The team made their departure from the outer observation platform before the next full cycle of the metronome had completed.
Lucifer took point. Nyx fell in on his right, the living darkness already unfurling from him in a tight defensive veil. Aeloria remained where the small support element Lucian agreed to release hovered in her wake, the tight discipline of her authority held at the brink of release and the readiness of her starfire repressants still waiting on her command. The small addition to their ranks of Heron, silent and uncomplaining, and the two high powered Origin operatives, names lost to Lucifer's impatience, were more than adequate to protect the team if the hidden sector opened up with the force it had obviously been built to withstand for so many cycles. It would be enough to see the first true engagement through, and it would be enough to escape if the engagement threatened to turn against them.
The thin directional trace guided them.
