Dimensional Descent

Leonel put the entire effort of his mind into analyzing Ramon’s new Force.

Lucerne Force, Hammer-Spear Force, Ramon Force, or whatever he would like to call it in the future, was truly unique. And it was a route that Leonel had never expected a Morales to take.

The reason for that was obvious enough. Ramon wasn’t a normal Crafter in the first place. He had a Metal Spirit just like Leonel did. Using a hammer to forge weapons wasn’t exactly the most efficient way for them to do things.

There was no need to use hammers when their Metal Spirits could temper out impurities and refine metals to the perfect degree just by swallowing it for a bit.

However, Ramon seemed to have switched over, and Leonel could understand it somewhat.

He was still using his Metal Spirit. The hammer in his hand had his Metal Spirit running all the way through it and seemed to be a fusion of a Craft and a living being, a true beautiful representation of the pinnacle of the Life Grade.

However, he had wanted to truly feel the changes himself. So he had swapped over to a heavier-handed method.

At the same time, by using a hammer, he could temper his body as well.

He wanted to find a method to transfer his Crafting talent into battle talent that he had never had. The only way to do that was to put his body through a ridiculous amount of pressure.

He had managed to find a way to refine his Crafting and his body at the same time.

At that moment, he stood in the middle of the woods, each strike sending a rain of scalding sweat spiraling through the air. His back rippled with a dense pack of muscles and had vascularity that could make the Gods shrink.

Every time he swung, his entire body moved. Leonel could feel every muscle fiber constricting at once. But what was even more shocking than that was that he forced his body to absorb all of the shockwaves afterward as well.

With his current strength, a single swing of the hammer would wipe all the trees out just from the sheer wind pressure alone, let alone the actual strike.

However, Ramon had also learned to tune the hum and resonance of his body to absorb all the reverberating impact himself.

Thanks to this, his attack and defensive power had reached a perfect equilibrium, and every time one increased, the other would follow suit.

Clearly, he had created this new technique on his own and Leonel couldn’t help but be impressed. He had even found a method of improving it in this time, but he ignored those stray thoughts, focusing instead on Ramon’s Force.

Right now, he was trying to combine Spear Force and Hammer Force, but it wasn’t so simple.

If Leonel had to describe it, he was actually trying to fuse three different concepts into one, not just two.

He was using the Spear Force as a pure destructive Force, one that he wanted to use to kill all enemies that lay before him.

However, his Hammer Force came with two concepts, which was also why Leonel felt that it was stronger.

On the one hand, it had a concept within it that mirrored the Spear Force, wanting to destroy everything it came into contact with. But at the same time… there was a subtle Crafting aspect to it as well.

He was using this Hammer Force to create as well, not just the spear-hammer hybrids he was forging, but also in the tempering of his body.

As such, Ramon was chasing attack power, but once again, his strongest aspect was in his nurturing and Crafting ability.

According to Leonel’s simulation, Ramon would eventually realize this in the next few years and make the decision to abandon Crafting entirely, ultimately succeeding and becoming a True God.

However, Leonel didn’t want him to take such a path. He had had a fondness in his heart for Crafting ever since he first learned how to do it… how could he allow such a talented Crafter to abandon their path?

Luckily, he had already thought of a solution.

This path that Ramon was chasing after… wasn’t it very similar to his own?

He had fused together two Creation Sovereignties and two Destruction Sovereignties. Eventually, those four Sovereignties became the foundation of his new and improved Heart, or Innate Node Heart.

This was eerily similar.

Two attacking paths. Two nurturing paths…

It was less complex than Leonel’s path, but it was a shocking path nonetheless.

The question was how to give the Spear Force a nurturing aspect to counterbalance everything and have it reach a perfect equilibrium.

Leonel thought of several possibilities but soon enough, he had landed on the one aspect it could be.

Finally, over a month later, he walked forward.

Ramon only seemed to finally notice Leonel’s presence now. Unlike the others, he was so engrossed he hadn’t even known Leonel was there at all.

However, Leonel signaled for him to keep swinging.

“Do you know why you keep swinging like that?” Leonel asked softly, his voice resonating with the hum of the hammer.

Ramon’s eyes blazed. Of course he did. His fiancée… his wife… the love of his life… she had died because he was too weak.

That was why he had to shred everyone who stood in his path apart.

At that moment, he realized the weakness of his Force and was about to destroy the nurturing aspect, but Leonel’s next words made him freeze.

“It’s because you wanted to protect.”

Ramon’s hammer froze in the air, a trembling Force resonating through the air. It felt like the world didn’t want him to hammer it down.

Veins bulged across his arms, his eyes pulsing with red veins.

Protect… that was right… he didn’t just want to shred his enemies apart, he wanted his Valorie to be there, standing at his back.

“And she will be.” Leonel promised.

BOOM!