Dimensional Descent

[Bonus chapter courtesy of Mr. Ham <3 1/6]

Leonel didn't move for a long while. If one observed his expression, it would be hard to tell that he could feel anything at all, let alone what he was feeling.

Sometimes his analytical abilities were a bit of a curse. The human response would be to rush forward. He didn't know Clarence very well, but he had done more for the actual sake of humans than anyone else Leonel had ever met.

It wasn't that fake, pompous, uppity path those powers tried to take, sacrificing those they thought to be lesser than them and trying to herd them like animals. He had put himself on the line, like a true man of humanity should have, like a true leader should have.

Compared to the likes of Vivak, or Mo''Lexi, or any one of the Great Families, he was leagues beyond.

In the end, the Dream Pavilion hadn't been under his control. The decisions that they had made earlier had all been Kings, and the decisions made afterward could only be jointly decided by the several Deputy Pavilion Heads even if Clarence was the strongest of them all.

He was a man worthy of respect, even though he hadn't immediately had all of Leonel's trust.

However, Leonel didn't run to what was left of him. His mind knew why.

Clarence would be gone in 4.7 seconds. It would take him, even at his fastest speed, 5.2 seconds to reach him. In that last 0.5 seconds, it would feel like an eternity, such a small segment of time to a Third Dimensional existence might as well have been an impossibly vast chasm to someone with his strength, and only made worse by his speed of thought.

There was no reaching him. There was nothing he could do even if he did.

to slowly eke out the rest

reform him, he might not even be the Clarence of old, his previous memories,

that point, was he even still Clarence any longer? He was

that Clarence was barely able to notice him. His eyes, or what remained of

by a regret, not for the loss of his life, but because he felt that Leonel's fate would likely be not much different than his own... regret that he had caused maybe the last hope of the Human Race to fall here just due to something

he was

Leonel had hoped that maybe he could save some of it, that maybe if Clarence had a chance to come back at some later date, that he would at least have a piece of himself remaining

was still

slip through his fingers like running water, pooling down to the ground and vanishing into the

about it. Even maybe the greatest treasure ever forged was helpless to reform

but think about his father again. Would he really ever be able to bring him back? Even if he did, would he

Leonel's gripped fist loosened.

a mask of the deepest indifference taking hold

But he was angry.

a word, he moved, climbing