Dimensional Descent

Cornelius froze. His head almost subtly turned in one direction, but he caught himself before he did so. He knew exactly where Leonel was because he had been following him, but that didn't mean that Shield Cross Stars did. As shocking as their strength was, no one beneath the Eighth Dimension could just casually cover several planetary widths of space to find a single person. If they could, they wouldn't have to lock down the space.

He wanted to refute what DiVincenzo said, but the latter seemed so certain and he had no idea.

When Leonel fought, whether it was against Conon or the Sword Faction, he hadn't released his God Runes even once. Unless Cornelius personally scanned Leonel with his Internal Sight, something he wouldn't do for the latter's privacy, it was impossible to tell. Plus, what he didn't know was that even if he was willing to do such a thing, whether or not he could actually get past Leonel's mental defenses was a different matter entirely.

He had originally thought that Leonel was just so powerful that he didn't need to use his God Runes, but then he suddenly remembered that in his battle up the Void Tower, Leonel hadn't used his God Runes either, even up until the point of his death.

A part of Cornelius wanted to believe that this was because Leonel expected something like this to happen, and as such, held back a good portion of his strength. But was that possible? Even though he was completely caught off guard by all of this, was Leonel's foresight really so much better than his own?

According to the rules of the Void Palace, anyone who failed to enter the Sixth Dimension with the God Path would be expelled, effective immediately. If what this Tier 2 Officer was saying was true, then Leonel truly didn't have the protective badge of the Void Palace any longer.

"There's no need to doubt this matter, esteemed sir. The timeline is clear for you to check yourself. According to our information, Leonel Morales suffered the descent of the Cataclysm at Tier 9 of the Fifth Dimension. When he returned, he was in Tier 1, but he had never checked the technique stores of the Void Palace, so it's clear he took the easiest method."

"That proves nothing, you know his background as well as I do—."

"True enough, he could have gained a method from the Morales family. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. The Void Tower formed a perfect replica of him when he entered and it didn't sense the aura of the God Path. Shield Cross Stars wouldn't act without proper assurances."

Cornelius stopped talking, his expression turning placid. It was clear and obvious what this person was doing. He could have stated this as his first reason and left the matter at that, but he didn't, instead allowing Cornelius to speak more before shutting him down.

Not only was this a humiliation, but it seemed to speak on the incompetence of the Void Palace. Leonel had entered the Void Tower days ago, and yet they were still unaware until now.

Regardless, hopefully by now Leonel had used this opportunity to make some headway in running. This matter was still fishy to him and he simply didn't believe that that man's son would do such a thing. Before that happened, Velasco himself would probably kill Leonel first.

However, what happened next left Cornelius not knowing how to react at all.

"Hello, I'm the fugitive you're looking for."

Leonel's voice didn't seem to have much effort behind it either, and yet, his projection didn't lose out to the two Seventh Dimensional monsters in the skies at all. And how could it? With his current comprehension of resonance, this was all too easy for him.

He sat on a building's roof, his feet dangling a smile hanging from his lips.

DiVincenzo's gaze sharpened as he looked toward Leonel, but despite the gaze of a Seventh Dimensional expert being capable of shooting across such a large distance, Leonel didn't feel much pressure at all. This Tier 2 Officer would have to be hundreds of times closer before Leonel would feel anything. In fact, considering how far apart they were, unless this person had the Bow Domain Lineage Factor, in his eyes, Leonel was probably as small as a speck of dust right now if he could see Leonel clearly at all.

That said, Leonel could see his face almost too clearly, and it was likely that DiVincenzo was well aware of this feeling, or else his face wouldn't have been so stiff for a moment.

"Since you are willing to hand yourself in, then this matter will be easily resol—."

"Hand myself in? Why would I do something like that?" Leonel chuckled.

DiVincenzo's gaze narrowed. For some reason, he felt more pressure talking to this boy than he did Cornelius, but this wasn't because their strengths were equal, far from it. It was because eof something more ethereal…

Potential.

"This isn't a matter you can decide," Cornelius replied calmly.

"Oh? Is that so?"

Leonel blinked innocently.

With a flip of his palm a familiar silver disk dictionary appeared.

"Old man, your son's being bullied, don't you think that you should do something about this?"

DiVincenzo suddenly froze, his body subconsciously trembling as he moved, prepared to retreat.

Leonel, who had on a very wronged expression just a moment ago, suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. Seeing DiVincenzo react as though he had just eaten a pile of shit had him rolling.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just messing around, my old man has better things to do than be here. But it's funny, you're so scared yet you still dare to do this."

DiVincenzo's expression darkened for the first time, the hints of red being overwhelmed by a malevolent blackness.

"Who?"

Just when DiVincenzo was about to attack in a state of half fury, he froze again.

This time, it was Leonel's turn to be stunned.

At that moment, a hologram of his father appeared. Clearly, he hadn't expected this to actually happen.

"Ah, you actually remembered I exist?" Leonel asked speechlessly.

Velasco cleaned out his ear with a pinky.

"Be more respectful, brat. Your mom is on my ass. If not for this, do you think I'd bother with yo—?"

"Excuse me? Do I have to tell you how to take care of your own son?"

At that moment, a familiar voice called out from a seemingly nearby distance, at least relative to wherever his father was.

Leonel smiled beside himself, but then he froze.

"Wait, so this thing really can connect a call. Those weren't prank voicemails at all, were they?!"

Velasco, who had just been caught, had nowhere to vent his hatred but toward an easy target.

"All those above the Sixth Dimension, scram. If you can still take the losses of losing at the hands of my seed, then you can continue to attack once that's fulfilled."

After saying these words, Velasco seemed to ignore everything else as his hologram turned toward a certain direction.

"Wife, I did good right—?"

His voice cut out before the rest was said, which was probably good for the sake of Leonel's mental health.

In the skies, though, the calm DiVincenzo seemed to have crimson serpents crawling beneath the skin of his forehead.