"Shouldn't we be going to the other locations now?" Aphestus suddenly asked.

In truth, Aphestus was a bit anxious. The pills Leonel had given him were burning a hole in his spatial device and he was trying his best not to be impatient and wait for this to calm down before he consumed them. But seeing Leonel be so nonchalant about it, all, even leisurely reclining and staring into the depths of space as though he was in his own dream world left him unable to remain quiet.

Leonel, who had indeed been in his own world, looked up.

"Hm?"

Aphestus nearly fainted. He had thought that Leonel might be thinking about something important, so he had felt slightly bad for interrupting, especially considering his original reasoning, but seeing Leonel's somewhat dazed look he didn't even know what to say.

"The Skies family wasn't the only worry, we have other enemies to deal with quickly. Even if we dealt a blow to them, those people were just canon fodder, most of them weren't even strong enough to control a galaxy to themselves, we can't get complacent now."

Several gazes landed on Leonel when Aphestus said this. In truth, he was correct, and the fact Aphestus of all people was saying it spoke volumes. He was usually the meathead who let Raylion make all of his decisions for him. But right this moment, Raylion was as relaxed as Leonel, sitting in silence seemingly without any intention to say anything.

Aphestus knew Raylion too well. Considering that man's pride, even if he was feeling as anxious as he was to start absorbing the rewards Leonel had just given them, he wouldn't say anything about it. So Aphestus knew that it was up to him to say something.

Currently, the group was in a lounging area of the flagship, there was food and snacks around and it didn't seem like a post battle region at all. In fact, that battle had almost been too easy, they hardly had any casualties at all.

"Oh, that?" Leonel said lightly. "Don't worry about it."

Aphestus choked on air. What was that supposed to mean?

"Don't we have to deal with the Viola and Chaotic Water Sectors?"

"Them? They've been dealt with. We don't have to do anything for the next few weeks. Next time you hear information from them, they would have crippled themselves," Leonel yawned slightly, feeling a bit tired. Indeed, he had been doing too much running around lately and not enough resting.

He faintly closed his eyes, seemingly about to take a nap.

Aphestus frowned. Leonel's words implied that they could do what they wanted for the next few weeks, but was this true?

The members of the Etching Metal organization looked toward one another. They knew too little about Leonel, and even for those of them that did, it had been over two decades since they last saw him, so they were feeling that the situation was a bit odd too.

However, before Aphestus could follow up again, Raylion slowly stood to his feet and walked away. He was clearly taking Leonel's words to heart and was returning to his quarters. He had waited too long, it was about time he transcended his limits.

Seeing this, Aphestus understood. Ironically, of all those here, Raylion probably had the most respect for Leonel despite the fact Raylion was so standoffish. If Leonel said the matter was handled, then it was handled.

As for the others, like Leonel's brothers, and Aina and the girls, the former group didn't need to be told twice, and the latter followed Aina's cues and she obviously took Leonel's words very seriously as well. copyrighted © content.

Just like this, a supposed "war" ended after just a single half body and a few dozen ambushes. As for the "instigator", he reclined in a chair, his eyes closed and his breathing steady. He let the flagship drift through space as though nothing at all was happening.

…

Within their rooms, Aphestus and Raylion glared down at the pills they had been given, their heartbeats dancing at various rates.

This meant a lot more for Raylion than it did for Aphestus, or most others for that matter. Raylion had wanted to be number for as long as he could remember, he had an absolute obsession for power, it was what he cared about the most, at least in his youth.

As he grew, he found other things he cared about, but that fire had still been there. It was just unfortunate that though he had once thought himself to be a great talent, to the wider Dimensional Verse, he was simply not worth very much at all.

Staring at the pills, he could remember all the hardship he had gone through to make it to this level. He could have accepted Leonel's help all those decades ago, but his pride hadn't allowed him to, he refused to take handouts he hadn't earned.

Now he had built up the best information in the whole of Earth's territory, and his hard work had grown the seed that would allow Leonel to crush so many enemies even while silently reclining in his chair.

This was something he had earned, with his own two hands… this was the chance he had been waiting so many years for.

Raylion opened the box with steady hands. He knew that just eating one of these might lead to his death and all that hard work would have meant nothing.

He sometimes thought about what it would mean to live a life of mediocrity, to be constantly protected by his own wife, to sit in the shadows and man an information network… but it simply wasn't in his being, it wasn't in his heart, it wasn't in his soul to be that man.

The universe hadn't blessed him with great talent, but if it gave him another path to it, he swore that he would show it just what kind of mistake it had made snubbing him.

Raylion reached forward and swallowed the first pill without hesitation. No more than half a breath passed before his body exploded into a cloud of flesh and blood.