ANNOYED
Leonel strolled off and Aina split off from him, starting a battle of her own. He couldn't help but smile to himself, he had to admit that relying on Aina when he was certain she wouldn't end up injured or harmed gave him a unique sort of feeling.
He appeared inside the Three Finger Cult compound and frowned. Most who tried to lock onto him were quickly dealt with by Aina and even his clothing wasn't ruffled in the end.
The compound itself was still akin to a large airplane hangar, but the dense and stacked boxes were nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were markings on the ground, etchings that had likely been hidden beneath the crates.
Leonel walked to the end of the large hangar, but found nothing.
'Hm... cute.'
Leonel suddenly tapped a foot and a flood of Dream Force rushed through the etchings on the ground, and in a sudden flash, he vanished.
When Leonel's vision cleared, he found himself in a world all too similar to an Inbetween World. However... not quite.
Instead of rolling waves of darkness, there was a lot of rock that seemed carved out of obsidian. But rather than being glass-like, Leonel felt that even if he attacked with all of his strength, it wouldn't do any good.
He frowned for a moment and his Earth Force rolled out in a foggy wave, but soon his brows shot up.
'I can control the earth in an Inbetween World, but not here?'
Leonel looked around more seriously. There was a faint suppression around him, but he shrugged it off with ease. The gravity was heavy and the air felt even heavier. Moving felt as though he was trying to swim through crude oil. Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
"Who?!"
A booming voice echoed and a young man descended from the skies with a heavy BOOM.
Leonel's head tilted to the side, looking toward the tail that swayed behind the young man. It was a tail of shadowy black, sometimes it would split into two, three or even more forms, but ultimately it would return to a single form of oneness.
The young man had an imposing might and he seemed ready to throw a punch at Leonel, but almost instantly he fell to a knee so hard the ground quaked once more.
A shimmering dot of rainbow came from Leonel's forehead before it slowly faded.
The young man, who had been prepared to battle, was suddenly trembling in fear. Leonel, however, was frowning.
'First it was the Four Great Families that just vanished. Then there was the Dream Pavilion that actually ended up being a deeper well than I even expected. And now the Cult...'
The Cult can be used.
His grandfather's words suddenly flashed in his mind like a bolt of lightning.
All this time, Leonel was wondering where his grandfather was. It just felt like if he had so much preparation, what was he still biding his time for?
But the more he learned about how deep the waters of this world were, even in the Human Bubbles alone, the more he understood just how complicated this matter was.
Maybe even now... Emperor Gervaise Fawkes simply wasn't ready. Either that... or he was waiting for the perfect time.
"Who are you?" Leonel said in a rumbling, deep voice.
"I... Esteemed elder, I am Drakkar."
"Rank." Leonel commanded.
Drakkar's head descended to the ground even further.
"I do not have a rank, esteemed elder."
[Leonel Morales - Wise Star Order]
[Clearance Level: Novice]
[Contribution]
[Life: -]
[Gold: 2]
[Silver: 2]
[Bronze: 2]
[Black: 7 827 710]
[Common: 3 379 382 297 475]
Even after all this time, Leonel had only increased from an Apprentice to a Novice, but it seemed that this Drakkar didn't have a ranking at all.
Apprentice, Novice, Acolyte, Initiate, Disciple, Adept, Ascendent, Demi-God and God. These were the clearance levels, each one allowing a far greater store of techniques and abilities to be opened.
The largest change was honestly that his Bronze Contributions had ticked up by one. From Leonel's understanding, this increase of one actually didn't even come from the Council Members, but rather the Time Force user, interestingly enough.
Leonel had come to realize that Contributions above Black were incredibly rare, and that really put into perspective what both Aina and Goggles' talents represented.
He didn't even have to put in much effort. So long as his Dream Force could suppress the target, the Life Tablet could automatically pick these abilities and Lineage Factors up, something that was much more convenient than the way the Silver Tablet worked.
It was unfortunate that he didn't get to use it the same way against the participants of the True Dream World for obvious reasons.
Either way, if what this young man said was true, it seemed that even being titled an Apprentice was a shocking matter.
Suddenly, there was a shifting in the world around them and several figures began to appear, each one with a shadowy tail of their own.
To Leonel's surprise, he immediately recognized two of them.
The first was Radlis, the young man of the Umbra family. But Leonel found this far more acceptable than the second person he saw....
Seltin. She was Radlis' aunt and a woman that Leonel had personally killed with his own hands. Back then, she had tried to keep the Bronze Tablet he had given them as a sign of friendship and he didn't have the patience to deal with traitors, so he directly killed her, then took the Bronze Tablet away.
He had had the ability to revive her back then, but why should he have? She thought herself to be above him and at that point in his life, to say that he had little patience for people with such attitudes was nothing short of an understatement.
Leonel could immediately see their rage when their eyes landed on him, but his gaze had already shifted toward the third person he recognized.
'These people really do treat life and death too casually. Why is it that everyone I can't be bothered to give a damn about keeps returning?'
Standing high in the skies, a woman with beauty beyond words stood with a long head of fluttering white hair.
It was none other than Anya, someone that Leonel was also absolutely certain he had slaughtered.
'What a shit show.'
Leonel couldn't help but be slightly annoyed.