Ren Sihue violently blinked.
The cataclysmic, blinding pillar of pure black light that had just swallowed him whole on the edge of the cliff suddenly vanished, dissipating as quickly as it had appeared. The roaring gale of the coastal wind, the smell of the freezing ocean, and the damp earth of the artificial continent were instantly gone.
Instead, Ren found himself completely engulfed in suffocating darkness.
His boots were no longer standing on cracked dirt and moss. They were resting on cold, unnaturally smooth stone. Ren's breath hitched, his assassin instincts immediately flaring to life. He dropped his center of gravity, crouching low into a defensive stance while his right hand locked onto the hilt of his dagger. He strained his enhanced eyes, trying to pierce the pitch-black void, but it took his vision several long, agonizing seconds to even begin adjusting to the density of the darkness around him.
