Dimensional Descent

Leonel didn't reply. He tried to think but he felt his mind was growing foggy. After a moment of thought, he realized that it was best if he entered the pod now, if there was another attack he wouldn't even be able to stand straight, let alone deal with it.

After 15 minutes had passed, Leonel stepped out feeling refreshed and invigorated. His eyes carried much more clarity within them and he could feel the changes to his Dream Force more substantially. He had actually stepped into the Second Layered State.

This was a bit of a surprise. Although Leonel had already felt that he was close, he hadn't expected that pushing his Dream Simulation so far would allow him to take such a step. Even so, he greatly welcomed it, though he felt that he had to be more careful.

Dream Force was only a small part of his Emulation Spatial Force. Having such high control of Dream Force while lagging in Spatial Force, while it wouldn't impact him negatively physically, might skew his comprehension of Emulation Spatial Force down an improper path in the future.

Suddenly, Leonel froze. '… No, I've been thinking about all of this incorrectly to begin with…'

Leonel's Dreamscape sparked with greater vigor as his eyes glowed. Now that his mind wasn't fatigued, the benefits of the improvements to his Dream Force and its positive impact on his Ability Index breathed a lung of fresh air into Leonel's body.

His mind jumped and sparks of lightning connected Force Crafting, the Life Grade and his Emulation Spatial Force, a wild series of connections that seemed completely irrelevant together. But to Leonel, it made all the sense in the world.

'A Force, its existence, is just an exhibit of the Life Grade. Wise Star Order already implied this when he described the existence of Scarlet Star Force to me. The reason its dangerous for my Innate Nodes to be so perfect and complete, and yet for my comprehension of it to be lacking, is precisely because this Force has a life of its own, it has a disposition, a personality of sorts, born from its own uniqueness.

'In that case, why would Emulation Spatial Force be different? The unique characteristic of the Life Grade is that it had left behind its individual parts and become something entirely different. Although it is true that Emulation Spatial Force is formed of Dream Force and Spatial Force, considering it as the sum of its parts rather than something exponentially different will only hold me back.'

Leonel's gaze glowed and the back of his neck glowed with a silvery-gold.

Suddenly, he tapped at the air before him. A wide net appeared before him, but it became clear soon that it was less of a net and more of a grid. This grid of perfect cubes began to bend and warp, it looked almost like a simulation of gravity and the impact great masses had on space and its nodes.

The nodes began to shift and change, and if one paid close attention, it would be possible to see that Leonel was repeating the pattern of slight distortion around his own body. One after another, a perfect replica of the distortions continued to multiply, again and then again.

Leonel's gaze glowed. His outstretched finger flipped and he suddenly snapped his finger. Right at that moment the golden grid was flooded with a silvery flame. At that moment, the distortions solidified and one perfect replica of Leonel appeared after another.

Soon, the entire city lord manor was filled with clones of Leonel.

Up above the Heir Wars world, few were still paying attention to Leonel in the grand scheme. But when it came to the most important figures, although fireworks were going off on the night side continent, none of them left Leonel for more than a few minutes at a time.

When they saw him break into Tier 8 seemingly just standing and thinking, their pupils couldn't help but constrict. There didn't seem to be anything logical about his breakthrough, only Ancestor Hito could sense the sudden eruption of Leonel's Dream Force. He had comprehended something profound that allowed him to take such a step.

But for Leonel to comprehend something like that right after a battle, and in such a tired state… Just what kind of monster was he exactly? It didn't make any sense.

However, this change shocked them even more than before. The reason for that was simple…

They couldn't tell which one was the real Leonel! And this included Ancestor Hito who had formed this world in the first place. Each clone was so perfect that they all felt like the real Leonel.

They had seen Leonel use clones already in this war, but they had always been able to easily tell what was happening. But now…

Leonel's clones suddenly all vanished, and to their shock, the "real" Leonel, the one they had been locked onto all the while, wasn't there at all. Just when they were wondering where he could have possibly gone, their hearts trembled.

There, by a pillar of the hall, Leonel stood with a light smile on his face. If they remembered correctly, that was the location of where another clone had been just moments before. That was when it hit them.

Leonel had swapped with one of his clones seamlessly and they hadn't even been able to notice it happened.

It had to be remembered that the images they were seeing now were absolutely perfect. There were no details missing, Leonel might as well have been standing right in front of them at the moment. And yet, even as Eighth Dimensional existences, they didn't notice the change, it had been perfectly seamless.

Leonel didn't seem to care despite the fact he knew others were observing him.

He realized his approach had been wrong.

He kept thinking of Scarlet Star Force like it was a Fire Force, it wasn't Fire at all, it was Fire, Star and Light Force, unless he could fuse those concepts in his mind, he had no right to try and define it.

This was also the case for his Void Star Force and his Vital Star Force.

His perspective on the world seemed to shift entirely.