Dimensional Descent

If the concentration of Force was already high before, it skyrocketed now. If Leonel had found this place while the Segmented Cube was still in its second phase, it probably wouldn't have been very long until it entered its third.

Leonel stepped into the bright cave, his eyes practically glowing.

Whether it was the walls, the ceiling, or even the floors beneath his feet, they were all covered by a rubies with flickering silver flames dancing within them. The dichotomy of the two colors made for a fantastic sight and was quite beautiful to behold.

'This should be a special type of Fire Force… Oh, this…'

Leonel's pupils constricted. As beautiful as these crystals appeared to be, an instinct of danger took hold of Leonel's heart just when he thought of plucking one out. It took several moments of observation, but Leonel came to understand.

'This Fire Force is dangerous…'

For Leonel, who had the Scarlet Star Force as a ticking time bomb within his body, to actually say something like this wouldn't be just a small bit shocking.

Of course, the character of this flame that was dangerous to Leonel wasn't the Fire Element itself, but rather a unique mutation that likely occurred due to this planet in question. And somehow, Leonel felt that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

'This tunnel formation is formed almost like it overflowed from some place.'

Just looking around, Leonel felt it was standing at the mouth of something that had overflowed. By logic, then, there was likely a deeper, more concentrated region.

Leonel traveled down the cave and sure enough, he found numerous perforations and holes leading to something far deeper. The unfortunate part was that his body couldn't personally fit in any of it.

'Maybe this is why they haven't discovered this place yet. It should be a relatively new formation. Maybe a few months at most. But, that's surprising in its own right. For just a spill over of Force to cause this, just what's on the other side?'

Leonel's gaze suddenly sharpened. 'Swallow it all, Little Tolly.'

*Bloop

In just a few moments, the budding Force Crystal mine had vanished, swallowed by Little Tolliver entirely. Danger was all relative. It hadn't reached the point where Leonel felt the need to take a step back.

Plus, these Force Crystals were just Third Dimensional. The only reason Leonel bothered to have Little Tolly swallow them was because of their quality and to also get the little guy prepared for higher levels.

BANG!

Leonel's fist shattered the opposing wall of the cave, expanding the perforations until they were large enough for him to fit through.

The sudden change caused a violent energy to surge upward. It was the sort of boiling heat would might expect from an eruption of heated oil or a geyser shooting up and into the skies.

'Absorb it.'

Leonel redirected this wild concentration of Force toward the Segmented Cube.

In truth, Leonel wanted to form Pure Force Crystals out of this odd Fire Elemental Force. He had a feeling that this unique Fire Force might be the root to a powerful change within himself.

His thoughts toward improving his Snow Star Owl Lineage Factor had opened up another door for him. He had the greatest Fire Elemental affinity one could possibly have. Not only did he control the number one source of Fire in the universe, but he also had it in the form of an Innate Node, the purest form it could appear as.

With such an affinity, why was he constantly constraining himself to using normal Fire Force? Even if he couldn't control his Scarlet Star Force just yet, weren't there powerful Fire Forces he could control?

And this one happened to catch his attention. If he was correct… He just might be able to complete his Four Seasons Realm in a single sweep. And, if things worked out how he imagined… There might not be anyone beneath the Sixth Dimension who would be able to match him.

At least not anyone from this quadrant of the universe, that is.

As Leonel dove down, the heat and pressure became greater and the warning signs for danger skyrocketed. But, he pushed through, slicing through it all like a hot knife through butter.

On one hand, Little Tolly split apart the rocks and ores that blocked their way. On the other, the Segmented Cube sucked up the high concentrations of Force in their surroundings. To Leonel's shock, even this amount of Force wasn't enough to form even a single Pure Force Crystal.

To put matters into perspective, the amount of Force Leonel had just passed by was enough to implode his body a thousand times over. Yet, according to the Segmented Cube, he wasn't even a single percent toward forming a Pure Force Crystal.

Leonel's gaze suddenly sharpened. He had been traveling for hours, his speed never letting up even as the heat became more and more scolding.

In that moment, he broke through a barrier, only to find himself falling through a suffocatingly hot fog of air.

Leonel felt as though he had entered a completely different world.

All around, waterfalls of molten rock fell from on high. But, what was baffling was that some of them seemed to be running in reverse as though they couldn't tell which way was up and which was down. This led to the odd scene of two waterfalls clashing together and yet being completely unable to eliminate the other.

Instead, thin pools of hovering lava hung in the air where these waterfalls met, drawing a thin line that divided this odd world between a flip of up and down.

'The core?'

In the center of it all, what could only be described as a miniature sun stood, rolling with reds, golds and silvers hues. The thin pools of lava formed a disk around it, unwilling to approach too closely.

Deep within this miniature suns, complex runes of all kinds floated, pulsing with an undeniable power.

'This is it…'

"Oh? It looks like the Little Rat came to us."

The sudden voice caused Leonel to blink several times.