LAST GIFT

There was a clear mass production line pumping out weapons at astonishing rates. It was clear that they had taken much of their inspiration from the industrial revolution of Earth and then transferred that power to Crafters to maximize their skill.

If there was anything he would praise his grandfather for, it was for waiting, watching, and biding his time as Earth progressed along its own unique path.

Gervaise didn't act early to establish his Ascension Empire because that would ruin much of Earth's personal potential. Instead, he only stepped in when the path of Earth was set, and even then, he remained mostly hands off.

Thanks to this, the Ascension Empire had a beautiful mix of wider Existence methods, mixed in with evolution driven by Earth's methods alone. This led to a mix of the two.

However, this…

'Trash.'

Truthfully, Leonel was being harsh. All things considered, these mass-produced items were very good.

They were all at a God Realm standard. The Bronze Grade weapons here could shatter the Life Grade weapons of the former Dimensional Verse with a single touch, let alone a swing.

However, to Leonel's eye, they were too inferior.

There was too much variation between them, the Runes were weakened on purpose for the sake of making mass production easier, and there were actually three Crafters working on a single weapon at a time.

Of course, they also finished this weapon in just a few seconds. But this was still an unacceptable use of their time. Every second they spent here was a second less actively improving… because there was certainly no Crafter that would improve in a place like this.

Leonel picked up a sword from a bin. Even though it had dimmed from its previous red glow, it was still scalding hot and should have melted his hand to ash. But he didn't seem to notice at all.

He looked at the Bronze Grade item for a moment and then flicked a finger.

CRACK.

The sword fell apart as he shook his head.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A burly woman came rushing in with short bob-cut golden hair and sparkling green eyes.

From the small bits of information Leonel had gathered, she should be of his generation, technically. Meaning that one of her parents was on the same level as his uncles and aunts, or where his mother had once been.

She should be an overseer of this factory, and after the commotion that Leonel had left in his wake, it was only natural that she would eventually have to step in and take action.

However, Leonel just waved a hand. An [Emperor's Edict] appeared before her and the woman was entirely frozen in place.

"Just stand there and watch. I can't be associated with this sort of drivel."

The woman's eyes opened wide. It wasn't because of Leonel's strength alone, but the technique he used.

[Emperor's Edict] was one of the most commonly used techniques of the Fawkes. After all, though they were mostly feared for their top three techniques, how many had the skill and talent to use them?

It had to be remembered that even Leonel almost died walking to the end of the platform to take these techniques.

Of course, there wasn't a trial for every Fawkes, and they could normally just read the technique in exchange for enough contribution, but that didn't change just how difficult it was to learn the technique.

The problem was that [Emperor's Edict], although being one of their commonly used techniques, took a lot of setup and time for most. Leonel had been so fast she hadn't even seen him cast it… did he even set a law? How was this possible?

As for Leonel, he had already ignored this cousin of his. Well, he wasn't sure if she was even his cousin or not, but he didn't care much. He didn't have a reason to kill her anyway. owns all content.

His thoughts were focused on something else.

He had seen mass production work before; he just didn't use it much because he had no reason to. However, it had to be remembered that one of the functions of the Segmented Cube was to copy his Crafting style and perfectly replicate it.

The last time he had used something like that was during the Heir Wars, which was a bit amusing considering how useful the ability was.

However, Leonel had no intention of pawning his Segmented Cube off to the Fawkes for their own personal use. He would take a much different approach instead.

He would create his own path forward.

Leonel had already promised Anastasia that he would fix her weaknesses. He still wasn't as skilled as the Minerva had been, but if he couldn't even replicate a small bit of their strength now, he might as well end it all right now.

Taking a breath, Leonel's mind flickered with calculations. Then, his Dream Force suddenly began to manifest, projecting his Dream World into the outside world. It was an ability that only Savants should have had, but Leonel had actually broken through that barrier even though his Emulation Spatial Force Innate Node was gone.

This was, of course, because of the changes to his Ability Index… but these matters weren't important for now.

He scanned every inch of this place until he finally took out the last piece his mother had left behind for him.

Leonel looked at the World Spirit in his hands with a complicated gaze.

His mother was obviously the champion of Earth, so its World Spirit had always been in her hands.

The World Spirit had chosen his mother when it was still immature and nothing but a bundle of instincts, so right now, it even took on her appearance.

It slept soundly in his arms as though it was confident that nothing bad would ever happen to it as long as it was with him.

Leonel took a breath and exhaled.

The only reason he hadn't just cut ties and left the Fawkes even after everything that had happened, even though he knew that he and his grandfather would likely never see eye to eye… was because of his mother.

In that case, he would use her World Spirit in the best way possible…

Elevating the Fawkes.