Dimensional Descent

”I can’t take it anymore, Sael! This brat needs to be taught a lesson!”

Not a small number of those who had followed Sael to this place took a step forward. First, their junior had been beaten half dead to the point his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Second, even after they appeared, Leonel dared to strike a near fatal blow on a senior of his. And third, he was now blatantly threatening their captain. 

”Wait…!” Sael tried to step forward to stop things again, making another effort. 

”That’s enough, Captain! I know you have your reasons for acting like this, but I don’t give a damn what special background this brat has! We’ll take the heat for you!”

Growling several members of Sael’s squad stepped forward, glaring at Leonel as though they were a pack of wounded animals. They wanted nothing more than to tear him limb from limb. 

Leonel had been absentminded, still trying to put the pieces together when he heard those words. 

’Background…? What do…’ Leonel’s eyes flashed with a bright arc of lightning. It almost seemed to manifest itself into a spiraling whip, beating against his mind for taking so long to come to the proper conclusion. 

’Is this about Earth…? No, if Terrain could just attack us because they felt like it without any sort of intervention, that should be impossible. If anything, since Sael had alluded to troubles Valiant Heart had been having, they would be salivating at the prospect of Earth entering the Fifth Dimension so they could send an attack force of their own. 

’If this was about Earth, they would just kill me off. There would be no need to allow a talent from there to live. 

’That means this either has something to do with my maternal grandmother’s Snowy Owl Lineage Factor and the family it came from… Or… dad’s Metal Synergy Lineage Factor…’

Leonel didn’t know which one it was. Technically, both could have been exposed during his talent assessment. Now that he thought about it, Sael didn’t read his results aloud back then either. 

It wasn’t that Leonel didn’t know how powerful his background was. He did. Well… Sort of. 

He was well aware that the Morales family was of the Seventh Dimension. And, he was also aware that the Snowy Owl family, or, rather, the Luxnix family, according to the dictionary, was of the Sixth Dimension. 

The issue was… He didn’t really know what this meant and what weight it carried. He was like a baby carrying around a shot gun, having no idea where the trigger was or what kind of backlash pulling it would have. 

What Leonel was lacking was… context. 

The universe was such a massive place. He didn’t know what influence, if any, a family on that level could have. 

This might sound silly, but think about it for a moment. 

With how large the universe was, how many countless light years away would the Morales or Luxnix families be situated? From so far away, how much influence could they possibly have on every corner of the universe? 

In Leonel’s view, there was a high likelihood that the people here wouldn’t even know of the existence of these families almost like how the common people might not even know the name of their governor. 

As powerful as Leonel’s grandfather was on Earth, it still took outfitting every single person with a monitoring wrist watch to maintain perfect control. Now imagine if instead of just having to control a single world, he had to man an entire galaxy? Or several galaxies? A galaxy cluster? 

These were sizes and measurements Leonel couldn’t even wrap his mind around. 

Even if Leonel ignored all of this, he wasn’t even sure how to prove that he was from these families. It wasn’t like he hid his last name ever, but practically no one cared that he was named Morales. 

And if the more powerful Morales name was useless, there was obviously no point in changing his naming to Luxnix because he was sure that the result would be just as underwhelming. 

Beyond this, there was an even more important point. The most important, in Leonel’s estimation… 

He didn’t even know if these families cared enough about him.

Even if these families did have great influence. Even if everyone knew he was a part of them. Where was the guarantee that this would mean anything? He had no idea if these families would even accept him at all. 

From what he knew of Aina’s backstory, her mother was executed while she and her father were expelled from the Brazinger family. And why did all of that happen…? All because her mother wasn’t of a particular Bloodline. 

Leonel had no reason to believe that these higher level families weren’t even stricter. Why else would his father raise him on the much weaker Earth? Why else would his mother vanish like that despite the loving eyes she used to look at him? 

This was the only explanation Leonel could come up with considering the limited information he had. 

So… Why would he trust this ’background’ of his at all? 

”STOP!” 

Sael blocked the path between her squad and Leonel.

”If you all defy my orders one more time, I’ll really get angry!” Sael growled. 

Though her heart felt warm, these little fools were in over their heads. This was a Seventh Dimensional family they were talking about. What did they mean by ’take responsibility’? Did they think the Morales family would only take them?

With their strength, they only needed to send one Sixth Dimensional monster to annihilate their entire world. No, that was just foolhardiness on Sael’s part. Just look at Leonel’s strength. Maybe it would only take one of their Fourth Dimensional geniuses to uproot their organization entirely. 

Everyone thought that Leonel was a reject from his family, but Sael knew quite well how rare it was to awaken both of the Morales family’s Lineage Factors. Not only was Leonel not a castaway, he was probably the topic of hot discussion over there. 

He, under no circumstances, could be allowed to shed all pretenses with them!

”…” 

Leonel snapped out of this thoughts, his gaze locking onto Sael’s back view. 

Sael turned to face Leonel, her face flickering with all sorts of emotions. 

”Can we talk?” She finally managed to eek out, almost pleading.