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..."

once again. He didn't know how all his insane thinking speed and people skills couldn't find him a path out of

Aina begin to giggle to herself, the soft bells of her

The two sides Leonel knew were either

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

into the fact they were a couple. Who knows how she'd react if she

back

ever grow apart like that?" He suddenly

what she felt for Leonel, she didn't even believe

left her not knowing what to say for a long

it possible for you to grow

a

for years. She couldn't help but admit to herself that she thought

those days, her best friends were Yuri and Savahn. Savahn especially used to always say that men were just like that. They loved the

took much of her rants seriously, she had to admit to herself that thinking of this might have subconsciously been one of the reason she also

a perpetual cycle where she never said

She hadn't been the most beautiful in their school, and now she was even further from that reality thanks to these scars. It was even possible that the reason she hadn't shut down Leonel's line of questioning like she would have usually done was precisely because she could no longer bury her

Leonel's response left her

Yes, I could

explain it, but she felt as though her whole world was collapsing at

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

that even she couldn't mistake what it was

Like a twisting knife at her

it was due to tears or if it was

Leonel continued. "... That's if and only if you stop

breath, hitched and hiccupped like she couldn't hear Leonel at all. It felt as though she couldn't breathe enough air, as though there wasn't enough oxygen in the world. Every huff she took felt filled with

"Aina."

frowned, gripping onto Aina's

arms off her. She used such force that Leonel was almost thrown across the room. But, he held onto

up a [Light Refraction] spell. He hadn't expected Aina to react so violently, but the last thing

but Leonel didn't let her slip