Chapter 2318: Worth

Leonel wasn't too shaken by the conclusion. He felt that everyone was selfish in one way or another, the problem was that he was selfish, and he also had the ability to enact his selfishness without the burden of judgment. If you could always manipulate everyone into doing what you wanted them to do, what worry did you have to have about backlash?

This, though, was still a bit of an excuse, and he knew it. This was his reality, and he had to decide whether he wanted to change or not.

But it wasn't that simple... because there was a very strong pull leading him in a certain direction. He still had a strong conviction to save his father and Aina, and he simply didn't see that changing.

Leonel clenched his fist and suddenly vanished.

...

Leonel stood high in the skies a long while later, staring down at a devastated scenery. This place was familiar to him, and it could be considered his true first stint into the wider Dimensional Verse...

It was Valiant Heart Mountain, the place linked to maybe the most growth he had experienced in his life. It was a place he owed quite a bit, but just like everything else, he had left it quite selfishly. He had taken everything he wanted from it, and then he had directly abandoned it.

Bits and pieces of it were now part of his people, those like Rayon and his wife. Emna was also a remnant from this part of his life... But the mountain was no longer anything. The people that had once called this place home, the elders that had given their entire lives to protecting it and helping it to grow, the excited youths who put their lives on the line just for a chance to enter...

It was all reduced to dust now, crushed until nothing remained.

Leonel descended and landed on the ground, standing along what remained of the wide road that led to Valiant Heart Mountain. In this place, two mighty pillars had once stood... it was they that pressured the disciples on their ascent up the mountain, and it was also they that also opened the Valiant Heart Zone.

Leonel closed his eyes, breathing in the air.

The planet was weak, so weak that if he took a breath that was too deep, the trees that had managed to survive the catastrophe of this world would be ripped out and tossed into the air.

He remembered the first time he had come to this world. He couldn't even make a dent in the ground with his spear, let rip a tree out from it. And yet, it all felt so feeble.

The faces of many crossed his senses.

Rollan.

It had been a long time since he had thought of that name. He was the best friend of The General, the character he had become in the Zone for those two years... or was it a character?

Rollan had truly become his best friend. He was different from James. He wasn't a playboy, he had a loving wife, Elise. He was less braggadocious and boisterous, but he was earnest and he had a kind pair of eyes that could melt the soul.

His wife was a perfect match for him. She was weak and didn't have any talent for improvement herself, but Rollan cherished her like a man should his wife, and she had begun to bear his child. When the Zone closed, she had yet to give birth, but Leonel knew how hard Rollan had fought just to give her and their child a chance to look into the skies with a smile on their face.

Goggles.

That pragmatic youth who refused to put his life on the line for anything. And why would he? With his Ability Index, he never had to. But he had chosen to fight for Leonel, to ignore his usual baser instincts and fight for something larger than himself.

Gertrude.

That fiery, red-headed young woman. She had once been a noble woman, but she abandoned her status because she felt that the actions of King Alexandre the Apex were vile and disgusting. She had a temper that could rival a dragon's, but a heart of gold.

He knew quite well that she was in love with him, but he had ignored her feelings. Even though he and Aina had already been on a rocky road back then, she was still the only woman for him. But she didn't deserve what happened to her...

None of them did.

He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, but the single tear came anyway.

He exhaled a breath.

"I'm sorry."

It was a hollow voice in a silent world. There was no one here to hear it. The ones that deserved to hear it were long gone because it was an apology that was long overdue.

RUMBLE.Leonel's eyes sharpened as they snapped open. It was a risk to come here, he knew that. War would break out soon of the Morales world, and yet he was here reminiscing. However, when he saw what was before him, his pupils constricted.

A portal, a familiar one. It was the Valiant Heart Zone. He could feel it in every sense of the word.

He hesitated, but he eventually stepped in.

It was all the same. Two years wasn't even necessary. A few hours wasn't even necessary. Even a few minutes felt excessive.

He crushed the Zone that had once taken his years to complete in not even a fraction of the time.

But he felt every second as though it was years.

What was the tradeoff? He was so powerful now that he couldn't build those relationships again, he didn't get to bask in Rollan's kindness, in Elise's sweetness, in Goggles' sense of humor...

And why would he? He was far above them, he was an existence beyond even their understanding. The tyrant King that they had feared for so long could only be strung up like a chicken in Leonel's palm.

And then, he stood before the Silver Tablet once again, entering its world and looking at the endless spirits who this time, instead of seeming illusory because of their deaths, look as real as could be. He had enough Force within his own body right now to revive them all if he wanted, he wouldn't even need external treasures.

But that question came back to nag him.

If you stood at the top of the world, with the strength to make anything you wanted to happen come into existence... If you acted on that strength, would its worth still be the same?

Leonel grabbed the Silver Tablet and poured his Force into it. His body acted without his mind's consent, disregarding the question entirely. All he wanted was this pit in his chest to disappear.

Somewhere a long distance away, a sigh that Leonel couldn't hear echoed.