They waited until the sun dipped beneath Muderan's jagged horizon and the gold-and-violet sky deepened into a suffocating black. No moon rose here, only faint arcs of drifting light in the upper atmosphere, like the slow shimmer of something vast moving behind a curtain.
It was surreal.
When the shadows grew dark enough to hide the world completely, Kai activated his Umbral Mantle. Darkness clung to him like a second skin, swallowing the shape of his body until even Seyren lost sight of him.
The faint pull of mana to keep the Mantle active was a careful thread, one Kai had to monitor constantly. Too much, and the glow would betray him; too little, and the shadows would unravel. Silent, he moved through the uneven terrain, slipping past scattered pairs of guards and weaving into the loose circle of demons posted around the gate.
They were ugly things, hunched and snarling, with hide-bound armour fused to their skin, weapons dripping with the stench of tainted mana.
