Chapter 185: Broken Bonds!
Daniel watched Gideon frolicking in the gold with a strange sense of pity.
He remembered what Nicklaus had told him, that Gideon had grown up in extreme poverty. For a man who had known nothing but scarcity his entire life, this sight, this mountain of tangible wealth, was simply too much for his mind to bear.
It had broken him.
"We have to get him out of there," Amara urged, stepping forward.
But Nicklaus held up a hand, his expression grim. "No. It’s too late. He’s lost to it. Trying to drag him out by force will only make him fight us.
And a fight with a berserk Gideon in here... we can’t risk it. We have to move on."
His voice was heavy with the weight of a commander making a hard choice.
"We’ll come back for him before the seven days are up. Hopefully, by then, he will have... come to his senses."
It was a slim hope, and they all knew it.
With one last, sorrowful glance at their teammate, now sprawled in the gold, carving coin-angels with a look of blissful madness, the remaining four pressed on into the vsst field of treasure, their party already broken, their path already shadowed by loss.
The four of them walked in a heavy, somber silence, the image of Gideon lost in his mountain of useless gold still fresh in their minds.
What first seemed like an odd treasure hunt in the Silvershade Realm now felt dark and ominous.