Dimensional Descent

Leonel's pupils constricted. He felt his heart pump vigorously and his veins suddenly double in size.

Outside his control, his Dream Counter activated, pumping his body into a state of fight or flight. Without hesitation, Leonel blinked away.

BANG!

Leonel's eyes widened as he watched one of his [Valiant Seal]'s shatter into pieces beneath the might of a tentacle of blackish purple. Just like that, he was left with only two that he quickly brought to his side.

His expression warped as he laid eyes on the monstrosity before him. Had it not been for his Dream Counter, considering the strength behind that strike, Leonel felt that he would have most definitely died. However, the most shocking thing was that for his Dream Counter to activate, something must have made his mind go murky.

Leonel had many Dream Counters. One was to activate his instantaneous heal ability when he was on the border of life and death. A second one was the one that had activated just now. It was attached to a strand of Internal Sight that always monitored his surroundings and was detached from his conscious mind. This strand of Internal Sight's only job was to calculate the strength of an oncoming blow. If the blow was beyond what Leonel could handle, Dream Counter would activate and drive his body into an optimal state for escape.

However, under normal circumstances, Leonel was aware of this process from start to finish. But, this time he wasn't woken up until the moment his blood vessel dilated and his heart began to pump wildly. Thanks to this, he was snapped awake.

It made him realize that he had entered an odd trance just now, and it was all related to that golden scaled koi fish.

That said, Leonel didn't have the time to mind that koi fish now as this tentacle monstrosity before him was bearing down with a foul smell that he only just now registered.

Without hesitation, Leonel used Dream Sense, splitting his sense of smell to the point it was dulled considerably. Brandishing his spear, he swept it forward, his wrist flicking several times as he retreated.

In and instant, dozens of the monster's tentacles were severed, flying about in a rain of purple blood that dripped down the sea below and revealing bowels that left Leonel stunned.

'It's defenses… are terrible.'

What Leonel didn't realize just yet that it wasn't that the monster's tentacles lacked defense, but rather that his Spear Force had become too power for it to defend against. If it wasn't for Leonel's improvement, it would have taken at least three hacks to sever a single tentacle, but now a single sweep took out several.

'Hm?'

Leonel's eyes narrowed.

After taking out so many tentacles, the monster retreated, but it wasn't before Leonel could catch a glimpse of what was behind the curtain of all those tentacles.

'A womb?'

Leonel's conclusion even made his own face go weird. This was because the conclusion wasn't based on his own normal deductions, but rather the result of a spark within his Dreamscape. This was to say that what he had just seen ticked off enough boxes under the categorization of what a womb would be to cause a reaction in his Dream World.

'Eggs, warmth, nutrition, placenta…'

Leonel's eyes widened, his gaze suddenly snapped back toward the gold scaled koi fish before going back to the monster. He felt like he was on the verge of understanding something when the koi fish suddenly acted.

Its mouth opened, causing a small sphere of golden light to form. It looked completely harmless and was just as beautiful as the fish it came from. But, in that instant Leonel was shaken.

That small bead had a concentration of Force that dwarfed anything that had come from the storm previously.

'This little b…'

Leonel didn't get a chance to finish his thoughts.

The wild churning of the sea suddenly became like a pot of boiling water. The siren call of a what sounded like a dying whale sounded from all directions. It was so loud that Leonel was forced to use his Dream Sense on his ears as well, dulling his senses once again.

At that moment, on the coast several kilometers away, the onslaught of Invalids suddenly did an about-face and charged toward Leonel's location.

Leonel understood immediately that this was the last resort of the koi fish.

From what he could see, the koi fish and the tentacle womb were two separate existences. The tentacle womb needed the koi fish for the energy it could provide it while the koi fish, without combat abilities of its own, needed the tentacle for protection.

The earlier onslaught of colossal beasts Leonel had fought were already all the guards the koi fish had outside the tentacle womb. It had sent them all in hopes that Leonel would never get close to it. But, that had failed miserably.

The tentacle womb could be considered the last line of defense and was indeed far stronger than any of the beasts Leonel had fought on his way here. However, what the two had never expected was for Leonel's breakthrough to make the tentacle womb fair even worse than their vanguard of beasts had.

Without a choice, the koi fish could only use its final resort, calling an onslaught of Invalids over to deal with Leonel in its stead in hopes that it could find a path to escape.

'Can't you just take your loss with grace?!' Leonel chided in his mind. 'Fuck it.'

"Vice!"

Leonel senses reached into the Segmented Cube and pulled Vice out. The young man blinked in confusion, unsure of what was going on.

Vice was none other than one of the two Savants that Leonel was raising. Leonel was always hesitant to use them for fear that they'd grow more powerful than he could control, but he had still been slowly releasing their reins. Now it was time to see whether his risk was worth it or not.