LIFESPAN

Elorin's movements and stances were practically impossible to keep up with. He didn't seem to have much functional skill in combat, but when it came to the use of his Ability Index, he was simply on another level.

Leonel thought that maybe he should train Elorin in a Weapon Force, or maybe teach him some martial arts, but after a moment, he scrapped the idea. In fact, he felt that things were just fine like this.

During all these years, Elorin had been basically being trained by Anastasia. Anastasia's understanding of Time Force was probably comparable to even the most ancient ancestors of the Pluto Race. However, because of the failure of the Minerva in "creating" her, her thought processes and flexibility were limiting in combat.

At first, Leonel had been a bit worried about what that would mean for Elorin, but not enough for him to truly care. That was because he still didn't like Elorin all that much anyway. The only reason he was still keeping him around was because he felt that he owed Old Hutch at least that much, and because he felt that he might be useful in the future.

Although Elorin had been the one to kill his own grandfather, if his mother was anything to go by, he was more than willing. In fact, he had already deduced that the infamous Hacker Hutch had allowed himself to die so that he wouldn't have to choose between his duty and his grandson.

However, from what he could see here, Elorin had mostly used Anastasia as a springboard, learning what he could from her and the dense Time Force she could provide, and doing the rest on his own.

Although his actual skill in combat was limited, his actual battle sense was exceptionally high. He simply didn't need to be able to wield a sword as beautifully as Amery, or a spear as deftly as Leonel, to be able to take this step.

In fact, if they paired him together with Drake's Gun Force, he would truly become a force to be reckoned with.

'I need to invest more in my people, I guess… very soon, how strong they are will make or break a lot of things.'

There were many people training in the Segmented Cube.

There was his cousin, Fifth Nova… There was Kira who was doing her best to keep up with Blackstar's footsteps and now had many more Envoy corpses to analyze… There was Emna who was maybe the most shocking talent of them all, her potential was exceptional and she had a chance to stand on Leonel and Aina's level.. There was Amery who seemed to have forgotten about everything but his sword these days. In fact, it was like the man had forgotten that he had two Innate Nodes as well.

Of course, Leonel hadn't forgotten about Elthor. But… Elthor and the other Oryx were in a bit of an odd situation.

Lifespan.

Leonel had noticed it quite a bit ago, but he didn't quite know how to deal with it.

Back when he first became a Wise Star Order and saw through the true use of the Tablets, Elthor had been among the few he helped upgrade. His affinity for Chaotic Particle Force and Raj's Ability Index both played off of one another well.

However, since then, Leonel hadn't done much other than speak with Elthor from time to time.

These days, Elthor, who had once been a great talent, was only growing weaker. And the problem was because he was aging too fast.

At first, Leonel thought that the problem was because Elthor came from that Sub-Dimensional Zone. However, he dismissed that idea when he realized that the others, like The Pure Speedster or his former good friend, were just fine.

They were living out happy lives and most of them had no idea that they were even "trapped" at all. To them, they were just in a normal world, and as more generations were born, even those that were aware had mostly forgotten.

That was when Leonel realized what the problem was: Hyper Evolution.

He had always thought that Hyper Evolution was a great thing, but clearly it had its drawbacks as well. For Elthor who was maybe the greatest beneficiary of it, he was bound to suffer the most.

In the end, he hadn't been able to bring out much of his potential at all.

Honestly, Leonel felt that he had let Elthor down.

For one, he gave up most of Elthor's family and Race for the sake of saving his brothers the first time. Back then, he had been self-obsessed and incredibly selfish.

Although he had been lucky enough to enter that Zone again and rectify those mistakes, the burden of that guilt was still there, especially since he hadn't bothered to care for Elthor's feelings at all.

Ironically, it was due to that that though Elthor had been by his side for so long, and was also highly compatible with their friend group, Leonel found it hard to truly treat him as one of his brothers.

Leonel planned to take steps to fix that, but if he wanted to, he would definitely have to fix Elthor's troubles first.

'Wait…'

A flash of enlightenment sparked through Leonel's mind.

That was right… he had gotten a second chance to revive the people of that Zone… but, that had come at a cost. All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

He lost Goggles, his good friend looked at him as nothing more than a stranger, most of the warriors he had been able to grow and depend on during their battles were too fearful to even look him straight in the eyes these days.

However… wasn't Elthor a part of that Zone? If he got a second chance at it, what happened to Elthor himself?

Was it really Hyper Evolution that caused this? Or was it because a piece of Elthor had been taken away, a piece he hadn't noticed until now?

Leonel's gaze flashed with realization.