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C1337 This King

'What's going on here, old man?'

'I've never been stupid enough to enter a Rapax Nest, how the hell would I know?'

Leonel's heart felt uneasy, it was like his heartbeat had gone hollow, ringing in his ears and sending an odd wave of something slightly less than pain through his chest. It wasn't quite piercing enough to harm him, but it was too great to ignore at the same time.

The more uneasy Leonel became, the colder his gaze got. Eventually, they began to flicker with a smoldering flame, the temperature around him even rising for a moment.

Aina shifted her eyes from the path ahead to land on Leonel's side profile. But, not long after she did so, she found herself looking into his eyes.

"If it comes down to it and I try to bring you into the Segmented Cube, don't resist." Leonel spoke, his voice tinged with a hint of cold.

Aina stared at Leonel deeply for a long while. It didn't seem like she would respond at all after a while. But, when she finally did, her choice of words were like a baffling sledgehammer to Leonel's chest.

"I am stronger than you."

Leonel, who hadn't looked away from Aina, continued to do so. Despite the fact the words should have been shocking, he didn't seem to react like it was at all. His pace didn't falter, his expression didn't change, and his heart seemed to have regained its calm bearing.

"Don't think that I'm just saying that to say that." Aina continued. "I'm not making it up, nor am I only stronger than you by a small measure."

Aina didn't need to make it up. When her and Leonel's Internal Sights fused, she realized that her ability could be extended to others through this incredibly intimate action. Though not as detailed as when she used it on only herself, she could tell Leonel's deficiencies and had a vague idea of the path he could take to improve himself as well. Of course, she would never give this information to Leonel because of how vague it was, it could very well be skewed. But, it was still enough for her to tell the gap between them.

Leonel hadn't been joking when he said that Aina would be a greater challenge for him that Myghell would be. In fact, Leonel hadn't yet caught up to where Myghell would be at 100% since he had yet to catch up to Aina.

"I already know this." Leonel responded, his voice not wavering.

Aina's brows furrowed.

"However, if I fought ten people just as strong as you, I would still win ten out of ten times."

Leonel's violet hair danced in the wind, a stronger tinge of purple suddenly suffusing within them.

At that moment, Aina's furrowed brows slowly relaxed, her limbs becoming looser and her stride becoming wider. Her hair fluttered as well, a deep coercion reflecting all impurities from her body.

Leonel looked ahead as well, exhaling a heated breath, his body seeming to glow.

"I really hate you." Aina suddenly said.

"Then why do you follow me?" Leonel asked without missing a beat.

"Because I also love you." Aina replied, her tone even.

A silence fell between the two. The sounds of theirs steps were so light that nothing of their passage was left behind. As for Little Blackstar, he was even less of a problem, gliding through the air as though it was solid ground and vanishing into the void without the slightest issue like a fish on water.

"I love you, too."

Aina's eyes widened, her head suddenly snapping in Leonel's direction. But, before she could react, she found a hand having appeared on her shoulder.

"Leon—!"

Aina vanished into the Segmented Cube just as Leonel rounded a final corner.

Aina stood in a daze within the expanse of the Segmented Cube for just a moment before her fury bubbled over. A violet rouge fog erupted around her, her hair grew to the length of a river and her gaze became like a piercing dragon's.

She roared, her rage so palpable that the garden around her was vanquished into an ashy pit under nothing other than the oppression and density of her Force alone.

The worst part about it all was that she couldn't tell whether she was more enraged by the fact Leonel had done this to her again, or if it was because she had no idea whether Leonel had meant those words he had just said or had just used them as a method to distract her into not resisting…

Aina's head rose into the skies, roaring at what felt like nothing. She broke through another Tier, entering Tier 6, and yet she didn't seem to notice in the slightest.

…

Leonel stood on the other side of the corner, his breathing steady and his gaze cold. What he saw across from him, though, was enough to make almost anyone else's heart freeze over.

The Runed Rapax stood as though it had been waiting all along. Though its demeanor was different from a human's, Leonel could still feel the air of nonchalance around it.

Even after noticing Leonel, it hardly reacted, it stood in place, its body as unwavering as a mountain.

Its body was an entire meter taller than the Rapax Leonel was used to, standing at four meters even with its overly slouched back. The very same silver plates danced across its body. However, there was a very distinct difference, here. All across its plated armor, dense, swirling tattoos of black could be found, giving it both a profound air of majesty and a secondary air of oppression and warlike violence.

Leonel's veins pumped with a reddish gold, his skin beginning to glow as Bronze Runes awakened all across his body. With every exhale, another heated fog would manifest until his body was coated from head to toe in a gorgeous silver and sky-blue armor.

Leonel could very clearly see the spurs that had begun to grow on its pill-shaped head. They were subtle and not too large, but they were enough to tell Leonel what he needed to know.

Spurs on the tail denoted the Fifth Dimension. Spurs on the head though… Denoted the Sixth.

Leonel's Force erupted.

"Come on, you alien piece of shit. This King has a beauty to protect."

To be continued