Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

"Ren?" Liu's voice sounded distant, concerned, filtering through the haze of pain. "Brother, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ren lied, forcing air into his lungs with conscious effort. Forcing his expression into something he hoped was neutral, schooling his features through will alone. "Just a bit dizzy. Must be the exhaustion."

Liu didn't seem convinced, concern written across his features, but he didn't press the issue.

Because around them, the celebration continued.

Some noticed something had changed in his mana.

Larissa, Liora…

And Zhao, whose eyes narrowed from across the room. The professor watched him with an intensity suggesting he knew something was wrong, professional instinct recognizing distress despite Ren's attempts to hide it.

But he said nothing.

And Ren closed his left eye for a moment. The illusion fragment had broken along with the bond, the crystal window shattering when its anchor was destroyed.

But the time had been sufficient to see, thanks to Ren's enormously enhanced Perception allowing him to process information at speeds that made seconds feel like minutes.

And through it, in the Mantis's last moments before the bond broke completely, he saw a chamber.

And on the other side, distant but visible through damaged optics failing but still functional, there was a door.

Enormous. Brilliant. Covered in runes that glowed with real white light, not dim like the others throughout the descent. These were active, powerful, functioning exactly as their creators had intended.

And beside the door stood something that made everything else fade into insignificance.

Ren's heart sank.

A different pain reached his chest, not physical like when the bond broke but emotional, the kind that came from understanding things you wished you didn't know.

Because there, beside the brilliant door, frozen in eternal reaching, was a statue.

Made of crystal.

Not carved, not artificial. The trauma of Dragarion that he'd been pushing aside while investigating crystallization emerged with force, old wounds reopening as new ones formed.

Another crystallized person. The posture was of desperate reaching, kneeling, one arm extended toward the door, fingers barely centimeters from touching it.

As if he'd been about to achieve something.

As if success had been so close that he could taste it.

And then time had stopped.

Eternally.

The door had two parts, two panels that met in the center. And on each panel there was a hollow space, receptacles designed for something specific.

One had a crystal embedded within it, glowing with light that pulsed like a heartbeat. The other was empty, waiting for its counterpart with the patience of centuries.

And the statue's chest, the place where a human heart should beat, had a hollow space.

A void where something had been removed or perhaps had never been properly placed.

Sirius Starweaver's chest, because it was obvious who it was, had been emptied of whatever crystal should have resided there.

The truth felt worse than Ren had imagined.

♢♢♢♢

Ren covered his mouth, feigning a yawn to hide his expression. He couldn't let anyone see what he felt in this moment, couldn't let them witness the comprehension spreading through his mind like poison.

The horrible, impossible understanding of what had happened.

Sirius had made it that far... Had fought through thousands of mutants. Had descended ten levels guarded by increasingly powerful creatures, each floor a test of skill and determination.

And he'd reached the door, one that had stolen his own heart to place in the hollow of a door he'd somehow failed to reach completely.

Had he tried to open it?

Had something gone wrong in the attempt?

What had crystallized him?

In the moment where he perhaps thought he'd succeed, when victory seemed inevitable, something had frozen him in time.

And the crystal in the door itself...

Ren felt a chill race down his spine.

The crystal that glowed with that heartbeat pulse, rhythmic and eternal...

It was very similar to the seven crystals in the second chamber beneath Dravenholm Castle, those that Ren's small mushroom had called 'Dragon Hearts'. Those that had given their energy to Dragarion and had ended up crystallizing him too.

A pattern emerging… A connection that couldn't be coincidence.

"Ren, seriously, you look terrible," Liu insisted, now genuinely worried. His hand reached out as if to steady his friend. "We should take you to a healer."

"No, I can do the healing myself," Ren responded too quickly, too forcefully. Then, softer, with a conscious effort to moderate his tone: "I just need air… I need to go outside for a moment."

He moved away before Liu could stop him, before anyone could see his expression properly. Before they could witness the cracks forming in his weak facade.

Before they saw the tears threatening to form despite his best efforts to suppress them.

Because Sirius was there.

Frozen in time, reaching toward something he'd never touch. And Ren still didn't know if he could even reverse the King's situation, much less this one.

And Luna...

Luna didn't know. Was alone with her grief and distance.

And her father was down there, reaching toward something just out of reach.

Eternally unreached.

♢♢♢♢

Ren breathed deeply while trying to compose himself, forcing air into lungs that wanted to seize up with emotion.

Now he understood why they'd told him there was no point in going.

It wasn't just the danger of the journey, though that was real enough to kill most people who attempted it. He wasn't sure if he could deal with the mutants below, maybe yes with sufficient preparation and strategy, but it wouldn't matter.

If he'd gone himself and eliminated the mutants through force or cunning...

Only to find a statue he could do nothing about, it would just be demoralizing, especially after the arduous journey through dangerous territories. Effort expended for nothing but confirmation of helplessness.

Ren realized something…

Selphira and Julius seemed to know about this as a given fact when he'd read their manas that day. Their resignation had been too complete, too accepting of something that should have driven them to desperate action.

Which meant either they'd gone down themselves, or they'd sent someone.

But there were guardians on the stairways still. Ren had calculated their approximate power, each one larger and more powerful than the last in systematic escalation. If Selphira or Julius had gone down and defeated them, why were there mutants guarding the stairs?

Did the mutants send new guardians?

Would the new ones sent be more powerful each time the previous ones were defeated?

It seemed implicit that the mutants wanted to be aware of the moment when the door was opened, maintaining their vigil with patience born of some unknown purpose.

The idea made him shudder. The mutants were already a big problem with the artifacts but wanted something on the other side of that door, that was obvious from their guardians' behavior. And if every time someone went down and killed them, only for them to return stronger...

That would explain why even Selphira and Julius, with all their power, hadn't been visiting Sirius regularly.

Because maybe they couldn't afterward. Or perhaps they feared something more fundamental than combat…

Maybe…

The door itself?