Dimensional Descent

The cobra demon appeared before Leonel in the blink of an eye. The smoldering fire within the latter's eyes as sharp as blades.

Leonel took a step to the side, dodging out of the way of the blade.

He felt like he could finally see again. The slush his mind had been wading through was nowhere in sight. No… It was still there, it was just far less capable of affecting him any longer. He could finally think like himself, finally calculate like himself, finally make the world dance in the palm of his hand like himself.

A spear appeared in his hand as the scythe sliced down a mere inch from his nose.

He didn't have the strength to manifest his panda construct. His body was too weak to summon his Bronze Runes. He couldn't summon his Stars, the pressure he had put on his mind previously to save Aina was far too much, and it only became worse after his soul separated from his body and lost its support.

The only things that hadn't abandoned him was his Ability Index, his Innate Nodes, and this spear in his hand.

His gaze blazed.

This was more than enough.

Scarlet Star Force flooded Leonel's body from his left kidney. At this moment, he was thankful that he hadn't shattered the seals upon it to the Sixth Dimensional level. With the current state of his body, there was no way that it could handle Sixth Dimensional Scarlet Star Force.

Flames blazed to life around him. He had never been more focused.

His spear pierced outward, taking claim of the absolute perfect timing.

The gaze of the cobra demon flickered. It was surprised by Leonel's sudden increase in reflexes, what happened?

However, it didn't care. It had already approached with the utmost caution. As for these Scarlet Star Force flames? How could they possibly hurt it with such a crude, rudimentary usage?

The scythe of the cobra demon flipped in its palms, changing the direction of its blade and slicing toward Leonel's back despite the fact that the demon stood before him.

The hook of the blade was fully prepared to cut Leonel at the waist, but the latter didn't even seem to notice in the slightest.

Destruction Runes flashed in Leonel's smoldering pupils, the blade of his own blade shifting and perfectly colliding with the polearm of the scythe.

It looked like a completely useless action, but the small force was enough to carry a bit of extra momentum over to the scythe blade.

The demon's original strike had been a downward swing, so now it was actually pulling its scythe upward to deal Leonel a blow. Leonel's sudden and unpredictable actions cause the demon to overshoot, the hook of its scythe just barely grazing the tips of his hair.

The demon faltered in its step backward, not having received the resistance it had expected from slicing through Leonel's waist.

Due to its caution, it had actually expected Leonel to be able to block this attack, somehow, some way, but what it hadn't expected was for Destruction Runes to flash in Leonel's eyes for a mere parrying maneuver.

Leonel was already moving forward.

His spear spun in his hand, a wheel of flames forming as he used a technique he hadn't in a very long time: [Infernal Cyclone]. All he could do now was use these simple techniques he had gained from Valiant Heart Mountain, but in his eyes, they would be more than enough.

He regretted it. He regretted ignoring his heart and not shooting for first place, for scrounging for what he could instead of ripping away what he wanted.

A wheel of fire shot forward. Powered by Leonel's Scarlet Star Force, it tore the ground apart, rushing forward like the wheels of a blazing racecar as it closed the small distance between Leonel and the stumbling cobra demon in an instant.

Leonel's spear spun once again, forming another wheel and closing the distance.

Due to its miscalculation, the cobra demon's scythe wasn't in place to block or counter. It could only remove a hand from its polearm and slammed out with a claw.

'[Meteoric Impact].'

Leonel didn't miss a single beat. Even as the wheels of fire shattered into a rain, he took a strong step forward and he pierced through the fires with a deathly momentum.

His spear appeared before the cobra demon, but shocking enough, it wasn't toward any one of its vital points like the demon had expected, but rather right into the block of ice that had blocked up its stomach.

The cobra demon was smart enough to consider that Leonel might use the first attacks as a cover, Leonel had already done it once, it was very possible that he'd do it again. But it thought that Leonel would attack one of its vital points, not a block of ice.

Although it was an injury, it wasn't life threatening. As a Fiend Class demon, even if it didn't heal it, it would easily survive for decades without its stomach. It just didn't make sense for Leonel to attack such a thing.

The tip of Leonel's spear barely pierced the ice, however this was where the effects of [Meteoric Impact] activated.

BANG!

An implosion of fire blasted from the inside out.

The cobra demon's eyes widened, coughing up a mouthful of blood as it was blasted backward.

Leonel's battle intent blazed as a tempest of flames rose up around him.

"[Harmonic Spear]."

His voice was frighteningly cold.

At that moment, hundreds of flame clones, each wielding a fiery spear, appeared in the skies.

The plummeting temperature began to skyrocket. Even if Leonel couldn't win by quality, he would win by quantity. He still couldn't understand how this cobra demon was so powerful, even using spatial abilities when it clearly didn't have such an affinity, but none of that mattered.

All he wanted right now was for his blade to taste blood. Demon blood.

His clones all pierced out at once.