Dimensional Descent

Aphestus sat on a meditation pillar that stood five meters tall. One leg dangled over the edge while he brought his other knee to his chest. His gaze peered over the ledge, gazing upon the few that had come to report matters to him.

This seemingly ordinary pillar was actually one of the resources that youths of Valiant Heart pined over. Yet, Aphestus was using it as a casual sitting stool, not even practicing Force as one would expect.

However, at this moment, the few beneath him didn't have the luxury of thinking about how wasteful their vice leader was being.

Seeing that crooked smile that hung on Aphestus' face, with their experience, they could tell that he was just a step away from blowing his lid.

"… We… We tried our best to cut them down, vice leader. But, for some reason, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't. There's some weird space distortion around the tree… As best as we can tell… If someone more powerful than us doesn't go…"

The words of the young man were cut off by Aphestus' laughter.

"You want someone more powerful to go? Someone recognizable maybe? Somewhat of a genius that everyone has seen before?"

Aphestus laughed even more.

He felt as though he was getting out of character in just this past day. Often times, humans fell into the trap of doing something they never would. But, instead of backtracking after they realized they had made a mistake, they rather chose to double down, causing them to continue down a rabbit hole of doing things they wouldn't ever usually do.

Maybe Aphestus had fallen into this very hole.

time on a rookie?

precarious time they were in, he wouldn't have even been sent to personally recruit anyone. Even

the mountain pass that had been nerfed under the presence of the elders, there were no shortage of people

talent, he had actually landed himself in

over as easily as him taking action personally, but that would only make a

furious? It was as though he had tried to squash an ant, only for it to survive and shit

him trembling as his muscles ripple like they had a mind of their

I care. They can bleed

Hidden patterns on the pillar he sat upon began to glow, causing a

looked at one another, not knowing what to do. But in the end, they could only leave. None of them dared to disturb

longer. Speaking the name of Hero Peak so casually was already

…

more people attempted and failed to take the trio down

had given the Segmented Cube to Aina,

taken with him out of

to be barred from seeing Aina. Even if he was, he didn't plan on taking it lying down. He had given her those things as though they might separate only

decided to give her some time to focus on those things. As for him,

she would likely have a better training environment than he did. Only in a place like

'Resources, resources, resources…'