The day of the decisive battle had dawned.
Ordinarily, this would have been the hour when the blazing sun appeared over the ridge. Yet perhaps because of the Barrier, only dense fog lay across the ‘Dragon’s Mountain Range.’
A place where only faint changes in brightness distinguished day from night.
The time had come to bid farewell. The ‘Masters,’ myself included, began the final preparations for each army, and before long, a force composed of the finest of the elite would strike the enemy’s main host.
I knew even without clearing my field of vision. I knew where the being waiting for us in the distance was.
How could a towering mountain hide its shadow?
It was a sensation closer to ‘intuition’ than a ‘presence.’ Beyond the bounds of reason or logic, a premonition that an unhappy ending awaited us assailed one corner of my heart.
Surely I was not the only one who felt it.
Everyone gathered here must have shared this weight and anxiety. That was why I, at least, had been making an effort to appear unaffected.
“Lord Ian.”
At the quiet call, my gaze was captured by…