A SHAME

"Where..."

Leonel's gaze flashed with a cold intent. If there was one thing that could still get him riled up even in the midst of all this tranquility, it was matters related to Aina.

He had allowed the previous matter to slide without saying much and even apologizing because he understood the kind of situation they were in. Plus, that young man had only said some slightly crude words at worst. However, even without this Variant Invalid completing its sentence, he knew exactly what it was trying to get at.

Standing before it, and looking it in the eyes, the coldness within his own only grew colder and colder.

Alastar wasn't quite prepared for this sort of response. Although his face didn't show anything particularly different from his norm, sensing... defiance? Was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

Leonel was undergoing his own confusion.

From his understanding, Variant Invalids were the result of a failure to awaken. But this "awakening" process, meaning the so-called Dimensional Descent or the Metamorphosis, should be something that only happened in Incomplete Worlds where they had a wide division between world types.

Essentially, Variant Invalids came from Invalids, and Invalids could only appear during a world's awakening process. This would happen in Incomplete Worlds where there were several separate planets and Folds of Reality that needed to awaken individually; however, in a Complete World, this matter should have only happened a single time countless trillions of years ago.

Considering the fact that no new Complete Worlds had been formed in an exceptionally long time, and even the number of new Incomplete Worlds forming was dwindling drastically, the number of Variant Invalids that could possibly exist should be an impossibly small portion of the population, and any that did should, at the very least, be incredibly old.

Leonel didn't actually know if Invalids had lifespans, but weren't they a form of living creature regardless? It was impossible for them to be truly immortal. Even those born with the Immortality Ability Index weren't truly immortal, so how could they be?

'Then...'

Leonel thought of only two possibilities.

Either this Variant Invalid was one of those old monsters and had a strength rivaling that or maybe even surpassing Mo''Lexi. Or...

'They gathered up all the Variant Invalids from the Incomplete Worlds as well.'

Leonel's gaze sharpened. After his run-in with the Puppet Master, the only other Variant Invalids that he had met came from the Cult. He didn't believe that this was a coincidence.

Variant Invalids were essentially cheat codes, similar to Savants and yet having the ability to progress in ways Savants could not. In that way, they might actually be closer to a God Childe.

At the same time, though, Variant Invalids had very difficult progression paths. They were shunned by most of society, and they had to consume powerful individuals to progress. This made them far easier to control than other races as well.

If the human powers wanted talents that they could easily manage, and yet packed a heavy punch...

Were there any better options than Variant Invalids and Savants?

Leonel's gaze only grew colder as Alastar looked around.

"Woman. Where is she?" Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

BANG!

Leonel's throat was grabbed so forcefully that his body would have flown out at an impossible speed had Alastar not clamped his hands down.

His body swayed as the feeling of having his neck forcefully stretched settled in. Had his body not improved back to its original level, just the move of grabbing his neck would have directly killed him.

Even so, Leonel's gaze didn't lose its sharpness as he was lifted into the air to meet Alastar's gaze.

Alastar looked like he wanted to talk, but his words came out in a jumbled mess.

"Where. Woman. Now."

All of the Variant Invalids Leonel had ever met had intelligence equal to that, or even surpassing, humans. This Alastar, though, seemed to be a simpleton through and through.

This didn't make Leonel any more sympathetic. Instead, watching this bumbling fool trip over itself, even salivating at the thought of Aina, he felt a killing intent welling up in his heart.

"You don't... show fear." Alastar finally growled something somewhat intelligible.

Leonel's initial instinct was to say why should he fear an idiot, but he refrained. There was no point-

"Alastar, put him down."

Mo''Lexi's voice suddenly echoed, and she appeared right amidst the two of them. She was by far the smallest of them, and yet her aura was without a doubt the strongest.

Alastar's gaze flashed with a hint of defiance, then a hint of fear.

He placed Leonel down a bit too forcefully, almost causing him to fall over completely.

Alastar gave Leonel another glare, then Mo''Lexi a fearful glance, before he disappeared into the distance.

Mo''Lexi frowned, not really understanding what was happening. If she didn't feel a wave of killing intent, she wouldn't have noticed what was happening here at all. But when she arrived, she felt that... the killing intent wasn't coming from Alastar at all, but it was hard to prove.

"Again?" Mo''Lexi asked. "You're lucky I didn't get very far."

Leonel looked toward Mo''Lexi respectfully.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect this to happen either."

"Aren't you going to apologize?" Mo''Lexi asked.

"Why?" Leonel blinked in confusion.

"Didn't you apologize to Bogrum?"

"Yes, but Bogrum is a God," Leonel said seriously.

"And Alastar is not?"

"I do not believe someone so stupid can be a God," Leonel said equally as seriously. "He can't even complete a full sentence without drooling over himself. Plus, aren't Variant Invalids just failures? Would he even understand my apology?"

Mo''Lexi was speechless for a moment before she burst into a fit of laughter. She laughed so hard that the crates Leonel had worked so hard to organize and stack almost fell over despite the fact each one weighed as heavy as a mountain.

Leonel's ears began to bleed, but he continued to stand respectfully, not "daring" to laugh along with Mo''Lexi.

Mo''Lexi was starting to find this Leonel more and more interesting; it was almost a shame considering their plans for these youths.