Dimensional Descent

’You really don’t want to listen, huh?’ 

Leonel chuckled as he looked down at the spear in his hand. If the elders of Valiant Heart knew he had such a treasure, who knows how they’d react. They’d probably, rightfully, get a bunch of satisfaction out of the fact Leonel couldn’t control it very well. 

By Leonel’s estimation, if not for his spear fighting back against him, he would have been at the Sand stage at worst, destroying the rock into fine dust particles. Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to reach that threshold. 

But, Leonel was fine with this. Mastering these techniques posed little to no difficulty for him. He hardly had to try, he just needed to perfectly copy what he saw before him and use his ability to replicate it. If he wanted, it would take no more than two or three strikes to reach the Ash stage. Without his spear fighting back, it would almost be too easy. 

Of course, Leonel had this training room to thank for this. At the same time, he got the idea for a new ability. 

Just then, he had decided to split his mind across his body on a whim, just trying to make sure the technique was fine tuned. But, he hadn’t expected the feeling of absolute control it gave him. In that moment, Leonel felt that even if he wanted to control how fast his heart beat, he could do it. 

’I’ll store this at the back of my mind. I’m sure there are many potential applications…’

Though Leonel thought this nonchalantly, what if there was one day he could split his mind trillions upon trillions of ways, allowing him to fine tune every cell of his body…?

Of course, Leonel didn’t even know if such a thing was possible. He was already at the peak of the Fourth Dimension with his mind and though he was still incrementally becoming stronger in this aspect even without breaking through… There couldn’t be much more room for growth, right?

Leonel shook his head and focused once again. 

… 

A wheel of fire whistled through the room. Leonel’s hands passed over one another, his twin bladed spear shifting from side to side as it spun at impossible speeds. 

Sweat beaded down Leonel’s face, but the cold look in his seemed to freeze the air. 

SHUU SHUU SHUU

Rolling wheels of fire shot out from Leonel’s spear, rolling along the ground like death traps bearing down on an enemy. 

They smashed everything in their path to the ground, exploding them into fine dust upon contact. 

Leonel spun his spear around his waist, the speed of its spin accelerating as an arc of fire shot through the air. It looked as though a wheel of flame followed every spin, encasing Leonel in a gyroscope of endless red-black flames. 

’Explode, explode, explode…’

Every rock Leonel came up against was immediately blasted apart, sending bits and pieces pelting around the room. 

The strength of [Infernal Cyclone] was undeniable and it was more relentless than [Meteoric Impact], albeit much more difficult to control. But, this was to be expected for a Tier 8 Black treasure. 

[Infernal Cyclone] was built on the back of this wide sweeping and spinning spear technique. It only became more potent when two blades as opposed to just one were involved, making it perfect. 

Of course, it was much better when there were multiple enemies to face, but this was exactly why Leonel hadn’t chosen it as his only technique. 

In terms of stages, [Infernal Cyclone] didn’t have any. Rather, it had move stances. These were broken down into the ’Forward Spin’ and ’Reverse Spin’ which could be broken down into many iterations that didn’t need to be explained. 

What was important, though, was that when mastered to a certain degree, these wheels of flames could jet out from the spear, leaving devastation in their wake. This was considered to be the ultimate form of mastery for [Infernal Cyclone] and one Leonel was still having trouble controlling. 

His accuracy was a bit off, and the wheels weren’t as compact and powerful as he would like. But, he felt like he would grasp it soon. 

… 

Leonel took deep heavy breaths. A strong golden light resonated around him, making him seem particularly holy as his hair danced about. 

Leonel swept his spear forward. His actions seemed to be particularly slow. Yet, somehow, his spear left afterimages in its wake. These afterimages were so clear that they almost appeared to be the real thing. 

Leonel shifted his feet, sweeping his spear backward and using its second blade to pierce forward. 

The images layered atop of one another, making it seem as though Leonel’s blade was twice as long as it truly was. 

This was the [Harmonic Spear] technique. It emphasized two things: Speed and trickery. 

The afterimages were so clear because Leonel was using his Light Elemental Force to reflect perfect images of his spear. At this level of mastery, they became so clear that they were almost indistinguishable from the real blade. 

When this illusion was layered with the speed of the technique, it made Leonel look as though he was moving slower than he really was. In battle, this trick of the eye would prove to be deadly. 

While one might think that Leonel was still a meter from them...

BANG!

Another rock shattered. But this time, the result was so devastating that the dust didn’t settle quickly. Rather, what looked like black snowflakes slowly drifted to the ground, making it look like some eerie winter wonderland. 

When supplemented with Light Elemental Force, Leonel felt that his spearmanship was more than twice as fast as usual, more than three times, in fact. With [Harmonic Spear], he felt like a god amongst men. 

[Harmonic Spear] was also formed into stages. But, unlike the others, it didn’t have a cap. It was entirely dependent on the number of after images you could sustain at once. 

Though Leonel felt like sustaining dozens wasn’t a problem for him. He felt that it wouldn’t be useful. Nine was about optimal for the opponents he would be calling enemy very soon. 

Once he managed to integrate these three spear techniques into one, and then layered [Vanishing Blade] on top of them… Even Leonel anticipated the kind of strength he would be able to display.