Light swallowed Raizen whole. His body felt like it was dissolving, every nerve set ablaze. The altar's runes weren't just glowing—they were rewriting him, line by line, bone by bone. His screams were devoured by the crimson brilliance until, at last, silence reclaimed the canyon.
When his vision steadied, he wasn't standing in the valley anymore. The earth was gone. The sky, too. He was floating in a sea of endless stars, weightless yet grounded, as if the cosmos themselves had bent to form a floor beneath his feet.
At the center of that star-sea, an orb pulsed with radiant energy. Each beat echoed inside his chest, syncing with his own heart.
"This…" Raizen whispered, eyes wide. "Where am I?"
The shadow's voice drifted across the void. "You stand in the inner sanctum. The seal of the Kaguras… the fragment left within you since birth."
Raizen staggered forward, reaching out toward the orb. The closer he came, the heavier the air grew. It wasn't oppressive like the monk's aura, nor suffocating like the Otsutsuki's visions. It was familiar. Like a memory he'd never lived.
"Touch it," the shadow urged. "Let the fragment recognize you."
Raizen hesitated. Then, with steady breath, he pressed his palm against the surface.
The orb cracked.
Shards of light burst outward, slicing through the void. Each shard carried visions: a city of silver spires, a clan chanting beneath a bleeding moon, warriors weaving techniques that bent the laws of nature itself. For a heartbeat, Raizen could see them clearly—the Kaguras in their prime, not just warriors, but architects of entire realms.
But then the visions turned. Screams. Flames. A war against beings not meant to exist in mortal sight. And finally… betrayal. Someone among the Kaguras had turned against their own, opening the gates to the invaders.
The visions ended as quickly as they came. Raizen fell to one knee, clutching his head, the taste of blood on his tongue.
"So that's it…" His voice trembled. "The Kaguras weren't just destroyed. They were betrayed."
The shadow nodded, its outline flickering. "Fragments of the Forgotten are never lost, only buried. You now carry their truth. What you choose to do with it… will decide if history repeats."
The ground beneath Raizen trembled. Cracks split across the star-sea. Something immense stirred in the dark beyond the horizon of stars.
"Wait—what is that?" Raizen asked, rising to his feet, blade half-drawn.
The shadow's voice lowered, grim. "The guardians of the seal. They have slumbered since the fall, but your awakening disturbs them. To move forward… you must survive their judgment."
From the cracks rose a colossal figure. Its body was an amalgamation of stone and light, etched with the same runes that had glowed on the altar. Its face was a mask without eyes, but its roar shook the void like thunder.
Raizen's heartbeat spiked. Every instinct screamed that this was no mere test—it was a battle of survival.
"So this is the price of truth," Raizen muttered, steadying his stance. His blade shimmered, new energy pulsing along its edge, answering the fragment that had awakened in his blood.
The guardian raised its arm, a mountain of stone and fire, and brought it crashing down.
Raizen leapt forward, steel meeting the force of forgotten gods.
The second arc had begun.