Chapter 329 Aesthetic.

Chapter 329: 329 Aesthetic.

It had been exactly five days since the absolute worst day of my life. Standing out here in the freezing wind, I figured it was finally time to see if today was about to violently supplant that record.

I stood near the edge of a jagged mountain outcropping, matching the exact GPS coordinates Jester had passed along through his errand boy.

It was a nice, isolated cliff face jutting out from the frozen treeline, hanging precariously over a deep, plunging ravine. Below us, the drop was nothing but jagged rocks and swirling white mist.

A brutal snowstorm whipped my heavy winter coat around my legs. The howling of the mountain wind moaned endlessly through the frozen peaks, sounding uncomfortably like the wailing cries of the damned.

Which, considering the specific warlord I was waiting to meet, might actually be a literal, structural feature of the local real estate.

I was completely alone on the cliff, except for Vanessa.

She stood grim-faced beside me, her stark white hero’s cloak snapping wildly in the gale. She hadn’t shivered once since we hiked up here.

She was likely pulling on some ambient magic to keep her core body temperature up. More power to her.

I was perfectly fine relying on my heavy, insulated parka. Especially considering all the little, highly lethal additions I was currently hiding inside the lining.

I shifted my weight in the deep snow, the dense metal clanking softlym

If I hadn’t been continuously feeding a low-level magnetic pulse through the metal just to give it all a bit of artificial lift, my knees absolutely would have buckled under the sheer weight, and I wouldn’t even be able to stand upright.

And watching as the skies directly over the ragged horizon of the mountains began to unnaturally darken, the thunder rolling over the peaks like the beating of massive war drums.

"You’re absolutely sure about this?" Vanessa asked, raising her voice to cut through the howling gale.

She stared out at the bruised underbelly of the clouds, her expression tight.

"I’d better be," I said, my eyes tracking a sudden, sickly flare of emerald lightning as it crawled across the horizon.

It took a long, agonizing minute to finally make out the encroaching, impossible bulk of the funhouse through the blinding blizzard.

But as I watched, the black sky literally seemed to split apart at the seams. The massive, floating silhouette of Jester’s fortress dipped down from the heavens, casting a shadow that swallowed the entire mountain range.

Look, I completely hated Jester. But as a career supervillain, there was absolutely no denying that the man had incredible, undeniable aplomb. And his home base was the most outwardly visible, terrifying form of that branding.

But hey, what did I possibly have to be intimidated by? I was only facing down one of the oldest, most lethal villains on the planet, a seated member of the Council of Nine who was looking to either enslave me or kill me.

And my absolute best bet to stop him was a glowing green chunk of space rock sitting in my coat pocket, graciously handed to me by a billionaire who judged amateur poetry contests.

So, yep. No intimidation here. None at all. Just another standard Tuesday in the cape business.

I let out a heavy sigh, shaking the freezing jitters out of my shoulders as the massive castle settled into a slow, hovering holding pattern a few miles out from the cliff face.

Through the blowing snow, I saw a set of heavy, reinforced doors on a high balcony open invitingly, spilling warm yellow light out into the storm.

A second later, the air around the floating island shimmered, and the massive energy barrier protecting the castle finally dropped.

I took a deep, freezing breath, and let it out in a thick white cloud.

Alright.

Here we go.

"The main barrier is down," I muttered into the encrypted comms unit hidden in my ear.

"Roger... going in... luck, bossman," Psyren replied. Her cheerful voice crackled heavily with static as the wireless connection struggled to punch through the magical and atmospheric interference of the storm.

I caught a very subtle flicker of movement in the dark distance, followed by the faint flare of thrusters.

That would be the squad of augmented Rhe-Search androids and my telepath actively taking flight through the blizzard.

The corporate strategy was relatively straightforward: they’d quietly infiltrate the lower levels of the lair through a minor, forgotten maintenance entrance Vanessa had pointed out on her old blueprints.

From there, they just needed to do enough critical structural damage to the castle’s grid to hopefully give me and Vanessa a fighting edge in the throne room.

Knock out the shield generator first so we weren’t permanently trapped inside, then hopefully sabotage the main power grid, and we might actually have a fighting chance.

After that, my explicit orders to Psyren were to cause whatever chaotic disruptions she could, and then immediately pull her team out.

I was worried about them, of course. Sending your employees into a Council stronghold was a massive liability. But I had to trust my people to execute their jobs and fly solo right now.

Because the rest of the negotiation was entirely up to me.

With a sharp mental push, I surged my powers downward, lifting my heavy iron armor and the coat directly into the air.

Vanessa rose effortlessly right beside me on a current of magic.

We skimmed over the terrifying drop of the ravine, flying straight toward the open balcony, fighting every single inch of the way against the howling wall of snow and the blistering, bone-deep cold.

As we finally descended out of the storm and landed heavily on the stone tiles of the balcony, I was slightly disappointed, but not at all surprised, to see that it wasn’t Jester waiting to greet us.

Instead, Samuel stood in the open doorway.

"Sister," he said. His voice was somehow icier than the howling mountain storm behind us.

"Brother," Vanessa replied, her tone just as frigid.

The pair of them just stood there, staring at each other with absolute, murderous intent for a long, heavy moment.

Before either of them could actually start throwing hands or casting mystic death signs on the balcony, I stepped between them and loudly cleared my throat.

"Can we come inside? It’s a bit chilly out here."

Samuel instantly broke the death glare with his sister.

"Of course, Polaris. Father eagerly awaits your arrival in the control center," he said smoothly, gesturing toward the dark interior. "Shall we?"

"Let’s," I grunted, pushing past him and projecting vastly more corporate confidence than I actually felt.

Samuel said absolutely nothing else, but he gave my bulky coat a very long, calculating look before turning on his heel and striding deeper into the castle. I followed right on his heels, Vanessa staying close behind me.

Walking through those massive doors, I had to admit one thing. Damn, I loved this castle’s aesthetic.