Dimensional Descent

Patriarch Khafra's gaze sharpened.

"It's been long enough," he said coldly.

There wasn't a strict time limit on sending in participants, but that didn't mean that they were perfectly lax. There were methods of pressure that Patriarch Khafra could use, and some of those even included losing even more points.

All of this was just a formality at this point. Whether Leonel sent someone in or not didn't matter. He had only really spoken for the sake of regaining face. The rest of it was irrelevant to him.

He had all the time in the world. So long as Leonel stalled for any longer, he would just deduct more of his points.

This was just the first step of their plan and they weren't on a timeline crunch... yet.

Leonel completely ignored him, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. The entire rest of the world was meaningless to him; he felt at peace so long as he could feel Aina in his arms.

His violent aura slowly receded further and the world returned to peace. Finally, the tears of blood that ran down his cheeks were burnt into a falling rain of ash. The last to recede was his crown of black and violet, his robes leaving just a moment before.

Soon, there was truly a peaceful quiet.

"-Hurry up!"

The first thing Leonel heard when he started paying attention to the world once again was Gregwyn's incessant chattering. He seemed to be even more pissed off than Patriarch Khafra that he had felt so much fear just now.

He was eager to watch Leonel fall, and his previous complacent laughter had been muffled by his unhappiness.

Once again, Leonel ignored him.

He was painted into a corner? What complete and utter fools. He had never been painted into a corner in his entire life, and he doubted it would start now.

he wanted to lose on purpose, then

he wanted to win, no one could stop him

but because of the deep and profound respect he had for the man who had raised him. Recreating that man was nothing more than a spit to the face of everything

on out, that was the one and only loss he would ever take. It was a loss not to the world, not

back and looked into Aina's

"I'll need your help."

already understanding from Leonel's

a movement of her intention, the technique her father gave her circulated and she fell from the Eighth

of several pills, she entered the Fourth

eyes widened, but it

accepted the challenge and both her and Little

Khafra's lip trembled. He had a bad feeling, a

heart calming down for only

Respect and Persistence.

try and recreate the man

world that Velasco Morales was the only one worthy of him

BANG!

before his Dream Force was only akin to a level above, right now his Higher

the fainted edges of the Self Path and he understood why he

He was too stubborn.

was understanding the uniqueness of a person, a uniqueness that couldn't be replicated. Only by understanding how special you, yourself, were, could you impose that Will onto

of the Forces of the world and force only your own nature

truly accepted his father's