A flashing light swirled between the two Valiant Pillars.
By this point, the crowd of individuals watching was considerably smaller than it had been two years ago. And though this was in part due to the fact it had been so long, it was also obvious that there was an air of heaviness around Valiant Heart that hadn't quite been there before.
When the group of geniuses appeared, the only two who were still on their feet were Leonel and Aina. But, on the 'bright' side, only three of their twelve geniuses had died. One was Sael's partner, the other two were both geniuses from Severed Heart.
Somehow, Radlis had managed to survive until the end, but Leonel hadn't really gotten around to asking Aina what had happened to her in these last couple years. They had both decided that things would be less annoying if they handled whatever these Valiant Heart elders would throw at them first.
As expected, the elders seemed to swarm the group the moment they reappeared.
To Leonel's surprise, though, after getting the other medical attention, most of their attention was focused on Aina, something that made Leonel laugh inwardly.
There were any number of reasons they were acting like this. But, it was likely a combination of them being consumed by Aina's talent and not having actually seen him in action. The final cherry on top was that these elders truly didn't dare to question Leonel and by extension didn't even consider asking Aina for her things.
As far as they were concerned, as long as they could win over Aina, wouldn't they win over Leonel as well?
Still, humans were also creatures of recency bias. It had been too long since they had seen Leonel in action. And, even if they remembered what he had shown, it was still nowhere near as impressive as what Aina had done right before their eyes.
That said, from the very beginning, Leonel's sights had been far beyond this Bronze Organization. And now, this truth was only truer than it had ever been before.
Even beneath the onslaught of questions from the elders, seeing that this was going to take forever, Leonel ignored them all and pulled Aina away. He hadn't suffered through two years just to suffer some more under such conditions.
The two soon vanished over the horizon, leaving the elders at a loss.
The elders looked toward Head Hutchin, trying to understand what it is they should do.
"Give them some time." Hutchin said evenly. "Make sure that the others are well taken care of, they too have made great progress. As for the two of them, we can only hope that they are willing to help."
**
"What?"
"What? Bad timing?" Leonel replied.
"You think?" Aina rolled her eyes.
She thought that her man had become far more confident and attractive, but she didn't think that he would also become more tactless.
At that moment, the two were both naked. Aina sat on Leonel, her breasts even touching his chest. She could very clearly feel his member pressing against the cheek of her ass. And yet, he chose this moment to talk about Oryx? Couldn't he pick a better time? Her eyes were still glazed over from the orgasm she had just felt.
Leonel laughed. "It's already been like half a day."
The two had already been rolling around in bed for more than ten hours. Even Leonel didn't bother to count the number of peaks Aina had climbed to in that time, yet she still wanted more. It seemed that in these two years this girlfriend of his had become insatiable.
"That still leaves you with 729 and a half more days to make up for!"
Leonel sputtered with laughter. He had to admit that he didn't hate this clingy version of Aina at all. It seemed like she wanted to stay attached at his hip and he loved it, quite honestly.
Though the two were still subconsciously ignoring the topic of sex, still feeling as though that portion of their relationship hadn't quite been sorted out yet, Leonel felt closer to Aina than he ever had before. And at this moment, he felt that that was enough.
"I'm serious, this is important." Leonel finally said.
"Fine. Tell me what about the Oryx is so important."
"Well, it isn't that the Oryx are important, but rather what I want to do with them that is. Our relationship with Valiant Heart could become quite contentious, especially when I succeed."
It was only after Aina heard this that her hips stopped subconsciously gyrating and she focused on Leonel's words.
"What do you mean?"
"I plan on taking over the Oryx Tribe and ruling them."
"Huh?"
Aina was stunned by Leonel's words.
From her position, her gaze was slightly higher than Leonel's. Looking down into his eyes, she could tlel he was completely serious.
Aina blinked. She found the dauntless confidence in Leonel's gaze right now to be fatally attractive. She even faintly wanted to drop everything and simply follow his lead.
"How do you plan on doing that?" She asked.
"I have a talented Oryx General under my charge. I've already sent him to their Tribe. He's not powerful enough yet to take full control over them, but his talent is enough to do most of the work for him."
"An Oryx General?"
Seeing Aina's confusion, Leonel began to explain everything he had experienced and for the firs time since the two reunited, they did something other than tease and embrace one another.
When Aina learned about the tablet, though, her expression changed. Such an object… Could it bring her mother back to life?
Having such a thought, she couldn't help but bite her plump, pink lips, her bad habit shining through once again.
"… And what do you plan to do with Valiant Heart? If you want to take over the Oryx… What does that mean for this place?"
Leonel's light violet eyes flashed with a cold light that made Aina shiver with an uncontrollable excitement.
"The Oryx are the far more talented group and their potential will be useful to me. The same cannot be said of Valiant Heart. If they get in my way…
"I'll destroy them."