A STATEMENT

Celestia froze, not understanding what these words meant. She would have normally called Leonel out for speaking nonsense, but she no longer dared to. Was what he had just said truly too profound for her to understand?

She didn't want to believe it.

"People believe the main difference between the two disciplines is that one provides external support while the other relies on internal support. A sword is an external item, and a Force Pill that can raise your Dimension is an internal one. But this is hardly true.

"I can create armors that are a personal and direct increase to my personal stats, they can even go as far as to change my affinities or enhance them. Is that not an internal support?

"On the other hand, my lovely wife could easily create a Force Pill that could explode on contact with water, having no other purpose but to store a ton of Force that causes a violent chain reaction when the requirements are met. Wouldn't that technically be an external support?"

Celestia frowned. "No. The armor you create almost certainly relies on a Lineage Factor, that I'm sure of. It isn't the armor itself, but rather the interaction it has with a third-party force, that's hardly the same thing.

"As for the exploding Force Pill, how a pill reacts to its environment is precisely the point. The fact that you mentioned it would need an external mechanism to trigger its activation tells you everything you need to know.

"If you made a bomb as a Craft instead, it wouldn't need an external mechanism to activate. You could do it based on time, you could have an external trigger if you wanted, but it would be necessary. You could even have it explode immediately and it wouldn't cause any problems at all.

"You can't play a game of semantics to try and draw lines of parallel similarity where there aren't any."

To Celestia's surprise, Leonel actually agreed.

"But that's exactly my point," Leonel said. "In fact, I believe the Convergences aren't Convergences at all. The Points are locations where the two disciplines come together. Instead, they're the points at which they diverge. I would call them Divergences instead.

"My Lineage Factor can trigger changes to the way my Crafted armor acts precisely because it exists at the Point of Dimension. It represents my potential. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

"A Force Pill can explode upon contact with water because that represents the Point of Life. The Second Dimension is the origin of all Forces, and it is where they interact."

Celestia felt her head spinning. "How are they Divergences if it's at those points they can act so similarly?"

She didn't even sound like she was debating anymore, it sounded like she just really wanted to know the answer.

"That's because those points have little to do with Crafts at all. My Lineage Factor is an external item. The water is likewise an external object. They aren't part of the original Crafted treasure or Force Pill.

"If not for the existence of those third parties, it would be at those points that they diverged the most, and it's precisely why those are the very points they can be brought together from."

Celestia felt like an implosion had just gone off in her mind. She didn't even realize that Leonel's points jumped from 11 to 20, and then from 20 to 30.

All of the accumulated point totals from previous rounds of debates where a winner had been decided were added to him. Although this didn't take away points from other participants, it hardly mattered.

This was the other thing that Leonel had learned about the pillars. It was taking note of everything that was being said and noting them down.

Even if a point was conceded in one debate, it didn't mean that it would necessarily be a loss in another debate as well. Some people were better at forming their arguments than others.

However, ultimately, the pillars still pursued truth.

There were two reasons why Leonel had been patiently silent until now, and the first was because he wanted to accumulate all these points for himself rather than having to rope everyone into a large-scale debate.

Wasn't this easier? Plus, he got to flirt with his wife instead of wasting time with these people.

And as for the second reason...

"You claimed to be so humble and in the dark," Lumina's almost shrill voice came to the side, "but now you're speaking as though you're a master on the topic. Are you sure you don't want to retract what you've said before? Admit you were being a bastard the entire time."

Her voice was tinged with hints of madness. They had taken so many losses until now, and it seemed like they had lost their chance at the top four. She couldn't believe that she was about to lose a damned Sparrow, it took everything in her to not spew out all the hatred in her heart.

The moment she caught onto a hint of Leonel's weakness, she grabbed it with both hands and refused to let go.

If Leonel could accumulate points from past debates, then why couldn't she? If he was so boldly contradicting himself, then why couldn't she capitalize on it?

Orion almost fainted. He couldn't believe he had shackled himself to this idiotic woman. He had only come here because he was forced to in the first place and now he was dealing with wave after wave of bullshit.

What did he do to deserve this?

Leonel smiled. "Are you sure you don't want to retract that statement? I'll give you another chance, just like last time."

"I don't need your damned chance!" Lumina screamed. "You're a fucking crass hairless monkey, do you think these people can't see through you?! No one believes that you actually want to be charitable, I fucking hate your kind-"

BANG!

Lumina's head exploded.

Leonel didn't even make a move, neither did Aina. In fact, neither of them even flinched aside from Leonel's grin growing wider.

"The debate portion will come to an end now, please take a day's rest, everyone," Minerva said lightly. "I will issue a statement on participant Lumina's death shortly."