The wind tasted of ash and memory.
Raiyo stood at the edge of the shattered valley known as Enzoku, where once a great city stood—now reduced to crumbling towers, jagged stones, and shadows that whispered when no one listened.
He walked forward slowly, his bare feet silent against the scorched earth. Though blind, he felt everything: the echo of footsteps long past, the lingering trace of bloodshed, the faint pull of a blade that called out from somewhere deep below.
Behind him, the mountain where Ojiro had trained him was now just a silhouette in the mist.
Before him stood a path into the remains of a war no one had spoken of in centuries.
Enzoku had once been the southernmost fortress of the Kageren, the secret order that once swore to seal the Three Final Blades. But something had gone wrong here—terribly wrong.
Raiyo pressed his palm against one of the broken walls. The stone was still warm, though the sun hadn't reached it in hours.
He could feel it—residual Vexum. Powerful. Distorted. Twisted.
That meant one of two things
Someone had unleashed forbidden energy here.
Or something was still alive in the ruins.
He moved cautiously through the skeletal remains of buildings, sensing invisible vibrations and faint breaths in the air. Occasionally, the wind would carry with it whispers, like fragments of dying prayers.
Then he found it.
A symbol carved into stone—a crescent blade surrounded by seven falling stars.
He knelt before it, brushing dust from the sigil. Something called to him beneath the stone. A chamber, hidden. Forgotten.
Raiyo's hand slid into the cracks of the floor. A trigger. With a shift in pressure and a burst of Vexum, the stone beneath him moved.
The earth split open—revealing a staircase that led into the black.
He descended without hesitation.
Below was not just a hiding place.
It was a sealed sanctum.
And within it… lay a person.
She sat cross-legged in the center of the room, perfectly still. Her hair, once silver, now hung long and faded. Her robes bore the symbols of high command—but torn, burned, and bloodied.
Her eyes opened the moment Raiyo stepped onto the stone.
"You," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "You carry the scent of the Vexum."
He said nothing.
She stood slowly, her legs trembling.
"You are his son… the child of Keal Shingen."
"You know my father?" Raiyo asked.
"I fought him." Her hands trembled as she reached for a blade—an old katana laid beside her. "And your mother…"
Raiyo's breath caught.
"She came here… to protect what we sealed. To protect you."
"Where is she now?"
The woman didn't answer. Instead, she pointed to a shrine at the back of the room.
Raiyo turned—and saw a broken sword.
No.
Not broken.
Drained.
The aura around it had been shattered. The katana was lifeless.
"She used Kurosei no Tsugunai once," the woman whispered. "Just once. To seal away your father's army. She disappeared after that."
The room began to tremble.
Vexum pulsed violently beneath the shrine. The Third Blade's presence… was close.
Too close.
The stone above shattered.
Raiyo reacted just in time—raising his katana to block a falling spear of obsidian.
A figure landed before him—cloak flowing, blade humming with dark crimson energy.
A Sable Blade.
More dropped in behind him.
Five in total.
They wore bone masks and armor etched with the crest of Keal Shingen.
"You're worth a fortune, blind prince," the leader said, chuckling. "Dead or alive, we drag you back to your father."
Raiyo's grip tightened.
"I'm not going back."
The silver-haired woman lifted her broken blade.
"Then you'll need help."
"You can barely stand," Raiyo muttered.
She smiled faintly. "Even a dying blade can still cut once."
The room exploded into motion.
Raiyo's blade met the enemy with silent fury. His style—Sightless Sword—flowed like liquid shadow. He felt every movement, anticipated each breath. Where the Sable Blades relied on power, Raiyo moved with inevitability.
The woman beside him chanted softly—her broken sword humming with trapped memories. She didn't need to kill. She only needed to delay.
One by one, the Sable Blades fell.
The last one backed toward the exit, injured, coughing.
"You'll regret this," he hissed.
"I already do," Raiyo whispered—and drove his katana through the man's chest.
The room fell quiet.
When the dust cleared, the woman collapsed.
"Your mother," she murmured, "was taken by the Kageren."
Raiyo froze. "Taken?"
"She sealed herself in the Vault of the Third Blade. But the Kageren feared her. They sealed her in sleep."
"Where?"
"…The Hollow Monastery… north of the Ashen Fields."
Her breath slowed.
"Go," she said. "Find her. But beware… if she wakes—so too does the curse she carried."
As Raiyo stepped out of the underground sanctum, the wind shifted again.
Far away, in the Ashen Fields…
A pair of golden eyes opened within the Hollow Monastery.
And a whisper carried on the wind.
"Raiyo…"