"Alright," he said softly, almost content. "Let us keep going."
They came on. He went to meet them.
And the chamber sang, and sang, and sang. Steel, and hollow thunder, and the quiet, invisible sound of threads being cut faster than anyone could count.
The chamber rang with the last, long toll of falling plates.
Xavier stood amid the ruin, breath steady, aura low, dagger resting against his thigh. Silver smoke drifted in ribbons through the vast spherical hall. At its far end, the sealed door's sigils flared—one lock, then another, then a cascade—until only a single bar of light held.
Something heavy stepped through the haze.
