Dimensional Descent

Leonel lay on the ground, the pain coming in waves, but still much less than before.

His hand was practically just a mangled ball of flesh, his shoulder still hadn't been pushed back into his socket, and after the initial pain subsided, he finally noticed that he had shattered his kneecap when he was driven into the ground.

Luckily, it was only one shattered knee. But, that just left an entire side of his body practically useless.

And yet, right this moment, there seemed to be a battle?

Leonel's gaze squinted as he finally took in the surroundings.

The landscape was just as bland as everywhere else, albeit rockier than usual. The region looked like it was covered in sand dunes, but these dunes were just small hills of hard rock.

When Leonel's Internal Sight cleared, finally recovering from the beating the supposed rod-spear had given him, he frowned.

He had thought that they had somehow stumbled into enemy territory, but there weren't any enemies around at all. In fact, the ones fighting were Aina and the other geniuses… amongst themselves.

Leonel frowned, trying to stand, but he felt over before he could.

He actually felt so weak. To make matters worse, every time he moved, the rattling bone left in his hand and leg sent more sharp spikes of pain through him.

Still, this was good news for Leonel. If his bone had truly been grounded to powder, he might as well just chop it off now and find a different method to regrow it. But, if they were in shards like this, he had a chance of making a full recovery. Of course, it would require a lot more pain, but it would be a worthwhile exchange.

PENG!

Right then, a dagger landed right beside Leonel, missing him by a hair's breadth.

someone had aimed at him, but Aina's ax had deflected it from its path. Were they aiming

Leonel's expression darkened.

Leonel was certain of. They were maybe a journey of a few hours away from the Void Palace at worst. This much was confirmed

chose a terrible time to

already left, using their Tokens to orient themselves toward the Void Palace. But, those that

fantastic,' Leonel replied

didn't even begin to describe

those that remained. There were five of them, all of which Aina was fighting alone. Leonel could tell that

"Don't worry about me."

Leonel's voice called out.

be all she needed to hear. Her aura flourished and her

same young man that had sneak attacked Leonel when he first put up his Amethyst Token for competition. It seemed that

ax took one

the air, taking a

a hand out, and

"NO—!"

dry, becoming a mummified corpse before the

using the opening this

paper and wrapping around to her back. Its speed was sublime,

CLANG!

was soon faced with a wall of crimson spikes chasing after him as Aina actually chose to take a strong step forward, severing

was bad, Rowan's gaze flickered as he continued to retreat, looking toward Leonel. But, all he found in return was a gaze that was somehow both cold and dull. Despite the fact Leonel was just sitting there, clearly heavily injured, Rowan

if he killed Leonel, he would have to face Aina's wrath, and he wasn't