Dimensional Descent

Leonel's fist dripped with blood that wasn't his own, his forehead flickering with the light of a golden spear.

In that moment, he had activated his Duality Domain and <Dragon's Might>. Let alone harming Leonel, Alfin had had all his strength sucked away in an instant. Their exchange had become akin to a toddler throwing a fist at an adult.

With the difference in the toughness of their bodies, Alfin was crushed near instantaneously. However, the smoldering abyss of Leonel's gaze didn't seem to calm in the slightest.

He slowly rose to his full height as the loose soil fell back down to the earth and the true state of things was revealed to those beyond Riah.

In that moment, the snide sneers of the two who had followed Alfin froze, their expressions warping.

"You…"

Leonel's gaze didn't spare them a glance. He simply turned and walked away.

Riah was stunned. Why was he still acting like nothing had happened?

"Wai—Wait!" Riah called out, but she found Noah instead of her true target.

"I'm not sure if you want to be so eager to talk to him right now, honestly. He's not the biggest fan of you either."

Riah choked on air. What the hell did she do?

Her expression changed. She had felt a bit bad about what her grandmother was doing, but that was all. Maybe, on a deeper level, she felt that this was more of an opportunity for these branch family youths than a detriment.

In many cases, those that thought and acted like her were the worst kind of people. They had enough sympathy to understand, but ultimately their own goals superseded whatever inner moral compass they had.

Riah hadn't thought so deeply, so while she was off put by Noah's words in the beginning, a slight resentment and an unwillingness to accept them came soon after. Her lips downturned into a frown as she immediately took the moral high ground.

"Do you have any idea what your cousin has done?!"

Riah's head snapped back toward the two youths who still remained. But, they had seemingly long taken their cue to run, not wanting to be the next victim.

Riah immediately had thoughts of silencing them, but this was obviously not for Leonel's sake, but rather her own. The trouble that this event would bring wasn't something that her grandmother was ready to deal with just yet.

This area had just taken the clash of two Sixth Dimensional experts and yet no one had come to check up on them. The only reason why there was such damage here was because this soil was rich in nutrients and loose, its structural integrity was inherently not very high to begin with. That was to say that in such a sturdy Sixth Dimensional world, the ripples of battle didn't carry very far.

That seemed to make silencing these youth possible. But, the issue was that too many had seen Riah go over to ask for help. And, on top of that, these weren't nameless youths. They weren't anywhere near the topline geniuses of the Luxnix main family, but they still had quotas and responsibilities. Their absence would be noted.

At best, she would be able to hide this matter for two or three days before it blew up in her face. And, because she had silenced them, the backlash would be even worse.

'Dammit! There's no other choice but to let him take the fall for it. I have to inform grandmother so she can deal with the aftermath. If things aren't properly handled, grandma's enemies could use this to deal with us all…'

Noah simply gazed toward Riah and shook his head. Did the current Leonel seem like he cared about how much trouble he caused now?

…

Leonel walked through the dining room and entered into the kitchen.

"Hey! What are you doing here? This place isn't—!"

One of the many cooks of the courtyard frowned when they saw Leonel. They had all been preparing a large feast for the youths who were coming today, so they had already been working all day. All of them were Force Pill Crafters so it was safe to say that they had plenty of arrogance of their own. Though, whether this arrogance was right or not was a different matter entirely.

These were clearly still apprentice Force Pill Crafters. Why would Fluttering Star Order truly go all out for a bunch of branch family youths?

Leonel, though, completely ignored them. His hand reached into an open oven with billowing flames and took out and enormous beast spread.

The Force Pill Crafters' expression warped. Originally, they had wondered if this young man had a death wish. The flames in that oven were enough to incinerate a Fifth Dimensional beast to ash. Who in their right mind would reach their hands in there?

Yet, not only had Leonel come out unscathed, his finger flickered with Spear Force several times to cut the beast carcass into edible chunks. Taking a massive silver plate for himself, he placed the pieces down and began to eat.

From start to end, his slow and deliberate steps didn't seem to change. He walked out from the kitchen, his feet lighting up with sparkling lights.

Hidden Force Arts of Riah's courtyard began to activate one after another. But, after a subtle whirring noise, they calmed back down.

Leonel cleaned bone after bone, his stomach churning like a furnace of its own. He subconsciously circulated a digestion technique of the Luxnix, speeding up his already fast metabolism. One would have never thought that he was a person who had just sentenced himself to death. It was like he was truly strolling through his own home.

Noah saw this seen and shook his head. Others saw leisure, but he saw a war machine restocking its fuel. The eerie efficiency, the unemotive and lack of care for the searing heat touching his fingers, the bloody juices that fell from the uncooked meat…

A monster, indeed.

At that moment, a strong aura descended upon the courtyard.

"Grandmother!" Riah finally sighed in relief.