Chapter 538: 538 - Taming the Fourth Year: Isolation - 10

Chapter 538: Chapter 538 – Taming the Fourth Year: Isolation – 10

But even through his exhaustion and relief, Ren couldn’t help feeling a stab of irritation at needing rescue at all.

♢♢♢♢

Julius observed the Shadow Mimic exhaling its last breath of life, pierced through by stakes made of his overwhelming earth elemental control. With 750% base control, (a level Ren could reach with his maximum fusion tripling his base 250%) Julius had a strong specialized element.

But it wasn’t his base control that Julius had used. When he fused completely, his numbers tripled to 2250%, a power that turned the earth itself into an extension of his will.

The creature hadn’t had any chance whatsoever. The minerals had violently separated its body.

He turned toward Ren, who remained on the ground, breathing heavily, his energy reserves almost completely exhausted.

The expression on Julius’s face was complex: relief, annoyance, and something that could have been understanding.

But Ren’s expression…

“Did I do something wrong by saving you?” Julius asked, though his tone wasn’t completely critical.

Ren looked at him with an expression he himself wouldn’t understand, his features still showing some of the annoyance that someone as entitled as Jin would show to his rescuer, mixed with the confusion of someone who had expected to die moments before.

For a moment, Julius wondered if the boy would have preferred to face the consequences alone, if being rescued was somehow something terrible he couldn’t tolerate.

The reaction remained telling. Most would have been purely grateful for rescue from certain death. The fact that Ren’s face was showing irritation rather than relief spoke to how his priorities had shifted over recently.

But losing Ren wasn’t something the kingdom could afford. And beyond his real value, Julius had come to see the boy as something more. It remained complicated, but after everything they had been through together, after seeing how Ren had helped save not only the kingdom but also… the loss would have been personal.

“Thank you,” Ren finally murmured after shaking his head, accepting the hand Julius extended to help him stand.

Julius knew he needed to handle this carefully. Ren was clearly in a fragile mental state, having acted so differently from his normal behavior, and confronting him directly by scolding him for taking foolish risks would probably only result in more resistance. Instead, he decided to ask with as much delicacy as possible.

He had received the message, spoken with the girls, and while descending quickly had also heard the Leviathan Worm’s roar and followed the path of battles that Ren had left, so he knew more or less what the situation was.

“Can I ask why you decided to push yourself so far? Alone, bringing down everything you found in this territory that would even give me problems…”

Julius knew that in his specific element he had more power than Ren, but he wasn’t even close to having the same level of flexibility when taking into account the seven different elements, or the general increases as high as the boy possessed.

Julius’s physical strength reached 1350% in his complete fusion; Ren’s reached 2100%. And although Ren’s body, still too young, would put them in a similar range of physical capability, beasts weren’t affected by their tamer’s age.

That’s why Julius didn’t speak to him like a child, but as an equal. It was a conscious decision, also designed to soften Ren’s reluctance to dialogue.

The diplomatic approach was calculated. Julius had learned through years of political negotiation that people always responded better when they felt respected rather than patronized, especially people with significant power of their own.

Ren considered the question for several moments, his gaze lost in the depths that extended beyond.

“I wanted to reach the abyssal layer,” he said finally. “To analyze the corruption crystals. But… I accept that I fought too much on the way.”

It was a more honest admission than Julius had expected. He decided to feed Ren’s ego a little to keep him talking.

“It makes sense,” Julius nodded thoughtfully. “Even I pass through this layer hidden, avoiding unnecessary confrontations. Eliminating everything you see left and right is… well, exactly the kind of thing I see you just experienced.”

Ren seemed to relax slightly at the validation.

“Though,” Julius continued, “if your goal is to analyze abyssal crystallization, I can accompany you since we’re so close already. I have almost all my energy because I followed your now ‘deserted of life’ path, so it should be safe, and frankly, after what just happened, I’d prefer not to leave you to come back alone down here later.”

The offer surprised Ren. Julius rarely had time to personally involve himself in expeditions or stuff that wasn’t strictly necessary for kingdom affairs.

“Why?” Ren asked suspiciously.

“Because,” Julius sighed, “I can see you’re still very focused on what happened with my father. And honestly, I think understanding crystallization better could help you… help us… and other people.”

The weight of those words wasn’t lost on Ren. Julius was also talking about Larissa too, though he didn’t say it explicitly.

As they began to descend toward even deeper layers, Julius couldn’t help thinking about the conversation he had had with Liora before coming to find Ren. The girl had been worried, describing a change in Ren that went beyond simple stress. She had mentioned the new way he had treated his attackers, the way he treated Luna and the coldness he had shown.

And then there was the letter he had received… more detailed reports from the girl guards about the incident with Leopold and the other nobles. Ren had handled the situation without killing anyone, yes, but in a way that suggested levels of violence that were concerning.

Julius thought about his sister, about the conversations they had had about Ren during the years after their father’s death. Larissa had built walls of feigned maturity around herself that seemed impenetrable, but Julius knew that inside, she was struggling as much as anyone.

Dragarion had wanted Ren and Larissa to be allies. Ren had been explicit about his final instructions when Julius had asked about the last mental communications… Perhaps their father had seen something in the relationship between them that Julius was only beginning to understand.

The dying wish of a king carried weight beyond normal requests.

Maybe it was time to cross some lines he had drawn, to bridge gaps that had grown wider in the two years since his father’s death.

Just as his father had done, though perhaps unintentionally, building a larger and stronger bridge between Yino and Yano.

When they finally reached the heart of the abyssal zone, both stopped, Ren was almost in shock.

They were surrounded by thousands of crystallized monsters.

It was like walking into a gallery of overlapping sculptures, except that each “sculpture” had once been a living creature. Beasts that had roamed these depths, all frozen at the exact moment when the crystallization wave had swept through the underground network.

Weird creatures that didn’t have names, all preserved in perfect detail, their final moments captured for eternity.

“Too many,” Ren murmured.

Julius had seen this before, but he couldn’t help feeling the same way, he never got used to the scope of what had happened here. The scale of transformation was humbling in ways that were difficult to articulate.

Thousands upon thousands of creatures, all ended in a single moment. It was a reminder of how quickly everything could change with magic on a world scale.

As they advanced through the forest of crystallized monsters, Julius decided it was time for a conversation he had been avoiding for perhaps too long.

“Ren,” he said, his voice carrying more weight than usual, “there’s something I think you should know about Larissa.”

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