The world of Tenria, once a place of harmony and elemental balance, now trembled under the shadow of Malakar Kuroba's ambition. The Dark Elemental had spent decades consolidating power within Tenebrous, twisting its dark magic into a weapon capable of annihilating kingdoms. His hatred for the other Elementals burned as intensely as the fires Thane had once commanded, and he was determined to extinguish their influence forever.
The first strike came at Ignis City, Thane Nakahara's blazing metropolis. Its towers of obsidian and flowing magma channels, which had once inspired awe, now became targets of Malakar's shadowy siege engines. Thane met the darkness head-on, his flames illuminating the night as if the city itself fought alongside him. Yet, Malakar's strategies were unlike anything Thane had faced. Dark tendrils surged from the ground, swallowing fire and stone alike.
"You cannot stand against me, Thane!" Malakar's voice echoed across the city, dark and commanding.
"For Ignis! For Tenria!" Thane roared, his flames clashing with the shadows. The battle raged for days, the streets liquefied under intense heat, and the sky glowed red with fire and black with darkness. Despite Thane's valor, Malakar's relentless assault proved too much. With a strike fueled by pure shadow, Thane fell, and Ignis City was reduced to smoldering ruins.
Far to the west, Terra Kingdom faced a similar fate. Lirien Nakahara's fortress-like cities, carved from mountains and soil, were engineered to withstand sieges. Yet, Malakar's darkness moved like creeping poison, infiltrating tunnels, collapsing structures, and turning the land against its defenders. Lirien fought valiantly, shaping the earth into towering walls and earth-shaking attacks.
"You think stone can hold against shadow?" Malakar sneered, sending waves of darkness that shattered the mountains themselves.
Despite her mastery over the land, Lirien succumbed to exhaustion and despair. The mountains that had stood for centuries crumbled, and the Terra Kingdom fell into silence, swallowed by darkness.
In the south, Aqua Republic shimmered with its water-based defenses, canals and fountains acting as both shield and weapon. Kael Matsumoto commanded tidal waves and whirlpools, each one infused with precise control over water's flow. Yet even fluid could not escape Malakar's influence. Shadows oozed into the canals, freezing water mid-flow and turning liquid against its master.
"Kael! You will drown in your own creation!" Malakar's voice, like a storm, thundered over the city.
Kael battled tirelessly, sculpting water into blades, walls, and walls of pressure. But when Malakar's shadow struck, it extinguished the very currents Kael commanded. His city crumbled, and Kael himself fell, leaving Aqua Republic to sink into legend.
Above the clouds, Aero Federation fought desperately against the dark tide. Lyna Takahashi's wind-powered cities swayed and danced to her command, using gusts and tornadoes to deflect attacks. Her people, skilled in aerial combat, darted through the air, striking shadows as they appeared. Yet Malakar had anticipated her strategy.
"Wind bends to shadow now!" he hissed, sending void currents that tore through floating platforms.
Lyna fought with grace and fury, her city swaying like a leaf in a storm. But the relentless power of darkness proved overwhelming. With one final gust, the Aero Federation collapsed, and Lyna fell from the sky, her voice lost to the wind.
The Eon Empire, seat of Eryndor Saito's energy mastery, became the next battlefield. The realm's towering spires hummed with electric force, every street alive with kinetic power. Eryndor unleashed bolts of energy, lightning surging from spires to ground, but the darkness was everywhere, absorbing energy and turning it into deadly attacks.
"You cannot fight what you cannot see, Eryndor!" Malakar's voice reverberated like a low earthquake.
Despite his brilliance, Eryndor's towers crumbled under the weight of shadow magic. His final stand ended in brilliance and destruction, leaving Eon Empire as a smoldering testament to the war's devastation.
All that remained was Luminaria, the kingdom of light. Kenjiro Yamato, the last First Elemental, faced Malakar with resolve unbroken. Light clashed against shadow as the two titans collided in the ruins of Tenria, the ground quaking with the force of their powers.
"You will not win, Malakar!" Kenjiro shouted, his radiant energy forming shields and beams that lit the skies.
"And you will fall alone!" Malakar roared, shadows twisting into monstrous forms, striking from all directions.
The battle stretched across mountains, forests, and cities, every attack from Kenjiro illuminating the land, every strike from Malakar darkening it. Despite Kenjiro's unmatched mastery of light, he realized the grim truth: he could not destroy Malakar without consuming himself in the process.
It was then Kenjiro made the fateful decision. He channeled all his power into a magical seal, a prison of light and energy designed to hold Malakar's darkness for centuries to come.
"By the power of light, I seal your darkness!" Kenjiro cried, his voice echoing through Tenria.
The seal engulfed Malakar, locking him within the planet's core, far from the reach of mortal and immortal alike. Exhausted and alone, Kenjiro collapsed amidst the ruins of what had once been a world of balance, leaving a land forever changed by war, loss, and the shadows of the fallen Elementals.
Though the First Elementals had perished, their legacies lingered in the remnants of their kingdoms and in the stories whispered across generations. And in the hearts of those who would come after, the echoes of their battles would awaken
a new hope—or a new darkness, waiting to rise.