The three swirling masses of blue Star Force began to compress as the silver-white Star Force continued to pulse. They fed off one another, seemingly trying to find some sort of balance. However, maybe in the history of the [Dimensional Cleanse] technique, no one had ever formed all Three Stars of the Fourth Dimension at once.
There were three foundation layers for Dimensional Cleanse. The first was for the Third Dimension, the second for the Fourth, and the last for the Fifth. Each would produce a maximum of three Stars, of which most wouldn't be capable of forming even one.
However, let alone not forming even one, Leonel had suddenly begun to form three at once and no matter how he tried to slow the process so that this splitting headache would leave him alone, nothing would work.
The truth of the matter was that Leonel's body had been ready to spill over to the next Dimension for too long now. Not to mention the fact he had one parent who was bestowed the complete World Spirit of a world with Eighth Dimension potential on one hand, on the other he had a parent born from a Seventh Dimensional world that had birthed a Clan with a Lineage Factor with Eighth Dimensional potential as well.
The fact he had remained in the Third Dimension for so long, all while spreading his limits thin through his Metal Body and his Dream Force, was almost a form of blaspheming. If it wasn't for the fact his body didn't know how to progress to the next level, it would have long since done so.
It was like a hole had been poked through the barrier toward Leonel's next advantage, large waves of crashing waters ramming through it and forcing it wider and wider.
If it was said that the best breakthrough was one that came naturally, this was more than just natural. It was almost like a wine locked away for thousands of years, fermenting to the point of achieving a potency that could knock someone out with a single whiff, let alone a sip. The trouble was that Leonel's body had to be the bottle that contained it all, and it was on the verge of collapsing.
Leonel roared into the skies, his body pulsing with a blinding light.
He could feel every individual cell in his body being washed over by a seemingly endless torrent of energy. His blood vessels dilated, his nerves fires continuously, impurities poured out of his body like a flood, pooling around him just to be incinerated by the Star Force in the surroundings.
At that moment, enough time had passed for yet another spirit to form, but it could hardly mold itself into a silhouette before it suddenly found itself obliterated, unable to withstand even a single strand of the moment of Leonel's breakthrough.
Leonel's hair began to fall from his scalp once again, only to rapidly grow to lengths that would put some rivers to shame. His skin's pores opened and closed as though it was breathing, pouring out with foul smelling odors that would put even the Oryx to shame. Leonel could feel his mind and body transcending. It was the very first time he had ever experienced such a thing.
Leonel had thought he could predict how his breakthrough into the Fourth Dimension would go. After all, he had 'experienced' it before with his Metal Body and his Dream Force. Wasn't it the same thing?
But he was wrong. He couldn't have been more wrong. This was a completely different experience. It felt like rather than breaking through, he was becoming a completely different person, as though he was shedding away what he once had been to become something new.
If Leonel had to describe the difference… It felt like he had been in charge of constructing an enormous building. But, for some reason or another, he had started to build the foundation with wooden planks.
Feeling like this wasn't good enough, he hid those wooden planks underground and swapped out the upper tiers of the building for more elaborate building materials like steel beams decorated with polished glass.
However, ultimately, the foundation of his building was still weak. The wooden beams could hardly hold up its heft and the structural integrity was lacking to a great degree.
Finally… He decided that he had made a mistake. But how would one rebuild a foundation?
The only answer was to tear everything down and build it up again!
Leonel felt as though every single one of his cells was being reborn. It was simultaneously like he was both the weakest he had ever been and the strongest all at the same time.
As his body reconstructed itself, it remembered the previous blueprint with ease. It reconstructed his Metal Body, making Leonel feel as though it had become what felt like hundreds of times more powerful in the blink of an eye. At the same time, it reconstructed his mind and his Dream Force. Even if some of the foundation was still too weak for Fifth Dimensional Dream Force, it was powerful enough that Leonel improved by leaps and bounds.
Leonel had once only been able to split his mind just over a thousand ways. But now… He felt that even splitting himself 50 000 ways wouldn't be difficult in the slightest! And, he still felt as though his mind was only growing more and more powerful like chains that had held it down for the longest time were finally being released one after another.
Leonel's roar grew louder. Blinding lights that erupted from his body began to incinerate his clothing and the impurities it was dripping with.
Within Leonel's Ethereal Glabella, the six reforming Stars began to grow explosively in size along with the boundaries of his mind. At the same time, the body of his Mage Core grew along with it, its foliage becoming more exaggerated and the trunk of its stem expanding all the more.
In one sweep, Leonel had stepped from the Third Dimension to the very Peak of the Fourth.