BOOM.
The high wall caging the Yakumi-styled wooden mansion exploded inward, stone and timber scattering like broken teeth.
A flood of flames washed through the breach scorching everything it touched. The shadows caught in its path didn't simply die. They burned, their forms consumed so completely that only ash remained. The charred remnants fell like black rain, scattered across the garden grass of the mansion's outer yard.
Flames spread from the corpses, crawling across the manicured lawn.
Through the inferno, two horses emerged.
Obsidians. Moving with purpose and grace even as fire licked at their hooves.
On one sat a woman wreathed in flames, a blazing figure that seemed less human and more elemental force barely contained in flesh.
On the other, an armed general, her twin scythes gleaming in the firelight.
The ancient one's gaze fell upon the new arrivals.
