The demon was enormous, standing just as tall as Leonel's panda construct. Its eyes were nothing more than two orbs of pulsing black flames and its body was covered from head to toe in thick, shiny, black scales.
It had a tail half the height of its already ridiculously tall body, but other than this, it was perfectly humanoid, even down to its human-like face despite it being covered in those radiant black scales.
When its palms met Leonel's, they were evenly matched for just a moment before Leonel's third, fourth, fifth and sixth arms collided against its solid check, sending it spiraling backward.
Deep indents appeared on its torso, Leonel's Aurora Star Force leaving devastating impacts in its wake. The collision was so powerful that the demon almost fell down, its balance having nearly been taken away from it.
This was a shocking matter for high level warriors, especially a strength based one like the demon. Their coordination, their dexterity and their balance was what most of their strength relied upon. Such a mistake wasn't something that would happen, and yet it just had.
Despite this, Leonel wasn't satisfied. This construct was powerful, but the reason he had yet to simply shift to purely targeting higher Fiend Class demons was because it was also greatly restrictive.
He wasn't used to having six arms, and he hadn't grasped enough of the mysteries of this Lineage Factor to even understand what he was supposed to do with three heads. He didn't even need the extra vision when his Starry Spirit Domain was already so powerful in this aspect.
Maybe the most obvious issue was its size. All of his spears had suddenly become useless, and so did his bow.
What made it all worth the exchange was his Lotus Domain, but that was most effective against those that relied on an external use of Force. As such, it was useless against a demon like this one who relied on nothing other than its pure physical strength.
Despite his frowning, Leonel continued to unleash a relentless barrage. To his back, Aina waited patiently for an opening, ready to strike at any moment.
'This is the problem with getting new and shiny abilities. They're so much more powerful, but because I don't have the accompanying techniques and can only rely on myself, I also regress in a lot of ways…'
This was what Leonel feared when he upgraded his Lineage Factors, this would almost always be a problem. He was just lucky to have spontaneously had the accumulated knowledge to form his Lotus Domain, but now that it was useless, his power took a dip.
'No, I'm likely missing something. I didn't just gain the Aurora Black Panda Lineage Factor, but I felt it fuse with my Starry Tailed Fox Lineage Factor. In fact, the reason this construct has three heads and three pairs of arms in the first place is because the Starry Tailed Fox's strength is linked to its three tails…'
Leonel hadn't had a difficult fight in the last nine days, but as he fought this higher Fiend Class demon, trying to search for a path toward victory, his mind began to deduce and piece certain things together.
If they were fused, did that mean that there were changes to his Starry Domains? He hadn't sensed any, but maybe that was because he hadn't looked hard enough…
Leonel used his middle pair of arms to lock the demon's own arms in place, his lower pair of arms two make a strong sweep at the back of its knee caps, and his upper pair arms to wrap strongly around its back.
He roared, ripping the demon off of its feet and arching his back.
BANG!
The higher Fiend Class demon's neck snapped with an audible and sickening crack, its tough scales unable to save it from such a fate.
However, when Leonel released and rolled over, the demon unleashed a roar of its own, standing up even with its head bent at an awkward angle.
Leonel's eyes narrowed. The vitality of demons were exceptional, and only became more trouble against strength based demons. In fact, compared to the lower class demons, they only became more and more fearsome with every step forward.
Leonel had been able to kill a lower Fiend Class demon with a hole in the chest, but they had to split the skulls of middle Fiend Class demons to kill them, and this higher Fiend Class demon was just fine even after its spine was broken.
It would clearly be far more involved to kill this one, and Leonel couldn't imagine how much it would take to kill a Chaos Class demon.
It seemed that he would need to bring out his Starlet Star Force, only high quality Force of higher Dimensions could stop this sort of quick healing.
The higher Fiend Class demon snapped its neck back into place, its tail suddenly lashing out like a vicious whip. Its speed was impossibly fast, too fast for Leonel to react to normally.
Leonel subconsciously tried to use his Starry Light Domain to escape. He had already had the idea of testing out the new secrets of his Domains at the forefront of his mind, so he chose to try this out first.
A light enveloped his enormous panda construct, shifting him back just ten meters in less than a fraction of a second.
The tail whipped by, leaving a streak of trembling space in its wake as though any more energy would rip through the fabric of reality.
'That feeling…'
Leonel's heart skipped a beat.
Yes, that tail strike was powerful and would have probably shattered his panda construct, but that wasn't what had shocked him.
In that moment, he faintly felt his Ethereal Star Force and Aurora Star Force fusing into one before seamlessly separating.
It made sense. His dark gold panda construct was formed of Aurora Star Force, and his Starry Light Domain used Ethereal Star Force. If he wanted to move one through the latter, they would need to fuse for a time.
'This…'
Leonel's eyes glowed like two blazing torches.
He flipped over a palm, a spear covered in white-gold hexagonal scales appearing in his hand.
At the same time, his Starry Light Domain bloomed to life, fusing with his Yin-Yang Domain and surging with Aurora Star Force.This material belongs to .
Leonel's panda construct reached out a palm, dark gold and white gold energy forming a spiraling cyclone around it before an illusory and vibrant reconstruction of his spear appeared. This one, however, rather than being two and a half meters tall, was just over 12 meters tall.
Leonel laughed, his spear swinging out casually.
A wild wind shot out in all directions, forming a tsunami of Force that sent the higher Fiend Class demon stumbling backward.
Leonel's eyes glowed with confidence.
His Lineage Factor was called the Spear Domain Lineage Factor for a reason. The core of his spear essence wasn't in the spear itself, but rather in the Domain it represented, that was where all of its strength came from.
If Leonel's Starry Light Domain could fuse with his Yin-Yang Domain, then why couldn't the latter also fuse with his Starry Spirit Domain?
The Starry Spirit Domain was ultimately a representation of Leonel's Dream World, and Leonel's Dream World was a projection of his abilities. He could use his Dream World as a medium to project the core essence of the spear in his hand to his Yin-Yang Domain by fusing them into one, then he could use Aurora Star Force to give it life.
The Yin-Yang Domain was, in the first place, designed to take a Force of one kind and turn into a Force of the exact opposite kind.
So what if you took Dream Force and forced it to become its direct opposite…?
Wouldn't you go from something that was purely a construct of your mind…
To something that was tangible and real?
Leonel struck forward with a mighty momentum, his laughter ringing throughout the demon world and echoed long after his spear ran through the high Fiend Class demons hearts.
He felt invincible.