Leonel's eyes opened, his gaze narrow.
'I'll be ready soon.'
If there was anything staying in the Third Dimension for so long taught him, it was that there was always far more potential left to squeeze out than he thought.
There was a point in the Third Dimension where he thought that his limit was 60 split minds, only for him to end up with over a thousand.
Of course, this wasn't to say that Leonel planned to spend several more years in the Fourth Dimension. In fact, he planned on breaking through on this road so long as he was forced to. If he wasn't forced to, he would breakthrough the moment he left this place.
His reasoning was simple.
The reason he had been able to go from 60 to a thousand split minds wasn't because he had that much potential to squeeze out but rather because his mind was already in the Fifth Dimension. It had long since been far more ready to reach that level than he had given it credit for. Such a large difference could be explained by his body slowly acclimating and growing stronger within the limitation of the Third Dimension.
Leonel had a feeling that even if he had broken through back when he only had 60 split minds, he would have still gained more than ten thousand after reaching the Peak of the Fourth Dimension.
Still, the reason Leonel wasn't breaking through immediately wasn't for his mind. He felt that no matter what, he would be able to bring it to its full potential. Rather, the reason he was holding back was due to his body.
He had barely tasted Fourth Dimensional Force and he was still acclimating himself to it. His [Star Fusion] and these last three months had sped up the process tremendously, especially the former. He felt it wouldn't be long before he spilled over in the Fifth Dimension much like he had the Fourth.
'I've spent a lot of time here, it's probably time to speed up a bit…'
Leonel shot forward. 'It's interesting, though. I feel like I could tell anyone I want about the Fourth Dimensional layer of [Dimensional Cleanse]. But, for some reason, there's a barrier when it comes to the Fifth…'
Kira had jumped off before Leonel got a chance to call out to her. But, he had wanted to give her the Fourth Dimensional layer at least before she left. He hadn't felt anything stopping him, so he thought it would be the same for all the layers.
And yet, he found that the Fifth Dimensional layer was locked away in his mind with no intentions of allowing him to speak of it. In fact, Leonel got a small headache whenever he tried.
'Is it because I comprehended the Fourth Dimensional layer on my own…?'
Leonel frowned. When he heard that [Dimensional Cleanse] could be practiced alongside other techniques, he had already had thoughts of passing it down to his brothers. But now, it seemed that things weren't so simple.
'… What if I dissect and comprehend the Fifth Dimensional layer on my own, too? Would that be possible?'
Leonel wasn't sure, honestly. Could you 'learn' something you already knew? Leonel felt that there was a subtle difference he might be able to take advantage of.
Of course, what he didn't seem to realize was just how utterly ridiculous what he was thinking of doing was. Comprehending the Fourth Dimensional layer on your own was shocking enough. But, to even attempt to do so for the Fifth…
Suddenly, Leonel's eyes widened.
He crossed the barrier at which a spirit warrior should have appeared. By now, they were appearing every 20 or so meters, so he had already been prepared to go all out. But, the reality was different from what he expected.
A spirit hadn't appeared at the 20 meter mark. In fact, even after traveling over a kilometer, he didn't find one.
When he was about to hit ten kilometers, Leonel's senses caught onto the faint traces of a barrier. It was the same barrier he sensed whenever he had yet to defeat a spirit and also the same barrier he sensed during his battle with Kira and those two young men from before.
But, this time, there was no spirit warrior.
'A puzzle…?'
Leonel blinked before his lips spread into a wide grin. This was what he was best at.
What he didn't expect, though, was that for the subsequent puzzles to take all 50 000 of his split minds to complete. There was nothing simple about this trial in the slightest.
However, Leonel's speed compared to others at this point was like a night and day switch of before.
By the time he made it to 'round three', there was no one around but himself. He had actually managed to bridge a gap of almost half a year in a single round.
**
On a moon covered in red dust and sand, a portal opened up. Slowly, but surely, several figures walked out, each more ravaged and injured than the last.
Even still, many of them could only look toward the back of a particular young woman with reverence clear in their eyes.
Her armor was caked with blood from top to bottom, some of it having yet to completely dry. The grip she had over her battle ax hadn't weakened not even a single measure in all this time. And, even now, her back was straight and true.
The depths of her eyes carried an emotionless cold that was hard to meet with any gaze.
Samson was among the last to come out. In truth, he seemed to be in the worst condition, even having lost an arm. He would have died had it not been for Aina being far stronger than any of them thought. In fact, all of them would have died.
He looked toward her back with a hint of worship. He had never managed to catch a glimpse of her face, but maybe that was for the best. He felt that such a warrior shouldn't be blasphemed in this way just because she was a woman.
'It seems that the Brazingers will be yet another hereditary Vassal family… I will have to tell Rychard about her as soon as possible. The girls by her side aren't bad either… Who would have thought that this would have been a Unique Zone...?'