Chapter 350: The King Who Would Control Everything

Ronin’s expression hardened as the five streams continued flowing behind him. The Darkness stream had returned to its former state, but the brief disruption had left a thin crack across the artificial core embedded in his chest.

Purple light leaked through the fracture before the surrounding corruption covered it, and for a moment, Arthur wondered whether Ronin had noticed how much strain he was placing on his own body.

Then Ronin raised his hand.

The entire chamber answered.

The five streams flared simultaneously, and an enormous surge of energy rushed from the golden heart into the roots surrounding Ronin. The corrupted branches thickened, spreading across the walls and ceiling until the chamber looked as though it had been swallowed by a forest growing in the wrong direction. Purple Miasma flooded the gaps between them, and the pressure became so intense that Arthur felt his knees weaken beneath him.

"Everyone, fall back from the streams!" Athena shouted. "He’s forcing the entire network to respond!"

Arthur retreated beside Vedas as the floor erupted beneath them. A root wider than a building swept across the chamber, forcing them to separate before it could crush them both. Vedas planted King Maker into the ground and released a golden barrier that spread toward the others, shielding Eden and Luna from the shower of stone fragments raining down from above.

The barrier shuddered under the impact of a second root, and Vedas tightened his grip on his spear. Golden feathers drifted around his armor as he pushed more strength into the defense, but the pressure continued increasing until cracks of light spread across its surface.

"Arthur, I don’t suppose you have another brilliant idea?" Vedas called through the noise.

"I have several!"

"That is precisely what I was afraid of!"

Arthur almost laughed, but another surge of energy tore through the chamber, forcing him to focus on the immediate danger. He summoned eight golden swords through his King’s Mark, and they scattered around the group to intercept the smaller roots slipping past Vedas’s barrier.

Their blades cut through the incoming tendrils, buying the others enough time to move away from the collapsing sections of the floor.

Sun grabbed Long with both hands and struck the ground, releasing a broad shockwave that knocked a mass of roots away from Kong. Kong immediately seized the opening, caught the nearest branch with both hands, and dragged it away from the Fire stream before it could crush the connection.

"That’s one!" Kong shouted, throwing the root into an empty section of the chamber. "How many more do we need to break?"

"None!" Sun yelled. "We’re trying to keep the connections safe, remember?"

"Oh, right!"

Kong immediately released the next root he had grabbed, which snapped back toward him and nearly knocked him off his feet. Sun stared at him in disbelief before catching Kong’s arm and pulling him out of its path.

"Could you at least remember the plan for longer than five seconds?"

"I remembered it! I just thought that one was attacking us!"

"They are all attacking us!"

"Then the plan is confusing!"

Sun dragged him behind a raised section of stone before another root swept through the space where they had been standing. Despite his complaints, he quickly adjusted his approach, using concentrated Point Shockwaves to redirect the roots rather than trying to overpower them. Kong followed his lead, holding the larger branches in place only long enough for Sun to knock them away from the five streams.

Across the chamber, Mithra moved between the roots with Dawn Sovereign flashing in her hands. Melo’s dream mist spread around her, creating false versions of the battlefield that drew the corrupted branches away from their real positions. Several roots struck the illusions, but Ronin’s control was growing stronger, and they began correcting their movements before the deception could last.

"Melo, they’re starting to recognize the false positions!" Mithra called, narrowly avoiding a root that changed direction in midair.

"I noticed," Melo replied, her five tails spreading behind her as she shifted the mist. "Apparently, being controlled by an unreasonable man has made them less imaginative."

"Can you keep confusing them?"

"I can, but I would appreciate it if the unreasonable man stopped turning the entire room into his personal weapon."

Mithra flashed past a root and cut through the smaller tendrils gathering around its base. Melo followed with a sweep of her tails, clearing the path so Mithra could retreat before the larger branch slammed down. Their movements remained coordinated, but neither could find a safe route toward Ronin.

Above them, Athy divided into several golden copies, scattering through the chamber to track the roots and protect the exposed streams. Her clones intercepted the smaller branches with Brave Light, while her real body watched the larger movements and called out their changing directions.

"He’s not just increasing their strength!" Athy shouted. "The roots are moving faster whenever the streams brighten, and they’re correcting their attacks before they reach us!"

Athena raised Aegis against a root that came crashing toward her. The shield absorbed the impact, but the force drove her backward until her boots struck a broken section of the floor. Luna caught her arm before she could lose her footing, and together they moved toward the Light stream while Athy directed two of her clones to cover their retreat.

"This isn’t a normal attack," Athena said, breathing hard as she repositioned her shield. "He’s using the entire network to control the battlefield. Every time we protect one connection, he can force another section of the Tree to attack us."

"Then we need to stop him from using all five streams at once," Luna replied. Her eyes followed the golden light traveling through the heart, and her expression tightened when she saw how violently the streams were pulsing. "But if he keeps forcing power through them like this, the stabilization network may not survive the strain."

Arthur heard her words as he evaded another root, and he finally understood what Ronin was attempting. The previous disruption had shown them that the Mirrors could weaken his control, so Ronin was using the full network to prevent them from repeating the process.

He was not merely defending himself. He was forcing the Tree to provide more power than the damaged connections could safely carry.

Ronin stood in the center of the storm, his corrupted body surrounded by roots that moved at his slightest gesture. The artificial core in his chest shone brighter than before, and the golden light of the World Tree poured through him until his silhouette seemed almost inseparable from the enormous structure behind him.

"Look at it!" Ronin called, his voice carrying above the roar of the chamber. "Look at the power the ancient civilization possessed, and look at what they chose to do with it. They built barriers, scattered the Mirrors, and divided the Tree’s authority because they were afraid of what would happen if someone truly controlled it."

Arthur deflected a root with Dusk, then turned toward him. "They built the network because the Tree’s power could destroy the land if it wasn’t regulated. There’s a difference between understanding a danger and being afraid of it."

"Is there?" Ronin asked. "They had the greatest source of power in the world, yet they chose to limit themselves. They could have shaped the Secret Realm, commanded its Beasts, and created a civilization that would never have to fear another enemy. Instead, they hid behind their precautions and called their weakness wisdom."

Vedas stepped forward, his golden spear raised as he forced another root away from Arthur. "A king who needs to control everything isn’t strong enough to trust anything beyond himself."

Ronin turned toward him, and the pressure in the chamber increased. "You call yourself a king, yet you defend a system that restricts the very power you possess. What is the point of becoming stronger if you refuse to use that strength to shape the world?"

Vedas’s grip tightened around King Maker. "A king doesn’t prove his strength by taking everything he can reach. He proves it by protecting what has been entrusted to him."

For a moment, Ronin’s expression darkened. He swept his arm sideways, sending a mass of roots toward Vedas with enough force to shatter the ground beneath them. Vedas met the attack with a golden barrier, but the impact sent him sliding backward until Arthur moved beside him and reinforced the defense with his King’s Mark.

Arthur felt the strain travel through his arms, yet he kept his eyes on Ronin. "You keep talking about what the ancient civilization could have done, but you never ask why they chose restraint. You assume that having enough power gives you the right to control everything connected to it."

"Because power without control is wasted."

"No," Arthur replied. "Power without understanding is dangerous, and power without responsibility is just another way to hurt people. The World Tree isn’t yours simply because you’ve found a way to force it to obey."

Ronin’s expression changed, and the purple light in his chest flared violently.

"You speak as though you understand what it means to possess power on this scale," he said. "You have barely begun to understand your own abilities, yet you presume to judge those who came before you."

"Maybe I don’t understand everything," Arthur admitted, tightening his grip on Dusk as the roots pressed harder against their defense. "But I understand that the Tree is hurting, and you’re willing to keep hurting it because you believe you deserve its power. That’s enough for me to know you’re wrong."

Eden watched the golden heart, her wings beating unevenly as she tried to follow the streams through the violent surges. The timing had become increasingly difficult to read, but she could still feel the moments when the Tree resisted Ronin’s control. Each time the golden light pulled away from the purple energy, the artificial core reacted by forcing more power through the connection.

"Arthur!" she called. "His core is changing! Every time the Tree pushes back, he forces more energy through it to keep the connection stable!"

Arthur turned toward Ronin’s chest and saw the fracture he had noticed earlier spread across the artificial core. Thin lines of purple light crawled through its surface, and a small fragment broke away before dissolving into Miasma. Ronin barely reacted, instead drawing another surge of energy from the five streams.

"He’s damaging himself to maintain control," Athena said, her eyes widening as she watched the core. "The artificial structure wasn’t designed to carry this much power. If he keeps forcing the network like this, it may break."

"Then we should let him break it," Sun said, ducking beneath another root. "For once, I would love it if our enemy made a terrible decision without dragging the rest of us into it."

"That would be convenient," Melo replied, "but I doubt he intends to make our lives easier."

Ronin raised both arms, and the corrupted roots surged toward the group again. Arthur and Vedas held the front while Athena protected Luna, Athy directed her clones toward the streams, and Mithra and Melo cleared the paths needed to retreat. Sun and Kong worked together to redirect the heaviest roots, while Star stretched its body across a gap in the broken floor, forming a flexible bridge that allowed Eden to escape a collapsing section.

For several minutes, the team fought simply to survive. Every attempt to approach Ronin was met by another wave of roots, and every attack that reached him was answered by the World Tree’s power restoring his defenses. Arthur tried to find another opening in the five streams, but Ronin’s control never weakened enough for them to repeat their earlier success.

At last, a tremendous pulse shook the chamber, forcing both sides apart. Ronin remained standing, although the artificial core in his chest was now covered in cracks that leaked purple light. The golden heart behind him continued to pulse, but its rhythm had become uneven, and dark veins had spread farther across its surface.

Arthur lowered Dusk slightly as he caught his breath. They had survived Ronin’s full power, but they had not gained enough ground to separate him from the Tree. Continuing the battle this way would only exhaust them while the heart suffered more damage.

He turned toward Eden, who had settled beside Luna and was still watching the streams with a worried expression.

"Eden, I have a question," Arthur said. "Your Future Manifestation can temporarily bring someone into a possible future state, right?"

Eden looked up at him, her golden wings slowing as she realized what he was considering. "Yes, but I’ve only just learned how to use it. Why?"

Arthur glanced toward Vedas, who stood beside him with King Maker in hand, his golden armor scratched but his posture still steady. Ronin was drawing on the World Tree to become stronger, and their current power was not enough to overcome that advantage.

"Can you bring a stronger version of Vedas into the present?" Arthur asked. "A version of him from a possible future, one strong enough to help us break through Ronin’s defenses?"

Vedas turned his helmet toward Arthur. "I would like to point out that I am already standing here."

"I know," Arthur replied, offering him a quick smile. "But I think we may need a king from the future."

Eden stared at Vedas, then at the cracked artificial core inside Ronin’s chest. Her expression shifted from surprise to concentration as she considered what Arthur was asking her to attempt.

For the first time since the battle began, the group had a possible way to overcome Ronin’s overwhelming power.