Dimensional Descent

The symphony of Aina's voices layered atop of one another, the resonance shaking one deep down to the very soul.

The first thing Leonel realized was that he hadn't been able to capture Aina's coercion perfectly and that some tweaks would be necessary. The memories were clearly only infused with his memory of the sound, but not what happened to the rest of his body.

But, even with just that alone, the result was astonishing.

The simple Force Art Leonel had drawn in the air, too small to make an impact, and much too lacking in energy to change this even if it was much larger, suddenly began to shine brightly.

The Force Art was nothing more than a palm size at first, but it explosively increased in diameter. Doubling in size, and then doubling again in quick succession. Before it could grow any further or become any brighter, Leonel was forced to cut off the replay of Aina's voice, his heart doing flips.

Just now, without nothing more than a few hums, a Force he had spent no more than a drop of energy on became so powerful…

Even if there was nothing else to gain here, this sort of discovery was too insane. If Leonel had the ability to reproduce this with every Force Art he ever crafted, would he even ever need to worry about running out of stamina again? He would practically be able to battle forever so long as he didn't fall asleep on the battlefield or die of hunger first.

This was crazy!

Leonel's mind practically short circuited. He couldn't understand how it worked. How could voice alone cause such a change? And this was with him messing up Aina's coercion, what if he was able to layer it together?

"Aina…"

"Hm?"

"If we created an attack together that worked on this concept, we could probably kill a Quasi Seventh Dimensional expert without much difficulty."

Aina fell into silence, not responding. She felt that this was quite fantastical, too, and she didn't quite understand what was going on.

How could sounds produce such an effect?

Leonel was baffled into silence until he slowly began to understand.

It was all about resonance.

Why was Leonel able to teleport out of that Rapax Nest? It definitely wasn't based on his own strength, he was forced to use the Life Force of the green waters around them to have the impact he wanted. If he relied on his own Force, they would have never gotten out of there.

The Dwarven Race seemed to use a similar concept, but it was on a completely different level.

Leonel was only able to draw in so much Life Force because there was already such a large concentration of it on the ground. On top of that, it was created from the corpses of Seventh Dimensional Rapax, so they were even more powerful.

However, the Force Art language of the Dwarven Race acted very differently.

Each line drawn had its own intricate resonance. Alone, they were nothing special. However, when they were brought together as one, they formed a special resonance with the surroundings that seemed to perfectly match the runes of the Force Art itself.

When this perfect balance was struck, the Force Art became able to pull in more power from the surroundings, no longer needing to rely on its Crafter.

Usually, this effect wasn't too exaggerated. However, if you added in Aina's voice, the resonance seemed to be shocked with stimulants, suddenly forcing it to explosively increase in both size and strength!

"… It's no wonder this Force Art system is so good for traps and defense. The best trap is one that perfectly blends into the environment, and the best defense is one that's not only persistent but also self-healing and self-reliant.

"With this sort of resonance, the traps are able to more seamlessly blend into the environment. If it's tuned and designed for a specific location, a lot like the Dream Force around here, it can even mimic other Forces and remain inconspicuous. I have a feeling the reason I didn't notice the Force Art trap in the throne room at that time is about more than just the fact they were drawn on Seventh Dimensional materials. Even if it was drawn on Sixth or even Fifth Dimensional materials, I would have had a hard time finding it.

"It's just that the Dwarven Race is very clever. They lured us into a false sense of security, making it seem that their traps could be detected with a bit of extra focus before they sprung the real trap on us.

"We're very lucky. I have a feeling that these Zones do the Dwarven Race a huge disservice. Because of the Dream Force distortions, their traps are easier to detect because the resonance isn't as perfectly tuned…"

Leonel mumbled his thoughts out loud, but he soon found that speaking was far too slow, and he fell into silence again.

At that moment, Leonel had a maddening realization.

If he were to compare the Spiritual to the Dwarven Race, the former of which was both endlessly beautiful and elegant, not to mention seen as the pinnacle of Soul and Force Arts in the Dimensional Verse….

He actually believed that the Dwarven Race surpassed the Spirituals by no small measure.

Leonel realized that he had stumbled into a treasure. However, as much as he thought this, he also realized just how difficult it would be to replicate the feat of the Dwarven Race.

They lived and breathed nature, they were all too familiar with using the environment and their bodies as instruments. Their innate comprehension of such things surpassed Leonel by leaps and bounds.

Simply put, if Leonel had to create his own Dwarven Force Art… There was no way he could Right now, the only thing he could do was a copy.

For someone like Leonel, the idea of this left him feeling uncomfortable. The idea of something he didn't quite understand was itching at him. But, he knew that this was the path he had always wanted.

Using Force Arts as the vessel of artistry… Leonel had thought that he would always start with calligraphy first, but he never thought that he would run into the answer for music long before that.

If he wanted to find that ever elusive fourth step, he needed to be able to first replicate the feat of his uncle and grandfather with his Force Arts, only then could he take the next step.

Leonel grit his teeth, putting his pride down.

Since he didn't understand for now, fine. He would copy. He would copy as much as he could find until the inspiration hit him like a bolt of lightning.