WHY NOT?

Leonel sat cross legged in the void, leaning his head on a hand while his spear was in between his legs.

His gaze looked calm and somehow also reflected the world, and at some unknown point, his lip curled into a smirk.

'That was easier than I thought. That Elysium character is actually so retarded.'

The moment Leonel saw Elysium's arrogance, he knew that it could be taken advantage of. He had no idea how someone with such a temperament had made it so far. But as Leonel had said, Elysium mistook his patience for hardship.

Between the two of them, Leonel was the only one that had to teeter on life and death to make it this far. Elysium just sat cozily in the back of the Owlan family, waiting for his time to come.

Maybe he had done something, proven himself at some point, or taken on some of the burden. But it was destined to be nothing compared to Leonel.

And now Leonel had gotten exactly what he wanted.

Because the moment the Invalids appeared like this, they exposed their location to him.

Slowly, Leonel stood, his gaze blazing. He swept his spear out once, and a spark of light seemed to dance across it, lighting like a flame and flickering with wildness.

BANG!

Leonel shot out.

...

Soon, Leonel had appeared over an Incomplete World. He unceremoniously slashed out, cutting his way in.

The Regulator reacted fiercely, but in a blink of an eye, it was as though it had never been there at all.

He could sense the scent of Death in this world. It wasn't true Death, not like he had felt from Death Force before. But rather a kind of helpless indifference, one of someone whose life had hit rock bottom, and yet they had no intention of picking themselves up.

So this was what happened to Incomplete Worlds that couldn't fight off their Invalids.

It was almost decaying in plain sight, but what was interesting was that this decaying almost felt... stable.

Watching it, Leonel felt endlessly fascinating because it was like watching a cycle of Creation and Destruction where Destruction had won... and it was the first time he had ever laid his eyes on such a thing.

'What are Invalids...'

Leonel suddenly felt endlessly curious.

Invalids were just those that had failed to awaken their Ability Indexes.

No, it wasn't quite that... Invalids had Ability Indexes as well, but it was like their bodies weren't prepared to take it on, so their minds had to be cleared to make room.

Leonel suddenly felt enlightened. 'So that was it... Is that why Variant Invalids are so powerful? They're akin to Spirituals who managed to break free of their shackles, entering the Creation State and then finally riding a rocket to Godhood.'

Variant Invalids were Invalids that had managed to regain a consciousness after their former one had been lost, allowing them to evolve to a new level.

The trouble was that their consciousness was warped. It was grown from a state of endless hunger, of endless seeking for evolution and improvement.

At least that was what Leonel might have thought in the past, but seeing the state of this world, he had a different thought.

'Their consciousnesses are warped because they're not fundamentally creatures of Creation anymore. They're, contradictorily, creatures of Destruction... created through Destruction...'

Leonel felt waves of enlightenment hitting him.

At that moment, his True Destruction Sovereignty shed the restraints of the Silver Grade and entered the Gold Grade.

The world trembled around him and seemed like it might shatter at any moment.

And yet, he was still lost in a daze.

His Scarlet Star Force had birthed Destruction, but it was, in reality, the ultimate form of Creation. © 2024.

So what kind of Destruction was he seeking?

Was he seeking a Destruction that was birthed from too much Creation?

Or was he seeking a Destruction that pursued it to the end to become Creation itself?

That was when Leonel understood something.

All this time, his Destruction Sovereignty and his Scarlet Star Force seemed to have been linked as one, but were they?

Why was he not a Fire Sovereign? But instead a Destruction Sovereign? And why was it that his Scarlet Star Force didn't truly show many characteristics of Destruction Sovereignty other than being personally destructive?

In these days, he had run into a lot of characters.

He had always been used to having superior Forces to those around him, not in terms of comprehension-though he was superior in that aspect as well-but rather in the quality of Force itself.

But now, he was running into characters that could firmly suppress his Scarlet Star Force.

It was quite funny. He didn't often use his Scarlet Star Force or their Innate Nodes, saving them as a trump card.

But now, they felt useless at that and he also felt that he should just take them out as soon as possible to try to end the battle ahead of time.

But what if he was approaching this the wrong way all along?

He already knew what he should do, but he was in a daze, trying to figure it out.

He had to create a cycle, forming a wheel between his Scarlet Star Force and his Destruction Sovereignty.

Down one path, his Scarlet Star Force would become the extreme of Creation, that would lead to the truest Destruction in his Destruction Sovereignty.

Down the other path, his Scarlet Star Force would reach past the extreme of Creation, entering a state of Destruction, while his Destruction Sovereignty would reach past the extreme of Destruction, becoming Creation.

It felt like a subtle difference, but it was akin to night and day for Leonel to see as far ahead as he could.

Because depending on the road he took...

He could lean into the truest state of Destruction in all facets.

Or the truest state of Creation in all facets.

'In that case... Why not both?'

BOOM!