novelnext Chapter 1097 - Taming the Wall - True Ruins - Unfair Deals - 3
Chapter 1097 - Taming the Wall - True Ruins - Unfair Deals - 3
Ren was utterly destroyed…He was barely clinging to consciousness, operating strictly on the phantom fumes of a burnt-out core, yet he was still meticulously circulating the most complex containment and recovery runes he had learned.
He was running on autopilot, but it was the terrifying, hyper-competent autopilot forged from years of surviving brutal mana filling and depletion in the harshest cultivation imaginable. The part of his brain responsible for deliberate, conscious thought had almost shut down to conserve energy. What remained was pure survival instinct, forcing the runes to work in his battered circuits.
He had exactly one percent of his energy left. That tiny, flickering ember absolutely could not be allowed to die.
If his core flatlined, the Wolverine would instantly violently expel its non mana contents. Living beings that weren't born of mana; the spatial stomach couldn't hold them without a Tamer's active suppression. If the shadow spell broke, the nine crucial members of his vanguard and very important people to him, along with the two prisoners he had managed to snatch back, would be violently vomited onto the cold stone at the absolute worst possible moment.
So, he kept the runes spinning, he ignored the crushing weight in his skull and he fought the black fog creeping relentlessly into the edges of his vision.
Still fighting…
Even though Sirius had to support most of his weight while they climbed the stairs to the sixth chamber, then almost all of it in the fifth, then all of it in the fourth.
From the abyss below, the sounds of a promise of pursuit echoed upward.
It was the sickening, grinding noise of the colossal claws repositioning themselves. It was a terrifying cacophony of objects far too massive trying to fastly reorganize within a space too narrow to comfortably contain them.
It was the heavy, scraping prelude to a hunt. They were preparing to climb.
But then, cutting through the grinding stone and shifting meat, came a scream.
It erupted from the exact same depths as the claws. It didn't sound like the roar of a predator; it was the intense, unhinged screech of someone who had just looked down at their winning hand and realized the cards had been set on fire.
'What? But she had been laughing just a moment ago…'
Through the haze of his failing mind, Ren couldn't understand it. The scream left the mana in the air laced with a venomous, bitter resentment that simply didn't make sense.
In the grand tactical balance, Selthia had won the exchange. She had secured the wind-aspected guardian egg, a terrifyingly problematic prize that Ren simply hadn't possessed the time or strength to steal back. She had also secured the five remaining prisoners…
Yes, Ren's group was escaping with Sirius, the double-contract potions, tons of crystals and the priceless artifacts from the lower vaults. That was a massive victory for humanity. But considering the reality-warping illusions that silver egg could eventually spawn, Selthia still held the ultimate tactical advantage.
She had gotten what mattered most to her…
There was absolutely no logical reason for her to be screaming in genuine anguish when, just seconds ago, she had been gleefully mocking Ren for his greed.
What Ren's fading consciousness simply couldn't comprehend yet was what had happened in the dark.
♢♢♢♢
Sirius hadn't chosen to merge with the Celestial Tiger for the escape solely because the spatial jump jammer prevented him from using his shadow serpent.
He had used the tiger because he had explicitly left the serpent behind to do something else.
When Ren had desperately injected his golden energy to stabilize Sirius, and in the end failed to stretch his shadow far enough to swallow all the hostages, Sirius had instantly recognized the tactical failure. He had initially deployed his shadow snake through the floor shadows, aiming to merge it with Ren's shadow to physically extend the Wolverine's reach.
It did get to Ren's shadow…
But the exact millisecond the spore-fungus was obliterated and Ren's shadow violently snapped shut, Sirius changed the order.
As a veteran commander, he knew the cardinal rule of warfare: you never leave usable assets for the enemy. Finding his shadow serpent stranded on the far side at the end of the space that the collapsed shadow had occupied, he didn't command it to retreat.
He ordered it to dive into the shadow of the nearest thrashing prisoner.
The black serpent was only a Silver 3 beast… In the grand hierarchy of mana density, it was barely a threat.
But Sirius possessed the unique, compounding buffs of a Double Tamer. That passive reinforcement of his Golden rank tiger injected enough lethal, concentrated force into the snake to allow its fangs to effortlessly slice through the aura of a Gold 1, even a Gold 2 tamer with some effort. And the rank disparity meant little against a completely defenseless, unmerged, immobilized target.
Five throats.
The serpent moved like liquid death…
Selthia had noticed the anomaly almost exactly in time, but almost wasn't enough. The victims barely had any blood left in their veins by the time she reacted.
The two most robust prisoners, the ones with the deepest vitality pools, who possessed a microscopic chance of surviving the catastrophic blood loss, were violently swallowed by Selthia's corrupted flesh at the very last second. Perhaps one of them would cling to life.
But the other three were already completely drained, their skin a ghostly, irreversible white by the time she looked at her ruined prizes.
♢♢♢♢
Sirius canceled the summon just after hearing the scream.
The ethereal projection of the black serpent dissolved, snapping back into his core. The return of mana from the canceled beast fed into his system, and Sirius ruthlessly burned it to push his legs even faster up the brutal incline.
Finally, the first massive door of the true ruins materialized at the end of the final stairwell. Even when you fully expect a checkpoint to be there, laying eyes on it after a descent into hell brings a profound, staggering wave of relief.
The Platinum beasts from Yino had not breached to this level yet. The path was clear of them.
However, two artifacts still blocked the archway. They were different from the towering claws inside the lower chambers. They were also wired directly into Selthia's network, but their biological architecture was wide, thick, and slug-like. Crucially, they lacked the massive, jagged talons the inner artifacts used to anchor themselves into the stone steps.
"You cheating beast!" Selthia's voice ripped through the corridor, her fury still raw and wildly uncontained. "I am not letting you leave!"
One more thing I want to clarify, because it comes up from time to time:
Some people feel like the villains are simply better at everything than Ren, and that it feels unfair.
Okay… First, the foundation of the enemy side is an ancient entity. That should be fairly clear by now. Because of that, it possesses a vast amount of knowledge and has been gaining access to more past knowledge, the same kinds of advantages that its copy, its counterpart, in this case, our beloved mushroom is trying to get through Ren.
And yes, relax... If it wasn't clear in the previous chapter, Mooshy is fine. Ren got lucky and only knocked it out. Reaching Platinum 1 is still the cure.
I want him back too. The little chaotic gremlin makes things more interesting and mysterious.
But if Ren doesn't get punished for his biggest mistake, then once again there are no consequences.
And no, that wasn't some power creep issue. As we've seen repeatedly, most of the real problems couldn't be solved through Ren’s brute force alone and many big players needed to work together. You can see the bonuses Ren lost momentarily simply aren't as relevant anymore compared to his current stats. An extra 300% on top of 1100 wouldn't have fundamentally changed the progression or solved the core issues, just maybe make his less relevant fights even easier.
Back to the point…
The Crystal, the remnant of the meteorite that started everything, also began small, just like Ren's mushroom.
The difference is that it had many years ahead, not that Ren is worst.
When Ren had just obtained his beast, the Crystal had already infected almost an entire kingdom of people. It had already built a network across a massive territory, affected countless creatures, accumulated enormous power, launched periodic raids, and spent years testing and measuring humanity's defenses.
All of that... against nothing.
Meanwhile, Ren started from scratch and is already getting surprisingly close to leveling the playing field. He’s been winning big time and crippling his enemy potential every time he gets the seeds, rings or any ruins stuff first.
So please stop crying about how "it's not fair"...
Of course it isn't fair from day one, what’s new?
That's the point.
Defeating a weak opponent isn't particularly impressive any way. Maybe it feels satisfying if they mocked you when they were stronger, or if it's one of those generic revenge fantasies where the protagonist goes from town to town humiliating easily offended young masters.
No thanks.
Give me a formidable enemy.
Give me a terrifying power with overwhelming advantages.
Give me an opponent who should win.
And then let the heroes overcome all of that with effort and brains anyway.
That's epic.
Anyway, as always...