Dimensional Descent

Dream Impression Tablets had much of their abilities inscribed in their very name. You were meant to use your Dream Force to etch the information onto it, but this was more complex than it sounded.

Most didn’t have the ability to project their Dream Force out of their bodies. The vast majority of Dream Force related abilities were restricted to within one’s body, and only when one was at the level of a Savant, or had a very rare Ability Index was it possible to project it.

That meant that using this tablet for most didn’t come naturally.

This was just one of the issues. Using Dream Force was one matter, but controlling Dream Force to convey a particular idea was an entirely different can of worms.

Dream Force was the culmination of one’s very being. Stripping it down so that it could convey one thought at a time was nigh impossible unless you had a special method to do so. There was a reason those without Dream Force affinity found themselves lost in their memories if they should absorb the Force. It represented everything they were and had once been.

However, these weren’t the main problems at all.

It had to be remembered that the region was Dream Force locked. No one could use the Force in the first place. So how were they supposed to etch anything onto a tablet like this one?

The answer to this problem alone was yet another thing that both Crafter and Force Pill Crafter had to fix together, because if Leonel was right, it was only possible with the combination of both…

Under normal circumstances, that is.

Leonel tapped a finger and Little Tolly allowed a small strand of itself to seep into the wood block. In an instant, it was done and Leonel flicked his wrist, sending the tablet crashing toward the Pillar of Truth.

However, the moment it looked like the two were going to crash, the wooden tablet zipped right into it.

Leonel’s actions, obviously, caught quite a great deal of attention because Minerva never said to do such a thing. Most here didn’t even understand how the Pillar of Truth worked, and even if they did they would never have done what Leonel did because it wasn’t their place to.

And yet…

BANG!

A pillar of light rose into the air with a mighty momentum.

When it cleared, the runes on the Pillar of Truth began to light up one after another, moving so quickly that most couldn’t keep up with the exact number until it suddenly came to a quivering stop.

There were a total of 108 runes on the Pillar of Truth, each one shaped into a delicate feather. The closer one looked, the more difficult on the eyes it became until those delicately sculpted feathers became a complex stream of Force Arts that could quickly overwhelm the mind.

And at that moment, 36 of them lit up at once.

Minerva’s heart skipped a beat.

36 was just a third of the total number of runes. It looked wholly unimpressive, especially since there was nothing to compare it to. However, This result was enough to shake her down to her soul.

That was because according to her predictions, if anyone lit up even 9 runes, it would be a shocking matter. She never, in her wildest dreams, expected that Leonel would be able to light up 36 after the first question.

She hesitated, suddenly not quite knowing what to do. Before she could solidify her thought process, a second group followed suit, and suddenly, it became impossible for her to blame Leonel for his actions, especially as a third and fourth followed up…

No one understood what was happening because the Pillar of Truth remained at 36 before slowly fading away.

As the new tablets continued to fuse into it, nothing budged as though it had gone completely dormant.

Minerva clenched her jaw, and her disciple, Celestia, watched with a furrowed brow. This wasn’t supposed to be what happened. They weren’t even supposed to use the Pillar of Truth this round because the question was too profound and her teacher had never expected anyone to come up with satisfactory answers.

Then she realized it… Leonel had done it on purpose. He had likely learned about the Pillar of Truth from the… No, that was impossible. Her teacher’s restrictions made it so that he shouldn’t be able to reference it. In that case, did he just deduce its use? Or did he guess it?

A world of pressure seemed to fall on Celestia’s shoulders and Leonel didn’t even look toward her direction even once.

It was Verma who plucked the wooden tablet out of her quivering hands with her beak and tossed it at the pillar.

The pillar flashed, 36 Runes quickly lighting up, before a thunderous boom echoed and a 37th formed.

Leonel smiled and didn’t say a word. He didn’t seem to mind this in the slightest, because he already knew why. Obviously, these were prepared answers, and it was no wonder why they didn’t originally have the intention of using the Pillar of Truth.

However, he didn’t mind it… mostly because he hadn’t given the full breadth of the response he could have.

Talon sent his response forward and the Pillar of Truth lit up again, once again forming the same 37 runes.

Many of the groups could only watch pale-faced. Many of them had never come up with an answer in the first place, but there was also an not too insignificant portion that had an answer, but simply couldn’t write it down no matter how hard they tried.

They could only watch as the timer ticked down and finally hit zero, the despair setting in.

Of the thousands that came, in the end, not even a hundred were left, leaving just under 50 teams remaining.

ƈοm

Yuri and Savahn hadn’t managed to cross over that final barrier, but they didn’t seem to mind. They had only come to see Aina in the first place. ‘Let’s see what other games you have in store…’