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.

he was hard pressed to think

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 was no way they'd go the extra step of publicizing it, and thus they

Leonel chuckled to himself. 'This is...

glowed, a smile that could blot out the sun spreading across his

Pavilion. Inside, he found Goggles exchanging

sudden appearance and were about to

didn't come here to interrupt you guys. How's everything been

with a

up, but Leonel couldn't help but

easy to see through. It seemed that even now, he wasn't quite comfortable around Leonel

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 of resources isn't going to

wanted to revert back to the time they would wrap their arms around one another's shoulders and

with life didn't come

thoughts of his heart on his face. "I have something I might need

dojo style challenge. The number of participants is dependent on myself, though there are some quirky rules

the time comes, but I'll be

Pavilion did, the laundry list of rules was extensive and if Leonel really poured it on them,

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

didn't know if he

"You know what your greatest

blinked, blushing down his