Dimensional Descent

It was only a matter of a thought. Leonel had originally designed this ability so that Aina would be able to use his Ability Index as a proxy to increase the range of her own Ability Index outside of her body. But, who said that powerful abilities couldn't be used to flirt?

The moment Leonel held Aina's hand, he connected his Starry Spirit Domain with hers, the feeling making her gasp out in shock.

Back when Aina had connected with Yuri, the feeling was overwhelming and she instantly felt that her mind was tired. But, with Leonel taking on all the computing ability, it felt like she had gained Leonel's thinking speed, and she was quite speechless about what to say.

Was this how fast Leonel talked all the time? No wonder he couldn't stand to explain things to people, by the time you understood his thought, he would have had a thousand more.

"See? I'm confident."

Aina blinked, feeling that Leonel really wasn't lying to her. But, she still felt a bit stubborn about it. If it wasn't the Void Tower, then what could have possibly caused it?

"Just keep holding my hand," she said defiantly. "If you fall into a dream, we're falling into a dream together. That way, I can at least kick your ass until we starve to death or accidentally jump off the nearest building."

Leonel laughed and obliged. It was fine by him, as far as he was concerned, he had gained big here. What was there to hate about holding a maiden's hand?

Soon, though, Leonel had already turned his attention back to the vault, three illusory tails blooming to his back as he forced his Starry Spirit Domain to expand. With a range of five meters, he could only touch upon a fraction of the space around him, but he already had areas that he wanted to focus on.

Leonel closed his eyes. He didn't need his eyes to see everything around him as clear as day. In fact, everything within his Starry Spirit Domain was even clearer than when he used his eyes alone, nothing could compare.

Every small little detail was reflected back to him, every nook and cranny being scanned and stored into his Dream World.

He focused more and more. What he had now was too surface level, too shallow. He needed to get deeper, into the very essence of the location itself, reaching beyond just the images, and into what constructed them.

Everything was formed of Force at some level, especially at the highest Dimensions. Only the Third Dimension could get away with the simplicity of physics and chemistry to explain everything. Upon touching the Quasi Fourth Dimension, everything changed.

Leonel could feel the variant Earth Forces that made up the ground and walls, he could sense the Wind Force circulating through the are, the Wood Force sustain the vitality of… the chairs?

There were all sorts of oddities like this every, and he picked up on them all. However, Leonel realized instantly that if he was in the outside world, such a thing would have been impossible for him. He might have been able to sense the variant Earth Forces, but Wind and Wood Force? He didn't have the affinity necessary!

That was when it clicked for Leonel, his lips curling into a smile.

The reason he could sense these Forces here was that it wasn't these Forces at all. Rather, it was Dream Force masquerading itself!

It was no wonder Leonel could sense it all so clearly. This wasn't the true embodiment of these Forces at all, rather it was just how most people would view them.

'No, it isn't that simple. If it weren't a true embodiment, then everyone who entered a Zone, so long as they had at least one decent affinity, they would feel that something was off. Unless…'

Since Dream Force was a representation of consciousness, could it be that everyone who entered a Zone was just fooled? Even if they had a high affinity, they would be tricked into thinking this Dream Force was the true form of their favorite Force.

'If things are like that, then…'

Leonel's mind sunk deeper. He had spent time looking for Dream Force, but his approach had been wrong from the very beginning. Everything he was Dream Force!

In that case, what he should be doing wasn't looking for Dream Force. Instead, he should be already be parsing apart what he was seeing. He would just treat everything like it was Dream Force.

The first thing Leonel tried to do was manipulate the Dream Force around him, but as he had already expected, it was impossible. His Ability Index wasn't designed to work like that and he seemed to be shackled from doing so.

He could project his Dream Force out and into his Starry Spirit Domain, but he couldn't take control of the Dream Force that was already here.

However, Leonel wasn't worried about this. If he could actually do such a thing, he could probably cause the entire Zone to collapse. That was something that he wasn't sure if he would be able to control properly. But, this was within what he could do.

Instead of taking control of the Dream Force, he used his affinity with it to peer into its secrets.

Leonel was able to perfectly reconstruct every scene within a five meter radius of him. After reconstructing it, he was able to insert a 100% clone into his Dream Simulation. And then…

He could rewind the clock.

The higher the Dimension, the more difficult it was for Leonel to use his Dream Simulation ability. Usually, he had millions of constraints he had to deal with and the things he could simulate were pretty much within his body and his body alone.

This made sense. If Leonel wanted to simulate something, he needed a perfect understanding of something. The less comprehension he had, the worse the simulation.

But now that everything around him was constructed of Dream Force… How could he possibly have a limited understanding of it?

A wild grin spread across Leonel's face as a Force Art that had long since been destroyed began to reform in his mind.