CLICKED

Alpha Magma could almost feel Leonel's eyes sharpen. It was akin to a blade being pressed into his skin, like a knife being twisted into his heart, like a searing piece of metal being branded onto his flesh.

His senses heightened and his rhino-nose even twitched slightly as he took his first step back.

Leonel's spear was swapped out for a rolling wave of killing intent. It was as though the spear itself had already vanished, and instead he was enveloped by a dense web of them, covering him from all sides.

Alpha Magma suddenly felt enlightened. Was this what it truly meant to have a Domain... to form a Glaive Domain?

The bout of enlightenment was like a fierce wave crashing through his body and the ground beneath his feet suddenly became a wasteland of boiling lava and searing rock. It quickly covered the distance and instantly became the only ground that Leonel could step on for the surrounding several hundred meters.

Several of the Betas were caught up in the domain and found themselves burnt to ash or sinking into a puddle of heated doom.

But Leonel felt like swearing inwardly. Had he just helped this guy to break through?

Then he understood. He was using his Dream Force to pay attention to the Alpha's every movement and read and react to it even before it happened, but it seemed that, at least in a subtle way, observing someone through the Dream Plane was actually a two-way street.

He had accidentally given a bit too much of his insights to this person.Material © .

When he had been fighting against the Spirituals Religion, this was an excellent thing as it helped many of the Morales to make sudden breakthroughs.

Against an enemy, though, he had just shot himself in the foot.

The gap between Leonel's skill and that of the Alpha's shrunk a small portion. He was still far more Leonel, but when it was combined with his raw strength and speed, it almost felt like Leonel had crippled himself.

'It can't be Force...'

Leonel shook his head, his thoughts suddenly wandering back to his previous thoughts. His Forces were already so powerful, and yet he couldn't make use of them. If he tried to use his Spear Force the way it was intended, he would end up blasting his own arm to smithereens.

If one wanted to return to the Fifth Dimension just for the sake of comprehending Forces, what good would it do them in the end if they couldn't even use it all in the first place?

Leonel dodged out of the way of another strike, but his spear found a perfect gap.

He had already swapped his spear for a radiant violet one. It was gorgeous and looked as though it had been dotted with amethysts and then carved to be reminiscent of the scales of a dragon.

He had never used this spear before; it just happened to be the first one he locked onto that was both of the Life Grade, and had a Dream Affinity.

Since Dream Force was the only strength of his that remained... he would lean into it.

His aura flourished, the skies turned dark, and Alpha Magma suddenly found himself surrounded from all sides. At least... that was the feeling this Domain gave him.

It had been a long while since Leonel relied on one of the Domains of his spears, but it seemed that he would have to if he wanted to get out of this one.

He spear danced in the wind, the enlightened Alpha Magma feeling as though he was frozen in time before the feeling suddenly vanished entirely.

Leonel landed behind the Alpha, swiping his spear at the ground and causing a slash of blood to sprinkle into the air before it was charred to nothingness by the oppressive heat.

He was only able to hit his cool pose for but a moment before he jumped up, though.

"Ooo, oo, ah..." Leonel grabbed his feet in the air, blowing at them, wanting to shed tears but having none to do so with.

He really needed to get his Metal Body back in shape, but he didn't dare to take even a step forward in his power progression without understanding exactly what to do.

He didn't understand why that old man couldn't just tell him. This was really getting ridiculous. Was this how people felt when he didn't tell them anything?

Leonel looked back at the fallen Alpha and shook his head.

It was a shame. This opponent was about on the level of the average Void Palace genius. No, he was probably a little higher than that; he could definitely become a Domain Ranked disciple.

Even so, this was a person that he would have defeated in two strokes at most, normally. But now, he had to kill him even though he would be more useful alive purely because he wasn't strong enough to capture him.

'Think about [Dimensional Cleanse],' Anastasia suddenly said.

'Hm?'

Leonel blinked for a moment before his eyes suddenly widened in understanding.

Now, when he used his Universal Cycles, his Stars didn't appear. That meant that they had lost access to them, and in a way, [Dimensional Cleanse] had reset.

That wasn't what was important, though. What was important was just how interchangeable the first three layers of [Dimensional Cleanse] had been.

It had to be remembered that the Third Dimension was meant to set a foundation for Force, the Fourth Dimension for the body, and the Fifth Dimension for the mind.

In the Third, you formed the Nodes. In the Fourth, you formed the Nodal Pathways to bring energy to the rest of the body. In the Fifth, you enlightened your mind and broke the mortal chains that bound you, unleashing your truest and fullest potential.

[Dimensional Cleanse] matched that. You were supposed to form Stars for your energy first, then ones for your body, then ones for your might.

But Leonel... he had formed his Dream Force Star first, something that should have waited until the Fifth Dimension, then he formed his Vital Stars for his body, and only then did he form his energy Stars out of Scarlet Star Force and Void Star Force.

He had done everything out of order and it all clicked now.