While Klause remains held within the elemental circle, the Demon Continent arch opens for a single breath. A wounded adult demon man with ash-gray skin, curved black horns, and a torn crimson cloak falls through, clutching a dark stone.
He strikes the marble beside the circle and rolls to one knee. Black blood stains his sleeve, while the forest spirit gathers silently among the roots and keeps the route anchors from shuddering apart.
Neris Vhal
Do not open that path again. My name is Neris Vhal. The cliffs are no longer safe for anyone searching for the trapped elf.
The Demon Continent arch seals behind him with a muted crack. The black stone in Neris’s hand pulses with earth-brown and blue light, unmistakably matching Caelen’s mana.
Neris Vhal
Caelen Aris is alive. I saw the elf beneath the dark cliffs, but something has entered the ravines, something that hunts every living signature it finds.
Neris’s strength fails, and he braces himself against the circle’s outer light. The stone slips from his fingers, stopping just beyond Klause’s reach as the forest spirit’s roots tighten around the chamber.
Neris Vhal
If you mean to reach him, listen first. The cliffs are watching the routes now, and the next opening may be the last one they permit.