Chapter 522 - Taming the Whole - 5

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Chapter 522: Chapter 522 - Taming the Whole - 5 Ren didn’t understand the reason for the unexpected question but shook his head. "Not completely yet," he admitted, "but my beast can tell it’s connected to the tower internally. As long as it’s connected to the mana flow from the vein, it can’t be eliminated with outside force..." He paused to send a pulse of purifying light that disintegrated a creature that had slipped into the defense by launching itself from the ceiling. "Unless we made a direct attack on its network," he continued, "which I could do with my beast’s characteristics, but it’s impossible to damage the enormous corrupt crystal network at my Silver Rank. It has too much accumulated energy, maybe if I were Platinum Rank like you..." Ren increasingly understood the scope of the purple network, and could now feel how the abyss beasts rose from the depths to join the transformed ones in the attack, in incredible quantities. The sensation was overwhelming, like trying to count stars in the night sky. Each individual signature was lost in the collective mass of malevolent intent rising from below. His expression became somber as he processed the implications. "We should leave before we lose an incredibly long battle of attrition." But Dragarion caught something in the explanation, a possibility the others hadn’t considered. "That hypothetical attack on the network that you don’t have the energy to do?" he asked carefully. "Could we do it together?" Ren thought for a moment, mentally consulting with his fungus about the possibilities of power sharing. Then he shook his head. "In theory I could serve as a connector, but no... Your majesty’s system is too compromised," he responded honestly. "The energy crystallization in your body is already bad enough to withstand such an attack..." But Dragarion had noticed something else. "I can feel the power in Selphira and the others," he observed, his eyes moving toward the combatants defending him. "They’re fragments of the power you gave me and they’ve synergized somewhat with the energies of all the Gold Rank doubles... Maybe now it’s more than what you gave me in total. Enormous power... Power that you gave them." Ren followed his line of reasoning and slowly nodded. The distributed energy had indeed grown, enhanced by the recipients’ own mana systems and the resonance between multiple enhanced and fused beasts. It was like a choir where individual voices combined to create something greater than their sum. "How would you attack the network with that power?" "I could connect everyone to inject the power’s purification into the network if someone in the network touches the crystal window," he admitted. "But someone would need to defend us from monsters during the process, and someone needs to be the one who launches the concentrated blow... that someone is the one who carries everyone’s power and it’s too much." He paused significantly. "Again, maybe only someone like you could do it, but not in your... current... state." Ren was distracted by glimpsing Larissa crying as she listened closely to the conversation. Dragarion observed his daughter and sighed, his family and allies fighting desperately to protect him, then smiled with resignation. "The crystal threatened me and I couldn’t negotiate with it... The corrupt beasts are going to attack the city as soon as we escape from here," he declared with the certainty of someone who would do the same when faced with such disrespect. "The corruption now sees the possibility of exhausting and eliminating us here, but if we leave... it will have all the beasts free to do whatever it wants, so leaving the chamber could be a grave mistake for our city." Ren thought of his parents, of the new house where they were finally finding peace, of all the civilians who trusted that they would be protected. The weight of responsibility settled on his small shoulders. A choice that carried consequences that extended far beyond this chamber. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 Yet he nodded with renewed determination. Ren used a pinch of the dragons’ power and launched a powerful beam at the ceiling that eliminated ten beasts at once. "I’ve decided to stay," he declared. "But I don’t know if we’ll have enough energy to..." Dragarion’s voice interrupted Ren and cut through the sound of battle like a sharp sword, loaded with authority that made all combatants turn toward him for an instant. "You can’t stay," he declared, his eyes fixed on Ren but clearly addressing everyone present. "The people, the children, our future... that’s what I fight for." Ren didn’t understand for a moment, his mind processing the words while maintaining part of his attention in the creatures that continued emerging from the veins. Why was the King speaking as if he wouldn’t be coming with them? Larissa continued crying silently. They weren’t the dramatic tears of a frightened girl. They were the poorly contained tears of someone who had understood something terrible and was desperately trying to maintain composure. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she fought to control her emotions. "I’ve traveled through the abyssal layer below Gold Rank," Dragarion continued, "it’s immense, Ren. The crystal probably has beasts to attack us for months. We’ll never resist a prolonged siege." His eyes moved toward the monsters that continued emerging from the veins. The flow was relentless, endless. "We have to do what you suggested," he declared with absolute finality. "And I’m going to carry the dragons’ power one more time." "No!" Ren’s response was immediate and instinctive. "You’ll die! Your system can’t handle more power. The crystallization has already gone too far!" Dragarion straightened, and for a moment he was completely the King of Yano, the figure of absolute authority who had ruled for decades. "I am your King, your leader," he declared with a grandness that echoed in the corrupt chamber. "I am your law. And this is an order." Ren remained paralyzed, feeling the weight of royal authority pressing upon him despite the fact that before him stood only a wounded man with barely a trace of mana. He opened his mouth to protest, but the words didn’t come. What was right? Obey his King or protect a man who was clearly asking to die? It was then that Larissa threw herself toward her father. Her small arms wrapped around Dragarion’s waist with a desperation that broke the hearts of everyone who could see it. It wasn’t the embrace of a daughter enjoying her father’s presence; it was the embrace of someone who knew it might be the last time. "Father," she whispered, her voice muffled against him but carrying clearly in the sudden hush that fell over their defensive circle. Dragarion gently touched his daughter’s head, his fingers moving through her blonde hair with a tenderness that contrasted dramatically with his enormous muscular and rough body adapted to an extremely hard life. "I’m not just king to do whatever I want," he murmured, his voice now soft and full of paternal love. "I also have responsibilities." The admission was both explanation and apology. He wasn’t choosing death out of pride or stubbornness, but out of duty to something larger than himself. Larissa cried openly now, but when she turned to look at Ren she controlled herself for a moment... Her gaze seemed to plead. "No," Ren declared finally, seeing the tears on Larissa’s face and feeling as if someone had driven a dagger into his chest. "I can’t do this to her!" His voice trembled with emotion he couldn’t suppress. "We’ll find another way!" Dragarion observed Ren for a moment, seeing the resolution in the boy’s eyes. Then, to everyone’s surprise, he did something no one had ever seen. He knelt.

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