Dimensional Descent

The word “Oracle” in the Rapax language was not quite a noun. It was more like a cross between one and a verb, being used to refer to action just as much as it did a noun.

Many words in the Rapax language were like this, making it quite confusing to read. It was like constantly describing people by what they could do rather than who they were. Like always calling a person a “soccer player” because they played soccer, as though they didn’t have a name of their own.

But this was natural in their culture. That was because they respected what you did far more than who you were or who you might be related to.

As such, they never referred to this person by name, but it was clear and obvious who they were referring to.

At the same time, it also made one thing stand out to Leonel… and that was that this title was being passed along again and again. In that case, could it be that what they called Oracle was their translated version of Wise Sea Order?

When Leonel pieced this together, he also came to understand something else.

He had already concluded that the Barbarians were almost certainly acting for the sake of raising their station in Existence to Godhood.

In that case, was it a coincidence that the Sea Gods happened to share one of the core abilities of the Barbarians in that case?

Not just this, but it would also explain several other things.

Why did the Sea Gods suddenly attack before his rain plan could take full effect? How was Sashae so decisive? How had the Sea Gods appeared here in the Rapax Domain right before he had been set to arrive?

He had already learned from Dreadmaw that their arrival was not even more than three days ago. They had all this time to establish a connection with the Rapax and only just managed to capitalize on it?

Could it be that his feeling was correct? That feeling of being watched, or at least that he was being outmaneuvered on several fronts?

He even began to wonder if the arrival of Shadowclaw was also within this “Oracle’s” plans for no other reason than to expose his real identity.

Maybe that was a bridge too far, but Leonel didn’t dismiss the possibility. In this sort of situation, he couldn’t afford to ignore any possibility.

He took a breath and exhaled.

There were only two pieces of the puzzle that he was missing.

If it was the case that the Barbarians were trying to find a path to evolution, what role did the Races they picked perform?

And second, how exactly did helping these Races to evolve help them out? Leonel wasn’t aware of any method like this, and it was likely that understanding it could help him understand exactly how he might be able to counter the Barbarians.

If this method required a mass genocide similar to what Simona’s mother had done to the Constellation families… were the Sea Gods aware? Couldn’t he exploit this as well?

If the Sea Gods had no idea that they’d be sacrificed for the good of the Barbarian Race, would they still be so willing to help?

This was all still speculation, but Leonel did have one good avenue to find out.

The Human Race was definitely not part of the Barbarian Race’s plan. If they had been in the past, they at least weren’t any longer.

In all likelihood, the main target of the Barbarian Race had been the Cloud Race that was previously destroyed thanks to the help of that “mysterious” hero.

That seemed to suggest that the Barbarian Race almost certainly needed some sort of sacrifice to reap their harvest.

But why not check?

If he could find a method of learning about the Cloud Race’s history, he could really pin down exactly what happened and make future plans.

Since he had already been exposed, he would just have to go all out.

Soon enough, the world would learn just the kind of weight his name held. In that case, he would just have to let the Barbarian Race know a little earlier.

“Anastasia, map out the whole Incomplete World for me.”

Anastasia was surprised by this command, especially since Leonel had put so much effort into telling her just how careful they had to be. But now he had done a complete 180.

Even so, she followed through.

“It will take a couple of days.”

Leonel nodded. He already knew as much. Last time, when he had been trying to find a Vital Star Force Innate Node to help Aina, it had also taken a while.

Even the Rapax, who certainly had Gods among their ranks, didn’t have a method of quickly finding the mutated Zone they were looking for. If there was one thing that Incomplete Worlds were, it was impossibly vast, filled with endless empty space.

It wasn’t easy to find everything in them. And in this regard, Leonel had an advantage.

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He had been hiding this advantage for the sake of his identity, and also the fact that exposing it might also reveal that he still had the Segmented Cube, which would in turn reveal that he likely still had the Life Tablet as well.But since they wanted to play games, he would play games with them.

There was no gain without loss. He had already taken a huge risk by coming here. If he allowed it to slip from his fingers now, there would be no going back.

As expected, there were several forces hidden in the Incomplete World that sensed this all-encompassing sweep, but since Leonel didn’t care, neither did Anastasia.

Leonel walked out of the library, having read everything.

His mind had already shifted to the next topic. And that was whether he should tell the Dreadmaw and Shadowclaw where the Zone they were looking for was when Anastasia inevitably found it.

He had already saved Shadowclaw’s life once. He didn’t owe the young Rapax anything more.

If this Zone was useful to him, he would take it without hesitation.