Dimensional Descent

The two remaining free hands of Leonel's panda clapped together, releasing a sonic boom as fearsome as a clap of thunder. The rushing black fog gathered together as Leonel's bow string was drawn back.

The signal of danger roared in Thaela's mind, several times more powerful than it had been before. It was so violent that her brows shot up, her eyes widened and goosebumps racing across her skin.

Thaela didn't hesitate, releasing a roar that manifested a Star to her back. It sparkled with silvery lights and just the faintest hint of blue. It would only take a single glance for others to see that this was a manifestation of her Emulation Spatial Force.

The space around her rippled so violently that it formed visible waves of silver and black in the air. In one moment, she had gone from a sneering mastermind to what looked like a goddess standing amidst tall silver waves.

Her star shimmered behind her like a radiant moon. Her hands pressed together, a strong fighting intent blazing from her.

The moment Leonel released his arrow, she sensed it. But what shook her heart was that the ripples in space were less ripples… and more a violent destruction of the integrity of space itself.

Thaela's mind spun at incredible speeds, quickly forcing her shock down.

Logically, the only existences capable of destroying space like this were the monsters of at least the Seventh Star. They could forcefully impose their will on the world, even increasing their speed by bending the laws of physics to their wills.

At the Eighth Star level, such an existence would be able to cause true destruction, their strength reaching beyond the bounds of reason. Once this realm was touched upon in earnest, rules like the impossibility of destroying energy were thrown out of the window.

However, there were methods of accomplishing this long before reaching these levels if certain parameters were met or if certain Forces were under your control.

As someone adept at illusions, there was hardly a single Force that Thaela didn't at least have some familiarity with. So, the moment she sensed such destruction, she thought of three Forces immediately.

Scarlet Star Force, Death Force and Fallen Star Force.

Of these three, there wasn't a single one that she hoped to run into. They were all incredibly fearsome and every single one of them had the strength to pose a real risk to her.

By the time Thaela finished these thoughts, the air had already entered her rippling waves. The closer it got, the more she was certain. This was most definitely Fallen Star Force.

Thaela's expression became more dignified. While all three would be able to threaten her, Fallen Star Force was especially heavy. It was like an anchor sinking into darkness that wanted to take everything with it.

While Scarlet Star Force crumbled something from the inside out, Fallen Star Force seemed to use a violent gravitational energy to shred everything in its path to pieces. Both were lethal for different reasons, but if there was one that was especially dangerous when formed into a speeding arrow like this one… It was without a doubt this dense black Force hiding within a silvery light.

All of Thaela's spatial Force bent around the path of the arrow, weighing it down and shredding it into piece, appearing before her in a flash.

Thaela's expression was ice cold by this point. Her spatial barrier might have been ripped apart, but it had bought her enough time to think and calmly analyze the situation.<novelnext></novelnext>

It was obvious that she wouldn't be able to get Leonel to simply hand over his head. In that case, she would need to take it herself!

One of her hands formed several changing seals and her other hand flipped over to reveal a translucent whip that looked like it was carved of glass, and yet it seemed to have even more flexibility than a normal whip.

Her whip-wielding hand flexed, her wrist forming a spiral pattern. At the same time, within her body, her Nodes and nodal pathways shifted.

Her whip shot forward, forming a tornado around the incoming arrow and a rush of powerful Water Force followed suit.

'So she has that Ability?'

Leonel had seen this Ability Index once before from an envoy of the Void Senate. With those hand seals, she was able to instantly shift the position of her Nodes and just as instantly cast a technique without circulating her Force.

'This means that her Emulation Spatial Force is more likely to be related to a Lineage Factor. In that case, I have to be more careful because a Lineage Factor is rarely just an affinity and an affinity alone, there are other factors attached to it.'

Thaela used the easiest tactic, overwhelming the Fallen Star Force until it had run out of energy. She refused to fight it head on and she also refused to allow Leonel to just sit back and shoot arrows toward her freely.

Her spatial ripples reformed and became even more powerful as a second Star appeared to her back. If before she could cover 10 or so meters within Leonel's Starry Star Domain, it had now ballooned to 30 meters.

She enveloped Leonel's construct in those ripples and her pupils constricted when she saw the presence of three Stars.

A Tier 1 could already manifest three Stars?!

Thaela's expression only became colder. The longer she allowed this fight to drag out, the more variables would appear. She was already running out of time, this was simply unacceptable.

Her whip shot forward like a venomous viper. At that moment, it became difficult to differentiate its strikes and her Emulation Spatial Force. The translucent properties of the whip fused into the silvery waves as though it was right at home.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Leonel took several heavy steps backward as his bow was drawn once more.

The whistle of an arrow caused Thaela's ears to twitch.