Dimensional Descent

The mote of light shuddered and, at that moment, it was like the entire world had shifted on its head. A Domain the likes of which these Invalids had simply never seen before took shape. Just by touching it, they felt endless comfort… until they suddenly shattered into a realm they only came to know too late was Death.

However, Leonel wasn’t focused on them at all. His entire attention was trained on the ghouls he had just killed. Like he had said, Variant Invalids didn’t have souls. If he wanted to use them as puppets, the approach he took couldn’t be the same as usual. There was no soul to lock onto. So, instead, he had to root it in something else: the Ability Index.

The root of all these problems was the Ability Index. It was only because Invalids had failed to awaken their own that they ended up in such a state. In the end, their Ability Indexes consumed their lives, and their humanity vanished along with it. There was no way to escape this Fate for them.

The reason their thoughts were consumed with power and evolution was precisely because this was the kernel of what an Ability Index represented. On one hand, it granted an evolution, unprecedented power in the hands of a few. But on the other, it was likewise the cold side of evolution, survival of the fittest. It tore apart families, consumed dreams, and left many without recourse.

When an Invalid became a Variant Invalid, it was the result of consuming enough of those who had succeeded, reforming a soul in a sense… but it wasn’t quite a soul either. Rather than being rooted in an Ethereal Glabella, it was rooted in their Ability Index.

In a way, humans had their souls fused with their bodies, higher races had their souls separated from themselves, and Invalids were the mirror of humans, having their souls fused into their very own Ability Indexes. But this was precisely why it could be said that even Variant Invalids didn’t have souls. The Ability Index was bestowed by Existence. It wasn’t hereditary and couldn’t be passed down. This was all to say that… it wasn’t you. It could never be you.

In a sense, the Variant Invalids would always be slaves to power because that was the foundation of their being. And if Leonel wanted to use them as his pawns, he had to strip away the control Existence and the Northern Star had over these Variant Invalids and root them in his own world instead.

And when he succeeded…

BOOM!

At that moment, a Force Art that represented the ghouls’ ability to fuse and change their body shape took root. Leonel could see that it was far from a normal Ability Index as the Variant Invalid had modified it so they could work together, each one accounting for the weaknesses of the other. This should be a form of a Variant Invalid’s Dimensional Method, and this was the key that allowed them to improve, and it was also why these two ghouls had been so powerful.

But by extension, it only made it easier for Leonel. That was because what could the Life Tablet do if not document and modify Ability Indexes? This meant that not only could he steal the lives of these monsters and make them into his soldiers, but he could also experiment on them to make them far stronger.

When Leonel said that he would give the world something else to fear… he meant every word of it.

The ghoul condensed and no longer seemed to be two separate Variant Invalids but truly one. In this state, they were even about 20% more powerful than they had been when they fought Leonel.

Leonel’s face was a bit pale, but he knew this was due to two things.

First, it was the first time he had used this self-created technique, so he still had some kinks to work out. There were more efficient paths he could take, and there was also some familiarization he had to do with it. Second, he had also taken the time he had spent resurrecting them to fuse them into one entity and polish up their Ability Index. Due to this, he had poured in far more energy than he would otherwise.

However, there was no denying that doing this was far more difficult than using the main three techniques. It was only made worse by the fact he had to continuously supply some of his stamina to his Destruction World in order to upkeep his new summon.

However…

BOOM!

The moment his intention moved, the ghoul jumped out from his Destruction World and began to wreak complete and total havoc. In fact, every time it moved and swallowed up an Invalid, it seemed to become a little bit stronger at the same time.

As Leonel watched, he realized just how fierce his new technique was. It was essentially like having death sworn fighting by his side that not only followed each and every one of his commands but were also far easier to improve as well.

For his normal summons, not only would they only last 24 hours, but if he wanted to make them last longer than that, he had to use [Assimilate] and [Breathe] to fuse them into an object valuable enough to reflect their talent. And once he did that, they would be even more difficult to control, and even harder than that to help improve without them stagnating.

But now, just this summon alone would exist for as long as his stamina could sustain it and his Destruction World continued to exist. At the same time, it could improve all on its own, or in the case that he found another Ability Index suitable for it… far more easily than any of his other summons before.

It was truly time to make the world fear. They wouldn’t come after him because he was a Fawkes, or because he was a Wise Star Order, but because he was Leonel Morales.