MUCH MORE FUN

Leonel stepped out from the Silver Tablet. Or, rather, he simply snapped out of his meditative state, alerting himself to the outside world once again. It wasn't lost on him that there were some hostile people before him, but he wasn't worried about it in the slightest. How could they harm him with Anastasia around? He hadn't hesitated to enter a deep state of focus at all.

"I have a technique here that might help you all return to your human forms. It might take some time, but so long as you're diligent with it, things should work out in the end."

Leonel crushed the technique orb that appeared in his palm, and a Force Art appeared before him. It wasn't too complicated, and it was actually far simpler than what he had seen from his own Ability Index and Alexandre's, and certainly less so than Goggles'.

He didn't know how these people would react to a technique being in this form rather than the more digestible format they were used to, but this was the best he could do for them.

What Leonel didn't expect, though, was that Joel would block his path before he could leave to handle other matters.

These bear beasts that his brothers had been turned into were enormous. Even on all fours, they could look Leonel right in the eyes.

Leonel and Joel's eyes met for a long while before Joel's eyes suddenly lost all spirituality. His body keeled over and collapsed.

Leonel rushed forward and caught Joel by instinct, feeling his heart beating out of his chest.

'What's wrong with me?' © content.

Leonel furiously shook his head. Normally, he would understand Joel's intentions instantly, and react with far calmer. It was obvious that Joel understood enough about Leonel's abilities to know that he could turn them back so long as they killed themselves.

Of course, Joel was a bit too eager. If not for the change to the Silver Tablet, Leonel would have had to put him in a snow globe until he got his King's Might Lineage Factor back.

But, Leonel had felt panic first before anything else.

Life wasn't so fleeting. He could feel the weight of it now more than he ever had before.

He hurriedly took out the Silver Tablet again, and Joel's beast body trembled before it crumbled to ash.

Leonel hardly got done with this before the rest of his brothers followed through, one by one. They killed themselves without hesitation.

Every time it happened, it felt like a knife was being twisted into his heart.

He rushed to help each and every one of them, bringing them into the Silver Tablet before pouring what Force resources he had left into resurrecting them.

He felt a heaviness that he hadn't felt before, a heaviness that didn't vanish even when he brought them back one after another. It felt as though he couldn't catch his breath, and bringing them back did nothing to change that feeling of discomfort.

"How could you be so reckless? What if something went wrong?"

Leonel had wanted this to come out far more light-hearted, and even in a joking manner, but it had lost any sense of that it once had when it was filtered through his emotions.

It sounded harsh, grating on the ears even, like he was reprimanding them.

Their gazes of trust felt like a burden, a burden he almost wanted to instinctually give up.

'What the hell is wrong with me?'

Leonel took a step back along with a deep breath.

Was it because of his Vital Star Force? It was like an anchor in his heart. Without the presence of other Forces within him because his body simply couldn't withstand any other Force right now, it had taken the reins completely.

"We have our own convictions too, Leonel," Joel looked into Leonel's eyes, their deep brown trembling. "I'm tired of dying. I've already experienced it three times now. But I'll experience it however many times I have to so that I don't have to again."

The contradictory words rang in Leonel's ears.

A chance, an opportunity. An Ability Index wasn't the only thing that could represent those concepts, but life itself could.

...

Leonel didn't know how he got out of there, but he felt suffocated. He understood what Wise Star Order had meant about an Innate Node being able to consume you now more than ever. And this was just a Force he had comprehended, what if one day his Scarlet Star Force Innate Node began to rampage as well?

He sat on his bed, holding Aina's Blood Sovereign Tablet. His fingers trembled slightly as he tried to steady his breathing.

No, maybe it already had.

His thoughts were so cruel, his actions so decisive and emotionless. How much of that was really him, versus his Innate Node?

He needed the space to breathe.

Suddenly, though, the golden tablet trembled and a light manifested.

Before Leonel could react, the tablet spun out of his hands, and a humanoid figure appeared around it as it shrunk.

Leonel bolted forward without thinking, his arms wrapping around Aina before she was even aware of her surroundings.

** "The humans are amusing, don't you think? All this effort, and for what, exactly? Do they think they're going to find a savior among those Incomplete World ants?"

A demon, wrapped in shadows and with the menacing horns of a bull crouched over a sheer cliff with nothing but black waters below.

However, those who knew better knew that those weren't waters below at all, but rather, the turbulence of space and destruction. It was Anarchic Force so thick it manifested into a loose liquid.

All around him, there were others demons of all shapes and sizes.

"What do you all say we crash their party? I would like to see how the Vast Bubble would react to their careful plan crumbling before their eyes?"

SMACK.

A thick hand hit the bull horned demon on the back of the head.

"Remember the goal. We're here to get evidence of the humans enslaving Higher Races."

The bull horned demon snorted. "We could just kill them all. What's the use for all of this?"

"Why don't you go question the higher-ups yourself? I'm sure they'll love that."

The bull horned demon snarled but fell silent.

The demon by his side, one that seemed formed entirely of flames, looked down toward the abyss below.

"Remember, somehow, the humans were able to stop our advance with that formation for generations, while our brothers and sisters were getting slaughtered inside.

"That formation finally shattered, and we made it through, but there's no telling if they have another trump card like it.

"We're demons. Be a bit more cunning, would you? Wouldn't it be much more fun to watch the whole world slaughter the humans again?"