Time of the Void Time of the Void The return of the Seven Thunders . . .
A thousand years ago Shinsei and the Seven Thunders faced Fu Leng deep in the Shadowlands and used the Black Scrolls to banish his evil from the world.
The Prophesies of Uikkiu have all come to pass. The last Akodo has fallen. The Crab have been redeemed by hero. The Phoenix are corrupted from within by the taint of the Shadowlands. The Naga have returned from their slumber with unheeded warnings and misunderstood motives. The Scorpion know they have failed in their ancestral duty to protect the Black Scrolls. The Lion are divided, the Crane are exhausted and the Unicorn are distracted.
Fu Leng has possessed the body of the last Hantei Emperor. Seated now on the Emerald Throne he vows his revenge will be an eternity of darkness...
...but the descendant of Shinsei has gathered together the greatest heroes of the age, and against all hope the Seven Thunders ride now for the showdown at the Imperial Capital of Otosan Uchi!
The mysterious figure of Togashi Yokuni has returned from his self-imposed exile. The Dragon Clan Champion hides a great secret beneath his mask, a secret which may prove to be the final doom of Fu Leng. He has waited for his opportunity to fulfill his own role in the unfolding prophecy, and with the arrival of the descendant of Shinsei, Yokuni knows his time is now at hand.
Yakamo is determined to enforce the duties of his ancestors, but a rogue element of Crab Clan Samurai find his newfound purity a sign of weakness, not of strength. They refuse to acknowledge his right to rule them, and they have rallied around the banner of Hida no Oni, the fearsome Shadowlands creature who bears Yakamo's name.
Amid the smoking ruins of their once mighty temples the shugenja of the Phoenix see at last that the Shadowlands taint upon the Elemental Masters will be their final doom. Without the strength of the Council of Five, the Phoenix cannot act, and cannot fight. Those shugenja who have embraced the darkness demonstrate that the quest for power at the expense of honor and duty can have hideous consequences.