Dimensional Descent

Leonel would say that it had been a very long time since he had been this angry, but that would only be partially true. He was more enraged now than he had been with himself just a few months ago, and that was because this anger had nothing to do with him, but rather a very clear reverse scale of his, his mother.

Leonel hadn't spent very long with his mother by his side but those memories of affection he had with her as a child had been practically seared into his mind. Knowing that it wasn't her choice to leave his side only made these emotions easier to accept. The idea that someone would disrespect her left him infuriated to an extreme.

The mask of the man that flew into Leonel's palm shattered, revealing the pale features and deep violet eyes of Rychard. Of those here, maybe only a small percentage weren't surprised by this turn of events. It was unknown how this young man had managed to survive the ordeal of the Viola family, but none of that mattered now.

Aina had been a part of Rychard's schemes for a long while. Leonel never hid anything from her, so she was well aware that the Luxnix family was related to him. The trouble was that she didn't learn of what Rychard had done until much later.

Gradeyr's younger brother, Ossan, had been caught by the Luxnix for daring to help in spreading the rumors. Aina's only task was to save him. But with her intelligence, it wasn't hard to piece together how these things were related. The Luxnix wouldn't just casually capture a member of the Viola family's main bloodline lineage without proper cause, especially when they were trying to lie low to begin with.

When she saw the two masked figures, she was immediately suspicious. She had spent a long time with the Viola family and was well aware of how cunning Rychard was. But, what was even more important was that Rychard didn't gain this sort of character from himself. She simply didn't believe that the Viola family would have no contingency plans given a situation where they faced eradication.

Since she wasn't sure, though, she only chose to tell Leonel a summary of those events and did nothing to point out the two masked young men. But, as she had expected, Leonel had known from the very beginning that these two masked young men were none other than Rychard and Gradeyr, it was just that he simply hadn't cared.

Leonel had been able to assign the energy signatures on the billboard to the contestants from the very beginning. He just hadn't seen much of a reason to target Rychard. From his perspective, the two of them had only had a clash in the Dimensional Cleanse Trial Zone, but there was no reason to hold a grudge, especially since he had won that exchange.

But now… Things were different.

"You're responsible?"

Leonel's hand squeezed down on Rychard's neck, any stronger and he might snap it in two. The latter tried to struggle and claw and Leonel's hand, but it felt like his nails were scratching against a metal plate. Not only did he not succeed, but he even ended up peeling his own nails back, resulting in a bloody mess that left his fingers mangled.

The region fell into complete silence.

The envoys of the Void Palace had been preparing the teleportation portal and Leonel's mother had been overseeing the progress. The region was the front gates of the Luxnix estate and there wasn't much of a crowd to begin with aside from a few close friends and family members.

Orinik couldn't help but frown as the situation now was completely different than it had been in the past. Rychard could be considered an official disciple of the Void Palace, albeit nominal. He couldn't just be casually killed because Leonel felt like it, even if Leonel had the Amethyst Token.

Rychard's face went completely blue. He couldn't answer Leonel even if he wanted to. For some reason, he felt like there was Dimensional suppression between the two of them despite the fact they were both within the Fifth. In fact, his Tier was still higher than Leonel's own. He couldn't even begin to believe the feelings of fear he was experiencing, but the humiliation was worse.

If he hadn't guessed by now that the man Aina had always been comparing him to was Leonel, he wouldn't have earned half the intelligence those around him believed him to have. To know that he had lost so handily to Leonel more times than he even knew was enough to infuriate him to an extreme. It only made it worse that the Goddess he had been chasing for so long was rejected by the very man before him. And yet, by some horrible twist of fate, was still by his side like an obedient little wife.

It had taken all the self control in the world for him not to show his anger or leak any killing intent. He just wanted to put his head down and grasp this opportunity given to him by the Void Palace.

Even though it as rare for Nominal disciples to become True Disciples, Rychard didn't believe he would fail if he gave it everything he had.

So, he buried his pride, his rage, his sadness to the deepest parts of his soul…

But then in the greatest of ironies, it was the very woman who he had been chasing for so long that outed him in the end. He was under no illusion that he could be saved. He now knew who Leonel's mother was and it only made him feel even more foolish for what he had done.

However, Rychard didn't want to give up, not here, not now. He couldn't.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head, their whites flashing as blood seeped out from between his teeth. The harder he struggled, the quicker he seemed to approach the gates of death.

"Please show mercy!"

The voice came from none other than Gradeyr, the second masked man.