Dimensional Descent

Myghell's head turned, his golden gaze meeting Leonel's pale violet irises.

For a moment, the world turned still, a hollow clash reverberating before what sounded like the roar of dragons and the cry of phoenixes resonated through the air. Though, it was difficult to tell if this was truly what was happening, or if it was simply an illusion created by the thumping hearts of those spectating.

It felt as though the other still ongoing battles were meaningless, as though what remained of the Selection had suddenly become a poor attempt at extending vacant, vacuous entertainment when the true root of what they wanted to see was already right before them.

Leonel might have still stood on his stage while Myghell had already stepped down from his own. And yet, their gazes still somehow felt level.

A thick violet aura hung around Leonel, a dense golden fog hanging around Myghell.

The trembling of Planet Luxnix itself seemed to shock people awake from their stupor, their grips on the armrests of their chairs and the erratic beating of their arms suddenly jumping forward several levels in strength.

Then, it all vanished at once. The two looked away almost simultaneously, Leonel stepping down from his stage and walking toward Earth's geniuses while Myghell walked toward the Luxnix.

At their closest, their shoulders practically brushed against one another. But, by their reactions, one would have never guessed such a thing. If one had been entirely focused on their expressions, they might as well have been worlds away from one another.

The elders of the Luxnix watched on with narrowed gazes.

None of them understood the nuance of Leonel's views. Many of them believed that Leonel would have targeted Myghell one way or another. And now, they felt that their guesses had only been affirmed.

Even to this point, they didn't have a firm understanding of Leonel's strength. And, truth be told, they had no idea that Leonel had already regrown his Innate Node.

If regrowing Innate Nodes was so easy, why would stealing them be such a large deal? If the matter was so simple, those with Innate Nodes would probably be reared like farm animals, being 'harvested' every so often.

Unfortunately, Leonel's lack of understanding when it came to the Dimensional Verse was rearing its ugly head once again. If news that his father could regrow Innate Nodes came out, who knew what kind of commotion it would cause?

To the current Leonel, he assumed that it was possible, it was just that it took a lot of time. After all, it took him 20+ years of drinking that vomit smoothie to instigate the regrowth of his Innate Node. To him, it was just a tedious process…

The truth of the matter was that Leonel's father had joined the government of the Ascension Empire, entering their research branches, to personally create a method of healing his son by fusing his knowledge of the Dimensional Verse with Earth's brand of technology.

It could only be said that Leonel's father was a genius that appeared once in several hundred generations. It was unknown if even Leonel could ever reach the level his father had, this was how exaggerated this matter was.

Of course, even Velasco miscalculated sometimes. How could he think that his son would be so reckless as to try to form a Tenth Node?

According to Velasco's original intention, upon breaking into the Sixth Dimension using the God Path, Leonel's Innate Node would naturally begin to regrow itself. But, it had appeared in the Third Dimension, far too early.

This aside, the residual Scarlet Star Force that had leaked from Leonel during his breakthrough into Tier 3 was explained away by the elders with a myriad of different hypotheses. This went to show just how far the idea of regrowing an Innate Node was from their minds.

Now that they heard Leonel's words, they all believed that Leonel wanted to take his Innate Node back, something that left their brows furrowed and their gazes cold. But, when they realized that Leonel had just antagonized Myghell when the latter had cared little for him before, and how Leonel was merely at Tier 3 while Myghell could step into the Sixth Dimension whenever he wanted, they relaxed their murderous intentions.

There was no need to antagonize the Void Palace when this matter would be easily dealt with by Myghell.

…

Leonel returned to sit by his grandmother's side with a smile on his face. It was as though what had happened previously hadn't occurred at all.

"Little Leo, you need to be careful. Scarlet Star Force is very dangerous. It's one of the only Forces I know that can cause damage to higher Dimensional beings even in a lower Dimensional state. And if it's at the same level… I don't know if there's a defense that can stop it if it's not constructed by a Force on the same or near the same level…"

Leonel blinked. "You don't have to worry, grandmother. I know. I actually don't feel much danger from him at all. If anything, Aina is stronger than him."

Roesia's brow furrowed. Her senses were sharper than Leonel's and her Internal Sight was far stronger. She was absolutely certain that Myghell was still stronger than Aina was. So, why would he say something so reckless? Her grandson didn't seem like the type to mindlessly boast.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but in the end she just sighed. She was still only just beginning to form her relationship with Leonel, she felt like she was walking on eggshells not because she was scared of her grandson, but because she was afraid to say something that overstepped her bounds.

She shook her head and made a decision. If Leonel was really in danger fighting Myghell, even if it meant offending the Void Palace, she would still move. She would rather lose her life than allow any harm to come to her grandson.

The battles raged on and Arnold and Milan eventually got their turns. As one might expect, they didn't perform astoundingly, but they didn't perform poorly either, each winning about 30-40% of their matchups.

Since performance was based on evaluations and not raw numbers during the second day, they might get a pass due to their low strength.

Of course, Elthor, Karolus and Noah performed even better than this.

Soon, it was Aina's turn to step onto the arena once again.

Leonel's gaze sharpened. 'Let's hope this works.'

Numerous small crystalline spiders formed on his palm.

Roesia raised an eyebrow, but said nothing in the end.