Tamura's legacy and a stand to the gods: Cardinal State

The deeper they went into the cave, the less the light mattered.

Torches warped. Mana lanterns flickered unnaturally. Even Mugen's shadow glyphs bent wrong, as if the cave walls resented being illuminated. Kael kept his blade drawn. Aylin's beast form twitched beneath her skin. Tamura... was silent.

His marks pulsed. At first, it did so gently, then violently. Not violet. Not crimson.

Red and black.

Like something beneath the rock was calling him.

"Something's off," Mugen murmured. 

"The air feels like it's already made a deal."

Aylin snarled softly.

"You hear that?"

They didn't. But Tamura nodded.

"It's whispering."

---

The Syndicate's Core

The passage opened into a wide chamber—stone pillars carved in jagged runes, blood-thread glyphs dripping from the ceiling like cursed vines. At the center, floating above a black altar, sat a glyph engine pulsing with pact energy.

And around it, were bodies.

Bound. Twisted. Some alive, barely. Others... offered.

"Welcome, Halo trash," a voice rang out.

From behind the altar stepped a man. He was tall, copper-skinned, and his gold eyes burned unnaturally. His armor was stitched with pact glyphs, and his presence felt heavy, humid, familiar.

His name is Kaane Kithritch.

The leader of the Redmane Syndicate. 

Once a noble general of Xathia, cast out for forging pacts with infernal gods. Now he wore those gods like tattoos.

"You came for the Anchor," he said. 

"But you brought the flameborn. How thoughtful."

Kael lunged first at Kaane, only to get hit with a blood glyph and slammed into the wall.

Aylin transformed mid-sprint. Her claws were met by a barrier of infernal flame.

Mugen shadow-stepped, barely dodging an exploding seal.

Tamura stood still. His skin cracked with crimson light.

---

The Cardinal State Unleashed

"You feel it," Kaane whispered. 

"Don't you? We built this place to wake your kind."

Tamura dropped to his knees, shaking, panting, his aura flaring violently.

"No…"

"Yes. Let it in. Let the gods carve you into something useful."

The altar's energy surged.

Tamura screamed.

His marks ignited, eyes blazing red and black, hair lifting into flames. The Cardinal State has consumed him. His aura struck the walls, melted steel, crushed glyphs. Kael crawled behind cover. Aylin shielded her eyes. Mugen drew his cloak tight, sigils sputtering like candles in a storm.

And Kaane... grinned.

"Beautiful."

---

Vayrik's Exit

But Vayrik didn't stay.

He locked eyes with Kaane, expression unreadable.

"You're not worth his first full awakening."

Kaane raised an eyebrow.

"So you remember me."

Vayrik stepped through a golden glyph. Not cast, but inherent, shaped like trickery wrapped around destiny.

"I remember the game you lost."

He vanished.

Kaane cursed but then smiled again.

"Then I'll make sure to win this next one... Brother."

---

Tamura couldn't hear the cave anymore.

The walls pulsed red. The sigils shrieked. His body moved faster than thought, his aura boiling across the stone like a living curse. His marks tore open again. They were not bleeding, but blazing.

Mugen ducked as a stray pulse vaporized a blood-sealed pillar beside him.

"Tamura!" he shouted. 

"You're torching everything again man, cut it out!"

Tamura spun. His mind was in a frenzy and Tamura's eyes glowed like an inferno made of crimson.

"Back… away."

His voice was no longer fully, his split between emotion and command, distorted like a forgotten god speaking through cracked glass. Or something more primal.

Kael shielded Aylin behind a pillar as Tamura's flames carved arcs into the stone.

"We're going to lose containment soon," Kael grunted. 

"Tell me you can reach him."

Mugen stepped forward, slowly, arms raised, voice quiet:

"Tamura. It's me."

Tamura didn't move.

"It's real. It happened. We lost them. I miss our siblings too. All the ones we lost. Including Freya."

Still no change.

"But you're not just good for destruction and carrying out vengeance you know?"

Tamura's glow twitched.

Mugen kept walking.

"You're a blade. Not a wildfire. You're a protector as much as you are a fighter."

His shadows unfurled. Not to trap, but to wrap, softly dimming the red light, shaping silence around Tamura's mind.

Tamura's breathing hitched.

His marks flared again.

But this time... they flickered.

And began to still. And then... Tears.

---

Deeper within the cave, Vayrik moved through infernal fire like he'd been born in it. His golden aura bent every sigil. It didn't erase them, it overtook them.

Kaane stood at the heart of the Pact Anchor's chamber, cloak swirling in heat, boots planted on cursed stone like he owned it.

Vayrik stepped forward, blade low, eyes locked. 

No squad. No distractions. Just two men with the same blood and opposite convictions.

Kaane cracked a grin.

"So you finally made it. Took you long enough, little brother."

Vayrik didn't smile.

"You knew I'd come."

"Of course. Every game needs an end. I figured you'd want front row seats to mine."

"I'm not here to watch."

Kaane chuckled, pacing slightly.

"Right. You want to avenge father. Dig me a nice guild-branded grave and whisper old names into the dust like it means something."

Vayrik stepped closer.

"You dragged our house through fire. You signed your name on pact contracts and sold off our allies. You walked out on a dying man and left me to clean it up."

Kaane's face hardened.

"I walked out on a man who let weakness rot everything we built."

Vayrik's grip tightened on his sword.

"He gave us legacy."

"He gave us debt," Kaane snapped. 

"You really think that little guild of yours replaces what we lost? You've got orphans, freaks, a flameborn kid who doesn't know if he's dying or ascending. You think that's power? That's just chaos waiting to collapse."

Vayrik moved like lightning, blade slashing. 

Kaane blocked, barely, his own dagger coated in infernal flame.

Steel clashed. Sparks flew.

Kaane laughed through the fight.

"You were always scared of raw power. Afraid if you used too much, you'd lose your soul."

"I was afraid I'd turn into you."

Kaane spun, struck Vayrik across the ribs. The cut was shallow, but it bled gold.

He paused.

"Still carrying the mark of those damn twins, huh? Figures. Pretty little vessel doing tricks for secrets he barely understands."

Vayrik straightened, blood dripping onto the stone.

"I don't need the gods to kill you."

Kaane smirked.

"Then do it. Kill your brother. Like a good founder. Show your monsters how loyalty ends."

Vayrik raised his sword again.

"Don't you dare call them monsters. They survived what you turned your back on."

Kaane roared, lunging with his blade flaring red.

"You built a house for fire. I'm just lighting the match."

They clashed again, harder, louder. The room cracked with power. Pact glyphs shattered. The Anchor surged like it knew its maker was falling.

Vayrik feinted, pivoted.

And he plunged his blade into Kaane's chest.

Deep. Unforgiving.

Kaane gasped. Eyes wide. 

He fell to his knees, coughing blood.

"You… were always better… at the quiet games…"

Vayrik knelt beside him.

"And you were always louder than your reach."

Kaane's voice dropped to a whisper.

"Bury me under your fake kingdom."

Vayrik leaned close.

"I'll bury you where fire learned not to run."

Kaane collapsed—glyphs sparking, eyes dimming.

---

Tamura collapsed to one knee—marks glowing but calm. Mugen knelt beside him, wrapping a glyph-seal against his brother's chest.

"You're back."

Tamura opened his eyes.

"For now."

The cave trembled.

Kael stepped through the ash and broken glyphs.

"Anchor's cracked. Pact lines are unraveling."

Aylin approached, breathing ragged.

"Where's Vayrik?"

Mugen looked up.

From the far chamber, Vayrik emerged—blade soaked, eyes dull, Kaane's body wrapped in golden thread.

He dropped it beside the altar.

"We're done here."

Tamura looked at the corpse. 

His mark pulsed once. 

A soft violet.

"Who was he?"

Vayrik didn't answer.

He placed Kaane gently against the stone.

"He was the reason I built the guild."

---

The guild was silent when they returned.

No cheers. 

No horns. 

Just footsteps echoing across stone floors that had seen too many departures.

The grave wasn't built with magic. It was carved by hand.

Vayrik didn't ask for help. Didn't call for ceremony or light. He dug with blade and stone beneath the guild's foundation, sweat mixing with soil the color of faded parchment. The thread-wrapped body of Kaane Kithritch lay beside him, wrapped not in forgiveness, but in finality.

When the tomb was finished, he placed the body inside.

No glyphs. No infernal seals. Just a name carved with a dagger's hilt onto black stone:

Kaane Kithritch.

Born in power. Buried in flame.

Vayrik stood over it a long time.

Then left the room in silence.

---

Upstairs, the guild was quiet.

Kael sat sharpening his blade in the courtyard, eyes distant. Aylin lay in beastform near the hall's open doors, her tail flicking lazily through falling dust. Mugen walked alone in the outer grounds, his shadow long and pinned under starlight.

Tamura stood at the rooftop's edge, staring down at the city that didn't know how close it had come to collapse.

His hair, wind-swept and half-dimmed, still shimmered faintly in the dark.

Mugen climbed up beside him.

"Did you hear?"

Tamura nodded.

"He buried him. His own brother. And without ceremony."

Mugen sat.

"Good. I don't think that name deserves prayer."

Tamura didn't speak.

His mark pulsed once. It was just a flicker. Violet. Red. Then quiet.

"It felt like something wanted him to live. Even at the end."

Mugen looked at him.

"Gods or ghosts. It doesn't matter. He's gone."

Tamura turned toward his brother.

"No. He's here now. Under everything we build."

They sat in silence as the night grew colder.

Far below them, in the depths of the guild's foundation, a single glyph flickered unseen and etched not by magic, but by fate. The unspoken tale of Kaane. 

---