FUSE OR SHATTER

It took a few hours, but Leonel got to everyone. In truth, this chance had dealt with a problem he had been avoiding all this time: the Oryx.

The Oryx Empire had yet to learn that Leonel sacrificed the rest of their people as Leonel had never told them. Elthor would have been an especially important warrior to lose out on as his potential had yet to be fully unearthed.

Originally, he thought about what it would mean to have this chance. Would there be two Elthors? Two Oryx Kings? But he had overthought it. There was nothing of the sort.

This realization, though, made Leonel certain that someone had a hand in this.

Thinking back, how did he even earn the right to enter the true Valiant Heart Zone? He had found a ring on the body of a dead person whose name he wouldn't even remember if not for his infallible memory. That person was as close to a nobody as you could get, and the fact the ring landed in Leonel's hands was still something that felt... odd to him.

But Leonel could only really deal with one problem at a time. There were too many forces in the dark that wanted to bring him down, and there were very few like this one that actually seemed to... help him. He didn't have any more attention to split on this.

Leonel shook his head. Even this matter took far too much effort on his part.

Years ago, the lives of these people would have been a great benefit to him, but whether it was the humans or the Oryx, they were both far too weak. In fact, that probably wasn't even harsh enough.

Back then, King Alexandre had killed Leonel just because he had stepped into the Fifth Dimension. Leonel had been completely helpless against him, and these people were even more.

He had almost forgotten. These people weren't in the Fifth Dimension at all; they were all in the Fourth. They were so far from being useful in this conflict that it was laughable. And yet, Leonel still took his time to revive each and every one, giving them a small token of his own personal assurance.

All of these people were already familiar with him, not in the intimate sense of the first time he had taken the Zone trial, but rather in that they had all seen him defeat the King as he had made certain that they would.

The person this seemed to impact the most was Normand the Speedster, or as he had been known in the Zone... Normand the Cuckold. And it was precisely because of that name that Normand looked toward Leonel with more passion than just about anyone else. It was thanks to Leonel that the love of his life had finally been released from her shackles.

Even during the first trial, Leonel had never been close to this person. In fact, they had ended up fighting in the end, and Leonel almost died at his hands. But it was also because of this that Leonel knew how much potential Normand had.

The Pure Speedster Ability Index was incredibly rare and extraordinarily powerful when brought to its limits. And at the same time, his former fiancée, though I guess current fiancée now, was yet another monster.

Normand's fiancée had had her blood drained by King Alexandre for the sake of harnessing her power of life. She had a Life Force Innate Node, and just by virtue of that, her lifespan was nigh unlimited.

If her blood also carried such power, Leonel also had an inkling that she might also be a Blood Sovereign, though it was possible that this was just a byproduct of her Life Force Innate Node.

And then there was King Alexandre himself. He was one of the few that Leonel hadn't resurrected, but after he had finished going through everyone, he stared at this looming silhouette for a long time.

There was a good reason for that: King Alexandre's Ability Index.

The King called himself The Apex. He was able to grant others titles that could strengthen them, and he could also strengthen himself by giving himself such a title. In truth, even when Leonel thought back, he was a shocking talent.

Part of Leonel wanted to resurrect him and rein him under his control. But to do that, he would have to first find a resource worthy of resurrecting such a talent.Material © .

Leonel shook his head. Just how could so many astounding talents be squeezed into this inconsequential Zone? It was like, once again, he was being pointed in this direction.

He had thought that when he returned, even if he gained such a chance, these people would just become another burden he had to take care of. But the more he thought about it, even when he reframed the things that happened back then with his current understanding of the world...

It was hard to accept just how far ahead these people were.

Whether it was Elthor, Normand, his fiancée, Alexandre, and maybe the most shocking talent of them all, Goggles, they were each more ridiculous than the last.

But Leonel's hesitation about Alexandre went beyond just the mystery of why so many talents would be here, so even whether he should revive such a vile man, it was instead something completely separate.

Should he do it... Should he finally absorb a talent that wasn't his own?

Leonel hesitated.

In the past, he hadn't noticed. His scope was too limited and his comprehension of Dream Force wasn't nearly as deep, but now he saw it as bright as day.

King Alexandre's Ability Index was a pure Dream Force ability, maybe the strongest Dream Force Ability Index he had ever seen, stronger than even Lionel's despite him not being a Savant.

The people of the Zone had called it "Royal Force," and it had completely thrown him off. But ever since he had come out of the Zone, he had never heard another word about this so-called Royal Force, nor did the Void Library have any information about it.

Then he thought about his King's Might Lineage Factor. If there was any ability that would make use of Royal Force, wouldn't it be it? And yet... it was a Lineage Factor built completely from Dream Force.

And then, the straw that broke the camel's back, was his new comprehension of the Second Dimension and his new access to the Dream Plane.

Breathing Life into a Word, that was how Alexandre's was described by the people of the Zone.

But the way Leonel saw Dream Force now, wasn't it the same?

Dream Force was said to be the impetus of life, but it was no more than the capacity of thought. That alone gave birth to life; it was the core of what created.

If one took it a step further than that, Force Arts were a method of tapping into this sort of language, pulling on the laws of the world with words as well... it was just that they were words the common person couldn't understand.

A step further than even that, and his own Ability Index was just a translation of his own "words" into an internal change. His Ability Index highest level was known as Control, a perfect internal control that allowed him to in turn exert pressure on the outside world.

Alexandre's, though, was the exact opposite. It was an exertion of Control on the outside.

Leonel believed that he had found the other side of his Ability Index's coin.

The question was, if he absorbed this Ability Index...

Would they fuse and provide a multiplicative effect?

Or would they cancel one another out and shatter both?