Dimensional Descent

Leonel didn’t want to think about why the Demoness had chosen to turn his uncle and aunt into Invalids. But his mind whirred to its own conclusions almost instantly.

And it filled him with fury.

He knew when he sent his uncle out it would probably be the last time he saw him. He told his uncle to call on his name should he ever need help, but Montez… he would never do that.

Especially not if he ran into the Demoness, only to find that his wife had already become an Invalid.

Even Leonel couldn’t trust what he would do in such a situation.

He hadn’t been there, he hadn’t sensed it, but looking into his uncle’s eyes from the distance, he knew how it had gone nonetheless.

Much like he had almost been, his uncle was just yet another sacrifice, his wife nothing more than a small pawn to lure him in.

His uncle’s Dream Asura Bloodline had always been suppressed. Since his youth, only Velasco had been able to access it, but Leonel’s father refused to use even an ounce of it, much like Leonel had for a while.

Back then, Leonel thought that the Demoness had just done this because she liked to watch people squirm, enjoying the rift that formed between the two brothers because of this.

Maybe she was, in part, so sadistic, but it was clear that nothing she did was truly without cause or reason.

This time, she benefited from the suppression of Montez’s Bloodline in some way.

When Leonel thought about the difference he felt when his Bloodline was activated and when it wasn’t, it clicked.

In his Enlightened state, he had had many thoughts that he couldn’t bring back to his suppressed self. His mind was too large, filled with too many things, for his suppressed self to keep up with. If he tried to remember them without the support of the Dream Asura within him, his Dream Force and soul would shatter apart.

It was only when he tapped into his Bloodline would he remember again.

Wasn’t this… the perfect way to hide something you didn’t want other powerful Dream Force users sensing? A method both simple, and yet elegant and perfect in its use.

When Montez finally tapped into his Dream Asura Bloodline on his own, breaking free of the Demoness’ restraints, the only way she could continue to hide what she wanted hidden was by trapping his mind another way…

Forcing him to become an Invalid.

Upon becoming an Invalid, everything that was once a person was devoured, leaving nothing but an endless desire for destruction. It was arguably an even better method of suppressing a mind that Dream Asura Blood had been.

So the question was… what did the Demoness want to hide?

After knowing her story, the answer was obvious.

She was hiding his grandfather, Ishmael.

Leonel wasn’t the only part of her plan. She was using bits and pieces of her sons and grandson to rebuild her husband.

What better way to form the man she loved than the seed they formed together?

Leonel would form the body.

Velasco and Montez would form the mind.

With the talent she had granted their descendants, and his mind stored away in the exact frame she remembered it, she would build the perfect man.

”Don’t you dare move. You only have one job. Keep those annoying Ancient Humans off my back.” Leonel said coldly, seemingly not speaking to anyone. ”Her head is mine.”

…

In a far-off distance, a hesitating Gervaise stopped his slowly raising hand. In the end, he sighed, and lowered it.

For now… he would trust Leonel.

…

BANG!

Leonel’s spear and Aina’s fists carved out a path. They moved seamlessly with one another, in such sync and with such united will that just the hairs of their skin brushed past one another as they shifted and glided across the battlefield.

They wasted not a single ounce of movement.

Fed by Leonel’s fury, Aina’s attacks reached a new level of potency.

Blood ripped through body after body in winding scythes. The Invalids themselves didn’t produce blood after their deaths, but the motes of light seemed forcefully controlled by Aina, forming Force Pills of her own creation.

These pills shot into the skies, falling down like meteors and erupting into nuke-like clouds of destruction. She concentrated the energy into powerful bombs, raining them down from above with impunity.

Leonel’s spear was relentless and violent, chiseling and precise. If one removed the enemies, it would look as though he was cutting out the perfect sculpture, his hands, palms, and blades gliding with heart-shuddering accuracy.

All the while, he never looked at an opponent a single time, his gaze firmly locked onto the Demoness who was shrieking in the distance. Her pale face, the cold sweat that marred her once beautiful but now twisted features, the wavering of her Force.

He felt it all.

Today, they would kill and kill and kill to their heart’s content.

Until there was nothing at all left.

There was a flash before Leonel’s eyes and his uncle appeared. His heart sank, but his blade didn’t pause a single time.

Their spears crossed, a clash reverberating through the air with a battering force.

At that moment, he finally looked at something other than the Demoness, staring into his uncle’s eyes and feeling the hurt deep within them.

There was something in there… at least that was what Leonel wanted to think.

But his deductions told him otherwise quickly. That pain, that fear Montez was feeling… it was for no other reason than the shrieking banshee behind him.

All he wanted to do was please her, and he feared what it meant if he couldn’t.

”NO!” The voice of the Demoness came.

Leonel’s blade flashed.

Memories danced through his mind, of the man standing behind the counter in an armor of shimmering gold… of the first time his uncle took his armor off to show him just the sort of work he put in every day… of the first interaction of his uncle and his little girl and boy…

Montez’s head flew into the skies, his motes of light fusing into his spear as his aunt was shattered to pieces by Aina’s palm.

The husband and wife paired roared, their Forces reaching a perfect sync as they sliced a path right through the Invalid army.