Dimensional Descent

Leonel looked at the various souls floating around him and felt a hint of excitement that was doused quickly. How could he remain excited? While it was true a burden that had been weighing him down for so long was finally off of his shoulders, there was another matter that was harder to accept...

After a bit of hesitation, he reached forward toward Rollan's soul.

Rollan was someone that Leonel had met long after his falling out with James. After what happened between him and his longtime best friend, Leonel truly didn't think that he would ever connect with a person on that level again. He and James might have been complete polar opposites, but they worked in a way that Leonel simply couldn't describe.

That wasn't to say that Leonel thought more of James than his other brothers, that wasn't the case at all. Some parents might lie when they said they loved all of their children equally, but Leonel wasn't lying at all when he said that he loved all his brothers the same.

What differentiated his best friend from his buddies wasn't how much he liked James, but rather how well they clicked, how well they played off of one another, how well James seemed to compliment him.

Now that he understood a bit more about himself, Leonel knew exactly why this was too. Would it even be him if it wasn't for a selfish motive?

James was a simple minded brute and he was all too willing to deal with Leonel's manipulation. But at the same time, he was sharp and intuitive in a way he himself probably didn't understand. He could pick out Leonel's flaws in a way that others simply couldn't.

In a lot of ways, James was like Leonel's litmus test. If he could pull one over on James, then his actions would go unnoticed.

he had probably tipped the scales a bit too far out of his favor. Yet, he was a selfish person, but he didn't believe that he had crossed the line to evil, villain, mastermind just yet,

truth to this for certain, because although Rollan was also

the core of whatever was ailing them, and if anything, he was a bit sharper than James was, at least when it came to actually

identical. And it was amusing because if Leonel had to choose which friend he was the second closest to outside of James, it would be Joel. Their drunk escapades and night of cuddling

thing: Joel didn't tolerate Leonel's nonsense at all, once again proven by

was Joel that had brought the liquor that day, and it was Joel who forced

out like Rollan, or tolerate him like James, he would

the captain of the offense, it could be said that when the defense was on the field, the leader wasn't Leonel at all. After all, he was on the sidelines. It was Joel who took control of their defense...

put it that way, it was almost sad. Maybe if Joel had been his best friend instead, or rather

he? Why would he allow someone to change him? Did a person as selfish as himself even have that sort

He undid the restrictions and

into existence, looking around in confusion for a moment. When he noticed Leonel, he immediately bowed deeply, and it was precisely this that made

the other? Of course, no matter how quickly he had completed the Zone, he and Rollan were still slated to be best friends. After all, it had to be remembered that it was Rollan that had given Leonel