The revelation of the karmic shard's true nature – not a healer, but a zero-reset button for cultivation – filled Elias with a new, profound dread. It was a tool of cosmic erasure, a way to end the chaos by sacrificing all magical power. He had found a weapon, but one with an impossible cost.
He shared his findings with Mei Lin, laying bare the shard's terrifying potential. He expected her horrified reaction, but not her absolute resolve.
"No," Mei Lin stated, her voice cold and unyielding. She held the shard, its ancient power humming faintly in her palm. "You will not use this, Elias. Not on a larger scale. This is not balance. This is not justice. This is another Ledger."
Her gaze was piercing, filled with the clarity of her recent, painful vision of his past. "You would erase cultivation, strip millions of their birthright, all to fix a system you yourself distrust. You would impose your own version of 'balance' by force, just as Arthan did. You are willing to become the very thing you fight."
Elias argued, desperately, trying to explain the necessity, the existential threat of the vortex. "It's the only way to stop the vortex, Mei Lin! To prevent the full collapse, the total annihilation! Millions will die if we do nothing!"
"And millions will suffer if you do this!" she retorted, her voice rising. "You cannot simply erase a fundamental aspect of existence, Elias! This is not fixing karma; it's destroying it to save a fragile system! I will not allow you to become another Arthan."
Elias stared at her, defeated. Her moral compass, once a weapon he could subtly guide, was now an unyielding force, directly opposing him. She was no longer just his conscience; she was his equal, and she refused to compromise on this ultimate ethical dilemma.
With a final, desperate shake of her head, Mei Lin turned away. "I cannot trust you with this," she declared, clutching the karmic shard tightly. "I will not let you use it. I will find another way. I will warn them."
And then, she left. She walked out of the cult's sanctuary, leaving Elias alone in the dimly lit cavern. She was heading for the Grand Council, believing she could warn them, convince them, use the ancient scrolls to expose Arthan without resorting to the shard's terrifying power. She took the shard with her.
Elias felt a surge of cold panic. Mei Lin, alone, confronting the Council already under Arthan's thrall, carrying a primordial weapon whose true nature she underestimated. He had to follow her, to protect her, even from her own noble intentions.
With frantic urgency, he activated Juro's old bootleg core, the salvaged fragment still containing its unique resonance. He focused his remaining Prana, not on manipulation, but on simple, brute-force tracking. He overloaded its remaining power, pushing it to its limits, using its raw, unrefined ley line resonance to track her through the increasingly chaotic, fragmented ley lines beneath Jadeheart. He was a desperate man, using a dangerous tool, racing against time to prevent his reluctant ally from walking into an even greater trap.