Chapter 15: The Killers

Misaki confronts four Ranganese intruders in the Matsuda house. Exploiting their underestimation, she cripples one with a feint and kills him with ice claws, then uses Siradenyaa to cut down two more and hunts the last through a dark hallway, stabbing his heart with surgical precision.

Shaken by her lack of remorse, Misaki faces three additional soldiers, dispatching two with brutal efficiency before being disarmed. She finishes the last with a hairpin and a Blood Needle to the brain. As she retrieves Siradenyaa, two black-uniformed soldiers—strong fonyakalu—arrive, signaling a new, more dangerous threat.

Meanwhile, Mamoru races to the blacksmith village and finds it engulfed by wind-driven fire. He discovers Kotetsu Saori and others murdered, kills a straggling fonyaka, and presses on through devastation, realizing the attackers used fonya to unleash chaos.

Mamoru reaches Kotetsu Kama at a partially saved sector, learns Atsushi is trapped under the ruined house, and orders Kotetsu to flee while he rescues the boy and defends the approach. At the southern pass he finds Matsuda Takashi dead, his final burst of jiya frozen into a grisly tree of ice impaling enemies.

With five fonyakalu charging uphill, Mamoru accepts the burden of defense—the Sword of Kaigen—and advances to kill them, drawing strength from Yukino’s sacrifice and Takashi’s last stand.