As Leonel was meditating in the depths of a pool of Cleansing Waters, the situation in the Void Palace was only getting worse with every passing moment.
The Domain Ranked disciples that remained had worked their whole lives for this matter, and they carried resolute faces as they faced off against legions of otherworldly beings, but their resolution did nothing to change the fact of the matter: they were entirely outmatched.
In the past, the humans had at least had the advantage of numbers. There were so many roads that they cultivated that there was bound to be at least one a person could excel in. This was about the only advantage humans had over the other races.
However, the Void Palace had suffered devastating losses due to the Cataclysm. And, to make matters worse, even if they hadn't, they were facing the combined numbers from several races at once. Not that they were also missing so many of their own, what chance did they stand?
The Nomad Race, the Cloud Race, the Rapax Race, even the Dwarven Race and the Beast Domain were attacking. It seemed that every single one of them wanted a piece of the pie and they weren't willing to take even a single step back.
They flooded in from five different directions, assaulting the humans on all fronts. They were stretched thin and there was simply nothing that could be done, and this was before even any Ancestors showed up. With the way things looked, it seemed as though the Human Domain would fall without the Eighth Dimensional experts of the other Races even having to lift a hand.
However, there seemed to be good news, even after the first line of defense was breached and the second was halfway through falling, the Spirituals had still not shown up.
The Spirituals rarely participated in conflicts and they didn't seem to care for the land of others. There were a rare few stragglers who came out from time to time to remind the world of the power of their Race, but other than that... there was absolutely nothing.
That said, it had been a long while since the last Eighth Dimensional world had appeared. It would be hard to tell what they would be willing to do in this situation.
As a result, they became like a lingering guillotine in the air. But so long as they didn't appear, the situation wasn't helpless quite yet...
On the side of the humans, the Void Elders stood outside the tallest peak of the Void Tower, their expression solemn and their wrinkled faces contorted. They could see that the second line was about to fall.
"The prestige of the Void Palace has fallen too far..."
It had already been half a day but there were no signs of those families appearing. The Void Palace wasn't worried that they wouldn't show up, but rather worried that they would show up far too late. They were waiting for everything to be perfect for them to make their appearance, not realizing that there would simply be nothing left to be perfect if they were any later.
But it couldn't be helped. The prestige of the Void Palace had taken a huge blow after they failed to protect so many of their disciples. Many middle-of-the-pack families had sent their own hope in generations to the Void Palace, only to lose their child forever...
Now, those families were being called again and it was hard to tell how they would feel.
"There's no choice. If they don't appear, the entire human race will be enslaved."
"It's already helpless," Void Elder Lizbeth said softly.
"What did you say?" Void Elder Galliene, a drill sergeant among them, snapped almost immediately.
"I said that it's helpless. Who cares how many of them appear, what will they do when the Ancestors of the other Races start appearing? Even back when we had such a huge advantage in the number of Seventh Dimensional existences, our number of Eighth Dimensional existences couldn't match up to even one of the Races, let alone so many of them.
"We have many paths to reach the Seventh Dimension, but none of them are excavated deeply enough to allow a large number to enter the Eighth Dimension. We are finished."
Hearing a Void Elder say such words, the others were shocked, so shocked in fact that they couldn't even react to what happened next.
Void Elder Galliene, who had just seemed to be reprimanding Lizbeth, turned around and swiftly attacked. It wasn't just him, but Lizbeth and Void Elder Wimarc attacked all at once as well. The other Void Elders were caught off guard, many of them having their chests pierced and hearts shattered in a single swift move.
"YOU!" Cornelius, who had only recently managed to become a Void Elder himself, was instantly enraged. He had never imagined that the people he had spent his whole life looking up to would suddenly do this.
The remaining Void Elders suddenly recovered as well, but just when Cornelius was about to attack, he froze.
He looked down, finding an arm piercing through his chest. He struggled to look back, but he never managed to see who it was.
He had never expected it to be a two-layered plan. Only a part of the traitors had acted in the first rounds while the rest pretended to be shocked along with everyone else. Then, just when it seemed the traitors were clear, the second group attacked.
Cornelius didn't even know what to think in his final moments until his thoughts suddenly settled on a particular one man for some reason.
That young cub had given him such a headache in the small time he had known him for, but he had always seemed to pull out victory from the jaws of defeat.
Cornelius slipped down, falling from the hand of the person who had attacked him, through the clouds below and toward the ground.
The hand pulled back, slowly wiping their hand of blood as their features began to change.
"Do we attack now and finish it?" Lizbeth suddenly asked.
The person shook his head. "Not quite yet."
If Leonel had been here, maybe his heart would have stopped beating entirely.
This man was someone he knew all too well.
He was none other than Lionel Morales.
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Erdiul's Notes: For those who are confused, or don't remember. Lionel Morales is the Savant from Earth, that thought he was Leonel. He should be dead, but I guess not. Also the author says maybe leonel would have his heart stopped beating, but let's be real... Bro just realized his world is a simulation and that people can get rezzed like it's nothing. I don't think this would surprise him.
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