Dimensional Descent

Leonel had no idea that Aina had been lit afire. If it wasn't because he wanted to listen to the story to the end and didn't want to leave Aina at this moment, he might have charged off to earn another talisman to Terrain.

To dare have designs on his Aina… If he ever ran into this so-called Puppet Master, Leonel would be certain to rip him to shreds.

Aina paused, her amber eyes scanning Leonel's face as though she wanted to memorize every line and slope.

She always knew that Leonel was quite handsome. His tanned skin, his pale green eyes, his strong jaw… She had to admit that she missed his messy dirty blond hair. But, this long bronze hair made him look particularly masculine, almost like a Roman God, especially when it was paired with his broad shoulders and chest.

It was only at this moment that she realized that she had never observed Leonel so closely before. She had always been too shy to do so in the past. But now she felt many times more comfortable doing so, especially since Leonel's mind was hardly focused on her actions at the moment.

He hung on her every word instead as though trying to visualize the day he would kill this Puppet Master.

"How did you escape?"

Leonel's sudden question shook Aina out of her fantasy land. She blushed slightly, but noticing that Leonel hadn't found anything odd about her actions, she continued.

"… I never expected for my curse to help me in such a way." Aina started again. "I usually use its suppressive effects to help with my training, but I didn't expect for my blood to carry the same effect.

"After it consumed my blood, it became severely weakened and the restrictions on me lessened. I wanted to kill it right then and there, but it began to summon more of its guards. Back then I… I entered a weird state. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I've never felt so powerful before.

"The restrictions on my mind seemed to loosen and I could feel his other puppets coming, but these puppets were completely unlike the uncoordinated ones he used to mine in the mountains. In fact, some of them had consciousnesses of their own and were exceptionally powerful. Most had strength at Tier 7 and above.

though he was weakened, he was still half a step into the Fifth Dimension. It was fine if he spent all his strength suppressing the curse, in

the

hard for me to remember much about what happened after that…

brow wrinkling. Though she seemed to have knife wounds across her face, Leonel found her current appearance

your strengthened state? Is that part of your ability?"

Aina hesitated.

She hadn't told the whole truth. She had a vague idea… It was

she drank blood, would he really not want her anymore?

him, she wouldn't have been able to enter such a strengthened state because the blood she got was precisely from those

mouth

I can't not answer

Aina grit her teeth.

blinked curiously, waiting with

human carcasses the Puppet Master

her. She felt like she

was as soft as could be, almost beneath what a human could possibly pick up

"What?" Leonel responded.

Her breathing hitched, she was almost on the verge

Leonel's next words