Dimensional Descent

The gaze of the Spiritual race youth flashed, a shuddering sense of danger overwhelming him. It felt like a cataclysm was descending, but he couldn't see where it was coming from. 

However, when Leonel's two enormous balls of fire entered a certain range of him, the fluctuations of Force made the Spiritual's brows twitch. 

He released a roar, his hands pressing out as the green-gold Force around him changed toward a much more resplendent gold. 

Vines of gold manifested from the countless arrows in the sky like fine filaments. They quickly wrapped around the floating arrows like a skeletal armor before shooting forward. 

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The Emulation Spatial Force Leonel had used to hide his twin pair of fireballs trembled like rippling waters. Although they didn't entirely collapse, the wild ripples made it look like reality itself was distorting, making their forms all too obvious to the naked eye. Even the likes of Leonel couldn't account for the speedy changes fast enough to continue to hide them beneath the illusion. 

But they had already approached close enough. Leonel hadn't tried very hard to hide their approach in the place. 

Leonel's fingers moved and the shell of Emulation Spatial Force collapsed and the fireballs within exploded, a huge torrent of flames surging forward, enveloping the Spiritual youth from all sides. 

The heat was blistering. The air crackled and popped, the last dregs of moisture seemingly being suffocated toward a bitter end. 

The Spiritual Race youth clapped his hands, the vibrant golden threads taking form again and forming an enormous cocoon. Flickers of fury danced in his gaze as he enveloped both himself and his precious tree, treating Leonel like the worst enemy of his life. 

With a stomp of his feet, green Force manifested out from the ground and shredded the picturesque white scene to pieces. In one moment, it was a land of white, and in the next, it became like a forest of death, vines that wanted nothing more than to squeeze the life out of Leonel converging from all sides. 

Leonel's gaze flickered. 

He had realized by now that the Spiritual youth's Force was actually a combination of Wood Force and Metal Force. The former carried characteristics of life and water, while the latter also carried characteristics of life, but its secondary characteristic was quite defensive and powerful.

It wasn't accurate to call it Wood Force. Wood Force was similar to "Ice Force" in that it didn't truly exist, it was rather a fusion of Earth Force, Life Force and Water Force. But that was what made the young man's Force so shocking. 

If Leonel counted correctly, this singular Force was a fusion of at least five or six Forces, making its characteristics incredibly difficult to pin down, and this was even more so for its weaknesses. At the same time, the Spiritual Race youth seemed to be capable of amplifying and retracting these characteristics one by one, at his own wishes. 

When he faced Leonel Fire Force, he amplified the Water Force characteristics of his "Wood Force". 

When he wanted more offensive power he leaned into the more offensive nature of his Force's Metal characteristics. 

When he wanted to defend, he would tap into the defensive characteristics of his Force. 

He switched between them so unimaginably smoothly that there wasn't the slightest hint of delay between them and Leonel couldn't even seem to find an opening. 

Leonel was completely fascinated. Was this a version of Force Manipulation? Was it, precisely, Force Manipulation? Or could it be considered to be one of the many steps along the journey of improving one's Force Manipulation? 

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The battle raged on.

Half an hour. One hour. Two. 

By this point, the number of individuals who had heard of what was going on were too numerous. Many rushed over to see exactly what was happening, only to be shocked by the fact that the rumors truly weren't exaggerated. There really was a human among them who was fighting a Spiritual in head to head combat! 

At that moment, Aina calmly exited the Void Tower. She looked up toward the image everyone was so enraptured by with a light smile on her face. Maybe only she could tell that Leonel wasn't really trying to win this battle. His Mage Arts were probably by far his weakest aspect right now, and the Scarlet Star Force he was using was still Fifth Dimensional. 

But seeing how shocked and awed everyone was, a hint of pride flickered with the depths of her golden irises before she blushed toward her own reaction. She had almost forgotten that she was in public for a moment. 

Aina turned her head away and her brows rose when her gaze landed on Simona. She remembered this beauty quite well. The two of them had fought during the Selection and she had lost to Aina by a few moves. 

Right now, Aina could see the battle intent radiating from Simona's eyes and she matched it with a smile of her own. She had just remembered that Leonel was quite behind in terms of recruiting right now and she had promised to bring Simona over to their side. 

"Do you want to fight?" Aina asked with a sweet smile that seemed to pull the attention of everyone even given the current circumstances. 

Simona's gaze flickered, her radiant purple irises growing a shade brighter under Aina's clear provocation. 

"We can fight, I don't mind. But isn't it only fun to fight if there are stakes?"

Simona's brows furrowed. 

By this point, even more attention was taken away from Leonel. Was the last member of the Cataclysm Generation to return about to challenge the current seats already? 

"What do you want?"

"It's nothing too important," Aina said with a smile. "If you lose, you just have to help Leonel with the Heir Wars. How about it?"

Simona's eyes jumped. 

A member of the Constellation families aiding a Morales in their Heir Wars? Especially one of her standing? Such a thing would be quite unprecedented and there was even a tacit taboo against it…