Dimensional Descent

It wasn’t long until everyone had followed Mistress Oliidark, and when they heard what was said, their expressions formed various shades of excitement and anticipation.

According to Mistress Oliidark, she had just gone to a Gathering held by the Four Great Families. At this meeting, all Classified Families and Organizations were tasked with mandatory attendance to a second gathering, this one designed for what they called a “future investment”.

Leonel had all the books of the Oliidark family in his mind, so he knew about the Four Great Families. The issue was that he didn’t know anything else substantive about them. He read tales of their “feats” and “grandeur”, and they were also apparently the final line of defense between the human world and the Chaos Demons, but that was all Leonel knew.

He didn’t know the names of these Four Great Families, he didn’t even know where they were located.

The same was the case for Mistress Oliidark as well. In truth, this “gathering” wasn’t designed for everyone across the human world. It only encompassed this region, a region they called a Bubble.

As for why they called it a Bubble, it was because a Bubble wasn’t decided by scope, size or even arbitrary distinctions or war like most territories were. Rather, a Bubble was a point where the Spatial Spheres of this world and the demon world met.

At every one of these points, a set of organizations and families were tasked with defending it in these positions that hung over abysses just like this city.

Depending on the contact point to the demon world, you could run into stronger or weaker demons. Likewise, just like demons, these regions were classified as Low Class, Middle Class, High Class, Human Class, Fiend Class and Chaos Class, labeling a Bubble by its threat level.

Though it was possible for a threat to appear that surpassed these threats, it wasn’t too common. If such a thing ever happened, help could be called.

But it was much more likely for higher level Bubbles to request aid from lower level ones. This was what happened with Mistress Oliidark’s husband and son-in-law, which left her to command the house on her own.

The Bubble that the Oliidark’s defended in part was a lower end Middle Class Bubble. A Middle Class Demon would appear here once every few years and it would require Mistress Oliidark to deal with. If her husband was here, it would be his task normally.

Such battles were tough and arduous, not to mention life threatening. With what the Oliidark family had to go through, it was no wonder they were so obsessed with becoming more powerful through any means necessary.

Still, it was a bit odd to Leonel that the Oliidark family had so much trouble with heirs.

Their son-in-law was gone, but Leonel had never heard anything about Athrae’s mother. Then there was the useless Athrae herself. And in this generation they had to recruit dozens of boys who clearly weren’t of Oliidark blood to save them?

Something was definitely fishy, something that obviously wasn’t described or detailed in their library. Leonel wasn’t surprised though, why would leave such a secret in such an easily accessible place? Leonel could only shake his head, there was no use speculating.

The Four Great Families wanted to gather together the budding talents of each Class and give them an opportunity. What this opportunity was, no one quite knew. But what they did know was that the Oliidark family was given three quotas.

Mistress Oliidark wasted no time giving the first two to Sebastian and Slaton. That left just a single spot left for those that remained, a spot that she expected them all to fight for.

It was no wonder why they were all so excited. Beneath those two, the divisions of power beneath the Oliidark’s family’s potential son-in-laws were quite close. This meant that they all had an equal chance at claiming the final spot for themselves.

‘Interesting…’ Leonel thought to himself.

Originally, he wanted to just bide his time for the next week then find time to escape once he had solidified his standing. But this seemed like an interesting opportunity and it might help him gather what he needed to help everyone escape this Zone faster.

With that thought, Leonel had already decided that he would show however much strength he needed to claim this final spot for himself. Clearly, Mistress Oliidark already expected him to do so. If it wasn’t for his rudeness, she might have directly given it to him to begin with.

“This battle will be a battle royale. Fights against demons will never be organized and when in their world you must always remain alert. Show me you awareness and resourcefulness.

“Clear the grounds!” She bellowed.

The elders, Mistress Oliidark, and the mischievous Athrae all moved back, giving the 20 or so young men who remained enough space to battle.

Just as she was about to signal the start, Sebastian suddenly spoke again.

“You had such a powerful breakthrough into the Sixth Star and you’re equally as arrogant. I hope that you don’t disappoint me.”

Sebastian’s words seemed like he was levying a challenge toward Leonel, but what he was really doing was reminding everyone of the forcefulness of Leonel’s breakthrough.

At that moment, a realization came over the other young men. They had felt that their odds were relatively equal before, but remembering what had happened the last couple weeks, they felt that they had almost missed something huge.

Their greatest threat might very well be this young man they knew so little about.

On top of that, Mistreses Oliidark had actually tolerated his disrespect and didn’t say anything! With the Mistress’ temper, they would have been skinned alive for less.

Suddenly, several intents locked onto Leonel.

Mistress Oliidark didn’t say a word, but her gaze flickered with amusement. She still expected Leonel to win, but making him work harder wasn’t a bad result either. He just might restrain himself a bit.

“Begin.”

Her voice descended as she signaled the start of the battle. However, what they didn’t notice until this moment was that Leonel’s hands were still lazily in his pockets, a light smile on his face.

Even as a wave of young men suddenly surged toward him, he only light raised his foot and pressed it down.

At that moment, a wave of blue energy rippled out like a tsunami.

When it cleared, the only one who remained standing was Leonel.

Well, there were others standing as well…

About 20 ice statues worth. 

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