The air in the Colosseum was thick with tension, the crowd watg ihless anticipation. The previous exge had left both fighters with battle wounds—Helios had a deep gash across his shoulder, and Sephiroth’s chest still bore the lingering burn of Helios’ Dark Firaga.
Hercules ran over out of breath followed by a robbed woman, “Phil I brought the priestess!”
Phil was furiously tapping his hoof against the floor. “Hurry up toots get a barrier set up or those two knuckleheads will kill everyone here.”
The priestess raised her hands and began eling her magiing the magic barrier c the outer area of the ring while leaving the top open. This was because Sephiroth’s magic would attack the top of the barrier aroy it if she closed it.
Sephiroth and Helios both oblivious to Phil’s termeasure took their sta again. If either of them was slowed down by their injuries, her showed it.
Sephiroth tilted his head slightly, his cat-like eyes Helios with mild intrigue.
Helios rolled his shoulder, wing slightly at the pain. “So…” he smirked, spinning his Keybde in his hand. “Are we finally gonna take the gloves off?”
Sephiroth didn’t respond.
Instead, he simply raised his left hand.
Helios’ instincts screamed for him to move!
And then—
BOOM.
Six bck orbs maed around Sephiroth, spinning wildly before log onto Helios. They surged toward him, eae pulsing with dark energy.
Helios’ brain worked instantly. Havihe teique a few times he had e up with two ter measures. The first was the Reflect spell with it he could cel out the explosions, but he’d still get hit by one or two orbs. The other was the Thundaga spell the bolt of lightning would detohem mid-air before they reach him, but it left him open.
CRACK!
Bolts of lightning surged from Helios’ keybde, striking the Shadow Fres in rapid succession.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each explosion shook the arena and the barrier, the dark energy g with his magi a violent burst.
By the time the smoke cleared, Helios was unharmed.
But Sephiroth was already moving.
A silver blur, Masamune fshing toward Helios’ neck—
There was no time to dodge or think so he instinctively released his darkness and teleported.
Darkness swallowed Helios just before the bde could ect, his body reappearing on the opposite side of the arena.
The croed.
“Teleportation?” one of the speuttered. “Isn’t that—?”
Helios exhaled slowly, feeling the darkness c through his whole body. This wasn’t just his usual mobility trick. He was tapping into the darkness inside him more than ever before. And it felt good.
Sephiroth lifted his hand again.
This time, it wasn’t Shadow Fre.
The sky itself cracked open, and from the abyss, fmieors rained down toward the battlefield.
Supernova.
Helios’ eyes narrowed. “Oh, hell no.”
Raising his free hand, he cast Freezing Gale.
A violent blizzard erupted from the ground, wind howling as shards of ice tore through the fallieors.
The bination of cold and chaotic air currents put out the fmes, turning the meteors into solid ice.
But that wasn’t the best part.
Now, the meteors were pletely out of trol, tumbling in random dires.
One nearly crushed Helios, but he dodged at the st sed—
Another came flying toward Sephiroth, who sshed it in half mid-air.
The crowd went ihis was the most spectacur match they had seen so far and it just kept gettier aer with each passing sed.
As the ice settled, Sephiroth spread his arms wide summoning his Firaga Wall. Pilrs of r fmes erupted around him around Helios but Helios covered himself with a small Freezing Gale enveloping his body in a mini blizzard that hurt for a sed but the fmes naturalized it and allowed him to escape the firey prison.
Suffering from a few light burns Helios grinned. “I was hoping you’d do that.”
Extending his hand, he summoh Breaker.
A sharp, spinnih spike hovered inside an Aero spell, rotating rapidly as it built momentum.
FWOOSH!
Helios fired it like a projectile, the wind accelerating its speed.
CRACK!
The spike smashed through the fire barrier, dispersing the fmes in an instant. But the instant it approached Sephiroth it split in two and flew past both sides of him as it had already been cut before it touched the fmes.
Helios teleported again, appearing behind Sephiroth.
He swung—but Sephiroth was ready.
Masamu Equilibrium, the force of the impact sending a shockwave through the battlefield.
Both fighters stared at each other, their ons locked.
her one budged. And then—
Sephiroth grinned.
Helios’ stomach twisted. That meant trouble.
Sephiroth lifted a single finger. A halo of dark light formed above Helios. His blood ran cold. “Heartless Angel.”
Instantly, all of his magid stamina draihe air left his lungs. His vision blurred. His body weakened in an instant, leaving him vulnerable.
Sephiroth lifted Masamune for the finishing blow.
The crowd held its breath.
This was it. But then—
Helios grinned. "Not today."
Lifting his free hand drawing as much magic as he could from the air, he activated the spell he’d been developing. A dark ripple of energy spread outward.
A wave of pure darkness erupted from Helios—
And struck Sephiroth directly.
The swordsman flinched, his footing shifting ever so slightly.
The spell?
Drain.
A mix of darkness and healing magic, desigo turn an oppo’s own painst them causing it te iheir body as it escaped.
Helios had always wondered if he could cast a spell simir to Heartless Angel after having been struck by it a few times. That spell bypassed every defense and made the oppo vulnerable so it was definitely something he wanted in his deck of tricks. He however never perfected it before.
But now? It worked.
The draining effect weakened Sephiroth just enough for Helios to escape the killing blow.
Both fighters staggered backward.
Their magic was gone and it would take a minute or two to return but by then this match would be over.
Their bodies were exhausted. Now, it was just up to their swordpy.
Helios used his keybde to prop himself up and stand. He then tried to use his dark power but the darkness was barely responding.
Sephiroth lunged— but his movements weren’t as fast, his stance slightly off-bance.
Their bdes collided in rapid succession, the metallic cshes eg through the stadium.
Then—
Something ged.
Helios felt it; the same sensation he felt during their battle in the Underdrome. A strange pulse inside his Keybde. Something was unlog.
And suddenly, Equilibrium split apart. One bde became two. One bck as night and the other shining silver. A Keybde of Darkness and a Keybde of Light.
Helios barely had time to process it.
Sephiroth stopped moving.
His eyes flickered toward the neons.
Then, slowly, he smirked.
"Iing," he murmured.
Helios grinned now dual wielding his keybde. "Let’s finish this."
