Dimensional Descent

"Cap? You're alright?"

Leonel blinked. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Joel was speechless. He knew that Leonel's EQ wasn't this low. Was he just pretending? Or did that brain of his finally short circuit? He didn't even know how to respond to all of this.

Leonel smiled knowingly but didn't say anything else. The way his own logic worked wasn't something that he wanted to take the time to explain. The number of calculations—one part rigorous, and another part arbitrary—that went into his final decision was so large that he would have to be here all day if these guys insisted on him explaining it all.

To make matters worse, they might not even understand and assume that he was simply forgiving Aina because he was lovesick… When he was probably the only person in this world who wouldn't be guilty of such a thing.

Did Aina's actions hurt? Of course they did. Did Leonel understand why she had done so? He understood that as well.

He knew that Aina had abandonment issues. He knew that she suffered severely from panic attacks and anxiety. It was because of this that he didn't want to look at her during those final moments. As much as he cared for her, he simply couldn't ignore the life and death of his brothers for the sake of her emotions, right?

It was harsh when he put it that way, but it was the truth.

Maybe Leonel's greatest disappointment was that he had left Aina behind expressly so that she could protect his teammates from anything unexpected. Yet, from what it seemed like here, she had left before they were in the clear. The irony of it all wasn't lost on him in the slightest.

of trust stung almost as much as anything else. It stung

barely within a threshold he could accept. If there was a next time, though, the golden balance might be even harsher than it was

about the topic and avoid it. He knew that they

decision had landed on the other side, rather than constantly hearing about how terrible she was, he would prefer if all thoughts of her were simply

who were they to not oblige? After all, it wasn't their relationship and it wasn't they who had

come as seeded geniuses. Though many of his teammates had died during the Metamorphosis, it seemed that eight still remained. He

"Joel."

"Yes?"

want us to rise to the top of the Dimensional Verse and stake our control over it all, what would

the wind. His back snapped straight and his chest broadened. One could almost feel the sharp

Was this it?

see purpose, ambition, determination… It wasn't as though he had never seen the last of the three in Leonel before, but they had always been aimed toward short term goals. This

it wasn't in the fact Aina was leaving Leonel at all. Objectively speaking, they had always believed that Leonel

their Captain's qualifications, why wouldn't he be able

respected and admired so much would suddenly become