Dimensional Descent

Wise Star Order finally realized this kid was insane.

This was why the distinguishment between whether Leonel 'understood', or if he truly understood, was so important. Wise Star Order was certain that it was the latter, Leonel knew exactly what he was facing, and even took as much as half a day to think about it, and those were the first words he had said!

He was a madman!

'It's the Scarlet Star Force Innate Node, it has to be. Only someone born with that thing could be so clinically insane. I might not even get a chance to live out the rest of my life in peace, this kid is going to be the death of me.'

…

Leonel fell asleep not long after he spoke those words, leaving Wise Star Order to wallow in his own sorrow.

The days continued to pass and Leonel felt a bit better day by day. He had no idea that their return to Void Palace had been delayed because of him. Once again, his mother put her son first and ignored everything else.

While this would be fine for the Selection… The return to Void Palace was a bit more complex. It was suffice to say that there'd be quite a few unsatisfied people when the time came. But, the current Leonel was still oblivious to the coming danger.

Regardless, Alienor would never allow Leonel to go out and fight in such a state. Even if it took a year, they could wait until her son was ready.

**

"Alright, old bastard. Don't you think it's about time you told me what you've been hiding about the Bronze Tablet?"

Wise Star Order snorted. "What makes you think I've hidden anything."

"I'm sure you have. You had to play the part of helpless elder. It was a bad choice if you asked me, if you gave me knowledge beyond the scope of the Bronze Tablet, I would have been more inclined to believe you. But, then again, too much knowledge and I would have suspected you anyway."

"It's all because I didn't think you'd be so stupid. If I knew you were so ignorant to the ways of the Dimensional Verse, you think I'd waste my time? I could have pulled a book of fantasy from my ass and fed it to you and you would have believed it."

Leonel's lip twitched, but he didn't refute. Wise Star Order was probably right, at least in part.

"Just start with the simple stuff, are there really only three beasts? Is there nothing after the Starry Tailed Fox? And tell me what you really know about its Lineage Factor and how it works."

"So greedy. You haven't even mastered one yet but you're concerned about the others."

Leonel shook his head. "In these last few days, even without going to the Bronze Tablet, I've felt all my bottlenecks loosen. If I wasn't holding them back for fear for what they'd do to my body, I probably would have cleared all Third Awakenings for all three branches by now and maybe even touched upon the Fourth."

With Leonel released his Nodes and Nodal Pathways, the purifying effect his Kidneys had on his blood had shot up astronomically. Because his Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor was located in his blood, the synergy of the two events was ridiculously high. Leonel didn't even feel he needed to take the Bronze Tablet with him.

Wise Star Order could only roll his eyes. Where was his thank you? This brat had no respect.

"The Bronze Tablet is more than just about increasing the pace of Awakening. Without it, you wouldn't be able to feel the gateway to the next Lineage Factor even if you awakened it fully. In addition, most of the techniques of the Luxnix, including our Force Art System, are just derivative and fragmented understandings that come from the Bronze Tablet."

Leonel's eyes lit up. "So you mean I don't have to form techniques from the ground up?"

"No. So long as you have enough comprehension it shouldn't be a problem."

This was a huge sigh of relief for Leonel. This was one of the things he had felt the most worried about.

"Then the Starry Tailed Fox?" Leonel asked.

"I lied back then, the Starry Tailed Fox doesn't have four branches. Rather, it has the standard three the Snowy Star Owl and the White Stone Elephant had. Instead, it's just that its Wisdom Branch evolves into something more profound and becomes the Wisdom Spirit Branch. So, it has the Speed Branch, the Healing Branch, and finally the Wisdom Spirit Branch, each with four Awakenings of their own."

"What's so different about it?"

"Why do you care so much now? You're nowhere close to it."

"I'm probably closer than you think. Just answer the question, old man."

"… From what I can tell, the Wisdom Spirit Branch is heavily related to the soul. You've seen what benefits sensing your soul for the first time gave you, it'll be similar but likely manifold more potent."

"… I see." Leonel nodded. "Then there's probably evolutions of Healing Branch waiting in the future, right? It's the only one that appears just as frequently as the Wisdom Branch."

"Even I don't know the answer to that. I only have vague information about the next two."

"Oh? What are they?"

"The Twinkling Light Bear and the Golden Tiger."

"The Bear sounds like another strength based creature, similar to the elephant."

"Likely yes. If it alternates between speed and strength like this, there's probably a reason. I just don't know what it is."

"… Five feel incomplete." Leonel suddenly said.

"The Silver Tablet I saw, though I could only meditate on it for a moment, definitely only had two creatures within it, there wasn't another."

"Is there a… Golden Tablet?" Leonel asked.

"I am uncertain. The only other Tablet I've ever seen was yours, but it seems to function very differently from the Lineage Factor tablets…

"What I can say is that you are likely right, five is incomplete. If there are these creatures, and each has their own shadow… Then I would have to guess that there are 12 total, one for each point of the Northern Star…"

"So there's a sixth."

"So there's a sixth." Wise Star Order confirmed.