Dimensional Descent

The Demoness was a woman with beauty that was difficult to describe. She didn’t dress as provocatively as one might expect for a woman with such a name, but it also didn’t seem to matter in the slightest.

Her cherry lips accented her violet eyes beautifully. Her hair was like a cascade of maroon with lavender highlights. And her dress, black as the night, danced slowly in the wind as though replaying the shadows of her swaying hips.

She was an objectively perfect woman in physical form, as though Existence had personally carved her. There wasn’t a spot of age on her face, and she looked to be a woman that had just hit her truest prime, not being a day over the age of 25.

Although she wasn’t standing at the center of the group, she was still the center of attention, especially when one considered the hint of demonic aura she exuded from those curling horns on her head that looked more like carefully carved jade braids, to the wisps of darkness that sung around her.

Her cherry lips parted into a smile, and at that moment, the darkness in the skies seemed to brighten.

She looked down on Leonel almost dotingly, as though she had seen her favorite little pawn and wanted to give it a little reward. If Leonel didn’t realize what happened by now, he would be too much of a fool. The act of enraging him through the use of Fiora’s body was obviously all for this moment.

The actions of the Gods after that moment, continuously sending their senses over, sending over probes and armies, was precisely what destabilized the barrier enough that there was no chance of holding back the God Realm any longer.

Even back when the Demoness went out to save Fiora from being killed by a certain Variant Invalid King, this was also her way of preparing for the future. After all, she needed someone that she could control to goad Leonel into exposing himself. Fiora was the easiest candidate as she was someone that the Demoness had been manipulating since she was young. There was no more perfect host for the job.

Of course, Leonel didn’t know what happened between the Variant Invalid leader and the Demoness. But what he did know was that the scope of the Demoness’ plan was out of his reach. It was impossible for him to have full understanding of it.

Anyone else would have felt despair at this point. How could you not? Leonel was intelligent enough to play the entire Demi-God Realm in his palm, but he was just playing on a smaller board in the middle of the Demoness’ much larger game.

While he was busy toying with Demi-Gods and enraging Gods, he was playing right into the Demoness’ hands, allowing the final pieces to fall in place. In the end, she had succeeded.

Leonel could practically feel the Northern Star rapidly moving toward its end. The more the God Realm “corrupted” the Demi-God Realm and evolved it toward Godhood, the more Existence aged right before their very eyes.

In the past, Leonel hadn’t even cared much about the end of Existence. He was more worried about saving his family, his friends. He wanted them to live out happy lives. He wasn’t perfect, and he was still a young man subject to the thoughts of a young man. He still felt somewhere inside that he was practically immortal because he hadn’t sensed true aging before.

What he didn’t expect was that it would be forced to be his problem. In the end, even if he didn’t want it to be… the Northern Star no longer had millions of years left. It seemed to only have a few thousand at best.

And now, the woman he hated the most was staring at him with those playful, doting eyes, almost like a parent telling a child that it wasn’t yet time for them to be surpassed.

Yet, this time, Leonel didn’t fly into a rage. He stood there in silence, looking up into the skies. He didn’t seem bothered by the Demoness any longer, because in his eyes… she would eventually die the death that she deserved.

As for her gameboard? Her only strength over him was the fact that she had started the game long before him. He was quite literally born onto her chessboard. There was nothing he could have done to escape fully, and if not for the sacrifice of his father, he wouldn’t have even had the right to start his own game in the first place, no matter how small it was.

But now, she had exposed her entire hand to him. At that point… was there anything left to fear? Did he need to care about such things? She would have no choice but to start a new game now if she wanted to face off against him, and this time, there would be no advantages to be had.

Seeing Leonel’s calm reaction, there was a flicker of surprise in the Demoness’ eyes, but then that doting in her eyes became deeper. She stared at him like she was looking at an adorable little puppy, and she felt the sudden need to pinch his cheeks, while another intent brewed inside her.

She was the mother of the Dream Asura Race. There was no one in this world capable of matching her in intelligence, not the Sylvans, not the God Beasts of Creation, there wasn’t even a single existence comparable.

It had been a long time since she had felt any sort of pressure facing off against anyone. This little grandson of hers still didn’t have such ability, but she could see a little bit of a budding seedling within. Or was it a seedling? It was hard to tell if it had grown out of her expectations or not, but that left her with even more excitement.

Unfortunately, that excitement didn’t last long as she exhaled a sigh.

BOOM!

The eyes of the Primordial Terrors appeared in the distance.