Dimensional Descent

Leonel's lip curled into a smile, but he didn't chase after Aina. She was right, his body really was in no condition to deal with such pressure. Though the other youths couldn't sense it by standing where he was now, Leonel's senses were too sharp not to.

Those pillars made Brave City look like nothing more than a joke. And, Leonel was absolutely certain that this was only a fraction of the strength these pillars could display.

It seemed like nothing more than a coincidence that the elders were standing before them like that… But Leonel had a feeling that if they were to move away, let alone traveling up so far as those four had already done, they might not even make it 10% of the way through.

That said, as long as those elders kept nerfing the mountain pass's oppression… Leonel had the utmost confidence in Aina.

As though blazing a trail, Aina shot up the mountain, making it from Leonel's side to the 300 meter mark in the blink of an eye.

She seemed to embody the perfect form of a sprinter with her every movement. There was no wasted energy, no unnecessary movements, she almost felt no different from a machine designed to kill.

Though Leonel could replicate this feat by undergoing several calculations before deciding just which form of running suited him best, Aina was different. She needed to rely on nothing other than her talent and intuition, leaving her in a realm all to her own.

The elders thought that Aina was clearly overestimating herself. To have little to no regard for the mountain pass in such a way, even sprinting up as though it was a race rather than what it truly was – a fight to the death – they could only conclude that much.

Even Ingkath had slowly crossed this line of demarcation before slowly building up momentum. But, Aina didn't even take a deep breath before crossing over the line.

Of course, one reason for this was because Aina's senses were considerably dulled due to her curse. In fact, if it wasn't for her sight and hearing being so abnormal, her sensory perception would be no better than a normal human's. So, truthfully, she didn't sense the line of division as clearly as everyone else did.

the

It hardly mattered.

low that it seemed as though she might trip over and fall, the pressure bearing down on

she recovered quickly, her thigh bulging with

cutting through a curtain of falling water, she sliced through,

thought that it was him accomplishing such a feat

The elder's eyes widened.

a change in gravity without faltering, and even more importantly, without

Aina should have, at least, broken her planting leg. But, her muscles recovered and protected the bones they surrounded as though they

to react? It was other than the split moment between Aina raising her foot and it landing on the ground. It simply didn't make sense for a young girl at the beginning stages of the Fourth Dimension to have such fast reaction time, and it

elder was lost in his shock, Aina had already barreled through another 40 meters, crossing the 50 meter mark with no sign of slowing

fracture and break. But, to Aina, this sort of trial was

her own bones, rending her inner organs, and sweating until

tortures, such horrors, they

beasts in her mind as though she had something to prove, as though there was nothing more important to

when facing the Puppet Master was a blemish she had long since seared into her heart. It wasn't a humiliation in the way a man might feel it. Aina just felt as though she