W

C1016 cold

Leonel frowned lightly and turned. With quick steps, he made it to the pool he kept the koi fish in.

Almost immediately, the fish jetted away, trying to get as far from Leonel as possible. However, its efforts were meaningless. It didn't have a strong body to begin with and the only thing it could do with the energy it purified was inhale and exhale it, it didn't seem possible for it to use it personally.

With a wave of his hand, Leonel brought the koi fish out in a globule of Cleansing Waters and faced it.

"You like these waters, right? They're the best waters you've ever swam in?"

Leonel felt a bit ridiculous talking to a fish, but he didn't patronize it nor did he dumb down his tone of voice. Instead, he laced his Dream Force in with his words, conveying in intent with their subtleties. With this koi fish's Force affinity, it should be able to understand Leonel very clearly.

The koi fish released an air bubble that looked a bit adorable in Leonel's direction. But, when the Soul Force waves reached Leonel, his lips twitched.

'This little bastard just spit at me?'

Leonel wasn't sure whether he should be angry of if he should be laughing. It was a so abnormal that he really wanted to do both.

Clearly, this not so little fish didn't want to admit how much it enjoyed swimming in cleansing waters. Just from a couple weeks, it felt like it had been reborn, its abilities even worked much faster and better than it ever had in the past.

On top of that, Cleansing Waters was the best medium for Force transfer it had ever come across. Normally, when it was stuck in water, it had to divert a bit of its energy toward creating a cleansing halo around it. This was why when Leonel first met it, it looked like it had a spotlight on it.

However, this took a lot of preparation and slowed down its efficiency in gathering up and converting energy by more than half. The Cleansing Waters fixed all of this with ease. Plus, it wasn't salty like the ocean it hated so much.

It could be said that the koi fish was a clean freak. It had been worried about where Leonel would put it earlier, but it felt at ease now. That said, it would never admit that to Leonel.

The koi fish obviously disliked humans, or else it wouldn't have done what it had done. Though, it could be said that it also disliked Invalids as well for clogging up its waters and always coming after it.

"So you don't want to admit that you like this water, huh?" Leonel smiled lightly. "Okay, I'll put you back in the ocean, then."

The golden scaled koi fish suddenly panicked, wiggling about the waters. It looked quite beautiful, its fins floating about like silk fabrics.

"Oh, so you want to stay, then?"

Another bubble.

Leonel grinned, but it was quite cold, cold to the point the koi fish trembled beside itself.

"Do you know how many people your actions killed? Do you know how many mothers will go without sons now? How many fathers will go without daughters? On my battlefield alone, there were almost 50 000 individuals defending a stretch of a couple dozen kilometers. Now, there's barely 40 000 remaining, and all their deaths are on your head."

The koi fish stood frozen in the globe of water, suddenly feeling suffocated. Fish needed to move to be able to breathe, but no matter how hard the koi fish tried, it couldn't loosen itself from Leonel's death stare.

"Did you think that just because you look beautiful, that just because you seem innocent enough, that I would be fooled? To me, you're a mass murderer that deserves death no less than if it was a human standing before me now. The only reason I haven't killed you is because my partner is in a coma and I can't extract your ability.

"However, I promise you, if you don't cooperate, if you don't make yourself seem useful, if you can't give me a reason not to kill you and put your ability within something else more beneficial to me in a year from now, I'll give you the most horrible death you can imagine.

"Do you understand me?"

Leonel was inwardly furious at the audacity of this koi fish. If it was before he had made his resolve to become a King, he would have long since slaughtered this koi fish and its companion. However, now, he felt like he had to make choices that were a bit beyond the scope of his own moral compass.

Objectively speaking, the koi fish would save more lives under Leonel's control than it had ever taken. This was the cold logic of it all, so it was the choice Leonel had chosen to make this time.

However, Leonel didn't have a beast control ability nor did he have anyone he trusted enough to hand over these responsibilities to. So, if this koi fish didn't cooperate, he wouldn't hesitate to toss it into a snowglobe and kill it once Little Blackstar awoke.

The fear the koi fish was palpable but it still forced itself to nod. Though it couldn't understand the intricacies of Leonel's words, it understood the gist of it enough to understand what would happen to it if it didn't cooperate. Ultimately, it was still willing to do what it had to do to survive.

"Good." Leonel said coldly.

With a motion, Leonel took out a familiar vial. This was none other than the Ocean Drop Vial that Kira had given him. But, it had been modified by Leonel a bit.

Of course, if others knew that Leonel was modifying a Silver Grade treasure as a Bronze Crafter, there would likely be an uproar. But, Leonel himself didn't find it to be that big of a deal.

Leonel hung the Ocean Drop Vial around his neck after siphoning large amounts of Cleansing Waters into it. Then, he transferred the golden scaled koi fish into the necklace vial.

After he did this, he also transferred the Silver Tablet before dropping in the Ores he would use to refine his Metal Body.

"Purify the Essence of these Ores and transfer them to me after you are done."

After issuing this command, Leonel shot off toward where his brothers were resting.

To be continued