HESITATION
Leonel frowned. He was able to hold it up for a while, but it was clear that The Hourglass planned on getting heavier and heavier until he was truly out of options. Realizing this, he immediately tried to send it into the Segmented Cube, but then he realized something even more devastating.
In order to send items into and out of spatial devices, it required Internal Sight. Namely, the intention of Internal Sight. It was the locking of senses that allowed the ring, brace, or the world, in this case, to understand that something wanted to be transported inside or outside. It was similar to El'Rion and his intentions of locking Leonel down with the thought of him, though a bit different.
To make a complicated matter simple, it felt like Leonel's Internal Sight couldn't wrap around The Hourglass no matter how hard he tried. It was as though every time he was almost there, its size would increase, requiring more and more effort, more and more Internal Sight to make the attempt.
Leonel was a person who had never struggled with such a thing before. Others had a limit to how large an item they were moving in and out of a spatial device could be, and for some who didn't have limits, there was a definite and long lag that took place the larger the object in question was. But, Leonel had never worried about this. He could even move something the size of a Starship in and out of the Segmented Cube in a split moment.
But now, this Hourglass in his hand, that was still the same size as always, seemed to be forming a larger and larger picture in his mind. He realized instantly that no matter how large his range was, The Hourglass would always be just a hair better.
His frown deepened, the coldness in his gaze flickering. In another split second, any attempt to continue holding onto this item would shred his muscles off the bone. But more importantly than that, there was El'Rion.
He had just used a Starship capable of one-shotting most Ancestors, and yet he hadn't even managed to sever El'Rion's hand completely. No, it was even worse than that. The Starships in his possession were upgraded using the blueprint of his enlightened self. They were easily twice as powerful as Cynthia's already modified and improved Starships. On top of that, he had concentrated all of the power into a thin line barely three to four inches thick...
And yet he still couldn't sever maybe the weakest part of El'Rion's body? From .
How would he continue to fight this person?
In terms of a straight-up battle, Leonel didn't fear him. While he had long since acknowledged that there was a limit to what scheming could accomplish, he still firmly believed that he had yet to run into that peak just yet.
But if he couldn't at least store away The Hourglass, even if he couldn't use it himself, it would definitely land in El'Rion's hands once more. At that point, he wouldn't stand a chance.
When The Hourglass appeared, he had realized how special it was immediately. Other ignorant individuals would think it to be a worthless ornament, maybe even making the assumption that the reason Shan'Rae was scared off was because the item was akin to a badge, representing someone with a bit of an eccentric personality.
But he could feel it. Any item that he couldn't completely cast into his Dream World was one that existed on a plane far beyond his understanding.
So, the instant he had seen it, he had already thought of thousands of methods to get his hands on it. He felt that it might be a chance to reverse what had happened to his father. So long as he could figure out how to use it, he could return to that moment, he could be more prepared, he could find a method to deal with the Regulator, he could...
Leonel's teeth clenched. It was only a split moment but his mind simply worked far too fast. It had only gotten several-fold faster after he entered the Seventh Dimension and it was prone to overrunning even its own self, accelerating past what maybe even Leonel himself was consciously aware of.
Leonel clenched his jaw so hard that some of his teeth cracked, but no matter how fast his mind ran, he couldn't figure out a solution.
Ironically, he had run into that peak schemes were useless again just when he thought he would be undefeatable...
No.
That was actually a lie.
He did have a solution... but when he was about to use it, his mind working in a frenzy, he hesitated. It was something he never thought he would do in such a situation, and especially not in his current state of mind. But he simply... couldn't bring himself to do it.
Unfortunately, a split moment of hesitation was all it took to lose a battle like this one.
CRACK.
Leonel's arm snapped like a twig. The recoil was so strong that even after The Hourglass fell from his palm, his bicep tendon snapped and his arm swung down and back. The sight was grotesque, but how could it not be when the back of his hand slapped against the back of his shoulders?
El'Rion appeared before Leonel, almost carelessly catching The Hourglass. His eyes, though, seemed to carry more emotion than they usually did. He had actually been out maneuvered by a human?
This ending was still inevitable, that was only logical. The Hourglass was forged by the Constellation of the Pluto Race, how could it respond to the call of anyone else? Even if he left it in the middle of the road of the busiest city of the God Domain, no one would even dare to touch it.
But... why did he still somehow feel that this had ended far too simply?
He looked down at Leonel, his wrist having already healed, his thoughts unreadable.