: TWICE

Leonel instantly appeared on the very same abandoned planet he had left from, hanging onto his life by a thread. But, the situation instantly became several times worse.

There wasn't a hint of oxygen to be found on this planet, but that was only the first issue. At Leonel's current level, holding his breath for several hours wasn't a problem. The trouble came from the lack of air pressure.

In that instant, his bodily fluids seemed to want to boil themselves to oblivion. If it wasn't for the fact Leonel had stepped into the Fifth Dimension, he would already be finished. It only made matters worse that the temperature felt far below negative 100 degrees Celsius.

As Leonel progressed, temperature began to feel different to him and was adjusted not just based on the Dimension, but also how he felt within that Dimension. For him to experience such cold right now, it could only be said that this planet was not just a little bit harsh.

Without his space shuttle to protect him, Leonel was facing all the elements by himself, his body far too weak to protect himself from it all.

With the last hints of strength he had, Leonel managed to use his Internal Sight to pull the Segmented Cube out from his spatial ring and teleport inside.

Leonel instantly took a massive breath, one he just as quickly regretted. His nerves were completely fried, the constant firing of pain receptors making his mind feel as though it was in a mine field, flash bangs sounding time and time again with every minor movement he made.

At that moment, Leonel's expression would have warped into quite an ugly one if he could have afforded the energy.

He had thought that after so many months within the [Dimensional Cleanse] trial world, his Healing Branch's [Instant Recovery] would have already recovered after he used it to survive the Valiant Zone. But now he realized that he had made a massive mistake.

Why did his [Instant Recovery] have such a variable refresh date to the point where even Leonel could only vaguely say that it would take a 'few months'? It was because of the process his Lineage Factor went through to prepare it!

[Instant Recovery] required a special fusion of Light Elemental and Star Elemental Forces to combine to be completed. However, Leonel had just spent months in a place where no Force other than Star Force was allowed. So, how could his [Instant Recovery] have possibly recovered?

Leonel had no choice but to try to use Vital Star Force again, but once again, the world seemed to want to see him suffer. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

First, he was slapped in the face with the reality that the large amounts of Vital Star Force he had become used to was gone. Even to call it a fraction of what he once had was an insult, it was more like a sliver.

Second, he realized that Amery's odd energy still hadn't disappeared and it was still hindering his body from healing itself. It was borderline infuriating.

What Leonel didn't know was that this was how things were meant to be. Being injured by someone an entire Dimension above you made the same wound far more difficult to heal. A cut caused by Fifth Dimensional Force, even at the same size and depth as one caused by Fourth Dimensional Force would be far more difficult to deal with.

Leonel had never experienced this issue before because of his own talent. But now he had met someone just as if not more talented than himself for the very first time. On top of that, that person was within the Sixth Dimension whose gap with the Fifth Dimension was far larger than the latter's gap with the Fourth and so on.

As though all of that wasn't enough, Leonel's illusion that Amery had access to an ability similar to King's Might wasn't wrong. And, this energy hindered Leonel's ability to heal far more than even Amery's Sixth Dimensional Force did.

"Yip! Yip!"

Little Blackstar appeared above Leonel, jumping to and froe with a panicked expression on his little face. He had thought that it was great that Leonel was finally back, he had been bored of just playing with Little Tolly all the time. Plus, for safety, Leonel had locked Candle and Vice away in the snowglobes before he left to the trial because they simply progressed too fast, so there was no one else.

And yet, just when he came to greet Leonel, he found him in a half dead state, in a hallway of the Abode Setting, with blood pooling around him faster and faster.

The sound was like the sound of an angel to Leonel.

"Little… Blackstar… Drag me to… The bathhouse…"

Leonel had been too focused on just getting into the Segmented Cube to think about exactly where it would be best that he went. Luckily, Blackstar had appeared, or else he really might be finished this time. Maybe, if he was lucky enough, the Cleansing Waters would be able to purge his body of Amery's aura, or at least help him suppress it.

Little Blackstar didn't take long to understand. A black fog appeared beneath Leonel and acted as a bed to pull him along.

Little Blackstar struggled to maintain it as Amery's aura corroded even his Dark Elemental Force, but he managed to grit his teeth through it.

Leonel never thought he would end up in such a sorry state. His intuition had told him that Amery would easily slice his spear in two along with his body if he tried to block with it. So, his only choice had been to use the Spear Domain Heirloom as a last effort defense, believing that it definitely had to be a top quality treasure.

Unfortunately, just to get it in Amery's way, he had to shatter his own elbow and explode it with Star Force to get it to move fast enough. Then, as though all that wasn't bad enough, the form of the ring was obviously far too small to give him any extra protection.

The result was Amery's strength dispersing around it and nearly killing Leonel.

The good news? As expected, the ring didn't have a single scratch on it. The bad news?

Well, just look at him!

When Little Blackstar finally got him to the Cleansing Waters, Leonel let out a roar that threatened to shatter the Segmented Cube apart.

Leonel had seemingly forgotten something else…

What did the Segmented Cube need to evolve? It was Fifth Dimensional Force, was it not?

Where had the Segmented Cube been for the last almost year? Was it not in a place that not only had large amounts of Fifth Dimensional Force, but also large amounts of Sixth and even Seventh Dimensional Force…?

The Cleansing Waters Leonel had just had Little Blackstar drop him into was no longer the Fourth Dimensional Cleansing Waters he had become used to. In fact, it was a completely different beast entirely.

At that moment, Leonel felt like he was being boiled from the inside out. The more pain and setbacks he experienced, the more muddled his mind seemed to become and the more mistakes he seemed to make. And, clearly… This was another one.

The Segmented Cube had evolved not just once in the past several months… But twice.