Dimensional Descent

[Bonus chapter courtesy of Fire2112 (aka Firemonster) <3 5/6]

Leonel had a lot of work to do and a lot of things on his mind. Usually, he would probably go tick off those boxes one by one. One would think that a tranquil confidence would make you ignore much of everything, and sometimes it worked like that for Leonel... and at other times, it made him somewhat of a stoic workaholic.

His laziness often came into play when he didn't have direction. But when he did, he could likewise easily lose himself until he grasped something entirely.

At a time like this, where he could so clearly see the list before him...

Give Forgetful Orbs to Eamon and Goggles...Check on his brothers...Break into the Fourth Dimension with his newfound Evolution Ores...Finish up the last of his father's lessons on Crafting and finally comprehend this world a bit more...

... he would usually jump right into that list of things, maybe losing himself for months as though he hadn't just come out of a true instance of life and death.

It was an unhealthy sort of expression of focus, the kind that he didn't really want in his life anymore.

There was no "end goal" here. It constantly felt that with every step he took, another domino would fall and another challenge would rear its ugly head.

It was the Humans, then it was the Demons, then it was the other Races, then it was the Demi-Gods, then it was the Gods, then it was the God Beasts, then it was Existence itself literally blinking like a ticking time bomb.

When would it stop?

The answer was that it probably never would. In that meandering sort of tranquility, he laser-focused on one task after another, not minding how long they went for or even how difficult they were. He just needed that next high, that next victory...

But then what kind of life would he be living? If the end goal was the end of Existence itself, if it was so likely that he would ultimately fail in the end, then what was he wasting his time doing?

But he would never know about when that

really live, really feel

smell

him back one day hadn't vanished. But he also had others

Aina's training region. She was in a deep state of meditation, and usually, he would use this as an excuse to leave and go disappear for another few weeks

he just stood there, looking at her back

because of Aina, though that added some bias to it. But rather because of the soft grass, the wildflowers, the small lake of Cleansing Waters that emitted the fragrance of fresh water

was about to rain, and yet

least an hour later but Aina suddenly opened her eyes. She turned back toward Leonel, a hint of

also gotten used to him leaving while she was in the

hadn't even noticed his presence at all because he hadn't moved an inch. It was only when she was rounding up a series of breakthroughs that she realized he was

looked at him deeply for

though nothing at all had happened. She probably couldn't have even imagined

nice?" Leonel

oversized white t-shirts and alternated between a choice of shorts or leggings. She still very much preferred Earth's style of dress, and she wasn't the biggest fan of formal dressing. Why the people

was up to Leonel's mom to force him to wear something more prim and proper

the Heir Wars together. She

going to compliment a woman, you should at least be a

to pick up other women?" Leonel