Dimensional Descent

Leonel's gaze flickered with surprise before he actually smiled and chuckled. Without much fanfare, he looked toward Aina. 

"Let's go."

Leonel tapped a foot and he and Aina shot forward, their speed blazing a trail through Void Palace. 

In the skies, a far distance away, DiVincenzo's expression warped. He too hadn't expected the Void Palace to choose to take such a stance. Initially, he had been planning on forcing their hand, but… 

His gaze flickered, landing on the running Leonel. 

'It's him. He did it on purpose.'

Leonel seemed to have been playing the role of wastrel from the very beginning, and he had subtly pushed the Void Elders of the Void Palace into a corner where there was only so much that they could do. The moment he chose to slaughter those disciples without mercy, everything had already been set in stone. It was either they attack all out or retreat, there was no in between. However, should they choose to attack… The consequences would be unimaginable. 

By making his stance so clear and showing his lack of hesitation, not to mention his personal strength, Leonel had forced Galienne to have no choice but to make this decision. 

At that moment, DiVincenzo's jaw steeled, suddenly feeling that he wasn't facing a child at all, but before he could even decide how to handle this situation, he sensed several gazes land on him, making him feel as though his heart would stop beating any moment now. 

"You may not attack freely. Do not put our disciples in danger, or you'll have to deal with me first." 

Cornelius spoke calmly and evenly, his words clearly speaking for the elders as well. Since they had made such a decision, they wouldn't allow outside influences to harm the children. If they wanted to deal with Leonel, they would have to wait until he was out of range of the possibility of harming any other disciple. 

DiVincenzo's gaze slowly moved from Cornelius to the others before he realized that there was truly no changing their minds. 

When he looked back down to meet Leonel's gaze again, he saw that very same slick smile that caused an eruption of fury to dance within his veins, but there was already nothing more that he could do. 

"Squadrons, deploy!" DiVincenzo's voice moved. "Target is moving toward the northern gate of the Void Palace, cut off all paths of retreat!"

At that moment, the silent planetary vessels finally showed some signs of life, numerous hatchets and lights opening as a flood of powerful individuals surged out. Despite the fact they looked like a swarm of locusts, they moved seamlessly, not a single person getting in the way of another. 

Leonel's pupils constricted as he calmly observed this matter. If there was anything that would endanger him at this point, it would be if the Shield Cross Stars had similar methods of borrowing power from one another, methods that he had personally seen in the Zone previously. 

Judging by how these groups were moving in trios, and trios were moving in larger sets of 30, Leonel could see through this in an instant. While others saw a swarm, he saw the inner workings of a Force Art. 

"Aina."

"Mm."

"Faster."

Leonel was enveloped by a blinding sheen of white gold, three tails appearing to his back. At the same time, an equally blinding crimson light erupted from Aina, filling the air with the smell of bloody roses. 

The two shot into the forest, their speed putting even some Seventh Dimensional experts to shame. The moment they hit this gear, DiVincenzo who was monitoring their position from the skies all this time felt his heart lurch into his throat. 

In what felt like the blink of an eye, they covered hundreds of kilometers, leaving the sights of the disciples and entering the dense forest of the Void Palace. 

Aina smiled. "I bet I can kill more than you."

Leonel started and nearly lost his footing on a branch he leapt off from. He was still focusing on his strategy and didn't expect to suddenly hear this. 

He turned toward her after a moment and grinned. "As if."

Instead of replying directly, Aina smiled sweetly. 

"Try to keep up."

At that moment, Aina became a blur. In just that split second, even Leonel's eyes couldn't keep up, fragment of Bow Domain Lineage Factor or not. 

She became like a wisp of blood, her body moving so fast that it tore through the veil of space and appeared over a hundred kilometers ahead of Leonel in an instant. 

Leonel was rendered speechless again. Was that the Blood Sovereign Tablet at work? What the hell did that kind of speed have to do with Blood Force? 

Leonel shook his head and recovered. Clearly, he couldn't let this little vixen have her way. 

His Starry Light Domain bloomed, rising up and shooting past 10 kilometers. In an instant, he blinked forward over ten times, covering the same distance Aina had. At that point, let alone putting some Seventh Dimensional experts to shame, there were probably very few Tier 1 Seventh Dimensional experts that could match them in this regard. 

Leonel's body flickered in a streak of light, appearing 10 kilometers in the sky. He felt his wind rushing across his skin, his hair dancing like a river of white to his back as a distinctly bestial grin spread across his face. 

He raised his spear but it suddenly vanished into the form of a bow. 

The White Lion Bow seemed to unleash a roar as Leonel nocked an arrow. 

Just as he was about to release, a scythe of bloody red tore through the air, tearing through the frontline of descending warriors. 

Leonel's grin turned into a lip twitch as he watched his original target be severed into two. 

Before anyone could react, a tide of blood rose into the air, the corpses of several valiant warriors turning into rotating lotuses that shredded trees, stone and flesh apart alike. 

"Shit." 

Leonel put his bow away, flashing forward and appearing on the ground before flashing forward again. 

He had to hurry up or she really would win.