SHREDDED TO PIECES

Leonel's gaze flashed. "I just killed an Ancestor, you know, this lack of belief is hurtful."

Aina rolled her eyes. Even in that body, it seemed that she oozed feminine charm. It was funny watching a middle-aged man act like this. He would probably be mortified if he were anywhere in there. He had spent all of his life being a dignified Emperor, only for this to happen. Poor guy.

"I don't have many details, but I know that someone was waiting and expecting all of this to happen. More than half of the Silver Empire's galaxies were wiped out in an instant, and our fighting force was crushed. Even those that survived were suddenly ripped apart by the wild shift in gravity, I barely managed to hold onto the capital as it was.

"You know this, I entered the Silver Empire's Zone before and I got a technique out of it. It's the technique that allowed me to assimilate with real demon blood and create my own demonic form. For whatever reason, these people are very interested in this technique and are doing whatever they can to get their hands on it.

"I was originally in a battle with them before Shield Cross Stars came on "official business" and they vanished."

"You don't know who they are?" Leonel asked.

"I can't be certain but... but they felt a lot like the people we met in the Cataclysm Zone, but more mature and stronger. Their foundations were incredibly solid, and their Force Manipulation, as you called it, was off the charts. Luckily, the Silver Emperor's body was incredibly powerful too."

Leonel frowned. He felt confused, like countless stories were piling together in a manner that didn't quite make sense to him, and he still didn't understand how this matter might be related to the Timeless Event. According to his understanding, the Dream Project couldn't be created by the Cataclysm Zone's families and Pavilions on their own. Instead, they relied on a favor the Plutos owed to the Fawkes, gaining the Incomplete Worlds, and then using it for their experimentation. There was likely some point in that timeline where they stabbed the Fawkes family in the back, and Earth became his grandfather's contingency plan, or maybe it was his plan all along, he wasn't certain.

The likely purpose of the Dream Project was to strengthen the Cataclysm Zone so they could deal with an upcoming threat, likely demons that were adjacent to their world. As such, it made sense that they might send people in to steal a technique capable of allowing them to assimilate with demons.

This wasn't what confused Leonel. He wanted to know how these matters were woven into one another and how they might come back to tie into the Timeless Event. He felt like he was missing just one kernel that might weave all of these things together.

"Were they wrapped in black chains and golden runes?" Leonel asked.

Aina, who was about to continue, stopped. "How'd you know?"

She hadn't been there to witness the death of Leonel's father, so she didn't know how Leonel could possibly know these things. But yes, it was true that they had looked like that.

"I've seen them before... on that day," Leonel said lightly.

Aina fell into silence. She knew what Leonel was talking about before he even explained. She wanted to comfort him, but he spoke before that.

"Continue."

"I realized immediately that there was something wrong with the appearance of Shield Cross Stars. Their appearance was too timely."

"Wouldn't they want to deal with the Silver Empire too?" Leonel asked.

According to the history of the Human Domain, the Silver Empire was always a scourge, they were just too powerful to deal with immediately so they were tolerated. Of course, this all wrapped back to the fact that they were "demons".

"I would have thought so too, but I've learned a lot, speaking and questioning attendants and such. I assumed that all of this was related to the Zone, which was why I was following it all to the end. According to my understanding, everything in the Human Domain has been peaceful for a long while, everyone accepted the Silver Empire's "demon" status as something that was just part of their power."

Leonel nodded slowly. Indeed, it had always sounded like an excuse to him. The Morales and the Suiard both had clearly demonic characters in their Lineage Factors, so why weren't they treated the same? Something didn't add up.

"It seems that no one turned on the Silver Empire until they were suddenly greatly weakened, and then they swooped in.

"If what you're saying is correct, it's even odder. Those people who were capable of battling... your father should be supremely powerful, there's no reason for them to fear the appearance of Shield Cross Stars unless there was another reason."

The pieces were slowly coming together, becoming clearer in Leonel's mind. Of course, he had been na?ˉve. If the Four Great Families could target the Fawkes family, destroying them, even though the latter was the reason they had a chance at all to grow powerful, then who was to say that there wasn't more internal strife in the Cataclysm Zone Complete World?

Even further than just that, they had the tablets that could grant them the Northern Star Lineage Factor, and on top of that, somehow, in the past, the Fawkes family had been strong enough to have the Pluto Race owe them a favor... How else could they have been that strong if not by the most obvious answer?

It all lined up slowly. Those henchmen of the God Beast of Destruction had yet to vanish from the world, they were still making their presence known, and they were trying to sink their claws into one of the few remaining human Bubbles. From .

It was almost obvious. After such a war, how could there be many humans left if even the God Beasts had practically gone extinct? Any that remained would be first on the chopping block, they were probably being ripped apart by the sheer number of forces trying to take control of them.

At that moment, it happened. The veil that El'Rion had put upon the planets in order to keep them in alignment was shredded to pieces.

Leonel's gaze sharpened.