Staying in this Dragon Nest Tribe for a full eighteen years, what kind of psychological journey Valen went through, no one knows, but in the end, he chose to stand on the opposite side of his former friend.
Some people experience darkness and then choose to merge into the darkness.
But some choose to hold onto the light.
People like Valen with such beliefs may not be many in this world, but they are not nonexistent. Austin couldn't do what he did, but that didn't stop him from feeling Valen's conviction.
