Dimensional Descent

Leonel's list was enough to even make Talon's eyes pop wide open with shock. The fact that they would have to bring forward three of these treasures just for a chance at the Life Tablet was even worse.

It had everything from entire mines that were strategic resources even on his world, all the way up God level World Spirits. And yet, it was impossible for Talon to refuse that the Life Tablet was, indeed, worthy of this.

How long had the various races been trying to get their hands on it? And yet, despite knowing exactly where it was, none of them had dared to do much of anything about it. This was the weight of the God Beasts even so long after they had vanished.

Even Minerva had never expected Leonel to do this. She was so hyper fixated on the Segmented Cube that she didn't even hazard a chance at getting their hands on the Life Tablet.

Then, she "understood". Could it be that Leonel thought that this was what they were after all this time?

If she took a step back, it was possible that Leonel simply didn't understand the taboo around the Life Tablet. It wasn't like he had ever tried to hide it, and he had even announced to the world that he was a Wise Star Order.

In a situation like this one, it was very possible that he never thought that they would be after the lesser treasure.

'It can't be...'

Minerva suddenly had a thought that struck with so much fear that her hand trembled.

Could it be that Leonel was doing all of this purpose? Could he be purposely feigning ignorance? Could it be that he wanted to use the Owlans as a shield to obfuscate what he was doing?

Minerva's heart trembled so violently that she couldn't calm down for a long time. Her thoughts were so consumed by this that she couldn't even divert her attention toward doing something to stop Leonel from taking over the entire situation.

The Owlans seemed to be in a much better situation than the humans were... but were they?

They too were heavily tied with the God Beasts of Creation. They too had flown too close to the sun and gotten nearly burnt to ash for it.

Now, they had suddenly gained the support of the Pluto Race which was reportedly on the decline, had suddenly risen into the top 100 of the Dream Pavilions, and now... they were trying to get their hands on the Life Tablet as well?

Minerva paled.

Even she didn't dare to do all of this.

She did believe that her Owlan Race was too cowardly. They were to the former Minerva Race what the likes of Lumina and her people were to them. They were so wholly inferior that no one really took them seriously, at least not on the level of the Gods.

If not for the fact Leonel had kept calling her the Owlan Descendent, Minerva would have never had to go as far as to kill Lumina for being a fool.

However, wasn't that exactly what Leonel was doing here again? Had she been losing this game of chess this entire time?

If the gazes of the world all suddenly shifted from the Human Race to the Owlan Race, what would happen?

From the very beginning, most didn't care enough to take Leonel very seriously. First, he was a Human. Second, as he had said, he was just one person. Even if you counted his wife, that was just two.

Gods weren't the only Races capable of forming Gods. There were Demi-Gods and even Mortals that had birthed Gods before, individuals capable of forming Dharmas, and beyond that, Idols.

However, if none of these people had managed to raise their entire Races to the standard of the Gods, then how could Leonel do so?

What he had said was true.

But the Owlan Race was different.

For one, they were already on the precipice of Godhood. They were a threat that the world would take far more seriously, and that dichotomy would only be driven home even further now that the contrast between Leonel and them was all so clear.

Leonel was being suppressed left and right. The mortals might not have noticed the wound to his ear, but any higher level experts certainly had.

Maybe Leonel could even heal that wound and chose not to on purpose.

In their eyes, he probably looked like a youth who was lashing out at the injustice of it all while in reality, he was throwing Minerva and her people so far into the spotlight that he could slink away into the shadows.

Minerva's murderous intent flared like a raging torrent, but just as quickly, it was doused in a water so cold it made her bones shiver.

She couldn't kill him. It was impossible for her to kill him. If she did, or if anything happened to him on the way back to his world for that matter, what would the world assume?

Obviously, she had killed him and taken the Life Tablet.

Her name was even Minerva.

It was like she had seen a trap and taken a dive into it with both feet, not even testing the waters with a toe first.

'No. No, it's impossible for anyone to think that far ahead...'

She couldn't believe. For the sake of her own sanity, she couldn't believe. It was a necessity, or maybe it was the exact opposite of whatever that was.

In order to set up such a scheme, Leonel had to have a grasp on politics, and even more importantly, her own psyche to the level that he could accomplish this.

But this was only the surface level, because on a deeper level...

No, she really didn't want to believe it...

The Pluto Race was in such a bad position right now. She had only gotten faint inklings of the ongoings.

It was impossible for them to willfully plunge into such troubled waters...

Unless Leonel had manipulated them into doing so.

And that was the most unacceptable fact of them all.