MIRACLE
If not for the Sylvans, much of the information about Leonel wouldn't have already spread so far. They were the only ones capable of seeing through him so easily, and it had only made Leonel's situation all the worse.
Now, there was one camping outside of his world as though he was eager to capitalize on his situation even more.
Leonel was already pissed off to an extreme. Seeing this, he was even more infuriated.
He remembered words he had said a long time ago... there would come a time when people heard the Morales name and quaked in fear...
In that case, he would kill, and kill, and kill... not until they feared, but until he alone was satisfied.
Bracken's screams rang out as he tried to rip himself out of the ground, but it was already too late. The moment he appeared before Leonel in such a precarious situation, he was already finished. He had no one but himself to blame for underestimating the human race so much.
BANG!
The Sylvan's heart exploded, and Leonel's gaze blazed with a fierce violet light.
"[Arise]!"
He felt his own soul shudder when he grasped Bracken's soul. There was actually a layer of protection left there.
Almost the moment he began his attempt, an infuriated roar echoed.
"FAWKES SCUM!"
A tree with bark of blackened ash rose up and out of Bracken's body. It carried an aura no less heart-shuddering than the Ancestor that Leonel had seen come and protect Shan'Rae. But clearly, this time, they were here to protect Bracken instead.
Leonel only took a moment to understand. It seemed that all the most powerful existences of the God Race had protections against this sort of Lineage Factor. Not just that, but they used it as a method of tracking the Fawkes at the first instant.
He could feel the infuriated aura of the True God. Just a single wisp could wipe him out ten times over...
But so what?
He wasn't just a Fawkes. He had a mutated King's Might Lineage Factor... and a Life Tablet.
"Piss off."
Leonel communicated with the Life Tablet and suddenly it ripped Bracken's soul out of the Ancestor's control.
In that instant, an illusory humanoid wearing violet armor and having a body of wrapped vines appeared before Leonel, kneeling.
"My King!"
Bracken's voice echoed with a boom, almost like its own personal slap across his Ancestor's face.
The infuriated roar peeled across the skies.
"LEONEL MORALES!"
"Yes. That's my name. And after these events, you'll learn not to speak it so casually."
Leonel took a step and vanished, entirely ignoring the unprecedented aura. Behind him, Bracken rushed with his fastest speed, ignoring his Ancestor as though the most important person in his life was Leonel.
The Ancestor grabbed at the air, but it was all in vain. His true body wasn't here, and the lingering attachments he had left were being eroded by the Anarchic Force and the suppression of the lingering Regulators in the area.
His infuriated roar could only echo aimlessly, but Leonel had already disappeared into the distance, stepping into the void and crossing across the vastness of Existence as though it was his own backyard.
...
The situation in the Dwarven Race wasn't good. Their formation was still holding up, but it was hard to tell how much longer it would last. It seemed that any time now, everything could come crashing down.
But worse than this, the Gods had sent back a message that left them shaken.
Spector and Avlauren were at a loss of what to do. The one time they stuck their necks out, choosing to do something they normally never would, they had actually ended up suffering like this.
Their Dwarven Race had always been lowkey. It was because of Leonel that they had changed that policy and chose to take a different path. Though, this was also because they had been targeted.
Even so, it was hard to not feel some sort of discontent. It was simply humanoid nature to blame a complicated problem on a single thing instead of taking in the whole picture and accepting part of the blame or passing it on to others that deserved it.
However, though the elders felt this way, they still took a breath and calmed themselves.
They knew it wasn't Leonel's fault. At the very least, this Invalid attack would have come one way or another. But being exposed as Leonel's partners just after he had been exposed to be related to the Northern Star Lineage Factor had truly left them shaken.
It was only now that they had no choice but to finally tell Lumielle the whole truth about what was happening.
The rampaging girl couldn't help but frown when she heard all of this.
However, before she could even reconcile with this matter...
CRACK. CHIII! owns all content.
Their protective formation finally couldn't hold up any longer.
The Dwarven Race looked ahead with a solemn expression. Their world looked like a shattered snow globe, the fractures in reality allowing the Invalids to pool forward.
Lumielle, who had been pent up for too long already, unleashed a roar as she wanted to charge, but her grandparents held onto her shoulder and stopped her.
At that moment, an array of Force Arts lit up and their mountains became like artillery weapons.
In the end, the Dwarven Race had always survived because of their ingenuity, not their combat prowess. As much as Lumielle wanted to fight... now was not the time.
By this point, the entire Dwarven Race had already been evacuated underground. It wasn't even particularly difficult as they had always preferred this style of living. That left the entire surface world as a place of combat.
If they wanted to hold on for another half year even, they were confident in doing so. They could only hope that the situation would change in that time.
They took deep breaths, trying to calm their agitated hearts.
They could only hope that there would be some sort of miracle...
Otherwise, the Dwarven Race would be finished.