Dimensional Descent

A hushed silence fell over the temple, Wise Star Order seeming to not want to answer immediately.

There was one very important thing that had been left out in all of this, something that had been nagging at Leonel even more so than the oddity of Wise Star Order’s actions… And that was the existence of the title Wise Star Order to begin with.

What did Wise Star Order, Snow Star Order and Northern Star Order even mean? Since the Lineage Factor of the Luxnix had originated from this Tablet, then these titles should have come from it as well, correct? In that case, what did they mean?

Another oddity even beyond this was the title Snow Star Order. From Wise Star Order’s deductions, it seemed that the Healing Branch and the Wisdom Branch were recurring themes. In addition, this all seemed to double back to the Twelve Pointed Star, or, in other words, the Northern Star.

That begged the question, how was this related to Snow Star Order at all? It seemed odd. The only one of the three titles that seemed out of place.

Of course, there was the possibility that it was a special title reserved for the Snowy Star Owl, but that just opened up more questions than answers, because in such a situation, this would mean that the oddities here were the title of Wise Star Order and Northern Star Order. But, logically, an anomaly of three things couldn’t be two separate parts of the whole… Right?

Leonel’s mind was spinning in overdrive.

From what he understood, the Northern Star Order title was very rare, so rare, in fact, that it had been many, many generations since it last appeared. The Wise Star Order title appeared three generations ago, but didn’t seem to receive the same rarity attached to it. What was odd was that according to Leonel’s grandmother, Wise Star Order and Snow Star Order appeared in history at about the same rate, while Northern Star Order almost never did.

By now, the oddity was obvious.

If Leonel was the creator of the Tablet—an existence he had to assume was either alive or had at least once been—what would his purpose be? Likely, it would be to pass down their Lineage. In that case, how would the Titles be related to this? Well, in all likelihood, those who received these ’Titles’ would be the ones the creator placed the greatest hope in.

The creator wouldn’t be able to pick and choose who ended up with their Tablet. However, if one was Intelligent enough to be capable of passing on their Lineage through a Tablet, wouldn’t they also be capable of maximizing their effort?

If Leonel put himself in such a person shoes, what would he choose to do?

Well, instead of throwing a fit and stressing over exactly who was lucky enough to find their Inheritance, I would instead tag them. I would give them just enough strength to build up an empire for themselves, and allow them to procreate and germinate through several generations.

By then, an investment in what once was just one or a handful of people, would suddenly become an investment into millions, billions, even tens of billions.

Then, at my leisure, I would go through these individuals one by one. Over hundreds of years, thousands, tens of thousands, and even more, the number of individuals I would be able to test and groom would be almost too much to count.

Eventually, I would get lucky. I would find a candidate that matched my requirements and smile upon realizing that everything had finally worked out. Then, I would bestow such a person a Title that would raise them above the rest. Such a person would have the greatest chance of maximizing my Lineage and ensuring that what remains of me Blossoms forth, growing to the potential I always knew it had.

Of course, these were just Leonel’s thoughts. It was a logical progression of things he felt had a better than 90% probability of being true, though he was certain that he was also missing large chunks here and there, not to mention several fine details.

But, why was this all important? What weight did it carry?

Well, just logically speaking, if such a person was indeed a genius and they chose to create multiple of these Titles, the names given wouldn’t be meaningless, right? In fact, such a person would likely place dividing tiers among these names where certain titles would be worth far more than others were.

If Leonel was such a person, he would most definitely rank Snow Star Order at the very bottom. After all, its origin was the weakest of the Lineage Factors and it was tied to the weakest of the beasts. As for Wise Star Order and Northern Star Order, they would be far better. They encompassed a potential that touched upon all the beasts and were applicable to all of the Lineage Factors.

Logically, then… Wouldn’t Wise Star Order be just as rare as Northern Star Order? At the very least, even if Wise Star Order was a step below Northern Star Order, it should still be more rare than Snow Star Order… Right?

So the question was, why was it that Wise Star Order had appeared so frequently in the history of the Luxnix? Shouldn’t such a powerful Title be more scarce? As the creator of this Lineage Factor, wouldn’t I feel far more selective when handing out the most precious of my Titles?

Of course, that was just an oddity. What if it was just a coincidence? It might be. After all, Leonel knew so little about these matters, definitely far less than his great Ancestor Wise Star Order. Unless…

Well, unless it is that there was never more than a single Wise Star Order to begin with. Maybe, since the very beginning, such a prestigious Title had only appeared once and its importance was cleverly hidden over the years by the very same man.

Leonel’s lips curled into a smile. ”You can read my mind right, Ancestor? So I don’t really need to waste my time repeating all of this?”

Leonel flipped his palm, a silver disk appearing in his hand.

”Hey you useless hunk of metal, what’s Ancestor Wise Star Order’s Ability Index?”

Leonel chuckled dryly. ”Son of a bitch.”