MEALS

Leonel's eyes narrowed, but he pulled on Aina's hand to stop her from running after it. Even so, when he looked at his wife's bloodied hand, and then back to the bearded man… he had already decided his death.

Aina's battle ax soared through the air so quickly that others couldn't catch it even if they wanted to. It soared through a distance that would have covered several Bubble Worlds in the past and landed in the man's hand with a resounding BOOM!

"HAHAHAHA!" His laughter echoed through the skies. "My Brazinger family will rise today! The Heirloom of the Battle God has returned!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

At that moment, the man's Dharma raised a hand and grabbed out at the void. Streaks of crimson lightning flashed and reality tore apart. © 2024.

The shock of such a matter couldn't be measured in words. With so many God Runes descending, the world was impossibly more sturdy. Even in his Destruction World, Leonel felt that his knees were creaking as his body was forcefully suppressed to the ground. The pressure of the God Realm was unlike anything that he had ever experienced before, and Leonel thought that he was already used to stepping into higher worlds by now.

That was when the hand of the bearded man… or rather the hand of his manifestation, reached into the void. No, it wasn't the void. Leonel could sense something on the other side calling out to him, something that was particularly… Destructive.

That was when Leonel recalled the words of Willowyn and her mention of the different stages of Destruction and the forms they took. Leonel understood, then. This was the edge of the world that existed beyond the void. It was the Destruction Barrier that existed beyond the Northern Star.

Leonel had vague recollections of his future self going around the Northern Star to see what lay on the other side… No, these weren't recollections, but rather vague feelings, more like intuitions. His future self might be gone, but these things lingered. He remembered clearly that his future self had walked to the end of all there was only to find… nothing.

Now, this man was pulling a weapon out from this world of Destruction. Of course, that didn't mean that Leonel's future self had been unable to find it. It was more accurate to say that by the time Leonel had become so strong, whatever the man was taking out now was meaningless to him… it might as well have been nothing at all.

Leonel held Aina back still. He had always felt that her weapon was too inferior. He had asked Aina many times if she wanted him to make another for her, but she always insisted on it. It made sense. The weapon was a treasure given to her by her father, one of the few gifts she had ever received from Miel. So how could she want to give up on it even if their relationship was a bit strained right now?

Just as Leonel was about to promise to get it back for her, Aina's aura flared. At that moment, a Manifestation appeared to her back as well, and the moment it did, even the Dharmas that had formed from the other families came to a halt, forcing the four other families, who seemed about to summon their own treasured weapons, to stop in their tracks.

"Who allowed you to take what's mine?!"

Leonel looked at his wife's side profile, then obediently stood to the side. Originally, he thought that she would be forming a Dharma right now as well, but she didn't do this. With Aina's Clairvoyance, she should have realized that taking the path the Brazingers had was possible long ago. The fact she hadn't meant that she had her own reasons. And it also meant that she was confident in taking back what was hers with her own strength.

The skies cracked with black lightning and everything rolled. At that moment, everyone seemed to understand what was happening and the bearded man's expression changed. This was bad. When he formed the connection with the other side, everything would be fine if he won a quick victory and took the spirit for himself. But if he failed to do so quickly, then he would expose the location of the Brazinger family's greatest treasure and open it to being stolen.

Only the four families knew just how important these treasures were, but the moment their auras leaked…

Flashes of light shook the world, all of them coming from the eyes of monsters with strength beyond imagination. Even the Primordial Terror looked at that crack with narrowed eyes, having opened them the moment he sensed the change in reality.

Aina's manifestation rose high into the skies, towering more than ten times the height of even the largest Brazinger Manifestation. It seemed to become its own world.

Leonel coughed and looked around a bit awkwardly. It seemed that he wouldn't be the one causing trouble this time, but he was still going to have to clean up the mess. As expected, Aina's hand suddenly grabbed at the void and then…

CRACK.

A second portal in space aimed toward the very same location appeared. And now, everyone suddenly had two places to target. Unfortunately, compared to the Brazingers who not only had a large battle station and thousands of Dharma experts, there were just the twelve of them here.

Leonel sighed again. Who asked him to be a good husband?

"Let's go, boys. It seems we have some battling to do."

"Sis, I need at least three meals for this!" Raj called out.

"I need four!" Milan spoke out.

Remembering Aina's cooking, even Arnold couldn't help but rub his nose and sheepishly raise his hand, wanting a piece too.

Leonel grinned wildly, let go of Aina's hand and then rushed ahead. His Destruction World would be their anchor, Blackstar would be their spirit, and their blades would be their hearts.

A tide of Gods rushed toward them and the twelve of them faced off against the world.