The portal flared behind them, humming with residual magic before winking out, leaving Shin, Laverna, and Zera standing in the middle of a glade blanketed with silver mist. But this was no part of Essaterra they remembered.
The sky was a muted gray, and a pale crescent moon lingered unnaturally in the heavens despite it being midday. The trees were older here, their bark smooth and silver like bleached bone, their leaves rippling with a faint, ethereal blue light. A strange, mournful wind swept through the valley.
"Where... are we?" Zera muttered, sword already half-drawn.
Before Shin could respond, a blur tackled him to the ground.
"SHIN! LAVERNA! You're alive! You're actually alive!"
Yuri, older, stronger, and now clad in hardened leathers etched with runic glyphs, was practically sobbing as she hugged Shin, then Laverna for good measure. Her voice cracked from emotion and disbelief. "You were gone. Everyone said you were dead. I never gave up. Two years. Two damn years!"
Laverna's breath caught in her throat. "Two years?"
Yuri nodded fiercely, wiping tears from her cheeks. "Everything changed. Valdorne's gone. Most of Essaterra fell to the Falzath... but we held. Guild Master Davis... he's alive. So is the Fourth Talon. This valley, Valeshroud, is our last stand."
Yuri's eyes then drifted to Zera, her brow furrowing. "Wait... who's she?"
Zera gave a small nod, stepping forward but not lowering her sword. "Name's Zera. I follow Shin and Laverna. That's all you need to know."
Yuri blinked, caught off guard by the answer, but said nothing.
A loud horn echoed in the distance. Yuri stood and waved. More figures emerged from the mists. Soldiers, mages, scouts, and among them, Davis himself.
The Guild Master looked older, the lines on his face deeper, but his presence was no less commanding. He clasped Shin's shoulder tightly. "You came back. Just like the old fox said."
Shin's heart thumped. "What do you mean?"
Davis motioned toward the center of the valley. "The moon's pulse... it started the day you vanished. Every full moon since, there's been a ripple. We think it's tied to one of the ancient relics, the artifact of the Moon God. We believe it's here. Somewhere in Valeshroud. But it's not pure anymore."
A dark wind swept across them, chilling Shin to the bone.
He closed his eyes. There it was, that pulse. Faint. Lunar. But warped. Twisted by something dark. Falzath corruption.
"I can feel it," Shin said quietly. "It's calling. Not to me, but to something inside me."
Laverna stepped forward, her tiger eye necklace glowing faintly at her neck. Her eyes flared with Kitsune magic, her magical shimmering across her skin like golden flame. "Then let's answer it. Lead the way."
The deeper they went into Valeshroud, the darker the air became. Light itself felt muted. Magic crackled along the edges of their senses like whispers on the wind.
Zera moved cautiously at the front, blade drawn. "This place reeks of traps. The Falzath's corruption spread further than we feared."
Laverna scoffed but kept her pace fast. "Then let it try. It won't catch us."
"Boldness isn't invincibility," Zera shot back. "We don't need to charge into—"
A snarl split the air.
Shadow-foxes emerged from the gloom, their forms flickering in and out like broken illusions. Fangs glistened. Eyes gleamed violet.
"They're corrupted... Falzath spawn?" Laverna said, shocked. "No. They're mockeries."
One lunged. Laverna danced to the side, summoning her jamadhars, jamming both into its ribcage. Fire and lightning surged through the blades, bursting the beast apart in a hiss of smoke. Another came for Zera, who parried with precision, cleaving through its head with a diagonal cut.
Shin moved like a shadow. Yoshimatsu howled from its sheath, slicing with crimson light, scattering fox-wraiths with deadly arcs.
The battle became a blur. Laverna's magic flared with every movement as waves of elemental energy burst from her kicks and strikes. Her jamadhars shifted in color: red with fire, violet with thunder, gold with Kitsune grace.
Zera fought with brute discipline, holding the rear and cutting off flanks.
Yuri supported with protective wards and long-range arrows that exploded in arcane bursts.
Shin cut down the largest one, twice his size, shaped like a twisted mirror of his own Kitsune form. He didn't flinch. He stared it down, then severed its spine in a single blow.
The glade went quiet.
Laverna panted. Her hair had come undone, gold eyes were bright with adrenaline. "Those... those were mine. Or should have been."
Shin knelt beside one of the corpses. The flesh was evaporating into void mist, leaving only bone and corruption. "These are experiments. Twisted echoes. Someone or something is trying to recreate us."
Zera's sheathed her sword, scanning the surroundings for any Falzath manifestations. Yuri's brow raised, "What do you mean? Also, you have to explain to me why you have fox ears and tails now. I want to know what happened on that day."
Before Shin could say anything, Davis and a small team caught up to them. He looked at the carnage grimly. "We've seen these fox-wraiths before. They're guardians. That means we're close."
Shin's heart beat faster. The lunar pulse had grown stronger.
"We're close? Is that what I'm feeling right now?"
After a few moments of trekking through the valley, they stumbled upon an ancient shrine.
The shrine was nestled in a crater of silver stone, wrapped in vines that pulsed like veins. An obsidian archway stood before it, ancient runes glowing with a dull white light.
But what caught their attention was the moon.
Above, a second moon shimmered behind the clouds, faint, ethereal. It pulsed in time with Shin's heart.
"Kagetsu no Men? What... why does Tsukuyomi's Mirror here?" Shin said as he couldn't believe what he was seeing, remembering the mirror as a memory of childhood resurfaced within his mind.
He stepped forward. The mirror stood in the center of the shrine, half-buried. As he approached, the reflection within wasn't his face, but a younger version. Kitsune-form, eyes pure gold. Innocent.
Then the image twisted. The eyes turned red. The smile became a sneer. The corruption surged.
Laverna grabbed his arm. "You're not alone. Whatever it shows you... You're stronger than it."
He gritted his teeth. The crystal at his side pulsed.
The mirror flashed.
Power surged into him.
Memories, not his, rushed through him. Ancient Kitsune. Moon rituals. A promise to guard the veil between the worlds. A betrayal. A fall. The artifact, the Mirror, had been split. One half corrupted, the other sealed.
As if on cue, Shin's orb flew out of his pocket. The mirror met the orb, creating a flash of light.
When the light faded, the mirror was absorbed by the orb. Shin caught it as it descended slowly on his palm, taking it back in his pocket as soon as it landed on his hand.
Shin can feel its power, but it feels a bit off. "It's incomplete," Shin said. "And it's bound to me. To us. The other half... may still be within the Western continent somewhere."
Zera looked at him. "Then this... this is the last clean relic. We defend it."
Davis stepped forward. "Then Valeshroud becomes our fortress. The moon shines here. The pulse gives us hope. If this is the last shard of purity, then we make our stand."
Laverna raised her jamadhars. Flames danced along the blades. "Let them come. I'll burn every shadow they send."
Zera crossed her arms, nodding. "We protect the mirror. And each other."
Yuri smiled. "For the Guild. For the future."
Shin stood in the center, tails swaying. "Then this is our vow. Again. Under the moon's gaze, we defy darkness. We fight as one."
And from the shadows, unseen, the mirror pulsed once more.
Far away, the corrupted King Tristan stirred, sensing the reawakening.
The hunt had begun.