The hearts of the various Ancestors palpitated. That strike… That strike…
Why did they feel like it was so dangerous?
It was the kind of strike they were confident they could deal with, but it was also the kind of strike they felt that if they were too casual with, they would be forced to suffer a small loss. It could most definitely draw blood. How was that possible?!
At that moment, Leonel's words from a month ago echoed in their minds once again. Indeed… If they had allowed him to step into the Seventh Dimension, where would the suspense be?!
Right before their eyes, Leonel had gone from Tier 7 to Tier 8, and then Tier 9 just 20 minutes later. It should have taken years to cross barriers of the Sixth Dimension. Leonel had given the others a 20 year head start and most of them had only barely stepped into Tier 1 of the Seventh Dimension! Watching a man go through two Tiers in not even an hour… How could they accept this?!
What made it worse is how Leonel broke through. This confirmed to them all that it was simply impossible for him to have taken the Conventional Path. Leonel had obviously used comprehension to breakthrough, and that wasn't possible with the Conventional Path which was entirely about tempering the body. He would have needed to consume some resources before he could break through, but they had all been watching him, he had clearly not consumed anything.
For one's comprehension to be so strong… Could even the likes of Cynthia and Velasco compare?
Velasco wasn't even 30 years old when he entered the Seventh Dimension, just like Leonel. However, what no one realized was that Leonel didn't even know what Dimensions were until he was 18 years old whereas Velasco had been born and raised in the Morales family. It was simply impossible to compare these two things.
He had to die.
…
Leonel lowered his spear, his gaze still sparkling. He had never unleashed such a powerful strike before, it felt good. With that strike alone, he had reached the Fourth Layered State, just a step away from the Impetus Stage. It had to be remembered that the Impetus Stage was the requirement for entering the Ninth Heaven, to even approach such a state was absolutely game changing.
However, Leonel wasn't complacent.
For one, to unleash that attack, he needed to complete his spear dance. Right now, his methods were imperfect so he first had to draw the power of several strikes before converging them into one. The process of drawing the Force Art currently shrinking beneath his feet right now wasn't small. At the moment, it took over 10 000 strokes of his spear to reach this perfect state.
In battle at his level, that would take several minutes to achieve, around five minutes or so. This wasn't very long normally, but a lot could happen in a battle, the most obvious of which would be his ritual being interrupted. And obviously, a person who he needed to use such a strike against would be more than capable of interrupting him.
The second problem was that this was the Fourth Layered State for a "mere" Sixth Dimensional Spear Force. If he improved to a Seventh Dimensional Spear Force now, he would only be able to touch the Third Layered State with this spear dance. And Leonel had no intention of holding back his Spear Force just for this.
There was good news, though.
When he began his spear dance, each and every one of his spear strikes was at the limit of the Third Layer, individually more powerful than almost any other technique he had. This meant that while he was accumulating, it wasn't as though he couldn't threaten his opponent. In fact, he would be likely to shred an enemy to pieces before he could even unleash the final attack.
But then there was more bad news. Leonel wasn't quite sure how to translate this to his bow.
With his spear, he could use his spear dance, but with his bow he could only stand in place and draw his bowstring, he would be a sitting duck. When would he have the time to stand around for five minutes in battle without attacking?
For the first time, his spear had actually surpassed his archery at least in this regard.
Luckily, there was more good news.
There were two paths before him to improve now. The first was simplifying the Force Art, the second was strengthening it. Decreasing the number of lines for the former, and potentially adding layers of complexity for the latter.
In addition, this was just one spear dance, Leonel felt that he could create more with differing aspects. This one was particularly overbearing, it was like a beast rampaging within its cage and pulling against its chains, roaring when it finally made its way out.
If he could create several spear dances, each with their own unique flare, he could one day enter a state of battle where he never had to step out of his spear dances at all, he could glide from one spear dance to the next, seamlessly using them.
If he reached such a state, it would be almost impossible to interrupt a spear dance because he could just flow into another. If it was himself flowing from one to the next, he wouldn't lose any progress. That way, he could incrementally complete one spear dance at a time until he had gathered so much momentum that he could bulldoze his opponents.
In fact, maybe one day he would even be able to fuse the final strikes of his spear dances into one, creating an ultimate attack that was simply unblockable.
Leonel's spear trembled once and he took a breath, exhaling.
He looked down at the heavy black rod in his hands. In the past, just trying to catch it had crushed his fingers, but now he could hear it roar.
Just now, Leonel had finally sensed the Domain of the black rod and he couldn't help but grin.
Over 20 years ago, he had given up the Shadow Sovereign Lineage Factor and chose to protect an unborn child.
20 years later, things seemed to have come full circle. Who could have known that he had had Shadow Sovereignty in the palm of his hands all the while?
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