Chapter 2428: Someone...

"Aina, we're going to need a change of plans. How far away can you control the Blood Clones from?"

"If I'm outside with you, probably a few kilometers without issue."

"Oh, someone's finally talking to me again."

Leonel grinned.

Aina rolled her eyes. He was currently running for his life, but he still had the time to tease her. Plus, the only reason she answered was that she knew that this wasn't the time to be petty.

"You should be careful," Anastasia suddenly said. "There's at least one person who knows that there's a problem right now, and that number will only increase as a factor of time. Even if Aina can control them from miles away, there's no way an expert wouldn't sense the connection. You'll be exposed."

Leonel nodded. That one person was obviously Varough, and he didn't believe that that man would give up after just a single scan.

As for why Varough couldn't see through Little Blackstar's Shadow World, that was in one part due to Blackstar's overwhelming improvement and another part due to Leonel's help.

Blackstar's Dark Force had entered the Impetus State firmly. In fact, Leonel believed that his Dark Force was no weaker than Leonel's Dream Force at this point.

To match that, Leonel's Dream Sovereignty matched with the King's Might technique made it difficult for others to use their minds to lock onto him. It didn't help Varough at all that he was a Soul Force user and not a Dream Force user. He couldn't match up to Leonel at all even if his Soul Force was at a higher State. Soul Force was simply the inferior Force type.

However, regardless of all this, if Aina used her Blood Force on such a large scale, there was no shot that they didn't get exposed. He had no choice but to close in on the original location of his body, but that would make his original plan more difficult to execute.

The wave of people kept coming toward Leonel's location, but he had acted fast, returning to the furnace room that he had originally left the air duct from. He slipped into the air ducts once again without a word, zipping through on his elbows and belly.

Suddenly, his ears twitched. 'Dammit.'

Leonel cursed, feeling that the flow of Force here was different. He understood immediately. It was likely that Liana was about to begin her experiments and had turned the air filtration system on.

Leonel hadn't really paid attention to it before, but it seemed that the air flow now was far stronger, and there were likely blades of energy he would need to deal with.

Almost the moment he thought of it, an illusory fan of greenish-blue appeared in the distance, rushing toward him.

'This is karma.'

Leonel would have laughed at himself if not for the situation. He had accused the air ducts of being too primitive, only for this to happen.

Not only had a sharp, spinning fan appeared, but it moved linearly as well, rushing toward Leonel.

Looking behind him, Leonel realized another fan had formed, and it was rushing away from his feet.

It seemed that this air duct formed a conveyor belt of fans that both spun and moved, speeding up the movement of airflow out and keeping the air clean.

They weren't exactly powerful weapons. Someone in the Seventh Dimension could probably destroy them with a snap of a finger. After all, they weren't designed to attack people; they were just here to move air.

However, not only was Leonel not in that state any longer, if he destroyed these fans, he would almost certainly be exposed.

He weighed his options.

Be exposed by Liana or by Varough. Or, he could try to make his way through the compound using another method, but the odds he could manage to do so without being caught was slim to none.

Leonel's mind raced at a mile a minute, and then his eyes suddenly sharpened.

He understood now why he hadn't noticed the more complex Force Arts of this air duct before. They weren't located in the air duct at all. Instead...

Leonel slid backward at his fastest speed, the spinning fan threatening to slice at his nose just before he jumped out the end he had come from.

He looked around and found the source. It was one of the machines, and it controlled everything, even pulling in the impure air, purifying it, and then sending it back through a different mechanism.

With a thought, Leonel brought out Aina and entered a state of meditation.

Seeing him sit before her cross-legged, Aina was a bit confused. But then Leonel's words echoed out.

"I'm like this so that I can expand the lockdown of my Dream Plane to include you as well. That way, you're unlikely to be noticed if someone's Soul Force sweeps by-"

Leonel had only just said this when a Soul Force did, indeed, pass through. But nothing happened.

"-The furnace here is connected to the room my 'corpse' is in."

Leonel pressed a hand to it, his eyes still closed as he took deep breaths. After a few seconds, he nodded to himself.

He didn't do much. He just reversed the flow of the fans. The spinning green-blue fans began to appear from his side and rushed toward the cleanroom instead.

Liana would definitely have to come here to check what was happening, and in addition to that, he could do something else.

"Use this furnace as a conduit. Do you think you can control the Blood Clone through it?" Leonel asked.

Aina thought for a while, seemingly calculating something. Then, she eventually nodded.

"Good."

Aina took action as Leonel remained in a state of meditation. Liana had definitely already noticed the problem; they didn't have much time.

And, if things went like this, this was probably the last time he'd be able to use the air ducts as too much attention would be brought to it. But you couldn't make gains without taking losses.

"What do you want me to do?" Aina asked.

"Heal my Blood Clone so that it can try to make its own escape," Leonel opened his eyes with a grin.

Aina smiled and did as she was told.

After a while, Leonel put Aina back into the Segmented Cube and then timed his jump back into the air duct.

He had only left for a few seconds when Liana came rushing into the furnace room, a tight frown on her brows.

'Hm? Someone...'