Chapter 451 - Tamers War - Turning Points - Failed Promise - 2

Moments before... Ren’s POV

Things were going extraordinarily well for Ren’s energy network.

Each healing provided him more power, each infected soldier who touched the roots added energy to the system. He could feel how his capacity grew exponentially, as if he had directly connected with an enormous power source that expanded his consciousness.

Mooshito was ecstatic.

"Incredible, so many golds and high silvers shouldn’t be underestimated!"

he communicated with emotion that Ren rarely had felt from the small mushroom.

"Practically the entire space covered by the infected is already very close to being trapped in our network!"

His companion’s enthusiasm was contagious. Ren could feel the network extending farther and farther, connecting soldiers he couldn’t even see from here.

"With so much energy in the environment it seems the fungi absorbed more than expected,"

Mooshito continued,

"even rising to Silver right now wouldn’t be impossible if we skip some processes. It would be a bit of an energy waste and a bit slow, but..."

The sentence remained unfinished when Ren suddenly tensed.

Joy completely vanished when the new "nervous" network he had developed gave him much higher perception of the surrounding battlefield.

Through connections he had established, he could see mana and "feel" what was happening within the high-level battle arena with clarity that terrified him.

Selphira and the others were in serious trouble.

The rival ominous energy that had been growing since the battle’s beginning now pulsed with intensity that rivaled the World Dragon’s light they had absorbed. But what really alarmed him was feeling how the energy of the ring on the ancient woman diminished rapidly, as if something was actively draining it.

Ren opened his eyes completely, breaking his concentration on the network to use the new powerful perception and create a plan at record speed.

"No, don’t even think about it!"

Mooshito in the same network immediately realized what he was considering.

"Think about it one more instant! We will lose the power, we also may lose that battle! It’s too dangerous!"

But Ren had already made his decision.

Without warning, he absorbed all accumulated power at once. The sensation was like swallowing liquid lightning; pure energy flowing through every cell of his body while withdrawing the complete network into his interior.

Soldiers who had been gradually healed felt a sudden pull when roots retracted, but healing was already complete for most and almost complete for a few.

"Ren!" Liora shouted when she saw him stagger from energy overload.

Luna moved beside her instinctively to help him stay standing too, but Ren extended his hand toward Larissa specifically.

"Sorry," he murmured, his eyes glowing with power.

Larissa heard the apology and saw his expression... she understood without need for any more words.

Ren needed her to give him her hand, maybe he needed her light-jumping ability for some reason. And if he apologized, maybe it was because he needed her to risk her safety to transport him directly into some danger.

She accepted the risk instantly.

"Take my hand," Larissa said simply, extending hers toward him.

The moment their fingers intertwined, Ren used his new understanding of light to take control of the light jump.

Instead of the paired jump they had been practicing, this was pure raw power channeling Larissa’s technique in a more advanced mode.

The jump that followed was much longer than they had ever done before.

They rose above the battlefield like a shooting star, crossing the distance toward the upper part of the arena where Selphira fought for her life in a flash. From their aerial perspective, Ren could see the complete situation: Julius wounded and barely conscious, Yano commanders scattered and overcome, and in the center, Selphira with claws piercing her side while Kharzan prepared for the final blow.

With another light jump they appeared just behind Selphira just as Kharzan raised his arm to finish the ancient warrior.

"Well, I suppose we’ll have to level up normally,"

Mooshito murmured, resigned but determined,

"you’re going to need improved fusion and give almost all accumulated power to beat that parasite... if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right... maybe that way, in the end, I can keep that ring on her finger as a prize."

♢♢♢♢

By the battle’s end, Ren had given almost all his accumulated power to Selphira.

It hadn’t been simply an energy transfer. He had forced complete fusion of the ancient woman’s beasts, transforming her Lesser Genbu basically into a Greater Genbu and multiplying Selphira’s basic values by three instead of two.

It was a power level that few had experienced in recorded history.

The enhancement had transcended normal fusion limitations, creating a temporary state that approached the legendary transformations spoken of in ancient texts.

Sirius had been hidden until the battle’s critical moments. Without his Celestial Tiger, he was too weak to directly face a Gold-level or higher opponent. But in the end, sacrificing his Black Serpent as a desperate shield, he had provided the extra instant necessary so Kharzan couldn’t eliminate Selphira before Ren arrived.

Selphira’s figure, having been healed by luminous water and purified by Ren’s energy, had ended up unconscious from exhaustion but completely healthy. The mortal wounds that should have killed her seemed never to have been there, her skin pale but without scars.

Now Sirius held Selphira’s unconscious body, despite feeling lacerating pain from his serpent’s loss. The temporarily broken connection felt like having an amputated limb.

The black ice began melting gradually, revealing the transformed battlefield.

Sand mounds Julius had created returned to the ground smoothly. Yano’s remaining Gold soldiers freed themselves from defensive sands: exhausted, slightly affected by residual cold from Selphira’s final attacks, but alive.

Unlike most who had received the ice blow directly.

Kharzan’s high-level soldiers like Chilong and Strahlfang were almost dying, fighting against severe hypothermia. Abyssals or lower-level ones simply hadn’t survived, their bodies converted into ice statues that slowly crumbled.

Julius canceled basic fusion with the ring with a sigh that sounded like relief but also extreme exhaustion. He staggered toward Ren and the girls, the minutes he had spent using ring fusion having taken their toll.

He was extremely tired, but everything was fine now.

Ren thought about offering him the improved fusion he had developed, but decided to wait for Julius to finish doing whatever his priority was.

He also thought he had to finish absorbing remaining infection on the battlefield, but waiting to see what Julius would say still had priority.

The young prince crouched beside Kharzan’s decapitated body, looking at the separated head with a mixture of triumph and revulsion.

"Only one unpleasant but necessary thing remains," he murmured, also taking Selphira’s bright spear that lay nearby. "Put Kharzan’s head on the spear and show it to his army to make the few remaining standing surrender..."

Julius took it by the hair with evident disgust, trying not to look directly at the lifeless eyes. He began rising on a sand platform, preparing for the symbolic gesture that would officially end Yano’s internal war.

He was about to put the head on the spear’s point when Ren felt something with his perception still enhanced by the remaining light.

A presence materializing from stealth flight invisibility, moving with lethal speed toward Julius.

"Julius, cover yourself!" Ren shouted with all the strength he had left.

Julius reacted a bit late.

The invisible claw cut through his arm like butter, completely separating the extremity along with Kharzan’s head he was holding... But at least failing the attempt to also cut the prince’s neck thanks to the warning.

Ravenspire materialized from complete invisibility, holding both the head and what remained of Kharzan’s body in his arms.

His partially integrated Three-Legged Crow created an aura of shadows that distorted the air around him. His energy was almost intact, he hadn’t participated in any difficult battle and conserved practically all his strength.

An enemy of the same level as Kharzan had just appeared.

"Impressive power demonstration from Yano’s boring side, seems we arrived late," Ravenspire commented casually, as if evaluating a work of art. "Though I must admit I expected a bit more from your father’s army..."

Julius screamed in pain, holding the bleeding stump where his arm had been seconds before.

"But don’t worry," Ravenspire smiled, beginning to retreat toward shadows with his macabre cargo. "This isn’t over. In fact, it’s just beginning."