DUDOOM.

The pain that Leonel had experienced in the last few decades had dulled considerably. His nerves were so fried that it was hard even to carry pain signals back to his brain.

However, right now, it seemed that he had returned to his first few years here. That much would have still been fine… if it wasn't for the fact that his body was in far worse condition than it had been back then.

Even so, the light of almost madness in Leonel's eyes didn't fade.

He had lost count of the number of times these same memories had flashed in his head. Every time he wanted to give in, to give up…

But he also realized that what he was trying to do right now couldn't be accomplished with determination alone. It just… wasn't enough.

A malevolent light flickered in Leonel's eyes. He didn't know if it was an illusion or a trick of the mind, but he could see a fluttering black robe suddenly appear before him.

The robe was riddled with holes, and when he craned his neck, he could see a bony skeletal hand holding a scythe to his neck.

Those empty eye sockets looked down at him, as though waiting patiently for those last few seconds to finally tick by.

Leonel's gaze spat fire at this figure. He clenched his mouth shut tightly, but the same crimson fog began coming from his nostrils.

His body was giving up on him. He had put it through too much, and the fact that it had lasted this long was already a miracle in and of itself. He simply couldn't take much more.

Bloody fog began to emit from Leonel's eyes, but veins didn't even pop across his body like they should. His body simply wasn't hydrated enough… or more accurately, no matter how much water he drank, his body simply didn't have the capacity to absorb it.

Leonel could feel his life wavering like a flickering candle. He weakly pulled an arm up to push the reaper's scythe away, but he passed through air, falling to the side.

Sparse, dry, white hair fell before his vision, but he couldn't even see it with his blind, murky eyes. This was the first time he had laid down in decades, and he simply wasn't sure if he had it in himself to get up.

'I do…' His thoughts were far stronger than his body.

'More… I need… more…' Leonel hadn't planned to do this at the start; it was far too risky. If this plan had a 20% chance, then this one likely didn't have a ten percent chance. But he gritted his teeth and moved forward nonetheless.

His Dream Sovereignty was suddenly added to the powder keg. Then came his Fire Sovereignty.

Of them all, his Fire Sovereignty was the most infantile, only recently formed. Throwing it into such a pack of wolves was only asking for it to be devoured.

But he did it nonetheless.

He let out a hoarse roar, his body trembling.

His bones began to snap, not due to power, but because they were too porous and fragile. He had suddenly landed on a shoulder that hadn't been through much more than pain in the last several years. The moment he tried to move, his arm snapped, and his tendon went with it.

However, this sort of pain was already something that no longer fazed him.

He focused on his Dream Sovereignty…

Respect and Persistence… Respect and Persistence… And Persistence… And Persistence… Persistence…

Leonel's hoarse roar became something far more sinister. It sounded like half a sob and another half a dragon's enraged cry.

His mind flashed, and all the pain he had experienced came to a head.

"FORM!"

BANG! All of his power was suddenly concentrated into two pinholes.

These weren't fully formed Innate Nodes. They were just the embryos of them. They had the Runes, but they lacked the substance.

This method came from none other than Leonel's father. This should be the state his kidney was left in after his Innate Node was taken as a child. His father used Earth's science to nurture his body over decades, allowing him the chance to regrow it.

Now, these two kernels were exactly in that state, waiting to be regrown. But it would only work if they were given the perfect environment… and after these decades of pain, Leonel's body was precisely in that perfect state.

He weakly inhaled, still feeling like his body was about to collapse into a pile of ash. Then, the resources he had brought began to be inhaled by him one after another.

His organs began to explode; several pieces of his body lost what flesh they had remaining, revealing the cracked bones beneath, but he continued to hold on.

Resource after resource flew into his body, or… what was left of it.

He was forced to use his Destruction and Creation Sovereignties to grind them down and then force them into his body.

At that moment, the strands of Spear and Bow Force that littered his body began to truly become one with him. Under the influence of the Innate Node seeds, it was like they had found a law of movement.

DUDOOM. DUDOOM. Leonel's heart suddenly began to beat.

His two Innate Node seeds traveled through his body, following through his veins, through the remnants of his organs, until they suddenly met at his heart and clashed.

The first clash echoed with the first heartbeat before they separated and began to roam through his body again, through his brain, his nervous system, even his Ethereal Glabella.

DUDOOM. DUDOOM. They clashed again before separating. Content © 2024.

This time, they roamed deeper, entering the Dream Plane, then the Destruction World, and even soaring through his Inner World.

DUDOOM. DUDOOM. BOOM! This time, they stuck together forcefully, and Leonel's entire chest exploded. He lay there blankly, his cracked lips slowly parting.

"Anas… tasia…"

He spoke softly as his eyes dimmed.

He managed to speak out these words… but how many months would pass before the time dilation was broken?