Agreed with Mith, the recontextualizing of the battle is gorgeous, how we see the darkness within him and how we see he is given a choice and then what he chooses -- yes yes ow. I love playing with ideas of agency anyway, and then you do this with it, and. ♥ Valvalicia's sharpness here, both physically and verbally, it's so well done. And the mindfuckery. And the realizations Kain comes to during it. Just. Him. It's brutal and gorgeous and oh so right for them.