'They?' Going over the private message he had received a few times in his mind, Valyr went silent as he tried to process what Faulus meant by his words.
Fortunately, it only took a bit of rummaging through his memories, recalling that a small argument had occurred between the two of them.
Back then, the five of them were in the midst of completing the objectives that have been given to them,
Among those objectives was one that needed them to kill a quadrant leader.
Due to the stark difference between their strength and the quadrant leader's strength, everyone gave their suggestion on how to complete the final objective.
Out of nowhere, Faulus suggested that Valyr take on the quadrant leader at the center of the ruins, telling the others that he had the greatest combat prowess out of all of them.
After a fight of words ensued between the two of them, Valyr and Faulus eventually made up, with the latter informing him that he had not blurted that suggestion out of his own volition.
Instead, it was there that Valyr found out that someone was actually controlling Faulus in secret, giving subtle hints that aimed to sow discord in their party.
Thankfully, those moments had only occurred a couple of times in total, with the alchemist assuring Valyr that he already had it under control.
Then again, it was that same reassurance from back then that brought confusion to the young man.
Focusing his attention towards the private message Faulus sent him, he eventually sent a reply back.
"I thought you already had it under control. You created layers of protection around it, no?"
"I did," replied Faulus back through the chat as he stared at Valyr with a hint of sadness. "However, just recently, that connection has strengthened by multiple times."
After that, the man explained that the connection grew stronger out of nowhere whilst he was in the middle of tackling the Gates of Awakening's trials.
At the very moment the connection got stronger, a flurry of negative thoughts entered Faulus' mind, seemingly sabotaging his attempt at entering the Gates of Awakening.
Though, since he already had experience with the connection from the past, he was eventually able to stop the connection from affecting him any further after spending a long time.
"Just so you know, the connection is still affecting me right now," said Faulus through his message.
"It's really taking a lot out of me to keep those thoughts at bay. In fact, it's getting more and more difficult to keep this conversation going with you."
At those words, Valyr briefly thought about what Faulus was doing earlier.
Realizing that the alchemist in his memories seemed to do nothing and just listen in on their conversation, a bitter smile briefly flashed on the young man's face as he inwardly let out a sigh.
"I understand," replied Valyr back, moving their conversation to the side as he aided both Faulus and Loreina in returning to the outside world.
Surprisingly, after becoming an official member of the Gates of Awakening, the option to leave the inheritance had become available to them, allowing them to leave at any point they wished.
But of course, all of them were unsure whether the same thing could be done in reverse.
Whoosh!
With the utterance of a few words, a rift that led to the outside world appeared before the group.
Showing the stone structure the five of them had entered, the group looked at the image in silence, noticing that the area surrounding the structure had been razed to the ground.
Unsurprisingly, the deeply buried seeds of hesitation rose once more within Hal and Vera as they looked at the sight beyond the rift.
However, that hesitation disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, with renewed determination covering their faces.
After giving everyone a polite bow, as well as a few statements filled with gratitude, Loreina eventually stepped through the rift and disappeared from everyone's sight.
Seeing that, Faulus took in a deep breath and decided to give everyone bows filled with gratitude as well.
However, unlike Loreina, he did not give any words of gratitude to them whatsoever.
Instead, he had sent a few more private messages to the young man before him.
"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to obtain those rewards," said Faulus in his message. "If not for your discovery of the shards, I don't think I would have been able to keep talking with you up to this point."
Seeing that the man began to grit his teeth, Valyr quietly urged Faulus to walk through the rift already.
In response, the man slightly shook his head and instead leaned closer to the young man, whispering something in his ear.
"I'm sorry that I'll be implicating you in my own matters, but please help me out once you leave the inheritance."
For a brief moment after that, the atmosphere surrounding the two became deathly silent.
Then, as a sigh escaped from Valyr's mouth, that silence was broken as he faintly nodded.
"I can't make any promises… but I'll try my best."
"That's all I can ever ask for." Faulus grinned in response, letting out a chuckle soon after.
Then, after taking a deep breath, he finally stepped through the tent, leaving the trio in the inheritance as they watched the rift close in on itself.
"What did Faulus say to you at the end?" Hearing a low sigh come out of Valyr's mouth the very moment the rift closed, Hal decided to move closer to the young man.
Seeing the two look at him with curiosity, the young man looked back at them with a faint smile as he slowly shook his head. "Nothing too important. Just something that'll be a pain in the ass for me to do after all of this is done."
Getting the hint that the young man didn't want to talk about it any further, Vera decided to shift the topic to something else. "So, what do we do now?"
"Let's rest for a little bit longer," replied Valyr, reminding the two that the young man had yet to get some proper rest after his return.
"How about after that?" Hal asked as he nodded.
"We'll complete what's needed to enter the Gates of Transcendence, of course," said Valyr back as he let out a sigh.
"In any case…"
"We've finally reached the final hurdle."
