Dimensional Descent

Galaeron was unmoved by Raffyr's surprise, but this wasn't because he had known for a very long time, it was instead because he had learned of the oddity himself via Leonel not too long ago.

The former Secretary Marquisette Maia, now turned Imperial Minister, was a very odd story not because it was overly complex, but because of how covert and secretive it had been. If not for a small mistake Maia had made almost three decades ago now, this matter may very well have been entirely devastating.

The first time Leonel met Maia she actually had an entirely different look and he almost lost his life at the hands of her schemes. Back then, she had been a captain of the Slayer Legion and his interactions with her could only be said to have been far from pleasant.

The two women, or rather two identities, couldn't have been further from one another. One was a leader of the rebels, and the other was a high official for the Empire, one was obese and quite ugly, while the other was a voluptuous, mature beauty who turned heads just by walking down the street.

The two didn't seem to have any connection with one another and their stories only seemed to diverge more and more as the years went on.

The captain of the Slayer Legion identity-Captain Sela-slowly worked her way up the ranks, becoming a prominent figure in the Slayer Legion, a fact that likely resulted in the many traitors that had appeared today.

On the other side, the Secretary Marquisette identity had worked her way into the Royal Blue Fort, becoming the new first wife of Governor Duke Leum and birthing his child.

The last time Leonel had even thought of this woman, it was for the sake of laughing at the plight of Miles Leum. Back then, it was Miles and Simeon who had acted together to launch bombs after Leonel in his attempt to escape from the Fort. That had led to Aina being severely injured and the pair of lovebirds being separated for a time.

Due to that event, Miles had been scapegoated by his father who had been in the capital at the time and the child Governor Duke Leum sired with Maia became the new Heir to the Governor Duke family.

This felt like a satisfying conclusion to the story, and it would have been as such had Maia not had a second identity. But between then and now, she had climbed from Secretary Marquisette, to wife of Governor Duke, to Imperial Minister...

What was especially odd about this was that Imperial Minister was a higher status than Secretary Marquisette, but this wasn't necessarily the case for the title of Governor Duke.

However, rather than using her child to leverage a Governor Duke position, Maia had chosen to come to the heart of the capital instead, sinking her claws into the heart of both the Slayer Legion and the Capital.

This woman was very clearly smart, conniving, and exceptionally patient, having laid down her plans for decades. So what had exposed her in the end?

It was something quite simple, actually...

Her choice in perfume.

Back then, Leonel had felt that Captain Sela's fragrance was familiar, but his memory had been far weaker during that time. It was only after he joined Valiant Heart Mountain and replaced his Soul Force with Dream Force did his memory become sharp to the point of even remembering his time spent as a baby in his mother's arms.

After that, all of Leonel's memories were retroactively etched into his mind like stone, quite nearly infallible.

Of course, back then, he still hadn't made the connection immediately. While remembering his mother was important to him, knowing the fragrance of a random woman was meaningless to him.

However, while Leonel was preparing for this war, he would obviously pool together all of the knowledge he had. In addition, as a Prince of the Empire, he had access to all of the information he could ever want to know about the various nobles and the Slayer Legion, on top of whatever the Etching Metal Organization could gather up.

The final nail in the coffin was Maia's Ability Index.

It was labeled quite simply, allowing her to maintain her youth. When Leonel first met her, she was a woman well into her twilight years, and yet she looked like a 20 year old bombshell just entering her prime.

This seemed to check out, but then Leonel's Dreamscape sparked.

What other abilities could allow a person to appear much younger than they were?

When one framed it that way, the answer almost seemed far too obvious. Obviously, if a person could shapeshift, wouldn't making a change as simple as age be as easy as breathing? In addition, choosing to outwardly display your Ability Index in that way would make people think you were far more limited than you truly were.

It was almost too easy for Maia to get away with this. Back when the Metamorphosis first descended, Earth's ability to detect Ability Indexes was incredibly crude, it could only classify Leonel's Ability Index as an S-grade sensory type ability. As for Aina, it classified hers as an S-grade healing type ability. Of course it would be too vague to expose Maia.

On top of that, if exposing an enemy's Ability Index was so easy, then so many in the Dimensional Verse wouldn't hold their Ability Index out as a trump card. The details of one's Ability Index was almost always a secret one would hold close to their chests.

Maia would have never thought that her years of diligent planning would be exposed by something so simple. Even now, after Galaeron had spoken, she had no idea what had exposed her.

Even so, there was nothing she could do but step out slowly. Since it had come to this point, there was no time for more preparation, there was only the final step remaining.

Maia stepped down from the sky expressionlessly, descending as though a deity. To her back, two very young men followed. While many on the battlefield only looked like they were in the 20s but were really much older, both of these young men truly were that young.

With a slight flicker of light, all three changed... And all three became members of the Cloud Race.