Dimensional Descent

Leonel turned his Internal Sight into his body, observing the changes to his brain.

This was the first time he had felt the ability to project Dream Force out of his body. Even though his Starry Spirit Domain existed, it was ultimately still using something internal as a medium and it wasn't quite the same.

Leonel reached out a hand and tried to use it, and it almost felt magical.

He formed a clone of himself almost immediately and it really felt like he was looking right into a mirror.

If Thaela had still been alive to see such a thing, she would have likely been shocked into silence. She had already lost count of how much effort it took her to make a realistic clone of herself, but it seemed to be all too easy for Leonel.

The root of Emulation Spatial Force was in using Spatial Force to effect the environment and Dream Force to mask the Spatial Force. Essentially, the main characteristic was Spatial Force and its manipulation and control. Dream Force was only considered to be a proxy.

In fact, even now, Leonel felt that there was a certain limiter on him. He had much more Dream Force to use than this, but there was a bottleneck of sorts stopping him from pouring out all of the Dream Force he could.

'I see… My output of Dream Force would always be limited by how much Spatial Force I can output since the two come in a package. My amount of Dream Force is great, but my amount of Spatial Force is lesser in comparison.

'However, if I…'

Leonel allowed his Emulation Spatial Force to surge out of his new Innate Node. It flooded his body, filling his other Nodes and Nodal Pathways.

Suddenly, since he wasn't pulling Emulation Spatial Force from the environment, the amount of Spatial Force Leonel had skyrocketed.

A second clone formed, then four, then eight. Eventually, there were hundreds, standing all around and exuding an aura almost identical to Leonel, and with a slight tweak, they were identical.

Hundreds of naked Leonel's standing in the midst of a forest was quite the sight to see. Anastasia could easily see through them, but that was due to her sensitivity in Force to begin with.

Leonel and his clones all reached out at once, causing a spear to appear in their hands.

This spear didn't feel entirely perfect at first, but as Leonel played around and tweaked it, it too became more perfect.

The most shocking part of all of this was that Leonel wasn't using his Starry Spirit Domain. It was safe to say that if he did use it, all of this would only become more perfect.

'I wonder if I can…'

Leonel tried shifting positions with one of his clones like Thaela had. This was an incredibly useful ability and it would make him almost invincible in battle. He didn't believe that anyone would be able to touch the hem of his clothing if he could accomplish this.

Not only was he able to create far more clones at once in comparison to Thaela, but his Dream Force affinity was so far above most individuals that it would be hard to find someone who could see through his clones like he had Thaela's in the first place.

Leonel shifted but his target clone vanished. In addition, his hundreds of other clones wavered, making it quite obvious which one was real and where the fakes were.

Even worse, Leoenl felt that he could only target clones a meter or two from him at best. This much wasn't too bad and could still be considered to be useful, but the fact his other clones almost vanished when he did so made it practically useless.

Leonel frowned and tried again, and then again. He even tried lowering the number of clones, wondering if he actually hadn't seen Thaela's limit, but it was rather her choice to maintain mobility. However, even that didn't work.

Leonel's frown deepened. '… Could it be?'

"What are you doing? Emulation Spatial Force can't be used like that, or at the very least, it's not as good as other Spatial Forces in doing so. Just the same way not all Water Forces can freeze things, not all Spatial Forces are designed for movement.

"Emulation Spatial Force is a Spatial Force that is good at solidifying and giving birth to form and function. When matched with Dream Force, it can basically become anything. Everything, no matter what it is, has some effect on the space in its surroundings, and Emulation Spatial Force uses this to create a replica. At its highest forms, it can even be indistinguishable for the original. Even if one has a high enough Dream Force affinity to tell the difference, it won't really matter because there'll be functionally no difference at all.

"If you wanted to teleport on a whim, this isn't the Force Innate Node you should have chosen."

Although Leonel already understood all of this, he didn't interrupt Anastasia. Instead, he waited until she was done and explained his reasoning.

When Anastasia heard of Thaela and how she used the Innate Node, her own expression flickered, her gaze dancing with a peculiar light.

"… Theoretically, it's possible. But this person has a far higher understanding and control of their Force than you do."

Leonel started. "Do you know about Force Manipulation, Anastasia?"

"Force Manipulation?" Anastasia raised an eyebrow. But when she listened to Leonel's words, her confusion vanished as she became more and more solemn.

"I see, so that's what it is… I didn't expect that there would be such a systematic method. From what you say, it sounds like this world has a method of drilling this comprehension into its youths and they can take this into adulthood.

"I've sensed the existence of such a thing before, but I've never consciously thought about it. It's that damned brat Velasco again, he never explains anything, he better not let me get my hands on him!"