Outside, on the slope below the hill, five figures stood close to each other in a tight formation. Their auras overlapped completely, with no distinction left between them. Instead of five separate signatures, it felt like one heavy presence pressing down on the land.
Mana surged upward in a spiraling column above them, thick and violent.
It began as a compressed sphere, glowing deep crimson.
Then something changed.
The color darkened.
Black flames ignited across its surface, slow at first, then spreading rapidly until the entire sphere was coated in a writhing layer of pitch-dark fire. It did not behave like a normal flame. It moved like liquid, clinging, stretching, folding over itself as if alive.
The sphere grew.
Ten meters.
Twenty.
Thirty.
It continued expanding, fed by the combined output of all five attackers. The pressure it released warped the air around it. Even from a distance, the ground beneath their feet began to crack.
Then the shape twisted.
