Dimensional Descent

The rage of the clergymen was practically palpable. As much as they were infuriated that someone had killed their fellow Brothers and Sisters, they were even more infuriated that this individual had actually destroyed the seal of their Goddess.

Ieme was especially furious. The more Three-Layered Hands that died, the more likely it was that he would be punished and the less likelihood he would have at defending a position on this world. This Leonel had to die!

Ieme roared, his lotus finally completely forming. However, compared to the others, there was a clear and striking difference.

His own pumped with veins of gold, giving the wood a more ancient and dignified character. Just the pressure it exuded alone was enough to dwarf the other lotuses entirely.

Whether it was One or Three-Layered Hands, all of them fell into the category of Junior Clergymen. However, upon stepping into the Four-Layered Hand ranking, Ieme officially became a Senior Clergymen. His power was on a completely different level compared to the others.

However, just as his confidence was hitting a peak, he was immediately shocked to find that Leonel had appeared before him. It was as though Leonel was waiting for the perfect time to come. Knowing that it was impossible to stop Ieme, he instead chose to come right this moment before he could even think of targeting the others.

"Leave it to us, Cap!"

By the time Leonel appeared before Ieme, there were exactly eight of the twelve Three-Layered Hands left. It was clear that this was by no measure a coincidence.

"CHARGE!"

The one who roared this out was Leonel. The moment he did, the silver wings of the half dozen boats in the distance split, revealing a flood of warriors. Though they weren't the most elite troop of Avalon, they weren't bad either, most of them having a firm hold within the Fourth Dimension.

The timing was once again perfect.

The clergymen had their hands full with dealing with the nine of them, causing the formation to scatter and weaken. Just when they thought they would finally have some relief as they became occupied by their Three-Layered Hands, a group of twice their number suddenly charged for them, leaving them all at a complete loss.

The worst part of it was that Leonel and the others had already killed all of the Fifth Dimensional existences beneath the Three-Layered Hand rank, leaving them not only outnumbered, but without even a strength advantage to take advantage of…

They were finished.

Ieme's forehead pulsed with rage as several wooden palms attempted to smash Leonel to death.

'This feels different.' Leonel thought as he calmly dodged. 'It isn't just that this is more powerful, there's a certain character to it as well… It feel a lot like the artistic conceptions that I've been basing my Mage Arts on recently… I see… It's a Style.'

Leonel came to an understanding. 'If things are like this, then…'

Leonel's body swayed and shuffled. Rather than slicing apart the arms as he did normally, he allowed them to swarm him. Very soon, it felt as though he was being smothered and caged.

Ieme's gaze sharpened, sensing an opportunity. He didn't understand what Leonel was trying to do, but in battle, second guessing yourself when there was a chance of victory right before you was a massive taboo. If you didn't have the confidence to fight, you had likely already died long ago.

Many of Ieme's wooden palms shot into the water below, beginning to wind and intertwine about each other, forming a cage below and above Leonel that he had no chance of escaping.

'[Evergreen Style: Creaking Wood].'

A strong surge of Evergreen Force blossomed forth from the center of the lotus. It rotated about, its sudden action causing the trap Ieme had set to snap into place and block out all of Leonel's potential escape paths.

A palm much larger and far more elaborate than the others descended with an unprecedented momentum. The waters beneath Leonel's feet had already split apart long before it reached even ten meters above him, displaying its power outright.

However, its target was completely unmoved. While it was true that there was no escape to the right or left, or down and up, who said that he had wanted to escape in the first place?

The waters beneath Leonel's feet began to sizzle, his gaze flashing with a slight silver-crimson color for just the briefest of moments.

It was one thing if Leonel didn't have a time crunch, but this was hardly the only enemy he had to deal with. There were more yet still coming and there would be even more after even them. He didn't just need to win, he needed to win quickly. Holding back and bringing out trump cards one after another wasn't conducive to this at all.

So… he didn't do that.

'Four Season's Realm: Summer… Radiant Core.'

BANG!

The palm suddenly came to a grinding halt.

In the beginning, it looked as though it was stopped by nothing more than air. It was only after a second inspection that it was possible to see a small sphere of silver-crimson hanging upon Leonel's palm.

The core trembled lightly, radiating out with a heat that caused billowing steam to rise up from Leonel's feet. At the same time, it seemed to release a barrier around it that the palm above couldn't cross no matter how hard it tried. It was firmly stopped five meters above the core, unable to move a single inch.

At the same time, the palm of wood began to sizzle along with the water, its surface being burnt away piece by piece until to Ieme's horror, it began to crumble.

Leonel's spear hand twisted, his wooden spear dancing in his hand before piercing forward.

The Radiant Core balanced upon its tip, using the momentum of Leonel's spear swing to shoot upward and shatter the palm entirely.

At that moment, as though the lotus had lost its supporting core, the cage around Leonel began to crumble along with the arm. In the blink of an eye, a lotus that had dwarfed all the others was burnt to ash, leaving nothing but a small Radiant Core the size of a palm hanging in the skies above.