WRITHE

The plan wasn't obvious on the surface, and honestly Leonel was being a bit unfair to the Dream Asura pulling strings in the background. However, when you were dancing on a tightrope like they were, any flaws could be taken advantage of. It was honestly just a question of who among them would be the first to reveal a fatal flaw.

To Flaura, it seemed that that person was Leonel, and there was honestly nothing wrong with her thought process. Even Leonel had to admit that it was quite good... if it wasn't for the fact he had revealed such a flaw on purpose... at least in part.

The reality was that whether he drew the line between the Fawkes and him at this point or not, it was inevitable that it would come out.

The line of logic that Flaura had used, connecting the Incomplete Worlds to Savahn and Yuri, and then to Leonel and the Fawkes, was something that anyone with the information on hand could attest to.

Of course, "anyone" was actually a much smaller piece of the pie than it seemed. That was because this person not only had to know about the exchange between the Pluto and Fawkes, they also had to be aware of a covert action taken by the Human Bubbles who practically no one paid attention to, and finally they had to be able to gather information from a segment of the Gathering of Kingdoms that wasn't broadcasted to everyone.

All three of these hurdles were enormous, but the first was especially large. How many could claim to know about the motives and actions of the Pluto?

As far as Leonel was concerned, though, this was a confirmation of things. It seemed like he was the one backed into a corner, but Flaura had shown off her dragon's tail.

Now that he knew that she could piece such information together, it meant that the person he was dealing with wasn't normal in the slightest and he went from a barely 60% assurance that he was dealing with a Dream Asura, to over 97% certain.

And at the same time, he had caught onto Flaura's weakness.

The Vast Dream Pavilion had fallen from 100th place the day they won the Challenge Sequence, but since then the Owlans had made their move to return to the top 100 as well, pushing them down yet another spot.

But that wasn't what was of note here. What made Leonel sneer was the existence of the Khafra Dream Pavilion.

As he had said, the Khafra Dream Pavilion was a Nomad Pavilion. However, there were large numbers of Nomad Pavilions. Although they weren't as prolific as Spirituals in terms of Soul Force and Dream Force, they weren't too far behind either. In fact, they and the Cloud Race were neck and neck for second place.

So why was he so certain?

In reality, all Leonel needed was the fact Flaura had asked him to do this with no strings attached. But, there was a more complex train of logic as well. Content © 2024.

Why ask him to attack the Ma'at Bubble in specific and not the Kairo Bubble? The latter had a Dream Pavilion too and their ranking was almost identical. They were just barely in the top 200 as well, so logically speaking, Leonel should be able to get at them too.

The problem was that if he attacked the Kairo Dream Pavilion and they lost, they would fall outside of the top 300 and thus lose the right to challenge the Khafra Dream Pavilion.

The math was close, but Leonel was certain that he was right.

With how casual the rest of the letter was, letting him attack whenever he wanted, not telling him whether he had to win or lose, it all became supremely obvious.

If he fought the Ma'at Bubble, whether the Vast Bubble or Ma'at Bubble won, both would fall between the 200th to 299th rank. However, the Kairo Bubble, should they lose, would fall between the 300th and 399th rank.

Obviously, according to the rules, this would mean that it wouldn't be able to challenge the Khafra Dream Pavilion at that point, and all of this would be useless.

But then that left another question: why did she want the Khafra Dream Pavilion to rise?

If Leonel put himself in this person's shoes, he could see the long game they were trying to play.

Right now, the Owlans had just returned to the top 100 and had gained themselves some power, only to then be suddenly thrust into a war.

What would happen over the course of that war?

If another Race suddenly swooped in and claimed the top 100 spot that had already changed hands so frequently in the last few months alone, would it be that shocking anymore?

No, that matter would most definitely go under the radar.

However, she couldn't just have them leap to the top 100, it was easier to take it slow. If they were suddenly challenged out of the blue by a fiery tempered youth like Leonel or an embarrassed world like the Ma'at Bubble, wouldn't it be natural for them to enter the top 200?

The point gap between the higher ranks was so large that even if Leonel ended up winning this challenge, it would at most return to the 100th spot, where he would quickly be kicked down again.

At which point Flaura would make him issue another challenge, this time to the Khafra Dream Pavilion.

If it was the Ma'at Dream Pavilion that won, it would be even easier. Flaura would just make him lose to the Khafra on purpose and then have the Ma'at lose subsequently.

Either way, she would be able to get her pawn into the top 100, and who knew what she would do from there.

The Dream Asuras almost certainly had a top 100 Dream Pavilion already, but was it under Flaura's control?

Of course, there was another even simpler reason Leonel was certain of all of this.

According to the Life Tablet... Khafra was God Zoltene's homeworld.

'These are the games Dream Asuras like to play, huh...?'

Leonel didn't find himself being angry. In fact... he felt faint hints of excitement as something stirred inside of him.

A vile thought crept up from within his soul.

Wouldn't it be fun to watch this person writhe in despair?