Dimensional Descent

Leonel took a breath and his smile vanished. There was a sharpness that thrummed through him at that moment that couldn’t be denied from shining forth.

He took a breath and he waved a hand, his spear vanishing in favor of a bow.

With every step he took forward, his momentum continued to roar forth. His halo appeared behind him once again, reflecting the colors of his Mage Core. But this time, in its midst, his Life Tablet had risen above it.

Fluttering butterflies and motes of violet light loomed around Leonel and the last bits of his smile faded from his eyes, being replaced with a deep, dark chill.

At that moment, whether they wanted to admit it or not, those on the battlefield felt like the temperature had just plummeted by a few degrees.

Leonel’s brothers surged forward and his own Bow Force exploded forth.

Two halo-like bracelets appeared, hovering around Leonel’s wrists. The God Runes in the surroundings churned and Leonel’s Bow Force seemed to grow stronger and stronger along with it.

A Natural Force Art suddenly took shape before Leonel’s arrow. It happened so quickly that it looked like golden motes of light racing through a maze in one instant, but in the next, it reflected a gorgeous gold that carried the complexities of a lifetime.

Leonel sucked in a breath and the God that had died on his Destruction World was suddenly pulled toward him. Or rather… his soul was.

It looked as though nothing at all was left.

But how could a soul vanish before Leonel’s eyes?

Under normal circumstances, this existence was simply far too powerful for Leonel to do anything about. But when he said he would show them fear…

He meant it with every fiber of his being.

The Life Tablet thrummed and the soul was forced into a corporeal state. And then, Leonel opened his mouth and spoke words that the God Realm had hoped it would never have to hear again.

“[Assimilate].”

BOOM!

The arrow in Leonel’s hand suddenly became so large that it seemed more lance than arrow. One of his arms was completely overshadowed by it, and yet he didn’t seem to notice.

For just a moment, even with the struggle of Aina and the bearded Brazinger still ongoing, Leonel had become the center of the battlefield.

Today, they would learn to fear the Fawkes once more… they would learn the name of the Morales family… they would learn that the Human Race wasn’t just present to be trampled upon.

TSU.

The moment Leonel loosed his arrow it seemed to vanish. No one, not even many of the Gods, could track it.

And when it appeared again…

BANG!

The body of a God, someone that had already long formed a Dharma, shattered.

Silence.

It was palpable.

The man was standing right in the midst of a group of Gods, a mere blink away from the Primordial Terror, and yet… they were now no more than a rain of blood.

The Life Tablet trembled, and before its might, a soul couldn’t hope to escape.

Leonel drew his bow again and another lance appeared.

Death.

True Death.

They could feel it.

Until now, Leonel had killed many Ninth Dimensional existences, but he never forced them to face a true death. But that wasn’t because he was unable to.

With the Life Tablet, he could snatch their souls away because with the Life Tablet, even Ninth Dimensional existences could be revived. So, he could store them in the Life Tablet if he wanted, effectively stopping them from ever reincarnating. It would be just as effective as True Death. The reason he never had was because much of the time he had the Life Tablet, he was one, unable to use it to its fullest degree, or two, trying to hide it.

Even so, this was different. This wasn’t just a trick to stop the Ninth Dimensional existences from returning. This was exactly what it sounded like.

True Death.

The power of Leonel’s arrow wasn’t just because of [Assimilate], he had the backing of Drake’s Gun Force, and more importantly… Blackstar’s Destruction Idol.

When he used [Assimilate], the souls were already destroyed almost beyond repair, and this was ironically what allowed him to [Assimilate] them so easily.

And yet, he managed to keep more than half of the power that would have otherwise been lost to him.

One Shot. One Kill.

One Kill. One True Death.

Before anyone could even react, Leonel had already loosed a second arrow. The coldness in his eyes this time was even more piercing. He didn’t speak a single word as he killed another God.

It was only at this moment that the world seemed to react.

Fawkes!

It was a name that sprouted the root of fear in most. The ones with the fiercest reaction were surprisingly not the Gods, but the Four Great Families themselves.

Leonel stood with his hair billowing in the wind, flames echoing out from his feet and the corner of his eyes. His blazing intent seemed to mark the world for death as he took another breath, reaping a third soul.

[Assimilate].

SHUUUM.

A third lance-arrow formed and suddenly Leonel became an existence that couldn’t be ignored.

His smile had vanished, and they had all reached the point where they wanted it to come back. It was only now that the playful Leonel was gone that they understood just how good they had had it just now.

Chunks of Celestial Terra meat appeared around Leonel and he cast [Life Steal]. In an instant, his body thrummed with life and vitality once more as he released a third arrow.

He didn’t speak, he didn’t taunt, he didn’t joke. He was just a lethal killing machine, killing with every step he took.

His brothers hadn’t even managed to reach the front line yet, but the entire forefront of the enemy had been shredded to pieces.

Goggles watched this scene with a slight tremble in his pupils.