[BONUS] BREAK

[Bonus chapter courtesy of Mr. Mostert <3 2/6]

Leonel felt his strength soaring by leaps and bounds, large amounts of Dream Force gathering around him as though it had a mind of its own. Akin to Mother Nature amidst a flock of birds, the plumes of golden and silver clouds gathered around him.

His crown glowed stronger, the robes that were draped over his shoulders becoming more prominent and detailed.

The strength of a Tier Nine flooded through him.

Leonel had thought that it might take 20 to breakthrough, but he hadn't thought that he would succeed after just a single one.

Still, he felt that there was a hint of serendipity involved. That was the result of a sudden rush of insight coming together with a helpful outside sort.

The moment he felt his Sovereignty slipping away, he actually felt that he could break through. But that odd fear had helped him back, making him wonder just what was happening and why exactly it was happening.

If he had broken through back then, due to the fear, he might have let his Sovereignty slip away, and unlike his Weapon Forces, he wasn't nearly as confident in getting his Dream Force Sovereignty back if it were to slip away. It was something that he could feel consciously... as though Weapon Forces were in a separate category of their own.

And that made sense. If it had been any other Force type, would the Godlens have been able to form a quasi-true version of it?

When Leonel really thought about it, he didn't think that it was possible for any other kind of Sovereignty. There was something special about Weapon Forces, and that was probably how flexible it was. Two Spear Sovereigns might have two completely different interpretations of it and paths they could take.

For Leonel, whether it was his Spear Sovereignty or his Bow Sovereignty, it was based in creation. He understood that quite clearly now, which was why his Bow Sovereignty had broken back through so clearly the moment he entered the True Dream Plane.

Because Leonel had built his foundation on his grandfather's way of the spear, everything about his own way of the spear now was rooted in Artistic Conceptions and exuded the power of words, images, phrases, feelings, and everything beyond.

This was why his Spear Dance evoked so many feelings of awe in people who saw it, some who weren't familiar with the spear might even believe that he was the best master of the spear they had ever seen.

While that might not necessarily be untrue, it was just the nature of his spear to pull out the emotions of others, because what they were watching wasn't his spear, but rather the feelings it was channeling... whether that be a word, a powerful phrase, a meteor falling from the skies, or even an endless plane of ice in all its finality.

It could be said, at the same time, that the flexibility of his Dream Force had also given him quite a bit of luck in breaking through.

The moment he realized where that fear was coming from, he was able to shatter it with a thought because he also knew where his Dream Force Sovereignty came from.

It was Tranquility, but now that by itself. It was rather that the root of his Tranquility came from a confidence in himself, one built on the certainty that so long as he had a chance, he could break free of any trouble and come out on top in the end.

In a lot of ways, it was the truest form of Sovereignty there was, and it was likely this was the very same form of it that his future self had comprehended. That was the reason it had reverberated back through the walls of time, impacting even his current self.

That was both warming and yet concerning.

If he was taking the same path he already had once before, could he be certain that anything would change at all? Wouldn't he end up in the same rut?

Leonel stared out into space for a long while, trying to grapple with that question.

When even becoming the most powerful person to ever exist wasn't enough for a happy ending, what should you do, then?

Leonel's thoughts flickered toward Aina and his mother, then his brothers, what was left of the Morales family, even Noah, his grandfather and his grandmother.

Would he have to watch them all die again?

He really wanted to say no, absolutely not, that confident surge from his Dream Force Sovereignty shining like a bright beacon...

But he ignored it. © content.

It had been there before, and it had been able to change nothing. What good was a steady rain of confidence if it couldn't change anything?

He suddenly remembered a class he had had back in the Royal Blue Academy, a random one on psychology. It described stress as an evolutionary necessity, it was related to fight or flight and it put a person in a state to take swift and immediate action.

His Sovereignty was so natural and soothing, it came to him instantaneously. It was as natural as breathing to him.

When he met a stressor, he reacted with confidence to deal with the situation.

If he took another step back, what had triggered his stepping into Dream Sovereignty in the first place? Wasn't it Mo''Lexi's name and that land of carnage? The stress she placed on everyone back then was so great that many of them directly died, their hearts and minds unable to take it...

And yet he had shrugged it off like it didn't matter.

He looked down at his hands, really trying to understand himself. He was good at reading the emotions of others and even deducing why they might feel that way, but did he really understand why...

'Is my Dream Sovereignty not really the core of my being? Is it influencing me as well? I don't think I want it...'

Leonel felt something break inside of him.