Dying Night

Reeling at my discovery, I hurried back to my shelter to ponder my findings. I had suddenly understood I was meant to feel something from the spell, even if it had not hit me or produced an explosion that affected me in any way. In fact, it seemed blatantly obvious now that I thought about it - there was an acute lack of sensation whenever a spell went off near me, unless it produced an effect that I could immediately feel. 

It had only been in the third illusion that I understood I could feel mana, typically when I fought some of the more bizarre creatures that could cast some odd spells. Whenever a spell went soaring half an inch to the left of my head, I could feel something - like an invisible, ethereal wave of something that gently passed through my body. It hadn't taken me long to understand that the something was likely mana - ripples of mana that had been affected by the spell, that I could just barely feel when I concentrated. 

I could only ever feel it when the spell had barely missed me, since the effect that spells had on ambient mana seemed very limited, especially because the spells I had experienced back in the third illusion was nothing like those of the fourth. These ones were far more destructive, even the ones I could cast. However, I had never noticed the lack of sensation, because in the first place I hadn't cared too much about the feeling after I noticed its existence in the third illusion. 

More importantly, my mind was typically focused on something else when spells were being thrown around. Whether I was casting spells of my own, desperately trying not to die from the shockwaves produced by the stronger spells or doing something else, I had never really noticed. Yet now, it seemed so glaring to me - I got the feeling that if I had been in the third illusion when these spells were cast, I would have been buffeted with those ripples of mana, since stronger spells affected ambient mana more.

Unfortunately, I didn't have long to try to consider what this meant. Suddenly, an intense shockwave ripped through the air, throwing me to the ground.

A moment later, I was on my feet, scrambling to get out of my shelter to see what was going on. Once I could clearly see the situation outside, I groaned inwardly.

There were two Light Kings hovering the air, and a single defiant figure of darkness desperately trying to endure their joint attacks. Below, dozens of Dark Elementals were trying to shield themselves from the attacks. It didn't seem to matter whether they were Greater Dark Elementals or Lesser ones, all of them were huddled together forming a rapidly thinning shield against the waves of light. The only reason they were even holding on were orbs of darkness that Lord Nightshade occasionally threw onto the shield.

However, the growing radiance of the Light Kings was eating away at the darkness shrouding Lord Nightshade faster and faster as time went on. I couldn't exactly tell what was going on, but I was able to understand that he was losing this fight.

Once he fell, this outpost would fall with him.