The storm wasn't just noise—it was a beast roaring, thrashing against the city's edge. Lightning split the sky as rain hammered the rooftop like bullets. Ayano's electric aura crackled violently, hair whipping like dark silk in the chaos. Her grin was cruel, confident. She was the storm incarnate.
But Reika's eyes burned darker than the midnight sky.
Her cursed katana didn't just slice through the air—it drank the black flames that curled and hissed along its edge. Flames born from shadow and pain, hungry and alive.
The weapon pulsed like a heartbeat in her grip.
She wasn't just wielding fire—she was becoming it.
"Shadowflare Eclipse," Reika whispered.
A black flame erupted from the blade, stretching and twisting until it peeled off into the shadows beneath her feet—alive, writhing, sentient.
The shadow flames coiled, slithering across the rooftop like a living creature, creeping into cracks, devouring light and sound. It consumed the rain where it touched, boiling the water into steam and swallowing the cold like a suffocating nightmare.
Ayano's eyes flicked to it—interest piqued, but arrogance unbroken.
"You think your little shadow toy scares me? I am lightning, the scream of the storm itself."
She surged forward, electricity arcing in brutal, jagged lines from her fingertips.
Reika's shadow flame entity hissed and struck first—lunging with ferocious claws of fire that ripped at the electric currents crackling in the air. The shadows collided with lightning, sizzling and sparking with raw energy.
Ayano twisted midair, sword of pure voltage slashing at the black flames.
"Voltage Queen doesn't dance with shadows," she spat.
But Reika was already moving—her katana a blur, slicing through the storm's roar with precise, lethal grace. Her blade whispered through the air, each strike trailing hungry black fire that corrupted everything it touched.
"Shadowflare Eclipse: Midnight Rift."
Reika slammed the ground with her katana, and the shadow flames erupted outward in a wave of darkness that swallowed the rooftop's edge. The entity grew, warping and twisting the battlefield itself—the rain turned to steam, the wind to silence where the flames spread.
Ayano screamed—a crackling, electric sound—as her lightning struggled to hold against the creeping shadow.
"Damn it! You're burning my storm!"
The battle escalated into a brutal dance—lightning and shadow, fire and electricity clashing with violent fury. Each attack from Ayano sparked dangerous arcs of energy that could fry flesh in seconds, but Reika's shadow flames twisted and absorbed the currents, turning them into nothing but harmless crackles.
Reika pressed the attack, moving like a shadow possessed—her blade flashing with deadly speed.
"Shadowflare Eclipse: Phantom Lash."
Black flames shot from her katana, extending like whips that lashed at Ayano's limbs and torso. The tendrils wrapped tight, constricting, burning with an unholy heat.
Ayano grunted, breaking free with a surge of electricity that exploded the flames in a shower of sparks.
"Nice tricks. But I'm the storm. I don't break."
Reika's smirk was cold.
"I'm the night that swallows storms."
She vanished in a blink—only the shadow flames remaining for a heartbeat longer, striking blindly in her place.
Ayano's eyes widened as Reika appeared behind her—blade flashing, black fire roaring.
"Shadowflare Eclipse: Eclipse Fang."
A brutal slash, sharper than any lightning bolt. The katana bit into Ayano's side, black flames licking the wound, searing deep.
Ayano hissed, stumbling back, but the storm inside her eyes didn't fade.
"Still standing? Impressive. But I'll fry you alive."
She summoned a thunderous bolt from the darkened sky—a blinding spear of lightning that crackled with enough power to tear steel.
Reika tensed, black flames swirling violently around her blade.
"Shadowflare Eclipse: Abyssal Shield."
A cocoon of black fire erupted, absorbing the lightning bolt in a swirl of shadows and heat. The air vibrated with raw power, but Reika held steady, the flames licking but never burning her.
The blast shattered part of the rooftop, sending debris flying.
Ayano's gaze sharpened—no trace of fear, only lethal resolve.
"You're strong. But I'm faster."
Before Reika could react, Ayano vanished in a flash of white-blue light, reappearing above her with a crackling overhead slash.
Reika barely blocked, sparks exploding between their blades. The shockwave sent her sliding across the slick rooftop.
Both fighters were drenched, rain mixing with sweat and blood.
Reika's voice was low but fierce.
"This ends now."
She summoned the full force of her cursed flames—black fire roiling, alive, craving destruction.
"Shadowflare Eclipse: Blackstar Requiem."
Her katana ignited with unholy fire that surged outward like a dark starburst, tendrils of shadow-flame whipping toward Ayano in a deadly storm.