Dimensional Descent

Leonel laughed again, flicking his finger and sending the sword spiraling upward. With a dull slapping sound, Leonel grabbed the sword by its hilt and sent it flying forward.

A soothing whistle sound filled the air, only to be interrupted by the sound of blade meeting wood. A tree in the distance was directly split in the middle and it seemed that the sword might continued travelling right through it. But, it was at that moment that something astonishing happened.

As though it had been burnt from the inside out, the tree crumbled into a pile of ash, collapsing to the ground in a heap.

The sword continued into the distance before falling not far afterward. Unfortunately, the ground it landed upon became like an ash land of death. The greenery withered, the rich soil turned to harsh granules, and a crater formed and collapsed, the weakened ground falling in on itself.

Leonel whistled, the result being slightly more exaggerated than even he expected.

Of course, this weapon was the result of Leonel applying what he had grasped from his Innate Node. It was just a low level destruction Force Art, but the result was quite devastating.

Though that was just a normal tree and ground, and the crater wasn't very large, barely half a meter in radius, they were both still tempered by a Sixth Dimensional world even if they weren't anything special. To have them crumble like that… Well, it spoke for itself.

The only trouble was…

Almost as soon as the crater began to collapse, as though it had used up all its energy, the sword crumbled soon afterward. Leonel didn't even bother to go after it, he knew it was finished.

As he had expected, weapons he incorporated these sort of Force Arts into would have a short shelf life. He had predicted that they would last maybe one battle, but judging by the result, it might not last even that long. They might be good as a trump card, but as a main mode of battle… Leonel didn't think they could be trusted.

On top of this, they were expensive. Just to survive as long as it did, Leonel was forced to forge the sword of the Sixth Dimension Ore he had gotten from Patriarch Avarone Radix's body. When he had tried the same thing with a Fifth Dimension Ore, it didn't even make it past the production stage.

There were, of course, other problems as well. For instance, it wasn't scalable since Leonel was definitely the only one who could Craft them. On top of that, they were obviously dangerous. Leonel wasn't sure how easy it would be for others to harm themselves with it.

'The destructive power is undeniable. I might just need to stick to using it with arrows and maybe bullets if I ever decide to go that route again… The Tier 9 Gold Bow should be able to handle firing those arrows up to a certain point, the only trouble is where am I going to find so much Sixth Dimensional Ore?'

Leonel shook his head. Maybe instead of trying to find such things, he should instead focus on finding Ores better suited to withstanding the Destruction Force Arts.

'Alright, I'll leave this be for now. There's at least a proof of concept. I think I'll turn my attention back to the Luxnix family Force Art system now.'

Leonel's mind was like a machine working on the best sort of fuel. Everything was so clear to him and his minds worked separately and in unison completely seamlessly.

He let Little Tolly go play with Little Blackstar and he reallocated the minds he had put toward Crafting back toward analyzing the ins and outs of this new Force Art system.

One might think that this wasn't worth it. After all, Leonel's mother knew of the Luxnix Force Art system, yet all of her most powerful techniques used the Camelot Magic System instead. So, wasn't it better to focus on the latter?

But Leonel saw it differently. After speaking with his grandmother and consulting the dictionary, he understood a bit more about the World Spirit.

The reason why all of his mother's most powerful techniques utilized Camelot's system and not the Luxnix's was because she had Earth's World Spirit, not the Three Pillar World's World Spirit which was divided between the three families.

Simply put, his mother had perfectly grasped Camelot's Magic System without even trying to its greatest depths. In fact, she was only limited by her current Dimension level. When it came to the Luxnix's, though, her comprehension was shallow by comparison.

Realizing this, Leonel understood that there was still great potential in the Luxnix's system.

Just when Leonel was about to completely close himself off again, he looked up, realizing that his brothers were all approaching him with complicated looks in their eyes.

"Hm?" Leonel blinked. "What's wrong with you all?"

Joel shook his head. He was certain that Leonel already had a guess, probably multiple. But, he still started to speak.

"Leo, this is how things are…"

Leonel listened silently, not interrupting even once. His expression wasn't cold or indifferent, he simply looked like he was listening to a friend tell him a story. He nodded from time to time and even hummed in agreement depending on the circumstances. If one didn't know just how much all of this should have mattered to Leonel, they would have never thought there was anything wrong with his actions.

"… The decision is up to you." Joel finally said.

"I'm with you, Cap." Raj supplemented.

After hearing the truth behind things, even Raj couldn't help but change his tune. In fact, he felt kind of bad for being so hard on her. But, in the end, the one he would follow would always be Leonel, even if it was at the expense of Aina.

Still… Being cursed from childhood, losing your mother, and effectively your father. Dealing with that sort of pain for a lifetime and having your insecurities amplified day after day… Raj couldn't help but be sympathetic.

"I see." Leonel nodded and remained silent for a moment before continuing.

"Unfortunately, I have no intention of saving her."

All those years ago, Leonel had made his stance very clear to Aina. In fact, he remembered the exact words he had spoken that day.

'I know you have a heavy burden on your heart. All I want you to know is that I'm here to bear it with you. I just want you to trust me, lean on me. Never go off on your own and do something stupid because I will not come to save you. Do you understand me?'

Those words, he had spoken them and he had meant them.