn't give up either."
She had seen the exact moment, the perfect instant when Uriel's corruption would reach its peak, just before the darkness sealed his core completely. At that moment, he would be vulnerable. Not physically—the darkness would always be stronger—but mentally. The original Uriel, the one still fighting deep within, would rise for an instant.
A single instant.
And in that instant, Cassie could use her Silent Dancer to cut the thread binding Uriel to the corruption. But to do it, she would have to be close. Very close. Within reach of the fangs and claws, where a normal person would die in seconds.
Cassie stopped. She could see them now—the two colossal serpents, wrapped in a dance of violence so pure it almost seemed beautiful. Sunny was being dominated, his blind fury becoming his greatest weakness.
"You've always been the most emotional of us," Cassie thought. "That's your strength and your curse."
She remembered the Dance of Valor, when Sunny had stepped away from Nephis's side. She remembered the look in both their eyes when the flames fell between them like a wall. And she remembered the promise she had made to them both, quietly, when no one else could hear.
"I'll protect them. No matter the cost."
Cassie clenched her teeth and began moving toward the cliff's edge. The water below boiled with violence, but she knew it was the shortest path. The vision had shown her the exact point where she needed to be.
---
Sunny's roar was a cry of pure frustration. Every blow he landed was answered with two. Every wound he inflicted closed almost instantly. Uriel—the corrupted version—was relentless, and his knife-sharp tongue cut deeper than any fang.
"Look at yourself," said the voice in his mind. "Look at Nephis. So weak, so useless, watching from afar. And Cassie? Where's your dear seer? Hiding, as always. Always with her secrets, never with answers."
"SHUT UP!" Sunny shouted again, but his voice sounded less like a roar and more like a whimper.
The dark serpent laughed, a sound that vibrated through the water like an earthquake. "You know what's pathetic, Sunny? That you still believe you can save them. That you still believe you're someone. You've always been a slave. Born a slave, die a slave, and deep down, in that dark corner of your soul you don't want to look at... you know it."
Sunny felt the words like daggers. Each one found a crack in his armor, each one found a doubt, a fear, an insecurity.
"And Nephis?" Uriel continued, his form twisting around Sunny like a constrictor. "Do you think she sees you as anything more than a tool? You're useful, Sunny. Very useful. But the moment you stop being..."
"IT'S NOT TRUE!" Sunny broke free with an outburst of strength that surprised even himself. His claws sank into Uriel's body, and for a moment—just a moment—it seemed he had the advantage.
But Uriel only laughed harder.
"See? Even now, even with all your power, you can't really hurt me. What do you hope to achieve, little one? What do you hope to prove?"
Sunny felt tears mixing with the saltwater. It wasn't fair. After everything he'd been through, after everything he'd suffered... he was still the same. The same one who couldn't protect anyone. The same one who always failed.
Sunny clenched his teeth within the shadow manifestation. He crushed those thoughts, deciding to discard that way of thinking. That wasn't him.
Activating the enchantment of the Crown of Twilight, he surrendered once more to rage, dispelling the doubt growing in his soul. The darkness around him intensified, his serpent form becoming denser, sharper.
With renewed murderous fury, Sunny attacked Uriel with everything he had. His fangs sank into the corrupted serpent's neck, and for a moment—a single moment—he felt the flesh give way under his pressure.
But Uriel only laughed.
"Is that all?" he asked, his voice distorted but clear. "Is that all you can do when you're angry? You think anger makes you stronger? Anger makes you blind, Sunny. It makes you predictable. It makes you weak."
Uriel's tail coiled around Sunny's body, squeezing with a force that made his bones creak. Sunny tried to break free, but the darkness enveloped him like a shroud.
"Listen," Uriel whispered, his mouth near Sunny's ear. "I'm going to tell you something you don't want to hear. Something you've been avoiding from the start."
Sunny tried to cover his ears, but the words kept coming.
"You will never be free. No matter how many battles you win, no matter how many times you save the day. There will always be someone stronger, someone who controls you. You were born to serve. And that's what you'll do until the day you die."
"No! Damn it!" Sunny felt despair mixing with rage. "It's not true!"
"No?" Uriel's laugh was cruel, cutting. "Then why are you still here? Why are you still fighting a battle you know you can't win? Why don't you surrender?"
Sunny felt something break inside him. It wasn't his soul or his essence core. It was something deeper. It was his hope. The belief that he could be more than a slave. The belief that he could be free.
"Free..." Sunny whispered, and the word sounded strange in his mouth.
"Free," Uriel repeated, mocking. "You don't know what it means. You never will."
"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH!" With a furious roar, the enchantment of the crown above his head became much more invasive, leaving nothing but a tearing fury.
Moving his shadow manifestation, he launched himself against the enormous manifestation of pure darkness, biting its throat and dragging it out of the great river.