PATIENT

Leonel felt a calmness that he had never experienced before. It was probably the case that not even as a baby, without even needing to worry about his own bowel movements, did he feel so free. However, he didn't explore what this chance was. He knew that he could.

It was a large change, that was for certain. It was probably no less important than one of his Force breaking into the Impetus State. But he didn't have the luxury of finding out exactly what it was because he felt that too many powerful eyes were on him. So he remained still, looking at the ground in silence and feeling the speed of his mind increase at least tenfold.

At that moment, he could see it even more clearly than ever before, that "man" within himself that seemed to be almost drowning within a lake of blood. 'Go away,' he thought, seemingly without much conviction.

The lake of blood was suddenly blown into by a gentle breeze. As though the crimson was stripped away, all that was left was a gorgeous and radiant blue, so beautiful and perfect that it seemed to be droplets of heaven themselves coming together to form it.

The once-chained man, his hair covering his features, trembled and waves of Dream Force threatened to roar out again, only to be suppressed by Leonel's will. The man entered a state of calm and finally looked up. Or, rather, his head tilted upward as he adjusted himself into a state of meditation.

As he did so, Leonel felt a strong pull on the atmosphere around him that he once again forcefully cut off. Just now, he felt a speed of collecting Dream Force that put his Three Stars to absolute shame. The gap was so large that Leonel almost thought that even if he never formed his Stars again, he would be just fine.

Ultimately, though, he shook his head and dispelled those thoughts. The Stars he formed this time around would be so far beyond what he had formed the first time that it was unfair to compare. However, he still found it difficult to view a path that would allow their impact to be as great as this.

'This man should be me... As for what it is, I think it's a manifestation of my Dream Asura Lineage Factor. One of its abilities should be taking the amorphous soul and giving shape and function. It's no wonder every time it moves there's such a large change to my Dream Force output.

'But, freeing it to work properly like this might not be a good thing.' Leonel wasn't thinking about this in terms of his vow not to use his enlightened form; he was instead thinking about it in terms of what his father had said.

When you escaped the chains of that woman, she would no longer treat you as a proper pawn, but instead as someone to get rid of. Leonel didn't know if he had truly escaped her control, but he felt that there was a good chance he had. However, he wasn't worried because he had an advantage his father did not.

He was her only successful experiment while everyone else of the Morales were her prototypes. If there was one person she couldn't afford to kill, it was him.

"...Leo-"

Leonel immediately knelt down by Aina as though he wasn't just having a world-changing realization. He cupped her face in his hands and to any outside observer, he simply looked as though he was concerned for her. However, in reality, Aina felt some of her own Dream Force being steadily influenced by Leonel until her mind became completely clear.

"Aina, are you okay?"Material © .

"I..."

Aina felt her heart skip a beat. "... I think my Blood Force..."

Aina didn't finish her words because she realized where they were. She didn't want to say the truth, that truth being that she felt her Blood Force enter the Impetus State. She hadn't seen the scene that Leonel did, her Dream Force affinity wasn't as high as his. But she had felt it.

The reason she had been down and out for so long wasn't because of the attack on her psyche, but rather because there was a visceral change taking place in her body, one that filled her with pain. In the end, she smiled somewhat weakly and grabbed onto Leonel's palm.

"Don't worry about me, I'm more worried about..."

She looked down toward Little Blackstar, but found the little guy was actually still taking a nap. Unbelievable. All this time, she had thought that he was frozen like everyone else, when in reality he might not even have woken up.

Leonel stealthily put Blackstar away without saying anything. He had seemingly finally realized that there were no one but humans around, and he didn't know what they would do if they took an interest in Blackstar. There was a Beast Domain of the Dimensional Verse, so there were likely a few similar Bubbles here as well. It was best to act more cautious now until he understood more about the situation.

Aina weakly stood to her feet, leaning against Leonel. She felt much stronger now than she looked, but she didn't want to expose whatever Leonel had done so she remained like this. Plus, why would she pass up a chance to be close with her man?

The pair stood in silence as people began to recover one by one. However, even after another day passed, the number that managed to do so didn't exceed even a hundred. From tens of millions, barely over 90 people managed to retain control over their faculties. Most of the rest might only awaken months from now, and that was if they did at all. As for the remaining number Leonel didn't count, they were forever lost to this world.

'Why are they so patient...' Leonel thought. '... And is this number of people even enough to help them? What are they playing at?'