The sun had not yet risen, but the horizon was already painted with fire.
From the cliffs overlooking Kharzad's vast expanse, the sands looked like molten gold in the dim morning light. Winds whispered secrets of battles long lost and victories still waiting to be claimed.
Amid the silence stood Shin and his companions, gathered like the calm before the storm. Beneath their feet, the dust carried not only the weight of history but of betrayal.
Maika stood near the ridge, her cloak whipping behind her. Her gaze didn't drift from the scorched horizon. The Taiyo no Men pulsed at her hip, its golden surface glinting like a second sun.
Her crest, etched into her lower right shoulder, shimmered faintly, warm with purpose, hot with pain.
"They called themselves Hi Okami," she said, voice low, carried only by the wind. "But the ones who betrayed me were shadows of that name."
Shin stepped beside her, his eyes narrowed with recognition. "You were a Loyalist."
Maika nodded. "Our bloodline swore to protect balance. Sun and moon. Day and night. We were raised to honor the pact with the Soma Clan—a bond forged in old light and older oaths."
Behind her words, images surfaced. A flashback to another time.
The Hidden Sun Citadel burned.
Maika ran through the collapsing corridors of the Hi Okami's ancestral seat. Bodies lay where once stood honored warriors. Children cried behind burning doors. The skies above had turned violet, black veins stretching across the heavens like corrupted roots.
The Falzath had come.
But worse, the betrayal had come from within.
Her own kin, cloaked in crimson and marked with void-tainted crests, had turned blades on their comrades. Those who resisted were purged. Those who surrendered were enslaved.
She remembered confronting her brother, Katsuro, once her hero. His smile, always warm, now curved into a sneer twisted by the Falzath whispers.
"The sun must rule alone, Maika. The moon was always weak. The Soma? They chained us to balance. It's time we took everything."
He struck her down.
Left her for dead.
And she would have died, had a loyal retainer not pulled her from the wreckage and guided her to the desert.
"They used the Falzath like a torch, thinking it would light their path. But it only consumed them. My brother included," Maika whispered.
Shin placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know the feeling. My clan trusted the Hi Okami. And they were slaughtered for it. Poisoned at our feast. Their betrayal runs deeper than blood."
Laverna approached from behind, her expression unreadable, but her hand crackled faintly with frost. "So now we freeze their ambition in its tracks."
"I like the sound of that," Zera muttered, crossing her arms. "Remind them why betrayal never pays."
Tessara added, her voice calm, "Just make sure we leave a few standing. Someone has to go back and spread the fear."
Maika turned, eyes flaring. "We don't just stop them. We freed Kharzad. Every chained village. Every stolen child. Every soul twisted by their lies."
She wore the mask. Her Servant Crest glowed bright, gold threads lacing up her spine like a constellation. The Taiyo no Men flared in resonance, casting a beam of sunlight into the air. It pulsed once, then burst into a halo of fire around her.
"Well," Tessara smirked, shielding her eyes from the glow. "She definitely wins for dramatic entrance."
Zera chuckled under her breath. "I was going to say something snarky, but even I can't top that."
"You two jealous of the light show?" Maika teased.
"Jealous? No," Zera replied, feigning offense. "Competitive? Absolutely."
Tessara patted Maika's shoulder. "If you keep stealing the spotlight, I might have to start launching moonbeams just for style."
Maika laughed, the tension easing slightly. "Just don't blind our own team."
Shin looked around at them—his warriors, his companions. Each marked not just by crests, but by purpose.
He drew his blade and pointed to the sand-worn map splayed on the ground.
"We strike where they least expect. Here," he said, tapping the eastern ridge. "An old waterway beneath the temple. Still intact. We'll send in Maika and Tessara first. Illusion and speed."
"I can silence the sentries," Maika offered.
"And cloak you all in shadow," Tessara added, her eyes glowing.
"Laverna leads the second wave through the ridge trench. Cut off their retreat," Shin continued.
"With pleasure," Laverna said, summoning a plume of ice mist from her palm.
"Zera and I will breach from the front," Shin concluded. "Draw attention. Let them see light before they see death."
Zera nodded. "Shatter the illusion of safety. Remind them of justice."
"I'm sensing a theme here," Tessara quipped. "Dark, poetic vengeance with a splash of theater."
"That's how Shin leads," Laverna said with a grin. "Quiet, stoic, and with dramatic flair when it counts."
Maika leaned toward Tessara. "So we're fighting in a battle or starring in a play?"
"Both," Tessara replied. "But the deaths are real."
The group placed their hands together. Their crests pulsed in tandem, creating a soft hum that resonated through the sand, a whisper of rebellion stirring the air.
"We fight for Kharzad," Shin said.
"For the fallen," Zera added.
"For balance," Maika whispered.
"For the future," Tessara murmured.
"For love," Laverna finished.
As the sun broke over the ridge, golden light spilled across the sand. The desert seemed to hold its breath.
They descended into Kharzad not as wanderers, but as a vanguard of fire and fury.
Their first strike came swiftly.
The cult outpost on the outer rim—a sunken ruin turned into a den of Falzath zealots—never saw them coming.
Tessara wove illusions that turned shadows into specters, confusing the guards. Maika slipped through the disoriented ranks, each strike a blur, disabling soldiers with surgical precision.
A Falzath priest turned just in time to see her smile before his mask shattered under her boot.
"How many was that?" Maika asked casually.
"Seven," Tessara replied. "Try to keep up."
Meanwhile, Laverna burst from the ridge in a storm of wind and frost. Her jamadhars gleamed as she cut down two corrupted scouts, her power erupting in a spiraling column of ice that froze a barricade mid-reinforcement.
"Fall back!" one cultist screamed.
"No," Laverna said coldly, driving her fist into the ground. Ice lanced through the sand, impaling fleeing enemies with crystalline thorns.
"That was... excessive," Tessara remarked, appearing beside her.
"Effective," Laverna corrected.
Zera and Shin arrived moments later. Zera's blade glowed like a morning star, each swing precise, measured, and devastating. One cleave split an obsidian statue and sent chunks crashing into enemy ranks.
Shin's presence was a force of nature. His crimson tails flickered with foxfire, teleporting through enemy lines. Each strike of Yoshimatsu shattered air, sending void-infused warriors hurtling like ragdolls into stone walls.
One cultist charged him with a Falzath scythe. Shin met it mid-air, slicing through the corrupted blade with a blinding arc of red lightning. The scythe's shards turned to ash before they hit the ground.
"Nice form," Shin called over his shoulder.
"Compliments in the middle of battle?" Zera asked.
"Just trying to keep morale up."
In the heart of the outpost, a void gate opened—a swirling mass of dark energy channeling Falzath power into the earth.
"We can't let it stabilize!" Tessara shouted.
Maika surged forward, her crest igniting. The Taiyo no Men glowed brighter than ever.
"This is for the children of Kharzad!" she yelled.
She threw a kunai laced with sunfire. It was embedded into the void gate's center and detonated in a brilliant flare. The gate cracked. Flames tore through the corridor. Cultists screamed as the structure collapsed inward.
The team regrouped outside, bloodied but victorious.
The sky above had cleared. The sun bathed the sand in light that felt clean.
Maika turned to Shin, her voice thick with emotion. "That was just the first."
"Then we hit the next," Shin replied. "And the next. Until Kharzad is free."
Tessara rolled her neck. "No breaks? No breakfast? Rude."
Laverna grinned. "You can eat once we're legends."
Their crests glowed brighter than ever, not just from power, but purpose.
Together, they marched.
Together, they defied the darkness.