BLACK HOLE CORRUPTION.

1777, APRIL 04th, MONDAY 11:39am.

Drive was let loose by both Noche and Vida as both girls landed back on the dirt. The pressure from this ocean of energy cracked the ground itself – flattening everything unable to withstand its weight. Distant trees snapped, rocks crumbled, and the ground reshaped itself like clay. Like two tectonic plates were clashing, Noche's half of the ground sank while Vida's half rose.

The blonde jumped while Vida fell over the edge of her rising mountain. Wind surrounded Noche's body as her feet slammed into the rock wall — she ran up the miniature cliffside and toward the falling star that was Vida. The two clashed and rocks shattered.

Noche's dark sword swung after the blind girl who grinned in response. She danced and spun to avoid the blade before sticking out her tongue and laughing. The blonde scowled and moved her weapon faster than lightning. Instead of dodging Vida did the opposite, she purposefully stuck out her right arm — it sliced clean off.

The blind girl giggled manically as her severed arm flopped onto the rock a moment before she did. She took her left hand, pressed it against the blood-gushing stump, and then smeared it all over her face in shuddering pleasure. Fire erupted from the stump, engulfed the detached limb, and in a flash the blaze disappeared. In its place was a fully healed and reattached arm.

"Come on Noche, you'll have to do better than that," Vida said. "I want to die in battle with glory. I want to die gloriously. You'll need to do more than cut off a few of my limbs. Peel me apart, pull my arms and legs off, break my bones. Come on. Hurt me! Make me suffer."

With that, she laughed, and it was a twisted, sick, maniacal sort of cackle. An explosion of flame filled the air and Noche was blinded. However, her training kicked in, she could sense Vida's incoming blows. The blonde ducked and dodged Vida's attacks even without the use of her eyes.

"I didn't know you could fight blind too," Vida grinned. "When you close your eyes do you see raging flames too? Fire is the last thing I saw you know. Even now it fills my mind."

The fires died down and the two clashed again. They traded blow after blow — each impact making a shockwave that turned rock to dust. Vida raised her hands and hundreds of small meteors made of pure fire came crashing down. The blonde dodged each one using instant riptide.

She stopped, pivoted, and swung her extended blade — Vida dodged to the side and threw ouroboros. Noche managed to avoid the wheel before it hit her, but the fire singed her face. Their attacks leveled the environment and each blow sounded like thunder.

If one was to look at their battlefield from a hundred miles away all they would see would be dark storm clouds, crackling lightning, and a field of lava. Most of the statues that had filled the graveyard had been destroyed or toppled over.

Noche raised her sole arm and water gathered in the air — within seconds there was a city-sized orb of water. Vida in returned raised one arm and snapped her fingers.

"Nine circles of the first flame. Level six, release. Sun."

Within the gargantuan orb emerged a red light. It started as a tiny flame trapped within an azure crystal. Then all the water started to bubble and boil. The crimson ball grew bigger and hotter — the water exploded in a shockwave of steam.

At its core was a blazing, miniature sun. The magnitude of its heat melting the rocks hundreds of feet below it. Whipping yellow flares covered the surface of this burning star as the air shimmered and steamed.

It continued to grow — its gravity started to pull large chunks of the ground into the air. As rocks got close the heat turned the stones to gas. Even with her energy shield Noche's skin started to turn red and blister. She screamed as the gravitational pull lifted her into the air.

There was no resisting this ultimate fire. Even if it was significantly smaller than the one at the center of the solar system, it was still a sea of flames. Noche created water to combat it but every creation evaporated into steam.

With no other options left, Noche turned her right eye towards the ball of light and it nearly blinded her. She slammed her eye shut tight and focused on gathering power in her left. A moment later, corruption took form in her socket.

The gaze of her evil eye landed on the sun. The overwhelming yellow star had a white spot develop on its blistering surface. It spread like a spider's web and as it encased the ball in a white shell the heat died. All at once the fire and gravity were gone. Noche fell back to the dirt and coughed.

Noche turned her gaze toward Vida, but before her evil eye landed on the blind girl three more suns emerged around the blonde. The heat was almost enough to make Noche go insane. She managed to land her gaze on one as the other two started to turn a dark red.

"Level seven, release. Black holes."

The two remaining suns collapsed in on themselves. In a flash were two voids of immense gravity. Rocks flew into the dual black holes with the speed of bullets. Dirt was sucked in like a stream of water. Noche was snatched off the ground and her bones groaned as she was stretched towards oblivion.

Her gaze landed on one of the black holes but there was no sign of corruption taking hold. Just as her skin started to rip the gravity weakened. The black hole exploded and the force slingshotted Noche around the remaining void. She spun a hundred and eighty degrees before summoning her omni-oar and slamming her blade into the ground.

With that, she turned her evil towards the remaining black hole and focused on it. As its gravity started to weaken a force pulled on her from above. Noche looked up to a third black hole that had just appeared above her.

Rain slammed down and all the droplets that got near the black holes started to spin around them electrons in an atom. Noche's immense strength managed to keep her rooted to the ground as she stared at the void. Within seconds, it was corrupted.

However, by the time she destroyed one, Vida had already created another. Black hole after black hole appeared and was erased from existence. Despite being the penultimate form of destruction, these black holes were no match for corruption. Still, they weren't easy to delete. Thus, Noche was too busy fighting them off to focus on Vida.

The blonde grew more and more frustrated. To think Vida was this much stronger than her. These black holes weren't being sent out to stop her — they were being used to toy with her. Vida could have created more, but she held back. It made Noche see red.

The blonde let go of her sword and allowed herself to be dragged towards the nearest black hole. As she was being sucked in, she focused all her hate onto her current weakness and wrapped that hate around herself like armor.

For a brief instance, Noche was sucked into the black hole. Her body crumpled and shrunk to the size of a golf ball. Then the dark void exploded into black mist and floating at its core was a black knight.

An aura of a starless night sky emanated around her. Her ebony plate mail was thick, her crow feather cape as heavy as a sheet of tar, her gaze eyeless, and her teeth sharp as a monster's. Noche stood at the black hole's destruction — floating in the air.

Vida raised her head towards the figure. "And the reaper came, clad in the armor of death."

Noche was before her in a flash — so fast even Vida couldn't react. A black fist slammed into the blind girl's torso and the shockwave destroyed the surroundings, sent mountains exploding, and annihilated the nearby forest.

Vida was a missile soaring through the air at supersonic speeds. Her body punched holes through solid rock like it was paper. Noche moved even faster — appearing in her path and kicking her into the sky. Vida spun to block, but Noche was too fast, her fist already slammed into Vida's chest.

The blind girl spat up blood as the black knight all but teleported in her path again. Noche punched, Vida was sent flying, and the blonde would be in her path yet again. It was as if she was a bug in a bottle that was being shaken all around.

It was starting to be fun. Vida grinned as she exploded into a ball of flame, but this didn't deter the black knight. Noche's armor made her invincible — it erased the existence of anything that contacted it.

However, being made of corruption was also its weakness. Noche was only resistant to corruption; the longer she wore it the more it eroded her body. Eventually, it would kill her. Thus, she was on a time limit.

Red flames transformed to white the moment they contacted the black corruption. Vida managed to land a punch on Noche's head, but it caused her knuckles to ignite with ivory fire. The blind girl cut off her arm before the corruption spread. Then she reformed a new hand in a red blaze.

Noche continued to pummel Vida, tossing her around like a hacky sack. The blind girl's body was covered in white spots, but she was able to survive the corruption by dividing herself and regenerating. If she couldn't become ethereal like a ghost the ivory flames would have consumed her long ago.

The black knight landed a solid hit on Vida that sent her flying to the ground. She hit with triple the force of a meteor and the crater that formed was miles long. Noche remained standing in the air as Vida stood up.

"Level eight, release. Heat death."

Ice spread across the ground for miles and miles. Crystals formed in the air as everything went cold. The temperature took a swan dive down, down, down. The black knight didn't stir — unbothered by the flash freeze.

"Nine circles of the first flame. Level nine, release."

Vida held out both hands like a beggar. In this dark, devastated world, filled with ice and storm clouds, a small ember formed between her palms. It was the only light for miles around and it was a weak, feeble little thing. Flickering as if it could be snuffed out at any moment.

"The first human."

Vida brought the flame to her heart. It entered her torso and spread across her skin. Within the span of a second Vida began to glow. She started as a dim red, but soon she was a mix of crimsons, yellows, and oranges. It wasn't long before she was as hot as the sun — hotter than the core of the sun. Vida had become fire itself. One so intense it could turn Tungsten to gas within an attosecond.

A ragged cloak made of black holes covered her form. She stood there looking like a squalid woman made of flames, while Noche lorded over her like a cruel noble in pristine plate mail. A being of pure energy vs a being of pure entropy.

They clashed.

Both moved so fast that thousands of blows were exchanged in the span of a second. The black knight summoned the planet lance and threw it like a harpoon at the first human. However, her cloak of black holes provided near-infinite space between the attack and her skin. It was an entire universe of distance in the span of an inch. The lance hung in the air allowing Vida to avoid it.

She then dissipated like gas in the wind before reforming near the black knight. In response, Noche swung her arm down and severed Vida at the torso. However, the blind girl reformed and continued to fight. The world around them was a pot of wet clay.

Each of Vida's attacks were destroyed by Noche's invincible armor, but the corruption was starting to damage the blonde's body. White flames lit up the numbingly black world as the two titans clashed. The black knight landed a punch on the first human's head, and it exploded.

Within a fraction of a second, it reformed, and Vida threw a punch against Noche's torso. Her flaming fist ignited with white fire that spewed forth like an erupting star. She severed and reformed her fist, held it into the air, and a sun formed. Vida threw it at the blonde.

The star crashed into the black knight and exploded — however Noche was unharmed. What remained of the sun was being eaten away by white flames. Its heat, its gravity, its radiation. All of it did zero damage.

Noche was an immovable object and Vida an unstoppable force. Or at least, that would be the case if Noche's corruption wasn't slowly eating away at Vida's energy form. It was slow, but the blonde was dealing damage to an ethereal target. Even still, at this rate, it wouldn't be faster than the armor that was eating her alive.

Each of their strikes were a hurricane, an explosion, the molten core of a star. Mountain range after mountain range was destroyed. Lava erupted from the shattered ground below, lightning struck from turmoiled clouds above. It was a dance between darkness and flame.

The black knight stood parallel to the first human. They both lunged for each other and landed fists in the other's face at the same time. A shockwave of tar shot out from Vida's head and a beam of pure star fire shot out from Noche's. The impact of both punches caused a full-sized nuclear explosion.

Both bodies fell alongside each other before colliding with the dirt below. The moment they hit the ground both lost their armored forms. Noche and Vida were once again revealed as their true selves. Exposed and battered.

The blonde appeared as if she was dipped in acid. Most of her skin had dissolved away to reveal the muscle underneath. The armor had made her invincible to outside attack, but the price of invulnerability was her flesh. Vida, on the other hand, was in good condition and laughing.

"Not bad, not bad!" She chuckled. "If I'm a demon, then you're certainly a monster."

Vida gasped and held her side. She squirmed on the ground for a moment while moaning.

"Wow, this hurts so good. At this rate, you may actually do it," she said. "Being taken out while fighting my hardest. I'm excited."

The blonde didn't respond.

"Noche?"

The world went silent.

"Noche!"

No response.

"Oh no — no, no, no, no, no," Vida stammered. "Get up. Noche get up! Kill me! Noche! I'm serious! You have come the closest! Don't fail me now! Kill me!"

An inky tendril descended from the sky. It writhed towards the ground like a snake slithering across the black. When it landed the column exploded into black mist. Standing at its center was Galloway. He leaned over Noche and placed two bony fingers on the side of her neck.

"Noche. What have you done?" He said.