A/N: Keep a lookout for numbers like these: [1], [2], [3]. When you find one, feel free to scroll down to the "Special Notes" section of that particular analysis (just below "Weaknesses") to find out what more there is to be said about the topic that was just mentioned!
A/N2: Well, that didn't take so long, did it? Only a month! Which, for me, is really, really fast. But be prepared, because I'm hoping most episodes for the rest of the season will be even faster. If my research ever starts to suffer, though, do tell me. I rely on you guys way more than I should.
This episode was requested by Dependent_Ad_252. Comment with your requests and they may become future episodes.
Episode 21: Skul (Skul: The Hero Slayer) VS The Knight (Hollow Knight)
LZ: Destiny is a difficult thing. The line between Hero and Monster is thin, and there are those with great destinies who struggle to fulfill it, and those who walk this thin line every day of their lives.
TWO: Or afterlives, since, you know, they're nearly-immortal indie skeleton fighters. Who fight heroes, villains, and goddesses. It's neat.
LZ: Skul, hero to the demons, and hero-slayer to the humans.
TWO: And the Knight, the Vessel that unified the void against the power of light.
LZ: I'm LittleZbot, and it's my hobby to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Skul:
LZ: Far away, on the continent of Harmonia, two great cultures thrived. The humans, prideful of their heroes and hopeful in their arrogance, and the demons, all the monsters of fantasy you know and hate.
TWO: And they fought constantly. There was never any point where there was any sort of peace option between them. Human culture sometimes got built based on how many demons they could kill! So, just like every actual human war. Neat. But the humans weren't as great at killing as the demons were; they had to use super-magic-crystals, known as Dark Quartz, just to keep up.
LZ: Until the current Demon King came into power. He believed humans and demons could exist together, and brought the idea of a peace treaty to the human's strongest warrior: The First Hero.
TWO: Firsty was a bit fidgety about the idea, but was willing to give it a shot. Together, they campaigned, and eventually a peace treaty was signed. The Demon King even got to be friends with the First Hero's son. Aw, that's cute.
LZ: But one day, that little boy stumbled upon something he should not have seen. A dark secret in the depths of the human castle. And for this, he was murdered by a mysterious man. The Demon King and his second-in-command, the Witch, managed to arrive just in time to see it, and briefly fought off the man who killed the child.[1]
TWO: But this moment would be the worst thing to happen to either of the kingdoms, as the First Hero heard the cries and rushed over to help.
LZ: When the First Hero saw the Witch and Demon King standing over the corpse of his son, well, exactly what you think would happen happened.
TWO: He came in swinging and easily dealt with both of 'em. It was war between the two peoples, and the Demon King barely made it out of there alive.
LZ: The Witch stated that she was normally capable of pulling meteors from the sky with enough power to match the castle of the humans. We can actually explore this castle in-game across runs-
TWO: And it's the biggest darn castle in the land! Like, man, this thing is oversized.
LZ: Er, yes. By measuring the interior of every castle screen across multiple runs with averages compared to Skul's own height, we can get an approximate size. A meteor of the same size moving at 11,000 m/s would crash with an energy of 1.57 Gigatons of TNT. That's enough to collapse a mountain!
TWO: But the First Hero could take her out with a single hit! So this guy ain't nothing to be messed with.
LZ: Something the demons were well aware of. Panic ensued across their world, and the council they knew they would be no match for the hero of men. But even as they formed an army to combat the humans, hope was making its way towards the castle. A single, small, newly-formed skeleton staggered into the home of the Demon King, who recognized it immediately: it was the returned skeletal form of the young boy.
TWO: It's been said that strong-willed humans who died with regrets would sometimes reanimate as a skeleton for the Demon King. And, well, it happened again. Feeling a wee bit guilty, Kingy gave him a cape and a name: Skul. Because he's a skeleton. Which he then immediately sent off to war. Without telling him who he was. Wait, are we sure he's the good guy?
LZ: In the first battle between armies, the demons lost, and badly. Many of their leaders were imprisoned, the First Hero captured the Demon King himself, and even the strongest of their army was easily defeated by a single controlled ogre. The only one who remained was Skul.
TWO: Most skeletons can pick themselves back up after breaking with enough time and magic, but Skul's a little special. We'll get into that later, but he got up, took a bone from another skeleton, and set off to rescue everyone. He even took out that ogre, like, effortlessly.
LZ: The ogre was using the power of Dark Quartz to increase its strength; that was both how the humans controlled it and why it grew so powerful. But Skul, in his first outing, overpowered the ogre, broke the quartz, and freed several of the demon leaders, including the Witch.
TWO: With most of her power drained, the Witch figured out real quick that Skul was their only hope of saving the Demon King. So, she sent him on a one-man-versus-entire-army mission. Without telling him anything about himself, the humans, or the world. Are we sure that we're sure these are the good guys?
LZ: Skul would not succeed on his first attempt. But he would have many, many more thanks to one major trait of skeletons:
TWO: You just can't kill the little lactidelugate!
LZ: The primary ability of a skeleton is to reform its body after breaking it. Given a few seconds, they'll reappear at the center of all demon magic in the country: the Demon King's castle. Skul has been stabbed, pummeled, blasted with energy, and completely shattered into fragments. No matter what, he always comes back. Though, he does lose whatever he was holding at the time, including weapons. Even so, it's basically impossible to put him down for good.
TWO: Well, kinda. Skeletons do have one weakness: if they get their head sliced clean off by a holy weapon, that'll perma-kill them unless they get a big mana dump from some outside help. The First Hero almost killed Skul this same way, but he was rescued afterward. After that, he got extra-wary of protecting his neck and could take regular hits from the holy sword, no problem, so it really is a pretty specific means of death. Wait, wait, his dad tried to kill him?!
LZ: Yeah, um, nobody told the First Hero that his son was alive. Including Skul, when he found out.
TWO: …WHY?!
LZ: Well, you see…
TWO: …
LZ: Huh. Why didn't they?
TWO: Okay, whatever. Skul wasn't totally alone. Everyone he rescued eventually came to live at the castle with him, and that Witch lady did manage to give him some neat power-ups. Increasing his magic power by 60%, physical power by 40%, speed by 20%, and durability by 50%. Making a one-second forcefield every time he switches skulls (we'll get to that in a moment). And helping him reconstruct his body on the spot at 60% health - once. But that ain't nothing compared to her first gift to him: a magic scroll with a dimensional spell inside to store his items.
LZ: It's basically a limited form of hammerspace. Skul can use this scroll to hold his fighting arsenal, including what he's most famous for, his bread and butter of hero-slaying: the skulls.
TWO: In base form, he ain't bad, he can easily murk guys who can part clouds by shooting arrows at them, and even throw his body parts around and teleport to 'em, but there's no question that the real power is in the giant collection of different skulls.
LZ: These skulls are magical relics that use mana (the source of all non-dark magic in Harmonia) to augment Skul's power. This is important to note: Skul's own strength, physically, magically, and mentally, determine how strong these skulls are. While other sources have unlocked more powers within them, it is expressly stated that their overall power level is determined by Skul himself. So, don't go thinking that he has infinite strength because he has a skull based on Sun Wukong.
TWO: You say that, but that Sun Wukong Overlord skull is nuts. He has a magic bo staff that can extend to thrice its normal length, a magic cloud he can fly around on, and can summon a bunch of spirit clones to fight alongside him!
LZ: The ability to summon allies to his side is a staple of many skulls. Such as the Carleon Commander skull, which can bring in entire platoons of demon soldiers.
TWO: Although maybe that's not the best meat shield around. I mean, remember, the strongest of these guys was taken out by one ogre that was fodder to a way weaker Skul. So, it's a good thing the Commander also has a giant sword that'll cleave most things in half, and can charge up his strikes to do even more damage!
LZ: The Royal Guard Captain wields a flaming sword that infects the opponent's blood, the Pikeman Captain holds an energy spear that increases his attacking speed, the Sage is a wizard who uses mana to cast fire spells, and the Guardian Commander boasts a 1.2 meter spiked shield that is completely invulnerable to all forms of physical attack. On the other end of the spectrum is the Outlaw, who wields daggers, smoke bombs, and even gold, turning his wealth into explosives. Which he'll always have a large supply of, as all of his attacks magically generate additional gold pieces.
TWO: Elder Ent is like a whole forest come to life. Trees, vines, entire jungles grow around the guy to kill people, and he can even merge with the ground! Eternal Werewolf is a huge Sabrewulf-looking guy who can tear through folks so hard even the windshears kill the guys around him, and, being a werewolf, is immune to pretty much all damage except silver and holy weapons.
LZ: Saviour wields a coffin as his weapon-
TWO: So cool.
LZ: -and holds a great deal of spiritual power. In this form, Skul can see and speak to spirits, and even summon the dead to aid him in his battle.[2]
TWO: So, some pretty sweet powers all around. But that's not where it ends; oooh no, this is where it gets good. Every single skull so far? Those are the basic ones. But skulls come in three more categories, each better than the last. So, what happens when things get a little more… rare?
LZ: Two of these rare skulls, Poseidon and Frozen Soul, grant him control over water and ice, respectively. He can form and command large swaths of both elements, with his ice being capable of freezing large creatures into frozen blocks and covering his body, making him invincible and immobile.
TWO: I get it! It's just like Kirby's Ice Ability!
LZ: I… yes, actually. And his control over water with Poseidon is great enough to create large rainstorms. Considering these spawn directly in the background, no wind needed, and that background can sometimes contain mountain ranges, this could be a feat worth upwards of 4.83 Teratons of TNT.
TWO: The Minotaurus III can make giant earthquakes with every hit, the Demolitions Expert throws bombs all over the place, the Warlord uses a glaive with a blade bigger than himself that he can charge up a bunch of times to be super-duper strong, and the Sniper uses a magic bow that shoots tons of arrows at once, tracks movement, lays traps, and can hit you as long as he can see you.
LZ: He can tear the flesh from enemies to empower himself and release toxic fumes with Ghoooooul.
TWO: Darkk Mane's gonna sue somebody.
LZ: Joker uses explosive throwing knives, Golden Gargoyle can fly and transform into an invincible statue, Nightmare wields soul-destroying Hellfire and a hellish motorcycle, and the Revived Ancient Mummy, in addition to casting magic attacks, randomly gains a weapon every forty seconds. These range from homing rockets to grenades to actual modern-day machine guns.
TWO: And the final one in this category is the Dark Alchemist, who uses Dark Quartz to summon golems and make explosive status-effect flasks. But we know how crazy that Dark Quartz stuff is; just a bit of it can level castles and explode underground labyrinths, but this skull uses a ton of it all over the place!
LZ: Moving up another tier, skulls that are more unique include Soul Knight's dark armor and soulfire (which burns physically, magically, and spiritually). Ninja Master can attack at the speed of light with endless giant shurikens and create mirror images of himself, the Dark Avenger can pull others toward himself and wields powerful dark magic, and Devil Berserker gains more power the lower his healthpool, even being able to transform into a devil himself.
TWO: The Abyssal Monarch uses green magic to pull down meteors, Super Rock Star plays music so hard it hurts, and Neo Samurai's a master swordsman whose main move is doing that anime thing where you slash a guy so fast they don't even feel it until you put away the sword! The King is a pretty neat Dead Cells crossover where the more Skul attacks, the more scrolls that buff his stats he gets. He also has twenty new weapons that range from a bow that freezes to an impenetrable shield to a sword that bleeds. And Destroyer uses a giant sword that gets more powerful the more guys it hits at once! Come by yourself, you're in danger, but come with an army, and you've sealed your fate.
LZ: Stealing lines from YouTubers now, are we?
TWO: Ever since Ultron VS Cell!
LZ: But even these can hardly hold a candle to the few and mighty Legendary Skulls.
TWO: Oh, yeah, this is the highest level of insanity, right here. Like the Archlich skull, which freezes just as good as Frozen Soul, but can also make dark chains to bind magic and enemies and even suck your soul out. He's based off that really bad card from Hearthstone's first adventure.
LZ: Champion is a master martial artist who can destroy any foe in only a few hits, and can enter a berserker rage to become even more powerful.
TWO: Davy Jones is the yar-hariest of pirates, using a giant cannon with infinite ammo as his main weapon. But these are magic cannonballs that can summon skeletons, turn into a bunch of bombs, and make spirit anchors fall out of the sky!
LZ: The demonic Yaksha is a terror that uses a kanabo to annihilate everyone, and, after storing enough energy, can temporarily transform into the far stronger Rakshasa, who can tear through space itself.
TWO: And the last one: the Gambler. This guy does all kinds of gambling magic, summoning slot machines or spirit dice, which can buff him or make explosions or decrease his strength or do all kinds of stuff, really, but most of the time it kills the guy in front of him no matter what.
LZ: But there is one more. One final skull with power greater than any seen so far.
TWO: Remember how we said the Dark Alchemist was the last Rare Skull? Um, we lied.
LZ: Magnifico is the embodiment of a traditional Arabian genie. While he can't grant wishes, he has great deals of other magical powers.
TWO: Like flight, teleporting short distances, intangibility, making copies of himself, hiding inside his invincible lamp, or changing size and shape to mirror regular objects or become a giant! And he wields magic cutlasses that can cut anything and outmatches everybody in swordplay. Why is this guy not a Legendary, again?!
LZ: Maybe because SouthPAW wanted everyone to be able to play as him more often?
TWO: But guess what? We lied. Again. He's not the biggest baddest one.
LZ: Behold the Grim Reaper, the manifestation of the god of the underworld himself. This is a real being in Skul's world, and wearing this skull grants the same godly power to the Little Bone.
TWO: Not only is the Reaper impossible to hurt except by spiritual or holy weaponry, but he can snatch and control souls, poof into smoke, teleport short distances, fly, and sentence you to death. With a point of the finger, he can make your body shatter and send eternal pain through your soul, or he can use his scythe to create portals to the Netherworld, pulling his own armies of souls out to fight. And no living being can survive being pulled through that portal. This guy is so busted, it's hard to see why Skul ever uses any of the other skulls.
LZ: Because he often didn't have a choice. The magical scroll only allows him to hold two on his journeys, and he rarely had the opportunity to select those two. However, with the Dark Mirror update, Skul now has access to his full skull-based arsenal at his home base. Should a fight take place there, he will have everything he needs on hand.[3]
TWO: That's not all he has in the Castle. There's also a magic chalice that gives him some more powers for five minutes when he touches it, like buffing his stats a little and healing him whenever he kills someone. And he has a stack of all the equipment he's found on all his adventures, just like the skulls!
LZ: By using his dimensional scroll, Skul can activate up to nine pieces of equipment at once, each of which gives him passive buffs. While typical equipment might slightly increase his speed or have one random enemy struck by a basic lightning bolt every so often, the type that Skul has found and, on occasion, created himself is quite literally the stuff of legends.
TWO: Like his Sylphid Wings! In gameplay, these just up his dash speed, but since they're taken directly from magic fairies, in-lore they should let him fly just as good!
LZ: He holds the Dawn of the Crimson Sun and Argent Moon, a sword and ring which double his physical and magical attack, respectively, and occasionally create small bomb-like bursts of energy. The Pot of Greed increases his physical and magical attack by 120% again, and the Ring increases his stats across the board, averaging about 35% in each category.
TWO: Then there's his Chosen One equipment, like a set of super-durable armor, a circlet that makes him invincible and super-strong for seven seconds when he's close to breaking, and a pair of swords that doubles his speed and slows down time for his enemies for five seconds the first time he attacks.
LZ: But his strongest piece of equipment is, without a doubt, the Fulgent Dawn, the most mythical sword in history. Not only does it nearly double his physical and magical might again, but it also causes every single enemy in his vicinity to be hit whenever he attacks any regular enemy.[4]
TWO: So, if he smushes a spider, everyone around him will feel like he just stepped on them?
LZ: Pretty much.
TWO: Wow. That's, um, really good.
LZ: Especially when you take each equipment's Inscriptions into account, magic runes that stack together to grant additional power. Combining all that we have here, Skul gains an extra 45% buff in physical and magic power, some extra health, and the occasional random treasure chest might spawn, which can house gold, healing, and extra items.
TWO: Any chance he can use those swords as, well, swords?
LZ: Um, maybe? He never does in-game, but there's no reason he couldn't. However, he doesn't need to be wielding or wearing any of this equipment to gain the buff effects; simply having them inside his scroll is enough.[5]
TWO: Neat. Lemme just add an unnecessary 2.5k word-long swordfight section to the battle real quick.
LZ: You do you.
TWO: Oh, yeah, and that cape Skul got? Magic! Skul can wrap himself in it, allowing him to "dash" a bit through the air while completely intangible with a less-than-a-second refresh![6]
LZ: Skul can also hold an orb of Quintessence, a mystic power that is activated once per battle to unleash some devastating effect. He can only store a single Quintessence on him, so, while opinions understandably vary on the best overall Quintessence, an excellent pick for any build is the Suonisio. This summons an extremely powerful half-demon who wields swords and sorcery in turn and is able to attack all enemies, be they physical or spiritual.
TWO: So, needless to say, the kid's got a lot going for him. But he needs it for killing all the humans he can find! The kid… who used to be… you know, I'm still questioning the whole moral side of things, here!
LZ: He's destroyed giant armored warriors, fighters that can shake the ground, religious fanatics, holy knights, living statues, golems made with dark quartz, er, living trees, regular animals, random maids, butlers, and servants-
TWO: STILL QUESTIONING!
LZ: He destroyed the elder tree guardian Yggdrassil, the two dark quartz-enhanced Leiana sisters, and even the failed vessel of the goddess, the Dark Quarz-construction of the Chimera. This creature was so monstrously powerful, with it complete, the Witch states that it could have threatened the entirety of Harmonia!
TWO: I mean, there are still only two cities-
LZ: No, I mean the continent of Harmonia.
TWO: OH, THAT'S DIFFERENT. Assumin' Harmonia's around the size of Asia and has crust going down forty kilometers, breaking this thing apart would take explosive energy of over 8.5 Petatons of TNT! And even that's a bit lowballed, 'cuz that's just rock, and we see Harmonia has all kinds of metals, crystals, and other natural stuffs that's way harder to crack.
LZ: And Skul can destroy the Chimera in his base, Little Bone, skull, with no upgrades or equipment. Yet even the Chimera is below the power of the First Hero. In fact, comparing their HP bars alone, the First Hero is over three and a half times more powerful.
TWO: When Skul finally managed to make it to the big boss of the whole game, the First Hero went all out. Golden armor, speed of light attacks, holy energy, the whole shebang. But Skul still won. The First Hero even called Skul the most powerful demon he'd ever known, even stronger than the Balrog that destroyed entire nations, or demons wielding the Demonomincon, a spellbook where a single cast of a single spell could shake the continent!
LZ: All with, at most, minimal training. Skul shines under pressure and grows more skilled the longer he fights; the fact that he went from a literal child to having the swordplay skills to match the First Hero in only a matter of days is astonishing, to say the least. And after felling the First Hero and freeing the Demon King just a few days after first coming into existence, Skul escaped as the castle collapsed, leaving the mourning, beaten hero to die.
TWO: Right. Just an update: no longer questioning. Straight-up evil.
LZ: But evil he is not, or, at least, not compared to what he found beyond the Dark Mirror. After discovering a portal to an alternative, far harsher version of his own world, Skul sought to protect it the same way he had with his own world.
TWO: So, killing a bunch of innocent people?
LZ: These people were hardly innocent. They massacred all non-humans they found, and their leader, the Dark Hero, was everything the First Hero was not. Young, cruel, and corrupted by Dark Quartz. Not only was he twice as fast as the First Hero, he was significantly more powerful.
TWO: But Skul won. Duh. Then he went even further dimension-hopping to find even stronger versions of the guy to take down and free all possible Harmonias!
LZ: He did have a little help with his new four slots for Dark Abilities. With Rift Blade, his strength slowly grows as he attacks the same enemy, up to an increase of 150%. With Big Mountain Pressure, his damage potential builds up so long as he doesn't attack. Upon landing on strike, it goes back to normal, but if he can avoid his foes long enough, his power well becomes enormous. King Slayer instantly kills foes at 10% of their health, and Reckless Posture ups his durability by 7% and all attacks by 20%. Or, 35% and 100% for a few seconds after being struck by an enemy.
TWO: These are the worst numbers. Ever. Of all time. I thought we were supposed to move past all this stuff after Kestrel VS Hero.
LZ: It's important to gauge these percentages, because they do stack, meaning that a full-powered Skul is much, much more powerful than any of his feats are capable of showing. And when he can fight the +10 Dark Hero, a being far stronger than any other in his verse, in base form, it adds up.
TWO: But it was all a lie! The dimension-hopping wasn't real; the Dark Mirrorverse was just a reflection of the real one, and some spirit guy kept cloning the enemies Skul fought to get him to keep fighting. Now, you're probably wondering "Why the heck?" And hey, who was the guy that killed the boy? What did he see? What's the emperor's plan?
LZ: All will be revealed… in Skul: The Hero Slayer 2. Or a new update. No idea when any of that comes out.
TWO: At least Skul finally got to be the hero he wanted. He even used a device at the end to kinda look like one!
LZ: The story of the Little Bone is far from happy, and not over yet. As the continent waits for what seems to be an inevitable war, they can remain hopeful, for Skul, the Hero, will be there to fight for them.
Skul lands the final blow on the Dark Hero.
As he falls to his knees, a pillar of darkness bursts from the ground. He cries out as purple electricity swarms the area, clouds of smoke begin to pour out of the pillar, and the very fabric of space shakes. When the pillar thins down and returns to the abyss from whence it came, there is nothing left of the Dark Hero but smoke and ash.
Skul nods, reaches up, and touches the top of the mirror pedestal, shattering the mirror's false reality.
Skul:
Name: Skul
Species: Skeleton Demon
Height: 3'2 / 96.1 cm
Weight: 8.5 lbs / 3.86 kg
Age: As a skeleton? Like, a week
Occupation: Hero, Hero Slayer on the side
Former child of the First Hero, resurrected as a skeleton
Nicknamed "Little Bone"
Yes, he can talk, every other skeleton can, and characters reply to questions we never hear! He just… chooses not to.
Abilities:
Demon physique
Immortality (skeleton reconstruction), respawns at Demon King's Castle when killed
Scattering of body parts
~Can control and teleport to each individual bone
Adept with all weapons and forms of magic
Traits
~Marrow Transplant
~Quick Dislocation
~Nutrition Supply
~Exoskeleton Reinforcement
~Thick Bone
~Fracture Prevention
~Heavy Frame
~Reassemble
~Fatal Mind
~Ancestral Fortitude
~Spirit Acceleration
~Ancient Alchemy
Inscriptions
~Antique LVL 1
~Arms LVL 1
~Artifact LVL 1
~Treasure LVL 1
Chalice
~Gluttony
~Lust
~Pride
~Sloth
~Greed
~Wrath
~Envy
Skulls:
Common
~Guard Captain
~Sage
~Royal Guard Captain
~Eternal Werewolf
~Guardian Commander
~Carleon Commander
~Saviour
~Overlord
~Pikeman Captain
~Outlaw
~Elder Ent Skull
Rare
~Golden Gargoyle
~Revived Ancient Mummy
~Warlord
~Poseidon
~Minotaurus III
~Ghoooooul
~Frozen Soul
~Nightmare
~Sniper
~Demolitions Expert
~Magnifico
~Dark Alchemist
~Joker
Unique
~Dark Avenger
~Ninja Master
~Devil Berserker
~Destroyer
~Neo Samurai
~The King
~Abyssal Monarch
~Super Rock Star
~Soul Knight
Legendary
~Yaksha
~Archlich
~Champion
~Davy Jones
~Gambler
~Grim Reaper
Arsenal:
The Bone
Magic Cloak
~Allows a short dash, intangible while dashing
Dimensional Scroll
~Sylphid Wings
~The Ring
~Pot of Greed
~The Chosen Hero's Circlet
~The Chosen Thief's Twin Swords
~The Chosen Warrior's Armor
~Dawn of the Crimson Sun
~Dawn of the Argent Moon
~Fulgent Dawn
~Rift Blade
~Big Mountain Pressure
~King Slayer
~Reckless Posture
~Suonisio Quintessence
Feats:
Defeated Mongal, Yggdrasil, Leiana Sisters, Chimera, Hero's Apprentice, St. Joan II, First Hero, Dark Hero, +10 dark versions of all of the above
Killed many strong Adventurers, including Mages, Clerics, Warriors
Killed and dodged archers that could "pierce the clouds"
Saved dozens of powerful demons
Destroyed golems literally made out of Dark Quartz
Uses equipment superior to the Demonomicon, which "shook the continent with heinous destructive power"
Balrog "can singlehandedly destroy an entire nation" and Flame Dragon Quintessence "feels like the end of the world"
Unlocked and forged all the most powerful equipment in history
Dodged many lasers and light-speed attacks, as well as attacks from Dark Hero, who is twice as fast as light-speed First Hero
Traveled through the Dark Mirror and destroyed all ten levels of it
As Poseidon, could summon storms that cover mountain ranges
Superior to the Witch, who can summon meteors and has "power never before seen"
Superior to the Chimera, who threatened an entire continent
Broke the First Hero's sword
Was stated to be more powerful than any other demon
Saved the Demon King
Did all this as Little Bone, no upgrades, in only "a few days"
Starred in one of the most underrated rougelikes in mainstream PC gaming
Survived being in the same multiverse as those Pikemen in Stage 4, the most annoying enemy in video game history
Weaknesses:
Just as vulnerable to hax and status effects as anyone else
Only been fighting for a few days; heavily inexperienced
Hammerspace is limited
Can be permanently killed by holy attacks to the neck
All his best equipment is patched out of the game later
Doesn't have an obsessed fanbase who keeps track of everything, meaning I had to play through this game like thirty times to get the information I needed, heck u guys
Special Notes:
[1] The Witch had been there the entire time, keeping watch over the boy, but only intervened when he was about to die. The Demon King arrived after being alerted by an unknown person that the Witch was in danger. It is stated that they could have saved the boy's life with magic were they not interrupted by the First Hero.
[2] While Skul, even in base form, can kill enemies titled "Revengeful Spirits," it is clear that these are not actual spirits. They are directly confirmed to be experiments from the Dark Alchemist, can be phased through, attack things on the physical plane exclusively, and the souls seen with certain skulls are quite different. Skul is also incapable of injuring spirit enemies such as Remnants, and some enemies have intangible phases, implying that only specific skulls and abilities can strike the spiritual plane.
[3] While the Skull and Item Dispensers in the Dark Mirror only give Common and Rare items as attempted gameplay balance, there is no reason for this to be the case in-lore. They are developed based on Skul's own memories and a reflection of the real dimension, which would naturally include every item and skull he has encountered.
[4] While it is technically possible to duplicate certain equipment items in-game with outside help, based on the lore notes for each item and what other characters say, it appears that there should only be one available to Skul of each, even with the Item Dispensers. Were duplicate items allowed, by far the best setup would be nine Chosen Thief's Twin Swords, which would stack duplicatively and essentially make Skul so fast, time would appear frozen for several minutes with every swing. In this state, he would be attacking at nearly three hundred times the speed of light!
[5] Skul can also take Omen Equipment, powerful relics that come with a downside. The Unknown Darkness, in particular, increases Skul's physical and magical power by 650% and saves him from death once! The cost? His durability is halved, and additionally, every strike against him is doubled in power.
[6] The fight against the Dark Leiana Sisters has attacks that must be dashed through, implying that the cape's intangibility is an in-lore ability, not a gameplay mechanic.
…
The Knight:
Higher beings, these words are for you alone.
Beyond this point you enter the land of King and Creator.
Step across this threshold and obey our laws.
Bear witness to the last and only civilisation, the eternal Kingdom.
Hallownest
LZ: Long ago, there lived a deity, a goddess of light: The Radiance.
TWO: She looks like if a giant moth was the main villain of a Ghibli movie.
LZ: Um, well, that's… yeah, I'm just going to leave that there. Her power was great, but her ego was greater. She felt the need to be worshiped and lauded at all times, and, at first, she was. But that changed when the Pale King, a god who chose to become mortal, came into power and created an eternal kingdom of giant sentient insects.[1]
TWO: Yeah, because when I decide I want a kingdom to rule over, my first thought is going to be the one filled with monsters that eat their own poop.
LZ: Well, questionable decision-making aside, his reign was mighty. At least, the bugs thought so. But the Radiance grew jealous, and began seeping her light-based magic into the minds of others as they slept. This eventually spread into the waking world and the air was choked with the power of the Infection.
TWO: Orange liquid, acid pools, coughing air, it got bad. Everything was contaminated with a power that would turn you into a powerful husk of a creature who only exists to attack all other life and simp for the moth queen.
LZ: Please never say that word again.
TWO: Yeah, I didn't like it, either.
LZ: In a desperate bid to stop the Radiance and seal this power, the Pale King sought out the Void, a primordial entity and old enemy of the Radiance. Together, they created the Vessels, white-mask-horned skeleton shadow children that were given souls called "Shades." Vessels would be immune to Infection, naturally attuned to magic, and able to absorb ancient powers within their bodies.
TWO: The idea being that the strongest Vessel would be able to contain the Radiance and, after being chained and sealed, the Infection would stop.
LZ: There were many thousands of attempts, and some Vessels left the Abyss and would have their own adventures before dying by other means, like the Lost Kin-
TWO: Ooh, I remember that boss fight! That was hard! I mean, not for me, I'm kind of a pro gamer, but I'm sure for the average-
LZ: Eventually, one with the power to complete the task emerged. The Pure Vessel: The Hollow Knight.
TWO: This… is NOT his story. Yeah, I know, common misconception, but the player character ain't the Hollow Knight. He's something else entirely.
LZ: This is the story of another Vessel, known by many names, but the game's manual officially labels them "The Knight" so, that's what we're going with.
TWO: The Hollow Knight's task was successful…ish. His body contained the Radiance and he was sealed in the Black Egg by the Three Dreamers (crazy magic people with dream power) in an unbreakable lock. But over time, the lock became less unbreakable, and the energy of the Radiance started to seep out. The Infection was back, and worse than ever.
LZ: At this point, our mute hero, the Knight, who had long ago left the Abyss, found his way back to the kingdom, and his self-made journey to replace the Hollow Knight and re-form the seal began. A journey of sacrifice, for, in the end, it was his own life he had to give.
TWO: Luckily, with his extremely unique makeup as a Shade within a living Vessel, he doesn't have to worry about the "dying" part until the end. Now, this bit's important, so pay attention.
LZ: When the Knight's outer Vessel is broken from too much damage, it automatically reforms itself wherever the Knight was last comfortable and relaxed. This, however, is just his reanimated Vessel. His spirit, his Shade, is left back where it broke. Both the Shade and the reanimated Vessel are just as strong as the complete Knight, but they are still spiritually connected. While the Vessel can "die" as many times as it wants without any problems, if the Shade is killed after the Vessel is broken, the Knight will permanently die.
TWO: Probably. I mean, the game's intentionally vague on a lot of this stuff, but since the Knight can perma-kill other Vessels by killing the Shade, well, there's no reason he should be an exception. Also, one of the endings has the Shade being killed and the Knight is perma-dead after, so yeah, we're pretty sure on this.
LZ: If, however, the Knight's Vessel itself is what kills the Shade, then it will simply return to the Vessel, becoming whole again. For some reason. Luckily, a Shade is a literal spirit of darkness, and cannot be harmed outside of the Astral Plane and weapons that can attack souls.
TWO: Seeing as those are in rare supply in fiction, the Knight is plenty more safe than your average Death Battle combatant. After dying, he'll just come back until you literally destroy his soul. Hard to beat that as a busted superpower.
LZ: And sure, some can do it, but even without taking his respawn ability into account, it shouldn't matter, because destroying the Vessel in the first place is the hard part.
TWO: The Knight's weapon of choice is a Nail. Okay, yeah, that sounds underwhelming, but trust me, this isn't the sort of Nail you use to hang family photos on the wall. The Nail is a type of close-combat sword-like weapon, the national weapon of Hallownest. It looks like the tip of a lance, but, you know, longer and pointier. Forged using the extremely rare and divine metal Pale Ore, a true Nail like the Knight's is sharp enough to effortlessly slice through most stuff you can think of.
LZ: It also has a unique kinetic storage-and-repel quality, meaning that strikes blocked with the Nail automatically unleash equal and greater power back onto the one who attacked, and it can be used as a pogo stick. Sure.[2] It's also ridiculously tough; even decades of wear and rot in the pits of hell will only blunt a Nail.
TWO: Nails have another major feature that separates them from most other weapons: the ability to strike on multiple planes of existence. A Nail will wreck up your physical body better than any sword, sure, but you should be a lot more worried about what might happen afterwards. Because a Nail exists in multiple planes, it can and will tear up ghosts, souls, and other spiritual beings as if they were regular physical stuff. It's killed plenty-a ghosts, interacted with weaponized sound, and injured a guy made out of shadows!
LZ: After being reforged by the last great Nailsmith, the Knight's weapon was reborn as the Pure Nail, the strongest weapon in all Hallownest. The Pure Nail is powerful enough to kill even spiritual beings strong enough to be considered gods, and can smite most of your run-of-the-mill baddies with a single blow.
TWO: Of course, a weapon's only as good as the wielder. So, the Knight sought out and studied under all three Nailmasters of Hallownest and picked up new techniques, like a Zelda-style spin attack called the Cyclone Slash, and how to store energy in his Nail to unleash in a single strike with the Great Slash and Dash Slash. He even earned the title of Nailmaster for himself, and, after beating all the other Nailmasters and the Nailsage, there's little doubt that he's the best there is at Nailfighting.
LZ: But the Pure Nail isn't all he has to save the day with. The Knight also holds a collection of magic spells, like the screaming energy attack of the Abyss Shriek, the large soul-based fireballs of the Shade Soul, and the ground-pound-esque Descending Dark, which obliterates all foes in its path and makes the Knight invincible while he performs the move. He also knows the "Focus" spell, which heals his wounds and restores any damage to his Vessel if he can stay still and focus for a few seconds.[3]
TWO: All this spell stuff uses Soul, which is a totally-not-confusingly-named magic supply that he gets from hitting organic life with attacks. Or, thanks to Salubra's Blessing, he gets a full refill of the stuff if he can just sit down for a moment to rest. Or he could just absorb the magic of his opponent, 'cuz remember how Vessels are made to absorb spirits and magic and stuff? Well, his Vessel has absorbed all the soul-based power of the Dreamers, and each is powerful enough in their magic to create entire contained realms!
LZ: The Three Dreamers contained the initial power outburst of the Radiance, which is stated to have threatened all of Hallownest. And when they learned of the Knight's plan (and didn't think it would work) they even trapped the Knight within a world they created. Measuring every single thing we can see here, including the background, and understanding that they collected all this mass from magical energy that they could freely manipulate, a feat like this would be equivalent to 215.72 Teratons of TNT!
TWO: And that's the kind of energy the Knight can suck up and take for himself, no problem!
LZ: The Knight has also taken some items that do not use Soul, but still provide additional abilities. He wears a cloak made of mothwings, which allows him to "dash" in a straight line about 1.4 meters, ignoring gravity and going above things like water and sword swings. Later, when he returned to his birthplace, he dipped the cloak in the darkness of the void to give it the same powers as a Shade. Now, with a less-than-a-second refresh timer, he can wrap his body in his cloak as he dashes, which gives him a darkness-based intangibility, even passing through spiritual walls.[4]
TWO: He also has a Mantis Claw, which can climb surfaces and wall-jump, even against one flat wall or a sheer cliffside. Plus the Monarch Wings, which, in-game, act like a classic double-jump, but in-lore they should be just as fly-ey as all the other guys who use similar wings. Maybe even better, because just flapping the things created a constant airflow and even windstorms in deep underground areas where no wind normally reaches. And eating Isma's Tear hardened his Vessel, making him so tough, he can just decide to swim in acid that disintegrates fully-armored super-warrior bugs in seconds. Finally, using the Crystal Heart, he can grow energy crystals out of his body to lock him into whatever surface he's clinging to. These crystals gather energy and can blast the Knight forward with the speed and power of a rocket.
LZ: But, by far, the Knight's most fascinating item he's laid claim to is his second weapon: the Dream Nail.
TWO: The Dream Nail is like a regular Nail, but specifically primarily exists on the astral plane, and WAY expands the Knight's capabilities of interacting with that plane. Remember that 215 Teraton spirit trap? Yeah, with this, the Knight just nullified it with a thought.
LZ: He can cut through the astral plane in an instant, shattering illusions and awakening him from any sort of sleeping or stunned state. He can read minds, absorb more Soul from the world around him, and simply owning the Dream Nail allows the Knight to see unattached spirits, as well as instantly kill most of them.
TWO: The Dream Nail collects Essence, a spiritual energy that makes it more powerful. After nabbing almost two thousand pieces of the stuff, the Dream Nail became "Awoken" and could now break through any kind of defense. Even the magic of the Pale King, who can stand up to the Void and had his magic felt in other countries even decades after he died! But it also has a few more powers, like the Dreamgate.
LZ: This magical gateway acts as a sort of Hearthstone for the Knight. He can set a Dreamgate anywhere he wishes, and, with a simple thought and wave of the Dream Nail, instantly teleport to it from any distance. And, finally, if a person's spirit holds too many regrets or is filled with great purpose to stay alive, their soul remains trapped in the prison of their mind, never allowing them to enter the afterlife. If this is the case-
TWO: Or if it's a regular guy who happens to be asleep at the moment.
LZ: -then, using the Dream Nail, the Knight can physically transport his regular body into their dreams, meeting and even fighting them within their mind, and, upon killing them, relieving them of their regrets and sending them directly to whatever afterlife awaits.
TWO: Since magic powers are all buffed in the Dream World for everyone but the Knight, some guys can use the realm to eternally trap their foes, create entire cities, or reconstruct things that they know in the real world. Making it pretty risky for any regular folk to enter.
LZ: However, the greatest effect of the Dream World is that, inside it, everyone but the intruder is their dream self, with all the power, magical ability, arsenal, and capabilities that they believed themselves to have in life. They are the ideal versions of themselves. As such, they're FAR more powerful. A grub can be stronger than the strongest knight, a Vessel can be in the prime of its life, a god can have absolute control over all things in its realm, and Zote can be someone that somebody actually cares about.
TWO: Obviously, the Knight's toughest battles have all been in the Dream World, but luckily, him dying in the Dream World doesn't mean he dies in real life. He just wakes up next to the body he entered, and can try again with no risk whatsoever. Not that he generally needs to; even the idealized versions of the strongest fighters in Hallownest usually can't take this Vessel down.
LZ: He's matched and bested Hornet, whose power is great enough to change the weather, and destroyed the spider monster Nosk, a creature that has killed dozens of Vessels like the Knight. He's skilled enough to take on all three Mantis Lords at once, fast enough to dodge bursts of electricity, and tough enough without Isma's Tear to take hits from the False Knight, who can destroy bridges and shake the whole of Forgotten Crossroads with a single swing of his mace.
TWO: And he's very adaptable, taking on and defeating beasts and monsters with all sorts of defenses and unpredictable attacks and even making it through the Path of Pain, a platforming section of a Dream World designed to utterly annihilate the player- er, I mean, any dream-traveling bug who happened upon it. And instead of platforming his way through, he pogoed. With his Nail.
LZ: The Knight has dodged dozens of crystal lasers, often rapid-fire, Uumuu's psychic electricity, and the Radiance's literal beams of sunlight. He's kept up with Soul Master, who can rapid-fire teleport, and defeated Markoth, a warrior so strong that the Radiance's solution to killing him was to lock him in a room until he died of old age. In his own words, he had never before been defeated.
TWO: And all that is without his Charms! Charms are magical shirt pins that buff the person who wears them in some hyper-specific way. Each of them puts magic stress on the body, so even though the Knight has forty Charms, he can usually only wear four or five at once. Unless he Overcharms, which lets him put on more, but he takes double damage.[5] Switching out charms is just like switching out pins on your shirt, by the way, so while technically possible in the middle of battle, um, don't.
LZ: These Charms increase his movement speed, up his durability, lower his Focus time, boost his strength by 50%, and make his spells cost less Soul, become more powerful, or transform to have more powerful effects. One gives him a Zelda-style sword beam when he's at full health, another makes him invincible for a couple of seconds after being hit, some increase the length of the Nail until it's the size of a bo staff, and he can summon minions to fight alongside him, like the spell-slinging Grimmchild. Should any of these minions die, they can be immediately respawned.
TWO: And when combined with Grubsong, which gives the Knight Soul whenever he's injured, the minions also grant the Knight Soul upon being injured. Since they respawn endlessly and willingly sacrifice themselves, this basically gives the Knight an endless pool of Soul whenever he needs it. He also has charms that grant Lifeblood, temporary hitpoints that can't be refilled by Focusing. With Joni's Blessing, his Focus spell is completely removed, but his durability through Lifeblood is massive. Then you put on Hiveblood, which automatically regenerates health over time, and suddenly the Knight has a huge amount of long-lasting auto-healing durability.
LZ: Perhaps the most valuable Charm he holds, however, is one that is fused to his very soul: the Void Heart. Forged in the depths of the Abyss by the Knight after making peace with his past, regrets, and self-created will, the Void Heart unifies the Primordial Void under his will, granting the Knight control over every Shade and Vessel in the world, including his own. After achieving this, he is said to possess a power "never before seen," the unified Void, definitively making him one of the strongest deities in Hollownest, the only match for the Radiance.
TWO: Way more powerful than, say, Unn, a magic lower goddess thing who created all of Greenpath with her dream magic. We can take measurements of all Greenpath (or steal the work from someone else online who dedicated years of their life to it) and, assuming she created it in a similar method to how the Dreamers and the Radiance do so, that's 58.74 Petatons of TNT! But that's nothing compared to other gods that can magic up storms that cover entire countries and last for eternity. And they're supposed to be weaker than the Radiance!
LZ: After traveling through the kingdom, entering and destroying many dreams and powerful enemies, the Knight learned how to release the Hollow Knight and seal the Radiance forever: he had to destroy the Dreamers, take their power, release and defeat the possessed Hollow Knight, and take his place in sealing the Radiance.
TWO: And… he did!
LZ: He sought out and claimed the King's Brand, becoming the next King of Hallownest, after which he found and entered the dreams of each Dreamer and absorbed their power into his vessel, opened the Black Egg, and fought the Hollow Knight. But what wasn't expected was when another fighter, Hornet, entered the fray and held the Hollow Knight still long enough for the Knight to use the Dream Nail, entering his possessed mind and battling the Radiance directly.
TWO: The Knight fought tooth and Nail against the Radiance when she was more powerful than ever before. And won. He evaporated the Infection and killed the crap out of the goddess, then returned to the Abyss whence he came, mission complete.
LZ: But that's only one possible ending.
TWO: Right. There's another possible future where the Knight grows crazy powerful, enters the mind of the prophet Godseeker, and finds Godhome, a partially-complete Dream World version of Hallownest that's ascended above the clouds and all golden and stuff, created by Godseeker using a portion of the Radiance's power. She gets that power via a magic mask and ritual combat (of others, not herself). Oh, yeah, that makes so much sense.[6]
LZ: Here in Godhome, the Knight battled against Dream World versions of every major fighter in Hallownest in a row, created by Godseeker's ability to read the minds of those who reside in the kingdom. Unbeknownst to the Knight, this was all in secret reverence to the Radiance so that she could remake the world anew. Until she had attained enough power to mentally free the Radiance of her Dream bonds.
TWO: After the Knight found and defeated the Hollow Knight's dream self, the Pure Vessel, this plan finally succeeded. The Radiance reached Godhome. There, her own dream self, her original, unmitigated and unrestrained true power was allowed freedom: the Absolute Radiance, Goddess of Light.
LZ: The Knight battled the Radiance at the peak of her potential.
TWO: And kicked the crap out of her!
LZ: He did this by using the power of the Void Heart to call the Abyss up to him during his battle, fusing with it and transforming into the Void Given Focus, the Shade Lord. In this much larger, darker, and tendrilly form, the Knight is far more powerful, capable of snatching the Radiance and tearing her to pieces the same way you and I could a regular moth.
TWO: Which is unbelievable; remember, it was the Absolute Radiance who was supposed to remake all of Hallownest in the image of Godhome. Assuming a composition of wood, marble, and gold, she'd be manipulating over 313 Exatons of pure energy! But the Knight beat 'er, destroying the Infection and allowing the Hollow Knight to go free. And even outside of that form, the amount of things this little ghost has achieved is incredible.
LZ: With all he's accomplished, all he's faced, and all the power he has hidden under his mothwing cloak, he'd be a mean fight for anyone.
TWO: He's not the Hollow Knight.
LZ: He's far superior.
The Knight strikes the final blow on Nightmare King Grimm, the extradimensional being letting out a terrified shriek as its body begins bursting out of itself, transforming into a mixture of blood, hellfire, and bats. With one final cry, his body disintegrates, the screen turns white, and he fades away.
The Knight wakes up on the dusty ground.
He bows, picks up the newly-upgraded Grimmchild, and crystal dashes away.
The Knight:
Name: Unknown (probably Rufus. He looks like a Rufus)
Species: Shade within Vessel
Height: Approx. 3'10" / 116 cm
Weight: Approx. 36 lbs / 16 kg
Age: Unknown; some lore indicates the creation only occurred a decade or so ago, other lore indicates it stretches back to hundreds or even thousands of years ago
Occupation: Adventurer, Nailmaster, King of Hallownest
Aliases: The Void Unified, Void Given Focus, Shade Lord, Little Traveler, The Shadow, Shade, Little Ghost
Genderless and Mute
~But everyone in the community uses he/him pronouns, so I will too, don't cancel me plz
Fighting style is all about Nailing people
Abilities:
Superhuman strength, speed, agility, durability
Immortality (Vessel and Shade are separate), respawns at last safe point when killed
Master of the Art of the Nail
~Great Slash, Cyclone Slash, Dash Slash
Eternal Stamina, no hunger or sleep needed
Infection Immunity
Soul Collection
~ From organic life or by thoroughly resting
Focus
Vengeful Spirit
~Upgraded: Shade Soul
Desolate Dive
~Upgraded: Descending Dark
Howling Wraiths
~Upgraded: Abyss Shriek
Vessel Durability Coating
~Gained from consuming Isma's Tear
~Acid Repellation
Arsenal:
Pure Nail
~Can affect spirits and physical beings
~Kinetic absorption and expulsion
~Unbreakable
Awoken Dream Nail
~Destroys and collects souls
~Collects Essence
~Allows mind-reading and entry into dreams
~Dreamgate
Shade Cloak
Mantis Claw
Crystal Heart
Monarch Wings
Rancid Eggs
Map & Quill
Hunter's Journal
Salubra's Blessing
Charms:
[11 available notches, each charm has different Notch costs, can equip more than maximum at the cost of overcharming]
Wayward Compass
~Notch: 1
~ "Whispers its location to the bearer whenever a map is open, allowing wanderers to pinpoint their current location."
Gathering Swarm
~Notch: 1
~ A swarm will follow the bearer and gather up any loose Geo.
Stalwart Shell
~ Notch: 2
~ When recovering from damage, the bearer will remain invulnerable for longer
Soul Catcher
~ Notch: 2
~ Increases the amount of Soul gained when striking an enemy with the Nail
Shaman Stone
~ Notch: 3
~ Increases the power of spells, dealing more damage to foes
Soul Eater
~ Notch: 4
~ Greatly increases the amount of Soul gained when striking an enemy with the Nail
Dashmaster
~ Notch: 2
~ The bearer will be able to dash more often as well as dash downwards
Sprintmaster
~ Notch: 1
~ Increases the running speed of the bearer
Grubsong
~ Notch: 1
~ Gain Soul when taking damage
Grubberfly's Elegy
~ Notch: 3
~ When the bearer is at full health, they will fire beams of white-hot energy from their Nail
Unbreakable Heart
~ Notch: 2
~ Increases the health of the bearer, allowing them to take more damage
Unbreakable Greed
~ Notch: 2
~ Causes the bearer to find more Geo when defeating enemies
Unbreakable Strength
~ Notch: 3
~ Strengthens the bearer, increasing the damage they deal to enemies with their Nail
Spell Twister
~ Notch: 2
~ Reduces the Soul cost of casting spells
Steady Body
~ Notch: 1
~ Keeps its bearer from recoiling backward when they strike an enemy with a Nail
Heavy Blow
~ Notch: 2
~ Increases the force of the bearer's Nail, causing enemies to recoil further when hit
Quick Slash
~ Notch: 3
~ Allows the bearer to slash much more rapidly with their Nail
LongNail
~ Notch: 2
~ Increases the range of the bearer's Nail, allowing them to strike foes from further away
Mark of Pride
~ Notch: 3
~ Greatly increases the range of the bearer's Nail, allowing them to strike foes from further away
Fury of the Fallen
~ Notch: 2
~ When close to death, the bearer's strength will increase
Thorns of Agony
~ Notch: 1
~ When taking damage, sprout thorny vines that damage nearby foes
Baldur Shell
~ Notch: 2
~ Protects its bearer with a hard shell while focusing Soul. The shell is not indestructible and will shatter if it absorbs too much damage
Flukenest
~ Notch: 3
~ Transforms the Vengeful Spirit spell into a horde of volatile baby flukes
Defender's Crest
~ Notch: 1
~ Causes the bearer to emit a heroic odor [surrounds with brown fog that deals damage over time]
Glowing Womb
~ Notch: 2
~ Drains the Soul of its bearer and uses it to birth hatchlings. The hatchlings have no desire to eat or live, and will sacrifice themselves to protect their parent
Quick Focus
~ Notch: 3
~ Increases the speed of focusing Soul, allowing the bearer to heal damage faster
Deep Focus
~ Notch: 4
~ The bearer will focus Soul at a slower rate, but the healing effect will double
Lifeblood Heart
~ Notch: 2
~ The bearer will gain a coating of lifeblood that protects from a modest amount of damage
Lifeblood Core
~ Notch: 3
~ When resting, the bearer will gain a coating of lifeblood that protects from a large amount of damage
Joni's Blessing
~ Notch: 4
~ The bearer will have a healthier shell and can take more damage, but they will not be able to heal themselves by focusing Soul
Hiveblood
~ Notch: 4
~ Heals the bearer's wounds over time, allowing them to regain health without focusing Soul
Spore Shroom
~ Notch: 1
~ When focusing Soul, emit a spore cloud that slowly damages enemies
Sharp Shadow
~ Notch: 2
~ When using Shade Dash, the bearer's body will sharpen and damage enemies
Shape of Unn
~ Notch: 2
~ While focusing Soul, the bearer will take on a new shape and can move freely to avoid enemies
Nailmaster's Glory
~ Notch: 1
~ Increases the bearer's mastery of Nail Arts, allowing them to focus their power faster and unleash arts sooner
Weaversong
~ Notch: 2
~ Summons weaverlings to give the lonely bearer some companionship and protection
Dream Wielder
~ Notch: 1
~ Allows the bearer to charge the Dream Nail faster and collect more Soul when striking foes
Dreamshield
~ Notch: 3
~ Conjures a shield that follows the bearer and attempts to protect them
Grimmchild
~ Notch: 2
~ Summons a Grimmchild that follows the Knight and throws fireballs at foes
Void Heart
~ Notch: 0
~ Unifies the void under the bearer's will
Feats:
Defeated Failed Champion, Uumuu, Mantis Lords, Crystal Guardian, God Tamer, the Watcher Knights, Traitor Lord, Lost Kin, Nosk, Ogrim, Hollow Knight
Killed powerful Warrior Ghosts, including No Eyes, Xero, and Markoth
Killed Soul Tyrant, who was supposed to be immortal, with Nail
Killed the Collector, a being literally composed of shadows
Defeated all the most skilled Nailfighters in the world
Defeated Hornet, who can change the weather across Kingdom's Edge
Defeated Nightmare King Grimm, the physical embodiment of all nightmares
Killed the Radiance and Absolute Radiance, who could destroy and recreate all of Hallownest with a portion of her power
Won the Trial of the Fool
Dodged Crystal Lasers and beams of sunlight
Absorbed the Soul and power of all three Dreamers, in one timeline, absorbed the Radiance herself
Defeated every single monster in Hallownest, completing the Hunter's Journal
Entered the Mind of the Kingsmould, gaining access to the White Palace despite the best magical protection in the kingdom
Completed the Path of Pain
Defeated every major fighter in Hallownest rapid-fire in a row, monsters, allies, and dreams alike
Did all of this with a steel soul, without breaking his vessel once
Defeated The Invincible, Fearless, Sensual, Mysterious, Enchanting, Vigorous, Diligent, Overwhelming, Gorgeous, Passionate, Terrifying, Beautiful, Powerful, Grey Prince Zote
Survived being in the same multiverse as Primal Aspids, the second-most annoying enemy in video game history
Weaknesses:
Difficulty defending from electricity
Reliant on a steady supply of Soul for attacks other than Pure Nail and Dream Nail
Occasionally tricked and captured
Technically, has a limited supply of Essence to use Dreamgate
Only 11 Charm Notches, using any more Overcharms him, halving his durability
Shade can be killed by weapons that attack souls, will kill the Knight if done so without a Vessel protecting it
Fanbase pretends he has no free will or personality despite the game CLEARLY contradicting this
Special Notes:
[1] The realistically-sized weather effects throughout the game, including outside of Dirtmouth and Kingdom's Edge, as well as the size of most non-Greenpath plants, certain lore statements, NPCs that burrow through mountains, and the existence of regular non-giant bugs in-game indicate that this is a world of giant bugs, not a tiny anthill-sized problem. This is backed up in the official comic, and in crossovers, including one that also takes place in a world of bugs, where the Knight's Nail is the size of a building. This is backed up even further through an official crossover with Dead Cells, when a small portion of Hollow Knight's world accidentally crossed dimensions with High Peak, and both the bench and the Pure Nail were regular-human sized.
[2] The "bouncing" ability using a weapon is never seen outside of use of a Nail, and mushrooms in Fungal Wastes that store a great deal of excess energy send the user flying when hit with a Nail. Other experienced Nail-wielders, including Hornet, the Nailmasters, and the Hollow Knight, use techniques where they seek to block a hit to counterattack with great strength. Additionally, using the Nail in-game to block certain attacks from enemies will similarly send the force back at the attacker, dealing even more damage than a normal Nail strike does. This all suggests the Nails have this unique "kinetic kickback" quality; in fact, it's just about the only explanation for this.
[3] After entering the Temple of the Black Egg and reading a specific Lore Tablet, the Knight gained an ability known as "World Sense." In-game, this just displays the completion percentage of the game on the inventory screen. However, the tablet implies that this granted the Knight some sort of great sense of the world at large. Still, as no other tablet has simply granted the Knight powers, this may just be worldbuilding meant for the original Hollow Knight and its mission. The statement is far too vague to assume the Knight has some kind of spidey-sense or anything.
[4] In gameplay, the Shade Cloak can pass through absolutely any attack or creature, but lore-wise, it may seem that it should be able to be hit and affected by weapons and beings that exist on the same spiritual plane as a Shade. However, various parts of the world are locked off by gates made specifically by the same spiritual Void and the Shade Cloak can pass through those, and whilst in Dream Worlds (which do not change the Knight's abilities in any notable way) it can pass through regular ghosts and the attacks of non-void "gods," including the Radiance. In fact, the Radiance has an attack that very specifically must be dodged using the Shade Cloak, indicating that this is canon in both gameplay and lore.
[5] For gameplay balance, only one charm may be used to overcharm the Knight, but since each can technically fit onto one notch, it should be possible to wear up to eleven charms of any power. Since overcharming has the same level of potency regardless of how many notches it circumvents, this should be the case here: The Knight should, in-lore, be able to equip any eleven charms with the only downside being taking double damage.
[6] Originally, the Godseeker used a specific device to sense the power levels and read the minds of all living creatures across a country, but they now claim to do so with only their own magical power ("We have ascended beyond it. No need for such an instrument."). Despite the different location and, well, architectural style, Godseeker also speaks of Hallownest and Godhome together as if they were one and the same many times, the heavy implication being that Godhome is an idealized recreation of Hallownest the same way a fighter's Dream self is an idealized version of them ("Hallownest... Even fading, a glorious land of Gods. Never. Never! The Gods here will never die!" "Revived, this kingdom. These Gods, tuned and bested, gleaming in mind. Bright. Sharp." "Here. Heart of the Kingdom. We listen for them here."). This power seems to come directly from the Radiance. Not only is her Dream Arena identical to the style and color scheme of Godhome, but Godseeker also implies it through dialogue. ("Through ritual combat are We attuned to the voices of the Gods." "Through Godly focus do We attain communion with that great power sleeping in the Kingdom's heart." "Ye must think Us Godly. Amusing, foolish. But thou art faced with enormity and beauty, true…" "Even so for We who seek! By attuning Ourselves We clutch at their greatness, their immortality. Their unknowable splendour." "To achieve victory, even if only against mere imprint of that most brilliant deity. Thine battles proves strength enough to impress.").
…
All right, the combatants are set, and we've run the data through all possibilities. It's time for a…
Death Battle!
…
Skul peered through the flashing images of the Dark Mirror. Something was wrong.
It'd been three weeks since he'd broken the dark dimension for the last time. He'd only just finished transporting the last of the dimension's equipment into the castle last week. Would have been a lot easier with some magical help, of course, but he was the only one who could go through the mirror, and the witch on the other side had vanished shortly after his defeat of the final dark hero.
Since then, the purple world had been seemingly collapsing, one centimeter at a time, tearing itself into pieces before fading away. But lately, something else had been happening. The mirror would occasionally flash with images that he'd never seen before. That itself wasn't so unusual, but even the Witch hadn't seen anything like what it would show.
Three days ago, it was a snowed-in village filled with demons the likes of which he had never seen. Yesterday, it was a castle with frothing zombies and fire-headed creatures. Today, it was dark caverns. Mostly dirt tunnels, sometimes building-like structures with a lot of spikes, and the rare large insect walking past. But the weirdest part was that, every once in a while, the flashes would be of the same images, but in white and gold instead of blue and brown.
Every so often, Skul got the urge to jump through, but he didn't know if he'd ever be able to get back if he did. Granted, that hadn't exactly stopped him before, but he was under strict orders from, well, everybody in the castle to leave the mirror alone. The Engineer hadn't figured out how safe it was yet.
But, then again, he was alone right now. Everyone else was out on some sort of "important treaty business" and trusted him to quite literally hold down the fort.
So there'd be nobody to stop him from just…
…
The Knight had just finished another run-through of the Pantheon of the Sage, all bindings enabled. He was working his way up, slowly, but surely. If he wanted to finally take out the final Pantheon and fight the Absolute Radiance, he had to be stronger. Faster. He'd taken one hit in the final round against Sly; not good enough. With the Hollow Knight a husk and all three Dream Seals broken, this was the only way he could put down the goddess. He and Hornet had both agreed, and as soon as she found her own Dream Nail, the two were facing the Radiance together. But if he wasn't ready to face her at her best…
The Knight sat down on a gold-encrusted chair. He took a moment to pin on some charms. Maybe instead of bindings, he should try to just go hitless. That way, he could rely on his charms and calculate the strength of his Nail in his final battle.
Awake! Awake!
Godseeker's voice rang out across the golden country. The Knight genuinely didn't know if she knew he could hear her.
A God awakes. Fallen. Angered. Fulfilled. God of skeletons. God of death. God of Heroes. We embrace! We ascend!
A new challenge was available. Perfect.
The Knight hopped off the chair, activated his wings, and flew up to the line of statues of individual fighters, or "gods" as the Godseeker called them. He scanned the line. Strange. He didn't see anything new.
But he did feel it when a skeletal hand touched his cloak.
The Knight jumped up and dashed backward to see the almost-apparition-like hand reaching out to him. It didn't seem to come from anywhere and grew and shrank in length. It was like there was an invisible portal that it was coming out from. The Knight cocked his head to one side. He'd never seen something quite like this, but if previous experience were anything to go by…
The Knight pulled out the Dream Nail and struck the hand.
Reality around him suddenly seemed to shatter into pieces, and his surroundings shifted into something else completely.
He was inside a stone castle, surrounded by strange machinery like he'd seen in the Soul Sanctum. Right behind him was the backboard of a mirror, with the broken glass from said mirror surrounding his feet. It was definitely a new kind of battlefield.
And, less than a meter in front of him, was a living skeleton in a cape.
The skeleton cocked his head, seemingly confused, but the Knight was paying more attention to the chair next to the broken remains of the mirror. Resting here could give him quite an advantage.
He jumped up and onto the chair, crossing his legs and centering his inner self. A ghostly spirit appeared above him; Salubra's Blessing was activated. The skeleton didn't seem to notice. Maybe this was a boss he had to challenge before it would attack back.
Rested, the Knight bounded back and unleashed his Pure Nail, raising it to the fighter and challenging him to start this fight.
The skeleton seemed surprised, but didn't hesitate to pull out his own weapon. Something that looked to be a large thighbone.
The Knight swung.
-FIGHT!-
Two streaks of white painted the air as the bone and Nail clashed. With the speeds they were swung at, anybody watching would have just seen two white lines, but Skul had seen the striking point of the Nail perfectly and met it mid-swing. The air rocked for a brief moment before Skul was sent tumbling backward, a sudden push of pressure on his weapon.
The Knight saw Skul recover quickly and put his hands to each side. The left touched a large chalice, and the right, a mechanical device that looked vaguely like something he'd seen in a City of Tears crumbled gambling room. Whatever these machines did, it was clear that it was helpful, as a glow of green and blue energy swirled around Skul. When he gripped the bone now, a set of silver and black armor encased his body.
He surprised The Knight by tearing off his own skull and chucking it at the Vessel, who instinctively batted it away with the Nail. Skul immediately transported himself to the skull and whipped his bone around. The Knight still managed to block it, but now he was the one set back, by a red explosive orb created by Skul's strike. The Knight caught himself mid-air and dashed back, but unbeknownst to him, Skul saw the dash as it was forming in slow motion. He threw an arm bone at the flying Vessel, striking through the slowed-in-time Knight, and transported to it while swinging down his bone in what should have been a powerful strike. But, thanks to the Shade Cloak, it passed harmlessly through the slowed-void child.
As they both landed on the ground, the time-slow wore off. The Knight turned to his opponent and charged a Dash Slash. Skul dashed forward himself, and when the Knight unleashed his charged strike, he easily saw the faster-than-light movement. He raised his bone to block the Nail… and the Nail struck right through the bone, slicing it in half, and taking out Skul's entire arm.
Skul dashed to the other side of the Knight. If he had eyes, they'd be very wide right now. This dimensional demon, this mirrored menace, this… something that sounded good alliterated, was way stronger than he'd expected. That pure strength was on-par with the Dark Hero. But he had made the mistake of challenging Skul in his home. Nobody had been dumb enough to do that, yet.
Skul scooted backward and touched the skull distributor. With a flash of golden light, he grew two threads of golden antennae, a red gi, and a jewel-encrusted staff. A staff that the Overlord skull guaranteed he knew how to use perfectly.
The Knight backed up as he saw his opponent enter Phase Two. He'd seen this sort of thing many times before, though it usually wasn't such a drastic change. Phase One had been pretty easy, so he was confident in his abilities now.
He Dash Slashed forward, but was hit from the side and knocked down when the staff suddenly spun at three times its length. Strange. But he'd fought stranger. He moved again, this time Shade-Dashing through the attack. But the staff shrank just as quickly and blocked the attack from the Nail. It parried the hit perfectly, but the rebound caused the staff to go flying out of the Overlord's hands.
The Knight swung again, and Skul had to dash through it. He summoned a magic cloud to race to his staff, snatching it up before the Knight had time to process what happened. He twirled the staff in his hands and, with an expulsion of magic, summoned ten golden spirit clones of himself to fight alongside him. He zoomed ahead on his cloud, every clone just a moment behind, and struck down with an attack that was felt from heaven to earth. The Knight managed to raise his Nail in time to block the attack, but then his clones caught up and all struck the same way. Under their power, the Knight was forced to the ground and his Nail clattered to the floor. But not without the minor consequence of every clone being pushed back a few meters.
The original Skul reached him first and readied a cyclone to finish the job. He swung, around, around, and around, the staff growing larger each time, as the Knight managed to barely pull himself back up. The clones had recovered by now, and were atop their clouds, racing to rejoin the fight. The Knight watched woozily as the staff swung ever closer towards him. And when it finally was long enough to reach him…
The Knight lifted one shadowed hand to his right. And caught the staff.
The staff stopped its motion entirely. Skul pulled on it, but he couldn't move the magic wood. The Knight simply stared, and black thorns wrapped themselves alongside his end of the relic. Then, with a jab of dark energy, the staff fragmented into pieces of wood.
Skul backed up a bit, but this didn't prevent his clones from attacking. They got within a few meters and all leapt off of their clouds, ready to bring the fury of heaven upon the little ghost.
Who brought out his Dream Nail and swung it.
Instantly, the room reverberated with dream energy, and all ten spirit clones shattered like glass.
The Knight inhaled deeply and, with a spiritual roar, unleashed a massive Shade Soul at Skul.
Skul woke from his shock immediately and switched skulls to the Carleon Commander. Hordes of demons began clawing their way up from the ground, only for most to melt instantly against the Shade Soul. Only the single-second forcefield Skul had gained from switching protected him from its full power.
The rest of the demons attacked the child of void, who, with a thought and a few charms, forged a horde of weaverlings and hatchlings. Some attached themselves to the demons, some exploded on contact, killing both of them, and some ignored the horde to attack Skul instead. The Knight jumped into the air and shot two more Shade Souls, his Soul replenished by the sacrifice of his minions.
Skul changed again, now into Guardian Commander, who stopped the projectiles with his massive, unbreakable shield. An unbreakable shield which now had two large dents in it. Huh.
The Commander slammed his shield into the ground as four weaverlings approached him. Instantly, every weaverling and hatchling on the field was crushed, and the Knight stumbled once, the tiniest of cracks appearing in one horn. The few remaining demons in the battle took the opportunity to rush the Vessel, but he ducked, a half-faded shell suddenly surrounding him and blocking every attack the demons made. Inside, the Knight's body glowed lightly, and the slight crack healed. When he stood up again, he shrieked with the strength of the Abyss, melting through every demon and smashing another dent into Skul's shield.
Skul dashed forward, ready to cave the Knight's skull in, but was pushed back by another Shade Soul. The Knight dashed forward himself following this and struck with the Pure Nail, piercing the unpierceable shield and slicing it cleanly up through the top. As the shield fell to pieces, the Nail pierced right into Skul's skull and smashed it through.
Skul felt the initial piercing, and, realizing what was to happen, used his Chosen One's Circlet's power boost to counterattack, using the last remaining shield piece in his hand to crash into the Vessel's head, breaking a crack down the middle.
The hit stunned the Knight, but it didn't matter; his enemy was in pieces on the ground. So much for Phase Two.
Then the pieces jumped up and kicked the Knight backward. The Reassemble Trait had come in quite handy once again. Skul blinked as well as he could once his head returned, and swapped in the Eternal Werewolf skull. The Knight's weapon was incredibly strong, but only holy magic-
The Pure Nail stabbed straight through the werewolf's skin and, with a charged Cyclone Slash, bisected the creature, instantly killing him.
The Knight shrugged and turned around.
Skul felt his spirit return and his body reform in front of the broken mirror. So. The invader had a holy weapon. That was neat.
WHAT?!
Skul gulped. As close as he could get to gulping. This shadowy being was stronger than him, full of superpowers, and had a holy weapon. Which meant Skul actually stood a chance of dying. Permanently dying.
Oh. Gulping was a mistake. The Knight turned around, noticeably taken aback, but raised his blade once again.
Alright, time to clean this up.
Skul backed up, touching the Chalice, the Item Dispenser, and the Skull Dispenser. He immediately transformed into the Poseidon skull and blasted the Knight with a wave of water. The pressure collapsed the Witch's desk, but he'd have to apologize for that later. The pressure of the blast worked, sending the Knight flying out of the balcony. Skul ran forward and leapt out himself, activating his Sylphid Wings to fly through the air above his opponent. As he flew, he pelted the slowed-in-time Knight with steaming water, then raised up a small hurricane out of the ground to catch the Knight, drowning and bludgeoning him at the same time.
The Knight bounced around and used the Descending Dark, transforming into a creature of collapsing darkness and plunging through the waves. As soon as he hit the ground, the shock of the dive spread through the hurricane, causing it to explode into steam. He sat and Focused, the Baldur's Shell charm keeping him safe from the bombs he was being pelted by, and, while he Focused, he switched a few charms. Once he was fully healed, he stood up, dodged to the right of a ball of water, and glanced up at Skul, flying high above him.
Skul didn't know what he expected to see next, but if definitely wasn't the Knight growing his own pair of ethereal wings and flying up to meet him.
Skul pounded a wave of water towards him, which the Knight flew above. The Knight struck at him with his Nail. At first, Skul was confused, since the two were several meters apart, but when the strike launched a sword beam at him, he was less confused and more panicked.
Skul barely dodged to the left in time, and swapped to the Sniper. When he saw another sword beam coming, he shot it out of the air with an arrow. The two energy weapons collided and exploded with a small amount of force. Skul lifted his bow into the air and fired dozens of arrows in one shot. He swapped to Nightmare and threw his chains at the Knight to keep him in place. The Knight dodged one chain easily, but when he tried to parry the other with his Nail, it wrapped around the weapon, locking it in place with the Knight's hand. The Knight struggled to break free, but simply touching the chain burned him, and the first time he reached for it, a red explosion struck him without warning. He was caught completely off-guard by the rain of arrows striking into his body. None fully pierced it, but it obviously hurt, and many of them remained in his vessel, sticking out of him at painful angles.
Skul swapped to Dark Alchemist, hellfire chain still in-hand, and launched a series of ready-made flasks at the Knight, who couldn't avoid them. As they struck him, he shrieked.
Wait. No. He shrieked before they struck him.
With the Abyss Shriek, every flash exploded mid-air, and, after swapping one charm, the Knight was seemingly much stronger. He grasped the chain, ignoring the searing heat, and flung it over his shoulder. Skul, who hadn't yet let go, was suddenly hurled through the air and past the floating Knight. A sharp pull of the chain, and he crashed into the muddy ground.
Skul groaned and clapped his hands. A dark golem rose from the ground and roared at the Knight. It and Skul both spewed dark energy towards the Knight, who pulled out his Dream Nail and swung it at the spiritual chain. The chain shattered like glass, releasing the Knight to dodge these attacks with ease. He aligned himself above the two and dove down into a Descending Dark. Skul was smart enough to swap to Ninja Master and blast out of there at light-speed. The golem? Not so much. It took the full brunt of the Descending Dark and broke into chunks of Dark Quartz.
The Knight saw Skul's next form and shook his head. He tried to Focus, but immediately realized that the final Descending Dark had taken all the Soul he had left.
Skul swapped to the Destroyer and leapt forward, bringing his two glowing blades down onto the Knight. The Knight dashed backward, narrowly dodging the massive greatswords. Skul didn't rest, spinning the blades fast enough to form a vortex. The Knight felt himself being pulled in and quickly struck out with the Dream Nail. But nothing happened. This vortex wasn't magical; it was just Skul's sheer strength.
As the Knight was pulled closer, Skul switched tactics and swung his swords upwards, the vortex dissipating but still holding an effect. The Knight was struck with the full brunt of the attack, being flung into the air, then downward again as the Destroyer's greatsword struck down on his front. This was followed by another powerful smash, driving him into the ground hard enough to crater it. The Knight desperately managed the Shade-Dash away before he was struck again, but Skul swapped to Neo Samurai and launched forward.
In a moment too fast for the Knight to see coming, his vessel's head was sent soaring off his shoulders. Mid-air, it cracked, splintered, and crumbled. The vessel fell into dust; it had taken too much damage.
Skul sheathed his katana and turned to the remains of his opponent. But there were no remains.
There was just a dark spirit. That was flying at him in full attack mode.
Skul slashed through the Shade faster than the eye could blink, but it went straight through as if the little ghost didn't feel it. Skul backed up and swapped to Soul Knight, a skull he knew could handle spirits.
Indeed, the sudden heat from his spirit flames seemed to give the Shade pause, and when he struck out with his flaming sword, it released a ghastly cry. A sound only a spirit could make. Skul charged forward with his fist, snatched the dark spirit by the throat, and immolated it in blue flame. It immediately began to wail and scream in horrific ways; he knew from experience what hearing the sounds of spirits would do to a living creature. But he wasn't alive. Not anymore.
He heard a thud behind him but didn't spare it a glance.
Not until he felt his soul energy being drawn in by something.
The flames surrounding him went out. His sword was pulled from his hand. And the spirit in his grasp fell into a puddle of dark raindrops and fled into whatever was behind him.
Skul turned to see the Knight, a meter in the air, absorbing his magic into his body.
Skul swapped to a different skull immediately. He didn't care which one; he just couldn't let this creature power up more. This creature. How had he survived? Was he attached to this dark spirit? Could he teleport? Or was he immortal, like him?
He didn't know it, but his fear had forced him up a tier. His skull was now the Legendary Archlich.
The Knight swung, and Skul frantically put his hands out, summoning whatever magic his skull had. The resulting chains smashed into the Knight and wrapped around him, binding him tightly.
Oh. Neat.
The Knight stared at Skul. Unlike all his other Godhome opponents, he hadn't reverted to the start when he'd fallen. His Shade hadn't returned to Godhome. He hadn't woken. This was off. Something was wrong here.
He Shade-Dashed through the chains, but Skul summoned more, up from the ground. He jumped and pogo'd on them, using the resulting airflow to take flight. Skul launched himself into the air, too. That was getting very troublesome. The Knight flew back to the edge of the castle, locked himself in with the Mantis Claw, and charged up a crystal dash. As Skul flew toward him, charging up an attack of his own, the Knight blasted forward, Pure Nail outstretched. Skul dove to the left so the attack wouldn't hit his neck, but the Knight wasn't aiming for his neck.
The Pure Nail only caught the edge of one Sylphid Wing, but that was all it needed. The slice caused Skul to tilt, then spin, then crash toward the ground. He tried to steady himself with a dash upwards, but the Knight saw this coming. He dashed downwards and, with a Nail that struck all planes of reality, cut straight through the right Sylphid Wing.
Only when he crashed into the ground did he realize the Skul had the same idea. The attack he was charging had been released on, and only on, his Monarch Wings. They were frozen stiff. If he so much as tried to flap them, they would rip themselves apart.
He tried anyway.
They ripped themselves apart.
Skul landed on his feet and blasted a wave of freezing spirit chains in front of him, which the Knight shattered with the Dream Nail. Skul grimaced and swapped to Magnifico. The hibiscus-colored genie immediately teleported out of sight.
The Knight looked up. It wasn't very hard to tell where he was going.
Skul, in Magnifico form, appeared inside the upper wing of the castle. He fell to the ground. If he could sweat. He'd be shaking right now. No matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of the intruder. No matter what he hit him with, nothing seemed to work. Even the one time he thought he killed him, he had just come right back. What could he do?!
His eyes fell upon the broken mirror.
His thoughts turned to the person he had last met inside that dimension.
"The Dimension Dark Quartz… yes. This is absolute power. The world… is becoming one with the gap. …You're no ordinary skeleton. I will let you know when the time is right."
If the world could become one with Dark Quartz… why couldn't he? He remembered how many creatures he'd fought that were imbued with that power. He'd spent more time around it than anyone. He could control it; he knew that for sure thanks to the Dark Alchemist skull. So what was to stop him from just using these pieces of the Dark Mirror and gaining enough power to finally destroy that little shadow once and for all?
He was interrupted by a powerful dark fireball. The Knight had climbed the tower in record time using the Mantis Claw. And now he stood at the foot of the balcony, Nail drawn and ready.
Skul was done with this.
He swapped to the Grim Reaper.
He burst into smoke and smashed through the Knight, coating him in inky darkness. When he reformed at the other side, he pointed and released a surge of death magic through the smoke.
The Knight's body broke down, tearing itself to pieces instantly.
Only for the Shade to pop out, and Skul to see the Knight reappear, seemingly from nowhere, onto a chair next to the Dark Mirror.
Confused as he was enraged, Skul burst into smoke again, covering the Shade and appearing on the other side. But before he could fully reemerge, the Knight had already struck the soul smoke with the Dream Nail, dispelling it and bringing his Shade back to his body.
Skul cut into the wall, opening a portal and summoning a horde of souls to attack the Knight. He ignored how each one was destroyed with only a single hit, and focused on the Dark Mirror. He needed a way of absorbing energy from objects around him. Something that made the incorporeal corporeal, and not just that, but turned it into an active enhancement that he could use…
His eyes drifted up to the Chalice.
He hurriedly forced every piece of the former dimensional portal to fly up and rest on the alchemy table behind the Chalice. He reached into it and charged it with soul energy; he'd seen the Druid do it way too many times not to have picked up on it by now. And this skull had more than enough-
He was blasted with a burst of crystals and pinned to the back wall before he could blink. When he did, he saw the Pure Nail embedded in his chest. If it weren't for his Traits, he'd have died again right then.
Skul tried to turn into smoke, but, somehow, the holy weapon wouldn't let him. He tried to grab his scythe, but the Knight knocked it out of his hands. He shook his head, hoping to dislodge his skull and transform into something that would help him get out of this, but with his body pinned, he was, ironically, too durable for that.
The Knight inhaled, then burst forth a massive Shade Soul. Then another. And another. With each, Skul felt his form be battered with spiritual energy. The first smashed his invisible mystical armor. The second crushed his godly bones. The third tore apart his entire lower half.
The Knight charged a Great Slash, and tore upwards, cleaving the Grim Reaper in two. Ending Skul.
For about two seconds.
The second he reformed, Skul lunged for his dispensers. The Knight saw and hurled the Pure Nail at the skull dispenser, drilling into it and snapping the magic that made it work. No time to lament. Skul dashed to his Item Dispenser and managed to touch it right before it disintegrated under a Shade Soul. Items returned, he focused on the Chalice, which wasn't yet done forming his newest elixir.
Suddenly realizing what was about to happen, Skul jumped in front of the Chalice, taking the Shade Soul for the magical goblet. The power of the attack blasted apart his entire left side and activated his Reassemble Trait. He pulled out the Dawn of the Crimson Son and barely blocked the next Shade Soul with it.
Okay. Now or never.
Skul pulled out and activated his Quintessence.
With an orchid-colored flash and palpable rising smoke, a large dark-haired female warrior appeared. She wore the violet garb of a royal knight but with silver armor and a cape on top, and a devilish glint that made it hard to mistake her origins. She turned until she saw the one who summoned her. Skul pointed at the Knight, who was currently rubbing his eyes, and nodded. Without a word, Suonisio turned to the Knight and blitzed through the air, rapier ready to end him.
The Knight blocked her swing and dashed behind her, determined to destroy that Chalice. But Suonisio wasn't so easily dissuaded. She vanished in a violet plume and reappeared between the two skeletal children. The Knight backed off and angled his head to the left, studying his opponent. Suonisio swung her blade, unleashing a mighty explosion in the Vessel's vicinity, who Shade-Dashed through it. He stuck to the ground and crystal dashed at her, which she countered by grabbing him out of the air, filling her hand with dark magic, and exploding it on top of the Knight.
The Knight took the hit, hurting, but alive. He pulsed out an Abyss Shriek, causing Suonisio to drop him and cover her ears in pain. He immediately began slashing away, and while he only got off a few hits, he did notice that, unlike Skul, hitting her actually granted him Soul.
The Knight backed out of her attempted grab and dashed backward. He watched her fill her hand with dark energy and throw it at him, like a baseball. He struck the orb with the Dream Nail, but it just caused it to explode immediately, knocking him back into the corner he had just put Skul into. Suonisio slashed ahead to follow up.
But this time, the Knight had figured her out.
He Shade-Dashed through her body, allowing her rapier to stick in the wall of the castle. When she had even the slightest bit of trouble pulling it out, Suonisio abandoned the blade, turning to prevent whatever the Knight had planned. She hurled an orb of energy at the Knight, who fired a Shade Soul back. The two collided and exploded into black flame and purple smoke, through which the Knight jumped through.
Suonisio lit her hand with energy again, and the Knight threw his Nail, aimed perfectly, skewering her hand and the dark magic within. The explosion encompassed Suonisio, breaking her armor and sending her to the floor. The Knight immediately followed up on this with a Shade Soul, crushing her chest and throwing her back even farther. Knowing now that she couldn't move, he crystal dashed into her body, headbutting her hard enough to send her flying backward into the wall - and into the sword that was left there.
Suonisio's eyes stared, full and fearful, at the hole in her stomach where her own blade was jutting out. And before she closed them, the Knight was on her, slashing to gain as much Soul as he could before she died.
When he finally turned around, the half-demon warrior was no more, and he was fully healed.
And the Chalice mixture was complete.
The Knight launched a Shade Soul, instantly striking the Chalice and causing its mixture, as well as the drained mirror shards on the alchemy table, to fall onto the ground.
But not before Skul had touched it.
Skul looked normal. It didn't initially appear like anything had changed.
But then he was on the Knight in an instant and hitting him with the Bone.
And it hurt.
The Knight Shade-Dashed through Skul, trying to figure out a solution here. He'd destroyed the dimensional portal with the Dream Nail; maybe he could do the same here?
He readied a Dream Nail slash as Skul dashed towards him.
He struck.
And he saw everything.
In that moment, that glimpse into the Little Bone's mind, he saw his name. His history. His doubts and fears. What he thought the Knight was. What he'd already sacrificed, and was willing to sacrifice again. How dangerous this new power was. How afraid he was of it. Of the Knight. Of himself.
And how, if the Knight had just left well enough alone, neither of them would be in danger of dying.
The Knight took Skul's attack and fell to the ground.
He stood up. Brushed off his cloak. Nodded to his fellow skeleton.
And activated the Dreamgate to leave.
Skul jumped when he saw the golden sigil that took the shadow away from him. No! He'd worked so hard for this, had to sacrifice so much, and now he was just going to leave? To come back and attack another day?
No. He was ready for him today. So he would fight him today.
Skul reached out his bony hand to the vanishing sigil.
Maybe it was because he was special. Maybe it was because he'd already been to other dimensions. Or maybe it was because of the Dark Quartz flowing through his soul.
But the sigil turned a deep purple and let him through.
He felt exactly the same as when he went through the Dark Mirror. But now, there was someone ahead of him. He reached out and grasped onto their cloak. They, the Knight, he somehow knew, turned in shock, less than a second before they fell out and into a new world.
…
The Knight awoke to the overwhelming sound of cheers and mocking voices. For a moment, he wondered if he'd somehow died and was being greeted by everyone he killed.
No, wait, that was stupid. He was at the Colosseum of Fools.
Why was he at the Colosseum of Fools?!
He felt a hand grasping his cloak; right, Skul had somehow managed to follow his Dreamgate, and grabbed him mid-transport. That was a big problem. If they were both in Hallownest, and he only reformed at the castle, and the Knight's last resting point was at the castle…
Then whoever's body broke next was permanently trapped in another dimension.
He got to his stubby feet and glanced around at the crowd and the very-surprised referee. He guessed they all thought this was a sudden bonus match; their champion returning for one last hurrah. He winced. How long exactly had it been since he last placed a Dreamgate? Apparently, longer than he'd thought.
He heard Skul shuffling into standing behind him, no doubt shocked at where he'd ended up. If only he could convince the little skeleton that he just wanted to leave him alone. But Skul was way more powerful now, and if he gave him an inch, he'd be the one breaking first.
Fine. He'd just have to send him home the hard way.
The Knight began swapping out his charms for Quick Slash, Unbreakable Strength, Mark of Pride, Steady Body, and Nailmaster's Glory. A full build for duels between users of the Art of the Nail.
Skul, standing fully upright, covered his long-dead eyes from the harsh artificial lights he was under. Where had this shadow monster taken him? It was some sort of arena, that's for sure. For sports? Jousting? There weren't any horses.
He backed away as he noticed every member of the arena was a large insect. Where in Harmonia was he?! Or, maybe… he wasn't in Harmonia. That was a scary thought. But even scarier were the husks lying around. He couldn't smell anything, but he'd seen enough fighting to recognize it immediately: blood in the earth, death in the air. This was a place of combat.
For dueling?
Sure.
Maybe if he fought this creature, no tricks, no extra skulls, maybe if he just overwhelmed him using the one thing he was good at, then he would take him home.
Or, he could beat him senseless and force him to do it.
And he had just the weapon.
Skul turned to see that the Knight was fiddling with his cloak again. He wouldn't get that chance another time. From his scroll, Skul summoned the one weapon he knew for sure could beat the Knight, no matter what he used: The Fulgent Dawn.
The Knight finished and sharply raised his Nail up towards Skul, challenging him again.
As Rainbow and White faced each other, a gong sounded, and a very confused announcer shouted "FIGHT!"
The Knight unleashed his charged attack in a Dash Slash, but Skul had learned from his previous encounters. He raised his own sword to block it, and block it he did. Instantly, all the energy spent charging the slash rebounded back onto the true Vessel, who was sent flying backward into a corner of the arena. The crowd "ooh"d. Skul tossed the Fulgent Dawn into the air and caught it, as if rebalancing the weapon, though really it was just something cool he'd seen the Knight do and wanted to try for himself.
The Knight shook off the hit. Skul was learning. Interesting, but not unexpected. He charged up his crystal dash and blasted back to the arena's center, stopping just out of range of the sword. As expected of a relative novice to Nailfighting, Skul tried to catch him mid-dash, which left him now with a lunge an inch from the Knight's head and a position perfectly suited for disarming. The Knight raised his blade up and clanged against the hilt of Skul's sword, immediately causing it to go flying out of his hands. It was in the air less than half a second, though, when the hands extended into strings of darkness and caught the blade, then immediately swung down again. The Knight slashed up, catching the extended reach of the Nail and repelling the energy backward.
The Knight dashed a meter away. This was new. Skul had collapsed all the strength of the Dark Mirror into his physical form, which, if the skeleton was anything of a soul-container like Vessels, must have allowed him some sort of special malleability. From the looks of things, though, Skul hadn't really figured it out himself, and was planning on fighting Sword-to-Nail, a proper duel. Good.
This all entered and left his mind between the time it took for him to dash away and reach his destination. He immediately turned back and held his Nail in counter-stance. Right on time, as Skul leapt from his spot and swung his sword down. The Knight blocked and countered with a burst of strength, which Skul narrowly dodged by dashing through his vessel. He leapt into an attack from behind, but the Knight saw it coming and Shade-Dashed through his body, striking him from behind and landing the first true hit of the round.
Skul staggered a bit. This was a lot. Too much. He didn't have his skulls, he didn't have his wings, even the extra explosions his swords normally gave him didn't work in this dimension. If he wanted to win he only had one option: to be better.
The Knight charged up another Dash Slash, and saw the golden flames of the other skeleton's eyes harden. He shook it off and struck forward, and to his surprise, Skul didn't dodge. He took the hit and bounced away before digging his bony feet into the ground. His eyes locked onto the Knight's Nail. Taking advantage of the gap in defenses, the Knight charged up a Great Slash and struck Skul through the chest.
Again, no dodging, and though his white skeletal form flew backward and cracked from the hit, he stood right back up, eyes having never left the Knight's weapon. Knight performed another Dash Slash, kicking him into an arena corner. No dodging, no blocking. Sufficiently freaked out, the Knight decided to end it immediately, despite the cheering of the crowd having slowly begun transforming into boos, not wanting to see such bullying. He charged up his most powerful Nail Art, the Cyclone Slash, and twirled the winds of destruction on Skul's skeletal body.
Skul didn't block or move. He took every single hit, each only further locking him into the corner. Chips fell from his ribs and cracks spread up through his skull.
The Knight's cyclone slash ended, and Skul hadn't moved an inch. The only exception was his eyes, which, no matter what, were kept locked onto the Pure Nail.
The Knight immediately charged another Cyclone Slash to end it before whatever this was got out of hand. He charged, spun, and released the slash.
And now, Skul moved. He used his own legendary blade, jumping straight into the air as the Cyclone Slash began, as a pogo stick, throwing his body past the Knight and calculating the position of his hand when the Knight would turn. Perfectly timed, he slashed ahead, connecting with the hilt of the weapon mid-turn and sending it clattering to the ground.
The crowd's boos turned right back to cheers.
The Knight backed up, surprised. In training with the other Nailmasters, he'd also discovered that same exploitable weakness, but nobody else he knew had. But that entire time he was getting slashed and hurt, Skul had been tracking how the Knight used his Nail, and when the perfect time to strike was.
But that wasn't all he was figuring out.
Skul held the Fulgent Dawn back behind him, and it began to glow.
The Knight shook his head. Wait, what?!
Skul shot forward, the glowing rainbowed blade swinging in a perfect arc. The Knight was hit point-blank with the Dash Slash, and skidded backward as a notch was cut into his mask.
He had to be trained by a master of the art for hours before even understanding the basics of the technique, and here, this single child skeleton had figured it out, with a weapon the technique wasn't designed around, just by paying attention to his hands in the middle of battle. It wasn't just impressive. It was frightening. Was this all he could do? What else had he learned?!
The answer came a second later as Skul charged another Art and began spinning. The multicolored Cyclone Slash battered the Knight like the blades of a fan and threw him over into the middle of the battlefield.
He'd learned everything.
The Knight got back up onto his feet. He dashed for his Nail, and Skul dashed to intercept him. He succeeded in getting between the two, but the Shade Cloak allowed the Knight to just go through Skul and retrieve his Nail on the other side. Skul turned to slash right away, but the Knight's Dream Nail was quick, and he was back in the center of the arena before the hit connected.
Now armed and significantly more prepared, he Dash Slashed back to Skul, who met the attack with a Great Slash. The air audibly cracked as the two blades collided, but the Knight had a few advantages Skul didn't. As the repellation energy created a burst of power that sent Skul soaring backward and landing on his back, the Knight stayed put thanks to Steady Body.
He charged his Nail again. If Skul was going to be using new techniques he hadn't tested in true battle yet, it only seemed fair that he should, too. He'd studied this with the Mantis and Hornet, but had yet to actually test it in a real fight. Until now.
As Skul crawled back onto his feet, the Knight spun around and threw his Nail through the air, spinning like a frisbee. The weapon's wide arc caught Skul unawares, and though he tried to block with the Fulgent Dawn, the wider circle just meant it slammed into him at whichever side he didn't defend. He fell another half-meter back, and, like a Mantis boomerang, the Nail arc'd back, landing safely in the Knight's outstretched hand.
The crowd cheered again, and the Knight sighed, or, at least, as close to it as his body could. The Return Slash was a success.
He glanced over at Skul, getting back up again. The cracks in his body and skull were papered over by patches of purple shadow. If he didn't know he could do more with this form than just Nail Arts, he soon would.
Skul rose to his feet. That move was different; more complicated than the others. He might be able to learn it, too, but it'd take a lot more practice and a lot more getting hit, which wasn't exactly something he wanted right now. His body had gone through a lot already, especially after tanking all those charged attacks, and he couldn't afford to be careless.
He charged up a Dash Slash.
The Knight charged up a Dash Slash.
Skul struck.
The Knight struck.
The two zoomed past each other in the middle, and there was a brief moment where time seemed to stand still.
But then Skul found himself struggling to stand, a large portion of his outer body cracked and one of his shoulder blades chipped off. He fell to the ground again as the crowd whooped and huzzahed.
The Knight's Nail was longer than his sword. He'd noticed it when studying his movements, but apparently underestimated its importance. And something he hadn't realized until now, but it was stronger, too. He must be using some kind of chalice-like enhancement. That was something Skul was wishing he had access to right about now.
The Knight whirled back and charged his Nail, ready to take him down with another Return Slash.
Recognizing the attack's tells right away, Skul reached underneath his cloak to use his contingency plan.
When the spinning blade reached Skul, the entire arena heard the sound of metal clashing against metal, though oddly a lot more often than it probably should here. The reason why this was revealed itself as soon as the Knight's Nail returned to his hand. There, Skul stood, skeleton oozing purple darkness and fire alike, and clutching a sword. In each hand.
The Knight recognized the fiery blade immediately. It was the same sword he'd briefly used to counter an attack at the castle. It'd been concerning then, and was actually threatening now.
Skul held both his swords in a traditional Niten'ichi stance. The Knight had the training and experience needed to beat him if they fought one Nail to one blade. But Skul had practiced with dozens of weapons. Dual-wielding swords was a skill he picked up quickly, and, he had quickly realized during these past few minutes, was by far his best shot at besting the Knight in a duel.
Skul motioned his head to the Knight. Come at me.
The Knight raised his Nail forward. He bowed, recognizing the start of a new duel.
Skul bowed back.
The Knight charged up a Return Slash. Phase two.
The Knight threw his Return Slash, and Skul guarded, crossing his two swords like the flags he saw wrecked outside the human's castle. The spinning Nail collided, but it couldn't sneak anything in against the shielded corpse, returning to its wielder's hands without having made a scratch.
Immediately, Skul rushed in. He needed to overwhelm the Knight with blow after blow until he could sneak hits past his guard. He held his swords four inches apart to his left, leapt at the right time, and brought the full might of their power down on the Knight. The Knight was able to block both blades with his own, but the power shook the ground and even caused some of the small rocks around the arena to turn over. If the Knight hadn't been using Steady Body, he probably would have been forced onto the ground.
Skul dropped onto the ground and slashed upwards with Dawn of the Crimson Sun, following up with the Fulgent Dawn automatically a half-second later. If the Knight didn't steady his grip before the first slash, it would throw his wrist off balance and the second would disarm him. But the Knight didn't have to think to steady his grip; it automatically happened. Both slashes bounced harmlessly off the bottom of his Nail. Skul dashed around in a circle and struck to the side, but the Knight had already dashed through him. Both had struck at the same time, leaving Skul with a hole through his bone chest and the Knight relatively unscathed.
Skul clenched his teeth and rolled away again. He stabbed forward with one Nail, and, as it was deflected, thrust the other one in below. The words of the Witch, training him, echoed in his head. This is your problem with that Destroyer skull. They're called "Twin Greatswords," but don't think of them as two greatswords. Think of them as one weapon, with two steps.
The Knight recoiled from the hit, and Skul jumped up and spun both blades as he brought them down again. The Knight slammed his Nail upwards at an angle, creating a slope that both Skul's swords slid down. As his upper body was exposed for a split second, the Knight got the hit in, slashing across his skull.
Skul backed off and charged both his legendary blades. Most people think that more weapons means more adaptability. It doesn't. It makes whoever you're fighting have to adapt more, but for you, it just gives you more versatility. And no, those aren't the same thing. Not even close. Skul swung both swords in a circle, performing a Cyclone Slash more than twice as large as a regular one. He launched his feet at the Knight as he did this. If you want to be adaptable, that's up to you. The winds swept the air around the arena, the crowd cried in excitement, and if Skul had judged correctly, the Knight should be caught at the back, where both cyclones connected, locking him into a guaranteed death loop.
Or he could just Shade-Dash through the entire display. Which he did.
Skul saw the Knight charging another Return Slash as the Cyclone Slash wound down.
He glanced down at his two swords, and recalled his armory of skulls and other weapons at home. The armory he had turned against the Knight who had, against all odds, survived.
No. Not against all odds.
Not the same thing.
Suddenly, and finally, Skul understood a little of what separated him and the Knight as fighters. Why, no matter what he threw at him, the Knight just kept bouncing back.
Not the same thing.
The voice he heard in his head now was his own, not the Witch's.
He turned fully towards the Knight, who was mid-swing in throwing his attack. He ran directly at the Return Slash.
Then, less than two inches away, bent over backward, bending his spine in a way only a pure skeleton could, holding his swords above his face, while still running.
The harsh sound of pure metal scratching pure metal resounded in the ears of the arena, but only for a second. Then, Skul was past the slash, it ramming ahead into empty space for a few more seconds. More than enough time to catch the Knight without a weapon. He saw the surprise flicker in the Knight's flamed eyeholes for just a moment before striking with both blades from the left side.
The Knight's right hand dove beneath his cloak and emerged just in time, a gleam of metal barely blocking the double strike Skul had attempted. The Knight jumped backward as the full weapon was unleashed. The Dream Nail.
Skul started. Of course, he'd seen the weapon before, but it seemed only to create some sort of magic-canceling. When he'd been struck with it previously, he hadn't even felt it. It never occurred to him that it could be used as a shield.
The Pure Nail returned to the Knight's left hand. He now held out both Nails, just as Skul had, motioning for him to come.
Skul lowered his head. He was… angry. Not just because the Knight was copying him, taunting him, but because he'd been holding back. Not just the Dream Nail. He realized it now.
Throughout their entire battle at the Colosseum, not since the start had the Knight cast a single fireball or used that dive. He had summoned no minions, protected himself with no shell, and threw no sword beams. He had given Skul exactly what he wanted: a fair duel, which he lost.
All those hits he landed, all those techniques he learned? None of it meant anything. The Knight wasn't fighting him. He was humoring him.
The artificial lights around the arena flickered once.
The Knight shuffled in place a bit, confused as to why Skul wasn't attacking.
Skul's body vibrated.
He was angry. He was distressed. He was- he was-
Useless.
Back in the Demon King's castle, the shards of the Dark Mirror began to lightly glow. They rose a few centimeters into the air, and faded away as if they had never existed in the first place.
But at the Colosseum, it was never more apparent.
The Knight ducked down, covering his false eyes with his mothwing cloak. The sky was dark. The wind was greater than even Kingdom's Edge. Deep purple spots lined the air like fireflies. Bugs were clamped down by safety mechanisms in their seats, and even then, many were tearing at them, trying to run.
And in the center, floating in the air, was Skul. Purple eyes flaming, both swords drained of color. With every new dot that coated the air, the Knight saw Skul flash into a different transformation. Just for a moment. And while he was unfamiliar with this energy, his time spent with the Godseeker told him all he needed to know.
When Skul combined his power with the mirror, he had touched pure darkness. The taste in the air was the same as that golem he had used in their first fight. Whatever coalesced void his kind had achieved, he now had a complete, direct link to. And if that mirror had been able to reach all time and dimensions, what sort of power would it awaken in a body made to contain dark energy?
All the power he ever did, would, and could have. The power of his dream self.
Of a god.
When the first lightning struck, the Knight did not see it coming. Sight hidden behind his cloak, it hit without warning, holding the fury of a hundred beams of light. The Knight was launched backward, body smoking, and time almost seemed to slow as he saw another, right above his head, about to strike him mid-air.
He wrapped himself in the Shade Cloak and dashed through it, barely making it through in time and smacking into the colosseum's wall. He fell to the ground, much like Skul had before him, and when he attempted to get up, he found himself tripping and faceplanting.
His right leg was gone.
The Knight raised his head and stared at the creature in the air above him, once-shattered wings blinking in and out of existence, seemingly just to keep him afloat. He was still gathering power.
Power for a body made to contain dark energy.
A container.
The Knight saw another lightning bolt come from the sky.
He opened his body, then his heart, and slowly rose into the air.
When the lightning struck, it simply vanished, fallen into the infinite darkness of the Knight's absorption. And so, for that matter, did the dots of dimensional energy. White strings surrounded the Vessel's body as more and more magic began to find itself drawn into the black hole contained within the Knight's spirit.
As the sky began to clear and the lightning faded away, Skul's power bounced, once, in his chest, it, too, drawn into the well of the Knight's void.
Skul, for the first time since feeling the sudden, overwhelming dark magic, spared a glance towards the Knight, who was consuming every bit of that magic, and growing even stronger than Skul.
A flash went through Skul's mind of his home castle destroyed. Of the infinite dark power the dimensional quartz held being used to burn all of Harmonia. Of how even he couldn't resist them entirely. And now they'd be in the hands of-
Skul released an explosion of dark magic behind him, rocketing him through the air and into the Knight, intending to shatter this vessel once and for all.
But less than a meter away from his target, the Knight stopped absorbing, raised a hand, and struck him with the Dream Nail.
…
When the Knight awoke, he was inside of a castle. Not that castle. One far more red. And gold. And slightly pink?
He looked around for a moment, trying to find his opponent. The attack had been successful; that he was sure of. The two's combined dark energy forged a link between their minds that allowed the Dream Nail to transport him directly into the Skeleton's dreams, awake or not. He'd still be fighting that same level of power, but now, there weren't any innocent bugs that would be hurt.
If he could find Skul, anyway.
The room he was in was empty. Ornate, certainly, but empty. Not so much as a rug or a chandelier dressing the place. The only objects were a set of stairs (with no railing, he noticed) and a large, wooden door. The door held no handles, but empty slots where the handles used to be. The whole area was less like a dream, and more like an impression. An impression of something long forgotten.
The Knight slowly made his way up the naked stairs and pushed on the doors. When they didn't swing, he struck them with the Pure Nail, causing them to crumble immediately.
Beyond those doors lay a balcony overlooking an endless golden void. And a single man.
The man, dressed in heavy mahogany-colored armor and a scarlet cape, noticed the Knight out of the corner of his eye. He stiffly turned to the invader, and, without a word, drew his enormous, gold-hilted sword.
The Dream Nail in Skul's hand vibrated, telling him what he wanted to know: that he'd found Skul.
The Knight's mind reeled. He was sure of what he saw in the Colosseum. That was everything Skul could be. His dream self.
But as he blocked the first strike from the light-speed Hero, the truth struck him.
Under the Dark Mirror, Skul was everything he could be.
Within his dreams, Skul was everything he wanted to be.
The Knight parried another jumping strike. He had no idea what this was doing to the outside world. He had to end this. As only he could.
And he called out to the Void.
And through his Void Heart, the deepest trenches of the Abyss were made unified. Through his purpose, they were made complete. And through his dreams, they were made manifest.
The ground beneath him began to stain with inky darkness. The Knight hopped onto an empty divot, where there should probably have been a lantern, and the Hero leapt up to match him. But the Knight timed his jump, and released a blast of darkness from his chest, knocking the Hero down and onto his back on the ground.
When he attempted to stand, he found himself locked in place. Eyes widened, he shook his head about, staring at the thousands of inky miniature hands that came up from the ground. Every one of them aiming at him.
He opened his mouth to shout or cry, but to his horror, no voice came out. As the hands of darkness pulled him down, sinking into the depths his own psyche had created, he realized that the last thing he would see was the empty eyes of the husk above him, staring in apparent pity.
No.
He was the Hero of this world.
He lost to no demons.
The last part of his body outside of the darkness was a single eye, but that was enough. A burst of golden light burned out of the eye, shrinking the darkness over his body. The more that revealed itself, the more light shone, and the more the darkness slid away. For no matter how powerful the darkness was, it always gave way to all-consuming light.
The Knight fell backward, blasted off his perch by this sudden power. His Shade Cloak melted away, and many of his siblings that had come up through the Void were erased, simply by being too near the Hero of Light. Realizing that, for the first time, his dream self was in actual danger, the Knight called out with his Void Heart, and commanded all the essence of the primordial entity to combine with his own.
Now, the darkness moved, not away from the light, but towards the shadow. As holy energy burned it, it found continuous strength under its own unification, and as it rose again under the Knight, two forces appeared, equal in measure.
Pure light and pure darkness. The Hero of Light, coated head to toe in golden armor and burning with the power of light, and the Shade Lord, a massive, four-armed eight-eyed, horned being of primordial void.
The Hero of Light raised his hand, summoning dozens of light-constructed swords, and pulled them together into one, focused, formation of energy.
The Shade Lord transformed the entirety of the ancient void into a single tendril, loose and collapsing in on itself, a single force of dark power.
The Hero of Light swung.
The Shade Lord slashed.
The fabric of the dream bent, broke, and reformed itself. What was golden was now black. What was dark was now enlightened. The golden void became a sea, the empty divots filled with an assortment of random objects; lanterns, crystals, signposts, statues filled with soul, skulls filled with power, as the two's existences attempted to overwrite the other's.
And then the sword shuddered.
And then the sword snapped.
The explosion of light following this seared away all darkness, destroying the Shade Lord so quickly that it did not even recognize itself as being in pain, leaving only a single Vessel behind.
And before him, a collapsed, trembling human, armor shattered, power drained.
There was silence for a moment before Skul spoke.
"I couldn't remember."
The Knight perked up.
"I couldn't remember the sound of my voice."
The Knight got up quietly and began walking slowly towards the being in front of him.
"I hurt him. I hurt all of them. Not even by being strong. Not even by existing. I hurt them by dying."
The Knight had reached Skul by now. Skul saw him draw his Nail. He didn't care.
"All I wanted was to be like him. But I wasn't strong enough. He saved everyone. I couldn't even save myself."
The Knight raised his Nail.
"I'm not a hero. I'm just another monster."
The Knight struck down.
And the Dream Nail showed Skul the truth.
An ancient story. A god who became human. The son he raised to feel nothing, as a sacrifice to contain an ancient power. And, at the same time, another story in another world. A man who became a hero. The son he raised to strive towards greatness, to achieve everything he could dream of, whatever it might be. Both sons died. Both failed in their purpose. But only one got back up.
The primordial void sees all. Some would argue that it is all.
And when it saw Skul, it saw a hero.
Skul sighed. The first time he could do that, he realized.
Huh. I actually… feel okay.
And just like that, soul at peace for the very first time, Skul's spirit faded into essence.
-KO!-
When the Knight awoke, he was underneath the arena. Not in the waiting area; in the trash pit. Both his body and the pile of bones that used to be Skul had been thrown away, probably assumed dead once they passed out. The Knight saw a pale creature lurking about, shifting through the garbage, but as soon as it noticed he was awake, it scuttled away.
The Knight would have groaned if he could. He ached. He was drained. And, according to a note somebody had carefully sewn onto his mask, he was late for a meeting with Hornet.
But before that, there was someone who needed a proper burial.
He just… needed to rest right now.
…
Conclusion:
TWO: Should've drunk more milk.
LZ: Yes, he- what?
TWO: Skul definitely had advantages, and some pretty significant ones, too, making this a harder fight to call than you'd think. At least, until you get down into the nitty-gritty. For example, he was probably faster than the Knight.
LZ: Both Skul and the Knight have had to dodge a great many attacks that could be reasonably said to move at the speed of light. However, the Dark Hero was nearly twice that fast, and Skul additionally had several buffs and items that increased his speed even further. Stacking it all together, he could be up to nine times faster than the Knight!
TWO: He had a bunch of stuff that could kill spirits, some status-effect triggers the Knight hasn't had to deal with before, like freezing, and, since he's a skeleton, the Knight wouldn't get Soul normally just by hitting him. Weapons like the Fulgent Dawn could stand up to the Pure Nail, and summoning minions would work against the Knight thanks to stuff like the mythic sword or the Destroyer skull. And besides, even the Grimmchild wasn't about to compare to a legendary half-demon warrior from another dimension who can cut down waves of enemies faster than you can blink!
LZ: And his enormous arsenal, far greater than the Knight's, meant he could be constantly switching up how he attacks and what his opponent has to deal with at any given moment. From summoning meteors to magic homing orbs to actual machine guns, the Knight would be having to juggle attacks from all sides, and a thousand different ways those attacks could play out. And while the Knight is the better-trained fighter, Skul's victories against the First Hero show that he wasn't totally outclassed, and could probably increase in skill during the fight.
TWO: But the Knight did have his counters, too. Between his magic Vessel body and Isma's Tear, no bleeding, poison, stunning, or curse status effects were going to work on him. His Nail being made with holy ore and his spells all being soul-based meant he could hit Skul no matter what form he was in or what kind of intangibility he had. He's dealt with ten times the flying enemies Skul has, and has his own wings to keep up with the Sylphid Wings. The Void Heart means he could resist literally every bit of soul manipulation Skul had, even in Reaper form, and he could survive a trip to the netherworld, no problem, and even leave whenever he wanted. And that Dream Nail was an MVP against pretty much all Skul's illusion, astral, or shadow-clone abilities. It basically nullified a bunch of his more magical skulls just by itself.[1]
LZ: But let's crack down on where the differences were truly made. First up: Power.
TWO: Well, 313 Exatons is way more than the 8 Petatons we gave Skul, but remember, that was base Skul fighting a mid-tier boss. Scaling up to the +10 Dark Hero and adding every possible buff his equipment, skulls, traits, and so on can give him brings that number up way higher: all the way to 2.1 Exatons of TNT! Sure, it's still lower than the Knight, but now the difference is less "grenade vs nuke" and more comparable to the difference in health between base Skul and his stronger bosses. So, with plenty of experience, a ton of ways to attack from all kinds of directions, lots of armor, and nine times the speed, he should be able to wear the Knight down pretty easy, no?
LZ: No. While the difference in healthpools may be similar to Skul and his strongest foes, those foes' attack power was not identical. Even stacking every single shield and health increase together and scaling down the Pure Nail vs Radiance's health, the Knight was still powerful enough to destroy Skul with a single hit, and since every single attack of his is spiritual in nature, all he has to do to win is hit him once in the neck. Even the trait or items that cause him to come back to life once would mean very little, as the Knight has fought foes he had to strike potentially hundreds of times to win with his weakest Nail, and such things were ineffective against the First Hero's attempted murder. Meanwhile, Skul would find killing the Knight far harder.[2]
TWO: First, a lot of those buffs and stuff that got Skul up to that number are conditional, or only last a few seconds, or are tied down to one body. Just switching skulls to anything but the Grim Reaper would put him way below that number. He was not keeping that power up for the whole fight. Also, breaking the Vessel is one thing. But to perma-kill the Knight, Skul had to also kill the Shade, which is just as tough and strong as the Knight's Vessel.
LZ: With the Void Heart, the Knight could call his Shade back into his body with a single command. This meant that Skul's only shot at victory was to lead the Vessel somewhere far away, break it, and then do his best to kill the Shade before the Vessel could find his way back to it. Skul has shown a fair amount of battle intelligence; it is fairly reasonable that he could come up with such a plan after a fair few tries of killing the Knight the normal way, but enacting the plan would be much easier said than done, and gives the Knight many, many opportunities to land the killing blow first.[3]
TWO: Not to mention that Skul couldn't even damage the Shade at all if he wasn't using one of his spiritual weapons or skulls. He does have a fair bit of arsenal that you could argue in-lore would hurt the Shade, but since Skul's never had to deal with something like this before, he wouldn't automatically know to switch to Nightmare, Soul Knight, Saviour, or something like that. That means, even with the big-brain strategy, the Knight has a good bit of time to retrieve the Shade or land more blows on Skul.
LZ: Skul's superior speed certainly gave him an advantage here; even if the Knight could kill him with one good hit, it wouldn't matter if he was incapable of landing that hit. But the Knight has fought foes faster than him before, kept up with fighters who could rapid-fire teleport, and had more movement options, mobility, and the training to keep himself from being overwhelmed. He's fought many fights with danger coming from all directions, and his battles against Dream versions of fighters who were light-speed outside of their dreams prove that this sort of advantage isn't automatically a win.
TWO: That's not where it ends, though. Even though Skul was technically capable of dealing damage to and, over time, taking down the Knight's body, just as he would any high-level boss fight, the Knight had a few things nobody Skul fought did. Like the ability to heal himself every time he was left alone for a couple of seconds.
LZ: Whatever disadvantages summoning minions had, it didn't change the fact that it was a guaranteed way for the Knight to gain an endless amount of Soul whenever he needed it. This meant that so long as he could hold Skul off for a few seconds, it would be nearly impossible to deal any lasting damage to his Vessel.[4]
TWO: Skul's healing, meanwhile, is super limited. Coming back from breaking on the spot once is the most neat thing here, but aside from that, it's just a few hitpoints under very specific conditions. If he took any hits from anything that didn't one-shot him, he wouldn't be getting that health back.
LZ: The manner in which they come back from death is also troublesome for Skul. While both regenerate their physical form at specific locations regardless of where they were, the Knight's location is not pinned down, and can be adjusted by his own will. It also respawns the Knight at full strength, with all his equipment, while Skul would have to manually re-collect every single thing he uses when he regenerates. Should the Knight manage to find and set his rest point at the Demon King's castle, it's unlikely Skul would be able to ever recollect his arsenal before he is killed by the Knight. Eventually, the Knight is going to strike that neck.
TWO: Especially since he's super-trained and has beaten other master swordsmen. The moment he notices Skul is protecting the neck, it's game over.
LZ: The Knight had other advantages, too. He could increase both his power and durability even further with Charms, read Skul's mind whenever he wished with the Dream Nail, and the Dreamgate gave him complete control over the pace of the battle. The fact that he could simply leave at any point, completely restore his health and magic with Salubra's Blessing, and return when he was ready was something that Skul could never compete with. He had no method of doing the same or preventing the Knight from utilizing the ability. This would mean that the chances of Skul even seeing the Shade at all are minimal; no matter how overwhelmed he became, the Knight had a reset button he could push.
TWO: Even if Skul's spirit lingered and the Knight had to enter his dreams, it wouldn't matter. Dying in those dreams doesn't mean he dies IRL, so he could just keep retrying until he won, no matter how powerful Skul's ideal self is.[5] Also, remember the Shade Lord? That thing could tear the Absolute Radiance to pieces and call upon all of Hell to drown the country. Even Death itself wasn't about to do anything to that monster.
LZ: Skul's vast arsenal and experience fighting foes stronger than himself proved most valuable, but he couldn't stack up to the training, counters, specific abilities, and sheer power of the Knight.
TWO: Yeah, he was a Little Boned.
LZ: …*sigh*
The winner is… The Knight.
…
Special Notes (For the Conclusion):
[1] As his Vessel is meant to absorb magical and spiritual energy, it's reasonable to assume that the Knight could absorb most of Skul's energy attacks into himself. In one ending, he was able to contain the full power of the Radiance, so nothing in Skul's arsenal should be powerful enough to resist this.
[2] If the storms of the Land of Storms were created through similar means to the Dreamers and Radiance, that would take energy within 41.62 Zettatons of TNT. As Godhome was forged only using a portion of her power, and she is stronger than the Pale King, there is evidence pointing to the Radiance being on this same level of power. If you wish to scale Skul to universal levels based on the legends of some skulls, you must make the same allowances for the Knight, who has killed a goddess stated to have infinite power, within her own realm (which does contain stars), and the Dreams that are created through magic are said to be other "planes" or "realities." The Knight also killed Nightmare King Grimm, a being made up of all the nightmares in known existence; if these hold the same energy as Dreams, this would certainly make him far above universal in power. All of this is heavily questionable, but if one's is to be included, so must be the other's.
[3] It could be argued that certain highly-specific abilities could one-shot the Knight. However, these are unlikely to be used, wouldn't do anything to the Knight's Shade, and the Knight has fought and won against beings who could one-shot him before. His battle against Grey Prince Zote alone should prove that he could handle beings far beyond his power tier.
[4] With his multitude of attacks and superior speed, it is possible that Skul might not give the Knight the time he needs to use Focus. Even if the Knight couldn't figure out a way to defend himself, he could leave using the Dreamgate and alter his Charms to account for this. Joni's Blessing, along with other durability-increasing Charms (and recognizing AbsRad's attacks taking out two masks each), would mean Skul would, potentially, have to land over sixteen hundred blows to break his Vessel. When Hiveblood is also equipped, this would mean he would heal faster than Skul could damage him even while Overcharmed!
[5] While the little boy held enough regrets to reincarnate as a skeleton, the ending of Dark Mirror 10 implies that Skul has found everything he wished for in his afterlife, and is already his ideal self after looking in the Observation Instrument. It is unlikely he would leave behind anything more than a soul that could be one-hit Dream-Nail-ed.
…
Next time, on Death Battle…
A space policeman using green light crushes a child under a large boot, and an entire fanbase screams loud enough to shake the universe.
VS
A space judge using cosmic power is taken to the floor by a single throw of a brick, and an entire fanbase begins to riot.
(Green Lantern VS Silver Surfer)
Yeah, so, um, remember how I promised I wouldn't make the fights as long as Aloy VS Link?
I'm sorry.
Blame Two. He was screaming for that swordfight the entire script. I know, it's not completely in the spirit of the characters and doesn't use a bunch of their arsenal, and also required a bit of fanfiction with the Chalice and all that, but that's what I told him and he was like "who cares its awesum" and I just didn't have a counterargument. I know, I should absolutely be saving these long fights for big episodes or the series finale. Oh, well. I guess I'll survive.
But some hardcore fans might not survive the next episode, because there's no way to put either of these guys in a fight and have one of them lose and have it not be controversial. But it'll be fun getting there, I promise.
Hope this was at least 1/10th as fun as you wanted, Dependent Ad! There's a lot more requested matchups in this series' future. But keep reviewing and suggesting! I can always, always use more matchups and feedback!
See you soon. Probably sooner than you expect. I hope.
