ANOTHER PATH

Leonel grabbed at what looked like empty air and pulled out the Segmented Cube and a familiar ring, chuckling to himself. He found all of this to be very amusing.

Watching her husband giggle like a little boy on Christmas morning, Aina couldn't help but smile to herself.

They both knew that somewhere, out there, there were some people who were very, very mad.

And unfortunately for them, while they were lost in their fury, they would miss the forest for the trees, falling further into Leonel's web. By the time they understood what was happening, it would be far too late.

Leonel pressed a hand onto Somnus' body as the Life Tablet disappeared into his glabella once more. Somnus was then sent into the Segmented Cube.

Leonel felt some resistance come from the man. Obviously, bringing someone into a spatial device required their acquiescence. Unfortunately, his resistance was futile purely because... he didn't have enough strength left to resist in the first place.

Leonel and Aina slipped into the Segmented Cube to find a glaring Anastasia.

Leonel coughed. "Oh, Anastasia. You're looking very cute today, did you know that? Look at those adorable cheeks, I could just pinch them for day-"

"Shut up! Do that again, and I'll never talk to you again!" Anastasia snapped.

"Ah... yes, ma'am!" Leonel stood at attention.

Anastasia was a huge part of the plan.

The Tablets didn't have inner spaces, not in the conventional sense. Even when Leonel entered the Wise Star Order Libraries, only his mind did so, his body was still very much on the outside. So, obviously, the Segmented Cube and the ring couldn't have just vanished into it...

He could only make it look like it had, and that relied on Anastasia. © 2024.

Anastasia had the ability to hide, an ability he had made use of the first time he came to these Complete Worlds. Due to her control over space and time, not only could she distort the space around her, but she could also displace them in time, making sensing her, even for an Ancestor of the Celestial Ember's caliber, near impossible.

Of course, Leonel had to guide her in doing so. But after explaining what he wanted out of her, she did it without even blinking. It was incredibly easy for her.

If anything, Leonel had gone a bit too far. It was entirely unnecessary to displace them through both space and time, space alone would have been enough, but Leonel thought it was better safe than sorry. That was a step of the plan he couldn't afford to fail, and that was because whether the Life Tablet managed to make it back or not was also dependent on Anastasia.

Sure, the Life Tablet could respond to a summoning from him. But it had no ability to stop itself from being captured.

And worse than that, what if instead of stopping it, his enemies chose to follow it right back to him? They had already realized that not having a Wise Star Order made using the Tablet tricky, so there was a high likelihood that they would have taken such a path.

It was up to Anastasia to take the opportunity while they weren't looking to store the Life Tablet away. Then, she had escaped a sufficient distance away, she could pull it out again for it to sense Leonel's summon and return to him.

It could be said that without Anastasia... all of this would have been impossible.

Of course, this also opened the path for some spying in the future, but Leonel shelved that for now.

As with everything, Anastasia's abilities were limited to her and her alone. So unless he was inside the Segmented Cube, it would be useless. That was why she had to find an opportunity to store the Life Tablet first before she could escape, and that opportunity came when the Celestial Ember stored it in her spatial device.

But for now, that was neither here nor there.

"Anastasia-"

Leonel was about to ask Anastasia to open up Somnus' hidden world, but he froze.

Sparkling tears akin to crystal fell from the little World Spirit's eyes. She looked frustrated, scared and...

Leonel reached forward and pulled her into his arms, causing her to be stunned for a moment before she truly began bawling her eyes out.

Touching a World Spirit through normal means should have been impossible, so when Anastasia suddenly felt Leonel's gentle touch, she lost it. It was the first time she had ever been touched by anyone this way.

The floating cloud of blue that made up her lower body darkened and began to rain with its own tears.

"I'm sorry," Leonel said softly. "I swear I won't do it again..."

Leonel thought back to when both Anastasia and Aina had been angry with him. Back then, he had sent Aina on a "date" with that disciple of the Three Finger Cult for the sake of luring them away and dealing a death blow to the Human Alliance.

Anastasia had been even more angry than even Aina back then, and he could even tell that she was holding more of a grudge as well. A huge part of the reason Aina had stayed mad for so long was because of Anastasia in the first place...

Now, he felt like he understood.

It felt like he was abandoning Aina back then, and Anastasia really didn't like it. And now, this most recent plan made her feel like he was abandoning her, and it hit even harder.

In the past, Leonel's pride wouldn't have allowed him to even try these plans, he'd rather try something else entirely. But he was trying to change himself, trying to become someone who could not just survive in this world alone, but with everyone else he cared for surviving as well...

So he bent his own desires and will, sullying them for the sake of picking the plans with the highest chance of survival... And the result was that this was the second time already he had hurt those he cared for.

He looked toward Aina... or was this the third? The fourth?

The Gathering of Kingdoms, he made Aina fight alone... The Gathering of Minds... he didn't allow her to fight at all.

He held Anastasia's little body tighter, stroking her hair gently as his eyes flashed with a cold light.

There was another path. If he changed himself once, he could do it again.

He wouldn't put those he cared about through this again.