Dimensional Descent

[Bonus chapter for 800 powerstones. Karma will get you all eventually...]

Leonel's grip eventually loosened and he sat silently for a while. Soon, his breathing became steady once more.

To the side, Aina wasn't sure how to console Leonel. Of course, she wasn't aware that Leonel wasn't feeling this way due to the likely death of his father.

Regardless, she had similar experiences of her own. Her own mother was dead and her father had likely followed in her footsteps. But, she had always had problems putting her emotions into words. She was always more likely to either implode or shut down. There didn't seem to be a third option for her.

This time around, she chose to shut down.

Luckily for her, Leonel wasn't actually mourning the death of his father and quickly regained his composure, opening the driver's door and stepping out. It wasn't long before Aina followed behind him.

"... How did you know to come here directly? I thought it would take us a few days to find it at least." Aina tried a probing question.

Her words weren't wrong. Paradise Islands follow orbits, so where they fell would be variable. She only picked a mission to clear Perimeter 7 because it was near the general area, but she didn't expect to find the wreckage so quickly.

Leonel took a deep breath.

"I remember the time they fell and I know the orbit like the back of my hand, so calculating where it was wasn't a problem." He explained simply.

The orbits of Paradise Islands weren't public knowledge. Or rather, the majority of their routes weren't. Only their stop points were known, as for the path they followed between them, it could only be left up to conjecture.

For Leonel, who had been illegally traveling to the surface world for so many years already, it was simple to have this taboo knowledge.

Leonel took a step and slid down the side of the crater.

He knew that whatever his father left behind, it wouldn't have a problem surviving the fall. He didn't believe that his old man was dumb enough to not have a method of protecting his things.

A part of Leonel held a small piece of resentment for his father. After all, since he knew this was coming, couldn't he have saved these people?

he hadn't. Had he saved these people and then left, the Empire would definitely have all eyes trained onto Leonel. By then, even leaving the Fort to come to this

have

brick and stone folded atop of one another. In comparison to

before a small path was created and they could duck into the remains of his home's living room... if you

two covered their mouths but were

"... Le..."

to start her attempt at saying some comforting words, but she backed out at the last

scenario was seeing something he didn't want to see. Even if by some miracle his father survived the fall, it's already been more than

Leonel pretended not to hear

Aina picked up on the fact that something was wrong. Leonel didn't look like a person looking for the remains of his father... Instead, he looked like he already had a

possibility, she quickly

the remains of a staircase that descended. Shockingly enough, though, there wasn't even the slightest crack. Let alone a crack, it seemed completely unaffected by things

of this staircase, a seemingly simple wooden door lay,

too useless, old man.'

hiding something. However, she also didn't dare to speak because she knew why Leonel was going

was because he believed his father

the steps and reached for the door

a key? No, there's no keyhole here, there's probably

realized that the round door handle was a bit rough. It was a weird feeling because

the knob. It really

the knob once more. As expected, it really

body jolted as he

mind and discarded his useless thoughts. His senses became many times more sensitive in that

was an erratic, seemingly aimless pattern, gained itself a unique organization that projected itself into

some reason. He could

this would always be the case or not, but for now, his sense of touch was definitely the highest amongst his original five senses.

thought. '... A complicated lock, but it