Dimensional Descent

Leonel huffed out breaths, but he managed to catch his breath after just a few. He didn’t feel stressed, nor too fatigued. Holding onto his wife’s hand, maybe a little too tightly, he felt he had all the support he needed.

He slowly lowered his spear, his weapon vanishing into motes of sparkling light that peeled away into fluttering butterflies and soaring birds.

Looking to his side, he found his wife looking over at him at the same time. They didn’t say a word, silently embracing one another.

”I’m sorry…” Aina said softly.

Leonel stroked the back of her head, feeling comfort in her touch.

”… It was always going to be impossible for us to make it this far without giving up something.”

”I still feel like… we lost too much…”

Leonel didn’t reply, his hold on her tightening just the slightest bit.

Too many people had died. To his shame, there were probably more than Leonel had had the bandwidth to pay attention to. So many people that deserved more fell in silence, falling in some corner of the battlefield never to rise up again.

It was a tragedy on a scale the likes of which had never happened before, and likely would never happen again.

Taking his wife into his arms, Leonel soared high into the skies.

He could already feel a veil over the world loosening. Without the Dream Force of the Demoness suffocating and blanketing Existence, the desire for Destruction was satiated a great deal.

It was so ironic. The Demoness had killed so much in hopes of buying some time, but the more she killed, the closer to Destruction they all got.

…

The Northern Star looked as though it was within arm’s reach. But Leonel had to cross countless miles to truly make it to it.

It had a size that was truly unfathomable. Recalling memories of sitting before it and how small it had felt, Leonel wondered if he had even caught up to his future self in strength yet.

Funny enough, it seemed that if his future self had been here, he would have been able to win this battle all on his own.

Leonel looked down at the woman in his arms. She cuddled into him, her head resting on his chest, her smile small and peaceful. It seemed that in this soft silence, she had already accepted things for as they were.

It was a shame, though. Leonel couldn’t manage to see himself as some sort of moral savior, some existence that had a heart of gold that could give up everything.

If he didn’t have his wife… well, he had already seen how that played out. The destruction he brought was even worse than the Demoness’ had been. The difference was that Existence had been so close to death that he didn’t have the chance to do more.

But in the end, there had been no one left in the world but himself. With such a pathetic showing, as much fury as he had toward the Demoness…

Was he any better?

’I will be…’ Leonel thought, holding onto his wife a little tighter. ’… For their sake.’

He leaned down, kissing Aina’s forehead. She shifted slightly, greedily taking in his scent.

The light of the Northern Star should have been fierce enough to burn them away, but their strength stood strong, intertwining with one another.

Leonel reached out a hand, his palm touching the boiling gases of its surface.

In that moment, he felt something. The heat vanished, a warmth enveloping him.

The danger that seemed to always encompass the Northern Star vanished. Instead, he could almost feel like… it was smiling down at him.

’Mm…’

Stars… they were indeed the thing that fueled Existence. Without them, there would be no life at all. Without their warmth, the energy they provided, the light they produced.

His grandfather… or rather, the Demoness’ first and true husband, had likely been the first man to wield Star Force. From that, he created the Northern Star, using it to mitigate the greatest mistake they had made.

They were too talented, too early. They lusted after power too much, chasing peak after peak without regard. And in the end, they took too much and the world threatened to collapse.

The only way to reverse things was by giving it all back.

It was hard to fathom just how much power his grandfather had accumulated to be able to support the world for so many trillions of years simply by returning what he had taken…

’The Northern Star Lineage was for this, hm? It seems that you were trying your very best as well.’

The warmth seemed to tremble the slightest bit.

Leonel took a breath and his aura flared up. His eyes blazed with a white gold, Star Force blooming off of him in waves.

Then came his King Force.

His grandfather had created Northern Star Force. It was the guiding light of the world, the one thing that seemed capable of holding back the world from destruction.

Leonel created King Force. It was a Force that broke the laws of the world, giving without seemingly having taken anything at all. Fusing his Dream Force, his Vital Star Force, his Lineages, and so many of his comprehensions, he created this shocking Force.

However… it still wasn’t enough.

Light Force.

It was peculiar. In all of these strong Forces, Light Force seemed the most out of place, like it wasn’t meant to be here at all.

But Leonel knew that it was the final piece to the puzzle. The blueprint was already there.

His grandfather had countless years to consider where he had failed, and in the end, he spurred on the creation of a Lineage Factor that was built on Star and Light Force.

Why was that?

Well…

Leonel smiled, recalling lessons from Earth.

This was the beauty of the world. It was why there was no one life more valuable than another, and it was why he would stand by that philosophy for the rest of his life.

According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the faster one moved, the slower time was in relation to everything else. Meaning…

The only thing in all of Existence that had never aged since the beginning of time itself…

Was Light Force.

If one wanted to breathe life into the universe, what other Force would you even use?

He had always wondered why Light, of all things, would have such strong healing properties. What sense did that even make?

Who would think that a weak little human with no power at all would forge the theory that would save a society of Gods and Demons?

Leonel’s eyes shimmered with a bright light and a sweeping warmth spread across the land.