Dimensional Descent

Aina chuckled. "If you weren't over-confident, then you wouldn't be you."

Leonel was speechless. "Was I always like this?"

"Do you think it's normal for someone to confess to a person over 500 times?" Aina blinked innocently as though she wasn't poking at a sore spot.

Leonel coughed, not knowing what to say. Did that even take confidence? He never really thought much about it, he just wanted to hear a real answer from her. If she had given him a sign that she didn't want it, then he wouldn't have even done it twice, let alone over 500 times.

Seeing Leonel's reaction, Aina rolled her eyes.

"Most people struggle to do it even once. And, if they get rejected, they might not try again in their lifetime, let alone being persistent for so long."

Leonel raised an eyebrow. "Why do you sound so familiar with how this works?"

Aina smiled, flipping her hair. "Do you think you're the only one to have ever confessed to me? I'm quite popular, you know."

Leonel choked on air, his head spinning toward Aina to the point he almost forgot that he was still working on a Dream Rewind right this moment.

Aina's eyelashes fluttered innocently as though she hadn't said anything at all.

Leonel was a man who had shattered the glasses of the Grand Prime Minister's son just because he had looked at Aina for a second too long. It was safe to say that under normal circumstances, he was quite the jealous man.

However, Aina continued to smile as though she hadn't said anything. Wasn't this what he got for being so confident as to think she would always be obediently waiting for him? Even if it was true, he wasn't allowed to think about it!

She had her own pettiness—no, image, to uphold.

"Who?" Leonel asked.

"What, are you going to go beat them up?"

"Yes."

Leonel nodded vigorously, causing Aina to burst into a fit of laughter. She doubled over, holding her stomach. If it wasn't for the binding around her chest, who knew what sort of undulations such heart laughter would have caused?

Eventually, Leonel managed to finish under Aina's teasing, the very first Force Art he had failed to complete finally forming under his gaze.

Seeing it now, his eyes couldn't help but glow. He had actually managed to finish it without passing out. Though, he felt that this was actually in part due to his mind becoming more robust.

"This is the formation that trapped us before?" Aina asked.

"It's similar, very similar. I have to believe that the Dwarven Race probably spread this out to all their core strongholds. This one is a bit stronger. So long as we set it up, we won't have to ever worry about our home being burned down again."

As Leonel said this, his gaze flashed with a cold light. It was clear that he hadn't forgotten about this in the slightest. He would definitely make Treanna cough up his payback by a hundredfold.

"The only trouble with this is that it needs precious metals to resonate with in order to display its greatest strength. In addition, we'll need to sculpt the beasts with precious metals as well. Their strength will also be decided by how much we invest."

Leonel's brows furrowed. The more precious the metal, the more difficult it was to sculpt. The foundational piece was simple enough, it could just be a slab or metal with the Force Art carved into it. But, the beast sculptors were more complicated.

The Force Art itself already had certain precise parameters that needed to be met so that the resonance would work properly. If even a single thing was off, the strength wouldn't be properly displayed.

That was just the first issue, the main problem was something else. Leonel already knew that this wouldn't be anywhere near the best the Dwarven Race had to offer, but seeing it now, he realized just how true this was.

The original formation had been drawn onto Seventh Dimensional materials, this was the initial reason Leonel had thought of for explaining why he couldn't sense them before finding out the truth. However, the fact didn't change at all.

What was the issue? This formation resonated with Seventh Dimensional materials, yet it only displayed Sixth Dimensional strength. This was more than just a little disappointing, and though Leonel had expected it, he still couldn't help but sigh.

For a formation that required Seventh Dimensional materials to only display such strength, wasn't it too pitiful? It was clear that Dwarven Race had done this on purpose.

Leonel couldn't have been more correct.

It had to be remembered that the Dwarven Race was in the same position as the Humans previously. Everyone eyed their territory due to their weakness, and they were forced into a defensive position. In such a situation, how could they have sent a powerful offensive into the Human Domain?

These Zones represented points in the past where the Dwarven Race sent forward a vanguard of some of their weakest, just to probe the situation. They didn't send their most powerful, nor did they send their best resources. This was another reason why their Zones were concentrated in the lower ranks of the Void Palace.

'This is still salvageable. If I get strong Sixth Dimensional materials, match the resonance perfectly, and then stack it with Aina's voice, I should be able to squeeze out more strength than they did.'

Leonel nodded to himself. He would have to study these thoroughly. Since this would probably be the best he could find in these Zones, he had no choice but to go all out with what he had. He didn't believe that he would be able to find the secret hidden within these.

…

Leonel and Aina finally made their way out of the Zone on the final day. Surprisingly, there was no one waiting for them outside, something they had gotten used to. It seemed that the Green Thread Faction was still licking its wounds.

They made it to the closest Senate Branch and exchanged all their missions at once. It was time for their real counterattack to begin.