Dimensional Descent

Joel sighed when he heard these words. He had already expected as much, but hearing it so clearly like this made him feel that it was unfortunate.

Sometimes, Joel felt like there was some sort of god looking down on them and pulling these strings, making certain that they all looked as foolish as possible at any given time for their sick form of entertainment.

For a long while, they thought that Aina was completely unworthy of Leonel. And, truth be told, she hadn't really done much to change their opinion aside from becoming extraordinarily beautiful. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to move the needle for Leonel.

Now, in an irony of ironies, it was they who wanted Leonel to step up. Of course, this wasn't for Aina's sake, but Joel believed that she was truly Leonel's best chance at happiness. Or, at the very least, if they didn't end up together, Leonel deserved some better form of closure than this.

And yet… It was now Leonel who wanted no part of it.

Leonel hadn't even bothered to say a word to Aina. They weren't face to face when she left, and he didn't even look in her direction after hearing Rychard's announcement. No matter how you spun it, they just found it impossible to feel that such a thing was healthy.

Joel wondered how they would take things from here. On one side, he wanted to support Leonel and his decision. After all, it was still Leonel's right to decide how they dealt with these matters. But, on the other, he didn't want Leonel to decide on something he would regret for a lifetime.

Unfortunately, Joel felt that Leonel wasn't a normal person by any stretch.

If it was someone else, Joel might think that they were just being vindictive and wanted their significant other to suffer just as much as they had, taking responsibility for their own decisions. But, he simply couldn't find any rage in Leonel's eyes at all. No matter how good of an actor a person was, it was simply impossible for them to mask such a fresh wound so easily.

Joel never got the chance to make his decision, though… Because Leonel's next words seemed to close off any sort of chance they had.

"I know that you all might try to do something, thinking it to be in my best interest, but I hope that you won't." Leonel's gaze gained a sincere and patient light to it. "I do not want my brothers to risk their lives, and the same goes with my grandmother. I only just began to reform a relationship with her and her body is quite frail now, she's no longer in her prime.

"Though my grandmother is powerful, she's not nearly as powerful as she once was and she's currently stuck at a bottleneck she can't break past. She has a lot of guilt on her shoulders even though I do not blame her, if you bring this possibility to her, I'm certain that she will go all out for a chance at giving me happiness.

"But, I need you all to understand that this path won't bring me happiness. If anything, it will lose me brothers and there's an over 80% likelihood that it will lose me my grandmother."

Leonel matched each one of their gazes. He wasn't pressuring any of them, but he wanted to convey his feelings as clearly as possible. When he laid out the truth so plainly and succinctly, the expressions of the boys couldn't help but change several times.

They subconsciously knew how dangerous these matters would be, but hearing it explained like this truly made them understand what kind of game they were trying to play.

"I can understand Aina's plight, however the risk is not worth the reward. I can't trade the lives of people I care about for the life of someone… I simply don't."

Joel and the others felt their hearts tremble when they heard this. But, it made Leonel's stance as clear as day. There was simply nothing else they could do to refute it. Judging by Leonel's tone, even though he didn't say it, if he felt that they were about to take action, he would stop them. He knew the date of the wedding just as well as they did and it would only be a day from now. There was simply no time for them to devise any sort of plan that could fool Leonel.

And even if they could… should they?

Leonel sighed. "I don't want these matters to weigh on you all, but I can't force it to not either. If it makes you all feel better, the current Aina can snap Rychard like a twig and she's completely immune to poisons due to her ability. Unless one of the Viola family elders stands in their wedding chambers, no one could force her to do anything she doesn't want to do. And if she does want to do it, why should you all be the ones to worry about it?

"Just focus on your training. We have much bigger things to worry about and much bigger goals in mind."

The eight looked toward one another and nodded. Maybe this was the best way to look at things.

They alone didn't have the strength to even think of challenging the Viola. And, they had no right to put Leonel's grandmother in danger when he explicitly asked them not to. How would they even face Leonel if they came back with Aina but his grandmother was dead? What if he cut them off just like he had James?

In the end… There was nothing they could do.

…

The hours continued to tick by. Leonel spent a few moments relaxing with his brothers, mostly at their insistence, before he returned to refining his comprehension of the Luxnix's Force Art System.

While part of his mind was on this, another part was on something completely different, though…

'Her father had something capable of erasing her personality, huh…?'

Sparks flew within Leonel's Dreamscape.

'73% probability that it is another tablet based on currently available information…

'So… How do I get my hands on it?'