The air shimred faintly as Team 9 and Team 7 stepped deeper into Tildaroot Village.
Once a haven of light and blossoms, it now looked drained petals gray, the ponds dull, the air heavy with faint motes of Lunaris Dust that glowed sickly under the moonlight.
But through the haze, figures moved slow, graceful, deliberate.
Two silhouettes knelt in the center of the plaza, masks of silver and teal covering their faces, hands pressed to glowing seals drawn into the soil.
Waves of soft blue-green Shinrei pulsed outward, dancing through the air in rhythmic surges.
The dust particles in the area shimred, then slowly began to disintegrate.
It was the Shinrei Reversal Ritual, a purification technique so complex it required the synchronization of two affinities: Wave and Bloom.
At the heart of it lay a single focus Eclora Mist, an antidote compound so rare that only Khael and a few field commanders had ever used it before.
The faint scent of mint and rain filled the air.
And then
Khael's eyes widened.
He recognized those motions anywhere.
"Lira… Rael…" he murmured.
The two healers turned at the sound of his voice. Their masks retracted silver petals folding away to reveal Lira Valenne's gentle expression, her eyes glowing faintly with pale erald light, and Rael's calm but sharp gaze, his Verdant Mirror mark faintly pulsing across his temple.
Rael gave a short nod, voice even but clearly weary.
"Hmm… Khael. Shigeo. And… the others."
Kenji imdiately groaned. "'The others?' Bro, that's harsh."
Saya elbowed him playfully. "Maybe you should've brought a gift."
Ceyla just smirked, her lightning aura crackling faintly. "Still as blunt as ever, huh, Rael?"
Rael shrugged, gaze still half-focused on the ritual seals. "Blunt gets the job done."
Khael stepped forward, scanning the surroundings. Half of the village glowed faintly with stabilized Shinrei light a clear sign that the cure was working. The villagers nearby were breathing normally again, no longer frozen in emotional paralysis.
But his expression shifted the mont he realized one key absence.
"Where's Kaen?" Khael asked, tone calm but firm.
Rael didn't look up imdiately. He pressed his palm to one of the sigils, sealing it with a faint hum before exhaling.
Then, quietly, he replied,
"That idiot's recovering. For now."
Khael's brows furrowed. "Recovering? What happened?"
Rael's expression darkened slightly. "He got attacked. Two nights ago. So rogue—fast, brutal, and using Shade affinity mixed with raw combat arts. Kaen held his ground, but…"
Lira finished softly, her hands still glowing over a recovering villager.
"He was badly hurt. Head trauma, Shinrei distortion. He's stable now, but his flow is… unstable. He's sleeping it off inside the western clinic."
For a mont, silence fell.
Even Shigeo, who rarely showed much concern, tilted his head slightly. "Shade affinity, huh? That's not sothing you see just anywhere. Could be Void-related."
Juno crossed his arms. "Shade users are rare for a reason. You think this was personal?"
Rael's eyes flickered the faint glint of his Verdant Mirror marking flashed once.
"Maybe. The attacker called him 'curse brat' before vanishing. He wasn't after anyone else."
That na made Khael's stomach tighten.
He'd heard whispers about Kaen's unstable flow, the experints tied to the Suro Clan, and the Eclipse Rite.
But seeing it spill into the present… it ant the past was stirring again.
Khael said quietly,
"Then we're not just dealing with dust contamination. Soone's targeting the teams directly."
Ceyla's stormy eyes flicked to him. "You think this Shade user's still around?"
Khael looked toward the forest edge — the trees swaying slightly under the breeze, petals scattering like falling embers.
"Maybe," he said. "And if he is… we'll find him."
The night breeze rolled through Tildaroot, brushing past the half-restored lanterns and through the open window of the makeshift infirmary. The air was finally breathable again —no Lunaris residue, no ghostly shimr just the scent of dicine and quiet recovery.
Khael stepped into the dimly lit room, his boots silent against the polished floor.
The faint hum of purification crystals pulsed rhythmically along the walls, bathing the space in soft blue light.
And there, sitting upright on the bed bandaged but sohow grinning like nothing had happened was Kaen Suro.
The mont he saw him, Kaen's eyes went wide.
"KHAEL!! You're here!!" he shouted, half-standing before the nurse forced him back down with a glare. "What are you doing here, man?! Did they send you to check if I'm alive? Because spoiler alert…I'm aweso!"
Khael blinked once, then chuckled, hands sliding into his coat pockets.
"Yeah, I can see that. You look like you wrestled a hurricane and ca out with a smile."
Kaen grinned wider. "Hey, I did wrestle sothing close enough! So psycho guy with lightning scars and hair like a fried chicken! He called himself Bakuza! He thought he could scare but nope! I hit him with my 'Fla Shield,' and BOOM—he ran!"
Lira, seated quietly near the corner, smiled softly. "Kaen… you collapsed five seconds after that."
Kaen froze, the confidence cracking slightly. "...Details. You're focusing on the wrong part of the story."
Rael sighed from the other side of the room, arms crossed. "You nearly burned down the street."
Kaen pouted. "Hey! Fire solves problems."
A faint chuckle ca from behind Khael, Shigeo Moto, who'd leaned against the doorway with his usual bored expression, eyes half-lidded.
He glanced at Kaen, then at the chaotic energy radiating from everyone in the room, and muttered flatly,
"What a complicated world."
Kenji barked out a laugh. "He says that every ti he's too lazy to argue."
Saya smiled, sitting on the windowsill, arms crossed. "I missed this energy. Feels like the academy days again."
Kaen turned to her, grinning brightly despite the bandages around his head.
"Of course! Team 3's always full of energy! And with Khael here, it's like a reunion of chaos!"
Ceyla muttered under her breath, "You an a reunion of idiots."
Kaen gasped dramatically. "How dare you, lightning gremlin!"
Ceyla's eyes sparked faintly with static. "Say that again, fla boy."
Before another argunt could explode, Khael raised a hand calm, authoritative, but warm.
"Alright, enough. We're not here to start another fight inside a healing ward."
He stepped closer to Kaen's bed, his amber eyes softening.
"I heard what happened. You did well, Kaen. Even injured, you protected people. That's what matters."
For a brief second, Kaen's grin faltered replaced by sothing quieter. A flicker of pride mixed with guilt.
"…Heh. Thanks, Khael. But that guy, Bakuza, he's not normal. His Shinrei felt wrong. Like the shadows were whispering to him. I couldn't even track his moves. He said sothing about a 'Master.'"
Khael's expression darkened slightly. "A Master…?"
Rael added, "We couldn't trace any Shinrei residue after he vanished. It's like he stepped through the void itself."
Shigeo pushed off the wall, yawning. "So the fun's just starting. Great."
Kaen laughed, slapping his knee. "Ha! You're still the sa, Shigeo. Lazy but smart!"
Shigeo shrugged, glancing at Khael. "What now, Dragon Knight? You gonna fly in and punch the mystery out of this guy?"
Khael gave a faint smile, eyes glowing faintly gold under the moonlight streaming through the window.
"No. Not yet. First, we make sure no one else gets hurt. Then… we find who's pulling the strings behind this."
Kaen's grin returned, brighter than ever.
"Then count in. I owe that scar-faced bastard a rematch."
Lira sighed but smiled. "You'll rest first."
Rael smirked. "And train later."
Ceyla crossed her arms. "If you burn another bed, I'm reporting you."
Kaen laughed anyway loud, reckless, alive. "Ahaha! The gang's all here again! Just like old tis!"
Khael turned toward the window. The wind stirred faintly, carrying petals from the recovering trees outside.
But as he looked toward the darkened edge of the village, his gaze hardened.
A faint ripple of shadow moved along the treeline unseen by all but him.
And within that darkness, a whisper that wasn't quite sound echoed in his mind.
("The cursed fla burns brighter than it should… let's see how long before it consus him.")
Khael's hand clenched slightly scales faintly flickering beneath his skin.
He exhaled slowly, then turned back to the room full of laughter and light.
"Yeah," he murmured.
"Just like old tis."
To be continue
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