Leonel stood with waves of Force billowing off of him, Thalion's life and death hanging in the balance at his whim.

After seeing Thalion's head explode like that, even his own father was in a stunned state and had assumed him dead, let alone everyone else. No one would have expected that Leonel was somehow able to control his Force to the extent that he would actually live for this moment, but even more importantly than that, he had no idea how Leonel had managed to deal with the old Lord Guard.

The Lord Guard was obviously in the Ninth Dimension, or else he couldn't have such standing to begin with. Their obvious assumption was that Leonel had to be at this level as well, but they couldn't see through his Dimension at all as though it was being obscured by something.

But this didn't make sense. A human with a treasure that could obscure the senses of Spirituals? That made no sense at all.

Beneath the Demi-God Rank, the senses of Spirituals were unmatched, that was part of the reason Leonel didn't need to explain anything after unveiling what was beneath the arena.

But even further than that, even compared to some Demi-Gods, they were better in this regard.

It didn't make any sense.

Thalion's soul trembled, the fear seeping into his very bones. Without the protection of his body, the influence of Leonel's Dream Force over him skyrocketed to a new level entirely, and he could hardly formulate thoughts without feeling a great fear wipe them out to a clean white slate.

He couldn't answer the question even if he wanted to.

"Release my son!" The Moonstone Lord's countenance finally became malevolent, a pressure rushing toward Leonel like a tide.

However, in that moment, Leonel's palm squeezed down and Thalion released a horrible screech. The latter's soul was cracked like glass, just moments away from dissipating forever.

"The next time you speak out of turn, I will crush your son-"

"I said unhand hi-!"BANG!

Leonel's hand squeezed down and Thalion's soul shattered, the last echoes of his screams filling the skies.

The Moonstone Lord froze.

He hadn't expected Leonel to actually do it. It should have been a stalemate, his son should have still been fine. Everything should have been right with the world, everything...

"No... no..."

He didn't want to believe it.

It didn't make any sense. How was Leonel going to threaten him without his son? How was he even going to protect his life? How... How...

The Moonstone Lord unleashed a fury-laced howl. The strength of a Ninth Dimensional expert was mighty, but everything was relative. In the past, Leonel was nothing more than an ant before the humans of this ilk. And now, it was clever that a Spiritual... no, a Pure Blooded Spiritual was on another level entirely.

The arena cracked across its very foundations and a rumbling earthquake shook the city. It looked as though if the Moonstone Lord wanted, he could collapse the entire world in an instant.

He had never thought that things would end up like this. He had been so careless. If he hadn't left without his son, if he had just been a little bit closer, if they had chosen to play out this little show differently, or if he didn't rope his son in and let him stay beside the Emberheart Lord's side...

If... If...

Of all the deviating paths he thought of, not one was related to not speaking ill of Leonel's wife.

It all seemed so simple. Wasn't it just a few words?

No. No they weren't.

They were malicious to an extreme, linking his wife's apparent barbarianism to a connection with the Void Beasts. What exactly were they trying to get at?

If this sort of narrative got off the ground, how many people would start thinking that it was their moral duty to wipe the humans off the face of Existence again? How many assaults and wars would they face? How many experts would begin to point their blades at them?

Even if there was no intent other than to slander his wife, Leonel would have still taken action. He had allowed Aina to suffer enough for the sake of what was smart.

However, when the true maliciousness of what they Spirituals were trying to do settled in, it was even more impossible for him to let it go.

Let it go and then what? Wait for the armies to come knocking at the last remaining Bubble World? Wait for the sparse populations of humans scattered across Existence to be genocided one after another under a banner of "morality"? Wait until he was one day forced into a corner and had to present his head on a platter for all of these people to spit at and kick around?

"I'll bury you all, raze you to the ground, and if you're lucky, something new might sprout in your place. If not, that's fine too. You deserve to rot in hell."

BOOM!

The aura of Leonel's Destruction Sovereignty skyrocketed, peeling waves of smoky wisps rising from his body and cracking the foundations of the world around him.

An orb appeared in Leonel's palm and he crushed it, the World Spirit inside being shredded to pieces by his aura of Destruction.

As the waves of Force billowed out from him in all directions.

BANG!

Suddenly, a sphere of nothingness appeared around Leonel. Everything that touched seemed to vanish, leaving a perfectly smooth surface as though the destruction had been machined.

Below him was a crater that formed in the arena. Above him, there was a vacuum of both air and Force.

The pressuring wave that the Moonstone Lord tried to throw at him was akin to a pebble falling to the depths of the ocean as Leonel broke from the pinnacle of the Fourth Dimension into the Fifth.

His aura multiplied countless times over, and once again, his Life State Forces gained a huge boost.

Leonel pulled at the air and Little Tolly thrummed.