The aura around his body began to form and shift rapidly in a more advanced way with the energy both spreading and sticking together combining two methods of using aura. Smoothening and refining allowing him to protect everyone from the blast of energy about to go out of control. His aura became like water but when touched felt as if it was like diamonds in the rough. The energy was space like and beautiful yet deadly ready to be sent out. Royal watched as Gatekeeper took a stance and planted himself in a single spot ready to protect his realm from the unwilling threat. The flames spewed out from the furnace room and out all around the white room engulfing everything inside. Gatekeeper put his hands up and expertly changed and moved his aura around to protect himself and Royal from the flames. Very quickly he noticed the tips of his fingers were burning with blood dripping onto the floor. His armor began to heat up forcing him to sweat profusely. He yelled a war cry that echoed throughout the halls of the majestic throne with the blast of heat filling his entire realm. With a stroke of skill and luck Royal looks out and sees that he was actually able to contain the heat in one area and stop the threat. Unable to walk due to the burns on his legs he crawled over to the guardian and saw that he had passed out while standing. His armor was damaged, his fingers suffered from extremely severe burns and one of his arms was in a serious state. Gatekeeper's aura rapidly dissipated as Royal looked to his right seeing Nick ok from the blast. Nick was only confused from the over exposure to the heat. In a small daze he walked out from the burned furnace room and apologized for losing control.

"T-this shouldn't have happened.. I'm a monster I injured all of you~."

Nick claimed disappointed in himself and his actions.

Royal got up and limped over struggling to move even just a few feet forward. His fist hastily landed right onto Nick's cheek sending him into the ground in front of the furnace room or at least what was left of it. Royal's voice quivered taking multiple deep breaths before saying what he thought.

"Y-you idiot! Don't you dare think that! Y-you bastard! We are like family... No matter what we get ourselves into we will always be there for each other regardless of what we had done! You've done nothing wrong do you hear me?! Nothing!"

He barely managed to stop himself from letting out tears as Nick took his attention over to Gatekeeper standing unconscious. He took his head and planted it to the ground telling the knight he was sorry for what he had done but all that he got in response was the hot air brushing past him. Royal revealed to him that Gatekeeper had passed out protecting everything and needed to be treated. He nodded his head and helped Royal take the knight to the medical room to get treated.

"Come on we need to treat the burns. He's in a worse shape than I am."

Royal commented still feeling the pain from his legs rising.

Afterward when they managed to get into the medical room Nick did some self reflecting for a bit.

"𝓘 𝓷𝓮𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓵 𝓶𝔂𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯... 𝓝𝓸- 𝓘 𝓷𝓮𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓘'𝓶 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓸'𝓼 𝓶𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓹𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓷 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓱𝓪𝔃𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝓮."

After making sure they both were laying down resting he headed to Cloudy seeing he was asleep and woke him up bummed out. Confused and sleepy he wondered what had happened as Nick explained in detail of what had entailed putting him up to speed. He understood and gave Nick a well needed hug explaining that everything would be alright with time and that it wasn't his fault. Nick promised himself he would do better and also reassured himself that things would turn for the better. They treated the burns with supplies and ointments Gatekeeper had supplied and chose to rest for the night. One week later Royal and Gatekeeper were still healing while Nick trained on controlling himself and his heat during battle. Cloudy aided Nick helping him do what it took to further improve. Another week had passed after the incident and they continued to train on their strengths and weaknesses while the other two were still healing and resting. Finally another week had gone by faster than they all knew it and Royal had finally got out of his bed to try and walk around but struggled due to the damage on his legs. This was also the week where Gatekeeper woke up from being unconscious and sees that most of his wounds have healed except for his fingers which took the brunt of the onslaught. He let out a small sigh and stomped his way toward the throne room area where he saw Cloudy and Nick going at it for the weeks they both have been out. He sees that the entire place was dirty and tattered from the constant training they had been doing and was disgusted by the place looking so disorganized. He snapped his fingers as the place began to fix itself back into place as it was originally. They all watched the entire place shift to form a better terrain for training. He headed toward them until he was stopped by Royal seeing that he was moving around but it must've been a struggle to do anything with how much in pain he was in. He shrugged off his comment going back to the silent boy he was before what had happened. Gatekeeper bent down to his legs and feet healing them using the palm of his hand. Strangely enough for being a dark knight with a menacing presence Royal felt a euphoric feeling around his legs as he whispered into his ear quitely.

"T-thanks~."

"Your legs should be fully healed within a couple days. I'll keep an eye on your healing process for the little time you have left here."

Royal then suddenly had a thought come up in his head remembering now that there wasn't much time left before they had to leave now with the five months just around the corner. He wondered where they would possibly go without Hunter being there to lead them but changed his focus back to what was in the present.

"H-hey be careful of what you say to Nick about the incident. He's probably really sensitive about it right now and it wouldn't be good if you make him lose control again."

Royal spoke with worry not wanting anything worse to happen.

Gatekeeper took a glance at Royal before looking over at Cloudy and Nick training from afar reassuring him that they would all be fine and that something was slightly different about Nick compared to the last time he saw him. Royal nodded in response also sensing the same thing. Gatekeeper marched over to the middle and gathered them all together. Nick looked at him while he did the same. Nick took a few deep breaths and went to move in front of him. Right before the knight spoke Nick interrupted telling him that what happened with the incident before wouldn't happen again and wouldn't let whatever it was go rampant. He told Nick that he will need that power he used but this time needed to control it instead of fear it. Nick for the first time instead of arguing back agreed with what he said and shortly after became silent. With the halls completely silent and Gatekeeper ready to announce what they already suspected he let them know that they all successfully passed their trials mentioning that they've also grown quite a bit compared to when they first arrived in his territory. They all nodded their heads excitedly as the knight reached for his back pocket revealing a letter from Hunter's wife. Out of nowhere they all dashed at him scaring even Gatekeeper from the sudden movement.

"What happened to you all? Why are you all so skittish."

Gatekeeper shouted startled by them.

Cloudy answered for them all knowing they would say the same thing.

"We hardly know anything about his wife and if we are going on a quest to find her again then we should at least know what she was like."

"As much as I would like to tell you that it not my business. I will just say that she was definitely one of a kind and someone I respect and honor with my whole being."

Nick snatched the letter from Gatekeeper's hand and began to read not wanting to wait anymore for him to finish his monologue.

"𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓘 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭'𝓿𝓮 𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓸𝓯 𝓼𝓸𝓻𝓻𝓸𝔀 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮. 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓮 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓰𝓾𝓲𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓴𝓮𝔂, 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓮 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓸 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓸𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓽. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝓲𝓼 𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓿-...𝓸𝓲.. 𝓭."

They all glance up at Gatekeeper giving him piercing glares as he moved away preparing something for them.

"As you know this letter is from Hunter's wife and she entrusted me with her last wish. To protect Hunter and to not let him be consumed by rage and anguish so the rest of those who love and care for him do not fall as well."

The three anticipating for more answers stare all the more with the intention of getting what they wanted. They were all beyond curious about what was inside that letter and couldn't believe that she had actually written one for them. Gatekeeper took a deep breath before continuing in a calm voice while facing them.

"You all have the right to know about her and to understand why she did what she had gone to do. But it isn't right for me to tell you.

"*sigh*... She only wanted to live her life in peace but even that was only a dream for her in the end as it was shattered into fragments."

He spoke with empathy in his voice talking about her as the boys only wanted to know more. Not falling for their little tricks he changed the subject to the main topic at hand.

"Now that we have talked about the past I am ready to reveal the future. There is a certain place that you will all be going to that will help you become stronger. You will all be going there soon. The time is near and I can sense it."

The boys looked at each other in excitement not understanding what he meant by that and weren't sure how to react to what Gatekeeper revealed next.

"Your adventures have only just begun and your fates will lead you but never stray from your chosen path or it will only lead to a spiral downward to a terrible doom."

After monologuing for a while Cloudy interrupted revealing to him that when they first arrived he had heard someone call out to him and wasn't able to figure out who it was. The knight became curious wanting to know more and ordered him to continue.

"They told me to stay away and to never enter the gateway."

Confused he says that nothing should be able to communicate well enough inside his territory without him knowing. Cloudy looked on puzzled as he reassured him that it wasn't anything important and it could've just been the mind playing tricks on him. He agreed to what he was saying but still felt a little uneasy about it. Nick questioned Gatekeeper about Hunter finally asking a question that had been over their heads the entire time.

"What is Hunter's last name?"

Gatekeeper was hesitant but gives in putting down the curtain and revealing that his name was 𝙃𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖. The three got chills hearing the full name of the hero who had saved their lives. Nick comments if Hunter's last name was ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖 and he was also looking for a ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖 then wouldn't he have already found it? Gatekeeper bats his eyes away from the boys telling them that they wouldn't want to know anymore than they should.

"Ignorance is bliss... so they say."

Gatekeeper muttered under his breath.

Royal gathered Nick and Cloudy together explaining that there was so much that they didn't know about Hunter, so little they had on him. Even then he said they pledged to help him anyway no matter what. They all nodded their heads confidently.

"The next time we see him let's get to know him better right guys?"

They cheered themselves on excitedly finally acting like how kids should their age making Gatekeeper put on a tiny smile.

"We will show him how much we've gotten stronger and how much we've been training with energy!"

Nick exclaimed excitedly.

Cloudy replied mentioning that they still have that rematch to do.

"What rematch?! I never agreed to this?!"

Nick shouted upset.

"It's too late for that now and it's going to happen eventually anyway."

They bickered on and on until the sun had finally set. The three had so many questions unanswered, who really is Hunter and what are his motives? They rested for the next day meaning the fifth month had finally arrived and they all have accomplished their trials meeting Gatekeeper's requirements.