Dimensional Descent

"The Nomads and Cloud Race are especially pushy. But there's just no way we can let the Cloud Race in, what kind of commotion would that cause? Once you let them in, you'll never be able to kick them out. We'll have rats scurrying around our world again and again."

'Cloud and Nomad?' Leonel's thoughts sped through several deductions. 'Are the Cloud Race related? No, unlikely. I don't believe that this Dream Asura can just puppeteer so many Races at the same time, it's too much.

'If they did control so many Races, what would even be the point in slinking around like this? They could just directly declare war.

'The only explanation is that they either only control strategic populations of these Races and are ready to use them to change the situation at any time, or they're taking advantage of the Cloud Race's character to act as a smokescreen for their real intentions.'

Leonel's gaze flashed. '... Aerin is in trouble. His disappearance could still work against him, even now.'

Leonel jumped from thought to thought, his deductions hard to follow for anyone on the outside looking in, but the more he thought, the more assured he felt about certain things until his thought process landed on one thing.

Didn't that Cloud Race genius pair up with an Owlan descendent during the Gathering of Minds?

A flash of lightning sparked through Leonel's mind and a strong impulse suddenly fuelled him. He realized something interesting at that point.

Did he really force the Owlans into their current situation? Or was it that he just moved their plans up and caught them off balance a bit?

'I only have 12% assurance in that deduction. I need more information.'

Leonel switched off his thoughts before they spilled over with Auspicious Air. That wouldn't help with his attempt to stay incognito.

Aina reached their hotel room

around the

of the Self State,

his fingers a few times and changed

and pulled out Little Fox's hands. Aina had grabbed them after his

to the Nomads. But Leonel had been able to stop that while he controlled Aina's body. It wasn't even particularly difficult to make it look as though the hands had been

had seen these hands, he had felt a weird feeling from them. And looking at them now more closely, he felt that

an aged hand... and beast

as thick as a man's waist barrelled through Leonel's

'No way...'

for the

for

aside from its pulsing green veins? Why overthink it, didn't this just reflect

of cloud-like Force and runes that

he had seen their Hands of God and this

In fact, when he looked closer, it was a fur

let out a hollow laugh that quickly came from his belly. He couldn't imagine that they would make such a

But then he understood.