Kingdom Hearts: Consumed by Darkness

The skies above Olympus churned with crimson clouds, torn by lightning that danced across the ruined horizon. Smoke wafted from the shattered remnants of Zeus's statue, now little more than cracked stone and shattered legacy.

At the statue's base, Sephiroth stood alone, his blade gleaming, body blurred with motion as he clashed with five towering Darksides—their hulking forms writhing shadows of malice, each the size of a colossus.

And then—

The sky cracked open.

A spiral of ink-black shadow surged downward like a spear from heaven. From it stepped Kurai, her boots landing silently upon the broken marble with no ceremony—only a desire to destroy. Her arrival distorted the air itself, as if reality recoiled.

The Darksides turned.

And Kurai moved.

With no words, no warning, she launched forward—Umbral Step blurring her into smoke and darkness. In a blink, she reappeared mid-air above the nearest Darkside, her Silver and Black Shadow Sovereign already in motion.

"Abyssal Severance."

The downward arc of her blade shimmered with condensed void. On impact, the strike carved a gouge of shadow down the beast's arm—and from that wound erupted a blade-shaped wave of darkness that shredded its entire upper torso.

The creature howled, arm disintegrating into dust.

But she didn't pause.

Blackened Sky platforms bloomed beneath her feet as she leapt again, twisting mid-air. She spun—once, twice—then launched Shadow Flare Storm. A dozen spheres of dark flame orbited around her like a corrupted halo before cascading downward. They struck the ground in sequence, chaining into explosions that consumed the second Darkside in a roaring tide of black fire.

From below, another raised its clawed hand to swat her from the sky.

Kurai vanished in a blur of Umbral Step, reappearing behind its massive head.

"Nightfall Vortex."

Spinning her keyblade like a turbine, she summoned a cyclone of dark energy that pulled the beast off-balance. Its arm flailed, swiping at nothing. Shadow clones—Eclipse Mirage—flickered around it, mimicking her form, confusing its sight.

She plunged through its neck with a vicious thrust, then Umbral Stepped away as the creature collapsed into itself.

Three remained.

On the battlefield below, Sephiroth narrowed his eyes—but made no move to intervene.

If he got close to her she'd probably take him down as well. A dark chill emanated from the girl that sent a chill down his spine.

Kurai landed, wind blow through her white hair.

The three remaining Darksides roared in unison and surged forward, their fists falling like meteors toward her.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Void Dominion."

The battlefield fell into absolute darkness.

The world beyond a ten-meter radius vanished. The Darksides flailed blindly, caught in pitch-black blindness. But Kurai wasn't hindered—her form became a streak of motion and violence.

Each attack came with brutal elegance: shadow magic interwoven with merciless blade-work.

"Twilight Thundaga."

Purple-black lightning slammed down, illuminating the gloom for a fraction of a second, catching two Darksides mid-lunge. They screeched as the corrupted electricity lanced through them, cracking their hides, severing magical defenses.

Kurai didn't give them time to recover.

"Black Hole Chain."

Chains of darkness erupted from her keyblade, spearing through a Darkside's chest and anchoring it in place. With one yank, she pulled its bulk down to her level—then drove her keyblade through its tentacle-covered face in a single Dusk's Crescendo slash that split its head in two and sent waves of dark shock energy rippling outward.

The ground beneath her feet split from the force.

She was a storm.

She was entropy given form.

And there was no mercy in her.

The storm swirled above her, casting red streaks across the battlefield as the final two Darksides twisted in the air, their bodies struggling to reorient. Kurai didn't wait.

She burst forward with another Umbral Step, the shadows snapping as she vanished and reappeared mid-air—right above the fourth beast's chest.

"Nightmare Blizzaga."

She plunged her hand toward the air, conjuring a jagged spear of black ice and hurling it straight into the creature's chest hole. Upon entering the hole, it detonated into a burst of frozen shadow, locking the Darkside's upper body in a crystalline prison of void-black frost.

The beast roared in pain and confusion, arms flailing—slow, sluggish.

Kurai used its moment of paralysis mercilessly.

She leapt higher, walking on rising Blackened Sky platforms, then dove—twisting through the air like a blade herself.

Her Keyblade caught the glint of red lightning as she drove it down, slicing into the frozen torso with an impact that sent a web of cracks across the ice prison. With a burst of Drain, she siphoned the flickering energy from the creature as it shattered, the vitality flooding into her limbs and reigniting her strength.

The beast crumbled beneath her like falling ash.

Only one remained.

The fifth Darkside, the strongest of them all, bellowed with primordial fury, its maw wide as it summoned a massive orb of corrupted darkness—its ultimate attack.

The sphere swelled above its hand, growing with each heartbeat, pulsing with destructive power.

Kurai didn't blink.

She raised her Keyblade to her side, holding it backward—tip low, shoulder forward. The air grew still. Even the red lightning seemed to hesitate.

And then she vanished.

Shadow Monarch.

Her body melted into living shadow, intangible, incorporeal—she slipped past the Darkside's sweeping arm like smoke in a hurricane, reforming on its massive forearm.

She stood there, balanced like a dancer, gaze fixed coldly into its eyes.

The beast looked up in time to see her eyes glow white with malice.

"Dusk's Crescendo."

She surged forward, blade coated in spiraling dark energy, the air around it trembling as if reality feared what was to come. She slashed once—clean, decisive.

A shockwave exploded outward, slicing the orb of darkness in half and carrying through the beast's entire body, leaving behind a canyon of darkness. The Darkside froze, limbs locking as cracks of black light webbed through its frame.

And then—with a sound like a collapsing star—detonated.

The explosion sent fragments of dissolving shadow flying in every direction. Kurai landed among them.

Silence fell over the battlefield.

The storm above broke open with a rumble, and rain began to fall—light at first, then harder. It hissed against the marble as the sky wept over the gods' ruins.

Sephiroth remained still in the distance, the Masamune lowered. His gaze rested on Kurai.

She stood at the center of the destruction, her expression unreadable.

He approached slowly, boots echoing against the ruined floor. "That was... excessive," he said.

Kurai didn't look at him. "It was deserved."

He stopped a few paces away, keeping just outside her aura. "You're bleeding," he observed, eyes scanning the cuts lining her cheek and the blood soaking her gloves.

Kurai exhaled, more of a breath than a sigh. "Not enough."

There was a pause. Sephiroth watched her in silence, calculating.

"What happened in the Underworld?" he asked.

Kurai closed her eyes for a moment. The image of Helios—bleeding, bound, too broken to move—flashed behind her lids like a cursed brand.

"I failed. I couldn't free him," she said calmly as if she whispered.

Sephiroth said nothing.

Kurai slowly opened her eyes, and for a brief instant, the storm reflected in them. "Not yet."

A shadowy corridor twisted open beside her.

"Head back to the mansion Hades might attack there next," she said flatly, stepping into the threshold. "I have to leave this world to go to find a healer. And then…"

Her grip tightened on the Keyblade. "We'll rescue Helios and I'll deal with Hades myself."

She vanished into the dark. The shadows swallowed her once more—just as they had delivered her.

Sephiroth stood alone beneath the broken sky, a smirk ghosted across his lips, dark and knowing.

"At least it's never boring when he's around," he murmured, before heading down the mountain.