Dimensional Descent

BOOM! BOOM! Minerva’s eyes opened wide. The moment the carnage and destruction began, she had been forcefully taken away by her parents. Although she had completely formed her God Constitution now, she was still much too weak to participate in a battle of this level.

In the end, she could only grit her teeth and watch from afar. However, when the Pillars of Truth appeared, her pupils couldn’t help but tremble. Those pillars were the treasure of their Minerva Race. They had been passed down for generations, but they had never reacted like this at all.

It was just unfortunate for Minerva that she wasn’t aware of the history. And those Owlans that did… well, their gazes could only become incredibly solemn… even Elysium. And yet, not a single one of them did anything about it because they knew that it was entirely useless.

What was the purpose of the Pillars of Truth? The obvious answer was that they could test the grades of crafts, but that was surface level to their abilities, a history that Leonel was well aware of.

The Pillars of Truth had a far more important purpose, or else it would be impossible to spend so much effort on two treasures. Just think about it for a moment. Master Crafters wouldn’t be Master Crafters if they couldn’t analyze the good and the bad of their own Crafts. If they couldn’t do at least that, they might as well give up on the profession entirely. In fact, even lower class Crafters had this ability so long as the treasure was within striking distance of them.

Pouring so many resources into a pillar just to tell you things that you already knew was the pinnacle of foolishness. Still, rich people tended to spend their money on foolish things. Who was to say the Minerva hadn’t created it just because they could?

But the real reason was much deeper. The first was surface level again. The 99 leaves of the pillars represented the pinnacle of Minerva innovation. The existence of the pillar was like telling others that this was a height that they could never achieve. Since the Minerva could create a treasure to sense this grade, it also meant that they could easily create a treasure of such a grade.

The second reason… was to pick the Head of the Minerva Race. Only by surpassing all other Crafters would you be worthy. Or, most accurately… only by increasing the standards of the pillar.

99 runes had always been the peak, but what the peak meant changed with every passing generation. The Minerva had a very strong culture, and they were also very strict. Crafters of new generations had an advantage over the old because they had an additional pair of shoulders to stand on. As a result, only by surpassing the old could you be worthy of being at least comparable to them.

It was a simple logic that made perfect sense and it was also one that made the commitment the Minerva had to innovation and progression obvious.

What was amusing this time, though… was that Leonel didn’t yet have the ability to light up all 99 runes. He had improved greatly, but he wasn’t yet on that level. Unfortunately for the Owlans, neither could they.

The Minerva were an intelligent Race that realized as hard as they pushed for innovation, it was impossible for every generation to be better than the one that came before it no matter how many shoulders there were to stand on.

Sometimes, the path previous generations had followed led to a dead end, and then it would be up to the new generation to forge a new one. How could they be expected to surpass the old in that situation?

In the end, the Pillars of Truth were also designed to weaken their standards if enough time passed…

And who thought the Owlans would have fallen so far? They had put so much effort into becoming powerful combatants that they no longer had Crafters capable of standing toe to toe with Leonel. But that still left one question.

The Minerva weren’t stupid. How could they allow one of their treasures to fall into the hands of an outsider? Even if a better Crafter came around, it wasn’t just like they’d let them take what they wanted without regard.

So how had Leonel done it?

The answer was simple. Didn’t Leonel have their magnum opus in his hands? The Segmented Cube wasn’t just meant to be another Craft, it was a method of the Minerva to save themselves. They were creating a new world in hopes that it could survive even without the support of the Northern Star.

In the end, they failed miserably and even ended up destroying themselves in the process, on top of leaving Anastasia in an odd limbo state where she was more person-like than any World Spirit before her, but still not quite living.

This was all to say that… Anastasia had all the protocols necessary to control the treasures of the Pillar of Truth, and there was no one in the Owlans good enough to override her. So…

If Anastasia said Leonel was an Owlan, well…

Leonel grinned.

“I guess I’m an Owlan.”

BOOM!

Leonel reached out and the Pillars of Truth slammed into his palms. Energies swirled and Little Tolly thrummed with life, growing so large and expansive that it even compared to Leonel in size.

Leonel took a breath as the beams of light came to him and soon a beautiful spear had formed in his large hands.

It had runes that looked like delicate leaves running up the side of its body and a head of gold. The blade shone menacingly in the light and it gathered up all the truth in the world, responding to Leonel’s call.

Leonel took a step forward and an armor swirled around his body.

The Pillar lit up and in an instant, over 50 runes shone down on the skies and the laws of the world bowed to Leonel.