HEAD

Most of his screaming was just for the theatrics; he had gotten used to pain like this, but that didn't change the fact it really did hurt like hell.

"That was just to 30%?" Leonel asked, huffing out a breath.

"Yup," Aina said, a little too cheerily.

Aina had said that he could only bring out 10% of his Northern Star Lineage Factor's strength because the way he wanted to use it wasn't really compatible with what it was designed to do. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Essentially, the Northern Star Lineage Factor was designed to elevate the mind and grant affinity for powerful Forces. The amplification of the body was secondary to those effects, so the fact that Leonel was trying to use it to purely do that was like trying to ask the sun to cool something down.

Technically it could just by moving away further, but that wasn't what it was really designed to do.

Either way, Leonel had managed to triple the strength of his body in a short time. Well... somewhat. He still needed to absorb the resources he would need to fill in those gaps. He had only absorbed enough for 10%, now he needed enough for 30%.

That was fine, though. With Aina's strength and his own, they didn't even have to trade for the resources from the Dream Pavilion. Whether it was the Human Bubbles or the Demon Bubbles, they assaulted them all until Leonel was filled to the brim with Fourth Dimensional Mine Cores once again.

The two bounced ideas off of one another and improved by leaps and bounds for what felt like every second. While the world was practically imploding around them, they moved about without a care.

Then, the two returned to the Segmented Cube and broke the news to everyone. There was an eruption of cheers and celebration, and they seemed to forget about their own training for the sake of hanging around and partying.

None of them knew that the world was practically ending, but even if they did, it was hard to claim that anything would really change. Ultimately, they were used to it by this point.

First the world was ending for Earth, then it was ending for the Human Domain, then it was ending for the Dimensional Verse... what difference was there now?

They had already all grown into calloused, seasoned warriors who had seen everything and been through everything. Even though their talents were lacking compared to Leonel and Aina, their hearts and wills had already been forged in iron.

Compared to most of the human population that seemed to be running around like a group of headless chickens, they were strong in their convictions.

Looking toward everyone, happily drinking and celebrating, forgetting their worries and drowning out their sorrows, Leonel smiled a genuine smile.

He felt that he didn't get to spend much time with his brothers these days, even after promising himself for the millionth time that he would, it seemed that there was always another world-ending event that needed his attention.

But hopefully this time, with Aina and his methods brought together, they could truly change their lives until it wasn't just he who stood at the frontier protecting all of them, but it slowly became something that they could all do together.

The next few days were ones of peace until it finally seemed that the humans... or maybe it was the Demons had finally gotten themselves together.

Their plan, though, was something that Leonel had already thought of. In fact, he couldn't even say it was a bad one with how the Human Race had reacted to this...

And that plan was obviously complete genocide.

Since success was based on percentages, they would skew that percentage as best they could in their favor. They started to march onto human cities, slaughtering every human they could find.

Leonel shook his head and sighed when Anastasia informed him about what was happening. Honestly, he couldn't even drum up the motivation to be enraged.

Even the so-called human alliance was entirely silent on this matter. Maybe they had expected this to happen as well and had just holed themselves up in their protective little barriers, hoping that the Demons would do all the dirty work for them.

'Genocide, huh... I would call you all cowards, but at this point even the Gods themselves are cowards, so how can the mortals be blamed?'

Leonel looked up into the skies lost in thought while Aina reclined in his arms. They both wore white like a true pair of newlyweds, basking in everyone's happiness as they did their own.

"Hey, wife. What do you say to killing a few demons as a warm-up?"

Aina, who didn't even open her eyes, grinned.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Leonel didn't react as Aina suddenly vanished. He kept leaning on the tree, looking up at the beautiful blue skies and listening to the jokes and jeers of his brothers.

In a pit of mud not too far away, Milan and Arnold were locked in a very tight skinship... well, they called it wrestling but if you closed your eyes and listened to the grunting, it sounded like something very much different.

Leonel laughed to himself. "Kiss already!"

"Fuck you, cap!" Milan grunted as he was suddenly swept off his feet and his back careened into the muddied ground.

The laughing and jeering continued without a word until a beauty suddenly returned, descending from the skies not much unlike a fairy would. The only difference was that she held a bloodied head in her hand.

Somehow, that head, even within how grotesque it was outside of the dripping blood, didn't take away from her grace at all.

She just threw it to the side and returned to her husband's arms.

As for the head... it was none other than Urlgan's... The Sun Demon Emperor.