Dimensional Descent

Leonel shot up, his forehead almost banging against Aina's. But, in a final moment, he managed to come to a grinding halt, suddenly finding that the control he had over his body had reached a truly exaggerated degree.

For a moment, their noses were barely a millimeter apart, their gazes locking. Even with the terrible scent hanging in the air, Leonel almost became too keenly aware of Aina's own delicate fragrance by contrast. He had no idea how she managed to not latch onto the stink the rest of this place had, but maybe he should never challenge a woman's ability to remain clean.

Leonel's expression flickered, his mind suddenly running through everything it had been through in just the last several minutes. His brows furrowed. He had more control over himself now, but he didn't quite know how he should be reacting. His instinct was just to shut it all down again.

Seeing Leonel's expression growing colder, Aina suddenly spoke.

"Your father said…!"

Aina repeated everything Val had said verbatim, not holding back. She thought about taking the edge off of the words, but in the end, she decided against it. She thought that with the relationship Leonel had with his father, maybe the rawest form of what he had said was exactly what Leonel needed to hear.

Leonel was astonished, not knowing what to say for a long time.

"… My dad was here?"

Leonel blinked as Aina nodded. He sent his mind into the Segmented Cube and he did indeed find that Lab 1 was surrounded from all sides by a barrier. Even without trying, he knew that he didn't have a single chance at even cracking it, a calculation that he was surprised his mind could even accomplish, let alone complete so quickly.

peak of the Dimensional Verse was. No, this couldn't even be considered the peak of the Verse at all. At best, it

been here was enough to paint the picture. To be able to so casually enter a Rapax Nest then

smiled, his gaze

had spoken might seem benign from a certain perspective, but from another… They were the kind of words

what her mistakes were in the past. She didn't give Leonel the support he needed even though he had always been there for her. This was why she had resolved that no matter what happened between now and the future, she

that she had no intention of giving up on him. Maybe it wasn't the perfect method, but they were ultimately still young and she had spent most of her life without a normal range of emotion…

that triggered all of this,

a culmination of everything Leonel hated. His father's words had doubted him, belittled him, and even put him in

Verse wasn't the kind of place that could be underestimated… She didn't want him to put his life on the line just for

that it seemed to click for

made what he might feel for her feel small and meaningless. There was maybe no one in his life and Leonel respected and adored more than his father. She

But, it was always a matter of relativity. The things that Val could say to Leonel

Leonel had put a lot of effort into winning her heart, years, even. By this point, she would be lying if she said that she cared for anyone more than she cared for him. In fact, Leonel and her father held equal weight

own, but… There was a certain level of love that blood ties could form that other forms of love otherwise couldn't… And yet, Leonel had managed to reach that

yet to reach that level for

his smile and charisma, Leonel was arrogant to his very bones. He had a relentless drive to win, he felt his opinion was more likely than not the right way to go, and he felt that