Dimensional Descent

Leonel's brows jumped.

He had experienced this feeling before, it happened when his Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor of the past entered the vicinity of the Bronze Tablet.

Of course, the Bronze Tablet was stuck wherever the Segmented Cube's inner space was, along with the Silver Tablet, so they couldn't have caused this. Plus, this was obviously the head of a demon and not a Tablet.

So why would his Lineage Factor stir?

From Leonel's limited understanding, this stirring represented a potential for evolution. Could it be that the Morales family signature Lineage Factor also had room to evolve?

Leonel shook his head, unable to confirm this. He didn't know how a demon head would help with such a thing. It might be related to the value of these demon corpses, but he was unsure.

Leonel didn't want to rashly do anything, not without first understanding the situation. His Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor had an obvious progression path, but if it really was the case that this demon head carried such a secret, it wasn't something that Leonel would casually do.

His Metal Body was one of his greatest assets, what if this mutation or evolution hindered him from using it? What about his Divine Armor, another hugely important part of his battle prowess?

Plus, his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor had technically already mutated once before. Not only was there a subtle connection between it and his King's Might Lineage Factor, but there was also the red energy it gave off to consider as well.

From what Leonel understood, this mutation was likely caused due to the fact he had almost failed his first awakening phase. This was mostly his fault, since he had attempted to do it before he had even formed all of his Nodes, something that was ridiculous.

This was to say that he had already deviated once and was lucky enough that things still stayed relatively on track. If he allowed it to mutate again, it was impossible to say if he'd get lucky again.

Even if the result was a more powerful Lineage Factor, its overall effectiveness might be far inferior due to a lack of compatible techniques.

This was a problem that Leonel was currently facing, actually. He hadn't had the time to analyze the Bronze Tablet, so he hadn't been able to unearth the pairing techniques for his Starry Tailed Fox Lineage Factor.

The good news was that this Lineage Factor was so far and beyond the Snowy Star Owl that it was still worth it. But there was no telling whether it would be the same with his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor.

Leonel finished his thoughts in just a few seconds. With one hand, he hoisted the unicorn demon's corpse over his shoulder, letting its hooves drag along the ground.

…

Several eyes couldn't help but be drawn to Leonel. He hopped to the top of the abyss, his feet gliding up the side as though it was solid ground. Now that he could confidently rely on his Stars to repel the Anarchic Force, he was no longer worried about the attack on his mind and didn't take the chains seriously any longer.

However, just because he didn't, didn't mean others also wouldn't.

The contrast between Leonel and the others was far too great. When they saw that he had actually slayed a unicorn demon, many forgot to breathe, the suffocating aura of even the dead creature being too much for them to handle.

The aura shrouded Leonel as well, making many miss the fact that he was actually in the Fifth Star. If they were able to focus enough to see through this, it was unknown just how much larger the uproar was.

They all had their ingrained biases. Most people knew that the Sixth Star was the minimum requirement you should meet to even dare to venture into the Demon World. No one even considered the fact that Leonel wouldn't ignore this rule. In fact, many believed that he might even be a legendary Seven Star.

Leonel didn't care about the stares, his steps steady as he walked right through the city and toward the Oliidark family's estate. No one even dared to stop him despite the fact that this was proper protocol.

The gates of the Oliidark family estate were always open. Why close them when no one would dare to casually stroll in to begin with? Maybe that was why Leonel's appearance was all the more shocking on that day.

Several of the guards, servants and members of the family were stunned into silence.

With how large the compound was, Leonel had to follow a long path with grassy pastures, noble statues and several ponds and fountains to his left and right. Yet, he didn't seem to care about the beauty of it at all as the ghastly blood of the demon over his shoulder continued to drip.

At that moment, Athrae walked out of the large doors of the main house with a wide smile on her face. To her side, a young man wearing a smile also walked.

He was quite handsome, his black hair tinged with what seemed like a hint of blue much darker than the radiant blue of his irises. He had a subtle cadence to his footsteps that made it quite clear that he was an expert in his own right, or in anyone's right, for that matter.

When Athrae looked up to see Leonel and the demon on his back, she released a high pitched screech, immediately jumping to hide behind the young man. She grabbed at his arm, quivering and not daring to look forward again.

She had never seen such a sight in her life and had been sheltered since her birth. How could she stand the sight of such a ghastly corpse?

Leonel, though, who never had a favorable impression of this young woman to begin with, simply dropped the corpse and head and the foot of the stairs, climbing up and passing by the young man and Athrae without a word. He didn't even seem to notice their presence.

Just as he was about to walk in, though, the young man suddenly called out.

"A moment, if you please," he said lightly.