Dimensional Descent

After learning the usefulness of Universal Force in this region, Leonel was much more acutely aware of his surroundings. Just by infusing his Universal Force with his Internal Sight, his range had increased tenfold. If that was stacked with his King's Might, his understanding of the region around him might not have been as bright and crisp as Yuri's, but it was most definitely functional.

Simply put, his sensory abilities of just a few hours ago couldn't compare to his abilities now in the slightest. Seeing within a hundred meter range was no problem at all, and if it wasn't for him minding the stamina drain, he could push further beyond that.

Standing on the bouncing branch, one hand on the tree's trunk and the other holding his spear, Leonel looked down.

In a few moments, Droet, Huon and Keiza caught up, appearing up in their own trees. Whether by coincidence or not, each of them blocked a path of retreat. It could be said that if they were coming for peace, they weren't doing a very good job. But, Leonel wasn't so naïve to hope for such a thing.

Keiza raised a brow. Her gaze fell on Aina whose cheek rested on Leonel's shoulder. It was clear that Aina wasn't wasting the slightest effort to pay attention to her surroundings, she left it all up to Leonel. Even her battle ax had been taken away by him and stored away without her even flinching in her sleep.

Keiza couldn't help but playfully pout. "Why can't one of you two carry me around like that. My legs are tired after walking so far."

The two brothers looked toward Keiza. It was as though they were trying to check if she was serious or not first before they decided how they would react.

"Useless." Keiza shook her head, feeling greatly unsatisfied. If they were confident, why would they have to check on her meaning first?

The brothers, though, felt quite aggrieved. Keiza had been teasing them like this since they were children. One would think they would have seen through her by now, but the women of the Gemin family were innately difficult to deal with. Even together, the two didn't dare to underestimate her.

Much like the two brothers were the first instance in a very long time of their family's Lineage Factor brought to perfection, so was Keiza with hers. So long as that woman was still smiling, things were fine. But, the moment that playfulness vanished…

The Libra and Gemin family actually had a very close relationship with one another. If not for this, the twins would have never so easily asked for the support of someone else.

Keiza had actually come from a completely different village but had still managed to locate the brothers. It was clear that they had every intention on relying upon one another for the coming trials.

"Are you done yet?"

Though Leonel said this, his eyes weren't actually focused on the three surrounding him at all. In fact, he was sweeping the surroundings, trying to find out when the other foot was going to drop.

It was very possible that there'd be a three hour buffer before the next wave of trials. Maybe that was the true reason for the time limit? In that case, he should probably focus on traveling as far up the mountain as he could during this grace period.

"There's no need to be so hostile." Keiza said with a smile. "Shouldn't we all be working together? Coming from the same direction like this, it must be fate, don't you think?"

Leonel's instinct was to say that he had no interest in working with these people, but he paused for a moment, looking Keiza in the eye.

He needed to widen his network and becoming friends with a network of geniuses was a good start. The issue was that if Wise Star Order could so easily pick out the Gemin and Libra families like he had before, then that meant that these three were from very prominent families. The likelihood, then, that they had a relationship of some sort with the Morales was very high.

This meant one of two things. Either they had already fallen in line with one of Leonel's competitors, or, if they hadn't, it was very likely that such families didn't get involved with the Heir Wars at all.

It had to be remembered that the only power Leonel knew of that had supported a Morales Heir in the Heir Wars was the small Valiant Heart Mountain. For all he knew, then, other Seventh Dimensional families didn't even raise a finger for unknown political reasons.

'She should know I'm a member of the Morales family, though. After following me for so long, she definitely saw me use Tolliver. She had likely relayed this to the other two as well. So what exactly is going on here?'

"I'll make this as straight forward for you as possible. If you dodge the question again, I will attack. If you try to dance around the topic, I will attack. If you try to play it off as a joke again, I will attack. I don't have the time to waste here.

"What do you want, exactly?"

Keiza blinked. Her instinct really was to flirt again, but the cold indifference in Leonel's gaze made her words freeze over as well. She could tell that if she really tried it, Leonel wouldn't hesitate to attack just like he said. Plus…

That little mink on his head… She had almost missed it entirely, something that never happened with her level of senses.

"There's no need to waste anymore time, Keiza. Doing things your way isn't working." Huon spoke evenly. "Your method of clearing Spatial Bristle Bushes, we want it. In addition, I know for a fact you have at least a few hundred spatial bristle rings. But, you only gave away two. The rest of them, we want them as well.

"If you make this easy, we can go in opposite directions from here on. If you don't, we'll not only continue to waste your time, but we'll make certain that after we leave, your forward progress won't be nearly as smooth."

Huon hadn't even finished half his words yet when Leonel had already vanished, his spear appearing above Keiza's head.

However, his blade went right through her.

It was an illusion.