The battle for the Jade Chamber was a chaotic, desperate ballet of steel and magic. Keqing and Lumine, fighting back-to-back, were a force of nature. Keqing's lightning-fast strikes were a blur of purple, while Lumine's Anemo-infused sword was a howling vortex of wind. They repelled the Fatui skirmishers, their synergy perfect, their determination absolute. One by one, the attackers were neutralized, driven back from the precious ballistae.
Meanwhile, the duel between gods continued. The adepti, pouring their combined, ancient power into the Guizhong Ballistae, rained down a relentless barrage of golden energy upon the Overlord of the Vortex. Each bolt that struck one of Osial's heads would cause the great beast to roar in pain and fury.
But the ancient god's power was immense, seemingly endless. For every blow it took, it returned the punishment tenfold, sending colossal waves and torrents of high-pressure water crashing against the Jade Chamber. The floating palace groaned and shuddered under the assault, its powerful adeptal enchantments the only thing holding it together.
They had reached a stalemate. The adepti could hold Osial at bay, but they could not defeat it. The ancient god was simply too powerful, its raw, chaotic energy overwhelming their focused, strategic strikes.
Sensing this, Osial gathered its power. All of its monstrous heads turned towards the sky, their maws opening wide. The churning vortex at its base began to spin with a terrifying, furious speed, drawing in a massive amount of seawater and infusing it with a blinding, malevolent Hydro energy. It was preparing a single, overwhelming attack, a divine cannon blast aimed directly at the heart of its tormentor: the Jade Chamber itself.
"It's concentrating its power!" Cloud Retainer's voice rang out, laced with a rare, chilling hint of alarm. "The Chamber's shields will not withstand a direct impact of that magnitude!"
Everyone on the platform stared in horror as a colossal, swirling sphere of pure, destructive energy formed before the ancient god, growing larger and more unstable with each passing second. It was an attack meant to obliterate them, to shatter the floating palace and send them all plunging into the sea below.
Panic began to set in. The ministers looked around, their faces pale with terror. Ganyu instinctively pulled Ren closer, her body a shield, her heart frozen with a dread she had not felt since the Archon War.
In that moment of collective, frozen terror, a small figure moved.
Ren broke free from Ganyu's protective embrace. While every eye was fixed on the impending doom, he ran. He sprinted from the relative safety of the office, out onto the open, windswept balcony, placing himself directly between the charging attack and the very heart of the Jade Chamber.
"REN!" Ganyu screamed, her voice a raw, terrified shriek.
He ignored her. He ignored everyone. He planted his small feet, looked up at the colossal, swirling sphere of divine fury hurtling towards him, and raised his hands.
He didn't think. He didn't plan. He simply reacted, pouring every ounce of the cold, still power that resided within him into a single, desperate, defensive act.
A brilliant, turquoise light erupted from his small form, a light so intense it momentarily outshone the golden glow of the adepti's power. It was not the gentle, artistic energy he used for his creations; this was a raw, untamed torrent of pure, absolute-zero cold.
SHIIIING!
A wall of ice, thick and translucent, erupted from the floor before him. But it was not a single wall. Before the first had even fully formed, a second, thicker wall materialized behind it. Then a third, and a fourth, each one angled slightly differently, layered one after another like the petals of a great, frozen lotus. He was creating a multi-layered, reinforced shield of a size and complexity he had never before attempted.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
Osial unleashed its attack. The colossal sphere of Hydro energy shot forward, a screaming, roaring harbinger of pure destruction.
It slammed into Ren's shield.
The impact was not the deafening explosion everyone expected. It was a deep, guttural, earth-shaking THOOOM as the raw power of the two opposing elements met. The first layer of Ren's shield shattered instantly, exploding into a blizzard of glittering ice dust. The second layer cracked, holding for a fraction of a second before it too was obliterated. The third and fourth layers held, the immense, swirling energy of the Hydro blast washing over them, being rapidly, miraculously, frozen and dissipated by the shield's absolute cold.
For a single, eternal second, the boy stood against the god, and the boy held.
Then, as the last of Osial's attack fizzled out into a harmless cloud of steam, Ren's shield, its purpose served, dissolved, its remaining energy flowing back into him.
He staggered, his face pale, his breath coming in ragged gasps, but he was standing. He was unharmed.
A profound, stunned silence fell over the Jade Chamber. The adepti stared, their ancient minds struggling to comprehend what they had just witnessed. Keqing and the ministers looked on, their faces a mask of pure, unadulterated disbelief.
Ren had just, single-handedly, blocked an attack that should have destroyed them all.
Ningguang, who had watched the entire event with a cold, calculating stillness, was the first to break the silence. The brief, miraculous reprieve had given her the time she needed to come to a terrible, necessary conclusion.
"It is not enough," she said, her voice a low, grim murmur, full of a strange, sorrowful resolve. "We cannot defeat it. We can only hold it at bay."
She looked at her home, at the magnificent, floating palace that was the symbol of her life's work, of her ambition, of her absolute power. She looked at its beautiful pavilions, its priceless treasures, its very foundations.
And then she made her choice.
"There is only one way," she declared, her voice ringing out over the stunned silence, full of the weight of a queen making the ultimate sacrifice for her people. "If we cannot defeat the god from our fortress… then we shall drop the fortress upon the god."
She was going to sacrifice the Jade Chamber.