Chapter 523 - Taming the Whole - 6

The King of Yano, the most powerful man in the kingdom, the warrior who had faced dragons and emerged victorious, knelt before an eleven-year-old boy.

"Please," he murmured, and now his voice carried no royal authority. It was simply the voice of a desperate man asking for help. "Not as a King, but as a father."

His hands moved to take Larissa’s, holding them with a gentleness that made more tears flow with greater intensity down his daughter’s cheeks.

"Help me save my daughter," he pleaded, gently kissing Larissa’s forehead. "My family. My people. Yourself."

He turned toward Ren directly, and in his eyes was a vulnerability the boy had never seen before.

The great king, reduced to his most essential self, asking for power not for conquest or glory but for the chance to protect what mattered most.

"I entrust you to care for Larissa in my absence," he murmured. "Promise me you’ll do whatever is necessary to keep her safe."

Larissa seemed to understand, at that moment, her father’s resolution.

She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand, a gesture that would have been childish if it hadn’t been loaded with such mature determination.

She looked at Ren, whose eyes were somewhat teary, clearly still undecided.

Then, in an act of courage that rivaled anything the adults had done on the battlefield, she lifted her forehead toward the ceiling and breathed deeply, feigning a maturity she shouldn’t have needed.

"Give it to him, please," she asked Ren, her voice trembling but firm. "It’s the only way."

It wasn’t a child asking for a favor. It was a princess requesting her father’s sacrifice.

Ren felt as if the world had contracted to include only this moment, this decision, these three people in the center of a battle that would determine the fate of hundreds of thousands.

He looked at Dragarion, kneeling and vulnerable, asking not as king but as father.

He looked at Larissa, desperately trying to be brave when what she had barely recovered was about to be lost forever.

He thought of his own parents, of all the families in the kingdom who depended on him making the right decision, no matter how painful it was.

Finally he nodded, a single inclination of his head that sealed his King’s fate.

"Grandma Selphira!" he shouted, his voice loaded with desperate urgency. "We need to get his majesty Dragarion to touch the crystal window!"

As if it had been waiting for that declaration of defiance, the veins in the walls expanded dramatically.

The sound was like meat and skin tearing, and from one of the cave’s faces began to emerge something that made all previous beasts seem like minor annoyances.

Bloodwyn.

But not the Lord Bloodwyn some of them had known. This was a version that had been completely absorbed by corruption, transformed into blood itself.

And it wasn’t the only energy signature... dozens of similar-level marks began to be felt growing in the chamber.

On the other side, Ravenspire’s shadows began emerging as well.

Ren realized, with a clarity that chilled his blood, that the king was right... they didn’t have enough power to face what was about to emerge completely.

What they had fought so far had been scouts, probing attacks. This was the corruption’s true response to their threat.

♢♢♢♢

Selphira learned of the plan through Ren’s rapid words, and for a moment she looked at Dragarion.

In her eyes was respect, frustration, and something that could have been genuine pain at what was about to happen.

Then she sighed deeply, as if releasing decades of accumulated tension.

"I curse myself for not being strong enough,"

she murmured to herself,

"and having to depend on a dying idiot to save us all... A very valorous and fiery idiot."

Her eyes directed toward Larissa, who kept breathing deeply with her head held high despite the tears that silently streamed down her cheeks.

The princess hadn’t made a single sound of protest since giving her consent, but her pain was palpable in every line of her small body.

Selphira forced herself beyond her normal limits, activating fusion and projecting a frustration that made her power manifest with intensity she had never reached.

With half her own power channeled directly, she created a tunnel of dense ice that extended like a direct route toward the corrupted crystal window.

"Julius," she shouted to her political nephew, who also looked sad but maintained that stoic and mature composure he had inherited from his mother, "cover the entrance for them while Sirius and I stop those dimwits Ravenspire, Bloodwyn and their followers."

Julius nodded wordlessly, positioning himself a few steps inside the tunnel at the entrance where he could defend the most vulnerable entry point.

Ren, observing the preparations, felt the need to give one last warning.

"I know it might be a lot to ask given the situation," he said with a voice that struggled to remain stable, "but when you feel the network touch you, don’t move much."

"When will that be?" Selphira asked, already heading toward her combat position.

"You’ll see," Ren responded simply.

Dragarion approached Julius despite the pain, clearly preparing for what was his final farewell.

He raised his hand to touch his son’s shoulder in a farewell gesture, but stopped halfway. Instead of the formal gesture, he gently touched Julius’s head with that paternal tenderness he rarely showed.

"Pass it to your brothers," he murmured, his voice loaded with all the love he couldn’t express during years of absence.

Julius nodded, fighting against tears that threatened to fall but that he refused to let escape.

He was his father’s son after all; he maintained composure even when his heart was breaking.

Zhao helped the King walk, carrying him a bit once more.

"Thank you," the King whispered to him with a sigh and an uncomfortable smile.

They finally reached the window where Kassian’s face could still be seen, partially absorbed into the purple metal but with enough remaining human form to be recognizable.

Dragarion laughed then with a hoarse voice, a sound that surprised everyone with its genuine joy.

"How can there be youth so intelligent and mature?" he murmured, looking toward Larissa and Ren with paternal pride that transcended his own family.

Then his expression changed, becoming hard as he observed Kassian’s remains.

"And youth so stupid and immature," he added, putting his hand on Kassian’s face and squeezing it with force that deformed it.

He extended his other hand toward Ren, preparing for the process that would determine all their fates.

Ren’s fungus had come to know Larissa much better during these last intense days, and surprisingly, it no longer disliked her at all...

It had developed something like respect for the girl who had shown such maturity under impossible pressure.

"Are you sure?"

the fungus asked Ren mentally.

"Yes,"

Ren responded without hesitation.

"When you’re ready."

"Now,"

the fungus declared.