Aren's feet pressed hard against the stone with every step, each one deliberate, each one carrying the full weight of everything that had brought him to this point. The black castle rose in the distance ahead of him.
He kept walking toward it.
Athena reached him first, falling into step at his left, her chaos energy still crackling faintly at her fingertips from whatever she'd been dealing with while he'd been occupied with Legion. Aiden came in on the right a moment later, sword already back in hand, a shallow cut across his jaw that he hadn't bothered to address. Zero materialized just behind them, her spatial platforms dissolving as she landed, boots hitting the stone in a clean measured step.
No one said anything. There was nothing to say. They moved.
