Dimensional Descent

Leonel took a cautious step outward, his hair standing on end. However, no matter how he swept his gaze or his Internal Sight, he couldn't catch a wisp of anything. As far as he could tell, there really was nothing but a single expansive road headed toward that beautiful blue star surrounded by a cage of rotating silver.

The Dyson Sphere was something Leonel had only read about in science fiction novels. Even 25th century Earth had never been able to accomplish such a thing.

According to a scientist by the name of Kardashev, civilizations could be separated in strength by their energy resources. At the lowest Type I level, a civilization could be capable of making perfect usage of Nuclear Fusion, the energy of the stars. By this logic, Earth of the 21st century was not yet Type I as it could only use the much less efficient Nuclear Fission.

Beyond the Type I level was the much grander Type II, and that was where the Dyson Sphere came into play. Such a civilization would be able to harness the energy of their star or stars with the use of the cage Leonel was seeing right this very moment.

A Dyson Sphere was a spherical cage that could wrap around an entire star to gather its energy. This particular Dyson Sphere was constructed of numerous silver rings spinning about one another like the rings of a planet… It was a truly fantastical scene.

Of course, as a young man born in the 25th Century, old enough to witness the Metamorphosis, Leonel now knew that while Kardashev's ideas were quite good, they were ultimately wrong because he had no way of knowing about the evolution of Dimensions.

Earth never got the chance to progress beyond Type I. And, at the same time, Type III civilizations beyond Type II might not be necessary considering the ever increasing strength of stars as they progressed through the Dimensions.

This was all to say that a world capable of harnessing a Fourth Dimensional star's power would likely be more powerful than even the Type IV, V, or beyond civilizations that Earth had posited.

This painted a perfect picture for why Leonel was so stunned. After all, he was seeing something that he had only ever 'witnessed' in fictional novels and movies right in front of him. But, none of this explained why his hair was standing on end or why his foot had stopped half way down from stepping out of his space shuttle.

Leonel took deep breaths. Rather than pushing himself forward, he pulled his foot back. He had a feeling that the moment he stepped down, an event would begin that he would have no chance of stopping until he walked to the very end.

In the past two years, Leonel had managed to master every Quasi Bronze and below spear within Spear Domain. It could be said that his comprehension of the spear had reached a godly level amongst those at the Fourth Dimension and even experts at the Fifth. The only shame was that his ability had also grown so powerful that when he fought, he rarely if ever had to lean on this skill at all.

The reason Leonel was remembering back to this now was because during that time, the number of primitive consciousnesses that he had absorbed were almost too numerous to count. With that, the instinct Leonel had fostered within himself likewise grew to a point where it almost became a second ability of his.

Leonel felt that there was a reason the Spear Domain was constructed like this. It was built on a philosophy that skill, senses and power weren't enough to make a true master of a weapon. What one needed to complete the cycle was an ingrained reaction and experienced instinct to react to even situations one had never seen before.

It could be said that Leonel's own philosophy clashed with this. The same way he had chosen the spear out of convenience rather than love like Old Man Hutch had, he didn't like the idea of relying on something so vague. But, at the same time, he was logical enough to understand just how many times this instinct had helped him to this point… That could not be denied.

Leonel closed his eyes and adjusted himself.

When he opened them once more, he began to move. He didn't know why, but amidst a sudden wave of nostalgia, he pulled out the same pair of sweatpants and long-sleeved compression shirt he had worn when he entered his very first Zone.

Compared to back then when it stank to high heaven, it had a faint touch of a lavender scent to it that made it clear that it had been cleaned.

Leonel slipped the grey sweats on and rolled the tight compression shirt over his toned torso. Bending down, he tightened a pair of worn sneakers, his heart feeling lighter and lighter with his every action.

Finally, Leonel slipped on a simple chain necklace that seemed formed of stainless steel. This was a third treasure he had formulated for his teammates and would be the only defensive treasure he wore. But this… Just felt like enough.

Standing upright within his open shuttle, Leonel stretched his limbs.

"Yip! Yip!"

Leonel smiled. Seemingly having sensed the danger, Little Blackstar had come out of the Segmented Cube. The little guy had been obsessed with ordering Candle and Vice around recently.

"I'm going to have to do this one alone, buddy. Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Little Blackstar blinked, staring into Leonel's eyes. It took a while, but the little guy soon disappeared as well.

With that, Leonel's gaze steeled, his ship and the bits and pieces of earth that had been swept up along with it vanishing as his feet made contact with the road of light. At that same moment, a monstrous double sided spear appeared in Leonel's hands, his body limber and ready.

It didn't take even a moment for the road to suddenly begin to tremble, a shimmering figure beginning to manifest.

What Leonel didn't know, though, was that all around, facing the brilliant star from directions so far from him he couldn't even sense them… Were numerous more youths just like him.