Dimensional Descent

Leonel felt like he was in a daze, his Spear Force undergoing a qualitative change that even made his Spear Embryo evolve. The Spear Mark on his forehead became more prominent and the Spear Domain around him seemed to increase in power by a measure.

'Hm?'

Leonel looked down at the spear in his hand. It vibrated wildly, dancing about in his hands as though praising something. Leonel continued to look down at it for a long while, consolidating something within his heart.

He knew that this excitement wasn't from the spear but rather from the consciousness that was buried within it. This consciousness didn't come from the spear itself, but rather its previous owner whose will had been imposed upon it.

Why was it that Leonel found 'listening to your weapon' to be so ridiculous? It was exactly because of this. To begin with, it wasn't a weapon that was speaking. If he picked up a normal spear, no matter how much he improved his Spear Force, it wouldn't react in the slightest. This was why despite having felt the sentience of his spears before, Leonel was completely unmoved by it all.

Leonel was in a position where he was lucky enough to learn from his predecessors, but he also didn't want to be controlled by their thoughts. His current Spear Force had suddenly increased in power by more than tenfold, but if it had been explained to him by someone else, the leap wouldn't be nearly as exaggerated.

As far as Leonel was concerned, if there was a planned path for how a spear should progress and increase in strength, there had to be someone who had done it first. Then, that person had to have had the ability to explain and describe just what evolution they had undergone to reach that stage so that their knowledge could be passed down to others.

By this point, Leonel's feelings on the matter should be clear… If someone else could do it, why couldn't he? Listening to a spear? What kind of ridiculous nonsense was that? He only needed his own self. In fact, if not for the thoughts of these spears distracting him, he felt like he could have figured this out long ago.

If not for him having set aside these powerful spears to use his black wood spear for a while, his mind wouldn't have been so clear on what the next step would be. Even if he managed to see the oddity of the swordfish Beast Crystals, his mind would have been too fogged to take the next step so confidently.

Why was it that these spears claimed Peaks for themselves within the Spear Domain Ring? Why was it that a Quasi Bronze and Quasi Silver Spear could have a Spear Peak of their own while there was an endless graveyard of spears around them?

When you thought about it this way, it was quite odd. If Leonel wanted to, he now had just the right combination of mental strength and Spear Force mastery to pick up any number of Silver Grade spears. However, none of them would have a Spear Peak to their own.

The reason was simple… Quasi Bronze and Quasi Silver represented the Peak of their levels! They were the Kings among experts within their range and they reigned supreme as a result! This was what separated them from the spears that could only loiter around the base of their Peaks and this was why Domains represented Kingship.

Why was it that Leonel's King's Might could strengthen his Domains so much? Why was it that Leonel's Domain led him to Kingship over Universal Force? Why was it that this Spear was now trembling in Leonel's hand?

It all led back to same idea. They were all interlinked and interdependent.

Leonel's palm flipped over, causing the Water Domain Spear to vanish in place of his black wood spear.

He swept it out to the side, his Spear Force splitting the waters and causing waves that stretched out for several kilometers.

Leonel shot forward, his three [Valiant Seal] pillars following closely behind him. He truly wanted to see if there was anything that could get in his way now. As far as he was concerned, wherever he stepped foot was his Domain.

**

Yuri was forced to weather the storm of Aina's killing intent. She hoped that it wouldn't cost her life but now that Rychard was here, she definitely couldn't afford to move now.

Savahn moved forward and happened to block Rychard's view of Aina's face. It was only at that point that he finally managed to snap out of his daze and recover, remembering why it was that he was here.

The truth was that Rychard had never been interested in seeing Aina's face nor had he ever gone out of his way to get Aina to remove her mask. As far as he was concerned, their relationship was strictly business. Even the thoughts he had of asking Aina to marry him had all been related to how useful she was and little to do with how attracted he was to her.

Plus, there were only two reasons why a woman would wear a mask. Either she was far too beautiful or she was far too ugly. However, Yuri and Savahn wore masks alongside Aina and Rychard had received reports about them being spotted without them before. This made Rychard think that Aina was likely the latter of the two possibilities and that her friends were just wearing masks along with her as a form of solidarity.

He realized now, though, that his conclusion couldn't have been further from the truth.

Shaking his head, he gestured to his servant who cleverly passed on his box to Savahn as opposed to Aina. Though Rychard was a bit confused about exactly what was going on here, he knew that it was probably best not to ask since Miel had almost not let him in at all.

"This is just a token of my appreciation, Miss Brazinger. Much of the resources you asked for can be found within here and much more."

Aina blinked. "… That's right, resources are important to me too. Very important…"

Rychard's brow furrowed slightly. He wasn't quite sure of how to respond to this.