Dimensional Descent

Originally, Leonel wanted to avoid the Void Senate because he had a feeling that it was likely that Sceio would have someone to rely on that could make things difficult for him. However, when he caught up to speed with everything that had happened, he was even more assured in the fact he couldn't rely on them.

The fall of the Stalwart Polearm Party, the rise of the sword factions as a result, and his dad… Well, being his dad.

Leonel rubbed his forehead. "This old man is always giving me problems. Can't go one day without ruining things."

If Velasco could hear Leonel now, maybe he would have to smack some sense into his son. It was clearly the other way around, why did this brat suddenly sound so exasperated?

Aina, who had been in a bad mood, couldn't help but giggle.

Much of this information she had just filled Leonel in on were things she had fished out of Vega. The knowledge of a Gold Faction Head was quite invaluable, so though Aina never had any intention of joining Vega's Faction, she still gained herself a large well of information just by listening and asking questions.

She had to find a way to distract herself from the frozen screen that loomed above her head, after all. There was only so much worrying she could do if she didn't even understand exactly what was happening.

It was a good thing that Aina had done this as well, because everything in the Void Palace cost some sort of price. Everything.

Living accommodations, food, water, even information, all had a price tag. There were several information networks in the Void Palace controlled by various families. Just basic information would cost you hundreds of Void Points, let alone something as sensitive as the overturning of a Shared Majority in the Senate.

This saved Leonel a lot of time, though, because now he didn't have to walk around aimlessly.

The Void Palace, on a normal day, wasn't too much unlike a college campus, if you could get over the heavy perpetual fog and the lack of sun at all times. However, it also felt very… unorganized.

There were buildings of all sorts of shapes and sizes, serving all sorts of different functions strewn around without any sort of real city planning of any sort.

Restaurants were right by clothing shops which were right by residences which were also right by medicinal halls and libraries… There was even what looked like a small farm randomly irrigated between what was a butcher shop and a clothing shop that displayed animal furs. There was no order at all.

Alongside these odd choices in building and in land use, there were what looked like kiosks every block or so. Aina told Leonel that those were locations to exchange Void Points for things from a virtual library of sorts. But, the situation was more complicated than that.

Apparently, according to Aina, there were 'Zones'. The level of the Void Point Kiosk would be decided by the level of the Zone. This meant at lower level Zones, you could only trade for things of a certain level, barred off from higher levels.

These Zones were mostly divided into the level of students that could enter them, and there were further special Zones controlled by Factions as well.

Regardless, outside of the lower class Zones which could be entered for free, higher class Zones with better accommodations, and assumingly better city planning than this, all cost Void Points to enter as well.

"This Zone, what is it?"

"Well…" Aina bit her lip, looking away. "It's the lowest class Quadrant Zone there is."

Leonel raised an eyebrow. "Quadrant? Oh, did I not climb high enough to make it to Galaxy? That's unfortunate…"

Leonel didn't really know what happened after he got trapped, so he just assumed what must have happened. He thought that Aina's reaction was to spare him from the embarrassment.

In truth, he didn't like the fact he had failed, but the experience with Amery had already forced him to humble himself a bit. He still didn't like the fact he had to use his bow that day.

"No, well…"

Aina took a breath and just explained what happened.

Leonel's brows jumped when he heard he had climbed to the 74th floor. How was such a thing even possible? There should be something wrong with the tower, right? Maybe his Dream Force had affected its output.

This was the best explanation Leonel could think of. There was no way he could output Seventh Dimensional power. If he could, he might as well forget all of this and start conquering the Human Domain right away.

"… Ah, so it's like that…"

Leonel sighed.

Someone had come to bring Aina her verification as a Galaxy Ranked Disciple while he was in a coma. But, when Aina asked about Leonel, the person only shook their head, not having an answer.

It was likely that the higher ups were still deliberating on what exactly had happened. So, as of now, let alone a Galaxy Rank, Leonel didn't technically have any Rank right now.

Leonel couldn't blame them. Even he didn't believe he had climbed to the 74th floor, so why would others?

Leonel suddenly came to a grinding halt, his eyes flashing. And then, he grinned like a madman.

Aina, who had continued to walk ahead, paused when she realized Leonel's arm was tugging at her hand.

"Leonel? Are you alright?"

Seeing Leonel grin when she knew that he would usually be sad in this sort of situation made Aina a bit worried. Was his head alright?

"If I'm right, I just found our loophole." Leonel's grin widened.

Even if this didn't get Leonel out of the Void Contract, he was certain that there was some rule or loophole he could take advantage of in his current Rankless state, he just had to find what that rule was.

And, if he was even luckier, this much would be enough to void Fourth Nova's Void Contract with Aina.

"Aina, bring me somewhere where we can read all of the Void Palace's rules in excruciating detail. I'm sure there has to be a place like that."

Aina blinked and then nodded slowly, thinking of a place.