Dimensional Descent

Leonel didn’t say anything even after Maxx had left, but his senses relaxed somewhat and his hold on his brothers loosened. The reason he had insisted on not closing his eyes when he faced Maxx’s stare was because he didn’t want to be distracted for even a moment. Against such a person, even a split moment of distraction would mean death, and if Leonel died, there would be no one to bring him back to life.

He didn’t miss any part of what Maxx had said, but that was less because he was listening for his advice, and more so because he was searching for clues about other matters. His grandfather’s lover was one person that he needed to know more about.

Usually, this would be a person he directly ignored, but she had crossed his bottom line. Since she wanted to stand opposing him, then she would have to die.

Leonel didn’t move immediately, though, even after the meeting had concluded. He had planned to spend quite some time on the Suiard family and he didn’t quite know what it meant to let them go like this.

Until now, he had simply taken the World Spirit and left. In his opinion, that was all that was necessary for the “weaker” families, at least relative to the other powerhouses of the Seventh Dimension. However, the Suiard family was different. They were a true powerhouse, and the blow they could deal Leonel if he was caught off guard was heavy, especially if Maxx took action.

It was more difficult than not to leave them be like this. His finger had even twitched somewhat as he felt that killing Maxx here would be easier on him, he wouldn’t have this constant lingering insecurity in the back of his mind. Letting him leave essentially barred some of the path he would have taken otherwise, but then again it opened up others.

By now, everyone assumed that he would be attacking the Suiard family. This was a move that would definitely surprise them as the Morales and Suiard had been battling one another for so many years that they should know just how evenly matched they were. They were widely known as the two most powerful families in terms of pure combat, so starting with them might not seem to be the smartest thing to do.

But now that they had, everyone would be expecting a battle that would rage on for days at the very least. Catching the off guard now would be even easier. However, the matter of who to catch off guard surprisingly stumped Leonel.

Should he attack the Spirituals Religion? But they were allies with the Suiard’s and now he was in a tentative relationship with the latter. Did it still make sense to attack them? But then again, while he might have some reason to think that the Spirituals would stay on the sideline, what about the Religion? Could Maxx sway them to not?

If he didn’t attack the Spirituals Religion then who should he attack? Shield Cross Stars? The Void Palace? It was difficult to choose.

Leonel seemed aimless right now, but that was precisely because this situation was so baffling to him. Originally, he planned to cut the Suiards down in about a week or so. Although he had cut right to their capital, he expected a very difficult battle, and he also prepared contingencies for being attacked from the back. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before the rest of the Suiard family’s forces caught up and joined the battle.

In that time, he planned for his scouts to pay attention to the situation in the rest of the Human Domain and had at least three different maneuvers prepared for various situations. But now…

Leonel shook his head. He almost had half a mind to believe that Maxx had given up his World Spirit on purpose just to catch Leonel off guard, because he had never thought that gaining an ally would confuse him like this.

‘This isn’t a normal sort of confusion,’ Leonel thought pensively.

He had felt something like this before. Or rather, it was similar, but not exact. When he had first thought of the Demoness, he could sense her gaze on him, and now he was feeling something similar. Someone could sense him thinking and was obstructing his vision.

Despite this thought clearing things up for him, it made things even foggier.

Leonel’s gaze narrowed further. Then he remembered what Maxx had said. Someone even more powerful than him? Was this person powerful enough to know that Maxx had mentioned them? Because if they were, then the fact that Maxx had said anything at all could have alerted this person to what was happening here, and in the case they were alerted, that meant that any intentions he had of using a surprise attack had already failed.

Leonel’s confusion lifted and his gaze glowed.

The Dream Pavilion… It seemed that whoever they had sent had the capability to use Dream Force on a far higher level than his own and it was likely that any schemes or plans he had prepared would all be useless.

But that also confirmed something else. Maxx was helping him.

He didn’t believe that someone as powerful as Maxx would mention this person without reason, and it couldn’t possibly be such a foolish mistake on his part. He had mentioned it hoping that Leonel would pick up on the problem.

Maxx was letting Leonel know that if he continued like this, he would fail, and he would fail miserably at that. The way that he had learned to wage war until now was playing around in a kiddy pool while the adults had been surging on raging tsunami-like waves for generations already.

‘I see… This level of Dream Force is still out of my reach.’

Leonel tapped a finger on his arm rest, his gaze growing sharper and sharper.

He needed a method to protect his mind. Unless he could succeed in finding such a method, the only path forward would be brute strength. And right now… he didn’t have nearly enough strength to succeed with that method, not outside the bounds of Morales territory…