Chapter 505 - Taming Diamond Rank

Back in the present, beneath Yano’s castle...

The chamber, still filled with crystals but somewhat altered, felt strangely empty after Ren’s first visit.

The regular extraction of treasures had changed the space. What had once been a cavern packed almost to the ceiling with crystalline wealth now showed gaps, pathways, evidence of human intervention in what had been an untouched sanctuary.

Only the mural side wall got emptied and revealed its true architectural magnificence. But there was not only an ice wall... A tunnel that Selphira and Dragarion had created with ice and minerals provided direct and functional access to the center of the chamber at the bottom, though it stripped away some of the majesty of the original discovery...

The first visit had been about wonder, about the breathtaking realization of what lay hidden beneath their feet. This time it was about utility, about converting ancient power into present advantage.

Ren walked slowly through the tunnel, but his eyes drifted once more toward the exposed mural, before advancing into the now slightly lower level of crystals.

Despite having studied it before, every time he looked at it he found new disturbing details.

The images seemed to shift depending on his angle of approach, revealing layers of meaning that hadn’t been apparent in previous viewings. A different Chapter of the same terrible story.

The Y-shaped tower undoubtedly traversed what appeared to be the world completely, emerging as a single enormous tower on the other side.

If this representation was accurate, then the structure beneath their feet wasn’t just a local phenomenon... it was a planetary axis, a world wide ’spine’ around which everything else revolved.

Though the proportions in the mural didn’t seem correct for a literal architectural representation with dragons and people being so large, suggesting the sizes were more symbolic.

If thinking of artistic conventions, it made sense. The dragons weren’t drawn to scale, they were drawn to significance... Hopefully.

The dragons at each end of the "Y" were clearly clashing their energies, and the world seemed to be dividing because of their battle.

Two incompatible forces using the planet as their battleground, with humanity caught in the middle.

But most troubling... were the people around the purple dragon, who seemed to be absorbed toward the creature.

The figures weren’t fleeing or fighting. They were walking, willingly, into streams of energy that led directly into the purple dragon’s maw. Their faces, where visible, showed not terror but rapture.

’We can’t let that happen,’

Ren thought, feeling a chill.

If the mural wasn’t just depicting an ancient conflict... if it was showing a pattern that repeated, a cycle that was beginning to turn once more...

If his parents knew more clearly what he was doing now, they would surely worry too much. At last he had managed to get them to relax in the new house, so he hoped to be able to tell them all of this as soon as his plan with the King worked.

The thought of his parents brought warmth but also weight. They had finally found peace, finally had a chance at the life they’d always deserved. He couldn’t let that be taken away.

"Nervous about the plan?" Larissa’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

She had insisted on accompanying them this time, claiming she hadn’t had a chance to see the chamber during the first visit. Her eyes gleamed as she absorbed every detail of the ancient structure, moving with that noble grace that characterized her even in situations as important as this.

"A little," Ren admitted honestly. "Among other things."

The understatement was massive. Nervous about channeling the power of seven crystallized dragons through his still-developing system. Nervous about the corruption spreading beneath. Nervous about the implications of the mural, about his parents, about...

"Well," Larissa moved closer, lowering her voice, "thanks to what we’re doing, the opportunists are going to have to come out into the sun a little. And when they do, we’re going to pluck them clean."

Her smile was full of satisfaction. The political maneuvering that would have exhausted Ren energized Larissa, like a complex puzzle that engaged her intelligence.

Ren looked at her confused. "Why are you so sure they’ll come out?"

Larissa smiled with that expression she used when she had orchestrated something particularly clever.

"With the public announcement we made about the new riches and being such high figures, they’ll have to come out to earn their share whether they want to or not. Being public, they know it can’t be false without the people getting very angry at us for lying."

She crossed her arms, clearly satisfied with the strategy she was about to fully reveal to Ren.

A simple yet elegant trap... By making the kingdom’s newfound wealth public knowledge, she had forced the opportunistic nobles into an impossible position.

"So if they stay in their houses and don’t support this time again, they lose their ’proportional share’ completely since it will be their ’punishment for not supporting’, plus we’ll know who’s ’useless’ and never leaves their house. And if they do support, they also lose, because when all the troops they maintained without supporting are audited since they WILL want a ’bigger share’, they won’t be able to claim they didn’t have money to pay them or didn’t have them under their control in the first altercation, so we’ll fine them with full force for treason after the battle, for not helping the first time."

The strategy was ruthless and comprehensive. Every possible choice the opportunists could make led to their disadvantage.

Ren laughed when his fungus whispered mentally:

’The girl is scary for being so young.’

Larissa looked at him sideways, narrowing her eyes with suspicion.

"What did your fungus tell you about me?" she asked with a dangerously sweet tone.

Before Ren could respond, the King touched his shoulder and sighed, shaking his head from side to side with what seemed to be pity.

"Son," Dragarion murmured with an amused voice, "you’ll learn it’s better to keep some thoughts private, especially when it comes to intelligent women."

Ren didn’t completely understand why the King seemed to feel sorry for him, but decided it was better to change the pace.

He waved his hands in denial and quickly changed his expression to a ’funny Julius’ one, making Larissa laugh.

The distraction had served him for a few moments, but then Ren’s gaze became lost again.

Larissa studied his expression for a moment, then followed his gaze to the direction of the mural.

"You’re also worried we may lose, aren’t you?" she observed with that perspicacity that sometimes surprised him.

"A little..."

♢♢♢♢

They reached 1000 meters deep to the center of the chamber, where the central column with the seven dragons rose imposingly.

Without the artifacts and potions that had previously surrounded it, and clean after everything had been taken to the castle, it looked even more impressive.

The column dominated the space like a monument to forces beyond human limits. Seven distinct crystalline structures, each pulsing with its own rhythm.

"Though ’dragons’ is a broad term," Ren murmured, studying the crystals, "perhaps it’s not so correct to call these intricate mechanisms."

He moved closer, examining the complex energy patterns flowing through each crystalline structure.

The level of detail was extraordinary.

"Egg or core wouldn’t be correct either... Maybe ’hearts’."

Ren looked amazed at how all the runes and circulatory systems of a dragon’s mana at a level that even he didn’t understand with his fungus’s information at this point, had been perfectly replicated in those crystals.

If computers existed in his world, he would compare them to how those machines emulated the basic functioning of a brain.

These crystals didn’t just emulate dragon physiology... they contained it, preserved it, perfected it. Each one was a masterwork of magical engineering.

’Are they crystal replicas?’ he wondered, ’or would someone have done the crazy action of tearing out the circulatory systems from seven diamond rank dragons and crystallizing them?’

His fungus interrupted his speculations.

’Don’t think too much. The enemy is always moving, we have to hurry.’

Whatever these crystals were, whatever their origin, they were tools that needed to be used before time ran out.

The enemies were moving without doubt.

They didn’t know when they might decide to attack them. But with the strange changes the crystal was generating...

His fungus had told him that it had realized from the timing and situation that undoubtedly the crystal had noticed they already had the second chamber open.

The connection between the two sides of the tower made concealment impossible. Every action they took here reverberated through the entire system, alerting their enemies to their progress.

’It might decide to attack us with everything it has before we do the same.’