Dimensional Descent

Flaura swirled a glass of wine in her hand, reading the report she held up with her other.

After a long while, a smile surfaced on her face.

“Interesting… the humans have such a powerful existence? Unknown Dimension, strong Dream Force user, bowman…?”

Her mind flashed with Leonel.

Leonel had only used his Bow Force in public one other place, and that was during his battle in the Challenge Sequence against Minerva and the other Dream Pavilion Heads.

But Flaura felt that the odds were low.

“I’ll put it at… 5% for now. It’s more likely that the humans have hidden experts rather than a youth like him already being capable of battling against the Moonstone Lord.

“However, I can’t outright dismiss it. There are several factors to consider.

“For one, the Moonstone Lord couldn’t go all out because there were too many quasi hostages in the situation. Even while holding back, too many of his people were dying. His level of control was weaker than this human.

“The second matter to consider is the fact that this human acted only after disparaging remarks were made about Aina Morales. This is a weaker point because it’s hard to tell if he planned to act regardless. After all, he shouldn’t have been 100% confident in killing Thalion without the Moonstone and Emberheart Lord being quite a few paces for him, so he had to wait for just the right time.

“Hm… I’ll downgrade this thought for now… the first point increases the odds to probably 11%, this reduces it back down to around 9%…

“Then I have to consider the fact that it’s unheard of for such a perfect disguise method to exist… at the very least, they’re too rare and would have to be built on a special Force of some sort, but this Leonel already had Sovereign Spear and Bow Force, along with Dream Sovereignty and Destruction Sovereignty… how many more Forces could he have?”

There were too many factors at play. In the end, after weighing everything, Flaura landed on 3% odds.

It simply made more sense that it was another expert of the humans.

“The next thing to consider is… does it matter? Whether it is Leonel or someone else…”

Flaura tapped her armrest, her mind swirling with thoughts.

Suddenly, she stood.

“I guess it’s time to apply some pressure.”

…

Aerin had been in a foul mood these last few days.

He did the smart thing and didn’t go. But he didn’t even have a method of communicating with Lyra and he was regretting not asking for one.

He knew why he hadn’t. He couldn’t stand the temptation. It was better to cut it off at the source and not allow those feelings to fester. He couldn’t allow his family to get wrapped up in this matter.

Even now, he didn’t realize just how smart his decision had been. The Dwarven Race was in a bad situation, not optically, but just in terms of overall status. It was hard for them to carve out their place in the world.

If they got wrapped up in a scandal of “the lost humans”, they wouldn’t even understand how they died.

As the pride of their Race, though forgotten by the rest of the world, Aerin had a comfortable enough life.

He should stay here, solidify his foundations, marry a beautiful Pixie, have children, and hopefully one day become the third in Dwarven History to form a Dharma and become a God.

That was what he should do.

But he couldn’t get Lyra out of his head.

And that was when a message came.

His eyes widened when he read it. It turned out that Lyra’s fiance to be had been killed by the hands of an unknown archer.

Aerin was so confused. Why was this being sent to him? And if this person was targeting him, then why were they revealing this information? Shouldn’t they want to keep him in the dark in hopes that he would eventually take action?

His heart skipped several beats as he read the rest of his and his eyes turned red.

The letter was seemingly penned by Lyra again. He could sense the bittersweetness within it. She was in one part disappointed that he didn’t come and she had to be saved by another, and another part relieved that she didn’t have to marry someone she didn’t like…

But then she spoke about how the relationship between the humans was fissured, and how her situation was a bit different now.

Then she spoke about how much gratitude she had for the man who killed her fiancé, and how she could finally be free.

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She said that she respected his decision and that she was sorry for overstepping her bounds and asking for his help. She should have known better and understood his precarious situation.She wished him the best and hoped that he wouldn’t reject her letters when she sent them from time to time.

It was just a simple letter. He should have been certain that it wasn’t Lyra, but he felt his faith in that verdict wavering… especially when he read about the gratitude she had toward the human that saved her.

When he pieced that together with the fact the relationship between the Humans and Spirituals were fissured, he felt as though a knife was digging into his chest.

And then the waves of guilt came.

It was just a simple letter, why was he reading so much into it? Why was he making so many assumptions?

Tears of frustration pooled in his eyes and threatened to fall.

The mind of a Dream Force expert was far beyond what most could imagine. When they began on a line of thought, it was hard to extricate themselves until they saw it through to the end.

He could feel that Lyra was pulling away from him somewhat through this letter…

And he could see a future where, in order to reforge the broken relationship between the two Races… that Lyra might marry this man who saved her.

And unlike the first time…

She seemed far more open to the idea.

It felt like his heart was being torn off his chest.