Dimensional Descent

Suddenly, the orb in Aurora's palm shattered, catching her off guard. She was thrust into a state of confusion, not quite understanding. She had only caught it with enough pressure to maintain control, she hadn't put in nearly enough effort to crush it. Just considering the speeds the orb had withstood just to fly over here in the first place, it would take hundreds of times more strength than she applied to crush it like this.

Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. Could it be? Aurora panicked and her aura flared out. She entrapped the bits and pieces of the orb that she could, and she directly destroyed the ones she couldn't.

Obviously, she thought that Leonel had expected this to happen. So, he set the orb to detonate as a way to get around her defenses and make it to the Pillar of Truth anyway. If those pieces touched the pillar, then her stopping it wouldn't matter anyway.

But unfortunately, she miscalculated.

That was never Leonel's intention at all.

Instead, the world watched as a supposed elite Owlan panicked at the thought of the shards touching the pillars and rushed to stop them.

Was the Pillar of Truth really so fragile that it couldn't stand such a thing? Why were the Owlans trying so hard to stop it?

Aurora blanched when she realized how bad the optics of what she had just done were. She stood frozen, unsure of what to do. However, when she looked up at Leonel, his smile had never faded.

"If this was such a problem, you could have just said so. Why did-"

Leonel was silenced and his lips seemed to be pressed close under some mysterious power.

It would have been perfect if Celestia had done it, but the Owlans weren't such fools. Instead, it was Talon and the Dream Asura who had taken action.

However, Leonel didn't seem fazed in the slightest as he turned his smile toward them.

rebuttal for what they were going to say. Leonel

was perfect and unimpeachable, the optics would only get worse. And, clearly, Talon knew

one, allow Leonel to continue talking and make the situation worse? Or two, should they take action to stop it now and take the

was obvious. Sometimes you had to take a

Talon said. "We've gotten far off topic during this debate. I won't make any accusations about what may or may not have happened between yourself and these two, but as the

glowed as well. It was inevitable. Now, he was roped into a three-way battle. In addition, when he finished speaking, it

for the next hour... he

didn't expect such a thing from the member of

"That's the second time you've mentioned another's Race

say anything further, but Leonel's pillar began to dim while

of Minerva's self-control for her expression to not become a gloomy mess. She seemed to finally realize that Leonel was playing the same game she was. He had never come here expecting this to be a completely fair arbitration of his skills and intelligence. He was more than willing to

Why did Leonel keep digging himself into a bigger and

Human Race even once, even though that was probably the easiest dig to take at

this would

it?" Leonel blinked innocently. "Didn't this Owlan descendant here say that the reason the four of you were able to reach the same exact standard is because of your upbringing? Wasn't that implying that you did better because

toward Lumina with a quick side glance before focusing on Leonel

world are so twisted," Somnus suddenly spoke. "I find

he spoke, the world seemed to