WAIT

Leonel frowned, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But the more he observed the situation, the more uncomfortable he felt. Not only did he finally notice that there were only humans present, but there was a distinct lack of Noah as well.

His grandfather had said that he would make Noah participate in this as well, could it be that Noah had died? Leonel's relationship with Noah could be said to be close, and they had also started said relationship off on the wrong foot. However, Noah was still family and he didn't believe that his grandfather had spoken those words without reason. In all likelihood, Emperor Fawkes wanted Leonel to do what he could to help Noah if the opportunity was given, or else he might not have mentioned it at all. © content.

Leonel hadn't run into Noah during the first round, and now he wasn't here even during this gathering. It made him feel that maybe he had to prepare for the worst. His dislike of the situation grew, but the tranquility in his eyes remained.

Finally, there was some movement above. Clarence stepped forward once again.

"Congratulations to those of you that have survived and regained your bearings. You have made it through the first cleansing."

Leonel's gaze narrowed. He might have been out of it, but he could pick up some fluctuations from the outside world. Or, at least he could now that his Dream Force had seemed to change again.

This was a round they definitely hadn't planned for. That old woman, Mo-something, she was called, had acted on her own and now they were pretending that this was the plan all along.

But why should he be surprised? This was always what these people did.

"Now that you have made it to this stage, I will give you your task-"

Leonel's frown deepened. That was it? No more fighting? Or was this just the start of the battles?

He looked around when he felt a gaze on him. After noticing that it was Alpha Clown, he shook his head and turned away. He didn't have the time or care to deal with this person right now.

"Soon, you will all be assigned to leaders and placed under your commanders. You will enter a battlefield and your performance will decide how much care and attention you will receive from the Gods."

'Something is off, what am I missing?' Leonel's pupils jumped back and forth between a focused and unfocused state, his mind speeding along with numerous thoughts.

"-Seeded Participants are different. You may choose a leader to be under the tutelage of right now. Step forward."

Leonel's gaze landed on the tablet once again, his mind trembling. A huge arc of lightning connected several disconnected streams of consciousness in his Dreamscape and his eyes widened for a moment.

'It can't be...' Could their main goal not even be support from them, but rather from what Ability Indexes and Lineage Factors they could provide?

Leonel thought about Aina's Clairvoyance and his tranquility threatened to give way to rage, but he maintained his calm.

"Are you okay?" Leonel asked Aina.

Aina was weirded out by this question, not because of what it was, and definitely not because of who was asking it, but rather because Leonel had already asked this question earlier.

Then, she suddenly realized that the words were reverberating in her mind, not her ears, and it all clicked into place.

"I'm fine." Aina thought.

Leonel didn't expect this answer. Aina was the only one that could sense his movement in the Dream Plane. If something had been done to her, she would definitely know. But her answer effectively meant that no one had done anything to her mind, so it was impossible for them to have gained her Ability Index and Lineage Factor.

Leonel felt like he was a novice slowly making his way into the realms of a practitioner. The more he learned about this situation, the more he felt he was just far too clueless.

He watched as the Seeded Participants were forced to pick leaders without knowing anything about them. And these "Gods", who were pretending to be lofty, obviously wouldn't deign to explain themselves either.

Eventually, all of the Seeded Participants had gone. They made up the majority of those that had managed to survive, and the three standouts were the youth from the Dimensional Eyes Verse that Leonel had seen, Alpha Clown, and a woman who carried around that little pink-eyed woman like she was some sort of pet and called herself "Mama Bear".

As for the non-Seeded Participants that caught Leonel's attention, there was only Alpha Bluestar whose expression was just as placid as elsewhere. What was interesting was that he made a concerted effort to choose a different leader than Alpha Clown despite the latter's gaze. At least, that was an intention that Leonel could feel coming from him. But whether he would get a choice was up in the air.

Finally, there were the non-Seeded Participants.

"Non-Seeded Participants have yet to earn the right to be full members. You will be messengers and carriers. Seeded Participants will have a certain level of protection, but Non-Seeded Participants will have their lives and deaths decided by their leaders. Keep that in mind, lest you die for overestimating yourselves."

Leonel almost thought that Clarence looked at him directly when he spoke these words, but he was still focused on trying to understand what this farce was.

It was all so disorganized in Leonel's view, and that was because they insisted on trying to pretend like everything was still going to plan, when in reality things were barely holding up at the seams.

First their intention to have multiple rounds was thwarted. Then Mo''Lexi acted on her own, killing over 99% of them. Now they were still trying to act high and mighty.

Leonel wondered if he was the only one that didn't fall for this nonsense.

At the very least, Alpha Clown had seemed to sense something was off the last time they spoke. But just the same, neither of them could do anything about it.

"Now, Non-Seeded Participants will be randomly-"

"Wait."

Leonel's voice echoed out.

At this point, even Aina's pupils shook. She knew that Leonel wasn't a fool, but what did he think that he could do here?