Dimensional Descent

"Blast through?" Aina's expression changed. She looked at Leonel as though he was a madman.

She could tell that Leonel meant that he wanted to speed things up and rush through the maze by breaking through the walls. But, if that was so easy, everyone would be doing it. They just witnessed together how hard it was for Leonel to deal with that platform, and that had been a thin walkway to begin with. What kind of effort would it take to blast through reinforced walls?

The Rapax obviously hadn't built their Nests like mazes for fun, there was a purpose behind it. It made it far easier to defend and gave them an added buff toward enemies. The fact it had taken so much effort to get here in the first place was a testament to that.

However, toward Aina's words, Leonel only grinned.

"Cut them down for me. I need a bit."

Aina met Leonel's gaze for a moment before she nodded. She would just have to wait to reprimand him for not explaining another time. This situation was even worse than before with Rapax still streaming in. So, she had to prioritize their safety first.

The moment Aina stepped in front of him, Leonel took a breath and settled his mind. This region seemed flooded with nothing more than Fifth Dimensional solider Rapax. He hadn't even seen a Runed Rapax yet, which was part of the reason their fight until now was so easy.

Thanks to this, he didn't have to worry about Aina's safety at all. He could focus his everything on this.

With a flip of his palm, a fingernail sized gemstone appeared in his hand. It seemed almost inconspicuous, but the moment it touched Leonel's palm, it was as though it had been lit on fire. Even when Leonel squeezed his hand shut, radiant light spilled out through the cracks, causing rays of red-gold to splinter off in all directions. But, he remained silent, his mind soothed and calm.

The feeling was a bit exhilarating and Leonel even felt a hint of excitement bubbling up, but he forcefully repressed it. For at least the first time, he needed it to be absolutely perfect. That way, he could replicate it through his absolute control and achieve the same result again and again.

Spiritual Medium. This was why they used wands and staffs. Some of Modred's most powerful spells

in Leonel's understanding,

best Spiritual Medium of a mage was actually their own body and this was where magehood and knighthood intersected. This realization was what led to the birth of

sprung up and looked a lot like one would expect a Spiritual Tree to look. In that way, everything seemed to have come

for Fire, another for Space, and more for Light, Variant Earth, and now there was even one for Water. As Leonel improved, these petals grew more detailed and his Mage Core grew, allowing Leonel to pull more and more atmospheric Force

own Spiritual Medium, allowing him to cast large scale spells with great effort on his part as he could rely on Force outside of his

In fact, the more Leonel thought about it, the more he loved the comparison. In fact, an Innate Node was just an even more

with him, the very one that called

SHUUUUUUU!

Leonel. In that moment, his eyes snapped open, a wild red-gold light shimmering within his irises even as

'Junior Scarlet Mage.'

the temperature around him skyrocketing more and more with every passing second. And yet, he had never felt

after. He was bathed in a red gold flame, a moan almost escaping his lips as the

his foot to the

magic circle that surrounded him in the blink of an eye. Each line of

"Aina. Follow me."

In quick succession, several fire balls formed and shot past her, the heat making even

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

widened as she watched the tunnel collapse. When she looked back, she found a hole