Emerald took a subtle step forward, placing herself between him and the others.
"How did you get in here?" she asked, more firmly this time. Her voice held a quiet fury, and her mana began to crackle softly in the air.
The man didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Their base wasn't protected with ancient magic or divine seals, but it was hidden. Tucked far beneath the rocky foothills outside the capital's northern reach—out of sight, out of detection range, and far from any known mana pathways. No one should have been able to find it, let alone enter without making a sound.
And yet… here he was.
No alarms.
No resistance.
No hint of broken seals.
The tunnel behind him was untouched. The carved sigils on the stone hadn't been disturbed. Even the air in the chamber felt the same—stable, undisturbed, without the rippling distortions that came with spatial magic or phase-walking.
It was like he'd simply appeared.
Like he belonged there.
