Dimensional Descent

1842 Bow Heads Leonel's aura continued to blaze, the Fifth Door nearly flying from its hinges a moment later. Only then did Leonel's momentum begin so slow before coming to a gentle stop, standing beneath the looming presence of the Sixth Door.

The Metal Synergy Lineage Factor was the only one Leonel knew of that had steps to its progress like this. As a result, it couldn't display its full player until it reached a certain point.

Leonel could still remember hard being able to manipulate Earth Force to change his surroundings when he entered the Void Palace, and that was because back then, he had only opened up the Second Door. How could he manipulate a Seventh Dimensional world, especially one under the influence of Anarchic Force, when his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor was only opened up to the Fifth Dimension?

Of course, things weren't exactly that simple. Despite its supposed weakness, the Metal Synergy Bloodline, especially thanks to its supplemental skills like Metal Body and Divine Armor, matched up well and even dwarfed many Lineage Factors when facing enemies at the same level.

But now, Leonel had blown by the usual convention of the Metal Synergy Lineage Factor, awakening it to the Eighth Dimension in just a single step. In an instant, it had gone from one of his weaker Lineage Factors, at least in terms of raw power and ignoring its supplemental techniques, to one of his absolute strongest.

Leonel exhaled a breath, causing winds of such force to manifest that the walls in the surroundings cracked and threatened to collapse the entire building.

Leonel opened his eyes slowly, a dense light shooting out of them. When he saw the state of his surroundings, his gaze narrowed for a moment before he waved a hand. At that moment, a wave of Earth Force took shape and the cracks and damages to the foundation were healed in the blink of an eye.

Leonel took another breath and realized he was breathing far too hard and adjusted himself accordingly. Others might take days, weeks or even months to properly adjust themselves to new strength, but Leonel took only a handful of seconds before it was all reined in.

With a hand, Leonel grabbed at his hair and cut it short once more before storing it and standing to his feet.

Leonel looked toward the inheritance and his gaze narrowed. Whether it was the chalice, the flame or the wood ball, all of them had greatly dimmed. It seemed there was a limit to the number of times these treasures could pass on the full inheritance. Leonel wasn't sure if they would recover with time, or if this was permanent, but there was already nothing much he could do to change things.

Leonel ruffled his hair and turned to leave. He had a feeling that something big would happen quite soon. Unfortunately this time, it was probably his fault. This change would catalyze a lot of things to happen on a faster timeline than he thought might otherwise happen.

This was fine, though. Now he felt even more confident about certain things. Even on a slower timeline, there was no guarantee he would be able to reach this level of strength.

*%

As Leonel thought, the sudden burst of an aura that transcended anything they had ever felt before coming directly from the Morales family had made many feel as though they were standing on tenterhooks. It only made things worse that Leonel's appearance had completely stabilized the situation in Earth's territory, ruining any chance outside influences had to take advantage of the situation.

The momentum of the Morales family felt too fierce. Not only did the Races outside the Human Domain want to stifle it, but so too did even humans themselves.

As Wise Star Order had said, humans were simply too divided. In such a volatile world, any other race facing this sort of existential crises would have long since come together. In fact, this wasn't just speculation, not long ago, something very similar had happened to the Dwarven Race after their first Eighth Dimensional world appeared. They had pulled themselves together and fought tooth and nail before succeeding in defending their territory.

And what were humans doing? They had yet to pick out a leader, Earth was on the verge of entering the Eighth Dimension any time now, and it was already obvious that other Races were making their moves, but they were more worried about the Morales family gaining too much power too suddenly.

Within the Etazi family, Orinik say in a courtyard sipping some tea. To his side there was Rychard and an unknown young man, or at the very least, he was unknown to most of the world as he had only just come onto the scene. He was none other than the current head of the Eamon family, Montero.

They all looked up into the skies when they sensed the aura, their expression frighteningly serious.

They fell into silence for a long while, no one speaking for as much as half an hour until an attendant ran in and respectfully handed Orinik a summary report.

When Orinik finished reading, he passed it to the other two and smiled lightly.

"It seems that this time came sooner than I thought it would. We just need to make a subtle little push."

"What do you intend to do?" Montero asked.

"It's simple, really. The Morales family needs to be knocked down a peg. Leonel Morales needs to be knocked down a peg. Earth needs to be knocked down a peg. There's just one obvious choice: the Heirs Wars."

Rychard and Montero frowned.

Seeing their reactions, Orinik chuckled.

"You two look at the Heirs Wars too simply. This isn't just a stage for the Morales family to pick a successor. Why do you think the Constellation families do not participate? It's because they too know that it means more than just a few juniors fighting it out. If the Constellation families participated, it wouldn't just be a friendly clash to pick out the Heir with the best future potential, it would instead be a Domain War of the Human Domain."

The hearts of the two men skipped a beat.

"So you want to..."

"Well, we don't really need to do much at all, we just need to plant some seeds. Despite the talent of the other Heirs, the one everyone fears the most is Leonel. If the Morales family ends up in his hands, it won't be long before the Human Domain is ruled by them and there are too many who don't want to see that day come."

"... You want to force the Morales family to hold the Heir Wars ahead of time."

Orinik's lip curled. "Just the act of holding it before they want to will be a slap to their face. It will slow their momentum and humiliate them on a world stage. In addition, because Leonel has yet to enter the Seventh Dimension, and lost 20 years of preparation, his loss is almost guaranteed. Once he loses the right to lead the Morales family... Well, haha, I will keep some things to myself for now."

"Will the Morales family bow to such pressure, though?" Rychard asked.

"You're still too naive," Orinik laughed. "There is no absolute power in the Human Domain, even in regards to the Morales family.

"Will they bow their hands? Haven't they done so already once before? Why do you think Velasco isn't the Patriarch of the Morales family right now? You can't really believe he just didn't want such power, right?"

The eyes of the two young men opened wide. The two couldn't help but look toward one another, seeing the clear shock in one another's eyes.

*%

In a distant place across the universe, Velasco looked up from teasing his wife, his gaze narrowing. In the end, in a rare moment of solemnity, he sighed. However, his sigh had nothing to do with the pressure the Morales family would soon face.

'... That demoness sunk her claws into my son?"

His gaze became frighteningly cold.

He didn't sound like a man that was ignorant of the Silver Empire's inheritance at all. But oddly enough, he didn't seem to be worried about Leonel using it either... and yet he was enraged... no, more accurately annoyed...

As for why, maybe only he and a select few knew.