Dimensional Descent

Leonel’s mind blurred, his body losing control of itself for a brief instant. It was once again something that he had never experienced before, but this time, he was ready.

Dream Counter activated.

He had changed the parameters of his Ability Index skill the moment he experienced his first ”death”.

His hands fired without his mind’s input. The disruption to his Dream Force didn’t matter in the slightest, as he unleashed a rain of arrows.

There was a blankness to his mind right this instant. He had never been so focused in his entire life.

This was it.

Everything would come down to this.

And he had not the slightest intention of losing.

Leonel’s vision cleared to find the stinger spear at his throat. His gaze didn’t so much as fluctuate.

The spear vanished, and all of a sudden the Demoness had retreated. As though the image before Leonel had been nothing more than a fake, she appeared dozens of meters away, her spear dancing as she parried one arrow after another.

Time warped and shifted around them in ways that didn’t make sense to the naked eye. However, to them, the two strongest Dream Force users in the world, this was their stroll in the park, this was their daily meditation.

For the first time, they were facing off against someone that saw the world in the same way they did, and the result was a battle that caused the bounds of reality to tremble, even the likes of the Northern Star shrinking back in the distance to make more space for them to unleash their might.

Leonel exhaled a breath with every arrow. He should have been hyperventilating at the speed he was releasing them, and yet he seemed calm and collected.

The bow was his weapon. When he used it, he never felt more comfortable; he never felt more in control.

Something warped to Leonel’s side.

His pupils constricted, a spike of pain tearing into his ribs. A spear slid between his bones, jetting right toward his heart.

A Natural Force Art bloomed on Leonel’s body, etching itself into reality.

His body shifted and moved. As though erased from one reality and drawn into another, he appeared out of the range of the blade.

His King Force bloomed, his arrow appearing drawn at the Demoness in point-blank range. It couldn’t have been more than a half meter between the two.

He didn’t even get the chance to release it, his arm flying into the air.

Losing control of his bow, Leonel took a strong step back, his aura surging.

There was a calmness to him even with just a single arm at his disposal. His King Force bloomed and his missing arm regrew as though it had never been severed; the Vital Star Force aspects pooling a vibrant Life Force into him.

He struck out with a palm at the same time, blasting his severed arm to pieces. Natural Force Arts bloomed out from it, an array of complex magic circles enveloping one another as Leonel’s bow swapped for a quill.

He swiped at the air, crossing through the spray of his own blood.

Clones of bows and arrows crossed the air, spanning hundreds of miles, thousands of them all drawing at once and firing in a rain that descended from the skies.

The Demoness calmly weaved through them, releasing a single palm from her stinger spear and tapping at the air.

The arrows all froze in the skies. The Natural Force Art that had bloomed from Leonel’s arm was being reversed by the touch of an Empress.

Every move Leonel made seemed to be perfectly countered, and she did so with the calmest of countenances. And every time she took action, it seemed like an ancient rust was being knocked off of her. Every flutter of rusted rose gold was akin to another tick up in her strength.

Leonel could feel it. He was watching the awakening of a slumbering dragon.

He had never felt so oppressed in his life. In that instant, it was like the looming image of a Goddess was hovering over him.

”I’m no Goddess.” she said lightly. ”The choice of the word God was made by you.”

The Demoness’ dress fluttered. A simple strike soared through Leonel’s defenses, and this time, he wasn’t fast enough to knock another arrow, his reaction lagging behind just the slightest bit.

At that moment, even the likes of Dream Counter were suppressed. She grasped its secrets, and she reacted accordingly, her Dream Force shifting to make her attacks more ethereal, harder to read, and impossible to grasp even for Leonel himself.

”I am a Demoness.”

PUCHI!

The spear jetted through Leonel’s heart, piercing right through it and out of the other side.

BOOM!

A violent pulse of power, a Force-shaped cone, radiated out from Leonel’s back. As though to paint the picture of just how much strength was coursing through his chest right that moment, it shot out, blinding the world.

In the far off distance, stars died, worlds collapsed, Regulators cowered and World Spirits shrank.

And yet, the Demoness’ eyes narrowed when she saw this.

”Claim as much control over the world as you want.” Leonel said calmly, feeling the power coursing through him. ”But my body is under my control alone.”

He knew why the Demoness was shocked. As great as the cone of Force was, she had too much control over her spear and attack for such a shocking amount of energy to leak so easily.

Such flashy displays were only for the weak. She had long left that behind.

The only explanation was that she had somehow lost control of her blade. But she couldn’t quite understand how that was possible. Even after Leonel stated it so plainly, she didn’t believe it.

She lost control over her blade in Leonel’s body? If she could lose control of her weapon due to something so trivial, how would she paint the future she wanted?

Rage flickered through the Demoness’ eyes, and her hair rose from her shoulders, flickers of violet appearing deep within it.

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