Chapter 2313: Kill

Everything came to a stop. There was no moving forward, no retreating, and everything danced in the palm of Leonel's hand.

After a moment, Leonel exhaled a breath and shook his head. He looked out into the battlefield once more and his gaze flickered with rage. The casualties were atrocious, almost 10% of the Morales army was either dead beyond his means to revive, or heavily injured. There was another 10% on top of that that were dead and he might have a chance to revive if he was quick enough.

20% of an army of this caliber and size was a devastating blow, especially when the total had been at 0% for the past several days. These were the most elite of the Morales Seventh Dimensional experts. The only ones missing among them were the Nova Heirs, at Leonels request. Every loss of one was not only one less that they'd have, but it would also be a great detriment to the future potential of the Morales in the short term.

It was simply infuriating, infuriating that something like this could happen when it could have all been avoided. Maxx wasn't supposed to be his enemy, but he had made such an idiotic choice in the end.

When he spoke of killing two Suiards for every Morales that fell, he hadn't been lying, but it also wasn't just an act of rage that he wanted to mete out. The history between any two forces had to be taken into account whenever they were moving forward in any sort of conflict or cooperation.

Real Morales had died due to Maxx. Their parents would grieve, their wives and husbands would carry that pit in their hearts for a lifetime, their spouses, their children, their friends, each one would be impacted in their own way.

How could they just forget everything and move forward in cooperation with the Suiards? The original cooperation that Leonel had wanted now was dead. He had tried, he had made concessions, he had even laid down his own fury toward these families and their inaction as his father fell on his spear. And yet this was how they repaid him.

The smoldering lines of black began to appear around Leonel again, but just as quickly as they had, he snuffed them out, his gaze returning to a cold depth of indifference.

His actions might have seemed crude, he might have even been seen to have pushed the Suiards and the Spirituals Religion to this point, but he knew what his intentions were better than anyone else.

He had left Maxx alone after taking the World Spirit. He had proved himself by entering the Impetus State with his Dream Force and countering Veiga. He had had no intentions of slaughtering the Half Spirituals when he came here and the entire brunt of the attention he had given had been focused on killing the Ancestors of Shield Cross Stars.

He had been bold, a bit crude, and a bit strong-handed, but these had all been necessary actions. If he came, hat in hand, trying to form alliance bonds with these two powers, what would the result have been?

In the best case, he would have been laughed out of the room. In the worst case, they might attack to kill him due to his role in linking the Morales and Earth, the soon-to-be only two Eighth Dimensional worlds of the Human Domain.

He had chosen to forgive, to forget... not only their actions in not aiding his father, but also in their intent to pressure the Morales just to keep their families safe. Did the Spirituals Religion not send a representative that day? Did the Suiard family not place a pawn in the Void Palace and use it as a proxy to pressure his Morales family?

He had been too kind.

BANG!

Maxx was forced to his knees under a resounding pressure. There was no land to stand on, and yet the space beneath his kneecaps cracked and shattered, forming a pseudo-land just for him. The golden dust particles around him swam and then formed powerful chains, piercing through his shoulders, his chest and then, finally his knees. Then, they bound around his body tightly.

Soon, the same actions were repeated for Tracilia, and the Poppy in the distance. Despite the latter being the only one of them that wasn't injured at all, under the weight of the formation... it was all worthless.

Leonel raised a hand and a strong pull came from Poppy's very soul. Her eyes widened as the World Spirit was torn out and brought to Leonel's palm. With a squeeze, it was shattered and the Half Spirituals, all at once, felt a sense of laws that trembled their hearts and caused their eyes to water. Compared to humans, the Spirituals were far more sensitive to this sort of matter. Their World Spirit subconsciously felt no different from family to them.

After he was finished, Leonel began to use the formation to speed up the process. He didn't have to gather Force the normal way since the formation could accumulate so much of it. Thanks to this, the Force he needed to revive the members of the Morales were readily available.

Luckily, he managed to revive almost the entire 10%, only missing out on a few, a result that was much better than he expected. There was nothing he could do about the ones that were gone before he got his hands on the formation, but this would have to do for now.

Leonel looked toward the army. His expression was the mask of coldness and he could see every Morales looking at him with the same steely intent.

He knew that this was exactly what the person lingering in the shadows wanted. There was no better scheme than one your enemy knew was there, and yet had to fall into anyway.

Right now, though, it didn't matter. For the sake of the future, this was the best step to take... The only step.

"Kill."

The roar of the Morales shook the solar system.