Dimensional Descent

Leonel felt that just by observing these two, his comprehension of Time Force was only increasing. But what left him truly speechless was the fact that Old Hutch was the perfect opposite of his grandson.

Elorin was almost entirely focused on his Ability Index, many would say too focused.

But by comparison, Old Hutch ignored his too much. He had such a powerful Ability Index, but his mastery over it was clearly lacking.

And yet, despite that, Old Hutch’s Ability Index was practically as close to the Fifth Tier as you could get without being a Savant. He was basically born with his Ability Index at the absolute extreme.

Leonel’s gaze flickered. In just a few seconds, he had thought of thousands of uses for Old Hutch’s Ability Index. But even when he directly dismissed all those that would help directly with his machete, he was still feeling quite shocked.

Right now, Old Hutch was a Dimensional expert to the standards of Old Earth. Meaning… he was far too weak.

If Leonel had wanted to, he could have defeated the old man in a single strike. It was just that he wanted the man to know that he had surpassed him in skill as well, so he weakened himself considerably.

If Old Hutch wanted to be of use, he would need to improve in two massive ways. First his foundation had to be reforged, and that would be easy enough given Aina’s abilities and Leonel’s own.

And second, he had to start using his Ability Index properly.

“Old man, how much do you know about your Ability Index?”

Old Hutch shrugged. “It’s just a parlor trick you can use against weak people. My blade is still best.”

Leonel almost coughed up a mouthful of blood. He looked toward his brothers, and many of them were also feeling aggrieved.

The one of Leonel’s talents that had started off incredibly weak was his Ability Index. He had put in a great amount of effort to get it to this level, and this damned old man was wasting such good stuff.

Sometimes Leonel felt jealous. If he had been born with Elorin’s Ability Index, or Old Hutch’s… heck, even if he had been born with James’, his strength right now would be far more exaggerated.

Of course, it was stupid of him to complain about this. It was like an already rich man crying about not being richer.

Leonel shook his head and then waved a hand. At that moment, his Dream Force rippled and they entered his Dream World. Grid lines of blue filled the white space, making it look as though they had entered a matrix of some sort.

“Watch.” Leonel said.

He grabbed at the air and a machete manifested from his Dream Force. Then, everyone froze in place.

It was like Hutch’s frozen domain had descended once again, but this time more subtle and hints more powerful.

Leonel swung down and Hutch’s eyes widened.

He was certain. Leonel wasn’t swinging the machete very fast at all. And yet, it was so fast that there was simply no time to react at all.

By the time Hutch finished these thoughts, the machete was already resting against his neck.

“Do you see?” Leonel asked.

“…”

Hutch’s eyes brightened into saucers. He took his blade and rushed off into the distance, only to hit the edge of Leonel’s barrier and choosing to stay there and swing his blade again and again.

Leonel was speechless. This first teacher of his was a little bit… stupid. But his talent and instinct were on another level.

The reason Hutch had always said to “listen” to his blade was because that was all he understood how to do. He didn’t think through things because he never had to. If Leonel explained the science of what he had just done, Hutch’s brain would probably implode.

He had deduced it all thanks to Anastasia and Elorin…

There were four small-d dimensions that acted on the world. And according to a certain theory of relativity, they were all acting in conjunction.

Hutch’s Spatial Ability Index was powerful to the point that it could influence time. Changing and warping space, how much of it you were moving through, and thus tweaking your acceleration through it, could influence time.

If Hutch mastered this, he could take his Ability Index to an entirely new level.

Right now, he could only make people freeze in time. But there was no reason why he couldn’t make time accelerate around himself like Leonel had just done.

If this was layered with his grandson’s ability, the duo would be able to control all four dimensions with ease and their power together would be greatly exaggerated.

At that point, had Leonel not only comprehended his own path to mastery over Time and Space, he would have no confidence in defeating these two at all.

“Perfect.”

This here was his foundation. Before he died, he had already decided to truly begin to form his faction, even to the point of having created the first iteration of their uniforms.

Now that he was back, he had not only not changed his mind, but he was planning on pouring even more into it.

He flicked a finger and used Dream Path on Hutch while he was lost in his own thoughts, madly swinging his blade. After that, Leonel could practically see the enlightenment in his eyes.

“You’re all going to have to work a lot harder,” Leonel said with a grin to his brothers. “Otherwise the old man is going to surpass you in a few days.”

“Fuck that!” Milan roared. “Give me drugs!”

He looked toward Aina with a feverish light, causing her to burst into a fit of laughter.

“Let’s stay here for a while. I’ll have Anastasia deduce a few things for me and soon we’ll do another round of Incomplete World absorption. Aina, you just help Hutch fix his foundation. As for me… I’ll be back in a bit. I have a certain swordsman to visit.”

Leonel hadn’t seen Amery in a long while. He wondered how much improvement the man had made.

As Leonel moved, though, he was thinking about something else. The new Time Force capabilities of his Dream Force… they just might allow him to give the opportunity his grandfather had given to him to everyone else. If he completed this new technique of his Ability Index well… he could allow everyone the chance to return to the Third Dimension again.