Dimensional Descent

"Cap!"

The voices all called out in unison, drowning out even the volume they had been arguing at before. And yet, Leonel didn't seem to hear them. His gaze was expressionlessly locked onto the items on the table.

The Segmented Cube. The blue veined mask. The talisman. The necklace.

His eyes almost carelessly swept through them all, his expression giving nothing away. Still, it was as though he was standing in a parallel dimension, a space he shared with the items on the table. He couldn't see, hear or even smell anything else. The floor beneath his feet might as well have been nothing but an endless void he was freefalling through.

The room fell into silence when they noticed the direction of Leonel's gaze. They all suddenly felt that it was ridiculous that they had been debating this topic for so long, only for Leonel to see through it all due to a slight carelessness.

They could have never expected that Leonel would suddenly appear in this fashion. Even if they had wanted to hide the items, they never had a chance to.

"Cap?"

Joel stood from his position, approaching Leonel.

None of them had ever seen Leonel get emotional. Even when he felt rage, he would instead enter a state of coldness that made even them uncomfortable.

These group of brothers had been together for more than ten years, not including the time they had spent apart. They had grown together… From the time they were five years old, putting on their first football pads, to the time they were all 17 year old seniors.

of games. However, not a single one of them could ever remember losing when Leonel got like this. It was as though they were all forced into a hyper tense state, their minds and bodies on full alert like they

the latter seemed to look right through him. It was the most uncomfortable Joel had ever felt

his head to the side. In fact, Joel felt as though

that everything?" Leonel

carry much hurt. In fact, it was quite soothing. It was the kind of voice

moment, the soothing nature masked a sort of coercion that demanded an answer… it was the kind of question anyone hearing it was compelled to

that's everything." Joel

"I see."

and the room followed suit. The eyes of all his teammates focused on him, worry marring their brows. However, none of them spoke a single word. They knew that at this moment, nothing would get through to Leonel as he stepped into his own world. It was just

they were

a golden balance. On one side of the balance, there was a near perfect replica of Aina but it was possible to see

blue veined mask, the talisman, the necklace and the Segmented Cube

side. A booming noise reverberated through the white walls of the Dream World, sending wave after wave of trembling sounds in every which direction. However, Leonel's Dream Clone hardly reacted, even as the heart

began to form motes of light. After each one of these motes was formed, they would gently float to the side

Within, an image of him first meeting Aina played.

One would have thought that her

a smile so bright it was etched onto his heart forever. It was

balance shifted slightly, but