NUMBERS

~Hours ago.

"What is the meaning of this-?!"

The man who had prepared to speak for the Dream Pavilion stopped his words, realizing that he had almost lost his temper toward this mad woman. Although he didn't fear her, he didn't want to offend her without reason either. Even so, this action of Mo''Lexi's was completely maddening.

She knew how much weight her name held, and she seemed to have even put a little bit of extra oomph into it this time as well.

Of their participants, she had killed off over 90% of them! Mo''Lexi was still frozen in shock, looking at Leonel. That was because everyone else had practically died immediately, while those that managed to survive were in an agonizing struggle with their own minds that manifested in waves of pain. However, Leonel just stood there in a daze.

It took her a while to snap out of it and realize that she was being spoken to.

"What are you moping about?" She said with a frown. "You wanted to kill at least this many regardless. We don't need numbers, we need elites. How can the numbers of even a thousand Incomplete Worlds match the population of our Bubbles? Let alone the fact we only have barely over a hundred. I just saved us all some time. Why have them fight one another when we can do this instead."

The man's jaw clenched. Mo''Lexi was correct, but only in part.

The issue was that not everyone had such powerful resistance to Dream Force, especially not if they came from an Incomplete World. They might have strengths that were focused in other areas.

In fact, for their purposes, they even preferred those with such weaknesses. It would make them far easier to control, almost superficially injured.

Among those that had died just now, there were definitely geniuses that excelled in certain facets that simply didn't even know about the importance of Dream Force protection. Even Leonel, who was practically a Dream Force savant, hadn't known about the importance of protecting yourself against the Dream Force of others until he, himself, entered the Dream Plane. How much worse off was everyone else?

All of those geniuses were as good as dead now, only leaving a small number that could actually protect themselves.

The issue was that the man-Clarence Emerii-couldn't just say this aloud. This wasn't because those here didn't understand this truth, none of them were fools. Rather, it was because he liked to uphold his public facing image.

Mo''Lexi sneered, clearly understanding this, and even more clearly not caring.

"Look over there, didn't I find a perfect little genius-pawn for you? You should be thanking me."Material © .

Clarence's eyes flashed as he looked down below. When he saw who it was, his expression darkened.

Leonel stood in silence, unable to move. He was completely vulnerable. If he died now, he wouldn't even know how it happened.

Suddenly, his feet and eyes began to smoke.

Mo''Lexi's heart skipped another beat as Clarence stepped forward, grabbing the rails of the sky box.

"Destruction Sovereign! Kill him!"

A red-haired woman, clearly of the Brazingers, spoke sharply. Her words practically came out in a bark.

This woman was obviously not the same woman that Leonel's father had fought. In fact, none of the four representatives of the Great Families were.

What the public didn't know was that those four were currently experiencing a great state of weakness. Clearly, aside from the strength of Leonel's father, the price to pay to descend to Incomplete Worlds, even with countermeasures, was too great as a Ninth Dimensional expert.

A hand was held out to stop the woman.

"I don't think that's appropriate, Rouge."

The one who spoke was not Clarence, but rather a man from a group that Leonel didn't immediately recognize. He wore plain linen robes that were a slight tannish-brown color and his words clearly held quite some weight themselves.

He was Vivak Godlen, a representative of the Godlen family.

"What is inappropriate about it? Are you a fan of the Envoys of Destruction?"

"I would remind you of the position of your so-called, self-proclaimed, 'Great Families'," Vivak spoke calmly. "You are experiments no different from those Envoys. If there's any close relations to them, shouldn't your family be first in line to be put on trial?"

Rouge's expression darkened. "It seems the Godlen's want war?"

"I would remind you who spoke out of turn first," Vivak said, unmoved. "In the end, what's important isn't what the child is, but rather if he can be used. You've all already seen the traces of the demon activity in these trials, we might very soon be on the losing end of the optics battle.

"But, optics are something only the powerful can care for. We've already made enough concessions in pre-emptively handing over all of the members of other Races over. We do not have the luxury to also start shaving away at the few talents that do remain."

If Leonel had been paying a little more attention instead of flirting with Aina, he would have noticed already. It might have also just been that he didn't care to put too much emphasis on the other competitors and was much more interested in those that could actually control his fate. But...

There truly weren't anyone but humans remaining in the arena. There were no Spirituals, no Nomads, no Rapax. Although there were a variety of people of all shapes and sizes that made it seem like there was an array of races here, most of them were just like the Beastman Dimensional Verse, following an unconventional path.

Due to the actions of the Demons, the Humans had no choice but to do this.

"A pawn that can't be controlled isn't one worth having," Rouge sneered.

"If you cannot control a Fifth Dimensional child, then just say so, and be clear that you are speaking up only for yourself."

A dangerous light flashed in Rouge's gaze once again, but she remained silent.

Clarence, all the while, remained silent as well, his grip on the rails quite firm.

With everyone to his back, no one could see the wild look in his eyes.