Silas and Darius continued walking for another three hours after Cher’s first message. During that time, she sent three more updates, one every hour, reassuring him that everything was progressing as planned.

By the fourth hour, a massive structure finally appeared in the distance. It was one of the fortified posts that formed the Iron Wall around the mine, and its presence told Silas they had reached their destination.

"Now what?"

He turned to Darius, who had stopped the moment they spotted the post.

"Well..."

Instead of answering, Darius scanned the surroundings, glancing from side to side as though searching for someone. Silas frowned. His friend’s strange behaviour had become increasingly difficult to ignore, and this time, he was determined to get an explanation regardless of their unseen observers.

"Don’t think acting like this will get you out of..."

He was interrupted when Darius suddenly pointed toward the western horizon.

"There. They’ve finally arrived."

Silas swallowed the rest of his words and followed the gesture.

Far to the west, a large group of people was moving at great speed. Even from the hilltop, he could barely make them out, but the fact that they were running inside the Iron Wall revealed enough.

"Are we waiting for Cher’s father’s troops?"

He glanced at Darius, expecting confirmation, but was met with genuine confusion.

"Cher’s what?!"

Silas raised an eyebrow.

’You didn’t know about that?!’

He blinked, and Darius kept staring in confusion.

"Don’t tell me you didn’t know Cher’s father is the supreme commander of the entire mine forces here!"

Silas expected another firm response like usual from his friend, yet all he got was awkward silence.

’So your power isn’t quite omnipotent after all.’

As if sensing exactly what he was thinking, Darius sighed.

"I honestly didn’t know about that."

’Oh, he confessed it!’

Silas couldn’t believe his ears. His friend kept acting as if he were some sort of prophet recently, yet it felt like his godsend powers weren’t able to get that knowledge about Cher’s father’s presence.

’Perhaps he didn’t know anything about my secrets.’

’Perhaps he didn’t even know I was this strong when he first approached me.’

Silas had deeply thought about these two points when he started doubting Darius. He suspected his friend knew about his Mana Heart, about the Shadowheart. He also wondered if the first meeting between the two, when Darius approached him proactively, was orchestrated by his friend from the start.

And now he got his answer. His friend’s power had flaws, and he couldn’t see everything. Which was, in a way, quite relieving, and also dangerous.

’What if the plan he helped me orchestrate had overseen important parts?’

’He already missed Cher’s father’s presence and his impact on his pointers.’

’What if he missed other important stuff?’

He looked at his friend, wanting to open his head and dig deeper to learn the truth and decide for himself. Yet when he recalled Gaia’s instructions, he could only inwardly sigh and drop the crazy idea.

"Then why did you drag me all the way here?"

Silas crossed his arms.

Darius did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned toward another section of the landscape and fixed his gaze there, as though waiting for something to emerge.

Silas followed his line of sight but saw nothing unusual. A grove of towering trees covered the area, no different from countless others scattered throughout the mining region.

Several minutes passed before movement finally appeared. First came a single figure emerging from the trees, then another, and another. Seeing this, Silas narrowed his eyes.

"The Dark Hunters."

More figures poured out of the grove until there was no doubt left. And once he realised their identity, he instantly grew panicked.

He looked toward the sky, searching for any sign of the dragon. His gaze swept across the horizon while he listened carefully for distant roars or beating wings, but the creature was nowhere to be found.

"The dragon isn’t here," Darius said with a sigh. "They managed to shake it off."

Silas fell silent as the pieces came together. He could tell from the confidence in Darius’ voice that the Dark Hunters must have discarded the flower. Which meant Darius had gone after it when he vanished earlier.

"You got it?"

Darius removed his backpack and casually pulled out the flower.

"Here."

He handed it over as though it were nothing more than a common weed.

"We need to move alongside the Dark Hunters. The dragon has to stay on their trail."

Silas accepted the flower and studied it for a moment.

He understood better than anyone how important the Dark Hunters were to the final stage of his plan. If they escaped the dragon and disappeared before reaching the Iron Wall, the consequences would be disastrous.

At last, he understood why Darius had vanished without explanation, why he had travelled all that distance alone, and why he had returned carrying the flower.

The dragon had pursued the Dark Hunters because of it. When he realised this point, a troubling thought surfaced in Silas’s mind.

’Did he meet the dragon himself?’

Silas looked at his friend, then at the flower. The answer was already in his hands. Silas couldn’t help but recall how he faced the dragon. Even if the Shadowheart was the one actually controlling his body back then, he never forgot the stressful moments, the despair, the terror.

For the first time, Silas realised how easily Darius could have disappeared without anyone ever knowing what happened.

The mere thought made Silas wonder whether he should have stayed by Cher’s side or accompanied Darius to witness everything firsthand. And yet he felt more concern towards his friend.

After all, he went on his own, without telling anyone about the dangerous task he had picked for himself, and suffered against the dragon to get the crucial flower for the plan.

If the Dark Hunters were important to the plan, the flower was the cornerstone of the entire plan, the heart that, without it, the plan would, without any speck of doubt, fail.