The gates of the Underworld loomed ahead, cracked and blackened like the burnt ribs of some fallen titan. Even before they stepped closer, the air shifted—thickened—filling their lungs with heat and despair. Skuld tensed at Kurai's side, her fingers twitching near the hilt of her keyblade, eyes fixed on the smog-dark horizon. Kurai said nothing, but the way her shadow slithered along the scorched stone said more than enough.
The moment their feet crossed the threshold, the oppressive energy of the Underworld enveloped them.
From the mist and flame ahead, the Heartless emerged.
A wall of darkness, more than a hundred strong, surged forward—Neoshadows, Invisibles, Darkballs, Wyverns, even massive Orcus-class beasts clad in armor stitched from shadows. Their screeches broke the silence like jagged glass, and within seconds, the tide of black came crashing toward them.
"He knew we were coming," Skuld murmured, breath tight.
Kurai smiled faintly. "Let him prepare."
The first wave struck.
Skuld exploded into motion, Phantom Wings extending with a burst of wind. She leapt, vanished in a cyclone blink, and reappeared above, slicing downward through a cluster of Neoshadows. Each blade of wind she threw homed in, carving precise arcs of destruction.
Kurai stayed grounded. Her war fan unfurled once more, and with a casual sweep, she summoned a wave of pressure that folded a Darkball inward on itself. She dashed forward, her hair billowing behind her, and skewered two Wyverns mid-flight with a whip-like slash from her darkness constructs.
A towering Orcus beast charged, its giant arms crashing down with a roar that shook the cavernous field.
Kurai lifted a hand.
"Crush."
Shadow tendrils erupted from beneath the creature, wrapping around its limbs, freezing its movement. She blinked behind it, her fan glowing with layered sigils.
"Umbra Bloom."
The fan opened fully and sliced once through the air.
A disc of shadow burst out, cutting the beast clean in half. Its howl died before it hit the ground.
Skuld, back-to-back with Kurai, ducked under a lunging Invisible and countered with a spin-slash of her Zephyr Talons. Her body glowed faintly—each kill feeding her momentum, each heartbeat accelerating her movement. She leapt between flying Heartless, striking and vanishing in wind afterimages, cutting down foes mid-air with elegant precision.
"They just keep coming!" she shouted.
Kurai didn't answer. Her eyes tracked the waves like a predator. With a flick of her wrist, the blades of her war fan detached and began circling her like orbiting moons—each now infused with commands.
She pointed.
The blades shot outward, carving trails through the Heartless swarm. Each one curved, rebounded, and returned to her like loyal wolves. She swept her hand again—and the air itself darkened. With each motion, gusts of black wind slashed in silence, cleaving through their enemies.
A colossal Heartless emerged—towering like a titan, its core pulsing with malevolent fire. Its presence alone silenced the battlefield for a moment. Even the other Heartless parted for it.
Kurai stepped forward.
"I'll handle this one."
She vanished.
In less than a heartbeat, she reappeared above the beast's head. Her fan, gleaming like obsidian fire, slammed down in a wide arc.
The creature raised a massive hand to block—but Kurai vanished again, appearing behind its head.
"Dusk's Crescendo."
A blast of spiraling darkness detonated from her position, piercing straight through the back of the titan's skull. The beast let out a horrid groan and collapsed to its knees.
Skuld, seeing the break in formation, summoned her magical wind platforms mid-air and launched into her ultimate technique.
"Wind Fang Hunt!"
Her blades turned pure black as she flashed through the battlefield, striking forty-eight times in mere seconds. The streaks of wind tore through the remaining mobs, leaving only scattered embers and fading growls.
As the final wave fell, the dust and shadows began to settle.
Panting lightly, Skuld looked toward Kurai, who stood completely still amid the carnage, her hair barely ruffled, darkness drying on her fan.
Ahead, in the distance, lay a bridge carved from bone and basalt—arched over a chasm of glowing sulfur. Beyond it, the obsidian doors of Hades' sanctum pulsed with malevolent intent.
Skuld's heart clenched.
"He's there. I can feel him."
Kurai nodded.
"Then let's finish this."
Darkness thickened as Kurai and Skuld crossed the shattered threshold of the Underworld's inner sanctum.
The path before them narrowed into a jagged hallway of obsidian and sulfur-stained stone. Infernal light pulsed from runes etched into the walls, like a heartbeat synced with the very core of Hades' dominion. The ground trembled faintly with each step they took, as if the Underworld itself recoiled from their intrusion.
Ahead, just beyond a final set of massive, wrought-iron doors, loomed the shadow of Hades' throne room.
"We're close," Kurai muttered, her voice edged in steel. Her war fan was already drawn, flicking open with a hiss. Beside her, Skuld remained quiet, her daggers transformed into the Phantom Wings—glowing with wind magic and stormlight.
As they approached the gate, the floor around them cracked.
Dozens—then hundreds—of red eyes blinked into existence along the walls and ceiling. A new tide of Heartless erupted from the shadows, this time darker, faster, crueler. Shadow-born knights with curved black blades, cloaked assassins of flickering form, winged horrors that screeched from above.
The Underworld had unleashed its elite.
Skuld leapt first, her form a blur of dashing speed and flashing blades. Hurricane Rend activated as she tore through the first ranks of armored shadows, her every slash followed by slicing wind. Lightning arced from her daggers as she spun, using aerial platforms to vault into the next wave.
Kurai followed in eerie silence.
One sweep of her fan annihilated a cluster of darting shades, their bodies disintegrating into dark mist. With her free hand, she hurled blades charged with darkness energy that twisted mid-flight, seeking out the most dangerous enemies. As she moved forward, her shadows moved with her—conjuring bladed limbs from the ground that impaled attackers before they could draw breath.
A winged demon dove toward Skuld.
Kurai snapped her fingers—the air around it exploded into black wind, tearing its wings from its body before it hit the ground.
Skuld glanced at her briefly. "Thanks."
"Don't get used to it," Kurai said flatly, lashing out behind her and cleaving a crawling beast in two.
The horde kept coming. Fireballs and corrupted spells rained from above. One Heartless commander raised a great axe of bone and shadow, charging with enough force to split the stone. Skuld was there before the blow landed, crossing her daggers to catch the strike, then launching upward and driving both blades into its chest, ending it in a single flash.
Kurai ripped through a massive brute with her fan, then shifted its form back into Shadow Sovereign and threw it like a javelin into the largest cluster. The blade expanded mid-flight, splitting into jagged teeth before detonating in a spiral of darkness.
"They're stalling us," Skuld yelled over the roar of battle. "Trying to buy time!"
Kurai's fan caught an incoming bolt of dark lightning. She spun, infused it with her own energy, then hurled it back, splitting three Heartless apart in a single blast.
"Then we stop wasting it."
She launched forward.
Skuld followed.
Together, they carved a path through the final line of monsters. The shadows twisted and recoiled, some fleeing before the heat of their combined presence. The air shimmered with energy, the corridor shaking as the iron doors to the throne room groaned.
With one final strike, Kurai embedded her war fan into the center seam of the gate. She channeled her energy—darkness seeping through every crevice.
The gates exploded inward with a deafening roar.
Smoke, light, and void spilled into the throne room.
Kurai and Skuld stepped through.
And there, seated in languid amusement on a blackened throne of twisted bone and fire, was Hades.
He clapped slowly.
"Well, well," he said, his voice echoing through the chamber. "You really don't know how to stay gone, do you?"
Kurai stepped forward, eyes blazing.
"I didn't come for pleasantries. I came for Helios."
Hades grinned.
"Then come get him."