ZOLTENE

Wicked tried to move and writhe, but the suppression of the Life Tablet was so firm that he could hardly budge at all. Aside from some incoherent sounds that sounded not much different from baby babble, he wasn't able to do anything else.

Leonel reached down and pulled his head up, looking into Wicked's ferocious eyes and seeing something else that was interesting.

'Could it be the reason he's a little... slow isn't because of a matter of age, but a matter of this instead?'

Wicked's eyes were filled with fury right now, and that wasn't too surprising given the situation. But the main issue wasn't that. Instead, it seemed that it was a bit... too much, almost as though it would be less accurate to say that he was furious and more accurate to say that he was... Feral.

There was a thin dividing line between the two, but looking at the foam coming from Wicked's mouth, it was clear that it was closer to the latter.

Leonel's thoughts bounced from idea to idea, but he couldn't seem to figure out exactly what was going on.

'Logically speaking, there's no reason for the Three Finger Cult to have only tried to influence the Dimensional Verse, they definitely had their hands in multiple pots.

'Even the Three Finger Cult of the Human Bubbles should just be a facade, or else it wouldn't be worthy of that Demoness. I've already had Anastasia scan their region and she found nothing of interest... at least nothing of interest outside the fact all of their Invalids have already vanished.

'But this... Is he a failed experiment, then? But for this to be a failure... the drawbacks don't seem too bad.'

Having difficulty controlling yourself was considered to be quite a substantial problem. But, all things considered, it was quite minor depending on your perspective.

Someone like Leonel would rather die than lose control of his mind. His intelligence was probably his best asset. But that didn't mean that everyone had the same risk assessment as he did.

In a competition like the Gathering of Kingdoms, your intelligence was nigh worthless. What good was scheming in that sort of situation? By the time you got to the penultimate round, the rounds would be so numerous that even if you managed to skirt by once or twice, could you do so ten times?

'But that's the other interesting point. Why avoid the...'

It suddenly clicked for Leonel. He hadn't even considered it, but could it possibly be true?

The Gathering of Kingdoms Stele was designed by the God Beasts of Creation. What would happen if someone with the God Beast of Destruction Constitution suddenly appeared within its realm of influence?

The obvious question, then, was why was Leonel fine?

He could only conclude that the Stele was smarter than the lump of rock it was formed out of. Not only did he have the God Beast of Creation Lineage Factors, but he also had the Life Tablet, wouldn't it be too foolish for it to target him for such an arbitrary reason?

Leonel made a move and began to look through Wicked's things. But quite quickly, he found that there was nothing of importance on him. As for his treasures, they were too lackluster. Leonel couldn't look at them as anything other than inferior Crafts. At this point, what he could create would take a Demi-God world to match up to at the very least.

Just when Leonel was about to give up, he had a thought.

'Maybe?'

He pressed a palm against Wicked's forehead and his Dream Force surged in.

It was quite difficult to invade another's Ethereal Glabella, it was the location of their soul and it was also the most protected item in the body. It could be said that it was both a benefit and a detriment that the Ethereal Glabellas of the Nomad Race were so large-

LONG LIVE ZOLTENE THE ALMIGHTY!!

A wave of Force surged out, smashing against Leonel and sending him flying.

Leonel coughed out a mouthful of blood, his gaze flickering with a fierce light. If not for his Divine Armor, that blow would have directly killed him. Although he would have managed to protect his soul, the amount of energy he would have needed to rebuild his body would have been astronomical. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

The value of his body now was far more than it had been in the past, especially since his body was also the anchor for his World of Destruction. If his body was destroyed, all of his progress in [Final Destruction] would be wasted.

The worst part of such an outcome was that he would lose his Innate Nodes and Stars in an endless void. Although they should technically be somewhere, just how impossible would it be to find them and tether them to himself again?

As though that wasn't bad enough, because this would happen, whenever he did manage to rebuild his body, he would immediately return to the Fourth Dimension and be unable to rebuild it from scratch.

Leonel coughed, struggling to get up as his Vital Star Force rushed to mend his internal wounds.

'Zoltene... Zoltene...'

He had heard that name before as well. Back when he was clearing the enemies of Earth and paving a path for them to conquer the entirety of their territory, one of the religions he had to wipe out was the Zoltene Religion, the Evergreen Religion had been another one.

Leonel felt that he had accidentally stepped into another web. No... it wasn't an accidental thing. Rather, he was already being wound in another's trap and he didn't even realize it.

These matters were far larger than he knew and it seemed that there were already Gods involved.

It wasn't a coincidence. The fact that Wicked was both a devout follower of Zoltene and likewise an Envoy of Destruction? It was absolutely impossible for these two things to not be related...

And if it was somehow the case that they were, it would be the largest coincidence in the world.