- COMPLICATED

Leonel's eyes shot open, his body leaping upward out of his control. Blinding golden lights enveloped him completely almost as though Light Elemental Force couldn't stop itself from flooding toward him.

BANG!

Leonel crashed against the ceiling, his face distorting and his nose nearly being flattened.

"… Uh…"

With nothing to grab onto, Leonel fell back toward the ground.

He tried to flip over to land on his feet, but he overcorrected, causing his body to spin more than ten times even though he had been aiming for just once. copyrighted © content.

It was safe to say that he completely screwed up the timing, resulting in him landing face first and his face being smashed into a flat patty once again.

"… What the hell…"

At this point, Leonel was far too scared to move, so he remained deathly still until he could understand what happened. It took a moment, but after simulating everything with his infallible memory that had seemingly gotten even sharper, he finally understood.

Since Leonel was still in the Third Dimension, his body's strength was still lacking, especially in comparison to the white and blue belts he had to fight. Though his mind could keep up, his body often couldn't.

In order to compensate, Leonel almost always had his Speed Branch Lineage Factor activated, just to different degrees depending on the situation. This allowed him to make up for his weaknesses.

His Speed Branch allowed him to make use of Light Elemental Force in his surroundings to boost his speed exponentially. This benefit only became greater after forming his Mage Core.

But, just now, way too much Light Elemental Force had come, causing him to overcorrect by a larger margin than he was ready for.

The reason was simple enough, but the cause of it… This was what was truly baffling.

With just a sweep of his body, Leonel realized many changes.

His Three Stars now produced Dream Force directly and seem to have grown tenfold. To account for their explosive increase, the space within Leonel's Ethereal Glabella had also expanded massively.

'My Internal Sight's range has gone from a few hundred meters to over ten kilometers even in a Fifth Dimensional world… My Mage Core grew by more than ten times… My mind can split more than 60 ways now… My magic is easily ten times more powerful…'

Leonel was at a complete loss.

Just a weeks ago, he had been worried about this exact thing. He had almost missed out on the benefits flexibility could have brought him. And, right here, there was a more than tenfold increase to his strength that had been sitting here untouched all this time.

As the purest and highest form of Soul Force there was, Dream Force was ideal for the usage of Camelot's magic system. The Force Arts Leonel drew with it, even without changing a single symbol, were immediately several times more powerful.

At this point, Leonel felt confident in healing his Coach back to full health right this moment. If it wasn't because he wasn't certain of how to send the old man back to Earth, he would have already.

Leonel finally managed to get a comprehensive understanding of his strength and sat up without being blown toward the ceiling.

He looked down at his hands, shaking his head. How many more things was he missing out on? Just from a slight shift in philosophy, he had gained so much strength. How many other thoughts of his was wrong?

In the end, Leonel's frown vanished, his gaze sharpening.

Lamenting over this was a waste of time. He wasn't that kind of person.

Since he realized how valuable knowledge was in this world, he would just have to swallow up as much of it as he could. He would strip Valiant Heart of all the information he had before he inevitably left this place.

…

The days continued to tick by. As promised, Aina did indeed come to visit Leonel once a week. But, this only made her feel more at a loss.

Aina was very sensitive to Leonel's increase in strength. He seemed to be like a fish in water whenever it came to matters of training. She had only left him for a week, but he had grown so powerful so suddenly that she couldn't see where his limits lay. It was difficult for her to wrap her head around it.

The feelings she had were quite conflicting, though…

That day in the Joan Zone when she said she didn't want Leonel to change, she meant it.

Maybe this was just how the complex mind of a woman worked. On one hand, she had been berating Leonel for being too adverse to killing and too lenient with his enemies. But, on the other hand, that cheerful boy who always had a smile on his face wasn't a version of Leonel she wanted to lose.

She had lost too many people already. She hardly wanted to open up to Leonel at all in the beginning and this was a large reason why. And, maybe, it was still a reason. She didn't know what she would do if she ever had to lose Leonel too.

Seeing Leonel grow by leaps and bounds, the hooks of the Dimensional Verse sinking further and further in, Aina didn't know how she should feel.

Should she feel happy that her boyfriend was growing more powerful? Or should she try to shelter him away as much as possible, hiding him from this cruel world?

The emotions tugged and pulled at her from every direction. But, without an answer, she could only bury it deep, not much unlike she always did.

She smiled as she watched Leonel happily eat away at her food, keeping those complicated emotions locked away.

**

On this day, the day of the Selection had finally come. Having been moved up by several months due to the times of turmoil, it held much less fanfare than it once had in the past.

The other organizations that would often come to keep an eye on the next generation of Valiant Heart were somewhat strikingly missing, leaving only internal members.

It was under this half festive, half somber atmosphere that Leonel and Aina arrived.