Dimensional Descent

Leonel walked out from seemingly nowhere, a corpse as large as a moon, and only getting bigger, hanging from his silver, white-gold arm. The Shadow Tail's body seemed to be losing its form slowly, or what small bit of form it had once had, the longer it spent dead. Its billowing Dark Force spread out, and as it did so, its large, mangled body expanded as though there was a balloon within it.

He was so small compared to the corpse of the Shadow Tail that it was almost impossible to tell that the former was being carried at all, it seemed more like the beast was languid, beaten and battered with injuries, and it was only now slowly making its way back.

As for Leonel, his gaze was vacant and empty. They held an unfathomable depth, one worn and torn by the ages.

There was one person, though, who noticed him immediately.

Alienor, or rather Alienor in the body of a woman he didn't recognize, rushed forward with her greatest speed. However, in the devastation, and especially after being blown so far back by the destruction of the Fusion Core, just how far was that distance?

Who could stop a grieving mother, though?

It had been hours since Leonel had disappeared, and Alienor had already pried herself forward, looking through the debris of the destroyed Tier 1 Starship. When she saw the Shadow Tail suddenly appear, she rushed forward in a fury. But when she noticed its startling lack of a reaction, and then saw that it was actually being carried, her tears spilled forward in a torrent.

She rushed forward and buried Leonel's head into her chest, holding onto him maybe more tightly than she should have. She seemed to have completely forgotten that to Leonel, she should have just been a random woman he had never met before, but she couldn't be bothered to deal with this.

She didn't care how Leonel had defeated the Shadow Tail, she didn't care where he had gone, she didn't care about the Zone or what challenges they had passed or failed, she just pulled in her son as tightly as she could, and Leonel let her do as he pleased.

He stood there, silently listening to the sobs of his mother.

never a need to worry when I'm here.

to be the same strong pillar that her husband had

to say such words to her, her husband shouldn't have had to say such words to her, she should have been able to stand in front of the former and stand beside the latter, and yet all she could

Little Lion,

understand how his mother felt, or how Aina had felt, but soon, there would come a day where their hearts could lay to rest and their calm could return, a

pulled back, teary faced, looking into the abyss of her son's eyes. She didn't seem surprised to see this. She had observed Leonel for far longer than he knew, at least until recently. She understood him better than most, which was exactly why she had never tried to

true mother, and yet she had indulged her son instead of doing the opposite. It was embarrassing, she

said that

back," Leonel said lightly before

trembled, but she bit her lip hard, so hard that blood dribbled down her chin. She didn't have a decision,

...

into the distance, crossing large

"Anastasia," Leonel said.

"Mm."

enough to take