Dimensional Descent

“Who are you?” Aerin asked coldly, furiously pressing down his anxiety.

“I would tell you… but honestly I don’t trust your brain to stay your brain,” Leonel said with a laugh.

Aerin frowned. It had always been him gatekeeping information because he was worried about the Dream Force of others, when had it become the other way around?

Although there was a proponent of Force Manipulation level when it came to protecting one’s mind, affinity was although a huge aspect. If one had a high enough Dream Force Affinity, even if the attacker was in the Creation State, there was a chance you could pick up on the manipulation ahead of time.

Aerin was only in the Impetus State with his Dream Force, but his affinity was so high that he felt confident in protecting himself against most people. He only really had to start worrying if the upper echelon of Demi-Gods started to get involved, but even then they would have to take a slow and winding path to deal with him.

“You don’t have to worry too much about it. Doesn’t the fact I’m exposing myself to you count for anything?”

Aerin hesitated. This man had saved him, and had come to him first. All the anxiety of what might be going on had been crushed down to a single point. At the very least, he could monitor this man by staying by his side.

“What do you want, then?” Aerin asked.

“It’s simple really, just want your Dream Pavilion to follow my orders for a little bit.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Well, let’s see,” Leonel began raising up his fingers one by one, “first you’ll be embroiled in war, your sacrifices will be used to enrich others, you’ll likely end up helping another Mortal Race reach Demi-Godhood before yourselves, your lineage will be wiped out… need I go on?”

Aerin frowned. It didn’t sound like Leonel was threatening him with these matters, but rather that this would be the inevitable fallout for what was to come.

“How do you possibly expect me to trust you?”

Suddenly, a Silver Tablet appeared in Leonel’s hand.

“Because I could conquer your Dream Pavilion on a whim and we wouldn’t even have to have this conversation.”

Aerin’s eyes opened so wide it seemed that they could fall out from their sockets.

The world didn’t know that the Life Tablet was far from the only Tablet Leonel had. In terms of Wise Tablets, he had two. One was the Life Tablet, and the second was the Silver Tablet he had received from the Valiant Heart Zone.

Just due to the existence of the Silver Tablet alone, Leonel could exhibit quite some control over the Challenge Sequences, it was just that he hadn’t revealed this trump card yet because it wasn’t time.

However, this time, he would thoroughly crush the Nomads.

The Silver Tablet could do everything the Life Tablet could do, just one a smaller scale. Leonel knew that the Nomads, and especially Patriarch Khafra, had hidden much of their strength. Unless he used the tablet, even after his breakthroughs, he had no guarantee of winning.

“You… how…”

Aerin’s heart was beating out of his chest and he could hardly control himself.

The Tablets were impossibly rare, however many of them had been scattered across the world, most of which were concentrated in the hands of the Gods that couldn’t use them to their full potential. After all, to bring out the full strength of a Wise Tablet, you had to be a Wise Star Order, and only those naturally born with or descended from the Northern Star Lineage Factor could have this title.

Aerin already knew this person was human, but he didn’t expect him to be a Wise Star Order!

Leonel put the Silver Tablet away casually.

Slowly, Aerin began to regain his breath and his beating heart settled down.

Originally, he had thought Leonel was trying to treat him like a child. The amount of control a Pavilion Head had over a Dream Pavilion was exceptional, practically no one could threaten them here. But if there was a Life Tablet, Leonel wasn’t exaggerating by saying that he could do it by force if he wanted to. By then, he would have carved out a place in the Dwarven Bubble that Pixies and Sparrows couldn’t even step into.

However, even with all of this said, it was still too difficult to trust Leonel, while Leonel wasn’t willing to tell Aerin too much.

In reality, the easiest thing to do would be to forcefully cease this Dream Pavilion. It had been so easy getting here that even the Human Bubble had more protections.

The reason he didn’t was because this news would almost certainly leak to that Dream Asura, and if they were half as smart as Leonel thought they were, they would link it back to him. He couldn’t allow that, not just yet.

“Tell you what,” Leonel suddenly said. “If you’re willing to be trapped by me for the time it takes for this to blow over, I will tell you everything.”

Aerin immediately recoiled.

Leonel didn’t say a word, letting him think through it. And, as expected, after several seconds, Aerin nodded solemnly.

At some point, being overly cautious would only harm him. Several times now Leonel had exposed bits and pieces of his plan that would have worked out far better if Aerin was in the dark about them. If Aerin didn’t take any risks himself, how much sincerity could he be said to have?

They were both smart people, and Aerin couldn’t think of a reason why Leonel would go through all of this when he could have captured him back then. After all, Leonel’s strength was far beyond his own.

“Good, in that case, I will tell you everything. Then, you must help me claim the Pavilion Head position before being ‘imprisoned’.”

Aerin took a breath and nodded again. He listened intently to Leonel’s words, and the more he heard, the more his eyes widened.