Dimensional Descent

Aina suddenly felt as though her body wasn't hers. There was a disconnect between her mind and body as though one was being rejected from the other. It was hard to tell exactly which was happening, but the fundamental truth was that the disconnect made her feel as though her body wasn't her own.

With a frown, Aina brandished her ax out of habit, just trying to do something she was familiar with.

By now, she had long since lost count of the number of times she had swung her ax in her life. Leonel was always fascinated by her tanned skin, but wasn't that just the product of all the work she had put in ever since she was old enough to understand the cruelty of the world around her?

There was nothing in this world that she was more familiar with than her ax.

A swirl of Universal Force followed Aina's swing. For the first time since this oddity began, Aina felt as though she was back in her own body again.

But, just when she thought it was alright to stop and her previous feelings had just been an anomaly, she felt the feeling come back the moment she stopped swinging her ax. In fact, now, due to the abrupt stop, the feeling was even more obvious than it had been before.

It was like invisible shackles had suddenly been placed over her body.

Aina's ability worked on instinct mostly and was only partially an actionable act taken up by herself. But, at this moment, that instinct seemed foggy.

Whereas before she was certain of the next steps she had to take to train her body and improve her ax, at this moment she felt confused and baffled.

'Did I overuse my ability? Did I run into a bottleneck?'

A bit of worry mixed within a deep frown took over Aina's features. Was this really the limit of her talent? A slight hint of anxiety bubbled up within her heart.

Aina couldn't just pull out a dictionary and get a read on her ability. She was only aware that her ability was good, but she

can't be.

Aina's jaw steeled.

in the future. If this was really her limit, she wouldn't be able

this. Even if this was the end of her road, she'd find a way to

didn't know how powerful the Brazinger family was. She didn't know how much effort it would take to take them down or what kind of backers they had. But to her, it never mattered. She would destroy them one day, no matter the

"Aina?"

Leonel's voice drifted to her ears, snapping her out

her mood. He could see

okay?

scanned Aina's face and body as though trying to find any injuries she might have, but he didn't

"Hm?"

Leonel's gaze suddenly sharpened.

the fact he had been

reddish-black gas hung around Aina's body. It was so faint that it seemed to blend

anyone else faced these eyes, it would feel as though they were bearing their very soul before

been uncomfortable and off-putting. Yet, for Aina, she somehow didn't find anything

she felt at peace, Leonel's expression twisted, a flickering rage erupting within the depths of

At this moment, Leonel had still yet to unlock the second tier of his Wisdom Branch Lineage Factor. As such, he could only use the most basic abilities of the Snowy Star Owl's

enough for him to sharpen his gaze by

Leonel's eyes. It formed into an