Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 1324 Taming the Old World - Paradoxical Choice - 2

"How bad would that actually be?" Arturo asked, needing to define the exact scale of the threat for his less informed mind.

Ren sifted through the fragmented lore he had managed to piece together: the cryptic message from the ancient engineer, the bloody myth of the dragons, the cosmic leech, and the terrifying truth of Selthia merely being an isolated vase for the main culprit. He gave the most brutally honest assessment he could muster.

"I cannot say for certain… However, based on everything I have learned, it would likely possess the authority to thaw its dormant corrupted nodes from the old crystallized net. It could flood that frozen crystalline network with fresh ether, bringing the entire old structure Dragarion imprisoned back under its direct control…"

"...Even with Dragarion's body petrified at a Diamond-tier density, his body would not be safe from destruction or assimilation. The purple dragon is the cosmic parasite that literally cracked this world in half. It is the entity that enslaved every living creature on the continent during that dark age. If it manages to reach that chamber and gets its prices, I guarantee it will know exactly how to capitalize on the dormant power waiting in there. If it succeeds..."

Ren let the sentence trail off into the quiet room. He did not need to paint the rest of the picture.

"Then there really is no alternative," Liora said, her voice cracking under a sudden wave of frustration. "That is what you are telling us... Either you gamble your life in a losing bet that will likely end by turning your own body into crystal, or the entire world burns."

"I am saying we need to approach the problem as best as we can," Ren corrected her in a gentle tone. "There are nuances to the operation... We have a small window of time so I can focus on making a full physical recovery first, which significantly lowers the risk of meridian failure. I can map out the runic geometry in my head and run simulations before channeling a single spark of ether. I can..."

"You could die!" Liora started crying.

She delivered the words without any hesitation, entirely stripped of her usual underlying warmth. Every head at the table turned to look at her.

"You could die, or you could end up trapped as a crystal statue for eternity, which might actually be worse. Yet you sit there outlining the steps as if this were just another standard task." Liora's voice trembled slightly, but her eyes remained fiercely locked onto his. "Stop talking about theoretical percentages and magical nodes like this is a routine patrol! Are you not sacred? This is your life on the line, Ren!"

The war room fell into a profound stillness.

Ren looked at the three women standing beside him. He glanced at Selphira, who offered no reprimand because she knew Liora had just voiced the exact fear gnawing at everyone's chest. He looked at Julius and Arturo, both wearing the grim expressions of commanders staring down a brutal dilemma with no clean exit. Finally, he looked at his friends that had no intention of making any joke and Sirius, who stood quiet and shadowed by the heavy stakes.

He knew that cold logic would not resolve this argument…

Every single person in the room was correct. Forging the upgraded array was a monumental gamble with a terrifyingly high probability of failure. Refusing to build it meant handing the keys to a creature capable of orchestrating an extinction-level event like they had never seen. Two branching paths, both leading toward disaster, leaving Ren standing squarely in the middle with the agonizing weight of making the final call.

"I will promise you one thing," Ren finally said, speaking slowly and choosing his words with deliberate care. "I am not going to rush into the vault blindly. We have more than fifty hours, and I intend to spend every minute of that window finding the safest possible method to execute this upgrade. I am going to let my core heal completely and I am going to study every single variable first."

He turned his head to look directly at Liora.

"I have no intention of dying there, nor do I plan on becoming a permanent statue. I have far too many reasons to make sure I walk back up those stairs. I am looking right at many of them." He let the sincerity of the statement linger in the air for a brief moment. "I need you to trust me one more time. Just like always… Give me the room to find a viable exit before we resign ourselves to the idea that there isn't one."

Liora held his gaze for a long, heavy moment.

Slowly, she gave a stiff nod. She was far from fully convinced, yet she was willing to grant him the breathing room he asked for.

"Two days," Liora stated. "You had better find a brilliant solution, you reckless self-sacrificing idiot!" Then, her voice dropping into a soft murmur meant mostly for herself, she added, "You always manage to find one… Please do it one last time…"

A warm smile touched Ren's lips as he reached over with his good hand and slid the heavy Fire Ring off his finger.

"In the meantime," Ren said, holding the artifact out to her, "I need you to keep this safe for me until the time comes. I will eventually need it back to complete the prison matrix, but until that hour arrives, it belongs to you so you will know when I'm ready."

Liora stared at the glowing red artifact, then slowly looked back up at Ren. The rigid tension in her face finally melted away, replacing her lingering anger with a soft, timid smile.

"...Are you only giving me this because Luna and Larissa have one?"

"I am handing it to you because I trust you to return it safely when the final hour comes," Ren replied smoothly. "And because it honestly looks much better on you than it does on me."

Liora took the artifact and slipped it onto her hand. She didn't say thank you; at least, not with words. Instead, she leaned in and stole a quick, lingering kiss that communicated the gratitude perfectly.

The underlying debate had not been truly resolved… The grim logistics of the vault remained undecided.

Nevertheless, he had successfully purchased the exact currency he needed: time to rest and prepare. He had two full days to reinforce the capital's perimeter, heal his fractured meridians, dissect the impossible runic architecture of the vault, and search for a miraculous loophole.

He had to find a way to transform a brutal choice between two fatal outcomes into a future they could all survive.

Fifty hours.

With three rings still on his hand, a half-healed system, and a terrifying doomsday clock ticking beneath the floorboards, Ren set out to accomplish the impossible.

Just like he always did.