Ren's ethereal reserves were practically non-existent.
He had emptied his core into the star dome, and during the hour he had spent playfully bickering with the girls, he had barely recovered a negligible percentage of his total output. It was less than 5% and circulating very deep in his core to recover faster...
And that specific reality triggered this consequence, the point that Lutea entirely failed to read outside the normal reality and believed within her immediate context: without active mana circulating outside his core, Ren's ambient aura was practically zero. He wasn't projecting the suffocating pressure that unconsciously forced even elite warriors to lower their voices whenever he entered a room.
At this precise moment, he perfectly matched her arrogant perception: he looked like a thoroughly exhausted, entirely unimpressive commoner.
Lutea grew immediately emboldened by that fatal miscalculation of 'weakness'...
♢♢♢♢
