Dimensional Descent

Orinik's pupils constricted into pinholes. He wasn't a fool, he could tell that Leonel wasn't baiting him. That sort of confident, indifferent gaze, as though it didn't matter even if Orinik got on his knees and swore to the high Heavens that he wasn't involved with Third Nova, told him everything he needed to know.

Orinik had spent his life plotting and scheming. Even Rychard and Montero had no idea where his truest allegiances lied, although Rychard did know a bit more about it. And yet, with just a single slip up, Leonel had seen right through him.

Back then, when Leonel was first entering the Void Palace, no one knew who he was. Even to his own cousins and fellow Nova Heirs he was a nobody. He had never stepped foot into the family, and other than the fact they had a vague idea that he was Velasco's son, there was nothing else.

There was no news about him, he had awakened his Lineage Factors quite late compared to the rest of them, and he was stuck far away in the Milky Way. No one had any idea he was coming to the Void Palace that year, for all they knew he would never come.

Velasco was always a wildcard to begin with, and he had a huge vendetta against the Void Palace, it wasn't too impossible to believe that he wouldn't send Leonel at all, it was quite easy to accept, in fact.

So the question was, how did it seem like Third Nova was prepared?

Manipulating the Senate into taking action wasn't something that could happen in the spur of the moment. What about gaining information about the Rapax and the importance of their next round of birthed eggs? Or maneuvering matters so that the Senate could vote out the Stalwart Polearm Party and reduce them back to a Legacy Faction?

All of these were things that took time and effort. This meant that Xavnik had to have had someone who informed him long ahead of time that Leonel was present and would be coming, and who better than Orinik who had been sent to oversee the Selection in the first place?

When you looked at things that way, it almost seemed too obvious. Leonel felt quite foolish that he hadn't seen it before, but now that everything was in line, he finally felt that a weight on his shoulders had vanished.

Leonel's lip curled when he saw Orinik hesitate. "Go ahead and use your badge to escape, it'll only make things easier on me."

Orinik shivered as he remembered the words Leonel had spoken earlier. Could it be that the Morales really had acted on his behalf? Orinik couldn't risk such a thing, he would be crushed without even knowing what happened. How could he match up to an Ancestor? They could probably kill him with a single glance.

Suddenly, Rychard roared, his fury bubbling over. A heavy black-violet rod appeared in his hands as he swung down with all his might, aiming for Leonel's head as he crossed the distance between them.

that the latter's strength had exponentially increased just now. He took a step back and side stepped, gliding out of

poured so much focus and attention into the Force Manipulation of his Violent Force

out of the way and support me

retreat, but Leonel had already taken a step forward and swung a strong fist at his abdomen. He didn't want to kill Rychard. In fact, he didn't want to kill any one of them. Of course, that wasn't because he was soft hearted, but rather because he wanted what they had,

perfect fit for the Tentacle

a path of retreat. Before Leonel could pursue, he suddenly felt a hint of danger, causing

BANG!

from him, Orinik wielded two sabers that Leonel couldn't take his eyes off of. Those

indifferent a moment ago, but all of a sudden even the air itself seemed to freeze

Third Nova, but he hadn't thought that the latter would have been defeated badly enough to lose even his weapons. Not only had he lost

sabers were quite bland and unassuming. Most people, even Crafters, wouldn't be able to tell them apart from mass produced instances of such weapons. But who were normal Crafters compared to Leonel? He could

"What happened to Auran?"

but he didn't say anything, his gaze flashing with a greenish violet light as an explosion of poison fog filled

immediately recognized this as poison, his mind moved faster than Orinik could fathom. With a quick shift, he swapped places with one of his clones in the distance. He covered several kilometers in a single thought, leaping far outside

"That poison…"

body as though it was a Lineage Factor or Ability Index. But what surprised him was that Orinik could even produce such powerful poison,

Is Orinik a demon too? Something isn't adding

demons before, he had steered

immune to, he had Cleansing Waters to deal with. However, due to the current state of things, he didn't carry the Segmented Cube around him. It was needed to mass produce and process ores, it was also the main source of water and food

to be remembered that due to the suppression of this world, everyone reacted like normal Third Dimensional existences would. They needed to sleep once a day, they needed food and they needed water. The only way to deal with these easily was to

came from his various Lineage Factors and powerful Scarlet Star Force, he was a bit hesitant