Standing shoulder to shoulder, Raze and Safa faced the swarm of Gizin's empowered clones. The air vibrated with light and divine Qi, the battlefield coated in swirling debris and residual magic that crackled like a storm waiting to explode. Even with the overwhelming odds, something had shifted the instant Safa arrived. Raze felt it, not a dramatic surge of power, but a stabilizing force beside him, a sense that the impossible fight in front of him finally had structure.

He kept his posture forward, blades angled, already preparing his next move.

"I'll protect you," Raze said, voice steady. "I'll make sure nothing gets in your way."

He moved first. Raze gathered Qi and darkness around his sword's hilt, pulling it inward like a coiling spring. When he thrust forward, the Void Pulse Strike didn't behave as before; instead of funneling energy in a narrow line, the Qi detonated outward in a spiraling shockwave. Jagged bursts of magic lashed across the front ranks of Gizin's clones, not destroying them but staggering their advance and disrupting their coordinated formations.

Safa remained close, reading the battlefield with her God Eyes. She spun her spear smoothly, redirecting incoming strikes. The heavy golden canes held by the clones crashed against her shaft again and again, but each blow she met with precise rotations and controlled bursts of Qi. She compensated for Gizin's brute strength with exact technique, using both the divine Qi she had inherited and her trained light magic.

Raze had told her earlier: Gizin has immense power, but no technique.

Now Safa could see the truth of that firsthand. His strikes were monstrously heavy, but predictable. With her sharpened perception, she identified openings, counted patterns in his magic, and disrupted the clones' internal energy flow with each counterattack. Whenever she struck a clone, its reconstruction slowed, as if a vital thread of its magical structure had been severed.

If she stood alone, she would have been overwhelmed by sheer force.

But she was not alone.

Raze had now taken up two swords, both wreathed in darkness that thickened with each breath. In one hand he swept down an Eclipse Strike, the arc of shadow cleaving through a line of clones. With the other, he activated exploding runes along the blade's surface, detonating them in controlled blasts as he carved openings in the advancing wall.

Together they moved in a rhythm neither had discussed but both understood immediately. Safa blocked and destabilized. Raze destroyed and cleared space. Their elements, light and dark, collided and interwove, creating a battlefront Gizin had clearly not anticipated.

The clones surged again, trying to overwhelm Raze right after he landed from a sweeping dual Eclipse attack. A rain of golden beams descended on him, but Safa was already there, spear spinning tight circles as she absorbed and redirected the energy. Reflected beams splintered off into open ground, kicking up clouds of stone.

Their advantage was not raw strength; it was balance.

One light, one dark.

One disruptor, one destroyer.

And beneath that, Raze's mind was shifting in real time. As he fought beside her, he adjusted his movements instinctively. The Dark Edge Sword Arts, which originally had served only offensive purposes, began to adapt into defensive patterns. Raze altered his footwork, changed angles of approach, created new flows between steps. He transitioned smoothly between guarding Safa's flanks and striking at weakened clones.

While he didn't consciously acknowledge it, new techniques were forming from old ones.

Safa's pressure forced Gizin's clones to thin.

Raze's innovations punished every opening.

"How…" Gizin murmured, stepping back as an entire lane of his clones were cut apart. "How can changing so little in the flow make such an enormous difference?"

Raze did not respond, he was already preparing his next cycle of movements. He slammed both swords downward, releasing a twin Eclipse Strike so massive that the floor vibrated beneath them. Gizin's clones scattered, some diving aside, others vaporized by the crossing waves of dark Qi.

The moment Raze landed from the attack, he activated his time magic. His body snapped back to an earlier position on the battlefield, restoring his Qi, mana, and stamina. The movement created a blur, almost like teleportation, until he reappeared beside Safa with renewed strength.

One dark wing extended sharply from his shoulder as lightning exploded across his feet, propelling him forward in a burst of speed.

Raze shouted across the battlefield, voice sharper now:

"When all I have to do is defend, and not waste time figuring out how to defeat you, it's actually pretty easy! Especially against someone as terrible at fighting as you!"

His two blades locked against Gizin's cane, diverting its angle, pushing it wide. With that moment of opening, Safa lunged in. Her spear sliced upward in a brilliant arc, striking cleanly into the true body in the center of Gizin's cluster. The glow of her light magic dug into his core, tearing away fragments of his divine energy.

"This isn't possible…" Gizin whispered through clenched teeth, shock overtaking his features. "How… why does this hurt me when nothing else has?"

Safa answered while continuing her assault, the ground beneath her feet cracking under the precision of her movements.

"I can see your magic," she said. "The real flow. Where it begins and how it spreads. My God Eyes show me which body is real, and my magic can latch onto your own. When light strikes light, they connect for a moment, and I can pull yours apart."

She thrust again, her condensed line of light slicing through another segment of his defenses.

"I fought a member of Cerberus who was like you, a body made of magic. The Grand Magus is stronger, but the principle is the same."

Raze continued pressing from the other side, adjusting each strike based on Safa's disruptions. For the first time since the battle had begun, Gizin showed unmistakable fear. His clones broke formation and rushed to surround him, constructing a thick wall of overlapping bodies.

"All of this… because of one girl?" Gizin muttered. His pupils tightened as he studied her through the cracks in his defenses. "Someone with God Eyes… and power strong enough to disrupt divine magic… Only Idore was meant to wield something like that."

His voice trembled for the first time.

"How did the Dark Magus get someone like you to stand at his side?"

Neither Raze nor Safa answered. They were already preparing their next strikes.

Standing together again, the two warriors, light and dark, technique and instinct, charged forward toward the crumbling wall of clones. Gizin's barriers flickered under the coordinated pressure. His magic was unraveling piece by piece.

And for the first time in the fight…

the end suddenly felt possible.

Raze allowed a brief smile to form, subtle but real.

"Alright," he said quietly, blades rising. "Let's take him out."

****

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