Dimensional Descent

Leonel's expression went cold, his body flickering. Even without relying on his Ethereal Star Force, the speed he could tap into with his body alone was far beyond what most could match.

A spike of pain came from his collarbone, but with his Dream Sense, he would never allow it to impact his movement.

At that moment, a sharp wind whistled by his neck and shoulder. The danger made Leonel's hair stand on end, but he still didn't see the result. However, just because he couldn't see it, doesn't mean he couldn't hear it.

A whip-like mark cut across the ground, the grating sound of stone splitting entering Leonel's ears.

Leonel tapped his foot on the ground, his speed accelerating once more as his palm flipped over to reveal his Chain Domain Spear.

In that moment, an Absolute Domain formed around him. His Spear Force acted like it had a mind of its own, springing to light like a flashbang of gold.

A cycle of Spear Force spiraled to life, rotating with a vicious momentum ready to shred everything in its path to pieces.

At the same instant, Leonel secretly tapped into his Wisdom Spirit Branch, allowing his eyes to be replaced by that of the Starry Tailed Fox.

His pupils dilated, a slightly brighter sheen taking hold of his irises. Though it was weaker than when he allowed himself to fully enter his fox form, it was far sharper than his normal vision. What he saw, though, made his eyes narrow once more.

His Spear Force formed a wall of rotating golden energies. Beyond it, a grotesque humanoid-beast-like creature fought against it, its flesh somehow strong enough to withstand it.

It looked like a werewolf, but not. It stood on digitigrade hind legs, but its hands, or rather paws, had sharp claws that were each like scythes. Not a single one of them was shorter than two to three feet.

It had a long snout like a wolf, but it also had a mane like a lion. Well, if a lion replaced all its hair with a dense black fire instead, that is.

Its crimson gaze stared at Leonel through the rotating cyclone of Spear Force, its scythe-like claws trying to rip a path through.

Leonel's expression turned cold.

"Piss off."

Forceful.

Leonel's spear pierced forward, his blade unceremoniously tearing a hole through the werewolf's fire-mane and leaving its neck in pieces.

The werewolf demon beast's crimson eyes widened, before it fell to the side. It didn't think that Leonel would actually be so powerful. However, what made Leonel's heart grow cold was the fact he didn't see any fear of death in the creature's eyes. There was only surprise at Leonel's strength and nothing more, it was as though it never really cared about its life in the first place.

The shadows watching Leonel's progress also paused in surprise. Even for someone in the Sixth Star, taking out a Five Star Demon in a single strike was not a simple feat. Demons were far more exaggerated creatures than beasts, they tended to be much more powerful than their base realms would dictate.

Leonel's head snapped in their direction, his cold gaze squinting somewhat.

The shadows didn't move an inch. They had slipped up once, but they were extremely professional, it was just that Leonel's feat was far too surprising. This was definitely something they would have to report later.

In their estimation, so long as they didn't move, Leonel would eventually believe that he had made a mistake and turn away. And, sure enough, Leonel turned away again after frowning slightly. Still, they couldn't help but be inwardly shocked again. Such a small slip up wasn't something that a Five Star should have been able to see through either.

What they missed, though, was Leonel's sneer after he turned away.

He had been making it a point not to show too much of his strength. But, this was still within the realms of acceptability. He would be fine so long as he only continued to lean on his Water Force and Spear Force.

However, he had purposely made that strike as dazzling as possible for two reasons. First, he wanted to learn of the standards of this world, and he also wanted to expose those following him. Now that he knew where they were, they could forget about continuing to hide from him.

So long as he knew exactly where they were, he would be able to protect his life better without being too restricted. He could take advantage of their perspective to hide more of his strength, while simultaneously not being worried about displaying a bit more of it.

Leonel shot forward. In such a dark area, he had definitely released far too bright of a light. He was practically yelling and screaming to every threat that he was right here.

He made sure to note where the chain was. While he trusted his sense of direction, the fact the adjacent chain had disappeared told him that there was more to this world than he thought.

Surprisingly, though, the darkness didn't remain for long. Leonel went from being shrouded in a perpetual black to entering a work of red-black a moment later.

Up ahead, there was a land of mountains and hills. The earth was a dark red and the skies were a black-violet. The clouds had a weird bluish hue to them that made it feel like the fog of a hallucinogenic drug.

Leonel's head snapped back and he found a curtain of blackness. The abrupt change was jarring and didn't make much sense, but Leonel deduced that this was likely something that kept the city and the above world protected.

He was correct. Only humans and Demons beneath the Sixth Star could pass through this seemingly flimsy curtain of black. But, this also meant that Leonel was in the true world of Demons now.

Leonel's steps pushed forward, entering a forest of dead and black trees, looking for his target.

However, his goal was deeper than just this.