Dimensional Descent

”What’s all that supposed to mean?” Milan asked.

James shrugged. ”You asked, I answered. I don’t know what else you want from me. Believe in my guess or don’t, not like we can do anything about it anyway. That man won’t listen to anyone right now. The only person he would listen to is dead now.”

”Not necessarily,” Joel suddenly spoke.

”You think Aina can do something?”

”Maybe, but that’s not what I meant. Though... probably not. He still has that silver dictionary. Maybe it can talk some sense into him.”

The group fell into silence again. It made sense, the trouble was... who would do it? That silver disk was probably the possession Leonel valued the most right now, it would always be in his possession and on his mind. It also didn’t respond to anyone’s voice but Leonel’s own. Expecting someone who was hurting to find their own path to healing was like asking a baby to feed and dress itself.

Just like that, even if they felt that they had the solution, they would never be able to use it. Maybe only Aina or his mother could get him to try and use it.

Like James had said... the so-called ”true Leonel” was the man his father had raised. The other Leonel wasn’t exactly a real person, but rather the influence of one. The first usually trumped the latter, unless... the first completely shut down.

James shook his head. ”You lot are too depressed about this.”

”Fuck off. You said all of that and now you want us to act like everything’s fine? What if he goes out there and gets himself killed, what then? No one’s gonna be there to resurrect him like we were. He’s the only one with that ability.”

James laughed. ”I did say all of that, but I also didn’t hold back in one aspect. The operative word was yet. He hasn’t earned that right yet. But every time he’s been given an opportunity to prove it, he has. Does the process matter if he wins in the end anyway?”

Milan took another swig of his beer. ”Winning a football game is a little bit different than challenging all the families of the Human Domain on a revenge vendetta.”

”That depends, it’s all relative. A normal, Third Dimensional boy, facing off against a team with far more Five Stars than his own, while his only Five Star receiver is throwing the game on purpose, probably has no business winning that game either, right?”

The room fell into silence and James closed his eyes with a grin.

”Now he’s in the Seventh Dimension with access to far more weapons than just his arm alone... All I’m saying is that if I had the choice...

”I probably wouldn’t piss him off when he’s in this state.”

James fell into silence, his smile slowly fading. Pissing Leonel off now wasn’t just a small matter. In fact, it could very well be an existential matter. The usual Leonel had an off button, he had a limit, he had values that he would usually stick to. As for this Leonel... it was doubtful that he even had a conscience.

...

Leonel stood frozen in the skies, unable to move even a single inch. It wasn’t a matter of effort, because the truth of the matter was that he couldn’t even try to move. He couldn’t feel his muscles flexing, he couldn’t even send the command to his brain to try. Even his thoughts themselves had been frozen in place.

This was what it truly meant to be frozen in time, and this was the power of The Hourglass. One didn’t even have the right to fight back. However...

El’Rion’s expression changed, but he was a step late.

SHUUU! PCHU!

An overwhelming power pierced into El’Rion’s wrist, cutting through it and almost exiting from the other side. Although it failed to make it all the way through, it didn’t matter. What needed to be done had been done, the hand that El’Rion had been using to hold The Hourglass was rendered almost completely useless.

El’Rion was in shock. What had just happened? How was it possible?

It had to be known that fooling The Hourglass was next to impossible. He hadn’t even aimed it, he had just thought of Leonel and willed him to be frozen. It shouldn’t have mattered what schemes Leonel had in store, even if he used a clone as a decoy, even if he vanished from his Divine Armor and left it out in his stead, nothing should have worked.

Of course, El’Rion had miscalculated one very important thing. The Leonel that he thought of in his mind was in a very special state, not only was he fused with the World Spirit of this world, but he was also, obviously, in this world.

While it sounded convenient to just be able to think of someone and freeze them, it was also more involved than it seemed. A significant change to a person’s state, especially since El’Rion wasn’t intimately familiar with Leonel, could easily throw the lock off.

In that moment, Leonel had indeed used his Divine Armor as a decoy, disappearing from within it. But, he had also disassociated from the World Spirit, and at the same time, he had entered the Segmented Cube, an entirely different and complete Ninth Dimensional world.

When El’Rion was confident in his success and was ready to speak with Leonel calmly to try and talk some sense into him, Leonel had appeared again, this time with one of his Starships, concentrating all of its power into a fine line that attacked El’Rion’s wrist.

Leonel appeared in the air, his Divine Armor slowly fading away.

The Hourglass tossed and turned through the air.

He simply extended his hand, allowing it to land there as though he had calculated even this much.

When he made contact with it, he looked down, his gaze cold. It felt light, almost too light, like it was a flimsy toy rather than the powerful tool he was certain that it was.

Suddenly, Leonel’s body trembled, and the ultra-lightweight Hourglass multiplied in weight several times over. In the blink of an eye, it had become so heavy that even moving Planet Earth itself would be easier than holding it up.