Seconds prior...
High above the courtyard, the ethereal energy transfer was not executed perfectly. Ren received the synchronized influx of primordial ether from the four Vanguard elites, feeling his half depleted core expand as his reserves shot back up to nearly two hundred percent.
But the energy flowing directly from Liu was laced with that purple poison.
The terrifying volume of corruption that Liu had forcefully ordered his Wendigos to absorb was exacting a brutal physical toll. The burden was suffocating on its own, but when also mixed with the divine, hyper-accelerated euphoria of the primordial dragon energy, it created a lethal biological paradox. The two completely contradictory yet equally exhilarating energies were actively tearing Liu's mana system in many directions. The quiet commander was hyperventilating, his skin deathly pale, visibly shaking as he desperately tried to cage a nightmare that was threatening to overflow and shatter his sanity.
