"You made it," Crux said calmly, the cadence of his voice even. Amidst the crackling of flames, his voice was surprisingly projected quite well, and whatever apprehension he had seemed to have before was tempered down and restricted to his deepest depths.
Even if the memories weren't properly integrated… there were simply too many of them.
There was a reason why Belladoll didn't quite feel like herself, and yet still had such strong feelings for Zarek. How could one be true, but not the other?
The sheer quantity of memories all but crushed the original selves of Crux and Belladoll. It was just that small tendrils of cognitive dissonance remained.
While under usual circumstances, they were fine… it was when a stressor like Zarek appeared that they truly experienced the full range of that pain and hardship.
This was the sort of pressure someone like Zarek could provide. Even when they felt like they had everything in hand, they were still unable to bring themselves to fully relax.
Everything should be over right now. The fact Zarek was standing right in front of them meant that there was no longer a chance for him in this Dream Godsfall Tear.
And yet… Crux found himself unable to relax.
That face of black Godsfall, those bright amber eyes sparking with even more luminescence than the dancing flames around him, that unmoved posture and calm demeanor…
Zarek had no weapon in hand but a large great sword, and every memory in Crux's soul told him that this was the weapon Zarek hated to use the most.
And yet his heart was still pounding out of his chest.
Especially when Zarek didn't respond.
"Nothing to say? These just might be your final words, you know. You should leave something for the world to remember the mighty Ashborn Demon by."
Zarek looked at Crux, his gaze still not giving anything away, his lips still closed.
Crux chuckled. "Alright. In that case… I'll just have to send you on your way."
The man raised his hands and the pillars of flame and fire spiraled upward.
Crux's largest limiting factor before he reached the truest heights of his Talent was how many flames he could produce. He wasn't a Pyro Mage, so he couldn't spark flames naturally. Instead, he had to rely on his own Godsfall Intent of Flames to produce them.
As a result, the amount of flames he could produce at the D-Class was highly limited.
Thanks to his experience—given to him by his memories—he knew how to work around this, using his flames to spark various chain reactions, or controlling them such that he could produce the same results for less power.
But therein lay the true strength of his Talent: the ability to control flames themselves.
Even if he wasn't a Pyro Mage, his control of Flame-Type Godsfall was truly unmatched by little more than a few across the state.
And now, he had all the flames he could ever want to use, constantly being pumped up and amplified by the various Matrices in this trial.
"You know…" Zarek suddenly said, his voice feeling several octaves deeper than before. It was hard to tell if this was because it had naturally deepened, or if his throat had simply grown hoarse from all of the flames.
Crux, though, found himself freezing.
"…I was wondering why it was you and Belladoll were acting so weirdly. Even if there was some cognitive dissonance involved, and even if I've become some deified figure in your minds, it shouldn't be to the point that you would become so pathetic. As much as I like to toot my own horn, it's obvious that none of you fear me enough to avoid me like the plague, otherwise you wouldn't piss me off every chance you got."
Crux found his heartbeat accelerating, his thoughts going into overdrive. Was there something they missed? Something that wasn't quite right here? What had Zarek seen through that they hadn't?
"But I think I get it now. This is a stress test for Suki, isn't it? Is that why just the two of you came? To see what the limits of this memory method are?"
The confusion in Crux's heart only increased.
No, the reason Suki and Jiade sent them here was because the last piece of Belladoll's Armament was located here, and they could conveniently block Zarek's shot at a Talent that could improve his poor Intelligence Growth Potential.
It was definitely not for whatever Zarek was speaking about.
"You don't get it, but have you noticed something odd about this world?" Zarek tilted his head to the side, his amber eyes glowing brighter. "Their emphasis on the importance of science… but when you think about it, are they really that different? What's really the difference between them and system users? I didn't notice any.
"How about how they feel about kindness? Or what about the fact their Trial of Fire isn't supposed to have combat in it at all, but is practically just a test of will?"
Zarek blinked, but his eyes refused to produce any tears. It was far too hot, and his brain itself felt like it was steaming. Tendrils of black danced in place of his hair, his grip on his great sword increasing.
"And then there are those two pairs of sisters. Su is actually the far smarter of the two, she has all these unique ideas and methods… but why is she not the pillar of this Dream Godsfall Tear, but her elder sister Sona is, despite, very clearly, being a little bit of a fool?"
Zarek's questions lingered in the air and the pillars of swirling fires paused as though they had lost their life. However, Zarek knew better than to move forward as though that were truly the case, his gaze remaining calm.
"If you take a step back, Sona was chosen because she's of stronger and firmer heart than her little sister is.
"The answer is Mentality. That's what's driving this entire Godsfall Tear.
"On the surface, this looks like an Intelligence Godsfall Tear—it even gives you an Intelligence Talent at the end, supposedly. But every step of the way, it stress-tests your mind and what you're capable of enduring.
"You all have been here for an additional three days, and the two leading you… yourself and Belladoll…
"Have particularly fragile minds.
"It's a shame, don't you think?"
Crux's heavy breathing almost overshadowed the sound of the flames. He still couldn't understand—no one could ever understand how Zarek's brain worked. It didn't even feel like he was more intelligent than anyone else; his mind just processed things in a very different way than everyone around him.
"Now you have to think to yourself: why would an Intelligence Godsfall Tear possibly care so much about the mental state of those that entered it? Why would everything rely on Matrices so heavily? Everywhere you look, there's another Matrix somewhere replacing the function of the system, of a Skill, of a Talent."
Crux's eyes widened.
"Ah, you seem to finally get it. It really does sound like a Godsfall Tear a Matrix Master would really want to get his hands on, now wouldn't he?
"So now that we've reached this step, you've got just one more question to ask yourself.
"Why didn't Suki follow you?"