Dimensional Descent

Leonel was just one person. Before he even battled White Knight Diore, he had already tired his mind using so many wind spells. After this battle, he was even more spent. 

Leonel finally steadied his breathing and looked around at what was left of the Predator Ravens. 

Unfortunately, Leonel didn't have an easy method of controlling these beasts. His horn was designed for Third Dimensional beasts. But, even then, he couldn't precisely control those Third Dimensional beasts, he could only rile them up into a frenzy and give them simple commands like pointing out a target to trample and targets to avoid like he had done in his final battle on Camelot. 

This time, what Leonel had done was even simpler, he poured his Dream Force into the horn in order to influence these massive predator birds. Essentially, he forced them into temporary madness and this was the extent of his abilities. 

Plus, even if Leonel could make use of these birds, he wouldn't dare to. Believing that White City only had a single method of controlling these Ravens would be absolutely foolish. 

If Leonel brought these birds into battle and they were suddenly turned against him, that would be the worst kind of mistake. Such a thing could completely turn the tide of battle. 

That said, Leonel also couldn't allow White City to so easily gain back these beasts for nothing. Leonel was absolutely certain that the loss of 500 of these Predator Ravens would sting for them. But, how could he easily get rid of them?

Leonel's eyes flashed. 

"Little Blackstar."

"Yip! Yip!"

The little mink launched himself off of Leonel's head, diving down and through the skies. 

It quickly came back with a shadow ball it eagerly swallowed from the top of Leonel's head. 

Leonel nodded. Though he had to dispel Little Blackstar's sharpening ability which had come in very useful several times already, he had no choice but to make a sacrifice in this matter. 

"Command them to battle to the death." Leonel said. 

"Yip! Yip!"

Leonel didn't have the heart to monitor such a scene so he allowed the little mink to oversee it as he descended from the skies. 

By now, Aina had dug up several dozen knights, most of whom were heavily injured and unconscious. 

Leonel frowned because he didn't see Lancelot among them. It can't be that Lancelot really died, right? 

In the beginning, Leonel had been paying attention so that he could direct Aina. But, after a while, he had to completely focus on the battle so he sent all the locations at once and focused his everything on Khaled. 

Aina raised her brows when Leonel appeared. "You're fine?"

"Did you ever doubt it?" Leonel asked with a grin. 

Seeing that Leonel was in the mood to lighten the atmosphere, Aina felt a weight on her chest lower. 

Her senses weren't as powerful as Leonel's. So, through the dust cloud, she couldn't really see or feel what Leonel was facing. She felt somewhat better knowing that it couldn't have been too dangerous, then. 

Of course, had she known the truth, let alone feeling relief now, she wouldn't have even allowed Leonel to go. But as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. 

Seemingly realizing Aina's line of thinking, Leonel frowned. 

"What happened to your sense boosting treasure?"

Leonel remembered that Aina had used one of her Quasi Bronze rewards from the Joan Zone on a headpiece that covered her one weakness. But, ever since they reunited, Leonel hadn't seen it again. 

Even to the current Leonel, a Quasi Bronze treasure was a big deal. Currently, he only had one broken one he had yet to repair while the second was his Force Crafting quill. Losing such a treasure was definitely a big deal. 

"That…" Aina hesitated. 

She seemed to flashback to memories she didn't quite want to remember. 

Leonel's frown deepened when he saw Aina's reaction. Just what happened to her on Terrain, exactly? It seemed as though every time he got close to touching upon it, she would pull back. 

Leonel never pressed Aina to tell him anything, especially when it was related to her family. But, he didn't have any reason to believe that this was related to the Brazinger family and he was serious about the words he had spoken to her before. 

He wanted Aina to lean and rely on him. But, if she never opened up to him, such a thing would be impossible. 

Though Leonel had taken Mordred's advice and stopped being a 'pansy', if he was always the only one pushing, even he could grow tired of such a thing. 

"… I lost it to an Invalid."

Leonel's eyes widened. "What?"

Leonel panicked slightly, taking a step toward Aina as though he wanted to check if she was injured anywhere. It was completely irrational considering this must have happened months ago, but he couldn't help himself. 

The Invalid Aina must be referring to was most definitely from Terrain. Any Invalid that had last so long on an old world was powerful beyond Leonel's imagining. 

One had to remember that Invalids were only borne from those who failed to awaken their abilities. They couldn't be birthed from those who succeeded nor could they reproduce amongst themselves. This meant that the same population of Invalids a world produced in the very beginning would be the very same population of Invalids they had until the day the world died or all the Invalids were eliminated. 

There were very few, exceptionally rare exceptions to this rule. Any instances that could break this rule would be cherished by Invalids all over. 

Though Terrain was weak, it was still a world with hundreds of years of history within the Fourth Dimension. This meant that any Invalid Aina ran into was definitely at least that old. 

And, at such an age… the likelihood that they'd be a Variant Invalid shot through the roof. 

Leonel held onto Aina's shoulders, his heart beating even more wildly than when he had been battling a White Knight far beyond him in strength. 

He truly felt like he had almost lost Aina forever. 

Just what happened, exactly?