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.

large the gap between him and the peak of the Dimensional Verse was. No, this couldn't even be considered the peak of the Verse at all. At best, it could be considered the pinnacle of the

at all. Just the information that his dad had been here was enough to paint the picture. To be

smiled, his

father had spoken might seem benign from a certain perspective, but from another… They were

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 would

It was just her way of showing 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… it had been the only way she

triggered all of this, but that only made it

words had been a culmination of everything Leonel hated. His father's words had doubted him, belittled him, and even put him in his place without care or

could be underestimated… She didn't want him to put his life on

then that it seemed

love that Leonel had for his father 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 had thought that because of how Leonel had practically

respect, she wasn't wrong. But, it was always a matter of relativity. The things that Val could say to Leonel weren't the sort of things that she

that moment, Aina came to understand. 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 in her

her father wasn't nearly as good as the one Leonel shared with his own, but… There was a certain level of love that blood ties could form that

had yet to reach that

a relentless drive to win, he felt his opinion was more likely than not the right way to go, and he felt that