The sky was no longer a sky.
It had become a theater of storms—white and green lightning lacerating the heavens, clouds twisting into colossal, spiraling rings, and the very air vibrating with the weight of two divine forces pushing reality to its breaking point.
Eiden hovered in the void, his white aura spiraling like a captured star. Opposite him, the Dark Knight remained suspended, wings flared wide, green fire dripping from his blade like molten emerald. They were both breathing heavily now, their forms fractured by the struggle—white fissures spiderwebbing across Eiden's crystalline armor, green cracks bleeding light through the Knight's obsidian scales.
Both knew the next exchange would decide the fate of the road.
The Dark Knight raised his greatsword, green fire spiraling upward in a towering tornado of light. Eiden lifted his own blade, his white aura swirling into a divine hurricane. The world braced itself for the end.
Then—they vanished.
The heavens detonated.
White and green streaks lashed across the firmament, colliding in a rhythmic thrum of violence. Each impact sent shockwaves that bent the cloud layer into massive, expanding halos. The atmosphere screamed as they clashed at impossible speeds, their blades carving through the air like twin meteors.
The Dark Knight roared, his wings igniting as he delivered a downward strike that cleaved the horizon in two. Eiden caught the blow, the resulting explosion of energy spiraling both warriors backward. Eiden countered instantly, slashing upward with a wave of white radiance that tore through the mist like a holy blade. The Knight cut through the surge, green fire erupting in a draconic spiral that wrapped around his form.
They soared higher. Higher. Until the world below was nothing more than a blurred swirl of black and white sand.
Then, they charged.
Their blades collided with a force that shattered the sky, sending a ripple across the curve of the world. The clouds collapsed beneath them, spiraling into a dual-colored vortex. They clashed again. And again. And again. Each strike was heavier than the last, each movement slower, each breath a jagged struggle. They were reaching the absolute limit of their divinity.
The Dark Knight's voice cracked through the thunder: "ENOUGH!"
He shot upward, his aura erupting in a supernova of emerald light. Eiden followed, white flames spiraling around his ascent. They met at the peak of the heavens for the final clash. Their blades locked, grinding against one another with every ounce of remaining strength. The sky bent around them, lightning spiraling in massive arcs, the air vibrating like a beaten drum.
Then, they dove.
Both of them, locked together in a lethal embrace, blades screaming against steel as they plummeted toward the earth like twin falling stars. White and green light merged into a colossal beam that bored a hole through the atmosphere.
Eiden pushed harder. The Dark Knight pushed back. The ground rushed to meet them. Faster. Faster.
The world erupted.
A blinding sphere of white and green light expanded outward, flattening the land for miles. The shockwave tore through the plains like a hurricane, sending sand, stone, and air spiraling into the stratosphere. It was an atomic event—a dome of light swallowing the horizon before collapsing inward in a massive implosion that shook the tectonic plates.
Silence followed. A long, heavy, suffocating silence.
When the dust finally settled, two figures lay at the center of a gargantuan crater. Eiden and the Dark Knight. Their divine forms had evaporated. Their armor lay in shattered fragments; their auras were extinguished. They were returned to their mortal shells, their breaths weak and shallow.
The Dark Knight lay on his back, staring up at the empty sky. His armor was ruined, his longsword snapped clean in half beside him.
Eiden pushed himself up with agonizing slowness, every movement a testament to his exhaustion. With the final spark of his strength, he reached out and gently tapped the Dark Knight's forehead with a single finger. A faint, flickering white light pulsed from Eiden's fingertip... then died.
Eiden exhaled, the sound ghosting into the quiet of the crater.
"You... could be useful in the future."