Leonel's breath came out in heaving swallows. His arm hung out, parallel with his piercing spear, his body not even having the strength to hold his other arm up.

Myghell should have been blown backward, but the Dark Ice Domain had forcefully kept him in place, forcing his body to take on the full brunt of the strike and tearing a hole the size of two fists all the way through his chest.

A wheezing cough left Myghell's lips, his body still being held up by shards of frozen space. Half of Leonel's spear had gone through his body, coating its sapphire scales with in a dense mass of thick, flowing blood.

Myghell's fiendish grin slowly faded, his gaze meeting Leonel's own.

"Maybe one day we'll have a real fight." Leonel said through his heavy breath.

Myghell didn't say anything in response, his eyes having lost their previous glow and expression going back to how it had always been. It seemed baffling that he had ever been that howling young man from before. But, even without more words than that, the two had come to quite a deep understanding of one another.

Leonel very much meant the words he had spoken. This Myghell he had defeated was maybe, at best, 20% of what his true strength was. In fact, according to Leonel's estimation, that was an overly positive view. This was probably closer to 10% of Myghell's true strength, most likely less.

On the surface, this seemed ridiculous. But, looking at things from Myghell's perspective, they likely began to make sense.

Myghell was an extraordinary talent, this was something that no one could deny. He was born only a few months ahead of Leonel, so their ages were quite negligible and in another life, they would probably have grown up to be as close as Leonel and James had once been.

With the talent he was granted, Myghell had made it to the Quasi Sixth Dimension years ago. However, he didn't have the background to allow him to enter the Void Palace outside of their Selections like those from more prominent families could have, so he could only stall in his own progress.

That said, this didn't mean that Myghell didn't improve at all. In fact, he had improved almost daily, leaping forward by unfathomable lengths… It was just that it was all reliant on Leonel's Innate Node.

Myghell could gain affinity with practically anything just by eating enough of it, but why would he divert his attention when such a powerful Force was within his body? There was no doubt in Leonel's mind that Myghell's comprehension of Scarlet Star Force was several folds beyond him, they couldn't even be compared.

When things are looked at from this perspective, you could begin to understand the problem. Myghell's entire battle style and form was predicated on Scarlet Star Force. Even without using the Force itself, just the comprehensions of Destruction he had gained and the numerous techniques he had formulated around it would speak for themselves. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

Much like how Leonel had recently decided to build the foundation of his strength with his Scarlet Star Innate Node as the foundation, so too had Myghell reached the same conclusion. Except, unlike Leonel, he had the constant guidance of experts so he had made this logical conclusion much earlier on and had stuck with it.

The best analogy was that Leonel was battling a fish, and he had suddenly made that fish battle on land instead. The fact Myghell had pushed him to this extent while handicapped in this fashion spoke volumes not only about his talent, but also his deep seeded pride.

Leonel doubted that Myghell had even known the Innate Node within him wasn't his own until recently. Why would the Star Order Elders ever tell him such a thing? Even if they ultimately agreed with such a decision, there was no need to run their own names through the mud in the process.

Of course, there were probably benefits Myghell had gotten from the Scarlet Star Innate Node that couldn't be completely divorced from his current battle prowess. For example, he had likely only graduated from the Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor so quickly because he could gain the affinity boost from Leonel's Innate Node.

However, Leonel had a feeling that this wouldn't matter much. If he hadn't had the Innate Node, with the backing of the Luxnix, he could have just been force fed all sorts of high level Light Elemental Crystals and Pure Crystals. By then, the result wouldn't have been as exaggerated, but it would still be comparable. The largest difference would only become more obvious as he left the White Stone Elephant behind continued onward.

Leonel was even more certain that without his Innate Node, Myghell would have been able to build his combat prowess with a different foundation, and though he would also be weaker than if he used Scarlet Force, he would still be able to beat the current Leonel.

It was almost too obvious. The reason why Myghell's sword swings had all been so simple and wild was purely because all the techniques he had were purposely not used by him.

To put things in the most blunt way possible, even now, Leonel could not defeat a full powered Viola family Patriarch. But… Myghell had done so in a single strike.

All of this said, this battle was designed to be unfair from the very beginning. Had Myghell hoped to rely on his Destructive capabilities, he might have lost even sooner.

Leonel's current Innate Node only hurt him because it had grown too far out of his control. However, the Innate Node Myghell currently had was at a level where Leonel could not only easily bear it, but he was basically immune to it.

Still, Myghell had no idea that Leonel had regrown his Innate Node already and he was very much unaware of how Leonel would have countered him easily.

No matter how you looked at it, Myghell was an unfortunate loser in this situation.

Leonel took a deep breath and began to move, but Myghell had already done so.

In a move that stunned those watching, he pierced a hand into his own right hip, ripping out something that shimmered with a blinding red-gold light.

Then… He tossed it toward Leonel before the last of his strength wavered and he collapsed.