Chapter 525: Chapter 525 - Taming Post-war The energy wave expelled with the "encystment" had transformed the tamer world at a level and with a scope the people in the chamber had not yet perceived. In the central chamber, where moments before the most intense internal battle any of them had witnessed had roared, now reigned a silence that was both peaceful and deeply disturbing. All the creatures that had been in the chamber during the final explosion had been transformed into dark purple crystal statues. The transformation was weirdly beautiful. Each beast was frozen in perfect detail, their final expressions preserved forever in crystalline form. Bloodwyn and Ravenspire too were now enormous statues of their last moments as giant beasts. Their forms were magnificent and terrible, hanging on the walls, supported by the crystallized veins as monuments to the power they had wielded and the corruption they had embraced. Selphira quickly left the chamber, moving with the urgency of someone who had felt something terrible happen but still hoped to be wrong. She was tired, exhausted by the effort of maintaining defenses during the final battle, but concern for Leonel drove her beyond her limits. She found him higher up in the outer corridors, where he had been resting with others after advancing a good part of the stairway. Leonel had also been transformed into purple crystal. Wei and the others who had been with him, also resting after being unable to arrive in time to help (having been the first carriers of draconic power fragments), didn’t understand what had happened. They could only surround Selphira when she fell to her knees, covering her face with both hands while processing the reality of what had happened... what she had lost. Wei approached along with the other soldiers, not knowing what to say or do. Some had seen Selphira face armies without blinking, had seen her unbreakable determination. Seeing her broken this way was more disturbing than seeing her defeated by any enemy. ♢♢♢♢ Back in the central chamber, Julius slowly entered the space that had been the epicenter of the true final battle. He looked at his father, now a statue of pure white crystal that remained upright, one hand still touching the corrupted window of the enemy crystal. The expression on Dragarion’s face was peaceful, as if he had found exactly what he had been searching for his entire life. Yet the serenity was both comforting and heartbreaking. Julius sighed heavily, a sound that carried the weight of everything he had lost and everything he now had to bear. He straightened consciously, forcing his posture to reflect the responsibility that now fell upon him. He placed both hands on his own heart and invoked his Qilin horns despite being almost completely exhausted. It was a signal of respect and honor that required energy he barely had, but some things were more important than personal comfort. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 Despite looking up to ’maintain composure’, he couldn’t contain some tears that silently ran down his cheeks. Sirius appeared beside him, having finished dealing with problems outside. He entered the tunnel to try to understand what had happened, and his gaze immediately fixed on "Dragarion’s statue." He looked at Julius and said nothing for a moment. Words would have been inadequate for the magnitude of what he was witnessing. Instead, he manifested what remained of his Celestial Tiger and made the same signal of respect. Zhao joined them silently, completing a triangle of respect around the King who had given everything to save his kingdom and family. ♢♢♢♢ Outside the ice tunnel, all the warriors were exhausted but alive. Most simply rested, some leaning against others, sharing the type of camaraderie that only comes after surviving something impossible together. A celebratory mood tried to begin when they started realizing that enemies could no longer move, that they had won, that the abyssal threat had been neutralized. But one of the soldiers with a beast that gave him a clear view of what had happened inside the tunnel asked for silence with a sad expression that made everyone else understand immediately. They had won, yes. But they had perhaps lost more than they had gained. The cost of victory hung heavy in the air, making any celebration feel inappropriate and hollow. ♢♢♢♢ A few moments later, Julius managed to recover some composure. He stepped forward silently, carefully picking up Larissa, who had remained unconscious after her power fragment was transferred and she saw her father completely turn to crystal. Then he looked at Zhao and nodded toward where Ren lay equally unconscious, exhausted by the massive expenditure of energy he had channeled. Zhao understood immediately and picked him up instantly, treating him with the care due to someone who may have just helped save their entire world. Sirius looked at Ren for a moment with an intense gaze. Then he sighed and closed his eyes, as if coming to some internal decision. ♢♢♢♢ When the great majority withdrew from the chamber, a soldier decided to try something. With everything he had left of power, he tried to destroy one of the dark purple crystal statues... the creature he had been about to eliminate before receiving the light pulse when Ren’s network shut down in the end. But he realized immediately, when he didn’t even scratch it, that the crystal had Diamond-rank mana density. It was impossible to break for anyone who wasn’t mid-Platinum or perhaps higher. That and different future tests would lead them all to the realization that these transformations might be permanent. Also in the end, in the exhaustive review over several days of Yino’s castle and city, thousands of statues were found throughout the territory. In the castle, many of the workers who had been corrupted during the occupation had been transformed. Servants, administrators, guards, all frozen in crystal at the moment the purification wave had swept through. But it was in one of the side towers where they made the most emotionally devastating discovery for Ren. They found Han’s statue, kneeling, embracing with what could be crystallized tears a girl some years older than him in the same emotive situation. Both had small antennae on their heads and very thin wings on their backs. The brother and sister were frozen in their last moment together, a reunion that had lasted perhaps minutes, perhaps only moments... before being made eternal in crystal. The sight was heartbreaking in its tenderness. After years of waiting, Han had found his sister just in time to share a final embrace. Han’s statue would later be moved to Yano at Ren’s request, when he learned from Julius that they had "found" Han. It was one of the few requests he made during the immediate aftermath, and Julius couldn’t refuse him after everything he had contributed. Many things happened during the following two years due to the events of the war that crystallized the corrupted. Some good, some bad, all of them fundamentally changed by what had happened in that chamber. For Ren, most could be said to have been good. His family had prospered in the new economy that emerged after the war. The restaurant his parents had dreamed of became a reality, successful beyond their wildest hopes as people sought comfort food and familiar pleasures after the trauma of war. The establishment became a gathering place for those seeking normalcy after extraordinary circumstances, a symbol of life continuing despite loss. With the exception, perhaps, of one thing that affected him more deeply than any public recognition or material gain. During those two years, he couldn’t see Larissa again. She stopped going to school immediately after the events in the chamber. She didn’t write him a single letter, despite the fact that before the war they had begun to develop what he had thought was a genuine friendship. In general, she avoided him completely... Maybe as if his very existence was a reminder of something too painful? Ren had tried multiple times to ask Julius to give her a message, but in the end he always received no response. Julius was always polite but distant when asked about his sister, clearly protective of whatever healing process she was going through. Ren’s family, when they learned about things superficially (because the full truth was too complex and too painful for him to explain to those who hadn’t been there), had told him to allow time to heal wounds. "Some wounds take longer than others," his mother had told him with that wisdom that his parents seem to possess. "And some people need more space to heal." His father had been more direct: "You did what you had to do, son. She knows that, even if she can’t face it yet. Give her time." But two years felt like an eternity to a boy who had grown up faster than anyone should have to, who had made decisions that adults twice his age wouldn’t have been able to make, and who carried the weight of having taken something important from someone he cared about even if to save everyone else. The burden was invisible but constant. Every day he wondered if he had done the right thing, if there had been another way. Sometimes, late at night, he would look out his window toward the castle and wonder if she ever thought about him, if she ever regretted her decision to cut him out of her life completely, or if she blamed him for taking her father away even though she had regretted giving permission too late. The questions had no answers yet, and the silence stretched on, but Ren wouldn’t give up... If one day he could reach Diamond Rank, perhaps... But everything in its time. First he would have to grow and develop his beasts more, and his 4th year at the academy might teach him and resolve more things faster than he would have believed possible. End of Volume.