Dimensional Descent

[Thanks to Mr. Ham (3/6)]

With a tap of fingers, ripples echoed into the world.

Many were shocked. Was Leonel not going to take out a workbench?

In truth, Leonel had never really gotten used to using a workbench. Though, this was mostly his fault. Many of the situations he ended up Crafting in were open spaces like this one. Although he could have brought out his workbench, he never needed to.

He only used his workbench when he needed to completely focus on a task, one that stretched his abilities to the absolute limit. For example, he had never forged any one of his Divine Armors without the help of his workbench.

However… he felt that it was wholly unnecessary in this situation.

The workbench personally crafted by the Minerva Race had no reason to make an appearance here.

*Bloop

Little Tolly started off with such an innocent sound, and yet in a single instant it rose up like a roaring Eastern dragon, spiraling into the skies.

Leonel didn’t ask the little guy to do this, but it seemed it had been provoked by Talon’s display. It didn’t interfere with Talon’s lightning because it felt that this would ruin the spirit of the battle, but that didn’t stop its head from growing so large that it looked as though it could swallow the city whole.

ROAR!

The Ores of Owlan Race’s Bubble all shook. Mines rose and collapsed, the city walls cracking as though he would shatter a moment later.

Then, Leonel tapped another finger.

Tolliver vanished, becoming small globules of silver that danced in the air. Then, Leonel’s fingers became a blurring whirlwind, snapping so fast that booms that dwarfed the thunder in the skies began to ripple out faster and faster.

Many seemed to have forgotten in that moment that Leonel was only in the Fifth Dimension… at least to their eyes.

His fingers were too agile, too quick. They seemed to be on a level all to their own, pushing and pulling back so quick that it seemed he would be overloaded.

Veins of blue began to glow on his forearms as his Vital Star Force quickly followed up, replenishing his hands faster than he could even damage them.

The Urbe Ore was swallowed up by Little Tolly. Although using Cleansing Waters was far superior to any other purification method, much like the workbench… Leonel simply didn’t think it was necessary.

In what felt like a brief instant, there was a reflective slab of what looked like shimmering graphite sitting beside what looked like a lump of coal. The latter of which was obviously the impurities, while the former was a perfect representation of a perfectly purified Urbe Ore.

What was especially shocking about this was that it took Talon upwards of five minutes to purify three Ores, while it had taken Leonel barely a second to purify just a single one.

While it was true that some types of Spirits were far better at some tasks than others, especially depending on the Path they took… was it really meant to be so exaggerated?

But then it got worse when Leonel proceeded to do the same for the next two.

What was odd, though, was that Leonel didn’t just case away the impure lumps of goal as he began to work on the rest.

One of his fingers continued to tap at the air as he brought out Force Quill… or what they should was supposed to replace one.

Leonel’s Metal Spirit combined with his body again, commandeering his hand for a moment before forming into a quill that trembled like a real feather.

It looked so delicate and fragile, and yet at the same time, it radiated strength.

Since Leonel was going to incorporate his Metal Spirit into his Divine Armor… why not get a Force Quill out of it.

One that could pen the world.

For a moment, it felt like he was wielding a spear instead of a quill. Every one of his strokes rang through the world like Spear Dance, as though a Natural Force Art was being birthed just by virtue of the fact he was Crafting.

And that was exactly what was happening.

He didn’t even summon his own Natural Force Art, but another was being formed. Every stroke resonated with the Forces, ringing through the Ores and elevating them to a new level.

The golden veins and crimson veins of the Elastic Flash and Sparking Rose Ore formed a network with one another. Sometimes they would branch off from one another, sometimes they would have jumps and skins within that would alternate from gold to red, and at other times they would be directly fused into one another, forming a gorgeous mesh…

And one that looked as though it had every right to explode right in Leonel’s face.

However, mesmerized by his technique, most didn’t have the mental capacity left remaining to realize that what he was doing didn’t seem to make any sense at all. He seemed to be combining the ores into something new, but when they had opposing effects, could that even be possible?

However, when Leonel started using the impure lumps of coal he had just purified them off in his Craft, they couldn’t ignore it any longer. It felt like their worlds were spinning on their head, what the hell was going on?

Leonel didn’t even seem to notice the shift as he began to incorporate the final Urbe Ore, building around the vein patterns. It was like he had forgotten that it was a foundational ore and he was instead almost using it like an accessory.

Even so, waves continued to billow in the hearts of the spectators. Whether it was Minerva or Celestia, or any one of the others…

He wasn’t all talk?

It was the only thought they could have as the brace was completed, falling into Leonel’s hands in a pair.

They could have sworn he had just completed one, where had the other come from?

The world was filled with silence and the sound of Talon’s hammer.