Dimensional Descent

Leonel stood easily 50 meters away from the Spiritual, his brows locked into a deep frown.

'Is this man a Spiritual, then? Or is he a human with an ability to target souls? I don't think I've ever heard of the latter, but I've never seen Aina's Ability Index in a compendium either. It's possible that this is a uniquely evolved ability, I have seen those before and they can't be documented.'

Though Leonel thought this, he was more inclined to believe that this man before him was a Spiritual. He looked simply too… Perfect. It reminded Leonel a lot of Wise Star Order's appearance.

Souls tended to be extremely pure and more beautiful than the bodies they came from, according to Wise Star Order, anyway. This was because souls could be idealized thanks to their more intangible forms. In addition, a body had to undergo certain abuses a soul never would.

For example, nutrition, injury, environment, all of these things could negatively affect the perfection of a body. The soul, though, was protected by its shell of flesh and thus avoided this.

Of course, if this man was a Spiritual, what Leonel was seeing right now wasn't a soul, but rather the body it had created for itself, a body which, likewise, wasn't subject to the same harsh realities of a human's body.

Like Wise Star Order had said, Spirituals formed their own bodies after their births. Being able to mold themselves in their own image like this would obviously give birth to the same sort of overdone perfection.

'Well, I guess my Aina is an exception.'

If others knew that Leonel had wasted a thought for such a clarification, who knew how they would react.

Now that Leonel had calmed, though, he noticed several things. Well, several things outside the fact he was even more tired now than before.

The first was that this Spiritual wasn't in the Sixth Dimension at all, they were in the Fifth. Leonel had a feeling that if his soul was still in the Fifth as well, that attack just now would have most definitely killed him. The gap in skill was almost too much even for the Dimensional gap to overcome.

The second was that this man seemed to now be frowning a bit, almost as though he was surprised that Leonel was still standing.

The third was the tree and especially the golden apple. Leonel hadn't really thought about it before, but why was it here? Was there something important about it?

It was then that he felt a subtle sort of connection between the man and it. But, almost as soon as he did, it was as though his Internal Sight had rammed into a steel wall, being rebuffed and knocked flying. Leonel almost subconsciously fell backward, only to realize it was only his mind that had been sent soaring.

'This…'

Leonel retrieved his Internal Sight, reining it in and sending it forward again, only for the result to be just the same. And then he tried again, then again.

Leonel's gaze narrowed, stepping forward, slowly. He closed the distance between himself and the young man. The rebuffing became more and more powerful, but every time it happened, Leonel seemed to get better at handling it.

'Do it again…' Leonel thought silently to himself.

What he spoke about wasn't the Internal Sight sparring at all. He meant something entirely different.

Leonel eventually stepped to the very spot he had been in before when he explosively retreated and that was when he felt it. No, this time, with his Internal Sight deployed, he could almost see it.

It speared through the air, appearing before his forehead in the blink of an eye. It was so fast that it was almost impossible to dodge.

Almost.

Leonel's head tilted to the side, but he was still a step too late. The harpoon threaded into the side of his forehead, snagging at a piece of his soul and trying to rip it out.

For just a moment, Leonel didn't fight back against the sensation, feeling it pulling at him. The feeling was much less life threatening than it had been before, but he could feel that if he allowed it to happen, his mind would be irreparably harmed.

This wasn't the kind of injury you could heal. Leonel was certain <Instantaneous Recovery> wouldn't have even the slightest effect. However, this was just a simulation, Leonel felt that if there was any place he could toe the line like this, it was in this place.

Just when Leonel felt like his soul was truly about to be ripped out, his will flourished, his Dream Force pulling back and his Stars began to rotate faster.

The weak hold the harpoon had had on him weakened even further, snapping and releasing Leonel.

However, at that moment, Leonel's partially awakened soul seemed to have perked up more.

"Again." Leonel said, taking another step forward.

The Spiritual didn't need Leonel's input, he had already attacked again the moment Leonel moved.

Leonel's head shifted again, but this time, he purposely let himself get nicked.

Leonel repeated the process again and again. Slowly, from somewhere deep within the recesses of Leonel's body, his soul was slowly being dragged out from its slumber.

With each attempt, Leonel's Dream Force seemed to become thicker, his affinity deepening and his Ability Index trembling, creeping forward at a slow, but steady pace.

In an odd, unknown world, a version of Leonel stood. Its arms dangled forward limply, its legs pinned down to the ground and its head drooping, its expression impossible to spot.

All around it… A dense lake of crimson lay, its hands and feet bound within.

Black chains wrapped around it entirely, shackling its neck, its torso and its hips. However, the greatest anchor seemed to be the lake of red itself… What very much seemed to be a pool of blood.

Every time the harpoon nicked Leonel, it would stir, its head raising slightly. By the time Leonel had closed the distance to the Spiritual to just ten meters, its head had risen just high enough to see a pair of eyes just barely cracking open.

A chain snapped, the blood lake suddenly beginning to boil.