Dimensional Descent

Leonel and Aina rose from the ground. Surprisingly, the both of them didn't seem to care much about the precarious situation they had been in. Aina simply picked up her enormous ax as though nothing had happened.

"Yip! Yip!"

Little Blackstar dove into Aina's chest, causing her to smile. It seemed that little guy was even more excited than she was. But, of course he was, he had finally gotten his favorite bed back.

The three youths frowned. They were suddenly acutely aware that Leonel and Aina weren't injured in the slightest. Leonel's bruises and lumps had already healed along with his cracked ribs. Aside from a small bit of dried blood that touched his body here and there, there was nothing else. As for Aina, she was even less injured, having been stowed away for their only major fight, a bone she had yet to finish picking with Leonel.

Leonel looked over the three youths. In truth, he had no intention of taking on burdens and it would be more difficult to avoid detection if he took three people with him. But, he also wouldn't feel right if he simply allowed three people he could have helped die.

"We're close to the exit." Leonel said with a smile, and that was all he said.

He had realized already that the method he and Aina had been taking was correct. They Runed Rapax hadn't been luring them incorrectly, but it was rather a problem of the fact a Rapax would obviously be more familiar with their Nest than Leonel could possibly be. So, when the Runed Rapax realized what they must want to do, cutting them off before they could reach their goal was child's play.

Luckily, this meant that they were still near the entrance, or rather exit, nonetheless. However, whether it was safe passage to take or not was a different matter entirely.

Leonel turned and began to walk away with Aina by his side.

The trio looked at one another, frowning. They weren't sure if Leonel's words were true, they had only come to this place because they were running away, they hadn't been paying attention to where they were going.

The lack of injuries on the pair and their nonchalance seemed to scream that they were powerful. But… Was it really possible to leave this Nest without so much as an injury? They were all absolute geniuses in their own right, they didn't believe that the gap between them and someone else could possibly be so wide. So, could it just be that they had gotten lucky and didn't come across any enemies?

"Forget it, it doesn't matter. We have no idea where we're going anyway and would have to just randomly pick a direction. We might as well see if they're right about the exit." One of them spoke.

Leonel didn't look back when he felt them being followed. He had already done his part. Whether they chose to follow him or not had nothing to do with him any longer at that point.

As Leonel had expected, after splitting down just one more tunnel, the wind shifted and the air became slightly cleaner. After traveling several hundred more meters, Leonel came to the edge of a corner and came to a grinding halt.

Aina stopped right behind him and Little Blackstar grew quiet. Following their lead, the three also came to a pause.

Leonel closed his eyes, his brows furrowing.

There was nothing there. No guards, no sentries, nothing. He couldn't sense any Force Arts, no traps, and even the flow of Force didn't have anything wrong with it. There wasn't even something as simple as a door, it was just opened wide to the expanse of what Leonel assumed was the Void Battlefield.

'No, there's something odd there.'

Leonel's brows shot up and he suddenly understood.

This path sloped upward, going from deep underground to above it and forming the hole of an exit/entrance. However, on the opposite side…

There was actually another entrance.

It wasn't just that, there were entrances surrounding this one entirely. And, beyond that, there were enormous domes riddled with holes that Leonel was fairly certain were likely the very same holes they had been looking up through earlier. There was definitely a 300 meter drop on the other side of them.

'Shit.'

Leonel's gaze narrowed.

This wasn't just a Rapax Nest. It was a field of Rapax Nests. If they wanted to get out of here, they would need to somehow navigate through them all until they could find a nest on the edge to escape.

Leonel was suddenly annoyed by his dad. The old man couldn't have said a single word about this? He could have at least pointed out a direction.

But, as things stood now, Leonel was truly uncertain of which way to go. Even though he had noticed that his senses had actually greatly improved, it still wasn't enough to cover an entire network of Nests, especially when just one was so large already.

On top of that, for the same reasons as before, traveling above ground definitely wasn't an option, at least not long term. It was fine if this exit didn't have guards because each Nest essentially fed into one another. However, Leonel was still certain that there were many keeping an eye on the above ground holes or else the Rapax would be far too easy to infiltrate.

'We have to take a risk. We can't just blindly choose a direction and hope for the best. I need to fly high enough into the sky to see which way is the shortest to safety. So long as I can lock onto that direction, even while stuck beneath the ground, I'll be able to stay true to it. But, I need the direction first…'

Leonel took a deep breath, his gaze steeling. Then, he took a long stride forward.

But, just before he could do as he planned, he suddenly felt a strong force grab onto his wrist and yank him backward.

"Uh…"

Leonel looked back to find a glaring Aina.

"No you don't. You're going to be a good boyfriend and tell me exactly what you're planning. Then we'll see if I should get involved or not."

Leonel's lip twitched.

The three youths to their backs looked toward one another, not sure of how to react.