Chapter 2021: Lost

"... Auran lost," Leonel said lightly.

It was hard to believe. The strength that Auran had displayed before him, albeit just a small amount, was substantial. Just to counter him and Kira, Leonel not only had to use his second tier armor, he also had to actively use his Ability Index in battle for the first time in a while.

Ever since Leonel left the Tribulation Zone, whether subconsciously or not, he had stopped relying on his Ability Index in battle. The speed of improvement he had made in the way of the spear during his time in the Tribulation Zone spoke for itself. He would just be too stubborn if he chose to ignore the evidence right before him.

Over time, he was slowly finding a balance between relying on his intelligence and his innate talent to slowly move forward and improve. However, it wasn't an easy balance to find. The last time he had had a breakthrough in this regard was during his battle with Myghell.

This was all to say that Auran was the first person since he exited the Tribulation Zone and had such a big boost in his power that had actually made Leonel go so far. He had used not only all ten of his Star, he had used his Fifth Dimensional Life Grade Divine Armor and his Ability Index. These three things should have practically made Leonel undefeatable within the younger generation, but he could tell that both Auran and Kira had held back a great deal.

So how had they lost to Third Nova anyway?

There were only two explanations. Each was dangerous for its own reasons.

The first was the most obvious and that was that Third Nova was simply that strong. Even after dispersing his subordinates, he still had enough strength remaining to take on both Kira and Auran without a problem.

In this case, the problem was obvious: he was far too powerful, maybe more powerful than Leonel could fathom. If the battle had ended quickly enough that others, and even the Umbra family, couldn't find out the details about it, this was a testament to how large the gap between Third Nova and Second Nova had been.

The second was that Third Nova had been prepared for Auran and only pretended to disperse his people while keeping his strongest subordinates by his side. Maybe he had even laid a trap just for Auran to fall into it.

The problem with this case was that Third Nova was incredibly scheming and intelligent. It implied that after Auran's two attempts at thwarting him, he had already seen through the fact that someone was targeting him and took appropriate precautions. He was ready for Second Nova's appearance from the very beginning.

This was shocking because Leonel had seen Auran's level of caution first hand. In fact, now that Leonel thought about it, Auran's methods of weakening Third Nova in the beginning seemed to smell of his lack of assurance in victory.

It might have made sense for Auran to try and disperse Xavnik's people, but what was the purpose of clearing Sixth Nova's territory? One could argue that was to force Xavnik into a more desperate situation which eventually led to the outcome Auran wanted, but Leonel wasn't so sure about that. He felt that Auran had felt that he was going to lose.

But none of Auran's actions seemed to line up.

Why did he keep this a secret? Did he inform the elders ahead of time? If he did, why did the Morales allow Xavnik to participate? Wouldn't it have been better to deal with him directly? Leonel didn't believe that the Morales were the type of family to get tied up in tradition and red tape, they would definitely ignore their own rules if they had a good enough reason to do so.

It all seemed to circle back to the same point, the only reason Auran was acting in secrecy all this time to begin with... His Demon origins.

'How is it connected...'

Leonel was in the middle of a battle with an Heir-Grade while trying to digest this information suddenly came to a complete stop. He was even swallowed whole by the Heir-Grade beast, but he made no attempt to stop it, his body frozen in place.

Suddenly, the Heir-Grade threat was shredded to pieces from the inside out. Leonel appeared in the depths of the ocean, his Absolutely Domain raging around him.

Leonel's suddenly took a step, his speed blazing as he shot out of the ocean like a jet, quickly making his way back to his city. He had just received news that the others had finally found another unique territory, it was time to action.

At the same time, Leonel's gaze couldn't help but grow with a fiendish light.

Why would Auran keep all of this a secret? The only real expalantion seemed to be that exposing Third Nova would likewise expose himself. If Leonel was correct, not only was the Morales family's ties to the Demon Race much deeper than he had originally assumed, there was very likely a shadow faction within the Morales that was more aware of this than others.

There was a very obvious clue here. In order for Auran to be born, a Morales had to mingle with the Demon Race enough to, maybe not necessarily fall in love, but to at least copulate and have a child. This wasn't a small instance of interaction at all.

In the best case scenario, the Morales had ties to the Demon Race in small, benign increments.

In the worst case scenario, the Morales family had always had the roots of the Three Finger Cult within it. In fact, these roots were so deep that if someone like Xavnik managed to become the Heir, it would be enough to shift the tides in the family so much so that those that had once been in the shadows could see the light of day once more.

Leonel suddenly understood that he wasn't the only one using these Heir Wars as a stepping stone toward something much larger.

A flicker of crimson danced within Leonel's eyes.

'Okay, Xavnik. Let's play.'

BANG!

Leoenl landed and the entire ice island boomed and quaked, threatening to shatter to pieces beneath his might.

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