Chapter 2554: World Stage

Leonel felt a ticking timer in his mind. While he could rush off to capture some beasts to stabilize his situation, if he did that right now, it could give Octavia the chance to rush up the mountain. At that point, all this would be for naught.

Although it would be cowardly for her to do so, and clearly a slap to the faces of the Owlan Race as a whole, a win was a win. Leonel didn't want second place after everything he had been through.

His speed was fast, faster than anything he had displayed until now.

He appeared around Octavia in an instant just as the latter was stuck in a daze. She had just seen Minerva lose for the first time in her entire life. When she thought about what would likely happen when they returned, her heart shuddered.

When her gaze landed on Leonel, she analyzed the situation quite quickly. Unlike Leonel, these Ninth Dimensional experts were extremely experienced. The instant she saw the hole through Leonel's chest, she spent an extra second to observe the runes on the shield, and her pupils constricted with understanding.

Seeing this, Leonel understood immediately why Regnier had really hidden the Shield for so long. He was still stuck in the mindset that he was the best Crafter around, so much so that he didn't consider the fact just because he couldn't see through something with a glance, it didn't mean that others couldn't if they paid a little extra attention.

If the Owlans weren't so arrogant, they would have paid closer attention to his Shield and might have been prepared for him to trigger this trump card.

Leonel internalized this mistake deeply. He knew that this was because of the path of confidence his Dream Force had taken before; he still believed himself to be the best in everything, and it had been a detriment instead.

He didn't suffer for it this time, but who knew when he would in the future?

He wouldn't allow it to happen again.

His gaze blazed as he felt Octavia's intention to retreat. She obviously planned to wait out the duration until he fell dead. And unfortunately, Leonel wasn't immediately prepared for this outcome.

However, he reacted quickly. His heart thumped in his chest, feeling his body and mind being brought to their absolute limit.

Dream Nets suddenly appeared all around him, six in total, completely surrounding him and Octavia.

Octavia's eyes widened. What was he doing?! If he released these, he would do too-!

BOOM!

Six beams of thick golden lines, all of them forming an encirclement around Octavia, roared to life, swallowing them up completely.

After seeing Minerva's abilities, Leonel understood how Octavia had managed to survive two near point-blank blasts of the Dream Net. Minerva had the ability to completely nerf another's Dream Force in a wide range, but Octavia and Seraphina could only negate Force that directly touched their wings. Due to this, the defensive and attacking abilities of their wings were absolutely frightening. It could even be said that Leonel was lucky to have only clashed with Seraphina's wings a single time and that he had done so with an actual weapon instead of just his Forces.

But this was also why he had no choice but to attack Octavia from all sides even though he would get caught up in the blast.

Although Octavia was the one surrounded by the Dream Net, there were three of them facing in Leonel's direction, and there was no way Octavia would block them for him. He would definitely have to deal with the blast as well.

He roared as the blast radius rocked the world enveloping both himself and Octavia.

Leonel pushed himself to the limit, trying to split the wild raging energies. His mind was unprecedentedly focused as his body was pushed to the brink.

"All tides split beneath my blade."

His gaze sharpened, his violet irises flickering like dancing amethyst flames.

His spear blade expanded, and the crown above his head shimmered.

The world bent to his will, and he could feel King Alexandre's Ability Index more clearly now than he ever had before.

In the past, he was arrogant, his Dream Force shunning the world because it was confident in itself. But now, he could really feel the world. He had opened himself up, and the world had likewise embraced him as a result.

When he spoke, it listened... and in that moment, his Dream Force and Spear Force seemed to truly become one existence, causing their strength to explode forth with a majesty even beyond the spear strike that eliminated Minerva.

The world split in two.

Leonel stood there, huffing deep breaths as he stared at Octavia's frozen figure. She shuddered for a moment, and then fell into two pieces. Her wings simply couldn't protect her from all sides. When she wrapped them around herself, it would reveal the space between her shoulder blades. She could only blame herself for trying to run away earlier.

He met her gaze in those last moments before they disappeared and grinned.

His laughter boomed into the skies, large amounts of Dream Force shooting forward from the surroundings and pooling into his battle.

This felt good. It felt better than any victory.

His blood pumped through his veins as though gasoline lit ablaze. Every reverberating thump echoed through the skies, his vitality rushing into the surroundings in waves.

As he laughed, the True Dream Plane seemed to resonate with him, shimmering and shining beneath his jubilation as though it, too, was happy for him.

A dominant victory, a truly dominant victory. If there was one part of him that hadn't changed at all, it was the love of this sweet taste. He almost forgot that there was a hole in his chest at all as he basked in the light.

It only made it feel all the better that it was his dad's spear that guided him.

"Take this as the return of the Human Race to the world stage!"