1370 Baffling
"Blast through?" Aina"s expression changed. She looked at Leonel as though he was a madman.
She could tell that Leonel meant that he wanted to speed things up and rush through the maze by breaking through the walls. But, if that was so easy, everyone would be doing it. They just witnessed together how hard it was for Leonel to deal with that platform, and that had been a thin walkway to begin with. What kind of effort would it take to blast through reinforced walls?
The Rapax obviously hadn"t built their Nests like mazes for fun, there was a purpose behind it. It made it far easier to defend and gave them an added buff toward enemies. The fact it had taken so much effort to get here in the first place was a testament to that.
However, toward Aina"s words, Leonel only grinned.
"Cut them down for me. I need a bit."
Aina met Leonel"s gaze for a moment before she nodded. She would just have to wait to reprimand him for not explaining another time. This situation was even worse than before with Rapax still streaming in. So, she had to prioritize their safety first.
The moment Aina stepped in front of him, Leonel took a breath and settled his mind. This region seemed flooded with nothing more than Fifth Dimensional solider Rapax. He hadn"t even seen a Runed Rapax yet, which was part of the reason their fight until now was so easy.
Thanks to this, he didn"t have to worry about Aina"s safety at all. He could focus his everything on this.
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With a flip of his palm, a fingernail sized gemstone appeared in his hand. It seemed almost inconspicuous, but the moment it touched Leonel"s palm, it was as though it had been lit on fire. Even when Leonel squeezed his hand shut, radiant light spilled out through the cracks, causing rays of red-gold to splinter off in all directions. But, he remained silent, his mind soothed and calm.
The feeling was a bit exhilarating and Leonel even felt a hint of excitement bubbling up, but he forcefully repressed it. For at least the first time, he needed it to be absolutely perfect. That way, he could replicate it through his absolute control and achieve the same result again and again.
The Camelot Magic System had always required a Spiritual Medium. This was why they used wands and staffs. Some of Modred"s most powerful spells could only be cast with the help of her wand.
Usually, these Spiritual Mediums were carved out of what the people of Camelot called Spiritual Trees. But, in Leonel"s understanding, these so-called Spiritual Trees had just been Quasi Fourth Dimensional trees capable of withstanding the amplification of Force.
Through his study of the Natural Force Art left behind by Merlin, Leonel was able to learn that the best Spiritual Medium of a mage was actually their own body and this was where magehood and knighthood intersected. This realization was what led to the birth of Leonel"s Mage Core.
Ironically, if one looked into Leonel"s Ethereal Glabella now, his Mage Core had sprung up and looked a lot like one would expect a Spiritual Tree to look. In that way, everything seemed to have come back around full circle.
The petals of Leonel"s Mage Core each represented a separate Element. One for Fire, another for s.p.a.ce, and more for Light, Variant Earth, and now there was even one for Water. As Leonel improved, these petals grew more detailed and his Mage Core grew, allowing Leonel to pull more and more atmospheric Force toward himself.
Like this, he became his own Spiritual Medium, allowing him to cast large scale spells with great effort on his part as he could rely on Force outside of his body.
But, if one thought about it… Didn"t the petals of a Mage Core sound and feel a lot like an Innate Node. In fact, the more Leonel thought about it, the more he loved the comparison. In fact, an Innate Node was just an even more intimate part of Leonel than even his Mage Core could be.
This Innate Node in his palm right now… It was his, it was the very same Innate Node he had been born with as a child, the very one his mother suffered to birth with him, the very one that called down the Phenomena upon his birth. The intimacy he had with it, even after so long had pa.s.sed, transcended almost anything else he had ever experienced in life.
SHUUUUUUU!
A strange vacuum seemed to form around Leonel. In that moment, his eyes snapped open, a wild red-gold light s.h.i.+mmering within his irises even as a similarly colored fog began to waft from his body.
"Junior Scarlet Mage."
Leonel exhaled a breath, the temperature around him skyrocketing more and more with every pa.s.sing second. And yet, he had never felt better in his entire life.
His scales lit on fire, his wings following suit soon after. He was bathed in a red gold flame, a moan almost escaping his lips as the intoxicating feeling spread throughout his body.
And then… he tapped his foot to the ground.
A rus.h.i.+ng line of flames spread out from his, quickly drawing a majestic magic circle that surrounded him in the blink of an eye. Each line of fire seemed to race against one another, quickly completing their patterns one at a time.
"Aina. Follow me."
Aina"s ax swung down once more as Leonel stretched a hand out. In quick succession, several fire b.a.l.l.s formed and shot past her, the heat making even her tough skin tingle.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Aina"s eyes widened as she watched the tunnel collapse. When she looked back, she found a hole where Leonel had been, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest.
Aina quickly pursued, the sound of rumbling explosion resounding beneath her. No matter how fast she fell down each hole, she couldn"t seem to catch up, causing the astonishment on her face to only grow.
She knew that these walls were actually fragile compared to normal Seventh Dimensional rock. After all, this Nest had to be built by hand, so it couldn"t be too difficult. As such, they were the equivalent of dried mud in the Third Dimension, within the Seventh Dimension.
Still, despite knowing all of this, Aina couldn"t help but be baffled. Her ax… It could barely leave a small nick on these "mud walls".
Suddenly, a rush of light flooded Aina"s vision and she realized the BOOMING sounds had calmed to a halt. When her vision cleared, she found Leonel standing before her and a vast underwater cavern before them.
Streams of vibrant green waters snaked all around and several waterfalls pooled in from the sides. Toward the center, a delicate stack of heavily Runed eggs the size of a human lay, each booming with a clear heartbeat that rocked the soft bed of soaked soil they sat upon.
In the very center, there was one egg that was not only by far the largest, it was the only one half submerged in a pond of green liquid. While the Runes of the eggs around it varied from Black to Bronze, to Silver and even Gold, its Runes was a bright green color, radiating its own light.
However, this wasn"t the most shocking part of the cavern. There was already a battle raging on and it seemed to have been going on for a while. A liter of Rapax corpses lay, and at a single glance, it was easy to tell that each of them had been at the Seventh Dimension with only a rare few having been at the Sixth. It was a deduction enough to leave one frozen in shock.
Still battling several more Rapax, a singular young man with simple black hair stood with nothing more than a sword in hand.
When Leonel laid eyes on the young man, though, his expression went as cold as ice despite the star-like temperatures he was radiating.
The Sword Deity.