As Yoru's blade cut through the air toward me, I threw myself backward, the edge of his blade missing my throat by millimeters. I felt the wind of its passing against my skin.

  "Noctus!" Estella's voice echoed through the chamber as she flung her chakrams. They whirled through the air with deadly precision, but Yoru didn't even look at them. He simply tilted his head slightly, and they curved around him as if repelled by some invisible force.

  "Stay out of this," he growled. "This is between me and the pretender."

  I drew the Nightsky Blade.

  [Spellblade]

  I channeled mana into my weapon, dark energy crackling along its edge.

  Yoru smirked. "You think that's how you use it?" He moved again, this time so fast I couldn't even track him. Before I could channel the spell, he flashed before me, his fist connecting with my stomach.

  Pain exploded through my body as I flew backward, crashing into one of the crystalline formations. It shattered around me in a shower of fragments.

  [Status Effect: Internal Bleeding]

  [HP will drain until healed]

  "Stop it, Yoru!" Estella shouted, readying her chakrams again. Tirion moved to stand beside her, while Lysa began weaving shadow magic behind them.

  "I told you to stay out of this." Yoru didn't even turn to look at them.

  [Shadow Spear]

  Lysa conjured a spear of darkness. But before she could complete the incantation, Yoru flickered again.

  [Soul Rend]

  Yoru slashed through the spear of darkness, causing it to fade out. His blade continued its arc, sending an invisible shockwave which passed through Lysa's body. It did no physical damage, but I could see her eyes widen in shock as though something was severed.

  [Lysa MP : 0]

  [Lysa is silenced. Unable to cast spells.]

  "Lysa!" Tirion roared. He charged forward, attempting to ram Yoru.

  Yoru didn't even flinch.

  [Living Shadow]

  Yoru’s shadow stood up from the ground forming an avatar of darkness. It intercepted Tirion and stopped the charge instantly.

  “Predictable.” With a casual flick of his wrist, he sent Tirion flying into a nearby pillar with enough force to crack the ancient stone.

  I struggled to my feet, using the Nightsky Blade as support. "Why are you doing this? We're all trying to restore the night, aren't we?"

  Yoru's expression darkened. "You think you know anything about the night?" He pointed his sword at me. "You, who stumbled into this tomb without understanding its significance? You, who somehow stole a legendary class."

  He was in front of me again, moving with that impossible speed. But this time, I was ready. I dropped to one knee, letting his horizontal slash pass over my head.

  I thrust upward with the Nightsky Blade, aiming for his chest.

  For the first time, surprise registered on his face. His blade came down to parry mine, steel meeting steel in a shower of sparks.

  "Interesting," he said. "You actually know how to fight. A little."

  I pressed the advantage, channeling more mana into my blade. The darkness intensified, coiling around the Nightsky Blade like living shadow.

  [ Spellblade]

  Yoru's smirk returned. "But not enough."

  His counter came with devastating force. A series of strikes so fast they blurred together, each one barely blocked by my desperate defense. The final blow knocked the Nightsky Blade wide, leaving me open.

  His boot connected with my chest, sending me tumbling across the floor. I coughed, tasting blood.

  [Status Effect: Stunned]

  [Movement Impaired]

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Pathetic," Yoru spat. "This is the Knight of the Night?"

  "Is that jealousy I sense? How very interesting." A voice boomed from the darkness, resonating through the tomb chamber.

  Yoru clenched his teeth and spat on the ground before turning around.

  There he was. The masked man from the Veiled Crown.

  "Mateus," Yoru hissed.

  Mateus glided forward with unnatural grace. "The legendary dark knight who strived for years to unlock the Night's Knight class. Tell me, how does it feel to have it stolen from you from right under your nose?"

  "SILENCE!" Yoru's roar shook dust from the ceiling. He dashed towards Mateus and attempted to slash him, but Mateus flickered away to the left.

  He reappeared several feet away, that same cold smile on his lips. "Always so impulsive, Yorukishi. You really should watch your temper.”

  "You're trespassing, Mateus," Yoru growled.

  "As are you, Yoru. The First King's tomb belongs to no one... and to everyone who serves the night. Though I admit, finding you here was an... unexpected pleasure"

  “You're always in the way," Yoru replied, his voice deadly calm now. "Just like in the Crimson Catacombs."

  "Ah yes, the catacombs." Mateus chuckled. "Where you failed the final trial because you couldn't bear to sacrifice your pride. How many died for that pride, Yorukishi? I've lost count."

  Yoru's aura darkened, forming a coat of black flames surrounding him."You know nothing of sacrifice."

  Mateus suddenly turned to face me, breaking the deadly standoff. “So you’re the Knight of the Night. Interesting. I knew there was something special about you when I saw you in the trial of vision.”

  "He's nothing," Yoru snapped. "A glitch. A mistake. The system couldn't possibly—"

  "And yet," Mateus interrupted, "He cleared the trials. The Nightsky Blade accepted him. I saw its response, even from the shadows. Fascinating."

  Yoru's grip tightened on his sword. "I know why you are here, Mateus. The Veiled Crown is planning something."

  "Always so suspicious." Mateus spread his hands in a gesture of mock innocence. "We are merely observers in the grand tapestry of fate, Yorukishi. Unlike you, we’re just here to pay our respects to the king."

  "Well then," Yoru's lips curled into a cold smirk. "Sorry to disappoint you, but the tomb is empty." He gestured toward the sarcophagus with his blade. "The king won't be meeting anyone today."

  The change in Mateus was immediate. His aura of casual superiority vanished. "What do you mean...?"

  "It means what you think it means." Yoru's satisfaction at Mateus's reaction was evident. "The body of the First King is missing. It was gone even before I arrived here. Probably sacked by tomb raiders from an age long past."

  Mateus stood perfectly still, the only movement the slow curl of his fingers into fists. "That is... unfortunate." The words were measured, but rage simmered beneath them. His masked face turned toward the sarcophagus. "Years of planning. Countless sacrifices. All for an empty tomb."

  Yoru laughed.

  "Be careful, Yoru," Mateus warned. "You test my patience."

  Yoru's smirk widened. "Or what? You'll fight me?" He took a step forward, his aura of darkness intensifying. "When you have never beaten me even once?"

  Mateus went perfectly still. The runes on his mask flared briefly, throwing his features into sharp relief before fading to a malevolent glow.

  "Not everything is about winning battles, Yorukishi," Mateus replied, his tone eerily calm. "Some victories require... sacrifice." At that final word, shadows gathered at his feet, writhing like living things desperate to break free.

  "Enough talk," Yoru growled.

  Mateus sighed. "Always so eager to prove yourself, Yorukishi. Very well. Let us... educate our audience."

  "We need to move," I hissed to my companions, grabbing Estella's arm. "Now!"

  Tirion was already pulling Lysa back. We barely made it behind a massive fallen pillar when the air between the two legendary figures distorted.

  They moved simultaneously—Yoru becoming a streak of midnight blue, Mateus dissolving into shadow. They collided in the center of the chamber with a thunderous impact.

  Yoru's blade sliced through the air with untraceable speed. Mateus danced around the strikes, his form shifting between solid and shadow.

  "You've grown slower," Mateus taunted, weaving between two lethal slashes. His hand shot out, dark light coalescing into a curved dagger that he drove toward Yoru's throat.

  Yoru caught the strike against his blade. "And you're still relying on tricks." He pushed forward, shattering the dagger with ease.

  Mateus suddenly raised both hands, darkness pouring from his fingertips to form a complex runic array that surrounded Yoru. "Veiled Binding," he intoned, his voice resonating with power.

  The runes contracted sharply, but Yoru was already moving. He planted his sword in the ground. "Dark implosion," he countered.

  The collision of their magics created a shockwave that nearly threw us off our feet.

  When the dust cleared, Mateus stood with a spear of darkness gripped in both hands, his mask cracked along one side. Yoru faced him, sword held in a low guard, blood trickling from a shallow cut on his cheek.

  "Just like the Crimson Catacombs," Mateus said, twirling the spear. "You still haven't learned patience."

  "And you still talk too much," Yoru replied, his free hand clenching into a fist. “Let’s end this.”

  [The Blackest Night]

  "Everyone down!" Estella screamed, throwing herself against me as Tirion shielded Lysa with his body.

  Darkness erupted from Yoru's form. It spread outward in tendrils of void that consumed everything they touched.

  "You fool!" Mateus's voice cut through the encroaching void. "You'll destroy this—"

  His words vanished as the darkness enveloped him, swallowing him whole.

  The void expanded explosively, devouring stone, air, sound—everything. My senses failed one by one: first sight as the darkness claimed my vision, then hearing as it consumed all sound, then touch as the very sensation of my body began to fade. The only thing remaining was the terrifying awareness of nothingness pressing in from all sides.

  For what seemed like eternity, we existed in that sensory void—a place beyond darkness, beyond silence. There was no hot or cold, no up or down. Only the absence of everything.

  Reality crashed back like a tidal wave, senses returning with painful intensity. Light stabbed into my eyes, sound hammered against my eardrums.

  I gasped, lungs burning as if I'd been holding my breath for minutes. Around me, my companions were doing the same, disoriented and shaking.

  The chamber was transformed. Where Yoru and Mateus had stood, there was now a perfect hemisphere carved out of the stone—a void twenty feet across, its edges smooth as if cut by a god's blade. No debris, no dust, just... absence. As if that section of reality had been surgically removed.

  Damn it. Yoru, Mateus, all these people.

  I closed my fist around the hilt of the Nightsky Blade until my knuckles turned white.

  "I swear I'll never lose to anyone ever again," I whispered.