Dimensional Descent

Leonel dispersed the challenges with instant clear reward. His gaze narrowed as the Skies family took up their position on the large greed pads.

The current Skies family members didn’t look anything like they had before. There were still only about 10 000 of them, but since the beginning of the Heir Wars, they had been wearing the very same simple linen clothing. But now, each one of them wore radiant armor, their foreheads fitted with a tight headband that seemed reminiscent of a simple crown.

The drama on the night side supercontinent was so great at the moment that many were still focusing on what was happening there, especially since Leonel had entered a bit of a lull since clearing his first section of the sea. But suddenly seeing that he had gained another special territory, the expressions of many couldn’t help but become serious.

If Leonel succeeded, wouldn’t this mean that he would claim half of the ocean for himself? Combining this with an entire supercontinent… wasn’t this far too much?

Many saw the clear problem with this strategy, though. Leonel already had a shortage of people, what good was it to have this much territory? He should be attacking the others before they could gather any more people, this was his best chance.

There was only one explanation for this: Leonel wanted to prevent others from benefitting from the ocean. It was ambitious, more than they understood. Leonel’s every action always seemed filled with so much confidence, it was clear that he did nothing by half measures.

He was ambitious when he needed to be. He drew back when caution was needed. He schemed better than most they had seen, and the sharpness of his mind seemed to be on another level.

Subconsciously, many realized that even when they couldn’t explain why Leonel was doing something, they subconsciously believed that he had a good reason for doing so. This was a subtle, and yet prominent change occurring all across the Human Domain.

Leonel couldn’t be sure of the mind of others, but he had clearly planned on this kind of change. There was a reason he hadn’t just started the Domain War, and momentum was only part of the reason. He was far too unknown, most knew his father but not him.

He wanted to show this Human Domain that his own merits were enough to crush them.

Leonel’s gaze suddenly blazed to life as he fused two more Gold-Grade city cores into the Water Lotus City. Without hesitation, he shot into the air, overlooking the waters.

They had become much clearer, the smell of freshwater filling the air. It was intoxicating and filled one with a sense and calm. They were so clear that one could almost see to the bottom of the ocean despite its ridiculous depth. It was an absolutely gorgeous sight.

But as soon as it appeared, it vanished beneath the wildly churning waters.

At that moment, the members of the Skies family all roared out at once. The clear skies above began to roll as a dense body of dark clouds began to make their way over. Their armors began to glow fiercely, strong pillars of gold light filled with lightning runes rising up and piercing the thick cumulonimbus clouds.

Leonel watched this silently, unmoved by the churning lightning just above his head.

The reality was that saltwater conducted lightning with far greater ease than freshwater. One would think that if Leonel wanted to use the Skies family, he should have used them during his first Heir-Grade upgrade challenge instead of now.

But this was actually the wrong way to view things, albeit an easy mistake to make.

Lightning always chooses the path of least resistance. That meant that if one was in water that conducted it with greater ease, your odds of surviving wouldn’t be lesser, it would actually be much greater. What did this mean? Simply put, the damage that could be done in freshwater was far beyond that of what could be done in saltwater, and that was because it was more difficult for lightning to pass through freshwater, and as such the odds it would choose to pass through your body instead was far higher.

The moment Leonel saw that the surrounding and immediate 10% of his Water Lotus Territory would become purely freshwater, it clicked into place for him and he realized that this was the absolute best time to use the Skies family.

Of course… Things weren’t so simple as they seemed on the surface.

”Kill,” Leonel said lightly.

The gazes of the Skies family members flashed, their pillars of lightning expanding into the waters before them.

At that moment, just as the oceanic beasts began to appear one after another, they were first hit by a wave of weakness after entering the freshwater, then right afterward, they were swallowed up by a sea of lightning.

The harrowing cries of hundreds of millions of oceanic beasts echoed as the skies flashed with arcs of lightning that pierced downward again and again.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

RUMBLE!

The Heir-Grade Generals froze, unable to move. They writhed in pain, their skin quickly charring beneath the menacing sea of gold.

Leonel calmly took out his bow and pulled back its string taut. 

The smell of frying flesh filled the air. The Gold-Grade threats could hardly last a few seconds before they were fried to ash. Only the Heir-Grade threats seemed capable of holding on, but they were entirely paralyzed. To Leonel… they were nothing more than unmoving targets.

With an exhaled, Leonel released his arrow, tearing a hole 10 meters across in the head of an enormous colossal squid.

Clearing this would be even easier than the first Heir-Grade upgrade challenge.

…

Across the ocean, located on the ocean’s floor near an underwater volcano, a city was located. If others had been paying attention, they would be quite shocked, as this underwater city was actually already at the Gold-Grade, a rare find even at this stage. In fact, the only two with such a city were Leonel and Third Nova… Or so most thought.

However, at that moment, a large change took place.

Orinik’s expression changed, but it was already too late.

CRACK!

The city core broke and the entire city was uplifted and shoved outward. They were expelled from the sea, their city forcefully relocated to another section of the ocean. 

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