Prologue1: The Final Battle
Zen-Zhou, standard bearer of the Moonblade Kitsune regiment, twisted as Spike Kami ejected a chitin composed projectile at him. The spike flew past him and into one of the other Moonblades, who sagged to the ground before two medics pulled him out of the fight and through the great gates of Eiganjo Castle. Zen-Zhou, now untargeted by the horde of Kami, began beating a stirring rhythm on his great war drum. Not seeing his enchantment taking hold, Zen-Zhou altered his beat so it would get past whatever countermagic the Kami were using. Slowly, ever so slowly, the overwhelmed kitsune felt their swords hitting home more often and the Kami's weapons penetrating a smaller amount into their armor. This new-found resiliency allowed them to began pushing back their enemies. This new-found wave of prowess spread past the Moonblades and into the other pitifully small groups defending the gate.
Zen-Zhou, his enchantment firmly in place, then took out his flute and began another, far more complicated enchantment. Due to the exceptional mentality's of the Kami, Zen-Zhou had to separate himself from his own being before he could begin to weave the spell. He only hoped Kira, the Great glass spinner, didn't show up. As he worked out the convolutions of the Kami mind he began his spell, an intricate series of notes on the flute that would influence all that heard it. Minutes later, the spell was complete, and a hush lay over the battlefield; as neither Kami nor mortal were moving. None, that is, except Zen-Zhou.
When lord Konda requested an audience with the mage that ended the battle, said mage was not surprised, as he was the only conscious survivor of the battle. "So, would you like to explain to me how you put two hundred warriors and almost one-thousand Kami into a coma at the same time." Although Lord Konda said this quietly, it was clear it was not a question. Zen-Zhou's rebuttal was equally abrupt, "Would you like to explain to me how you captured a greater kami before they started physically manifesting themselves?" Konda twisted around, backhanding Zen "how could you know about that?" "Oh…any number of ways really, but what I'm interested in is how you, a man with no particular skill in magic, nor in possession of any wizards with the same, managed to pull a Kami out of the spirit world and capture its essence." Konda slapped him again. "Oh…I'm sure you don't want to do that, you see, when I put all the Kami into a coma, I communed with the great Kami to meet us in the grand courtyard in an hour to exchange the captive Kami for peace, and if you kill me, he will destroy you." "So, you decided to negotiate a ceasefire without giving anyone else an inkling of what you were planning?" "Actually, it's not a ceasefire, the great Kami knows you could destroy the one you captured, so he's offering you a chance to avoid annihilation by giving up your captive." Konda mulled this over, then said "I don't have much choice do I?" Zen-Zhou nodded, then, confident that his purpose was completed, turned around and walked out of the room.
An hour later the entire royal court was assembled in the grand courtyard to await the arrival of the great Kami. In the middle of the massive cobblestone surface was inscribed a monolithic circle with inscrutable runes bordering its perimeter. In the center of the circle the most powerful enchantments of summoning, binding, and communing had been inscribed in an attempt to mitigate the surge of power that was guaranteed to follow the great Kami's arrival. The last guest, a women in an unassuming black cloak, arrived just as the bell tolled the hours arrival. Suddenly, a great sentience tore a massive rift in the veil between worlds. This rift was visible only as a sphere of blinding light hovering above the center of the circle. then when the size of the rift permitted, a great being, perceived only as a mental weight, shouldered a portion of itself just large enough to commune with mortals, into the physical world. The minuscule scrap of the great Kami was enough to cause all but three in the audience to fall into a deep coma. The three standing were Zen-Zhou, Konda, and the woman in black. When the entity finally turned its focus to why it was in this world, those remaining had been completely broken down by its unbelievable power. "So, you think to capture one of my kin, harness its powers and live forever..." The thought entered the minds of all present, Konda himself though, had regained some of his composure and responded boldly "I have already lived far beyond the years of most humans, and now I stand in your presence, my goal has been achieved!" with that, Konda whipped out a small urn from behind his back shouted seven words of power and threw the urn to the ground. A plume of smoke rose up from the shattered pottery and engulfed the courtyard. When it cleared another being stood amid the shards of porcelain, a woman of beauty beyond compare, this was the only being that could ever mach the great Kami, the corporeal incarnation of the mirror. The words of power Konda spoke bound her to him and caused her to close the rift in the veil in order to isolate and ensnare this small piece of the great Kami. Zen-Zhou, looking past the physical and into the world of the Kami, saw how small the rift had become and realized he had two choices; join with Konda and watch him ascend into a godlike state, or save the lives of the mortals gathered by preventing the theft of the fragment and the inevitable redistribution, it wasn't a choice. springing into action, the nimble kitsune dashed around fallen bodies and into the circle. Drawing his flute, he began a melody lasting to prevent the portal from closing. Then he began attempting to free the enslaved kami, only to have his magic rebuked and instead have to watch as chains of shadow grew from the kami and fixed themselves to the woman in black, who then started to siphon the Kami's energy and essence. Zen-Zhou realized that this was a much mire dangerous adversary than Konda could ever be. He also knew that he had not the strength to stop her on his own, it was with this in mind that he turned and channeled as much energy as he could through the portal and into the surrounding air. In his first breath after he saw his goal complete, in his second his vision dimmed, in his third he saw five stars coming toward him, by his fourth all the Kami departed from the mortal world, in his fifth he learned his enemy's name as she departed,Selentra , in his sixth he saw no more.