Dimensional Descent

Elder Aria was stunned silent, and then her expression twisted. “You-!”

Leonel held up a hand. “Do not misunderstand. I respect my elders and your experience. I am not casually dismissing your plans out of malice or anger, nor am I acting out of emotion.”

‘Though, even if I was, it really wouldn’t make much of a difference,’ Leonel thought to himself with a smile. Whether he was being emotional or not, he didn’t believe there were many, if any, who could outmaneuver him in this world. Victory would be certain one way or another, but since he had his wits about him, he might as well be calm and calculated, taking the best and most perfect course of action.

Aria grit her teeth, but since Leonel had spoken so clearly, it was her duty to calm down and listen to him. She really wanted to hear what he could possibly say that was better than her plan.

“First, you all need to understand something. If we cannot get on the same page, we will never be in harmony, and if we lack harmony, you all will fight me every step of the way.

“You need to understand that these choices I’m making aren’t only because they will benefit the Morales family the most, but also because there is no other choice.”

Leonel looked through them one by one. “I know you heard my words, I know you feel that they are reasonable, and I know that in your thoughts, you believe that the only thing we can do against such allegations is to stall. But do you know what these families fear the most right now?”

Aria’s jaw tightened.

“That’s right. You’re all very experienced. What they fear the most is us having time; they fear us unearthing the potential of our new Lineage Factor, of birthing more talents that have acclimated to it from birth, of me potentially sharing whatever illusory and mysterious plan my father has to help others improve greatly in a short period of time.

“This month or so they’ve given us since the death of my father wasn’t out of courtesy; it was the time they needed to prepare, to line all their ducks in a row, to make sure that they were ready for war at any given time-‘Second Nova,’” Leonel suddenly called out.

A subtle portal of Spatial Force opened up, and Auran appeared. He was slightly confused at first, but he quickly focused and bowed to the elders around.

Leonel grinned. “Your information networks are some of the best in the Human Domain, no?”

“The best,” Auran corrected out of habit. He hesitated afterward, but then he felt that being humble right now wouldn’t suit him. If anything, it would just annoy him. He had his own pride as a Morales and a demon, for that matter.

“And what would you say the odds the Seventh Dimensional families are preparing for war?”

Auran blinked in confusion. “Well… 100%, but isn’t that obvious considering the sudden invasion by the other Domains? Of course they’re…”

Auran trailed off, and his heart jumped several beats.

Having information was one thing. Interpreting it properly was a completely different matter. If information was enough to understand every and all things, then who would ever fail to answer a mathematics problem? Who would ever mistakenly answer a reading comprehension question? It was all too easy to get lost in the weeds of unimportant information.

And Auran, too, had made that mistake.

He had gathered quite a bit of intel on the movements of the families and how much preparation they were doing for war, and to him, and the rest of the Morales for that matter, it was just a matter of simple logic.

The Human Domain had just suffered a devastating attack, why wouldn’t the most powerful families be preparing?

What he had neglected was the fact that this was also the perfect shroud, the perfect wool over their eyes, the perfect misdirection.

Were these families really preparing for another invasion? How had the Morales prepared? They called all their citizens, huddling them up in their capital solar system and deployed sentries to scout and make sure that no one encroached on their territory. This was how you might best prepare for a coming invasion.

But what had those families done? Nothing of the sort… they gathered resources, called back their warriors, tightened control over various Human Domain organizations, and then… they sent out envoys to pressure the Morales family? A family that would be one of their biggest allies during an invasion?

When it was put like this, even a fool could see it, Auran almost felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Looking at Leonel, he felt that he understood why he had lost so handily. Of course, he had never entered the Heir Wars for victory, his only goal was to deal with Third Nova. But even so, something told him it wouldn’t have mattered even if he had intentions for victory.

Auran took a deep breath. “They want to strike us a blow.”

Leonel smiled, and Aria and the other elders remained silent. They understood even without it being said in so many words. There was never room to compromise, and there was never room to stall; war was already on their front porch, and Leonel seemed to be the only one who had noticed.

Then, Leonel suddenly spoke.

“The second thing you need to understand is that even if this wasn’t the case, I would still attack. Why? Because we are in an undefeatable position.”

The elders frowned.

“No? You don’t believe me?”

Leonel waved a hand, and countless Runes appeared in the air. The elders suddenly felt light as air, as though they could run at double the speed. But then they suddenly felt as heavy as boulders, their arms and legs not moving like they wanted them to. And then their Force surged, rushing through their Nodal Pathways like raging rivers, but then the reverse almost buried them into their seats and an instant later.

“Controlling their abilities to speak or not wasn’t a parlor trick,” Leonel beamed. “It’s an ability that requires fundamental control over this world’s very laws. If they step within our borders, they die.”

This was already shocking enough, but this wasn’t what Leonel was banking on at all because he felt they still didn’t understand exactly what this meant. Instead, he had something they would understand with far greater clarity.