Dimensional Descent

Images of his uncle flashed in Leonel's mind.

He had never seen his father struggle before. That man seemed to do everything with an incomparable ease, as though everything was in the palm of his hands.

His uncle, however, had struggled twice before him. The first time when he tried to complete the painting of a spear and failed, and the second time was when he revealed to Leonel that beneath his golden armor, he was entirely drenched in sweat.

Back then, Leonel could see the straining of his muscles, the every twitch of their individual fibers. He had felt that his uncle was at his very limits, and yet he put his golden armor back on as though nothing at all had happened.

Leonel didn't know what was drying his uncle forward. Maybe it was revenge for Leonel's grandfather and his father, or maybe it was something that Leonel had no idea about. However whatever it was, Leonel knew that his uncle was working far harder everyday than he ever had before.

Leonel only seemed to want to work hard when something caught his interest, but was that really being hard working? Anyone could focus on something that fascinated them, maybe he was only slightly special because of how long he could focus on it, but this didn't make him better than someone else, he was just lucky enough to have a mind capable of focusing like this.

But once again, that wasn't will power…

Leonel jumped forward again, his breathing haggard. He felt like he had just run a marathon, his heart threatening to leap out from his throat and his muscles pumped with so much adrenaline and lactic acid that they might just give out any time now.

He was a person who was easily bored, nothing truly moved him. When you broke down everything into its logical components, maybe that was just the inevitable extreme you would reach, or maybe that was the end you come to when you had too much talent at your fingertips… or maybe it was a combination of both.

Leonel knew these things about himself, but changing them wasn't exactly a matter of just thinking it, which was an ironic thing for him of all people to say considering the sheer control he had over his body.

But much like his love of Aina, this part of his personality was so deeply ingrained that it felt difficult to weed out.

Sometimes he felt like a lofty existence overlooking the entire universe, so lofty in fact that nothing was worth his attention, nothing was worth his interest.

or form, or his father in other ways. Only the two of them

odd, because there were definitely other

had a piece of his heart. But for whatever reason, they weren't as solidly ingrained. Leonel actually wasn't sure if that was how everyone felt

was, he knew that he needed to change long ago, but shrugging off those feelings were impossible, and they only

out of a Zone when

it wasn't a place the greatest geniuses

of the Fiend Class geniuses of that Zone, but weren't they also several Tiers above him? Now that

was that he wasn't wrong, they were perfectly correct and he was also right

again, landing heavily before slipping and falling to one

going was pride. He didn't want to give up after traveling up such a pathetic distance. He felt more furious every time he even thought of giving up. What was wrong with him? Was he really so pathetic? Where had his backbone

all of his weaknesses were

it to the 20th step,

It was

excitement, but the moment he felt disappointed by the geniuses he came across, he became bored

jaw, pushing himself

the edge of the platform with a hand and pushed off both feet, propelling himself

BANG!

next ledge. The distance and height difference between the platforms was being wider

himself up

billowed into waves, the strength of his

"Pride…" he gasped.