Just as Kaiser told them to wait, Regulus gave him a single nod. There was no ceremony between them. No dramatic sendoff. Just the quiet understanding of two men who had long since seen too much to romanticize danger. Then Kaiser stepped forward, disappearing into the cave as though the shadows swallowed him whole. And just like that, he was gone.

  Aria’s fists clenched at her sides. “Like hell I’m waiting!” she snapped, already sprinting after him. Her boots kicked up dry sand as she charged ahead, the heat of defiance burning in her chest. “Why the hell are you all just standing there?!” she barked, eyes cutting to Mia, Ivan, and even Regulus. “He could be walking into a damn trap, and you’re just going to let him?!”

  She didn’t slow. She didn’t flinch. She made it halfway to the cave entrance before something shot out from the dark like a viper. It was an arm, strong and sudden, snatching her mid-stride.

  And Kaiser emerged a heartbeat later.

  No sound accompanied him as he stepped out. His eyes were not angry, nor worried, but Aria recognized what she saw in them instantly. It was the same terrifying stillness she had seen only once before—back when they’d found Sabel’s wanted poster. That dreadful calm that came before he enacted something irreversible. That ruthless stillness that told her this was no longer the man who played stupid games with her to pass the time. This was a warlord.

  In a voice stripped of all warmth, Kaiser said, “Aria. Ivan. Mia. Go back to the Jericho. Wait there.”

  “What?” Aria blinked, caught off guard by the absence of emotion.

  “No,” Ivan said quickly, his hands clenched into small fists. “We can help. We should help!”

  “Go,” Kaiser simply repeated.

  The silence that followed was thunderous. His gaze didn’t rise. It didn’t soften. It just hovered on the ground in front of him. He hadn’t raised his voice, but the weight in it crushed the conversation before it began. Even Regulus didn’t say anything. That, more than anything, made the three realize the finality of the order.

  Ivan cursed under his breath but turned, his shoulders slumped and his mouth drawn tight with frustration. Mia followed him with hesitant steps, glancing back once, her lips pressed together in a line too thin to speak through.

  Only Aria remained. Her heart pounded like a war drum. She walked up to him slowly, then without a word, threw her arms around him. Her grip was firm, her forehead resting against his chest, like she thought that if she held on tight enough, she could keep him from walking back into that cave.

  Kaiser stiffened, then, after a moment, a flicker of life returned to his eyes. His hand rose slowly and landed atop her head, the weight of it grounding, gentle, almost… fond. “I’ll come back,” he said, low and calm. “Inside’s nothing dangerous. Just something you don’t need to see.”

  That quiet assurance melted some of the storm from Aria’s chest. She stepped back, her arms still half-lifted like she wasn’t quite ready to let go. “You better hurry up, then,” she muttered, trying to hide her crackling voice with a grin. “For your sake. Don’t get too lonely without me.”

  Kaiser gave a faint huff of air that might’ve been a chuckle. And that was enough for Aria, who, despite her words, still lingered a heartbeat longer before finally pulling away, spinning on her heel with more bounce than she probably meant to show. She jogged toward Mia and Ivan, who waited at a distance with the Jericho behind them, casting its familiar silhouette like a promise of and safety. The three of them glanced back as they moved, but none said another word.

  Now, only two remained at the edge of the impossible dark.

  Regulus stood quietly beside Kaiser, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade, the other tucked behind his back in a stance of thoughtful readiness. His helmet’s phoenix plume ruffled gently in the breeze, catching just a shimmer of the fading sun.

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  “Kaiser really does look like a villain,” Elsie’s voice piped up beside them, light and oddly bright against the dread seeping from the cave’s maw. Kaiser turned, his head cocking slightly.

  She shrugged with both shoulders, arms folded, one boot tracing idle circles in the sand like she was standing on a lazy street corner instead of beside an ancient death cave. “Just saying. That whole thing? The serious stare, the red eyes, the black hair? Very villain-coded.” She tilted her head, her sharp teeth flashing in a grin that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Bad time to bring it up?”

  Regulus gave a single, amused grunt that could’ve been agreement or just tiredness. “She’s not wrong. Or at least, not entirely. If I didn’t know better, I’d keep my sword drawn around you.”

  Kaiser didn’t rise to the bait. His expression didn’t shift, but his attention slowly turned to the dark, the way a man turns to a storm he's already chosen to walk through.

  “What’s in there?” Regulus asked, quieter now, and not as a challenge, but as a man preparing himself.

  Kaiser’s voice came after a pause. “One of the most gruesome deaths I’ve ever seen.”

  That made Regulus look at the cave. Even Elsie, who had been doing a good job pretending this was just another detour in her hunt, let the grin slip from her face. She glanced at the cave again, a nervous energy blooming at the edges of her usual cheer.

  Kaiser didn’t say anything else. He turned to Regulus, his face unreadable again. “You can handle it. I know you can. But the others…” he glanced toward where the younger trio had gone, his tone sharpening like a blade slipping into place, “They don’t need to see what’s inside. Not yet. Maybe not ever.”

  His gaze shifted to her next. Elsie blinked, surprised by the weight of his attention.

  “I don’t know about you,” he added. “You’re not part of this group. You’re not my responsibility. But if you want to go in, I won’t stop you.”

  There was no condescension in it. No posturing. Just honesty. And something else… Something like a dare. Elsie hesitated, visibly weighing it. Her hand reached up and brushed her green hair back from her pointed ear, fingers fidgeting like nervous wings.

  Then she grinned again, brighter this time, though it still trembled faintly at the edges. “Elsie said she wanted to meet her idol, right? She can’t let a little death fog stop her. Besides…” she hopped a step closer to the cave, lowering her voice to a theatrical whisper, “Someone’s gotta keep you from doing something ominous and broody in there.”

  Kaiser gave her a dry and skeptical look, but didn’t protest.

  Regulus shifted the weight of his armor slightly and turned to Kaiser with a look that, for once, lacked its usual playful gleam. “You need a sword?” he asked, tone even, respectful in the way only soldiers speak to soldiers.

  Kaiser didn’t reply right away. His gaze had dropped to his hand, where the sun, now low and bleeding orange across the dunes, kissed the edge of his knuckles. There, like frost blooming in reverse, ice was beginning to crawl over his skin in delicate, jagged patterns. It caught the light like glass, swirling in veins up the bones of his fingers. He rotated his wrist once, watching it move.

  He flexed his hand slowly, and the frost moved with him—alive in its silence, growing from his very pulse like it belonged there. It cracked faintly at the joints, a quiet, brittle sound that echoed far louder than it should have.

  “No,” Kaiser said at last, voice cold, clipped, and clear. It wasn’t bravado. It wasn’t arrogance. It was simply a truth from a man who had seen enough battles to know when a blade would not matter. Regulus studied him for a second longer, eyes unreadable beneath the visor’s shade. Then, with a nod that said more than words could, he accepted the answer and turned away.

  The knight moved toward the cave entrance with steady, deliberate steps. As he reached the threshold, the sunlight slid off his armor, leaving nothing but the echo of his footsteps. And then he was gone. The cave absorbed him like a mouth closing around a whisper. One step, two steps, then silence. Nothing remained but the print of his boots in the sand.

  Elsies fingers twisted into the edge of her sleeves, eyes wide as she stared into the void. “Okay,” she muttered under her breath, the word shaky and far less convincing than she probably intended. “That’s... spooky.” Her voice tried to return to normal, tried to make light, but the cave ahead of them made laughter feel like blasphemy.

  Kaiser didn’t respond. He took a single step forward, and immediately, half of him disappeared. There was no blur, no slow fade, just absence. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the world simply ceased to acknowledge his form. His chest rose with a slow breath, and frost continued to spread over his fingers like veins of silver beneath his skin. The chill didn’t bother him. If anything, it steadied him. Gave him something to hold on to.

  He turned his head slightly, just enough to look over his shoulder. His eyes, still catching the fading sun, burned faintly with that glacial glint. “You coming?”

  Elsie hesitated, but only for a moment. She looked at the others, then at the cave, then back at Kaiser. Her lips pressed together, and she gave a small nod, her fingers trembling just enough for him to notice. She didn’t say anything clever. She didn’t quip or smile or bounce. She just moved forward, silent as the dusk around them.

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