Dimensional Descent

It was odd.

Dream Force was meant to be one of the most dangerous Forces in all of existence. As the arbiter of consciousness, having it in too large a supply was always a bad thing as those who didn't have high affinity for it would find the line between fiction and reality blurred, a lot like what a schizophrenic would experience.

Dream Force carried with it the power of perception and fundamentally, perception was often reality.

If someone had a dream about being invincible, they would wake up and this feeling would be gone. In addition, they would then be able to pick out all the oddities in the dream that should have made it obvious to them that it was one.

However, if the Dream Force was cranked up, suddenly the line wouldn't be so obvious. The dream would become too real, too tangible. Then, you'd suddenly have a person jumping out of a building as a mere mortal in the real world because they got it in their heads that they were invincible.

The effects went beyond dreams as well. Just things as simple as thoughts, inclinations, biases, etc, could easily become too real to ignore. Suddenly, an opinion would become objective fact, a day dream would be reality, a hope would become certainty.

Believe it or not, these would be the most benign effects of excessive Dream Force.

Beyond this, one might sink into a forever coma, believing their dreams to be the new reality. And, in the worst of cases, one's mind could collapse, forgetting how to function correctly and thus leading to the most direct cause of death.

Playing with consciousness was dangerous. Almost like playing with layers of irony, eventually if you went deep enough, you would lose the ability to tell where the joke started and where it ended.

However, somehow, despite all these dangers…

The Spiritual was fine?

It was like Leonel's Dream Force was in a benign state. Despite being able to come out of his body now, he still wasn't able to use it to attack people or harm them.

Leonel had known that his ability limited him in this way for a long time. In fact, even Lionel, who had reached Tier 5 and could project his Dream Force outward, couldn't use it to harm others directly either. He could only mold his Dream Force to shape reality and use said changes to attack his enemies.

However, Leonel couldn't do that. Not to mention the fact he was fairly certain he hadn't been born a Savant due to the existence of his Lineage Factors and his Innate Node, right this moment, he still couldn't even begin to control this Dream Force.

How was he supposed to manipulate reality if he couldn't even stop it from flowing outward?

'I need to change my approach, do something different.'

Leonel began to make a scan of his body, going through every vital sign and checking for any stages. But, before he could even get halfway through the analysis, he froze.

Whenever Leonel wanted to do in depth analysis, he would always enter his Dream World. Everything flowed faster there and he was in control of every single variable. His models were vivid, his mind seemed to work at twice the pace, and it was easy to visualize everything.

But, never. Never. NEVER… Had his thoughts appeared in the real world like this.

Leonel stood, stunned, a perfect replica of himself standing right in front of him. It was illusory and its skin was quite blue, but Leonel could see it, not with his mind's eye, but with his real eyes. His Dream Clone… it was standing right in front of him.

'… What the hell?!'

Leonel lost focus, causing the Dream Clone to waver and almost completely collapse.

'No, no!'

Leonel settled his mind, and the Dream Clone stabilized again. It felt as though he was looking right at a hologram, as real and tangible as such a thing could get.

He stretched out a hand, but his hand passed right through it, just like it would in his Dream World.

Leonel was baffled. His expression kept changing, trying to understand what this sort of change meant.

Had his Ability Index evolved? Could he make illusions now? Warp reality?

No, that didn't seem to be the case. Even when he tried to make himself more tangible than just a blue hologram, it didn't go very far. Even a toddler wouldn't be fooled by this image.

In addition, if he couldn't even make an illusion, warping reality was an even further away pipe dream. This was very clearly something else entirely.

If he had to describe it, it was like his Dream World had suddenly manifested into reality. He could do everything he had been able to do in there, or here now. But…

So what?

Leonel couldn't think of what use such an ability could have. If he really applied it, he could probably become one of the greatest teachers or professors to ever exist, and he would be pretty good at relaying his thoughts precisely and with ease. But, all of this felt a bit hollow.

Maybe there was something more? Something greater on the other side? If only he could just retract his Dream Force, so long as he could do that, he could try to get the Spiritual to work with him again, pulling out more of his soul.

Leonel was certain that the result of this change was related to the changes to his soul, so he just had to try to replicate it to the best of his abilities.

What Leonel didn't know, though, was that he had been frozen in place ever since those chains snapped. Everything that he had imagined himself and his environment doing, from the movement of the Spiritual, to the flood of his Dream Force, to the appearance of his Dream Clone, and even down to the movement of his hand through its hologram…

Had never happened at all.