Fedora walked with a calm, almost mocking slowness, his hands buried deep inside his pockets as though the raging battlefield meant nothing to him. His crimson eyes fixed on Lucy.
Lucy, her breath steady but her heart racing, formed two blackened blades from her dark Renshi. The twin weapons burned like obsidian fire, hissing against the air.
"I vowed never to call upon this side of me again…" she whispered under her breath, her voice a low tremor. "But if I cannot protect the ones I love, then I am nothing but a coward."
Her grip tightened around the blades as raw Renshi surged across her skin, spilling into the atmosphere like a storm threatening to collapse the clouds themselves.
---
Meanwhile…
Across the vast lands surrounding the Pit of Flame, countless Shinras felt it—two devastating presences clashing,and the one that got their attention was that of FEDORA, so immense that even the Special darkside Knights shuddered at the aura.
The special darkside knights of the five nearest kingdoms reacted first. Each kingdom dispatched their elites ,the five Special darkside Knights and their pro darkside knights.
Through their telepathic links, the leaders communicated instantly.
"It's him. Fedora."
"That cursed aura… unmistakable."
Five kingdoms moved as one. Thirty Shinras—five special darkside knights and five pro darkside knights from each kingdom—advanced toward the epicenter of chaos. The ground itself trembled beneath their march of continuous switch mode.
---
By the time they arrived, the earth was already shattered. The pit roared like an open wound upon the land. And there, in the heart of destruction, they saw them—Lucy and Fedora locked in a duel that seemed to tear the very laws of nature apart.
"What the hell…" one pro darkside knight of the kingdom of SAMIRA whispered, his face pale.
"Is that… Fedora?"
"Impossible…."
"who is that woman? To hold ground against him…?"
They stood back, unwilling to rush recklessly into the storm. Arms folded, telepathic link alive between them, they watched—silent witnesses to a battle they haven't seen in a very long time.
---
In the blink of an eye, Lucy and Fedora vanished—switch mode activated. Their clash echoed like thunder. Sword met sword, Renshi screamed in waves. Each strike shattered fragments of the ground, forcing shockwaves across the volcanic wasteland.
Lucy's strikes were sharp, driven by desperation and fury. Fedora's movements, in contrast, were lazy yet flawless—his blade swung with a cruel elegance, as if he were merely toying with her.
"Don't think too highly of yourself, Lucy," Fedora said mid-swing, his voice venomous yet calm. "You're full of rage. And you see I'm enjoying my nap while you go berserk."
He twisted his blade, slipping past her guard. The edge kissed her shoulder—BOOM. The sheer force behind his strike hurled her across the battlefield, slamming her into a jagged boulder.
Fedora was already upon her, switching forward, his fist raised to crush her skull against the rock.
But Lucy switched at the last second. She repeared meters away, swords flashing back into stance.
Fedora smirked. His sword was gone,he switched to her again.
Now it was fists.
The two clashed in a furious fistfight, every blow creating shockwaves that tore chunks of stone from the earth. Each punch Lucy landed was fueled by anger, each counter Fedora delivered came with bone-cracking precision.
"Give me more of your rage, Lucy!" Fedora roared with uncharacteristic excitement. "Show me what you're capable of!"
Lucy feinted—a strike to his jaw that shifted mid-motion. She twisted, her hand slicing sideways, her knee driving brutally into his stomach. Fedora was blasted upward, coughing as he spun in the air.
Lucy switched instantly, appearing above him. She aimed to finish it.
Fedora's eyes flickered. With a snap of his hand, gravity multiplied a hundredfold.
Lucy's body plummeted like a comet, smashing into the ground. The impact cratered the land, sending molten cracks rippling outward. Dust and lava fragments sprayed the sky.
"Pathetic," Fedora said, floating above. He raised a single finger.
Renshi spiraled into its tip, compressing, condensing—until it became a seething orb of annihilation,the first time he's using Renshi in this battle.
The first Renshi Bomb.
He flicked it toward her.
Lucy forced her battered body upward, wings flaring as she shot into the sky. The bomb detonated—BOOOOOM. A colossal explosion tore a hole into the land so deep, so wide, entire forests on the horizon trembled and split.
But Fedora wasn't done. More bombs, each faster, each deadlier. He rained destruction upon the battlefield. The Shinras at the edge of the pit stared in awe protecting themselves with their barriers, unable to comprehend the sheer devastation.
Lucy darted through the storm, switch after switch, wing beating, her two blades glowing brighter with every second. She was weaving her energy into them, pouring all her Renshi into one decisive strike.
Fedora sneered. "Come then."
She did.
A blur of shadow, Lucy pierced the storm, twin blades slicing forward with explosive force. The collision rattled the world—an impact so violent it tore through space itself, splitting the sky with shrieking cracks of energy. The ground beneath collapsed, four distant mountains cleaving apart from the pressure.
Lucy screamed, pouring every ounce of her soul into her strike.
Fedora blocked. One hand. His palm pressed against her dual blades, the storm locked in place, his body unmoving.
"No… way…" Lucy gasped, her arms trembling, veins burning with strain.
Then—her gambit.
She let one sword vanish, collapsing it mid-strike. Fedora blinked, caught off guard.
In that heartbeat, Lucy reformed the blade and drove it straight through his stomach, Renshi concentrated at its peak.
The explosion lit the sky like a dying star. A gaping hole erupted through Fedora's abdomen, the energy beam slicing through forests and mountains for miles.
Fedora's eyes widened as black blood dripped from his lips. And then… he smiled.
"…Not bad." He chuckled, black ichor spilling from his mouth. " I'm Not mad. Not mad at all."
His hand crushed the blade Lucy was using as bait and crushed the other one inside him as though it were nothing. He cocked back his fist and smashed it into Lucy's chest.
The blow shattered her barrier, her bones, her breath. She was hurled like a broken doll, crashing across the battlefield—straight toward the watching Shinras.
Fedora's wound was already sealing, flesh knitting back together as he descended slowly to the earth, his shadow spreading like nightfall.
"Damn human," he smirked, his voice a whisper that chilled the atmosphere.