Now
Leonel's aura felt towering and unapproachable. As though a nebula had exploded out with an array of violet and gold, he stood high in the depths of the Inbetween World, his hair fluttering as roars came from his spear.
He looked down and made eye contact with the pair of ghoul look-alikes.
Invalids didn't feel fear. It was as though it was a part of them that had been cut away, replaced instead by an instinctive desire to survive.
Variant Invalids were slightly more advanced, but all of their actions were still tinged with the same desire to do and have more. It could be said that while they might feel fear in a certain sense, it was always tinged with a particular corruption of greed.
Staring at Leonel now, they couldn't help but feel their hearts skip a beat.
He was like a star in the skies, the life vein of a world. His presence alone seemed like it could both feed populations and wipe them out in the same instant.
And then he moved.