PERFECT BALANCE

Leonel didn't know that his mission had just gotten that much harder. In fact, he was in a state of quite some tranquility as he moved because his father had indeed left something behind.

"Listen here, oh seed of min-"

"Could you stop with that nickname?"

"Silence, twerp. I'm trying to help you."

"Oh? That's a change."

It took way longer than Leonel cared to admit to get his father's AI to actually start giving him the information it was apparently here to provide. But the moment it did, what he learned quite quickly was that he had too little understanding of what his father had done for him.

For one, Leonel learned that his being born with a Scarlet Star Innate Node and then having it taken away not too long after was actually somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

His father had, indeed, gone to Earth to learn about their forms of medicine in an attempt to regrow the Innate Node and also to stabilize his condition.

After losing his Innate Node, the infant Leonel had been in an extremely precarious state where he could have died any time. The pressure of a higher-level world only made his situation worse, and it was only by returning to a Third Dimensional World could he finally begin to heal.

The question he had never really thought about was why?

The answer seemed obvious. Obviously, it was because he had lost a precious part of himself, but was that truly the case? When he took his Innate Node back from Myghell, the latter had seemed fine afterward.

Of course... Leonel had been a baby while Myghell had been a grown man. There was obviously a clear difference.

But Leonel didn't believe that was enough to explain it.

As a child of Velasco and a wielder of the World Spirit, Leonel's constitution at birth should have been excellent. Even if he lost his Innate Node by rather crude methods, it was so small and insignificant back then that unless those few bastards tried to kill him at the same time, he should have been able to weather the storm at the same time. At the very least, he shouldn't have been on the brink of death.

But what if this was another ploy by the Demoness?

He thought back to Anya and how much of a danger she said he would be. Then he thought of how Wise Star Order had said that his Innate Node would consume him if he didn't master it within a hundred years. And then there was something else that was curious...

His Lineage Factors, from birth, had a heavy leaning toward life. Whether it was the Light Side of the Northern Star Lineage Factor or the portion of the Morales Lineage Factor.

Taking another step back, the Morales Lineage Factor as a whole had a heavy emphasis on life, so much so that he practically exuded vitality, his single breath capable of causing whirlwinds in the sky.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

The Metal Synergy Lineage Factor, even though only part of the whole, had a heavy emphasis on creation, mimicking aspects of the Metal Spirit Race and forming many things from nothing.

Its ties with creation couldn't have been stronger.

But then there was his Innate Node. It could be said to be the exact opposite. It was the embodiment of destruction, and he, himself, was a Destruction Sovereign.

The clash between the two should have been enough to tear an infant apart. It reeked of an experiment, reeked with a stench of subterfuge.

Maybe the Demoness' experiments hadn't come to an end after all, and she really wanted to see what would happen when she took two aspects and smashed them together.

What was worse than all of this was something else that he had neglected: his Ability Index.

Dream Force. It was the Impetus of Life itself, and his affinity in it couldn't have been stronger, especially with the bloodline of that Demoness running through his veins.

How would it have clashed with his Innate Node?

It seemed that Leonel's father had seen this as well. As a result, not only was he looking for a way to regrow Leonel's Innate Node, but he also suppressed Leonel's true Dream Force affinity so it wouldn't affect the formation of the Scarlet Star Force Innate Node.

Leonel's body was truly a ticking time bomb with creation pulling in one direction and destruction pulling in the other. He might have even found it to be poetic if it wasn't for the fact his life was on the line because of it.

Ultimately, his creation side had been the far stronger of the two until two things happened.

The first was that he gained a second Scarlet Star Force Innate Node, his enlightened self even having brought it to the same level as his original one after its second awakening.

The second was that he had gained the Dark Northern Star Lineage Factor as well, finally balancing out the light side.

Thanks to this, and his demon bloodline still being suppressed within him, he could finally unleash his mind the way it was meant to be unleashed.

However, that didn't change the fact that he was a ticking time bomb.

For one, having two Innate Nodes with Destruction Character meant that he had to grasp Destruction to an even deeper level if he wanted to keep them in line.

At the same time, as he progressed, his demon bloodline would only grow stronger with time and it would begin to clash with what he had now.

Obviously, as his demon bloodline grew stronger, his Dream Force would grow stronger, and as his Dream Force grew stronger, his creation aspects would likewise gain huge bumps in strength.

This was the balancing act that Leonel had to play now, and it likely also didn't help that Little Tolly was giving off incredibly strong waves of creation as well.

One would think that if one side was far stronger than the other, then it would just suppress it and flourish.

But in the end, creation and destruction couldn't exist without proper balance.

Much like the tale of the God Beasts of Creation had taught him... When you created too much, it would inevitably lead to destruction.

If he wanted to survive, there needed to be a perfect balance.