NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

Leonel stood in silence for a long while. He tuned out the world, lost in a bit of a daze.

Whatever nonsense Gregwyn was talking about reaping what you sow wasn't even worth listening to. Goggles' actions had nothing to do with Gregwyn or his words. Just logically speaking, that was a foolish conclusion to draw.

If Goggles was stupid enough to believe the words of a scorned fool, then he wouldn't have been nearly as close to Leonel as he was. Originally, he was Leonel's trusted aid. Because of his Ability Index, he almost had no choice but to be intelligent.

The more information Goggles had on hand, the better he could predict the future.

Honestly speaking, Leonel could understand if someone drew the conclusion. Technically, Goggles would be able to grasp that Gregwyn was technically telling the truth with his Ability Index.

But the fact Goggles only chose to withdraw now was the final nail in the coffin.

He wasn't leaving because he felt that Leonel wasn't worth following due to Gregwyn's words, he was leaving because he had already made an assessment. In fact, he had likely already made the choice to betray Leonel before he even stepped foot into this place, and he had always known that he would be able to protect his life.

From the very beginning, this was what he wanted to do.

Nature versus Nurture.

It was a line of thought that Leonel had wanted to ignore, that he had forced himself to ignore, that he had stuffed away into the recesses of his mind.

He was too intelligent not to see it, he just didn't want to see it.

Was a person's personality set from birth? Would they almost certainly become one way or another? Or were they shaped by their environment?

Almost anyone would tell you that it was a combination of both, it had to be both... whether that was for the world to make sense or for you to keep your own sanity.

You should want the ability to change if you forced it hard enough. Why should who you were meant to be end up being decided without your input, at the hands of some amorphous power of probability?

It wasn't fair, and no one would want to accept that.

So in that case, how could he ever expect things to always be the same? To expect the same person to always make the same choice? To assume that the person he knew would always be the person he had come to know and not some stranger wearing the same skin?

He couldn't.

And that was exactly what he didn't want to admit.

He shed a tear not for Goggles, he could accept it. In fact, had he not purposely ignored all of the signs, dead set in his way, he would have known this was coming long ago.

Goggles' abilities were exceptional. His Ability Index alone was rated at a much higher level than Leonel's own and he had exceptional Dream Force talent as a result.

However, it was impossible for him to hide something from Leonel for so long, and even less likely to pull one over on him.

Maybe if he was a great distance away, or maybe if he had some great expert protecting him from the shadows it would have been possible. In fact, it was almost certain that the latter was true... the difference was that this "great expert" still wasn't enough to pull the wool over Leonel's eyes.

It was certain that Goggles hadn't made this choice on his own. If he picked against Leonel, there was a reason he had done so, a reason that he had changed his allegiances to follow another.

And all signs seemed to point toward the Dream Asura. Content © 2024.

From the very beginning, Flaura had likely known this would happen. In fact, she had likely begun to lay out these plans long ago. She might have used the trump card that was Goggles earlier than she thought she would've had to, but she had been ready to use it for a long time.

Even with all of this, it still wasn't the reason Leonel had shed a tear.

The moment that Goggles had done such a thing, he was dead to Leonel. Not only would he make him regret this choice he made today, but he would make him suffer a fate worse than death.

The betrayal was only the first layer, but the festering wound he had ripped open was the true reason for Leonel's reaction.

If even Goggles could change so much, what about his father? If he somehow twisted fate and reversed reality, bringing his father back from the dead when it should have very well been impossible...

Would Velasco even be Velasco anymore?

Would he still be his father? Or would he have done all of that to bring back a man who shared the same flesh as his father, but none of the same mind, none of the same soul... none of the same heart?

Standing there, watching Goggles leave, it was like Leonel was watching his father die again.

The final strands of hope he had been holding onto drifted away and something in his chest seemed to break.

The pain came in relentless waves until streaks of black came from his eyes.

There was so much darkness, so much grief.

Flickering lines of smoke came from his eyes as the black streaks drizzled down his cheek, forming droplets that dripped downward.

BANG!

They landed on the floor with a resounding boom.

The killing intent that filled the air was so violent that Eamon, who had been worried for Leonel's safety, lost consciousness, his eyes turning red and then rolling to the back of his head.

The crown of Dream Sovereignty appeared above his head, but it flickered. From a radiant gold and silver color, it danced between that and a dark black and maroon as though a demon emperor had descended.