GOTCHA

Simona stood in a violent rage, her purple eyes flickering with fire. She attacked immediately, but she paled a moment later.

She watched as her Force died out within her body. It was like she couldn't even control her own thoughts anymore, and her Force couldn't hear her cries.

At the moment, both she and Eduardo were nothing more than a pair of mortals. Even their bodily strength didn't work properly. When they tried to run, they were like a pair of amateur half marathon runners from back on Earth. They were entirely helpless before Leonel.

Leonel smiled and took a seat on a tree stump nearby.

The scenery wasn't bad. There were gorgeous flowers and tall trees. There was even a stream of water and a small meter-tall waterfall that gave even the sounds it produced some soothing ambiance.

He was in quite a good mood right now. The only thing that would make it better was having Aina by his side, but he didn't want to disturb her training. He knew well that she had her own thoughts and aspirations. Seeing the strength of Anselma had probably also caused her to redouble her efforts.

Even clearly injured, Leonel knew that he couldn't put up a fight against that woman. Through the eyes of that Blood Clone, he had felt her strength and it was beyond his imagination.

"Nice scenery, don't you think?"

Simona scowled and didn't reply. She was usually such a calm and composed person, but every time she ran into Leonel, things always went horribly wrong.

Leonel should already be dead; she had seen it with her own eyes, but somehow he was here. Worse than that, he had somehow snuck into her family's vaults and even kidnapped Eduardo.

Herself, she was fine with. She knew that she was weaker than Leonel.

Of course, this wasn't something she was resigned to. She felt that the only reason Leonel had surpassed her was that she lost her beast companion for over 20 years. Though it would take some time, she felt confident in catching up and surpassing her peers.

However, Eduardo... he was a real genius. It just didn't make sense to her.

With Eduardo's personality, he never liked to embellish anything and simply told the truth as it was.

Leonel had caught him off guard and used an odd method to stop him from summoning his beast companion.

It was a simple explanation, but how could it truly have been so simple? She couldn't help but look toward Leonel with a hint of fear in her eyes.

She still didn't know how or why Leonel was suddenly in the Fifth Dimension, but more importantly than that, how could he still display such power?

"No need to look at me like that," Leonel continued to laugh. "Aren't I treating you two well? I could have just thrown you into a dungeon, you know."

"What do you want?" Simona said coldly, trying to maintain her composure. "If you want to use us to escape Godlen territory, you should stop dreaming-" Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

Leonel's laughter suddenly became uproarious. It was the same laughter that probably echoed in the dreams of Anselma, Vivak, Mo''Lexi, and Clarence now.

"Escape Godlen territory? I already did that."

"Bullshit!" Simona lost her composure again, but for some reason, she could tell that Leonel was telling the truth.

"I don't really care to lie to you. I'm only really here because I'm interested in something. Tell me, the Codex-" Leonel held out a palm, and three complex and floating spheres of Force Art appeared, each one more dense than the last. "-who's the last one to claim them."

This time, even Eduardo's eyes widened.

The only way for Leonel to have these would be if he broke the barriers, but how could he...

Simona paled considerably. No matter how she evaluated Leonel, it felt that he was always larger, always more imposing, always more impressive than her thoughts.

It was suffocating.

"Gotcha, I appreciate it," Leonel nodded as the two froze to his words.

Eduardo's expression suddenly became a bit twisted and uncomfortable, one that was incredibly odd for him.

"You can use the Dream Plane..." he said more like a statement than a question. He knew it sounded completely ridiculous, and yet he had felt it just now as Leonel had been entirely brazen.

Leonel smiled.

Within Anastasia's world, of course he could use the Dream Plane. Of course, it was also partly due to the fact he was likewise a Dream Sovereign, but they didn't need to know that.

It was also easier now that they couldn't use their Force to protect themselves.

Regardless, now he knew that the last person to claim [Finality] was Simona's grandfather and Vivak's father. It turned out the man was already dead as well, falling at the hands of a demon warrior.

Vivak was truly the strongest presence in the Godlen family. That was interesting.

"Now, let's get to what I really want to know," Leonel smiled. "I heard your mother talking about the Constellation families. So they exist in the Complete Worlds too?"

Simona was in a daze and still couldn't quite compute, so Leonel asked again, and she was startled back to reality.

"Gotcha."

Leonel stood up and patted his beaten and ruined pants. He should take some time to switch them out.

Then, without another word, he vanished, lost in thought.

Anastasia had been paying attention to everything happening in the Godlen city and only relayed back to Leonel what she deemed important. The conversation between Simona's mother and uncle was one of them.

It seemed, though, that Simona's information was limited. All she knew was that the Constellation families were very important to her mother, that they had been destroyed during the final war, and that, unsurprisingly, their greatest strength and reliance was in their Constellations.

Leonel wouldn't be surprised if they had their own version of [Universe] that maximized the use of their Constellations even more, likely a method perfectly matched to their Lineage Factors.

But Leonel wasn't really interested in it for that reason. What he found interesting was that Simona's mother was sneaking around trying to resurrect these families.

He wondered if Vivak was involved and there was more to the Godlen plans than he knew, or, if even more interestingly...

Matriarch Pyius was going rogue.

Now wouldn't that be a sight to see?