Dimensional Descent

Leonel took a look at the more than 200 men and women before him. The eldest was no more than 25 while the youngest might have been 16 or 17. But, all of them carried the experience of several battles. It was very clear that this wouldn’t be their first stint. 

Though Leonel had the ability to do so, he didn’t pick them based on their strength. He decided to choose randomly, not only to leave some face for Noah, but because he didn’t particularly care how strong they were. 

Honestly, he didn’t know why he agreed to Noah’s proposal. It was more of an impulse than anything else. But, now that he had made his decision, there was no use in lamenting it. There was even something about it that filled him with a hint of excitement. 

His back stood just a bit straighter, his chest becoming just that small bit wider. The aura the surrounded his body caused them to fall in line, their expressions serious. 

“Who are the leaders amongst you?” Leonel finally spoke. 

The youths looked toward one another before a few stepped out. Among them, Leonel actually recognized one. 

Nile stood with a face even paler than Noah’s had been. His arm was bandaged and wrapped. But, truthfully, there was no amount of bandages that could make up for a hole being blasted through your collarbone. 

It seemed as though someone had gone out of their way to secure his arm. As for whatever else was done, Leonel wasn’t sure. After all, he wasn’t trained in such things. 

All in all, there were 10 individuals including Nile who stepped out. Many of them had tired expressions. It was clear that it hadn’t been too long since they conquered White City, but now, just when they thought they could finally go home, they were thrust into another matter. 

According to reports, Dark Cloud Prison had been attacked and at least 20% of the prison had been compromised, resulting in the sudden release of 23 329 C-grade prisoners, 12 802 B-grade prisoners, 2 023 A-grade prisoners and 103 Dark Prisoners. 

Though the complex terrain around Dark Cloud Prison was marketed as a method of making it tougher for prisoners to escape, if this was really the goal, then the area around the prison would be nothing but flat land. 

It would be next to impossible to escape if there was no cover to hide behind. 

The truth of it was that with the wrist watched The Empire gave every newborn, there was no need to worry too much about escape.

The terrain actually functioned twofold. The first was maintaining at least somewhat of an eco friendly environment on Earth that didn’t involve the oceans. As the for the second reason… it was so that the public would forget such a place existed to begin with. 

Not only were there no Paradise Islands that traveled over Dark Cloud Province, but it was practically untouched by human hands with the exception of the massive prison at its very center. 

But now, this terrain had become a massive obstacle for them to overcome…

None of this even mentioned the fact that whoever had attacked the prison had done so with the expressed purpose of releasing these prisoners. If this was the case, then that definitely meant that there was a high likelihood that these prisoners were being funneled into whatever armies Terrain was building. 

Though the C and B-grade prisoners weren’t guaranteed to have high combat prowess, it was a different story for A and Dark Prisoners. The Empire had already found a strong correlation between how well one performed on their Gene Analysis Exams and the strength of the abilities they could awaken. 

Dark Prisoners had a better than 50% chance to be Variants or stronger by this point. This was most definitely not something to be taken lightly. 

While weak worlds like Terrain mostly relied on their Force cultivation to display strength, talented worlds like Earth could get away with having weaker foundations in such areas as long as their abilities were up to a certain standard. If it wasn’t for the fact Noah had purposely chosen to hold back and Arthur had yet to learn how to control his ability, there was no way that City Lord White would have had such an easy time. 

However, with all of this said, the actions of Terrain were most definitely a double edged sword. Taking advantage of the strength of these men and women would be one matter… But whether they would truly be able to control them was a different matter entirely. 

Leonel scanned the ten before him. Other than Nile, there were six other young men and three young women. The weapons among them also varied greatly. While some chose to wield cold weapons, some had more modern weapons as well. These modern weapons were enhanced, but also didn’t rely on advanced technology. 

After some inspection, Leonel realized that these ‘modern’ weapons were actually treasures. Though they appeared to be of Earth’s technology, they were much more like Leonel’s first creations, the long-nozzle pistols. 

‘Interesting…’ 

Leonel wondered if this was because other worlds had been observing Earth’s technology to make these or if maybe Earth’s technology wasn’t as unique as he once believed. Of course, there was another possibility… and that was that Earth had Force Crafters of its own that he was unaware of. 

If this last point was true, then it seemed that that mysterious grandfather of his had more hidden cards than it seemed. But, at the same time, a hidden card wouldn’t be so hidden if it was out for all to see like this. So, Leonel dismissed the idea. It was more than likely a combination of the first two possibilities. 

“23 speed types. 19 defensive types. 21 attack types. 7 healing types. 48 body enhancement types. 39 Force Strengthening Deviation types. 13 sensory types. 10 all rounders. 74 unique, unclassifiable abilities.”

Leonel summarized quickly.