The storm had become a battlefield.
In Rio, Maria Torres stood bleeding in the streets, lightning dancing across her body. In Berlin, Klaus Weber stood amidst shattered towers, gales swirling like knives around him. And above them both, stretching across continents, was Zelkor, the Sky Ravager.
Its body split the heavens. Half its colossal form loomed over South America, the other half casting shadows across Europe. Its black wings blotted out the moon, eyes burning crimson like two suns of despair.
"Your storms are fleeting," the demon roared. "The sky belongs to us!"
Maria spat blood onto broken concrete, her chest heaving. "The storm doesn't need to last forever…"
Klaus raised his gaze, coat whipping in the gale. "…It only needs to end you."
---
Zelkor's Wrath
The Ravager beat its wings. "World Rend!"
Hurricanes of black wind tore through Rio, lifting buses into the air and hurling them like toys. In Berlin, skyscrapers crumbled as steel beams twisted into spears, flung like rain.
Maria screamed, raising her arms.
"Tempest Barrier!"
A wall of storm and lightning rose, shielding civilians scrambling through Rio's broken avenues. Sparks rippled across her skin, her aura burning dangerously hot.
On the other side of the world, Klaus stomped his foot into cracked stone.
"Aerial Fortress!"
Cyclones erupted, forming walls of compressed wind. The steel beams shattered against them, harmlessly scattering like twigs. His coat fluttered, though the gale howled with lethal fury.
But Zelkor's wings only beat harder, storms growing darker, heavier, endless.
---
Flashback – Maria's Storm
Maria's mind flickered back.
She was twelve again, barefoot in Rio's rain, lightning splitting the sky. Her cousins screamed as a bolt crashed nearby, flames licking at the ground.
Maria stood frozen, every instinct telling her to run.
Then the second bolt fell—toward her.
It should have killed her. Instead, the storm chose her. Lightning filled her veins, thunder echoed in her heartbeat. She walked out of the smoke alive, eyes glowing storm-blue.
Her cousins stared at her like she was a ghost. But Maria only clenched her fists, whispering to the storm: "If you won't protect them… then I will."
---
Flashback – Klaus's Wind
Klaus's mind flickered too.
He was nineteen, a cadet in Germany's military program. The wind tunnel roared around him, machinery malfunctioning. Blades snapped. The storm of metal threatened to shred everyone alive.
Cadets screamed, stumbling. Klaus turned without thought, shielding them.
And then, the wind bent.
It wrapped around him, not tearing him apart but carrying him, lifting the cadets out of the collapsing tunnel. When he opened his eyes, everyone was alive—because the air itself had obeyed him.
His commanding officer stared in disbelief. Klaus only saluted, jaw tight.
From that day, he carried their lives on his back. He had no room for weakness.
---
Present – The Synchronization
Back in the present, Maria gasped, sweat soaking her brow. "Klaus… the storm's too wild…"
Klaus, far across the ocean, whispered as if standing beside her. "Then let the wind tame it."
Their auras pulsed.
Lightning from Rio shot skyward, caught by the jetstream Klaus conjured in Berlin. The currents intertwined, storm and wind weaving into one colossal spiral spanning continents.
For one heartbeat, they weren't two wielders. They were a single force of nature.
Maria screamed, "Tempest Spiral!"
Klaus roared, "Gale Divider!"
The skies split open as the storm and wind merged, striking Zelkor's colossal body.
The demon shrieked as half its wing disintegrated, raining ash across both continents.
---
Zelkor's Counterattack
But Zelkor was not finished.
Its broken wing regrew in an instant, black aura searing through the skies. The Ravager opened its jaws.
"Aether Howl!"
A scream ripped across both hemispheres. Windows shattered. Rivers boiled. Civilians clutched their heads, blood dripping from their ears.
Maria's barrier cracked. Klaus's cyclones wavered.
"Damn it—!" Maria coughed blood, knees buckling.
Klaus pressed a hand to his chest, aura bleeding from his veins.
Zelkor's laughter thundered.
"You wielders cannot hold the sky. It belongs to the abyss!"
---
The Choice
Maria looked up at the storm she had always loved. She thought of the cousins she saved, the children who looked to her in Rio's streets, the families hiding behind her barrier.
Storms end. But maybe… if I give it all, this one can protect them forever.
Klaus looked at the winds swirling, the cadets' faces haunting his memory, the comrades who had already fallen.
If I bow now, then every life I carried was meaningless.
Their eyes met across distance they could not cross. And yet, they smiled.
---
The Last Tempest
Maria raised her hand. Klaus spread his arms. Their auras ignited brighter than ever before, even as their bodies cracked under the strain.
Together, they roared:
"LAST TEMPEST!"
The storm answered.
Lightning cascaded from Rio, spiraling into Klaus's gales in Berlin. The wind sharpened the thunder, the thunder fueled the wind. A hurricane spanning oceans rose, a tempest that covered half the world.
Zelkor shrieked in terror as the spear of storm pierced its colossal chest.
"Impossible—!"
The Ravager's body exploded into ash, scattered by the very winds it once commanded.
---
Their End
Silence followed. The rifts dimmed.
In Rio, Maria staggered. Sparks crackled faintly across her skin before fading. She smiled softly, looking at the civilians she had saved.
"…Looks like… the storm finally passed."
Her body dissolved into flickering lightning, scattering into the night sky.
In Berlin, Klaus fell to one knee, his coat shredded by gales. He exhaled, voice calm even as blood dripped from his lips.
"Wind… carry them… farther than I ever could."
He let go. His body dissolved into currents of air, vanishing into the breeze.
The storm and the wind were gone.
---
Aftermath – Geneva
The Council chamber was deathly silent.
Arashi closed his eyes, jaw tightening. "Two more are gone."
Ishita shook, tears streaming down her cheeks. "They fought across oceans… together…"
Rehan's fists slammed the table, the wood cracking beneath him. His eyes burned with fury, but his voice was low. "How many more, Arashi? How many until we stop losing?"
Li Wei finally spoke, voice calm but heavy.
"Their sacrifice was not in vain. They proved that even across worlds, wielders can stand as one. But… the seal weakens still. One wielder's aura is all it will take to break it."
The chamber fell silent again, heavier than before.
Above, the rifts pulsed darker. Somewhere deep in the abyss, the Upper Demons stirred, impatient.