INTERESTING

It was a hard decision to make and even Leonel hadn't quite been able to lock down a decision. He was leaning toward the latter, but that was because before Somnus provided him such an opportunity, it was his original plan to begin with.

But that didn't mean it was a smart plan. It was just born out of necessity and a lack of options.

He needed resources, and a lot of them. The multipliers and hidden traps in the Dream Pavilion's contribution point system left his hands strapped, while his father's asks were getting wilder by the day.

Taking advantage of the smaller worlds was safer and more viable, but the reward was potentially much less as well. While taking the latter option was much the opposite.

At that moment, a sudden flicker of red landed by Leonel.

Aina's hair slowly rescinded from a crimson hue and returned to its usual black, as did her eyes, though they returned to a golden brilliance.

Leonel raised an eyebrow at this change, but didn't say much.

"Are we going?" Aina asked.

"... I think that if I had a real breakdown of exactly what to target and where, it would be worthwhile. But in this situation, it's hard. We'd basically be moving around like headless chickens, trying to find something that caught our attention. And even if we did find something that did, whether or not we could snatch it is a different matter entirely."

Leonel was imagining finding some great weapon or some hidden strategic resource, only for it to be guarded day and night by some elite of the Ninth Dimension.

"In that case, let's return," Aina said firmly.

"You're right," Leonel said with a sigh.

Aina giggled. "You look like someone ripped your heart out. Is it not enough?"

"No!" Leonel said with righteousness spilling out of his voice.

Aina laughed harder.

Leonel had thrust two unblemished powers of the Demi-God ranks into an all-out war where failure meant their demise, and all for the sin of slighting him, but that wasn't enough? How could she not find it hilarious?

That said, Leonel was petty enough to leave behind perfectly good braces just to prove a point. In fact, they were more than just a perfect good, they could easily raise a Demi-God genius of the Seventh Dimension a level in strength.

"You need a vacation." Aina said.

"I just took one," Leonel said somewhat absentmindedly, as though he was still trying to think of a way to screw over the Owlans some more.

Aina chuckled and shook her head. "Our honeymoon was already half a year ago by now."

Leonel blinked and looked up, suddenly realizing that Aina was right.

The Gathering of Kingdoms took a long while, then there was an extended period between, and then the Gathering of Minds was another ordeal. The time had slipped away without him even realizing, and yet he still felt that his last vacation was just a bit ago.

"Do you want to go to Ma'at Bubble, then?"

The Ma'at Bubble was the Bubble that Yuri and Savahn were currently staying in, it also happened to be the Bubble of Lyra and Rowan.

But honestly, Leonel had an ulterior motive when he asked this, and it was Aina's words that shifted his perspective a bit.

Leonel had spun a web that trapped the Owlans, but there were still so many other loose ends that he had yet to account for.

The matter of the Nomads, Thorne, and their God Zoltene was still lingering in his mind, a thread yet to be solved.

It made him curious. If the Beast Empire had been preparing all along, how many had they roped in? Were the Mortal Races also part of it?

Or was there another plan brewing in the darkness that he wasn't aware of?

Until now, his grandfather had still yet to appear, and Leonel could only conclude that there was a very good reason for that.

The more he learned about these murky waters, the more sense it made that Emperor Fawkes was being so cautious with his reappearance.

And that made Leonel want to learn even more about them.

He needed a more holistic view of the picture. He had gotten lucky this time that things fell in line so perfectly, but there was only so much reading history could do for him. Eventually, he would need the real deal.

"Okay," Aina said with a smile, not exposing Leonel. She knew of his intentions, but did it matter much? When you had as many minds as her husband, in many ways, you were always focusing on something other than leisure in small ways. She had learned to deal with it.

With that, they set off.

Somnus' elder sister, Flaura, read a report in silence. Her casual smile was nowhere to be seen, nor was too overly serious either. She just seemed to be entirely indifferent, as though learning of her brother's death didn't mean much to her at all.

'And so it's come to that finally, huh... I guess there really was no avoiding it, it was inevitable. Anything with so much of Ancestor's fingerprints on it was bound to end up like this... the last time she took action, the Fawkes family fell... but what is she playing at this time...?'

Flaura shook her head. She wasn't her brother, she wouldn't meddle in such things, nor would she get an unnecessarily large head. Her goal was very different.

She would nibble around the edges until she was satisfied.

Her fingers flickered and an image of Lyra and Aerin appeared.

'A pair of lovebirds separated by fate and tragedy, what a shame, what a shame...'

Her fingers flickered again and the teleportation routes of Lyra and Aerin appeared in full view of her.

'A Pure Blooded Spiritual and a Sparrow... Both Bubbles have Dream Pavilions... Interesting, interesting...'

Flaura closed her eyes and leaned back, Auspicious Air trembling around her. Content © 2024.

She had spotted a weakness, now it was just a matter of seizing it. The Ma'at Bubble, should she succeed, would become her newest shiny toy and her strongest pawn.