The torches of the Steel Corridor Brigade——the main force of the Imperial Army dedicated to frontier subjugation——flickered beyond the mist. Distant. But not extinguished. Raid counted the intervals of light behind him as he ran. The pursuers were spreading out. The Emerald Twilight Forest——a deep woodland that sprawled across the southern foothills of the Jade Peak Mountains in the Empire's eastern frontier, ancient home of the demon race——had thick fog, visibility barely five meters. But those same conditions applied to the pursuers as well. If anything, it was their side that could exploit the fog's density. Lilia ran ahead. Her silver short bob glowed faintly through the mist. Her footsteps made almost no sound. The physical abilities of the demon race——the precise coordination of senses and body granted by internal magical element density exceeding three times that of humans——made her movements silent as she avoided gnarled roots and wet stones. She ran as if she were part of