midnight
Within an hour after the fall of darkness we reached the outskirts of Nunami , or rather , its edge , for it was walled in with massive stone walls and battlements , with a sturdy gate of twenty foot width being placed at the northern , southern , eastern , and western ends . The trees hung right over the walls , and as such we were able to take positions from which we could descend into the city when the time to do so came . Yet we were still rendered invisible by the thick foliage . Night 's zenith blew in slowly on the wind like the belabored breaths of a dying man , and after a period of worry , it came : midnight , the appointed hour . No sooner had the moon reached its utmost height , shrouding the lands in a shadowless vortex , than a great blaze erupted from the northern lands , and it rose almost instantly to its estimated height of five miles . It was a terrible sight to behold , for any flame is a captivating display of inorganic life , but a pillar of flame several miles high is more than just an enlarged specimen , for it plays host to a great horde of phantasmal apparitions that wrestle ferociously with one another . As the flame shot upwards it cast a great light down on everything that rivaled the illumination of midday .