Kaguhiko

Kaguhiko remembered the taste of river mist on their tongue, a promise shared with four others on the steps of the pale stone temple. They were explorers, heretics who believed a purer truth lay beneath the city’s foundations, over the roar of the falls. They were searching for a new star to guide them, a power like the one Sutaraito commanded. They found it: a fissure of pure, shimmering energy in the temple’s deepest chamber. It looked like salvation. But when they reached for it, the light did not bless. It consumed. It scoured Kaguhiko’s companions from existence, leaving only a permanent, glimmering echo on Kaguhiko’s own back. They were the only survivor, branded by the very power they sought, their wonder replaced by a ravenous, desperate hunger for answers.