Kharzad greeted them with a storm.
The wind howled through jagged stone ridges as grains of sand struck their cloaks like pinpricks of flame. The desert stretched before them, a tapestry of shifting dunes and scorched rock, unwelcoming and hostile. Above, the sky boiled in hues of rust and ash, a stormfront gathering like a war drum in the heavens.
Shin led the way, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed the storm's edge. The wind tugged at his cloak, and lightning flickered in the clouds like warning fangs. Beside him, Laverna scanned the landscape, crimson sparks dancing around her fingers. Zera walked in practiced silence, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade, while Tessara's tails trailed behind her like silver threads, barely visible in the dust.
"This is no natural storm," Zera said, her voice low. "It's laced with mana."
Tessara nodded. "I can feel it. Something is stirring beneath the sand."
Shin's Crest pulsed with subtle warmth. "Then we're close."
Their caravan of travelers trudged behind them. Refugees from border towns, volunteers from Valeshroud, and a few brave mercenaries who had answered Davis's call. All of them bore the weight of uncertainty. This was the final stretch before the Ebon Veil's core.
As they reached a steep ravine that carved through the dunes like an old scar, Shin held up a hand, motioning for silence. The wind dropped, unnaturally so.
Then she struck.
A blur of motion swept through the vanguard—too fast for the eye to follow. A warrior vanished, dragged into the dust with a muffled gasp. Another raised a spear but was knocked aside, tumbling down the slope.
Laverna barely had time to react before the figure appeared in front of her, fist aimed at her throat. She ducked and spun, drawing her jamadhars, but the attacker had already vanished, reappearing behind Zera.
Shin moved.
He unsheathed Yoshimatsu with a flick, the blade humming with high-frequency energy. Sand exploded around him as his eyes locked onto the ambusher.
The figure halted, perched atop a nearby rock formation. A woman, wrapped in dark, sun-bleached garb. Her violet eyes shimmered with tension, her wild raven hair whipping in the wind.
"Kunoichi," Laverna muttered, stepping beside Shin. Her gaze narrowed. "That stance. Those movements. I've seen them before."
The woman's lips curved in a cruel smile. "You should've stayed in Valeshroud. Kharzad isn't kind to foxes."
Her words were a blade, but Shin didn't flinch. "You've got speed. But you're fighting the wrong battle."
Her brow twitched. "Wrong battle? You don't know anything about Kharzad. Or what Tristan's monsters did to us."
"We know enough," Zera growled. "He turned cities into prisons. Took refugees and twisted them."
"You think you're the only ones who suffered?" The woman leapt down. Her feet barely touched the ground. "My clan was Hi Okami. We served the Crown once. Until we were betrayed."
Shin studied her, searching for deception. A Hi Okami loyalist, turned exile? Unlikely. But her eyes held no lies, only loss.
He stepped forward. "Then don't waste your blade on allies. Fight with us."
She stared at him, mistrust flickering across her face like a flame in the wind. "You lead them?"
"Shin of Soma. I don't promise salvation. But I do promise to fight with honor."
Something shifted in her eyes. Her breath caught.
"Soma..." she whispered. "My grandmother spoke of it. The clan that danced with fire and vanished into the mountains. She said they would return when the sun touched the fox again."
Her knees trembled. The storm howled.
Shin stepped closer. "You're not alone anymore."
She dropped to her knees before him, but not in surrender.
Maika's body tensed, and in a heartbeat, she launched forward with a flurry of strikes. Her fists moved like twin suns, bursting with solar energy. Shin reacted instantly, parrying with Yoshimatsu, each clash sending shockwaves through the ravine. Blades met fists, light collided with sound, and the earth trembled beneath them.
Rocks cracked and splintered from the force of their exchange. Sand exploded in every direction, turning the battlefield into a swirling golden maelstrom.
A ruined pillar behind Shin was reduced to rubble when Maika's spinning kick missed and struck it instead, sending chunks of stone careening into the air. Lightning from the storm overhead forked downward as if attracted by their fury, flashing with every collision of steel and flame.
"Show me," Maika shouted over the storm, her voice fierce. "Show me you're the one I've been searching for!"
Shin's eyes burned red. Yoshimatsu's hum deepened into a roar as he unleashed a high-frequency slash that split the air, carving a trench in the sand between them.
Maika flipped back, landed, and surged forward again, faster than before. Time bent around her limbs—sunlight bending like a whip in her wake.
Then, she stopped.
Breathless, wide-eyed, she stood inches from his blade.
And just like that, the rage melted.
She surged forward again—but this time, not with fists.
She kissed him. Fierce. Wild. Like a tempest.
The shock of it matched the battle that preceded it. As if the storm itself paused to witness. As if the desert, torn by their clash, exhaled and let them breathe.
Laverna's mouth dropped open. Tessara's ears twitched. Zera instinctively reached for her blade before stopping herself.
The woman pulled back, breath ragged. A brilliant glow erupted from her right shoulder—her Servant Crest flaring to life. Lines of light spread across her skin like sunlight cutting through mist.
"My name is Maika," she said, voice trembling with new purpose. "And my oath belongs to you now."
The change was immediate. She stood taller, her movements sharper. She retrieved a small wooden case from her satchel and opened it, revealing a gilded mask—elegant and sharp, shaped like the rising sun.
"The Taiyo no Men," she whispered.
Zera stepped forward cautiously. "That's a relic. Thought to be lost."
Maika nodded. "Passed down through the Hi Okami. I never dared wear it... until now."
She looked at Shin. "My Crest recognizes your blood. That's why it ignited."
Laverna tilted her head. "You're part Soma?"
Maika's gaze turned solemn. "My great-grandmother was banished after refusing to betray her Soma lover. The clan cut ties. She fled to Kharzad, built a family in exile."
A memory flickered in her eyes. "I always thought I was just a shadow of her defiance. But now, I see... I was meant to carry it forward."
She donned the mask. The instant it settled on her face, her body surged with golden energy. Her Servant Crest flared brighter than before. Light wreathed her arms—sunfire, pure and vibrant. Her form shimmered, time bending slightly around her, her outline distorting like heat over stone.
Shin stepped beside her. "What are you feeling?"
Maika's lips curved into a fierce smile. "Like I could outrun the wind itself."
Tessara crossed her arms, expression unreadable. "A Hi Okami with the power of the sun... The battlefield just tilted."
Zera muttered under her breath, "That kiss better not become a trend."
Maika turned to Laverna. "Don't worry. I don't kiss for fun. That was an oath. My blade is yours now."
Laverna studied her, then smirked. "Just don't stab me in the back."
"Only if you give me reason."
They both nodded, tense, but not hostile.
The storm began to break. Light bled through the clouds above as if Maika's awakening had calmed the very winds. The path ahead revealed jagged silhouettes of black stone and ruined spires—Kharzad's outer edge.
Maika stepped forward. "That place... It wasn't always dead. My mother used to sing about Kharzad's orchards. The wells that never dried. Tristan's soldiers turned it into a tomb. They came under banners of peace, then took everything."
Refugees behind them murmured, nodding, remembering their own losses.
Shin placed a hand on Maika's shoulder. "Then we take it back."
She inhaled deeply, the sun catching her mask. "With fire."
The group marched once more, the sand settling in their wake. Their numbers hadn't changed, but their resolve had deepened.
Maika walked beside Shin now, not in front, not behind, but as one forged in the same flame. A new ember sparked in the heart of their rebellion.
And in the wake of the storm's retreat, the sun carved its way through the ashes, unyielding and defiant.
Its light did not falter.
It crowned them.
And in that fire-kissed radiance, the desert bore witness, the Soma had returned.