FULLY DRAWN BOW
The two didn't speak immediately, nor did Leonel's expression waver. He just looked at her for a long time, feeling that her timing was pretty awful... or far too good, depending on how one looked at it.
Leonel hadn't expected to end up as injured as he had during the first battle. He planned to use the trio of beasts as a whetstone, but had ultimately ended up suffering from success.
The result was that Blackstar had used up all of his stamina and Leonel could only send him into the Segmented Cube, and now even Leonel himself had to retract his Divine Armor.
It had been a very long time since Leonel's Divine Armors had a stamina drain on him, but it also had to be remembered that one of his uncle's go-to methods of training was perpetually keeping his Divine Armor active.
Leonel had seen this once before, and his uncle had ended up taking it off just so he could see the avalanche of sweat beneath.
This was all to say that activating Divine Armor was certainly a sort of attack on the body, and it wasn't an easy thing to withstand.
Unfortunately, in this case, it was even more exaggerated because Leonel had created an unprecedented Divine Armor, one that pulled on everything he had just to sustain it.
There was a reason he had ended up half-dead just attempting to fuse with it.
So, it could be said that Minerva's timing truly was horrible.
However, Leonel didn't seem to notice that, or her relative closeness.
With Minerva's strength, even hundreds of meters of separation would have been far too close. But the fact that she was only three meters away seemed to be her making a point.
She could get this close without him noticing anything, and yet she didn't even take advantage, just standing there quietly.
The scariest part was that Leonel had no way of confirming exactly how long she had been standing there unless he had something like El'Rion's reverse time ability to watch the sequence of events. For all he knew, she could have been behind him for hours.
It certainly wasn't so exaggerated, because in the end, Leonel had still sensed her.
But all of this still told Leonel something very important.
She was here not just to kill him, but for revenge. The worst humiliation she had ever suffered in her life had come from Leonel, and twice over at that.
First she lost in the Challenge Sequence to a mere Fifth Dimensional existence, losing her right to the Segmented Cube and the Life Tablet.
Then, despite getting him in their Owlan Bubble, she hadn't been able to stop him from turning the world upside down.
The world thought that her disciple Celestia was number one... but even then, most were still aware that this was nothing more than a surface conclusion.
There were very few that didn't accept that Leonel was the best Crafter of the younger generation, and only Minerva knew that he had still held back.
Memories of the two braces played in her mind and a storminess grew in her heart before she extinguished it with a thought. This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
She had suffered humiliation after humiliation at the hand of this boy. Now that she had washed away the rest of her shame, the only stain left was this boy right before her.
After she was finished, she would conveniently collect the Life Tablet and the Segmented Cube. Then, their rise back to the status of Gods would be complete.
However, when she thought about how she wanted Leonel to react to her appearance, this wasn't it.
Her beauty had returned, and her power was unfathomable, and yet he just stared at her with those cold, emotionless eyes.
Minerva seemed to realize that this was the first time she had seen Leonel with this look.
Before, he had always seemed so playful and unserious. Even during their first meeting when his life was on the line, he was talking about how she wasn't anywhere near as beautiful as his wife.
He had always seemed like a person who didn't take anything seriously at all.
But right now, he seemed to be like a different man entirely.
His body was relaxed, but his mind was as sharp as a blade. She seemed to realize at that moment that even if she disappeared and tried to sneak up on Leonel again, it would become very difficult.
She felt subtle ripples of space in the surroundings, and though her wings easily canceled them out, just the act of doing so exposed her position.
Emulation Spatial Force, the perfect fusion of Dream Force and Spatial Force, and it was at the Quasi Creation State.
No, there was an Innate Node involved, so it was no weaker than a Force at the true Creation State.
This meant that Leonel had at least two Forces at that level.
A shocking matter indeed.
"Nothing to say?" Minerva suddenly asked.
"What?" Leonel asked in an even tone. "You want to hear that you're still not as beautiful as my wife?"
Minerva looked at Leonel curiously. He was speaking just the same as in the past, but the hints of playfulness were all gone.
It made her realize something.
Maybe... she had truly never fought against a serious Leonel.
And she was right.
Leonel had been infuriated many times since coming to the Complete Worlds, and many more dangerous situations. But the last time he had truly taken things seriously was during the Heir Wars.
Since then, no one had been able to push him to the brink, and he seemed to always easily have enough power to overcome all obstacles.
Even Demi-Gods and real Gods were no strangers to his puppet strings. He even had to force himself to respect people by changing the path of his Dream Force.
But right now, he seemed to be like a fully drawn bow, like a spear piercing through the skies.