WRONG PATH
When Leonel walked out of his residence, a shadow of swirling dark energies appeared over his shoulder. Little Blackstar's body was almost a meter long by this point, but he still insisted on acting like he was still an infant. Even so, his antics brought a smile to Leonel's face as he patted the little guy on the head.
"How about it? Did it help you out?"
"Yip!"
Leonel smiled. Little Blackstar still couldn't and probably would never be able to speak human language, but that didn't mean that the little guy hadn't matured. Leonel could sense his thoughts becoming more complex and what he wanted to express was likewise much more complex.
The little guy was bragging again, but Leonel knew the truth. Little Blackstar hadn't made much progress at all. Though, he had already expected this.
Little Blackstar had ignored the corpse of the Shadow Tail and had instead focused on the Void Beast carcass against Leonel's recommendations. The little guy wanted to take a large leap immediately rather than taking one step at a time as was only natural.
It seemed that Aina wasn't the only one consumed by wanting to keep up with Leonel. In the past, if one were comparing talents alone, Little Blackstar had thought that he was even beyond Leonel. After all, those days where they had first met, Little Blackstar had actually almost killed Leonel several times.
Of course, the little one hadn't really understood what he was doing back then, but the truth was still the same. If one had to power scale Leonel and Blackstar back then, the latter would have been far superior.
Since then, the reverse had become true.
What was most amusing about it all was that the way their relationship was formed, Leonel was technically the beast to Blackstar's master. They hadn't formed it normally, and as a result, Blackstar could sense Leonel's state far clearer than the latter could do the reverse.
Blackstar watched as Leonel got further and further away every day, and as his thoughts grew more complex, that sort of dissatisfaction he would feel and then lash out toward Little Tolly with had become a strong drive to be better instead. It only made it worse that Tolliver had returned with such a great boost to his power as well.From .
Why should he have to take one step at a time when his rival had taken such a large leap immediately?
Leonel smiled somewhat bitterly.
In the beginning, it was true that Blackstar could feel his state and hear his thoughts far clearer than he could do the reverse. Back then he was so pathetic that he couldn't even stop this troublemaker from turning him into his beast companion.
But how could it still be the same now? Blackstar's mind might as well have been an open book to him.
"Just think about it, Blackstar. You have the bloodline of a Void Beast within you, and I have a feeling that I was far too hasty back then, forcing you to swallow that kind of strength. You could have very easily died.
"I'm happy that you did, but I have a feeling that I stalled your progress as a result. Absorbing too much too early, instead of supplementing you, just buried what potential you had. That's my fault as your companion, but don't let my mistake be what keeps you anchored for so long.
"I want you to follow me for a lifetime, so do as I say and not as I do, okay?"
Little Blackstar's large black eyes, reflecting like two beautiful marbles, blinked. His whiskers drooped a bit and his large body seemed to sink into Leonel's shoulder.
"Yip..."
Leonel smiled bitterly.
From what he had learned in the Void Library, beasts progressed easier than humans, but time worked differently for them as well. Little Blackstar was an infant when Leonel met him, and even after experiencing a 20-plus year time dilation, he was still an infant. Little Blackstar might have to turn a century old before he could transition into adolescence.
Leonel realized that he had been too hands off with the little guy.
If he had never done anything to alter Little Blackstar's path, he could continue to be. The problem was that he had pumped Blackstar full of a bloodline that wasn't his own, causing the usual instincts Blackstar would have had toward his path forward, something innately born to him as a beast, to dull considerably.
It was all Leonel's fault. He had messed with things he shouldn't have when he was far too ignorant to do so, and now Blackstar was suffering the consequences.
Somewhere within Blackstar, there was talent and potential strong enough to consume Void Beast blood without dying. Blackstar needed to take his time building up through the ranks, starting with the Shadow Tail, so that he could understand exactly what the Void Beast Bloodline represented.
The God Beasts of Destruction had built a perfect step by step plan on how to become one of them. The Dark Northern Star Lineage Factor was that blueprint, and Blackstar had it before him.
Once Blackstar perfectly understood what was Void Beast within him, and what was his own talent, then he could begin to properly separate them and maximize the use of both.
Little Blackstar was special, he knew that. If you could just inject Void Beast blood into a person and gain their abilities, then why was it that they had to experiment with humans? Why not just find a whole bunch of beasts and pump them full of their bloodlines?
And yet, he had done exactly that with Little Blackstar.
Suddenly, Leonel's eyes lit up. Indeed, Little Blackstar was just an infant, or maybe a toddler by this point. Why was he trying to talk to him like an adult? So, he stopped holding back, telling the little guy of something he had thought of much earlier.
As Leonel spoke, he strolled toward the battlefield as though Morales territory wasn't under threat of imminent collapse.