The arena was shell shocked. The Heads of the three organizations weren't quite sure how to react to all of this.
A part of them wanted to act to stop Leonel as well, but the complications of the matter stopped them from acting rashly.
For one, who would think that Leonel could deal with three Fifth Dimensional existences? Second, with the way he interacted with Milan despite the fact they had kept their seeded geniuses as a hidden trump card meant that he was likely also from Earth. Third, this was a matter of the Milky Way Guild's face, if they couldn't deal with the situation themselves, the whispering voices would only become louder.
None of this even mentioned the odd optics of it all.
Somehow, the four organizations got several geniuses from Earth, all of these geniuses seemed to know one another, they just so happened to gather after the four organizations asked for the Milky Way Guild to be a Third Party observer, and the result of it all was the death of a direct line child of the Guild Head?
No matter how you looked at it, it was suspicious to an extreme.
What if they acted and Leonel somehow managed to escape? What if they had sprung to action and Head Hutchin along with the four mysterious elders took the opportunity to sow some chaos which facilitated Leonel's survival?
How could they wash their hands cleans of such optics? With that single move, they would be dragged down along with Valiant Heart Mountain. They would go from enemies, to allies by circumstance in a single move.
To make matters worse, now that Leonel had managed to escape while they didn't act, they were suffering under optics that were just as bad. Now it seemed like their enaction had only helped Leonel as opposed to shining light on their innocence like they had wanted it to.
Worrying about Valiant Heart Mountain now? How could they? They had to go all out to find and trap Leonel or else once the dust settled and cleared, even if the Milky Way Guild didn't punish them directly, they had plenty of ways to make them suffer.
As though all of this wasn't terrible enough, if they had thoughts of harming the people of Earth to prove the fact they had nothing to do with all of this, the avenues of retaliation Leonel had were now as open as a great sea.
With just a few hints, a few innuendos here and there, a couple inexplainable situations, he could easily make it seem like he was in cahoots with the three organizations. If he chose to do so, the stain on them would be inerasable.
He had bound their hands completely. As long as they behaved themselves, they could chase him all they wanted for their revenge. But them moment they stepped over the line, everything they had built would come crumbling down.
As the three Heads were thinking these thoughts, how could Head Hutchin and the others not understand all of this as well?
In a single, seemingly reckless and thoughtless move, Leonel had saved quite literally everybody…
But himself.
…
Leonel dashed through the halls of the settlement. At that moment, the blaring horn of warning bells sounded, vibrating with such a booming cadence that even the walls vibrated. It was the kind of obnoxious sound that made one's ears bleed and one's eyes blur beside themselves.
Leonel's eyes narrowed.
This would be where the true challenge began.
There was just one method of entering and leaving this place, but there were multiple methods of doing so. Unfortunately, Leonel was only familiar with just a single method since it was the only one he was shown.
All methods of leaving led to the roof. The surface of Planet Vincero was too dangerous for anyone not of the Sixth Dimension to casually step onto. As such, transportation on the surface was mostly neglected. All the mining the Guild did was high up on mountain peaks. They would then carve paths through these mountains downward and toward thicker and richer deposits.
The singular method Leonel knew of to reach the roof was through the guest holdings. He had already memorized the path.
Up 27 floors, through the wide lobby he had seen the Milky Way Guild sign from, then to the teleportation pad.
If they were smart, they would have already shut down all teleportation platforms. But, this was something that Leonel had already thought of as well. Would he even be a Force Crafter if he was stalled by such a thing?
Leonel shot up a flight of stairs, his heavy steps purposely pressing down just hard enough to send him forward and shatter what was behind him.
He no longer cared about hiding his tracks, he had already dispelled his clones. On top of that, he was certain that there were eyes all over this building, so whether he shattered the steps or not, they would know his location.
Though he could easily sense and destroy the Force Arts manning the images of himself, a trail of broken images would just as easily point out where he was.
'Thirteen floors left.'
Leonel's speed did him wonders. He had already cut the distance he needed to cross by almost half just by not bothering about covering his tracks.
'… So that's their plan? Got it.'
Leonel's gaze turned cold, his speed rising to an even higher gear as he tapped into his Snowy Star Owl lineage factor.
'Star Path.'
A lane of sparkling Force appeared before Leonel. As though he was gliding across ice, his pace skyrocketed. This second stage of his Speed Sub-Branch was on a completely different level.
He burst through the doors of the guest floor, his momentum so great that he rose into the air, a massive pair of wings spreading from his back.
With a single look below, he saw a swarm of Milky Way Guild elites. There must have been almost a hundred, each of them ready and waiting.
It was clear that they didn't believe Leonel warranted such a reception, but rather that they no longer wanted any mistakes. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.
All of this would end here.
Leonel's aura blazed, his white gold wings of Force spreading out as his halo glowed with a fierce light.
The MILKY WAY GUILD sign that hung to his back shattered into motes of sparkling lights, crumbling down to the ground below.