A heavy shroud of darkness covers everything.
The sun shines high in the sky, yet its light never reaches the ground—it feels like the middle of the night.
Velshekar and Hakuto set aside their hostility for a moment.
Clarissa and Chantal do the same, glancing around with fear and disbelief.
At last, a figure rises from the ground. Cloaked in black, an old man with long gray hair flowing backward.
The moment he appears, Zhurvak drops to his knees—prostrating himself in the most servile way possible.
Velshekar begins to tremble with fear, frozen as if facing a nightmare so terrifying it could drive her insane just by looking at it.
Only ignorance shields Hakuto, Chantal, and Clarissa from the same horror crushing Velshekar.
That same ignorance spares Shin only halfway—he knows exactly who the dark mage Cassian Thalukvar is, even before Velune ever spoke his name.
He knows his role, and the kind of powers the old man wields, though not as deeply as Velshekar.
