Dimensional Descent

Leonel was stunned speechless.

It was a bit amusing that Aina was so enraged, firstly, and even quite adorable. But it only took a moment for that feeling to be flooded away by dread, and then, subsequently, confusion.

Aina wasn't an idiot. Plus, with the connection they had between one another thanks to their minds being linked, she should be able to tell exactly what Leonel's analysis of this individual was. And yet, instead of taking a step back and retreating like Leonel had initially planned, she actually charged forward?

There was only one reason Aina would do this: she was confident. But they had just risked their life against a middle Fiend Class demon, how had she suddenly become confident to deal with such a person?

It was only then that Leonel turned his attention from the individual in the distance to his girlfriend. He had been so distracted by everything else, and so very much used to their minds being linked, that he didn't really pay much attention to exactly what was happening and what had happened to her body.

When Leonel finally did, he was silent for a very long time.

How was this fair, exactly? She drank his blood. His blood. Blood that was his. Blood that ran through his veins… And somehow used it to become so much more powerful than him?

Where was the logic? The justice? Who should he even go to complain to about this?

By the time Leonel realized that he should probably rush over, a violent clash began playing out in his head.

…

Aina appeared before the young man in the distance, her eyes blazing and her ax swinging down with a mighty momentum.

"Huh?"

The young man, who was still in a daze, was stunned once again. He could recognize this spatial fluctuation, it was definitely that woman from before. But why was she suddenly so fast and strong?

When one used spatial affinity in place of Internal Sight, the picture wasn't clear, even figures were just foggy waves in space. You weren't observing objects themselves, but rather the effect said objects had on the space around them. As such, it was impossible to get a crystal clear image no matter what you did.

But, that said, different Forces had different interactions with space, and there were also variations based on technique and strength.

Aina's strength had suddenly shot upward, making it almost impossible for the young man to recognize her. But the interaction between Blood Force and space, not to mention that particular battle ax and space, was too unique for him to not understand he was running into the same person.

He quickly struck out with a palm toward Aina's ax. Though he rushed the attack and couldn't use his Internal Sight within Leonel's Domain, nor could he see, he was more than capable of using the spatial ripples to lock onto her and counter her with a powerful strike. After all, he was a true Fiend Class genius even if he wasn't even close to being the best among them.

BANG!

A violent force charged up the young man's arm, forcing him to disperse it through the use of spatial waves and take several heavy steps backward.

'What the hell?!'

A second bloodied ax surged, the rushed defenses of the young man becoming more and more difficult to put up as Aina only seemed to become faster and faster.

The young man was pissed, and even wanted to find a chance to counter. But it was then he suddenly remembered what had happened earlier with his Spatial Force… Could it be that he had been tricked and lured into a trap? Could it be that they were never so weak to begin with?

He still couldn't understand exactly how Leonel had outplayed him. From what he understood, the only possibility was that Leonel's Spatial Force affinity was far beyond his own. But if that was the case, then why was it that it had seemed so weak before…?

A trap. That seemed to be the only explanation.

Escape, he had to escape. They underestimated him too much if they really thought that they could stop him.

The young man roared, a wild spatial fluctuation spreading out in all directions and shattering Leonel's Starry Star Domain like glass.

Aina was second flying backward, her armor cracking in several places.

She stomped the ground hard, ready to wade through the fluctuation and attack again. But by the time she stabilized herself, the young man had vanished, having used quite a profound escaping technique that sent him several hundred kilometers away.

Aina frowned, clearly feeling unsatisfied.

She looked to her side, only to find that Leonel had suddenly appeared there and was looking right at her. If it was possible, his eyes might very well have turned into floating question marks.

"I would say that my seed is just that powerful, but one… I don't want to sound too much like that old man of mine, and two… you didn't even actually drink it."

Leonel had a look of puzzlement and even a slight shade of disappointment on his face, but when Aina heard his words, he earned a solid elbow to the side that made him cough several times.

"Unfair…" Leonel wheezed out between coughs. "… Truly unfair."

Aina's displeasure turned into a beaming smile.

Leonel's blood really did make her feel like she was walking on clouds, but it felt much more profound than just that.

The first time she had Leonel's blood, it completely destroyed the curse that she had lived with for almost two decades. If not for her preserving a bit of it to train, it would have been eradicated that very day.

And this second time she did, it was as though every strand of impurity within her had been burned to ash. Every single slight flaw was fused and patched up, and all of her accumulations were consolidated into one.

However, Aina instinctually felt that this was just the tip of the iceberg. This time, she had consumed enough of Leonel's blood to gain his Lineage Factors. Or rather, at least bits and pieces of them.

She gained almost none of his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor, but this was to be expected. After all, the moment she was drinking his blood, he had activated [Instant Recovery]. What she had gained was actually a portion of his Starry Tailed Fox Lineage Factor!

But that wasn't enough to completely explain it. No, it could explain it, it was just that it was just a single piece of the puzzle.

Something within Aina's heart stirred and she felt like she had grasped something.

"You said before that you gained the dark half of your Lineage Factor from the Middle Class Sector, right? Bring it out."

Leonel raised an eyebrow, but he still flipped over a palm.