OPPOSITE
Leonel's immediate challenge to the Khafra Dream Pavilion was received about as well as you might expect.
While the Dream Pavilion Challenge Sequences weren't accessible to the world, they were still projected to all Dream Pavilions and could be watched by all Dream Force masters who were part of this network of organizations.
As such, while the whole of Existence didn't experience his first loss, a large segment of them certainly had. It also didn't help that the Ma'at Bubble wanted to use this point to bolster their claim to their Bubble, so they made great strides to ensure that as many of their people were aware of it, even projecting the images to the Bubble as a whole.
Things didn't go as well as they expected because it was a long and drawn out battle that didn't paint them in the best of lights. But there was no choice. Once they began to project the battle, taking it down midway would only make them look worse and it was something that had to be avoided at all costs. They were already walking a tightrope; they couldn't make things worse for themselves.
The fact that Leonel had kept the battle so close despite it being a one on two confrontation dimmed their light quite considerably.
Luckily, they didn't need to feel too superior. Their message was never that Spirituals were superior to humans; that much was already well acknowledged and accepted. What they wanted was to paint the humans as a barbaric race who lashed out at any opportunity.
As for why Flaura wanted them to do this, that was something maybe only she knew. All the Spirituals knew was that this would help them finally integrate and become Demi-Gods after so long.
What none of them expected, though, was that Leonel would give them another gift on a silver platter...
The Emberheart Lady returned to the Ma'at Dream Pavilion with a sunken, pale face. She had truly gone all out, and it could be said that in the matters of Dream Force... Sovereigns were truly scary.
Leonel was so far beneath her in experience and Dream Force, and yet it took a numbers advantage to win.
Luckily, it had been a win, or else it would be hard to decipher what would have happened otherwise. The consequences weren't something that she could withstand.
She took a step, trying to stabilize her shaky condition. It had been a long time since she had gone all out, let alone pushing so hard for so long. She didn't even know how Leonel had managed to do it because unlike the two of them, he got no rest!
"Hm?"
The Emberheart Lady had only barely managed to slow her breathing when she received a report. When she saw what was happening, she frowned. Leonel had challenged someone else... already?
She could hardly even stand straight and he was challenging again?
There was only one explanation for all of that, and that was that he had let his temper get the best of him again.
That was what everyone else was thinking as well. He likely wanted to charge back into the top 200 to challenge them again.
The Vast Dream Pavilion had fallen to 201st place from 102nd after their lost. There was a harsher penalty for those at a higher ranking, and it was also exacerbated by several other overly verbose formulas that synced up with merits and things of the like.
Leonel not only couldn't access many of the items he could afford due to his Pavilion's standing, but he also got harsher penalties for losing as he did.
He was truly much too eager.
The Emberheart Lady watched this silently before she closed her eyes.
She was old, she had experienced a lot of life. Although her countenance painted the image of a young maiden, mostly... one could see the vicissitudes of life if one looked into her eyes.
She didn't hate Leonel; she had no reason to do so. It was because of their actions that he had been pushed to this point, and it was because of the cruelty of the world that a genius that would be heavily nurtured by any other Race was being constantly suppressed in this way.
She could feel his frustration and understood why he wanted to lash out. And in a motherly sort of way, she almost wanted to embrace him.
All this time, she had never heard of Leonel's parents. Were they already dead? Were they alive but unable to hold a candle to their son and thus remained in the background?
She couldn't imagine the level of pain and suffering they must be enduring to watch the world jeer and jostle their son around like this.
A soft breath came from the Emberheart Lady's mouth as she slowly opened her eyes. The tranquility had returned and the cadence of her breath was even and perfectly spaced.
How she felt about Leonel's plight was one matter, but how she would act on it was a different matter altogether. She still had her own family to worry about, her own daughter.
Somehow, they had to find a way out from underneath the thumb of this mysterious existence. Accepting their demands into perpetuity wasn't a solution, and in the end, it would cost them all their lives.
The only way out was to become a Demi-God.
After so long, she felt that she could finally breakthrough into the Peak Life State. Then, the Creation Life State would just be one step away. This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
This one step might as well have been an enormous chasm, one that couldn't be crossed by others even if given a lifetime. For the Emberheart Lady, she was more aware of this than anyone else. How many years had it taken her just to make it to this point?
She had lost count...
However, what much of the world didn't know was that the Spirituals were a unique case.
Much of the world thought that Force comprehension, especially related to the elements and the soul, came with ease to them...
But this wasn't true at all.
In fact, it was the opposite.