GOOD
"Don't you think… don't you think that he looks and feels too much like a Spiritual now?"
Lord Emberheart's eyes widened. His head subconsciously snapped toward Leonel, who stood in the far-off distance, high in the skies like a deity overlooking the world.
The more he looked, the more his heart trembled. Soon, his hands were shaking not much unlike his wife's.
None of them would care if Leonel was a Spiritual or not. It wouldn't make much of a difference, and if there was a difference at all, it would be the fact that it would make their people much easier to convince in the future. After all, they had spent years spreading propaganda against humans despite the fact that they were actually humans themselves as well.
The problem, as per always, was the underlying truth that would likewise have to be true if this was the reality. As the saying went… the devil was in the details.
There was something especially odd about Leonel's aura. They knew that he was a human; that was undeniable. But how had his aura so spontaneously changed like that?
According to their history, the first Spirituals only appeared after there were odd birthing occurrences where mothers started to face near-death experiences as their babies gathered large amounts of energy for the sake of forming their bodies.
There shouldn't be any accounts of Spirituals spontaneously forming like this. And yet…
The more they looked at Leonel, the more they felt like this was exactly what they were experiencing.
But what did that mean?
Back when the energy had descended onto Leonel, it was like a blade was being drawn from the future to the past. However, that blade…
Its aura was identical to Leonel's own. If they weren't so against the idea, they would have thought that Leonel himself had struck out with such an attack, taking matters into his own hands.
But how could that be possible.
Suddenly, Leonel turned his head, looking toward them with indifferent eyes.
They felt their souls freeze over, their bodies almost collapsing to the ground. It was just a gaze, but it felt as though they were about to lose their lives in a single instant.
They remembered a time when Leonel could only run before them. Then there was the time he rampaged in their world and they could do nothing even as he humiliated them. And now…
They didn't even dare to look at him.
**
Leonel crossed the universe, moving with the swiftness of a man on a mission.
Soon, he had reached his destination, a world of Rapax.
With a thought, he pulled out a familiar pair of Rapax from his Inner World. Content provided by .
Dreadmaw and Shadowclaw.
The two were taken aback. After years of being stuck in Leonel's Incomplete Worlds, they thought that they would spend their lives stuck in this place.
"You!"
Dreadmaw didn't hesitate to attack, but he had barely started moving when he froze in place. This wasn't because Leonel had done anything… in fact, all Leonel did was look at him.
And in that moment, Dreadmaw felt as though his entire body had been thrown into an ice cellar. He shivered from head to toe, suddenly feeling completely naked.
The Rapax had complete immunity to Internal Sight and had natural protections against Dream Force by extension. The most powerful of them couldn't even be locked onto by powerful Dream Force experts, and their souls couldn't be found in the Dream Plane.
They were the perfect warriors. They could put everything into their physical attributes, but they wouldn't have to worry about the drawbacks that came with it at all.
However, at that moment, Dreadmaw suddenly felt that it was all absolutely useless against Leonel.
Internal Sight, Dream Force, even his soul itself, all of it locked onto him.
It was a feeling that he, as a Rapax, was completely unfamiliar with and it shook him down to the depths of his soul.
They were so unused to it, in fact, that if Leonel wanted to make them kill themselves, it would take nothing more than a single nudge.
The fear made Dreadmaw feel as though he had a guillotine hanging over his head, like his death was nothing more than a hop and a skip away. There was absolutely nothing that he could do…
If Leonel wanted him dead, he would be dead.
At that moment, it was Shadowclaw who suddenly blocked in front of Dreadmaw. When he sensed the same pressure that Dreadmaw did, he even began to hiss, a guttural rumbling coming from his throat.
It was an odd reaction for Shadowclaw, who was usually so calm and docile. But Leonel knew that any warrior that the Rapax were willing to invest so much in wouldn't be a coward.
The Rapax represented strength and battle merit far more than potential. If you were a coward, you wouldn't be worth anything to them in the first place.
Leonel's aura pressed down on Shadowclaw, and the latter felt his body shaking, but he didn't back down.
It was only when Shadowclaw was about to collapse from exhaustion that Leonel retracted his Dream Force and Dreadmaw calmed the young Rapax.
"I won't explain myself to you two. The Rapax were my competitors, so I dealt with you as I would competitors. Now, I'll give your Race two choices.
"Either follow me, or die. Which will it be?"
Leonel looked toward Shadowclaw, his eyes glowing. Even though he wasn't using his Internal Sight any longer, Shadowclaw still felt a great pressure on his spirit.
Although Leonel had been in a time warp, his Incomplete Worlds hadn't experienced that time. So to them, it had only been a handful of years since they saw him last.
They didn't understand how someone could grow so powerful in a short time.
Surprisingly, it was Shadowclaw who spoke first.
"The Rapax only follow the strong."
Leonel looked at him, then nodded.
"Good. I'll lead you to the best battlefields in the world."