Chapter 1207 - Taming the Old World - Elemental Dragons - 4
Chapter 1207: Chapter 1207 - Taming the Old World - Elemental Dragons - 4
"To begin with... You are no longer capable of safely containing a three hundred percent charge! We already got micro-fractures in our pathways from the previous all out strike; they will take at least some days to heal! If you attempt to draw that volume again now, it is very probable that you will crystallize something that matters too much. Or you will violently explode. Or both simultaneously, which again, would be a horrifying..."
"Historical record, yes," Ren muttered internally, cutting the beast off. "You’ve already told me that. I know."
"You know, then why are you still going to do it?!"
"I can’t stop... I am absolutely not going to surrender," Ren thought back, his mental voice hardening with cold resolve. "But don’t panic... I have no intention of attempting an impossible brute-force strike that will guarantee our mutual destruction. I have a completely different idea."
The mushroom didn’t immediately reply, but Ren felt its attention sharpen.
♢♢♢♢
Out loud, Ren first offered a concession, explicitly designed to pacify the terrified women standing before him.
"I swear to you, I will not allow myself to crystallize to the point of becoming a useless statue," Ren told the girls, his jade eyes softening as he looked at them. "I promise... I know you are all going to need me when this is over, and I have absolutely no intention of turning into a block of mana before I fulfill my promises to you. I will perfectly monitor my absorption rate to ensure I don’t cross the fatal threshold. Please... Trust me one more time."
It was enough. It didn’t completely banish the dread in their eyes, but it moved them.
Ren began to absorb the ether.
He started with Liu and Sirius.
He didn’t just take their dragon energy; he aggressively siphoned the remaining dregs of the exalted corruption that was still actively crippling their systems. This time, with his core almost empty, he managed to completely eradicate the poison from their bodies. The two tamers, who had spent the last half of the battle deathly pale and convulsing in the ground, instantly recovered, a healthy rush of color returning to their faces.
And for Ren, the exchange yielded a massive, terrifying spike in raw energy due to the rapidly multiplying nature of the corruption he swallowed.
Next were the Qilin princes.
Julius surrendered his remaining ether, but his jaw was clenched tight, his golden eyes swirling with profound reluctance.
"I absolutely hate this," Julius admitted, his voice thick with frustration. "I am supposed to be the Royal Prince, and you are supposed to be my Glorious General to lead... But a true leader should possess the capacity to carry the heaviest burdens for his people, not passively stand by and watch you shoulder the apocalypse alone. In my eyes, you already are vastly more of a sovereign leader than I will ever be."
The Qilin prince let out a long, heavy sigh.
"But this exact disparity is precisely why I have always quietly agreed with Selphira’s assessment. You should be the next King, Ren... Even Victor is fully willing to bleed and fight under your banner, and Victor absolutely does not take orders from just anyone..."
"I would be perfectly content serving as a frontline warlord under your direct command," Victor added casually, completely devoid of his usual arrogance as he aggressively transferred his energy. "A royal throne would be far too tight for my liking anyway..."
Ren genuinely didn’t know how to respond to the sheer, world-shifting gravity of that absolute loyalty, so he simply offered a tired, awkward smile and continued absorbing the ether.
Taro and Min didn’t question him for a microsecond.
"It’s all yours, brother. Turn them into dust," Taro said with profound warmth, happily draining his core down to the absolute last drop.
"As usual," Min joked, feigning an exaggerated, theatrical envy, "the protagonist has to fight the final boss entirely alone, selfishly hogging all the glory. You won’t even leave one measly little dragon head for the rest of us... You absolute main scene hog!"
Ren couldn’t help but let out a weak, exhausted laugh despite the apocalypse unfolding around them.
Zhao and Yang simply offered firm, respectful nods and transferred their reserves in silence.
Lin, however, only offered him exactly half of her remaining output.
"I am still relatively fresh, I have the mobility, and someone absolutely needs to keep some gas in the tank," Lin stated, completely unapologetic. "The smaller, scattered mutants that you terrified with your pure fire blast are going to regain their courage and swarm back here the second Selthia reestablishes her mind link. If we all completely empty our cores into you and something misfires, who is going to protect the others? Fifty percent is the absolute maximum I can give you without leaving our flank fatally exposed... I have to keep kicking ass."
Ren nodded deeply. It was the exact brand of flawless, cold tactical pragmatism he had come to expect and respect from Lin.
Selphira transferred almost everything she had left too. Almost, because Ren could see the undisguised terror in her ancient eyes, the genuine fear that concentrating this much primordial energy into a single mortal vessel would cause him to detonate. But she still trusted his genius enough to take the gamble.
And finally, the girls.
Luna, Larissa, and Liora gently placed their hands on him, transferring their carefully moderated shares. As around half their remaining energy flooded his pathways, Ren hit two hundred and fifty percent of his absolute maximum capacity...
And that was the exact microsecond the ancient resonance returned.
♢♢♢♢
The five primordial dragon cores hidden deep within the cold void of his shadow space pulsed simultaneously.
It was a violent heartbeat of pure draconic elemental energy that forcefully awakened something ancient and dormant within his soul. The massive, unexpected push instantly rocketed Ren’s internal reserves from two hundred and fifty percent directly to a staggering three hundred percent in a fraction of a second.
A good thing since this way, Luna, Larissa and especially Liora could keep some energy in case of an emergency.
But it jolted the still somewhat sleepy mushroom completely awake.
"Alright, alright, I was already awake!" Mooshito shrieked psychically, forcefully shaking off the lingering dregs of sleep. "Stop vibrating those damned cores! Every single time you trigger that resonance, it gives me a splitting migraine, and we are catastrophically overloaded!"
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