Holding Himself Back

Leonel appeared outside the Sub-Dimensional Zone with a Rapax beneath his feet and Aina tied to his back once more. The latter still seemed to be in an endlessly peaceful sleep and Leonel almost felt back for taking her away from the comfortable bed she had been lying upon before. But, he had no choice.

Though the Segmented Cube was very comfortable, it wasn't conducive to Aina's growth any longer. Because the Segmented Cube filtered Anarchic Force away, if he left her in there, she wouldn't be able to acclimate and that would only weaken her into the future.

'I wonder, though. If the Segmented Cube can filter Anarchic Force, I bet it can selectively raise its concentration as well. I've heard that this is good for your training long term, I'll have to try it out later…'

Leonel had no idea just yet that with this thought, he had gained access to something Void Palace disciples paid exorbitant fees for, for free.

With a thought, Leonel put the Rapax's corpse away. He had to take it out to ensure that the Zone recognized his victory. But, with Cursed Beasts still lingering around, he couldn't just leave it lying around.

Leonel swept his senses around before shooting forward once again, streaking up the mountain at the greatest speed he could muster without destroying his stamina. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

Inwardly, he was intrigued. Blinded by his previous greed, he had forgotten that it should have been impossible to take things out of a Sub-Dimensional Zone until it reached the standard of the Gold Grade. Only Gold Grade Sub-Dimensional Zones and above could produce treasures that one could take out and use for themselves in the real world.

Though a Rapax wasn't exactly a treasure to most, its corpse was definitely one to Leonel and it should have disappeared along with the Zone. But, it didn't.

'Interesting. Could it be that they used the shell of a Gold Grade Zone to form their challenges? What an embarrassment of riches… They wouldn't even know that a Rapax's corpse would be useful to me. Though, I guess you could probably trade it in just like you could Cursed Beast corpses.'

Leonel was 100% correct. The Void Palace had, indeed, used previously Gold Grade Zones as a shell. But, no one had ever seen through such a thing so easily.

The journey forward wasn't met by any opposition. In fact, it felt almost too easy. Outside of the occasional beast that crossed his path, there was nothing else. Of course, these beasts were nothing compared to the Rapax and Leonel almost felt too naïve for having thought them to be strong. His horizon felt far wider now than they had been before.

'… It'll be a bit of a challenge.' Leonel thought to himself as he sliced apart another beast, leaping onto a branch and skipping toward the canopy of another tree. '… I'm not sure how the Void Palace will react to new people suddenly showing up within their borders.

'They're likely already aware that I have extra people with me just by virtue of the Zone's reaction, but…'

This was the only real worry on Leonel's mind now. It was one thing if he could just keep his people hidden within the Segmented Cube. With the size of the Segmented Cube, the amount of things he could accomplish was endless. He could train them, acclimate them to Anarchic Force, and he could even allow them to benefit from the Void Palace's resources.

But now, he had been exposed, there was simply no way for him to avoid the detection of a Zone. He wondered if he could get away with bending the rules again. He was probably already public enemy number one with the interference of Orinik and Ossenna by now, why not become a little more hated?

Leonel chuckled to himself. Regardless, he would take things as they came. It was already too late to worry much about it all now.

Slashing out again, Leonel's spear suddenly met some unexpected resistance. But, he simply calmly retreated, stepped out of the way of a downward swinging claw, and attacked the exact same spot once more.

This time, his spear went clean through.

Before the beast could even collapse, he had already stepped by it and stored its corpse away.

That was another problem. Leonel's spears were beginning to become a choking point for him. He would have been able to defeat the Rapax much easier if his spear could withstand his Destruction Artistic Conception, but it couldn't.

Leonel believed that there were two reasons for this and he would only need to fix one to experience a large leap in strength. But, he would need to ideally fix both if he wanted to reach his goals.

The first was that his spears were too weak. Quasi Silver Spears were at the pinnacle of the Fifth Dimension, but Leonel's Scarlet Star Force was relentless. Unless he could find another way to protect them, he would have to upgrade as soon as possible.

The second was that his control over his conceptualization of Destruction was far too weak and ill controlled as well.

While it was true that Myghell had relied on true Silver Grade weapons to withstand his Scarlet Star Force, how could normal Silver Grade weapons compare to a Domain Spear of an Heirloom like Leonel's? Fundamentally, Myghell's comprehension had been beyond Leonel's and as such, he could get away with it.

'In that case, I need to stop wasting time holding back my Destruction conceptualization as though it was just a trump card. It shouldn't be a trump card, it should be a core part of my battle style. Treating it like a final 'gotcha' moment would just impede my progress…'

Leonel felt enlightened. The moment he had unleashed his Destruction, he had broken past a barrier he hadn't even been trying to cross. Why should he keep holding himself back like this? He was only harming himself.

"Blackstar, I'll have to hand Aina over to you."

"Yip! Yip!"

Little Blackstar was suddenly enveloped by a dense black fog, becoming an enormous wolf with twin tails. He gently rest Aina within them and the master-beast pair shot off together.

A faint red glow hung around Leonel, a dangerous light exuding from him. Just this choice alone had made him a far fiercer opponent… One most would definitely not choose to cross of their own volition.

Ironically, though, it wouldn't be long before the pair were forced to stop once again.

Before Leonel, a vast lake covered in a dense layer of fog lay. He stood upon a rocky ledge without room to go left or right, he couldn't even find a path to go around it all.

At that moment, though, his gaze narrowed. There were other rocky ledges around this enormous foggy lake, and some of them had people waiting on them as well…

Right then, Leonel was suddenly enveloped by a light. It was this that made him realize why it was he could see these people from so far away. They too were enveloped by a light.

The difference was, though, that while their lights were gold… his was a violet-gold.

All their attention was focused on Leonel in an instant. They all became aware that an Amethyst Token had appeared.

[Just two today T.T]