Fog
Leonel, who was still falling through the air, sent his Internal Sight toward the one who had spoken. Though, by extinct, he still turned his head toward the sound of the voice.
Leonel's senses took in the sight of six youths. They stood together on the thin pool of lava, a distance away from the miniature sun. However, it was clear that compared to Leonel, they were all having trouble of their own.
The one who spoke out to Leonel in particular was wearing a massive set of black armor that radiated out with a strong shield that blocked much of the pressure from the others. At the same time, those that followed him were not only wearing their own armor, but they seemed to also be holding a glowing orbs in their hands.
'Those are Force Vessels…'
Force Vessels were essentially artificial Force Crystals. They started off empty and had to be filled. And, even when they were filled, they didn't have the purity of true Force Crystals, let alone Pure Force Crystals.
That said, in some places, they were used as a replacement currency for Urbe Ore. But, these places were usually close knit groups like families or organizations that specialized in particular Forces that would benefit from a particular Force Vessel.
It didn't seem that these youths were using their Force Vessels to accumulate wealth, though. Rather, it seemed that they were absorbing the pure Force the miniature Star was giving off. This Force was so pure that it was just a single step from the Sixth Dimension.
Leonel felt he didn't have enough information to guess what they were doing. But, he believed it likely had to do with their training.
He flipped through the air, eventually nimbly landing on his feet. Then, he did something the youths could have never expected…
He ignored them. Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.
The shark-toothed youth was at a loss for words when he saw Leonel look away from them, focusing his attention on the core of the world. Just as he was stunned, he finally put aside his sneer and truly observed Leonel. In that split moment of shock before his inevitable rage set in, he was stunned.
'Metal Spirit?!'
This close, there was no way he wouldn't be able to tell what it was that coated Leonel's body. In that moment, any rage he should have been feeling was completely overwhelmed by greed. And yet, just because he wanted to, didn't mean he could directly attack Leonel.
For one, he was still responsible for the lives of those behind him. If these were all individuals from his own Midas family, that might be fine. But there were two individuals from the Radix family, one of which was his fiancée.
"Libli." He suddenly spoke out.
Compared to him, his fiancée was practically a dwarf. He was 2.5 meters tall, but she was almost a full meter shorter than he was. Libli was the only one who hadn't reacted much to Leonel's appearance, her gaze focused on her Force Vessel as she continuously calculated something.
"Don't." Libli spoke without looking up. "Your chances of defeating him in this place are less than 1%. Your chances of taking his Metal Spirit in this place even if you do so is less than 1% of that probability. If you act, the likelihood the rest of us die will be over 60%."
Libli's fiancé, Dynmo, almost reached out and picked her up by her scrawny little neck when he heard these words. But, all he received was a slight glance from Libli before he felt his entire body go limp.
Dynmo gnashed his shark teeth together, sulfur billowing out from his lips.
Sometimes he really wanted to tear this fiancée of his from limb to limb. Of course, Libli was an absolute gorgeous beauty despite her petite stature. She fell just a single step behind the likes of Anya and Aina while also having her own unique air. But, Dynmo didn't seem to care about this at all.
As far as he was concerned, he was only marrying this annoying woman because his family said so. He didn't care for beauty as much as an other man might. He was only worried about growing as strong as possible and now this woman was standing in the way of him doing exactly that.
A Metal Spirit wasn't just a Crafting familiar. It was far more than that.
Of course, making it 'more' than that would pervert the path of the Metal Spirit and turn it into that world devouring monster Leonel's father warned so much about, but why should Dynmo care? This was exactly what he wanted.
Unfortunately, as scholarly as this petite young woman was, she was just as dangerous as him and she hated to put her life on the line for anything less than 100% certainty. Knowing that, he knew that the moment her words fell, his chances at fighting Leonel here had dropped to zero.
Dynmo snarled. "Focus. The moment we leave this place, I'll be taking his head."
From start to finish, Leonel didn't spare them another gaze, his Internal Sight having become enamoured with the miniature sun before him.
'… [Dream Sculpt].'
A scalding heating began to come off Leonel's skull. As though his mind was overheating, his veins reddened as blood pumped furiously throughout his body.
The world began to rumble.
"The next wave is coming. Retreat." Libli said calmly.
She finally sent a glance over toward Leonel, her eyes narrowing when she saw that he had no intention of moving. Was he a fool? Or…
'I see. A Metal Spirit truly might be able to weather this if his skill is high enough… Is he that confident? It might not be so simple to snatch it away later if that's the case…'
Dynmo's jaw clenched but he still followed instructions. They had already experienced one of these eruptions since being here. He would have listened to Libli anyway, but after experiencing it himself, he had no objections.
Leonel didn't move from his spot, his gaze growing a fiercer and fiercer light as Universal Force began to dance about him as though it had gained its own mind.
A fog of death began to accumulate around him.