REWARDING

Leonel's feet touched down, feeling the cool water beneath the soles of his feet. The power emitting from him seemed somehow both foreign and yet so intimately familiar. He knew that this feeling had to be a product of his ability to exert control over the very world around him.

On the one hand, he had suddenly gained a large boost to his strength, but on the other, because it was built into each one of his cells, and woven into the very fiber of his will, it somehow felt that all this new power was as easy to control as a single thought was for him.

He realized now just how well [Final Destruction] synergized with his Control Ability Index, but it wasn't just Control...

It was the opposite as well.

Especially when his will was to destroy.

"Silence."

Leonel spoke these words lightly and the gentle waves of the ocean seemed to cease. He could still see them, but other than visual cues, it was as though all other interactions with the world had ceased to be.

He realized then that his speculations were correct. Somehow, his father's technique was perfectly tailored for both his Ability Index, and the opposite side of its coin as well.

He could not only more perfectly exert control over himself, but the world around him as well, and weren't these precisely the push and pull of his Ability Index and that of King Alexandre's?

Leonel clenched his fists and then slowly released them.

'Good.'

He nodded.

Right now, he stood at a bit of a crossroads.

He was certain his plan had succeeded. Thanks to the Owlans and the so-called Beast Empire, he and the humans would be forgotten for many years.

He had had no choice but to step into the spotlight because of the matters with the Dream Pavilion, only to soon be followed up by the Gathering of Kingdoms right afterward. If it had been up to him, he would have laid low for a much longer time, but unfortunately that hadn't been in the cards for them.

However, now he had managed to reset them back to square one... at least on the surface.

There was no doubt that the Celestial Embers and Minerva would have a vested interest in finding and dealing with him. But on the other hand, it wasn't as though they had the luxury to spend an endless amount of time on such a thing either.

Very soon, armies of God Races would be descending to deal with what they thought were rebellions, and Leonel had a feeling that they would be in for a much tougher fight than they expected.

To be truthful, Leonel hadn't originally expected for things to go so well. He was intelligent, but he wasn't a god in the realist sense, omnipotence wasn't one of his abilities.

According to his original plan, he wanted to make use of the illusion of the Fallen God Beasts and the Owlans working together to force them into a spotlight not much unlike they had forced him.

He had learned about the Fallen God Beast's history thanks to the Life Tablet, and Minerva had always been nothing more than a useful pawn in his eyes.

When he saw that Celestia and Verma had actually teamed up, he was practically giddy with joy. It was like they had placed it all on a silver platter just for him to enjoy.

However, what he didn't expect was for Verma to actually end up being so aggressive. It was then a wild spark lit in his Dreamscape and he realized that he had actually been too conservative all the while.

The Beast Empire already had plans to rise up again. He didn't need to make use of just an illusion, he could force them into the real thing.

This plan did several things. Not only did it get his enemies off his back, but it also gave the Human Race cover.

The greatest downside was the fact that it was likely to alienate El'Rion. But honestly... This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

Leonel couldn't say he really cared all that much.

He had an appreciation for El'Rion and his Race's plight. He knew that they were in a slightly precarious situation and they were on the downswing of their long reign.

He just couldn't muster the sympathy for it.

The Pluto had reigned for so long and yet nothing had changed. Maybe they had already resigned themselves to the fate of the end of everything there was, and Leonel would be lying if he said that he had no inkling of such feelings as well, but he couldn't simultaneously feel pity for it at the same time.

If the Pluto had some grand master plan to save all of Existence, maybe he would. But just sitting there and waiting for death, wanting to be hands off while it was the likes of Leonel, his friends and his family that suffered the schemes of behemoth Race after behemoth Race...

Leonel didn't have the patience for it.

The only shame was that he knew it wasn't El'Rion's fault. The large Pluto might have looked big, but he was just a kid. He had more sway than most of his generation, but it wasn't to the point of truly affecting change.

But if Leonel had to choose between hurting El'Rion's feelings and actually giving himself and his family a chance to survive, the choice was obvious to him.

Now, the only real question that lay before him was what to do from here. As he had said, he stood at a crossroads.

On the one hand, there was the exit plan he had been forming in his mind. He now had a whole host of worlds that Somnus had been manipulating in the background to dip his toes into, one of which even had a Dream Pavilion.

On the other... he could try to fish in troubled waters and keep tabs on this war.

One was far more dangerous than the other... and likewise potentially far more rewarding...