Dimensional Descent
chapter-2556

[Bonus chapter courtesy of Fire2112 (aka Firemonster) <3 1/6]

Leonel knew that this was his one chance, but he was also limited in what he could take. The rules were overly complex for seemingly no reason, but it seemed to be that this was how Dream Force users liked to operate.

He was beginning to understand that certain groups of people had certain personalities not decided by their race, but rather what Forces they chose to use. In an irony of ironies, it could be said that his thoughts about how Light Force and Dark Force weren't necessarily good or evil were somewhat incorrect, though not entirely so.

Clearly, by the personal choice he had made with his Dream Force, it was possible to deviate that path somewhat using Sovereignty. But, just as obviously, not everyone could grasp Sovereignty.

This was all to say that the rules of the Dream Pavilions were overly verbose and filled with caveats and sub-sections for sub-sections. The rules themselves would take a lifetime for a mortal to read, and they might not even make it part of the way through.

Even for the current Leonel, it was impossible for him to grasp them all. Much like a lawyer, he could only focus on certain sub-sections of the rules at a time. But also much like a lawyer, he wasn't very worried about this.

Let alone Leonel, most members of the Dream Pavilion were just as obtuse about the scale and scope of the rules; they could only pick and choose their spots as well. That meant that it would be harder to take advantage of Leonel, especially since he had a database of the rules in his mind right this moment, something the others couldn't boast.

If the time came where he had to defend himself based on some arbitrary rule, he was sure he could do it. Though it made him feel uncomfortable that he wouldn't likely be able to prepare for it ahead of time, at this point he didn't really have much of a choice.

The question was, with this one loophole he had left to take advantage of...

What should he do with it?

Should he trade for a large-scale protective formation like the one that had protected the Human Race all this time? They would really need it soon, not just because of the Demons but the pressure they might face later.

He wasn't unaware of the number of people he offended. He would have just killed them directly... if that would have changed anything.

Slaughtering the entire Nomad Pavilion was fine because they had acted first, but the others would be troublesome. Even if a child could tell they had come in with the intentions to kill him, plausible deniability was a powerful tool in the world of legalese.

Plus, killing them wouldn't really change much. He was just one person, and they had entire powers backing them.

Every Dream Pavilion wasn't just a power locked away in the vacuum. Much like the Vast Dream Pavilion, there were entire networks of organizations and powers that relied on them as well.

Sending a message to the Nomads was fine since he was firmly in the right, but if he did the same with everyone, the problem would eventually become much too large to deal with.

As much as he wanted to be willful and arrogant, this wasn't the time.

He had already made his decision quite clearly when he deviated from the original path of his Dream Force Sovereignty; he wanted something more.

He wanted as many people to survive as possible. This wasn't just about him.

'A large-scale formation...? Or maybe something to help raise the strength of everyone else as quickly as possible? Or maybe I should maximize my strength instead; me and Aina are probably the strongest cards the Human Race has to play right now...' Leonel mulled over a ton of thoughts, so much so that he almost didn't notice when someone appeared behind a floating counter of glass, the latter of which seemed to have only just appeared as well.

Leonel's eyes landed on the Spiritual Race lady. He wanted to describe her as beautiful, but at this point, it felt like every powerful woman he came across these days could be described as such. Maybe he should update his standards.

He laughed to himself. If he adjusted everyone based on Aina, would he start calling every woman he came across ugly now?

Jokes aside, the woman, even on that scale, would be considered average.

Leonel was quite biased when it came to Aina, but the objective truth was that she was a woman with beauty beyond compare, especially after her brush with death. Her body had been entirely reformed, and she seemed to have taken the opportunity to refine everything to perfection.

Honestly, he didn't think that Aina had done it on purpose, though it was possible. It was just that her Body Clairvoyance had reached an entirely new level, and she couldn't help edging toward perfection even if she didn't consciously want to.

So for this woman to be average on such a scale, that was certainly saying something.

Her hair was actually a rainbow of colors, looking more like motes of light than filaments of hair. Her nose was small and pointed, much like her ears. She had rosy cheeks and freckles that added to her charm. She was the type of woman one wanted to protect.

'Pointed ears?' Leonel blinked. He knew that this was a Spiritual, but why'd she look like an elf from those tales of Earth?

Leonel's mind shifted, and he found some information.

'Pure-blooded Spirituals? What does that even mean? How can you be pure-blooded anything when you're born a soul?'

Leonel looked toward the woman again, his mind drifting through the information he had just read. These Pure-Blooded Spirituals were apparently as close you could get to being a Demi-God without actually descending from a God.

"Hello," she finally spoke in a sweet tone. "Please tell me what you would like to exchange from. With your performance, you can have anything."

Leonel frowned when he heard the suggestion in her last words.