Soryn extended a hand, stopping Aren from throwing his chains at the armored men.
"There's no need to tire yourself," he said. "They'll handle it."
Aren raised an eyebrow. "They?"
At that moment, the army halted as screams and cries of anguish echoed from behind them.
Their formation broke apart, revealing how narrow the path they were on had become. Then, the soldiers began to scream—either in terror or despair—and collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.
Aren furrowed his brow, gripping his chains even more tightly.
Two men in dark cloaks emerged from the pile of unconscious soldiers and faced Aren and Soryn.
One was quite tall, while the other was only slightly shorter than Aren. Despite the height difference, Aren recognized them both very clearly.
"Equinox!" Aren shouted, throwing his chain at the shorter man.
The man ducked, causing the chain to strike the taller man instead. A loud metallic sound resonated as he was sent flying, crashing against a stone wall.
Soryn observed the chaos, seemingly amused.
The short man burst into laughter, pointing at the taller, cloaked man. His hood covering his face fell and revealed a man with golden-brown hair.
While Aren stood, unable to muster a word.
How could he take a blow from chains that could even be stronger than metal?
More than that, his own ally, apparently, was laughing at him.
Soryn stepped up, "Elias. I already told you not to act like a jester. It brings down our name and goals."
Aren remembered in a moment that Elias was the person Soryn had mentioned earlier, saying Elias worked under him.
'That means… the other guy is Leonardo.' He thought.
'But, that'd also mean they're not working for Equinox. If that's the case, why were they mentioning something about ridiculing Equinox? Did I jump to conclusions?'
Elias stopped laughing, then faced Soryn and put on a serious face after nodding.
"Sir Fourth, we finished our task in Vanagir."
Leonardo got up, rubbed the dust off his clothes, and then stood near Elias.
He gazed at Aren for a second, then looked back to Soryn. "We have to leave now. The Deeps are already on our trail, and the ones behind us will wake up soon."
Aren budged in, "Wake up? Why wouldn't you kill them?"
The air blew as sounds of cannons being fixed ruptured through the air.
"We only kill those who deserve to be killed. Don't play around with other people's lives.." Leonardo answered.
Aren furrowed his brows, 'What kind of logic is that? They all work under the Association you hate most, and more than that they even want to kill you! This is exactly why I hate people with morals.'
Elias nodded to Leonardo, and Soryn stayed quiet.
Aren, on the other hand, was about to start a fight. However, he felt it'd be better if he didn't talk.
Putting it aside, Leonardo continued, "You're also forgetting you should have apologized for the inconvenience earlier."
Aren huffed, "Why would I? It's your fault for not saying you work under Soryn! Plus, it's not like it damaged you anyway."
Leonardo's red and black eye twitched, "Who gave you the right to call Sir Fourth by his true name?!"
Soryn intervened, "It isn't the time for this. We're allies now, and we have to escape from Deeps lands. The Descender's value is too high for us to lose."
Elias and Leonardo nodded at the same time, despite being annoyed that they were gonna work with Aren. Or, perhaps only Leonardo.
Elias, in contrast, had found him amusing. But, it wasn't as if they had a say in this.
Whatever the Fourth Branch says, they must act upon it, as that is their Oath.
Elias responded, "But, we don't know where the exit out of The Gray Fog is. We barely managed to enter. Not to mention, I'm very exhausted."
Soryn rubbed his chin using his fingers, "That's not good."
As the silence hung, and they tried to think of a way out, Aren remembered the first time he'd entered Vanagir, and where he lost Faye in 'The Fog'.
"...I think I know where it is," he said, breaking the silence.
Soryn shifted his gaze to him, "Let's move, then."
Leonardo and Elias nodded with no hesitation or defiance shown. Not that they hid it, but it was just their unmoving loyalty.
'Huh? They're just going to trust me like that? Well, it shouldn't matter.'
Aren continued, "It's on the other side, the mountain there."
Suddenly, Elias' head ached, causing him to falter and lose control of his Illusory Palace spell used on the men from the Deeps.
"Not good, Sir… They're waking up," said Elias in a low voice.
At the same moment, more men arrived from the other path of the cliff, which they planned to escape from.
This only left the group of four to move back, eventually reaching the narrow edge of the cliff, where they were going to be surrounded.
"Elias. Is your Essence damaged?" Soryn asked, surprisingly composed.
Elias painfully nodded, gripping his chest tightly.
"Why don't we just take them on? We can easily defeat them, they're weaklings." Aren said.
Soryn refused. "It'll be hard to prevent their deaths."
Aren clicked his tongue, "It's not the time to be dignified! You need to make a choice now, before we get hit by the cannons!"
Hearing this, Soryn frowned.
Leonardo stepped up, moving in front of the three.
He looked slightly back and said in a low voice, "Go, Fourth. I'll do what I can; you guys make it out. I created a trail of Invisible Infracta, which I'm sure Elias can see."
Soryn took a deep breath, then quickly looked at Aren.
"Descender, grab Elias and follow me carefully. I will reward you with as much information as you want about anything. I promise this as the Fourth Branch of the Household."
Aren clicked his tongue again, letting his chains fall back into his body.
'Damn it… I wanna refuse, and fight these filthy Deeps, but I also need information. It's the thing I'm lacking more than anything. I'll have to put fighting aside for now, but it's not going to be the end.'
He grabbed Elias by the wrist and followed Soryn as he jumped from the edge of the cliff to an invisible block of matter that led to the other side of the region, flying amidst the air.
Elias looked back, "Ignatius… You can't die."