Dimensional Descent

[Just uploaded artwork of Leonel's brothers on my instagram: @awespec_ check it out if you're interested :) one more chapter otw]

It wasn't long before three youths were brought before Leonel. Two of them were even older than Leonel himself, but one of them only looked to be about 14 or 15 years old, a cute little girl with bob cut hair.

All three were women. It seemed that in the Florer family, this was simply the trend. The women tended to be far fiercer than the men. In fact, Belize, their former Matriarch that Leonel had killed, was also a woman.

Before her death, she had been the hope of the Florer family to unearth more of their secrets as her genius had been the underpinning of many discoveries in her lifetime. Unfortunately, she died at Leonel's hands far too soon.

Seeing the nervous girl, Leonel smiled lightly. It was too difficult to maintain an air of coldness around a young girl, especially when she looked like she was suffocating. Leonel had never had any younger siblings, but he still had this sort of instinct.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Grey…" she said softly.

"And you two?" Leonel asked the two older young women.

"Rosna (Jean)," the two replied at almost the same time.

"I see," Leonel nodded. "I didn't call you here today for anything nefarious, this should actually be of great help to you. First, tell me what you chose as your partners."

The girls blinked for a moment but complex.

Rosna had chosen a breed of white roses known for its sharp and poisonous thorns. It was said that when it was dyed red with blood, it would be at its most dangerous, even giving off a thick fog that could corrode a Fourth Dimensional existence to a soppy green liquid in an instant.

Jean had chosen a pink lily that was likewise poisonous. However, it had the ability to release a bell-like sound that hypnotized its target, luring into range to be poisoned. It was a long acting poison that relied on its target being in a trance for a long time.

The most interesting of them was Grey who chose a very odd white-barked tree known for nothing other than its color. There wasn't anything special about this tree, but because Grey had a very weak body, it was the only thing that she could pair with in her youth.

After she grew, Grey had overcome this weakness of her body, but she was still stuck with the very same tree. However, instead of giving up, she found methods to mutate and evolve this tree of hers. She was self-pioneering a very new branch of Florer family techniques which required picking a "blank slate" partner which had a myriad of evolution options.

The downside was that this target would be exceptionally weak in the beginning, but it would have an infinite potential for growth in the future… theoretically.

In practice, though, Leonel could already see that Grey's white-barked tree had reached its limit. The fundamental nature of the tree was simply too weak. Likely in a few years, once Grey's method "failed", she would be cast out as a genius and replaced by others.

Of course, Grey had no idea about this. She was still somewhat in her shell because of the poor treatment she had faced in her youth after only partnering with an ordinary tree. She had yet to become used to this top class treatment that she was receiving, and definitely couldn't see what was ahead.

But with Leonel here, she wouldn't have to worry about such an outcome.

"Alright, the three of you listen to me very carefully and execute what I say to the letter. First enter a meditative state and send your Internal Sights to your hearts."

The three girls crossed their legs and sat on the ground, not daring to disobey. Just forming their Nodes at the Third Dimension required this ability, so they didn't find it very difficult to do at all.

"Regulate your breathing. Good. Now, dig deep. You should be able to see a valve connected to the bottom of your heart separate from the others. These are your extra valves. Follow that valve through your heart and spot where it connects to your central nervous system and to your Ethereal Glabellas.

"Do you see that?"

The three girls nodded. They had never had it explained so simply before, and as the geniuses they were, just this small bit of explanation made them feel as though they had been enlightened by many things. Even the elders who waited to the side felt like their minds were being blown. How had they never realized that their hearts and Ethereal Glabellas were connected in this way?

"Good. Familiarize yourselves with that connection, move back and forth, and then practice separating your Internal Sight from the path and reemerging at a different and random point…. Good, now practice finding that connection by following the paths from your other organs and blood vessels…"

Leonel took his time and allowed the girls to do this for at least half an hour until they were entirely familiar with this pathway.

"Good. This pathway that you've just become familiar with, as you've probably already guessed, is the line that connects you to your partner. Functionally speaking, your partner forms a connection with your Ethereal Glabella, which has a connection to your heart which supplies it with the Life Force it needs.

"If you want to sever this connection, it is not too difficult. The first option is to have exceptional Dream Force affinity, that way the happenings of your Ethereal Glabella are always 100% in your control. But this is likely not possible for you.

"The second method is far more accessible, but it requires a large amount of control, control you should naturally have. It is your Blood Force. You can decide how it is used and is distributed. So long as you can master this ability, completely separating from a symbiotic relationship will be as easy as thinking about it. In fact, right now, you all are locked into forming just a single partner relationship because you don't understand how to control your Blood Force to feed more than one partner at a time.

"If you can master this and make it your own, it alone will ensure that your futures are bright and that your current strengths can skyrocket. However, this is just a single problem. The second problem you face is your limited Life Force. I can help you fix that as well.

"There's only one thing I want in exchange: Your absolute loyalty. What will it be?"