Dimensional Descent

Leonel's palm flipped and the rest of the message was cut short.

"You see, I'm not a very sentimental person. It's very easy for me to not care about things, even if I once cared for them in the past. There are very few things in life that can weigh me without very concrete stipulations being met... However…"

Leonel's expression darkened, the aura around him growing several levels heavier. It felt to Silam as though he was within a whirlwind of murderous intent, his heart threatening to leap out from his throat.

"… My father is a man who exists beyond those stipulations for me. His rage, is my rage. His sadness, is my sadness. His love, is my love.

"To dare to touch my grandfather, a man my father so clearly cares so deeply for… I sentenced this Three Finger Cult to death the moment I heard its name."

Silam's gaze rolled back, his consciousness almost passing out completely. However, before his mind could go completely blank, Leonel's rage receded like a tide, leaving Silam like a small boat swaying in the wind.

"… With this new information my father brought me, finding the traces of the Three Finger Cult was far easier than it was before and it wasn't long before I realized that as clean as the Valynore family was, they weren't nearly clean enough to escape my deduction.

"The trouble was I had all these loose ends that had yet to be tied together. I had ultimately lucked out in stumbling upon the conclusion, but the road leading to it was still fuzzy and couldn't be quite pieced together… Until, that is, I learned that the Three Finger Cult had a Shadow Fox Bloodline within its ranks… Sorry, I mean the Shadow Tail Bloodline, right?"

Silam couldn't even meet Leonel's gaze any longer.

Yes, it was true that they had changed the name of their Bloodline from Shadow Tail to Shadow Fox. The truth was that their Lineage Factor had nothing to do with foxes at all. As for the true nature, even Silam didn't know. This was a truth kept stored away so that the Umbra family would be able to continue hiding away.

Of course, Silam didn't know that Leonel was lying through his teeth.

What truly connected all of this for Leonel was actually Senior Lu, the very same poor sap Aina had killed and Leonel had ultimately gotten the ring that led him to the Silver Tablet from.

When Leonel originally investigated Senior Lu, he didn't find anything special. He was a normal youth and didn't have anything special about him. The only thing of slightest interest was that…

He was from Crars!

Just like this, everything was pieced together. Why would the Three Finger Cult infiltrate the Crars Empire of all powers they could have chosen if not for this reason?

Everything began to tie in one after another once this was understood.

After managing to hide away from the Three Finger Cult for so long, the Umbra family definitely had their methods of detecting and avoiding their capture. However, it would also be the case that the Umbra would likely feel that they couldn't simply hide away forever.

In this way, the Umbra family was a lot like the Florer family. They were more powerful than they showed on the surface, but they had to continue to maintain a low profile. And, in the case of the Umbra, the only way they could guarantee their survival was by rising up to one day matching the strength of the Cult they left behind.

Doing so by normal means was impossible. Leonel didn't quite know just how powerful the Three Finger Cult was, but if it could kill his grandfather and make his father so serious, there was no doubt that he needed to treat it with the utmost respect as well.

It was likely, then, that before separating from this Cult for whatever reason, the Umbra family caught wind of some of its plans and chose to get a step ahead of them. With how powerful the Silver Tablet was, Leonel had no doubt that in the hands of a powerful family, it could cause a qualitative change in their strength given just a single generation.

Putting this into perspective, it was no wonder the Umbra would be willing to take this risk. Unfortunately for both parties, the ring landed in Leonel's hand and not theirs.

If things were reverse engineered from Leonel's perspective, he was able to deduce the connection between the Umbra and the Cult by virtue of Radlis' reactions.

Radlis' appearance couldn't have been a coincidence, that was the first flag. Him being so interested in Balthorn was a second flag, it smelled of keeping friends close and enemies closer. Then him finding a way to enter the Valiant Zone despite it exposing his true talent was the third.

In the end, there were only two conclusions: either the Umbra family was a rival of the Cult, aiming for the same goal, or they were a piece that had broken off from them that just happened to share the same knowledge on this particular mission.

Considering how weak the Umbra family was on the surface, the first option was highly unlikely considering this was a Cult Leonel's own father took seriously. In the end, that just left the second deduction.

However, Silam didn't need to know the truth behind how Leonel made these deductions. Any 'holes' in this new chain of reasoning Leonel was presenting could be explained away by saying 'the silver disk told him'…

"… So now, as you can see, Head Umbra, we share the same goal. You need to grow stronger to face the inevitable day the Cult finds you, while I want to burn them all to ash. We stand on the same side, don't you think?"

Leonel's smile remained, but all Silam could seem to see was a devil in sheep's clothing.

"With all of that out of the way, I'll ask you again. What do you think about me releasing you now?"