Dimensional Descent

Leonel sat on his heels by Elorin, his sigh painted in the depth of his eyes. Seeing Elorin here like this, beaten unconscious by James, he already knew that Old Hutch was dead.

If it was anyone else who had killed Old Hutch, Leonel would have already flown into a rage. He hadn't seen Hutch for a very long time, and during their interactions a few months ago, it hadn't been for very long. However, Leonel still felt that he owed a lot to this man.

As a man of the Fawkes Imperial Family, he owed Hutch due to his sacrifices. This man had given up so much for his duty, and he deserved nothing short of respect, he had done things that even Leonel wouldn't claim himself able to do.

As a man who lived for himself, though, he owed Hutch even more. This man was someone who had mentored him, and although they had never seen eye to eye, he was the one who laid the foundation for Leonel's spearmanship.

Now seeing the man who had killed him, Leonel would have thought that he would be infuriated to the point of killing him outright. But knowing that this was Hutch's grandson, he found it difficult to do so. Although Hutch would never ask him to spare Elorin out of his own duty, that didn't mean that he wouldn't hope for this to happen.

Leonel thought for a moment, not entirely sure of what to do.

A shadow passed by him and James appeared. "He was a tough one."

"From what it sounds like, he went down pretty easily," Leonel said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, that's because I'm me," James laughed before becoming serious. "His Ability Index is very powerful, if not for the fact that I can completely counter it, things wouldn't have ended so simply. It seems to me that he placed a lot of effort on learning to control his Ability Index mostly because it was so difficult to use. It also benefited him because his Ability index is so powerful. But once he lost it, he couldn't output even 1% of his power as a result."

"What was his Ability Index?"

James explained it as best as he could. Most of it came from his own instincts so the details were fuzzy, but this alone was enough for Leonel's eyes to narrow in understanding.

A time-based Ability Index... Indeed, Elorin would be quite alone in this aspect. James had done quite well to take his own Ability Index to the extreme, but it also had to be considered how common James' Ability Index was.

Although James was fairly alone, the amount of information he could find on the Energy Shield Ability Index was practically endless. Just for context, even within their friend group alone, James wasn't the only one with it, there was still Milan who had this Ability Index as well.

However, for Elorin, he probably didn't even know what the five Tiers of his Ability Index was. Usually, Tiers were created after observing tens of thousands, usually millions of people with the same Ability Index, only then could an accurate assessment of the Tiers be made.

But with such a rare ability, how could such a thing be possible? Elorin probably didn't even know which of the Tiers he fell into, and he likewise wouldn't know how to improve his Ability Index without fumbling around on his own, and even then it would be imperfect.

For all Elorin knew, he was improving his Ability Index down the wrong path.

With so much on his plate, how could he have time to hone other abilities? Outside of his blade, he had nothing. But in James' Domain, even that was rendered useless.

Honestly, Leonel couldn't think of many who could defeat James, but he could think of many that would have performed a lot better.

The main weakness of James' Domain was obvious: he could sap away atmospheric Force, but that did nothing to the Force inside of your body. Unfortunately for Elorin, his Ability Index was entirely reliant on observing outside Forces and then executing his next steps based on that.

When James said he perfectly countered Elorin, he wasn't lying.

After a long while of silence, Leonel exhaled and pressed a finger forward, pushing it down onto Elorin's forehead. At that moment, Elorin suddenly reacted and his blade shot out with a great amount of speed. He didn't seem to be awake at all, but his body still reacted instinctually.

Even so, James reacted faster, an Energy Shield appearing between Leonel's neck and the blade.

Without any more fanfare, the blade was stopped and Leonel's finger pressed onto Elorin's forehead. A seed was formed and Elorin was quickly bound to Leonel much like Harmony had been.

Elorin's eyes struggled to open, but in doing so, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The blurriness in his eyes were too great and he couldn't see anything above him, the sun felt far too bright. At that moment, though, a warm current passed over him and seemed to alleviate the worst of his injuries somewhat.

Elorin's vision finally cleared, but when he saw that it was Leonel who was above him, his expressionless gaze turned cold. At this moment, he didn't see Leonel, he saw a member of the Fawkes Imperial Family, the difference was subtle and yet it made all the difference.

"I would retract that gaze if I were you," Leonel said coldly. ""Not only is your life in my hands, but a person willing to murder their own grandfather like you has no right to look at me or anyone like that for that matter.

"Regardless of what you think the Imperial Family is guilty of, at the very least it's not patricide. Whether you want to or not, I'll make you slave for your whole life for the sake of the cause your grandfather devoted himself to. Maybe then, when you die, you'll be able to look him in the eye."

Leonel's voice was cold and carried not the slightest hint of care. Even facing Elorin's hostile gaze, he was unmoved. As far as he was concerned, allowing Elorin a chance to live was already his act of mercy, he owed him nothing else.