Chapter 1345 - Taming the Old World - Useless Resistance

Chapter 1345: Chapter 1345 - Taming the Old World - Useless Resistance

The door did not shatter with a dramatic explosion to match the gravity of the moment... Instead, it swung inward with a smooth, terrifying slowness, moving like a stubborn lock that had finally decided to yield after resisting for centuries.

The two sides parted seamlessly, signaling the total collapse of the final seal.

Waiting on the other side, buried deep within the gloom of the secondary chamber, deep within tons of solid crystals, around potions and artifacts, was the most powerful artifact for the purple dragon...

The second primordial seed.

With its five heads fully regenerated and the ambient ether of the global corruption finally flowing unrestricted through its mutant meat chassis, the purple dragon adjusted its stance. It relegated a mere two of its heads to maintain the deadlocked beam struggle against Ren’s Hydra, no, to push and finish it fast.

Driven by a hollow hunger that had festered for who knows how many years, it redirected the vast majority of its colossal mass straight toward the newly opened passage.

Ren stared at the open doorway.

He looked at his loyal Hydra now losing the elemental crossfire fast despite using the advantageous element.

He watched the grotesque purple veins throbbing against the crystal wall, and felt the huge power contesting his easily, the undisputed handiwork of a laughing girl orchestrating the nightmare from somewhere just beyond his line of sight.

And for a small fraction of a second, the cold, hyper-analytical segment of his mind that usually never stopped calculating fell completely silent, entirely out of viable tactical options.

Then he focused, and the gears brutally snapped back into motion.

Because he was still standing on his own two feet, because Mooshito was still breathing inside his core, because the purple beast still had to descend the long, winding staircases of the secondary vault to actually reach the seed, and that entire subterranean stretch was precisely the distance Ren intended to contest, bleeding the ancient monster for every single meter it tried to take.

The war was not over yet.

Not as long as his heart was still beating.

Time slowed to a crawl once again.

????

The time dilation was not nearly as profound as the frozen eternity they had just experienced outside the chamber, yet it provided more than enough breathing room for Ren to perceive the chaotic battlefield with crystalline clarity.

’Ready! That was delicious... I finished right on time to capitalize on that stubborn attitude of yours, I really like it!’

Mooshito’s telepathic voice arrived with a newfound firmness that had been entirely absent just a minute ago. The symbiote still sounded fractured, echoing with the lingering exhaustion of a heavily damaged net, but there was a solid, reinforced foundation anchoring its tone now.

’I finished absorbing the sovereign rings! Every last drop!’ the mushroom reported in a hurried rush, though it paused for a brief moment to assess the damage.

’The golden network is still shredded into pieces, I am not going to lie to you about that... However, the architecture those artifacts provided has successfully stabilized our baseline. The grid can withstand a bit of rough handling again! We can safely deploy all seven ruin crystals simultaneously!’

"Thank you," Ren breathed.

There was zero time to offer anything more profound, and his oldest friend did not require any further explanation.

Ren pulled the ancient artifacts from his shadow. All seven ruin crystals cascaded into the physical world, locking into a tight, high-speed orbit around his shoulders.

The perfect boost as they used their internal systems very little...

Bolstered by the complete set and Mooshito’s revitalized processing power, he could juggle dual functions with an effortless precision that eclipsed Orion’s old limitations. He formed a spherical mana crystal shield covering all his sides flawlessly, while simultaneously channeling a concentrated beam of full elemental energy that fused perfectly with his own firepower at the exact moment he needed it.

That adjustment tipped the scales.

The beam Selthia was using to bulldoze him backward suddenly hit an impenetrable wall of resistance. Ren felt his external power output surge well beyond her corrupted ether. The crushing torrent inverted, allowing him to reclaim the lost ground centimeter by centimeter, pushing the deadly crossfire straight back toward the laughing girl.

The young Witch noticed the shift.

The purple dragon registered the sudden spike in resistance as well and deployed another asset to crush it. One of its five fully regenerated heads pivoted away from the door, joining the primary exchange as a third contender. It spewed a concentrated torrent of corrupted elements directly at Ren, compounding its destructive weight with Selthia’s beam right as the boy was on the verge of breaking through, forcing him onto the defense once more.

Reading the shifting momentum, the two adjacent mechanical heads locked onto the main struggle and intensified their own output with a grim, overwhelming severity.

Left to bear the brunt of two heads’ assault alone, Ren’s summoned Hydra finally buckled.

It was no longer a gradual, grinding defeat; it was a catastrophic collapse. The massive energies that had been deadlocked for the entirety of the skirmish detonated at point-blank range. The combined weight of the overlapping beams exploded directly against the fusion, sending the colossal three-headed beast careening across the vault. It slammed into the ancient bedrock wall with a sickening impact.

Ren felt the crushing blow resonate deep within his own chest, a harsh reminder that the Hydra was a living extension of his own mana core.

Yet, amidst the deafening chaos, he gritted his teeth and seized the opening.

The sheer magnitude of the Hydra’s explosive defeat dragged the attention of every predator in the room for a microscopic fraction of a second. Ren refused to waste that precious window on mourning his hurt beast.

He moved.

It was a purely physical sprint rather than a spatial jump, relying entirely on the brutal kinetic tension in his leg muscles exactly as Lin had drilled into him countless times. With all the augments he had the explosive burst of speed was still meteoric, pulling him safely out of the lethal firing line and launching him straight toward Selthia’s exposed flank.

The seven ruin crystals blurred in a tight orbit around him, actively charging a devastating spiral shot while maintaining an impenetrable shield.

He directed the powerful strike straight at the corrupted girl’s side.

But Selthia merely blinked, melting into the shadows.

The spatial lockdown generated by the integrated special beast core did not restrict her movements in the slightest, as she possessed equal administrative authority over the domain. The exact same dimensional seal that kept Ren trapped in a cage was little more than open air to the girl. She executed the spatial jump without breaking a sweat, evading his spiral shot with the exact same breezy lightness she carried in her voice, slipping safely out of his striking range.

Ren did not bother chasing her shadow.

The frontal assault had been used as a feint to manufacture this exact opportunity. With Selthia temporarily displaced and the purple titan still reorienting itself from the Hydra’s massive detonation, Ren forcefully kicked off the cavern wall to redirect his momentum. He launched himself towards the heavy secondary door.

It was the only objective that truly mattered. If he could beat them to the bottom of the staircase, if he could secure the ancient artifacts, the hidden potions, or better, lay claim to the second spiritual seed...

But Selthia executed a second jump.

This time, she materialized directly behind him.

She reappeared at his back with the fluid grace granted by total mastery over the sealed dimensional space. She forcefully pushed her pale hands straight through his crystal barrier, piercing a defensive shield that had previously deflected huge impacts. Her small, childlike jaw unhinged, dropping open impossibly wide to reveal rows of jagged, elongated fangs.

And she fired.

At point-blank range.