Dimensional Descent

The Emberheart Lady spoke calmly and in the end, her husband couldn't refute anything she said.

Inwardly, though, they both felt complicated about this matter. Nothing in Leonel's letter was wrong. They had disparaged his wife, and they had raised the status of Lyra.

The latter choice was because Lyra's marriage to Thalion was meant to be the catalyst they needed in order to move forward with the next steps of their plan.

Part of their mixed feelings was exactly because of this. They had put their daughter directly in the line of fire not just once, but twice now. Although the world didn't know, how could they not know that they had tried to marry her off to Leonel first.

These matters built up frustration in layers and they felt like they were being painted into a box. But ultimately, they never had a choice...

Until now.

Finally, they could take some of the brunt of the pressure away from their daughter and bear it themselves as her parents. The Emberheart Lady didn't even plan to have Lyra on the participating roster. She would do this for her child... as Lyra's mother.

They accepted Leonel's challenge.

By doing so, they felt that they could better paint the humans as the villains and their plan, which had stalled, could roll forward once more.

...

What the couple didn't know was that this wasn't their choice at all.

Leonel stood on the high clouds of the Dream Pavilion, taking in the beautiful array of blues, pinks and violets. It was truly gorgeous in ways that couldn't be described.

a lot of the world now, but he was hard pressed to think of a

made the letter even more vicious, but he didn't, and that was because he wanted them to publicize it. He wanted them to use it as the lightning rod

there

Leonel chuckled to

blot out the sun spreading across

and with a step, he entered the Pavilion. Inside, he

startled with Leonel's sudden appearance and were about

whoa, I didn't come here to interrupt you guys. How's everything

said with a gaze filled with

but Leonel

faked. It was too easy to see through. It seemed that even now, he wasn't quite comfortable

price I have to pay. It will take time. Plus, it isn't as though I've put in as much effort as I should have. Just giving him a bunch

around one another's shoulders and face off against the world together, his actions

life didn't come without

heart on his face. "I have something I might need you two

a dojo style challenge. The number of participants is dependent on myself,

know the rules when the time comes, but I'll be depending on you

the laundry list of rules was extensive and if Leonel really poured it on them, they wouldn't be able to retain it all. It was

and he felt like the sky was being overturned. He had been having fun learning more about Crafting than

didn't know if he was ready for

grinned. "You know what your

blinked, blushing down