Dimensional Descent

Leonel exhaled a breath before stretching his neck.

Of course, he had no idea who Cynthia Omann was, but he most definitely recognized Yuri's name. It seemed that girl was doing just fine. That was good since Aina would be sad if she had died in the Zone.

Leonel wondered if Yuri was still here or if she had returned to Earth. Of course, he also had no idea that the Brazinger name also held much more weight now than it had before as well. If he had known, he would also know that returning probably wouldn't be very safe for Yuri.

Leonel yawned.

He had a bit of that good feeling of euphoria one had after a workout, but he also wanted to collapse into a heap after devouring a ton of food as well. It was about time he found Aina, whose cooking would be better to enjoy now than his girlfriend's?

Leonel stretched and took a step toward the stairs to return. He expected someone to stop him because that was just the kind of luck he had. But surprisingly, no one did. Everything felt quite eerily silent and no one said a word as Leonel vanished down the steps. That said… that didn't stop their brows from being touched with a hint of solemnity.

…

Leonel made it down to the bottom of the stairs quite quickly. His eyes were somewhat droopy and he yawned from time to time, but ultimately, his state was still far better now than it had been in the past where he could barely move.

A while later, he returned to the Spear Faction and nothing much seemed to have changed. He had half expected for a war to have broken out by now, but once again, his expectations were dashed. It was, once again, oddly peaceful.

Leonel was very used to this. In reality, it was just about an hour of peace but it felt off as though he didn't deserve this much.

He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He really never got much time to rest. The last time he did was thanks to his mother twisting the rules of the Void Palace for his sake, but that almost resulted in a disaster because they were dumped right into the Selection right after.

Leonel sighed. Was his mother alright? He hoped so. He wondered if she knew that he was back or not.

He would have gone to see her, but he simply didn't know where to go and look for her. By now, she was probably also a Domain Ranked disciple, so it was even more difficult now than it had been in the past. Or, as the Princess of Earth, she had probably returned to help hold down the line.

Leonel wasn't too obsessed with seeing his mother. With his personality, so long as he knew his loved ones cared for him, that was enough, he didn't feel the need to see them all the time, nor did he need their constant affirmation. If he did, he would have hated his father's guts a long time ago, but instead, he was the man he respected most.

Leonel walked into the Spear Faction and spread out his Internal Sight in all directions. By this point, there were very few who could sense his Internal Sight if he didn't want them to, and if covertness was really what he wanted, he would just use a dialed down version of his Starry Spirit Domain.

With a smile, Leonel headed in a certain direction.

…

On the roof of a certain building, Aina and Ness were both having tea. It seemed that by now, the two were quite chummy. Though, what machinations were hidden behind those smiles was hard to see through. On the surface, they were just two beauties chatting. But deep within, it was probably more accurate to call them a pair of demonesses.

When Leonel appeared, the idle chit chat and laughter vanished into the air and they looked toward him together, their eyes filled with a peculiar light that made him feel uneasy.

Aina had vanished for a few days and he still had no idea where she had gone. Now, though, she seemed almost too in sync with Ness as though the pair were two peas in a pod.

If he wasn't so scared, he might find it amusing. After all, Aina had gotten so close with her aunt-in-law before she did so with her mother-in-law.

Leonel cleared his throat to say something as the silence got heavier, but before he could, Ness spoke first.

"Did you do the task I told you to?"

Leonel blinked. "I did, I already attacked the Sword Faction."

Ness raised an eyebrow as though she didn't believe him.

"Are you lying to me?"

Leonel frowned. Why would he lie about something like that? But the fact Ness was asking seemed to imply something else.

"If you really attacked, then why are they so silent? Those arrogant swordsmen wouldn't take something like that lying down so easily."

BOOM!

As though Ness' words were some sort of jinx, the ground suddenly quaked, the building the stood upon swaying wildly from side to side.

Glass windows shattered into pieces that rained down like fine crystals like the earth cracked and splintered, spreading out in cobweb like patterns in every direction.

"Huh?" Leonel's head turned in a certain direction.

He had felt that Ness jinxed them for a moment, but that didn't feel like the something on the scale of what the Sword Faction could accomplish, at least not members of the Sword Faction that would be at the Sixth Dimension, but Seventh Dimensional individuals wouldn't interfere in matters like this.

Leonel's pupils constricted as he looked off into the distance, but when he saw what it was, his eyes couldn't help but widen.

As though they had just stepped out of some sort of warp drive, six planet-sized ships appeared around the Void Palace, each one with a design that was eerily familiar to Leonel. Soon after, an eerily familiar decree also fell.

"Under the Decree of Shield Cross Star, Leonidas Morales is to be classified as a Tier 2 Fugitive, found guilty for the crime of colluding with a Variant Invalid.

"The fugitive has two hours to hand himself in or his charges will be increased to Tier 1.

"The bounty is set to 10 000 kilograms of Seventh Dimensional Urbe."