Chapter 611 - 610- A true friend
When light returned to his eyes, Adrian found himself standing in the middle of an open field instead of the palace he had expected.
Not far away sat a familiar figure atop a small rock rising from the earth, his back turned toward Adrian.
It was Valor.
The man who could hardly stay silent now sat in complete stillness, as though every word had abandoned him.
"Valor," Adrian called. "You knew about it."
A quiet sigh escaped Valor before he rose to his feet.
His long hair swayed with the breeze, and his posture remained as composed as ever. Yet Adrian didn’t need to read his thoughts to see the turmoil beneath that calm exterior. Valor was deeply unsettled.
"What is it, Valor?" Adrian asked, his voice softer as he closed the distance between them. "What do you know about all of this?"
Valor finally turned to face him.
His eyes held both apology and fury. The anger burned fiercely, yet Adrian immediately realized it wasn’t directed at him.
"If I had the choice, my friend," Valor said quietly, "I would ask you to kill me where I stand."
The words struck Adrian like a bolt down his core.
"What are you even talking about?" he asked, unable to hide his disbelief. "Why would you ever want that?"
He paused, forcing himself to focus on the question that mattered most.
"No. Start from the beginning. Tell me what your connection is with Allen."
Only by understanding that could he hope to make sense of this tangled nightmare.
Why was Allen seeing Valor in his dreams? Dreams that unfolded before him even while his eyes remained open. A battle stance so profound it could make even a master swordsman fear the blade in his own hands.
Adrian couldn’t make sense of it.
He needed answers.
"Our patron, the one who blessed us, wants us to be prepared, Adrian," Valor began. "Allen is nothing more than a fragment of my soul. I was destined to master every element, but there is one element with which I possess no affinity."
"Light," Adrian finished, the word leaving his lips in a whisper as the truth fell into place. Allen’s dominant element had always been Light.
Valor gave a faint nod.
"He is a part of me. I have always known it. I simply never saw a reason to tell him."
"Then why now?" Adrian pressed. "What changed?"
Valor folded his hands behind his back and stared into the endless field. Silence stretched between them before he finally answered.
"Because I have been ordered to prepare for a war."
His voice was calm, yet every syllable carried an unbearable weight.
He slowly looked back over his shoulder.
"A war against you."
"!!"
Adrian’s eyes widened.
"They’re... forcing even you?"
The very thought sounded absurd.
Valor was the strongest being Adrian had ever known.
He had cut down a fragment of the fallen god with a single flawless strike. He stood at the pinnacle of every discipline of combat, wielding unmatched mastery over every branch of the elemental wheel. His techniques bordered on perfection, and no one Adrian had ever met possessed greater mental fortitude than the man standing before him.
Adrian had struggled more than he cared to admit just to forge a third-grade armament worthy of Valor.
That alone spoke volumes.
It was why Adrian had always believed Valor stood beyond the authority of those who claimed to rule him.
"Some things can never be changed," Valor said quietly. "My origin is one of them."
He let out a slow breath before continuing.
"My patron, the deity who created me, blessed only one human... me. No one else. He sought absolute dominion over my soul, so instead of spreading his blessing among many, he poured everything into a single vessel."
Adrian swallowed hard.
"And who is your patron?"
Valor’s gaze drifted toward the distant horizon.
"The eldest of them all. The one who watches over your world."
"Aurelious."
Adrian had already suspected as much, but hearing the name spoken aloud left no room for doubt.
It had been written in the novel.
When Allen confronted the final fragment of Nytharos, Light itself descended from the heavens. Aurelious bestowed his blessing upon him, granting him the power to erase the stain upon divinity.
And if Allen was a fragment of Valor’s soul...
Then Aurelious had always been Allen’s patron as well.
"How do I stop this, Valor?" Adrian asked. "I don’t want to fight my friend. I’ll do anything to prevent it."
A pained smile touched Valor’s lips before quickly fading.
"You cannot change my destiny, my friend."
His voice quivered beneath the weight of those words.
"Everything has changed in ways I never thought possible. You opened my eyes to who they truly are. So when I was ordered to kill you, I wasn’t surprised."
He lowered his gaze.
"If anything... I had been expecting that day to come."
"And that’s why..." Adrian whispered, the truth finally falling into place. "You kept insisting on training me."
Only now did he realize that behind the mask of a carefree man who laughed at everything had always been a soul quietly mourning the future it dreaded.
Valor turned to face him.
His eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"But believe me," he said with a faint smile, "those sessions were always genuine. I never had a sibling. Never had a true friend who could laugh with me without fear."
His smile trembled.
"But you did."
"You never treated me like a lord. You never looked at me as some abomination blessed with impossible strength."
His voice softened to little more than a whisper.
"You only saw... me."
Adrian let out a slow breath.
"And that’s all I’ll ever see."
His gaze never wavered.
"No matter what they’re putting you through, I’ll find a way to bring you back. So don’t think I’ll let you disappear just because some stubborn old deity has decided to pull your strings."
A quiet laugh escaped Valor.
"I truly hope the mind that unraveled the world’s greatest riddles can solve this one as well."
His voice cracked.
"Because I..."
He paused, unable to continue as tears blurred his vision.
"...I really don’t want us to become enemies."
Without another word, Adrian stepped forward and wrapped him in a firm embrace.
For a moment, Valor remained frozen.
Then his arms slowly fell to his sides as he wept in
What did it matter if Valor was the strongest?
To Adrian, he was nothing more than a young man burdened with a fate no one should have to bear.
And now...
That same young man was being forced to fight his closest friend to the death.
Not on my watch.
A chilling resolve settled in Adrian’s eyes.
I won’t let you have your way.
Again and again, you’ve driven me into a corner. You’ve treated me like a pawn, making me dance to your will whenever it pleased you.
No more.
Adrian’s resolve had never wavered.
If anything, it had only grown sharper with every trial forced upon him.
But seeing Valor’s suffering reignited something far deeper than determination.
It reminded him why, from the very beginning, he had chosen to defy the heavens themselves.
Not for power.
Not for glory.
But to tear apart the chains they wrapped around those who had done nothing to deserve them.
°°°°°°°
A/N:- thanks for reading.