Chapter 2173: Played

Montez looked toward his nephew, but he didn't quite seem to recognize him anymore. That cold gaze that looked down at him without a single word, as though his life was just as worthless as all the others he had killed... It was heartbreaking.

But Montez only felt this for a moment before his consciousness began to fade.

Just when it seemed that his death was imminent, Montez's body suddenly erupted with strength. His Force Nodes were forcefully expanded, and the Nodal Pathways between them doubled in size, and then doubled again.

At the same time, his Divine Armors shattered one after another until, under a mysterious force, his soul was forcefully separated from his body. But rather than being pulled out entirely, it rather felt that he had gained a great amount of clarity in an incredibly short period of time.

Leonel pulled his claw back, allowing his uncle to fall to the ground.

Montez's aura continued to grow explosively, as though all of his potential was being unearthed all at once. Leonel observed all of this silently, as though he was watching a science experiment of sorts. He wanted to see what the result would be.

Soon, his uncle actually began to change as well, a familiar set of dense scales, beautiful and radiant, took shape. Very quickly, he became a beautiful creature not much different than Leonel. In fact, he was taller and more magnificent, his power clearly beyond that of Leonel's. The difference, however... was that Montez had been fully awakened while Leonel's Lineage Factor was clearly very much still in a dormant state.

This much was obvious, though. Even in this state, Leonel was completely unable to fully awaken himself, and yet he had done so with ease for his uncle.

Montez collapsed to the ground, heaving for breath. His scales and horns quickly retreated, his body drenched in sweat. Clearly, he couldn't stay in that state for very long. But inwardly, he was completely astonished.

He kept his Divine Armor activated for every second of his life, rarely taking it off. It was a training method for his body, and one he took pride in since it was created by his father. But just a second in that form had left him completely gassed, he could barely find enough air to breathe.

He looked up at Leonel, slowly getting to his feet, not because he had the energy to, but rather because his pride wouldn't allow him to stay down.

"What did you just do to me?"

"What did I do?" Leonel mumbled. "The better question is what did I just undo. I didn't do anything, I just awakened what was already in you."

"In me? That's impossible. I've spent too long analyzing my body to..."

Montez trailed off because Leonel didn't even seem to be listening. It was as though he was in another world, thinking about something else entirely.

But Montez felt that he was correct. He was the only one who knew how much effort he had put into improving; it was impossible that he wouldn't have found such a large boost of power hidden within him. He couldn't even fathom what it would take to even begin to hide something like that. It wasn't as though the body was a vast and endless plane; there was a limited amount of space within it, and often one's talent was decided by how efficiently that space was used.

And yet...

"I've heard of a Demon Race... one that's physically extremely powerful, and yet they prefer to use their minds to mess with people. It's an interesting story, don't you think? Wouldn't it be funny if two brothers were born, but just as talented as one another, or maybe there was just a small difference between them, and yet the talent of one was sealed away, never to be reached, while the other continued to soar."

Leonel's gaze regained its focus as he looked down at his uncle.

"Would it be interesting? Interesting to watch that family crumble from the inside out, to watch as something that took so little effort on your part practically ruled the world of both of them? Maybe for a god, these sorts of things were the only way to brighten an otherwise dull day."

Montez froze.

Was he... talking about him and Velasco?

Leonel's gaze regained its focus as he looked down at his uncle.

"Would it be interesting? Interesting to watch that family crumble from the inside out, to watch as something that took so little effort on your part practically ruled the world of both of them? Maybe for a god, these sorts of things were the only way to brighten an otherwise dull day."

Montez froze.

Was he... talking about him and Velasco?

"... Don't speak nonsense, Leonel!"

Montez suddenly felt agitated. He had completely lost his bearing as an uncle; Leonel's words had pierced to the very depths of his soul. Something about his demeanor, his nonchalance, his casualness, had torn through what façade he had left as a senior.

If Leonel was correct, it meant that he had been played his entire life. He had lost connections with his brother for no other reason than the schemes of a third party. He hadn't given his wife the children she wanted all because of the schemes of some higher being, snickering at his suffering. He hadn't been able to live the life he wanted to, the life he deserved, all because some god was bored.

Leonel, though, didn't even care to respond to this; he was unmoved and unimpressed by the outburst. Instead, his mind was elsewhere.

The last time he had entered this state, he did two things.

The first was the change to his Mage Core. He turned it into a tree, filled with countless leaves, each one representing a different rune and a different discipline. It made digesting those various elements far easier for his suppressed self.

The second thing he had done was seal the smaller of his two innate nodes, allowing it to naturally progress, once again making it easier for his suppressed self to improve.

However, it could only be said that his suppressed self was far too stupid; he had overestimated himself. If others heard this evaluation of a Leonel was already too far beyond others, it was hard to say exactly how they would react, but this current version of him cared for nothing but the fact.

Since his uncle had come to stop him, Leonel had already made the decision to return. Whether Montez was telling the truth about his father's remnants or not, even if there was only a 0.1% chance, it was more important than the rest of these people's lives combined.