Dimensional Descent

Miel’s happiness was overwhelming and he forgot about everything as he wrapped his arms tightly around his daughter. He rarely showed this much outward affection, but this time he had truly moved without thinking.

Leonel smiled as he watched from the side.

“Dad, we have something to tell you,” Aina said after the two pulled apart.

Miel blinked, his mind regaining his focus as he looked from Leonel to Aina. His mind immediately jumped to the worst case scenario and he actually looked at Aina’s belly first.

Aina smiled bitterly and Leonel did his best not to crack a joke. He was going to say: “Even if you stare for that long, old man, it’ll take months before she starts showing”. But he had to maintain some level of decorum for today.

This was a matter of Aina’s happiness and he couldn’t be cracking jokes that could quickly take this matter left.

“That’s not what it is, I’m not pregnant,” Aina said.

Miel sighed and almost to visible sigh of relief. It was hard to tell if that was because he really didn’t want such a permanent tie between Leonel and Aina, or if it was that he couldn’t fathom them raising a child under these circumstances.

The end of the world wasn’t exactly ideal for family planning.

Miel’s frown returned after a moment. He suddenly remembered that in this situation, these two would have no choice but to participate in the Gathering of Kingdoms. Their auras had likely already been marked by the Stele, there was no way to pretend like they came from a different world now.

Of course, they could still flee, there was no one that was going to stop them. Normally, those that would have thoughts to flee wouldn’t even have the methods to do so.

After all, the only way to truly be safe was to go to a world with a guarantee of survival and to do so before the Gathering was triggered.

But first, traveling through Existence was exceptionally difficult. Even those Demi-Gods that wanted to cause trouble for Leonel couldn’t do so fast enough, which was why he had triggered the Challenge Sequence so quickly.

And secondly, even if you could do so, given the nature of these cullings being based on population and percentages, how could they casually allow mass immigration?

Although they made it sound like the people of these worlds would have a chance to integrate into others, who would take in the weak when it would only lower their chances of surviving in the future?

Most would die. That was the ultimate truth.

Miel clenched his jaw so hard that he didn’t even notice the subtle resonance between his daughter and Leonel.

Leonel, though, was paying attention to everything, and he thought it best to not mention that he wanted Aina to participate on her own. Miel would probably throw a fit. It was clear he had no idea how powerful his daughter was right now.

After some thought, Leonel turned to Aina.

“Hey-“

Leonel didn’t even get to finish before Aina gave him a peck on the cheek and vanished into the Segmented Cube. She had already done her part by breaking the ice.

Miel frowned as he looked at Leonel. He was a bit surprised to not find the same familiar streak of arrogance between the latter’s brows, but that was all.

The two men looked toward one another for a long while before Leonel stretched out a hand.

Miel blinked for a moment. A handshake?

After some hesitation, he decided that he was the older party here and couldn’t casually brush it off.

Leonel smiled as their hands clasped. “I think it’s best I introduce myself again. I’m Leonel Morales.”

“… Miel,” he responded somewhat stiffly.

Leonel retracted his hand. “Aina and I came here today to tell you that we’ve gotten married.”

Miel’s pupils constricted into pinholes. He immediately had a visceral reaction and his mind jumped to all sorts of conclusions, most of which were perfectly justifiable.

He wouldn’t think that they fused their souls, that wasn’t something most even thought was possible. His first assumption would be that Leonel had conned his daughter into holding a wedding without even her father present just so that he wouldn’t reject… he would see it as a power play.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Leonel said, “but it’s not like that.”

Leonel held up his left hand and faced it toward his father-in-law. Something told him that Miel would recognize it.

Miel’s eyes widened, his crimson irises trembling wildly as he grabbed Leonel’s wrist. Tears began to form in his eyes, and a stoic man who rarely showed emotion started balling his eyes out.

He didn’t make a single sound, but his tears fell like a pair of waterfalls.

Even Leonel didn’t expect this sort of fierce reaction. He somewhat expected Miel to recognize it, but it was more of a hunch than anything else.

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Miel knew what it meant, maybe more than even Leonel and Aina. That band could only appear through a link of absolute trust between two parties who were deeply in love.He had never imagined that his daughter’s affections were actually so deep, nor that Leonel actually cared so much about her either.

It was impossible for such a thing to succeed if it was as one-sided as he thought their relationship to be.

What Leonel didn’t know was that Aina’s Soul Clairvoyance came from somewhere. He assumed that Aina was a Spark because it was a Lineage Factor, and it obviously wasn’t a Lineage Factor that was shared by the rest of the Brazinger family…

But the real reason it wasn’t shared by the rest of the Brazinger family was because it was started by this man right before him, and it was precisely because of that that Miel knew the weight of what he was seeing… because he had once formed one himself.

Leonel’s gaze landed on the hand that gripped his wrist. There on Miel’s fourth finger was a band of scorched skin that looked as though it had suffered third degree burns in the past.