Ren didn't deflect the energy; he inhaled it strongly...
The golden light in his chest flared even brighter, shifting from an outward shield to a ravenous, internal furnace. He was deliberately absorbing the lethal corruption to forcefully convert it into the fuel he desperately needed to sustain his shield and his shadow.
He was even burning his final fifteen percent in a way the human body was fundamentally not designed to survive.
"You are risking to permanently cripple your own network just to save a few worthless pawns... That is pure greed!" Selthia sneered. Her voice had dropped from a scream to a freezing threat. She recognized the fatal flaw because it was a flaw she would have done herself. "You are entirely too greedy, Ren… Just like me!"
She pushed harder. The invisible weight of the corruption doubled.
