Dimensional Descent

The current Leonel looked quite frightening.

Blood fell from his eyes, ears and nose and his heart beat so wildly that it only made the blood pour down faster. If Aina didn't know better, she would have thought that Leonel would bleed out right here and now.

"Leonel? Leonel!"

Aina directly shook Leonel, her features marred with worry.

Leonel blinked, shaking his head and wiping the blood on his cheeks away. Eventually, a sigh came out from his lips.

"What is it? Are you okay?"

"It's… I don't know, I just thought of a frightening possibility."

"What?"

"It's just that what's the best way to manipulate a Zone?"

Aina blinked. "You mean?"

"If someone used a method like the Valiant Pillars and you took control of a Zone, you could enter it as you pleased and farm whatever you needed from it. You can technically do this with any Zone, it's just that it's only beneficial, usually, to do it with Zones that contain a great amount of resources that can quickly recover in a small period of time.

"This world here is so large and vast. Even if we spent a hundred years, I doubt we could learn everything that needs to be learned. But what if others had that time and then some?

"I'm saying that if this Zone was originally a Mythological Zone or even a Variant Zone, and then it was taken control of by a special power, then this special power took their time to squeeze out every pinch of benefit they could get from this place…

"What if after they were done this Zone also conveniently happened to be just strong enough to expand to hundreds of thousands of miles in diameter and swallow up one of your enemies with hardly any effort on your part?"

When Leonel said these things, Aina's heart trembled as well, coming to an understanding.

There was a potential chance that all of Leonel's previous conjectures weren't wrong… but could rather only be correct if they were combined into one?

Whether this was a Variant or Mythological Zone didn't matter, they were just minor details. However, if it was only a Zone of this caliber that could be used to swallow up the hole of the Void Palace, and one had already gotten everything you needed out of it, the question was…

Would it be worth it, then?

The answer was, without a doubt, yes.

And if yes was truly the answer, then the enemy that the Void Palace faced wasn't just a small measure more fearsome, they were leaps and bounds beyond anything the Human Domain could hope to fight against.

Thaela was a decent talent and her potential was high, especially considering her Innate Node. But she still wasn't considered to be anywhere near the best.

Her three senior sisters teamed up and all of them together still couldn't be a match for whoever took first place in this Fiend Class Sector.

And then it had to be remembered that this was still just the Fiend Class Sector, there were still numerous levels of the Chaos Class geniuses to contend with after this!

If this power could freely enter and exit this Zone as they pleased, slowly teasing out its secrets and squeezing it dry of everything it had, before then no longer caring about it enough to the point that it used it in such a fashion…

Just what kind of strength did this power have now?

Fearsome. Too fearsome.

Leonel suddenly hesitated. How would this power react if he managed to reverse the situation and allowed everyone out?

According to his calculations, once he succeeded, it wouldn't just be he and Aina who could leave this place. With the collapse of the barrier to this Zone, all "outsiders" would be teleported away all at once, including everyone of the Void Palace who had been forcefully taken into this place.

But now Leonel wondered if he should still do this.

There was no doubt that if he delayed, many more of the Void Palace would die. In fact, many had likely died already. This place was a cruel world and he had learned of it first hand. He already knew that once he stepped out of this event, even if Mistress Oliidark left him be, the Matriarch of the Endless Twilight Pavilion would not.

The uncouth words he had spoken about her were one matter and that could probably still be overlooked depending on a few factors. But, Aina had killed three of her top disciples and had even taken the form of a Chaos Demon.

Without Leonel here to block her from view, the elders above have definitely already seen this. If not for the fact they were in the demon world and not in the city any longer, they would have likely already swooped down to execute Aina.

When Leonel thought to this point, he had an ugly expression.

Was this really the only choice?

The smart thing to do would be to sacrifice Aina. For the good of the human race and their survival, Leonel should allow everyone to stay in this world for as long as possible. Many would die, but those that survived would come out with the prowess capable of battling those that had imprisoned them in the first place.

Leonel couldn't see another way. If these people realized that those of the Void Palace had returned and they really had such strength, they would just directly act to wipe out the Void Palace personally.

He and Aina couldn't stay here forever. Eventually the event would come to an end and they would be forcefully teleported out. By then, the two of them would be faced with a sweeping host of powerful Seventh Dimensional and maybe even Eighth Dimensional individuals.

Even if they gave him a path to survive thanks to his talent, Leonel wasn't naïve enough to believe that they'd allow Aina to go freely… And he simply didn't have the strength to protect her.

He couldn't even defeat a genius within his Dimension, how would he climb above it to face those monsters.

Leonel looked toward Aina.

She had an intelligent glint in her eyes as she calmly looked back. She understood these things the moment Leonel spoke. Although she couldn't think as fast as Leonel, her intelligence had never been lacking.

Aina smiled. "Don't look at me like that, I was ranked ahead of you in Class A, remember? Who asked you to not take your studies seriously?"

Leonel was stunned for a moment before he laughed.

He reached a hand forward, caressing Aina's cheek and pressing his forehead to hers.

"Aina…"

Aina trembled involuntarily, biting her lip out of habit. No matter how many times Leonel told her not to do that, she never could stop.

"… Between the world and you, I choose you."