The forest held its breath again.
The faint glow of the Great Tree dimmed behind them as Rin and Venshiro stood at the edge of the grove, shadows stretching long beneath their feet. The sound came again—hoofbeats, steady and purposeful, not like some monsters. No. This was formation. Precision.
"Clansmen?" Rin whispered, drawing her blade.
Venshiro didn't answer. His hand gripped the Black Vein tighter. It whispered in response, not like before—not warning, but recognizing something. Its whisper returned, low and sharp.
"They wear no roots. They ride for blood."
The first horse broke through the tree line, tall and black, its rider cloaked in armor of polished obsidian. Behind him came two more, each with the sigil of a withered lighting etched into their headband.
Venshiro narrowed his eyes. "Those aren't Midoriha."
"No," Rin said coldly. "They are Tenbatsu-Sky Reign"."
The three riders stopped a short distance away. The leader dismounted without a word. His helmet resembled a smooth, eyeless mask, the surface unnaturally flat. With headband representing lighting element.
"You passed through the trees," he said, "and made a connection with the Sentinels. Interesting. The Kurenai Vein must truly want you."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a scroll. It fluttered in the breeze like paper made of skin.
Rin stepped forward. "Whatever your message is, speak it and go."
The rider tilted his head. "This isn't a message. It's a claim."
In a flash, the scroll erupted into flames and the ground beneath them shifted. Veins of ink-like magic cracked through the dirt, twisting the roots of the grove's edge. From those cracks, figures began to crawl out—not men, not fully. Wrapped in funeral green, faceless, Vein Whisperers.
Venshiro stepped in front of Rin instinctively. "They were waiting. Watching."
"We always do," the rider said. "The Tenbatsu begins with a single bloom… rotted from within. And you, Bearer, are already wilting."
Rin's eyes burned. "You think you'll kill him here?"
The man laughed softly. "No. Not here. Not now. Just enough to remind him—we're already inside his roots."
The Whisperers lunged.
Venshiro moved first.
The Black Vein screamed as it was drawn, the sound like metal grinding through bone. In a blink, two of the figures were sliced, their bodies turned into black mist.
Rin followed, her blade sparkling in silver-green colour in the dim light. Her movements were precise and fast. She severed the arms of a third Whisperer, spun beneath its lunge, and drove her blade upward through its mask.
They fought like they had before like two storms destroying chaos with purpose.
But they kept coming.
The ground pulsed beneath them. One of the fallen Whisperers' green-wrapped bodies twisted, reforming, stitching itself back together.
"They're not dying," Rin hissed, back-to-back with Venshiro now. "If we don't kill whoever makes them come , they will not die completely ."
"To him," Venshiro growled, staring at the mounted leader. The Vein pulsed in his grip.
And then the sword whispered again—
"Feed me."
Venshiro exhaled sharply. "Cover me."
Rin didn't argue.
She surged forward, intercepting a new wave while Venshiro sank the Black Vein into the ground. It drank deep, not of flesh, but of the rot beneath the surface—Tenbatsu magic sliding through the grove's roots.
There was a hiss. A crack. The air turned red around him.
In a flash, crimson light erupted from the earth, slicing through the crawling figures.
The sword ate the magic that holds them alive and killed them at the same time.
Rin turned as the last one fell. "That… wasn't normal."
Venshiro rose slowly, veins glowing faintly across his arms, pulsing like vines beneath his skin. His breath was hard. "The sword… It took more than their bodies, i thought we need to take the owner of the magic."
The rider and his crew standed still , chuckled. The leader said in arrogant smile "Good. It's waking up. You're waking up."
He turned, walking calmly back toward his horse. "We'll meet again, Shinja. "
Then, like smoke in wind, he vanished. His horse with him. No trace remained but the broken ground and the scent of rot.
Silence fell again.
Rin walked to Venshiro's side. "You alright?"
"No." He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "But I'm starting to understand."
"What?"
"The sword's not cursed." He looked at the Black Vein, now pulsing gently. "It's hungry. And I've been starving it."
Rin stared at him. "That's not comforting."
He almost smiled. "Wasn't meant to be."
She sheathed her blade. "We need to move. Fast. If Tenbatsu is already sending scouts, the other clans won't be far behind."
Venshiro nodded. "Then let's give them something to chase."
They turned from the Grove of the Great Tree, slipping into the forest paths again.
**
While they were walking together, Venshiro asked with curiosity Rin:
"He used a scroll to summon Whispers, that is strange .."
Rin : "i've never seen this before either, i dont know what kind of this meeting was but my intuition is telling- it is not good"