SMART

Leonel's reaction was far too calm, but the reality was that it was hard to act surprised when you had deduced what would happen the moment it started. Had he wasted time trying to stop Veiga, the Morales would have suffered casualties, and heavy ones at that. At the very least, upwards of a million would have died. For the casualties to go from zero to that point, to this sort of level, he found it unacceptable.

But it was likely that whoever was messing with his plans likely knew this and acted accordingly. Though it was doubtful that they expected Leonel to be so decisive.

Unfortunately, whatever facade of a brash, unruly youth who was too full of himself wouldn't work anymore, but that was the least of his problems.

He cast a glance toward the Half Spirituals.

In order to deal with the immediate problem, he decisively destroyed the formation. This time, it was truly destroyed and there was no coming back from it other than to rebuild it from the ground up. While he could have taken his time to find a less crude situation, the more time he wasted, the more Morales would have died.

His speed of thought was fast, but not fast enough to analyze a Path that he had little to no idea about, and then apply that to a formation that spanned an entire solar system. Even he wasn't that mighty yet.

His most important takeaway from this event, though, was that this person was smart. Almost too smart.

Leonel couldn't remember ever giving this sort of evaluation to anyone. It was a simple one-word description, and it wasn't overly flowery in his presentation, but it held the weight of the word when it was spoken by him.

In order for this person to outplay him like this, they had to not only understand the weakness of his Silver Tablet and his Lineage Factor in combination, but they also had to be able to use an entire Path and a formation they had likely never even seen active in person, to create this whole farce.

But that wasn't the worst of it. That much was still acceptable. The truest problem was that for this plan to have worked, it relied on something else: the weakness of the Morales, their bloodlines, and their origins.

To make a complex matter simple, this individual used the strength of the Spiritual's formation to target the weakness of the Morales, dealing a blow to Shield Cross Stars, the Morales, and leaving Leonel here dealing with quite a few enraged Half Spirituals.

As for how that was done, Leonel still wasn't 100% certain on the details, but he had a general framework.

The Spiritual Religion emphasized oneness with nature. Their formation worked by sensing the life of the universe around them, melding into it, and allowing the power to wash over it. But it was also precisely because of this that it was turned around and used against Leonel.

Oneness with nature could mean multiple things depending on the location, the person, and even the time. With that in mind, it was beginning to become clearer how this person had done this.

There was now a large concentration of Morales in the surroundings. And what exactly was the innate nature of the Morales?

This might be a hard question to answer until one remembered one thing: the curse of the Morales.

As Morales men and women grew older, their Lineage Factors seemed to influence their minds and they became more battle-hungry and less reasonable. This was what had sparked the creation of the current Heir Wars system and the short duration of rulership in the first place.

Using the formation as a foundation, and Leonel's lack of understanding of it, this person had used the Dream Plane to amplify the innate weakness of the Morales, manipulating them into a frenzy.

And, because everyone else was also in its sphere of influence, the very nature of the world around them began to change, and slowly people other than the Morales began to be affected as well.

For Yuri, who was in a state of emotional turmoil, and was both hating herself for what she had done, and hating Leonel for putting her in such a situation, it had manifested in a way that it almost certainly never would have before.

When things were laid out like this, it almost felt that Leonel's analysis of this person wasn't nearly high enough. Orchestrating this matter took no less than a genius who stood above all others.

However, Leonel only felt that it was interesting.

He had read through the entirety of the Void Library, and how could there not be explanations of the God Path within? But they were all vague and abstract, as though even people of the Human Domain didn't understand how it worked.Material © .

Now seeing it in action, he felt that the path was more interesting than he had given it credit for, and that was partly why his analysis of this person's strengths was so lukewarm.

This was a strategy they should have saved, because it most definitely wouldn't work again. Of course, only Leonel would think like this.

"So? Are we going to fight?" Leonel asked, looking toward the Half Spiritual Overlord.

The Overlord didn't know what to think. The situation had changed so fast, and she didn't have nearly the understanding Leonel did of what had just happened. One moment Leonel had everything in his grasp, the next his people started fighting one another, and by the time it all ended their ancient formation seemed to have truly been destroyed.

She still hadn't regained her bearings, and yet Leonel was now asking this question. But she was smart enough to understand the implication.

Whoever had outplayed Leonel wanted them to fight.

So should she follow the plans of that person? Or should she fall into Leonel's plans instead?

She suddenly felt indecisive even as her warriors looked raging for battle.