AERIN AND...
The words rung in Old Bastian's heart like a bell. It almost felt like Leonel was attacking his soul with his Dream Force, and maybe he was... but Old Bastian had the clarity nonetheless to realize that he was correct.
They were already in a passive position. If they didn't take action now, when would they? They were already looking for an excuse to target them anyway... so let them come.
At that moment, Old Bastian had the momentum to make a unilateral decision for the whole of the Dwarven Race.
In reality, he had the prestige to do so... but in practice, he knew that he shouldn't.
He was most definitely one of the top three experts of the Race, and due to his position as the head of the Dream Pavilion, he was even faintly beyond the other two. But it wasn't to the point that he could unilaterally suppress them. In fact, in a true battle where he didn't have the support of the Dream Pavilion, he would lose to them both. Dream Force simply didn't translate well to battle for most.
However, when it came to intelligence, they took his word for most things and his thoughts definitely weighed the heaviest.
The camaraderie of the Dwarven Race went all the way to the very top. He saw those two as his siblings and he wouldn't have it any other way.
There was no time to consult them even if he wanted to. The challenge would start very soon, and even if he did have the speed to inform them... would they have the time to have a deep back and forth? What would even be the point in a half-assed conversation?
There was really only one choice to make.
He exhaled slowly.
"I'll trust you in this matter for now."
Leonel nodded. When he turned away, vanishing, his expression was incredibly solemn. He barely registered the Pavilion Head position being transferred over to him.
What he was solemn about wasn't the coming battle. Even if it was a tall mountain, he would climb it if it meant crushing the Nomads.
His solemnity had everything to do with Old Bastian's decision. He knew that it wasn't easy to make such a decision, and it made his respect for the man reach as deep as it could.
For no other reason than the fact he wanted to, he would do right by these people.
...
The Dream Pavilion projections clashed in the air.
"Will it be alright?" Aina's voice entered Leonel's soul. "The situation is a bit odd now. You'll be fine, but I'm still in the Fourth Dimension. If we set things like this..."
As the challenger, it was the Dream Pavilion's choice of who to send up. Because of this, Leonel understood what Aina's worry was. If they suddenly appeared as a man and a woman, and Aina was registered as the Fourth Dimension, it might be too easy to connect them together. Then, what would be the point of disguises.
"You don't have to worry about that," Leonel replied. "The Dimension requirement is a maximum, not a minimum."
Aina's eyes lit up with understanding and she nodded.
As for the fact this meant that Leonel wanted her to use her Fourth Dimensional body to deal with someone who was clearly in the Ninth Dimension, she didn't even blink.
She didn't believe that Leonel would ever put her in danger. If he was doing this, it meant he was confident, and that was only natural. This was a battle of Dream Force, not the real world...
This was his Domain.
Patriarch Khafra frowned when he saw that it wasn't Old Bastian acting. But when he looked at "Aina", he was even more shocked.
That was because it wasn't Aina standing there at all.
It was Lyra.
He didn't even have time to understand how the hell any of this could be happening. Let alone him, even the rest were in complete and utter shock. Content © 2024.
It wasn't that he didn't think it was potentially a disguise, but he simply couldn't see any flaws.
But it was too late to retract the command now. They were going in.
...
Soon, their gazes flashed and they entered the courtroom-like region. The whole time, Leonel wasn't paying to Patriarch Khafra at all because his focus was trained on the second man.
This second man was the very same one that had been waiting outside of Patriarch Khafra's pavilion the first time. His Hands of Gods were larger than his three meter tall finger, intertwining their fingers into what looked like a blooming flower of digits.
Leonel found him interesting because he felt no less dangerous than Patriarch Khafra... just in a different sort of way.
Right then, three floating challenge balls appeared... and it was Leonel's right to choose.
...
At that moment, the entire world was in an uproar... or, rather, all those paying attention were. And for the Dwarven Race, that could pretty much be considered to be the all. And when the Spirituals learned of it, they too were in shock.
The Emberheart Lord personally rushed to his daughter's living quarters, and when he found Lyra's confused face looking back at him, he was completely stunned. In fact, for a moment, he thought his own daughter was the fake one so he brought her to his wife to be checked, only to find out that the Emberheart Lady had entered a state of strict meditation.
Even so, Lyra was eventually able to prove to her father that it was, indeed, her... but that only shocked them further.
How could there be such a perfect disguise technique in this world?
How could they know that Leonel had long treated Emulation Spatial Force like a layman's Infinity Force? On top of that, he not only had immaculate control over both his and Aina's body due to his Ability Index and their marriage bond, but he also had Little Tolly on top of that.
There was simply no seeing through him.