Dimensional Descent

The thought was completely contradictory to most of the progress Leonel had made until this point. That was because he had already come to believe that he should view “combination” Forces as their combined form, and not as the separate Forces that made them up.

He shouldn’t think of Emulation Spatial Force as Space and Dream, but rather just as Emulation Spatial Force…

And yet, he always seemed to make breakthroughs when he separated them.

His Scarlet Star Force was the perfect example of this. It wasn’t until he realized that-whether it was Star Force, Light Force or Fire Force-it was made up of Forces decided to create and shed light did he come to understand that this Force had been misunderstood for a very long time.

‘I’ve been too focused on just one path. It isn’t that thinking of them separately is wrong, but rather that thinking of them solely in that way will lead me astray…

‘If I focus too much on the individual strands and not the collective whole, then it would be wrong. But… if I consider them both… not just what Dream and Spatial Force do alone, but also what they’re meant to do together, then…’

BOOM!

Sitting there, his eyes closed and lost in thought, wild tendrils of silver and gold floated around Leonel, forming a beautiful canvas his Force seemed to paint on.

His Emulation Spatial Force stepped from the Half-Step Life State to the Lower Life State, but he didn’t seem to notice at all, his mind occupied with the next step.

What his Natural Force Art had to pull at wasn’t some existing force of nature, nor did he have to understand everything there was… he just had to tap into everything there was.

This sounded impossible, but he had already done it. Every time his mind connected with the Dream World, he was doing exactly that… even when he wasn’t conscious of being connected to that world, he was… everything was, even if it wasn’t in a true tangible form.

All that was, all that had been, all that ever would be could find its roots in that world…

The Second Dimension… the Impetus of Life.

That was only the first time he had done so… because he had also done it during another attempt as well… and that was when he had created his Destruction World…

Then there was a third…

When Little Blackstar had brought him into his Shadow World…

A fourth…

When Modred had brought him into her own…

He had so many examples of these worlds, this higher resonance of sorts that touched onto another Plane of existence.

A Natural Force Art was taking a piece of those worlds for itself.

It suddenly made perfect sense to Leonel.

Why could Auspicious Air sharpen your comprehension of so many things at once? It was because its mere presence was helping you to resonate with those worlds. Rather than observing Forces through the filter of the higher Dimensional Worlds around you, you were instead observing them in their truest form, their strongest form…

Their purest form.

The strings of Emulation Spatial Force formed and then broke again in Leonel’s hands again and again.

The world began to ripple with Auspicious Air, but as soon as it formed, Leonel would disperse it.

He was chasing after something grander, something deeper.

‘The Fifth Dimensional Layer…’

Merlin’s Natural Force Art wasn’t the only one he had come across. There was a second… and it was in the Fifth Dimensional Layer of [Dimensional Cleanse].

It was likely not a coincidence. For both his father’s method and [Dimensional Cleanse] to require identical things, it was definitely related to a matter of the mind.

The Natural Force Art of [Dimensional Cleanse] was a Visualization method designed to unlock the shackles of the mind. His father clearly had something similar in mind. But that was precisely why Leonel was pushing so hard…

His father wanted him to form a Natural Force Art, but he should know that the Fifth Dimensional Layer of [Dimensional Cleanse] already had one…

That meant that what he wanted him to do was different from just this alone…

He had already fully comprehended the Visualization of [Dimensional Cleanse], he had just been lacking in the method. But now he had that as well.

Then what was his father looking for?

Was there a difference between forming a Natural Force Art yourself versus another?

He wanted to reach for the dictionary to ask, but he felt that his mind was on a roll, like he just barely tasted it.

Then his eyes suddenly snapped open. ‘Aina…’

Leonel’s aura rippled out in all directions, Auspicious Air suddenly forming in waves. The flood was so potent that an ancient bronze energy began to shake in the air, almost like the faded image of a rusted bell.

He was thinking of his wife not just because he missed her, though that was part of it. But rather because of her path.

Aina had fused her soul with herself, when all convention seemed to say that this was the opposite of what she should want to do. If it wasn’t because Leonel knew how her ability worked, even he would have advised her against it.

In fact, his father believed so as well. Or else… why would one of the first requirements he had of Leonel be to separate his soul? It wouldn’t make sense…

But then he thought of something else. Wasn’t his soul just the same as the Dream Force of Emulation Spatial Force? It was the potential that dictated everything else, and allowing it to be free in the Second Dimension, rather than spread out through all the Dimensions he took his body through, was the perfect way to allow it to shine the way it was meant to.

In that case… what did it mean for your soul to be fused with you instead? Wasn’t it greatly weakened…?

Or, was it that instead of allowing the soul you were born with to dictate all of your talent… bringing this soul firmly into your own Dimension gave you control over your path that others couldn’t fathom?

WHOOSH!

This was a path that took both steps into consideration… On the one hand, he rooted his soul in the Second Dimension and allowed it to exhibit its greatest strength, and on the other…

He used this Natural Force Art to bridge its existence to his current self, giving him unprecedented control over himself…

His own form of Clairvoyance.