The fire had burned low, glowing embers casting long shadows over the camp. The group sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, until Luna's small voice broke the quiet.
"…Who's next?" she asked, her pale hands curled into the heavy gauntlets. Her cloudy eyes searched Kratos, already knowing the answer would change everything.
Kratos' gaze was grim, but unwavering. "Poseidon."
At once, the air seemed to grow colder. Seraphina flinched, her hand flying instinctively to the necklace at her throat. Her jaw trembled, but she said nothing.
Adrian leaned back against a stone, resting the claymore across his knees. His crimson eyes glimmered with skepticism. "And you think we can reach him? The Atlantic lies far beyond mortal roads. His domain is the ocean itself. We'd drown before we came near him."
Kratos' lips curled into something between a snarl and a smirk. "I know the way. There are paths hidden from mortal eyes. Ancient passages that still linger. I've walked them before."
Achradina tilted her head, her silver eyes narrowing. "But if Poseidon rules the seas, then every wave, every storm will move against us. He will not allow us to reach his throne unchallenged."
Seraphina finally spoke, her voice low but sharp. "I have no choice but to face him. He cursed my blood the day he forced himself on my mother. He took my sister. I will not let him take anything more."
Dorian rested a hand on her shoulder. "Then we'll stand with you." His voice was firm, his once-blind eyes glowing with clarity in the firelight.
Luna's hands tightened into fists. "Then… we go."
The silence that followed was heavy, yet unbroken. Each of them understood: this was no longer survival. It was war.
Kratos rose to his full height, his Blades of Chaos glinting in the dying fire. "At dawn, we begin. To the Atlantic."
The companions exchanged one last look—six souls bound together by pain, vengeance, and a strange, fragile hope.
As the first light of morning touched the horizon, they set off as one. Toward the ocean. Toward Poseidon. Toward a battle that would shake the world.