Dimensional Descent

Aina felt a crushing feeling in her chest, her vision going dark for a moment. She wasn’t quite sure how to breathe or even think any longer.

Her hands slipped from Leonel, her arms no longer seeming to have the strength to hold on. Her knees grew weak and an imbalance she would have easily been able to correct in her peak condition was her undoing. She fell to her butt, her vision blurred and her mind foggy.

The wind seemed to be sucked out of the arena, a response no one could have expected falling to their ears. However, the silence that followed didn’t last very long at all.

”I’LL KILL YOU!”

The enraged roar shook the arena even more violently than anything Aina could have done. The golden barrier of Force directly shattered in one location, forming an enormous whole as a streak of crimson tore a path out from it, the furious howl of a father penetrating the skies.

Leonel didn’t even have the time to turn his head in that direction. All he could do was stir his Lineage Factor, his Bronze Runes vibrating to life in full force and a halo wafting with violet fog appearing above his head.

BANG!

The fist threatened to collapse an entire side of Leonel’s face.

The skin of Leonel’s cheek splintered, the bone beneath cracking and his eye on that side went completely blind. His body went limp for a moment, his brain rattling around his skull like an unleashed pin pong ball before he shot out from his position like a speeding bullet.

The wind howled and whistled, much of what remained of Leonel’s shirt sheering apart beneath the pressure.

Before Leonel even landed at his new ’location’, Miel violently coughed up a mouthful of blood. But, he completely ignored the feeling of his inner organs sheering to pieces as he prepared to launch an even more powerful attack. Much of his momentum and Force had been dissipated by the golden barrier, and his own injuries which had yet to heal definitely didn’t help. But, all he could see was red.

If he didn’t kill this boy right here and now, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself.

BANG!

Leonel crashed into the golden barrier, his entire body suddenly becoming wracked by a wave of pain. Wave after wave surged through him as he felt his bones snap one after another. Even after using his Runes to disperse the impact and spread it throughout himself, the result was just more of his body being torn apart.

His one good eye, however, continued to look forward, a frosty light hidden within them as they watched Miel preparing to jump forward one more time.

The look within those pale violet depths could only be described as malevolent. A smoldering abyssal valley of darkness and destruction. Even as Leonel coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, it never wavered.

Just as Miel was about to bound forward one more time, though, an almost shrieking shout called out, stopping him in his tracks.

”STOP! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!”

Aina’s voice caught Miel completely off guard. The fury in his gaze hadn’t even waned in the slightest, even meeting Leonel’s cold gaze over a distance of several hundred meters. He wanted nothing more than to tear this boy limb from limb.

”… If you hurt him again, I’ll never forgive you…” Aina spoke with what strength she had left. ”… Please take me away, I don’t want to be here anymore…”

Leonel slid down from the golden barrier, a few cracks quickly mending in his wake. An entire side of his face had become a swollen monstrosity, but the other side maintained a cold indifference that continued to meet Miel’s gaze.

Miel’s body shook with rage. But, when he felt his daughter weakly tugging at his robes. He couldn’t help but feel his own heart breaking. There was no rage worth leaving his daughter in this state.

He turned his gaze from Leonel, sweeping his daughter into his arms. He sent a glance backward, the crimson in his eyes glowing and his flowing red hair seemingly having become a raging dragon of its own.

The oppressive atmosphere in the air seemed to grow palpable. It only became more so after Miel reached out a hand, causing the Brazinger family’s Heirloom to snap into his palm. In those moments, it felt like the reappearance of a War Lord. There was no doubt that had Miel had this blade in his hand, he could have single handedly wiped the Viola family from existence.

With a step, he vanished from his location, shooting through the rapidly closing gap in the barrier.

Leonel could feel his face and body healing exceptionally slowly. There was no doubt in his mind that this was simply the difference between being attacked by a being in the same Dimension as you versus one in a higher Dimension. Despite the fact most of Miel’s strength had been dispersed by the barrier and the fact he was heavily injured, Leonel had still ended up like this.

A chorus of boos began to rain down from above. If it wasn’t for the barriers, there would likely be a lot of things thrown in Leonel’s direction as well. But, his gaze continued looking ahead in the same direction, as though Miel was still standing in the same spot.

The rage of the crowd only grew with each passing moment. They vented all their fury and frustration. When what Leonel did sunk in, they became almost feral.

Leonel, though, couldn’t seem to hear any of it. He had an anger bubbling up within him, but he didn’t know where it was coming from. He thought that maybe it was because of Miel, but with his impeccable memory he knew that this anger had been bubbling within him even before Aina’s father’s outburst.

No matter how hard he thought, putting every single one of his split minds to work, he couldn’t understand why, and it only made him angrier.

”Fuck!”

Leonel’s shout was sudden and completely unexpected, drowning out the crowd as though they weren’t even there. The barrier to his back shattered and soon after, he vanished, leaving the arena entirely.