Dimensional Descent

Leonel’s smile didn’t fade as their pillars began to tremble once again. The challenge in Lumina’s words was clear. It was almost like if he did give his opinion now, he would be admitting that she was right and thus lose out on the round. But if he didn’t answer, he would also be proving her right by being the “petty” man she claimed him to be, and thus lose anyway.

The only way forward was to thread the needle and get her to move off of her position. However, Leonel didn’t seem to be in a hurry to do so.

“I heard that you two were part of the cohort who attacked my wife?” Leonel suddenly asked.

“Don’t try and change the subject,” Lumina growled. “Answer the question like you’ve made everyone else before you do.”

Leonel chuckled. “The pillar has yet to give its decision yet, so who are you to decide whether I’m changing the subject or not? You’ve been doing a lot of talking for others, is your favorite position that of an obedient doggy?”

Lumina’s eyes opened wide, her fury almost getting the best of her before she just laughed with a tone filled with mirth and derision.

“You’ve heard him, everyone. This is the response of a man who has no shred of intelligence of his own. It’s ironic you call me a dog when all you know how to do is bark and bite back. Did you miss the part where this was a conversation of intellectuals?”

“Mm, so I guess your answer is that you’re mad that the pillar hasn’t granted you victory yet?”

Leonel shifted the focus right back to the pillars that were still the process of glowing. He uncaringly stirred the conversation back to the topic he wanted to focus on, and it left Lumina not knowing how to respond for a moment.

“Well, you can choose to not answer the question. But I believe that the pillar might take that as a loss on your part.”

Leonel’s smile deepened and Lumina suddenly realized something.

Clearly, the pillar felt that Leonel’s line of questioning was in line with their current debate. Did that mean that Leonel was trying to force her to confess to her crimes with the pillar as support?

Suddenly, her face drained of all blood.

No one knew the full extent of what had happened during the Gathering of Kingdoms. The only projected images were from the actual battles, the happenings in the city weren’t well known at all.

However, this Gathering of Minds was entirely different. No… it couldn’t be said that it was different, but rather that what was being projected to the world right this moment was this very conversation.

The only saving grace for Lumina, the only hope that she could cling to, was the fact that historically, fewer people watched the debates versus the actual challenge portion.

However, how could she hang her hat on this now?

Not only was this the very start of the debate round as barely a few minutes had passed, but it had all started off with a bang with an immediate clash thanks to Leonel. On top of that, this was the first Gathering of Minds in generations.

How could people not be watching?!

A cold sweat began to pour down Lumina’s back.

What they had done was nothing short of sinister. She was afraid to answer, afraid to admit it, afraid to take the consequences of what it might mean.

She wasn’t just Lumina, she was a princess of her family and on top of that, she was a proud Owlan descendent. It was something she flaunted everywhere she went, and it was something clear by the illusory wings she always used to carry herself.

Suddenly, the pillar beneath her began to fade and Leonel’s own began to glow brighter and brighter.

It was like the last bits of sand in an hourglass were trickling down, painting the very same imagery as the cold sweat that was making her robes stick to her back. They dropped down one after another and time seemed to slow in her eyes.

She only had a few seconds to respond and time was running out. On top of that, Leonel had a silence that he could use on them. If she waited until the last minute, she would never get a chance at all.

She could say that Leonel didn’t have any evidence, but hadn’t he crushed Celestia even without any evidence to speak of?

Was she really going to have to admit it? If she did, she wouldn’t just be implicating herself, but the Owlans. If Minerva was enraged, her family was finished. She could wipe them all out on her own.

Orion, who was standing beside her, didn’t have nearly as much riding on this. But it felt that Leonel, sitting there, stroking his wife’s hair, was akin to a slumbering dragon.

Every step they took in his layer was like another weight on their hearts, and the pressure was growing so great that he was suffocating.

Of all the ways he had expected this matter to go, never had he thought that things would end like this.

His Cloud Race already had a bad reputation among the Races and they were only able to maintain their prestige through plausible deniability and their overall strength. If he was roped into this…

Watching the two being suffocated like this, many began to wonder if this truly wasn’t a battle. The populations of Existence had suddenly never felt that a debate could be so entertaining. The stakes felt so high that it was as though they were standing on the precipice of a cliff themselves.

And that was the entirety of Leonel’s mastery. The information, the fact that his wife had been treated like someone to suppress and crush, hardly mattered. Most of those watching probably felt that it was only natural for a human to suffer in such a way.

But if he packaged it like this instead…

Orion suddenly steeled himself and spoke in a booming voice.

ƈοm

“I did hear that your wife was attacked. In fact, I saw it with my own two eyes. However, saying that we were part of the cohort is going a little far, don’t you think? My Cloud Race has its quirks, but you shouldn’t be reacting like this because I almost defeated your wife in battle, right?”