Dimensional Descent

"I think I will return now." Mordred said softly, motioning toward Crakos.

From start to finish, the #1 Demon Lord hadn't said a word and had simply observed things. Though he received many looks and several auras were constantly locked onto him, the Demon Lord always remained calm, restraining his own.

Leonel nodded lightly. He knew that Mordred had gone through a lot today. The wounds she had suffered in her past couldn't be cured so quickly, but Leonel felt content that they were going in the right direction.

He and Mordred practically knew everything about one another. In many ways, Leonel felt that he was closer to her than he had ever been to James. Seeing her slowly coming back to her family left him feeling happy.

"What's with that smile?" Mordred teased. "Is big sis very beautiful?"

Leonel coughed, not knowing how to respond. But, his predictable reaction left the Demon Empress giggling.

Just as Mordred was about to turn to leave, Leonel suddenly spoke out.

"Demo – Em, I take you to be one of my close friends now. I just wanted you to know that."

Mordred's steps froze, looking back toward Leonel with surprise.

Seeing those clear, pale green eyes and that handsome, charismatic smile, she felt her heart shudder. For some reason, she felt her tears well up in her eyes.

She quickly dried them with a subtle use of Force, not letting them fall. Then, just as quickly as she had almost cried, she smiled a charming smile.

"Big sis has more to teach you about women. Rule number one is to not make them cry."

Mordred strolled away under the escort of several guards, clicking her tongue as though she was still reprimanding Leonel. But, in response, Leonel only chuckled.

"You must be happy having such a beautiful friend, hm?"

Aina's voice disrupted Leonel's mood, causing his coughing fit to return.

"... It's fine, I'm pretty sure Em only likes women anyway." Leonel quickly recovered.

"So you mean that if she liked men instead you'd be happier?"

"Ah..."

been checkmated once again. He didn't know how all his insane

begin to giggle to herself,

teasing side to her. The two sides Leonel knew were either the overly shy Aina or the bloody killer

was that Aina had no choice but to begin teasing Leonel like this. Before, it felt as though Leonel was always the one causing

that in order to tease Leonel like this, she had to play into the fact they were

suddenly sighed, thinking back to

Do you think we'd ever grow apart like that?" He

she felt for Leonel, she didn't even believe she had the

suddenly with such a loaded question left her not knowing

for you to

a question back

such a possibility. Leonel had pursued her so doggedly for years. She couldn't help but admit to herself that she thought

that men were just like that. They loved the chase,

that thinking of this might have subconsciously been

had left her in a perpetual cycle where she never said yes but also never

was even further from that reality thanks to these scars. It

response left her

could grow apart from

though her whole world was collapsing at that very

expected a particular answer, but what she absolutely never expected was for a response to be able to

real and undeniable that even she couldn't mistake what it was any

Like a twisting knife at her heart, it tore

if it was due to tears or if it was the foggy

if and only if you

felt as though she couldn't breathe enough air, as though there wasn't enough

"Aina."

frowned, gripping onto Aina's

She used such force that Leonel was almost thrown across the room. But, he held onto her tightly, gripping the sides of her face and

hadn't expected Aina to react so violently, but

but Leonel didn't