Councilor Dregvari didn't walk.
He floated, his lower half a writhing mist of soul vapor that coiled like it had opinions. He stood ten feet tall, arms outstretched, skeletal fingers wrapped around burning command scrolls. His four horns glowed with searing magic. His shadow didn't match his shape.
"You who trespass in my dominion," his voice boomed, "will learn the price of—"
"Limit Break: Dawnpiercer Cross!" I shouted, already in midair.
A radiant spiral of light erupted beneath my boots as I launched forward, blade-first, shattering his sentence and a chunk of his lectern.
The battle began exactly how it shouldn't have.
Loud. Explosive. Cinematic.
Kuroblade launched an Ebon Prism Hex, a rotating array of mirrored shadow panes that reflected Dregvari's first chain spell back at him. One of his arms turned briefly into confetti before reforming from raw command code.
Aria buffed us from the balcony above with a harmonic chant, amplifying our movements, shielding against psychic bursts, and occasionally yelling things like, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO START WITH A LIMIT BREAK!"
Dregvari floated backward, eyes glowing. "You are anomalies—unsanctioned. Unrepentant."
"Thank you," Kuroblade said, casually levitating off the ground.
---
Dregvari clapped his hands together, and the walls screamed.
Literally.
Magical shackles exploded from the glyphs carved into the ceiling—Soulbind Chains, pulsing with domination magic.
I dodged two.
Kuroblade didn't.
Because he let them hit him on purpose.
"Now," he said, blood trickling from his nose, "you are in range of my Soul Reversal Sigil."
Dregvari's eyes narrowed.
Then went wide.
The chains reversed. He was pulled forward—right into my waiting blade.
"Starpoint Requiem," I whispered, and lunged.
Five rapid thrusts. One horizontal flash of radiant light.
He flew backward, cloak smoking.
Dregvari hissed and struck the ground with his censer staff.
A wave of psychic dread burst out. The walls turned black. Our vision twisted.
Suddenly, we were no longer in the chamber.
We were standing in a twisted arena of ash and screaming faces. A dread illusion.
"Test of Will," Kuroblade muttered, summoning a rune circle beneath us. "Don't break."
Aria's voice rang in our ears via the whisper spell. "You're in his illusion field. Anchor to your core thoughts."
I focused.
My thoughts were… sparkles, justice, and stylish backflips.
Kuroblade's were... apparently nothing but eldritch poetry and the sound of anime opening themes.
We broke the illusion in seven seconds.
Dregvari staggered.
"How," he hissed.
Kuroblade smiled. "I have already lost myself. What is fear to a boy who named his soul?"
"...What?" I whispered.
"Don't ask," Aria said.
Dregvari began chanting in Ancient Infernal.
The floor shook.
He summoned twelve burning spectral blades, all orbiting him. The very air cracked.
Aria yelled through the link: "That's a Tier-9 kill incantation! Do NOT let that finish!"
I looked at Kuroblade.
He looked at me.
We nodded.
Then in unison:
> "Dual Limit Technique: Eclipse Ascension Protocol!"
My blade lit with divine light. Kuroblade's arms erupted with rune-sigil flame. Our magic clashed midair, and for a moment the room went silent.
Then—
Boom.
We shot forward.
I launched Dawnpiercer Spiral—a lancing corkscrew of sunlight that broke through the first six swords.
Kuroblade followed with Final Veil: My Wings Shall Eclipse the World—summoning a black eclipse within the room that devoured the remaining blades in a burst of cursed brilliance.
We struck Dregvari at the same time.
Light.
Shadow.
Silence.
Then—
Collapse.
The tower groaned.
Cracks split the floor. The central spire—Dregvari's tower—began to lean.
Aria reappeared, windblown, singing a dismissal spell to cancel out the static in our ears.
"He's gone," she said. "Vaporized. Soul, bindings, everything."
"I meant to leave a dramatic wound," Kuroblade muttered. "But the abyss was hungry."
I looked at the glowing crater where the councilor had been.
The roof collapsed.
We ran.
Outside, the city was in chaos. The tower fell behind us in slow motion, raining stone and glowing embers into the plaza.
Demons screamed. Some ran. Some bowed.
One shrieked, "THE TWIN CALAMITIES HAVE ARRIVED!"
Aria facepalmed. "Oh no. You're getting a name."
Kuroblade looked thoughtful. "Twin Calamities… hm. Not bad."
I posed. "Could we add something like 'Radiant Cataclysm Duo'?"
"Stop," Aria said.
---
We left the city with our names already echoing in the terrified whispers of demonkind.
Behind us, the tower finished crumbling. The sky turned gray.
Ahead: the demon capital.
I smiled.
"This is going well."