Chapter 416: Shadows (1)

Leonel clenched his fists, causing the mountain of earth Damian was chain to, to collapse to the ground.

His fingers flicked out once again. This time, however, instead of steel needles being shot out, Little Tolly's spherical forms tore through the air, appearing about the remaining tanks.

In the blink of an eye, through Little Tolly, Leonel not only sealed the barrels of the tanks but also the roof doorways. Beyond that, he also sealed a hidden escape hatch. With his understanding of the tanks, how could he miss something like that?

From start to finish, those of the Slayer Legion didn't dare to move. In truth, after Leonel moved again, they thought they would die. But, even after realizing that they would keep their lives, a bout of despair overwhelmed them.

To a rebel, being captured by The Empire meant that their lives were all but over.

Earth only had a single prison located on the ninth ranked province, the Dark Cloud Province. It could be said that though the monitoring bracelets were a huge invasion of privacy, they did their job. The crime rates were exceptionally low.

Beyond this, the rehabilitation of criminals was also excellent. For those who committed petty crimes or lower level felonies, they received ample help to get their lives back on track.

However... those who were deemed irredeemable were all sent to Dark Cloud Prison.

This wasn't a typical story of prison horror. There were no tall tales of torture or terrible living conditions. In fact, The Empire had allowed reporters and activists into this prison many times before. It could be said that for an Empire willing to let 99% of its population die, The Empire was ironically humane in other ways.

However, everyone knew that no one who ever stepped into Dark Cloud Prison ever took a single step out.

There were only two greatly protected regions of Earth that were perfectly prepared for the Metamorphosis. One was the Capital... and the second was Dark Cloud Province. Even after the Metamorphosis descended... not a single person managed to escape.

Those of the Slayer Legion slumped into their chairs. They knew that as of now, their lives were over.

Leonel lowered his hands, his chest heaving.

Using his ability to analyze and scope out the situation had been easy. Commanding Little Tolly's actions had also been easy. But, using his Chain Domain made him feel as though he was squeezing what remained of his life out.

Before, Leonel had only used his Chain Domain for a split moment against that mental mage. Plus, back then, his Chain Domain had been incomplete and imperfect.

Now, however, his Chain Domain was perfect. It took far more out of him to use, especially as violently as he had just done.

Restraining a target was one thing, but constricting them to death was an entirely separate matter. Unfortunately, since his hands were tied, Leonel had no choice but to use this method.

'If my Spear Force was in the Fourth Dimension, it wouldn't be nearly as taxing, but...'

Leonel sighed and shook his head, revolving his Three Stars to recover quickly. He knew he couldn't breakthrough into the Fourth Dimension until he comprehended the Four Seasons Realm. But, in truth, he hadn't even begun to try just yet. He wasn't quite sure how to.

What Leonel didn't know was that there wasn't necessarily a 'how'. Those who comprehended the Four Seasons Realm on their own relied on sudden enlighten and meditation. But, with how Leonel's life never allowed him a moment to rest, whether or not he could succeed in this matter was still unknown.

'What do I do now...?'

Leonel felt a sudden headache coming on. He had come here to take the Fort down, he had never expected to be the one to save it...

'Hm?'

Leonel's gaze sharpened.

He looked to his back, only to be slightly shocked as the illusion around the inner city began to slowly collapse.

The truth was that this illusion was never able to hide itself from Leonel's eyes. But now the Dream Force around it was dissipating, making it possible for everyone to see the hidden truth.

It was a massive metal dome. It stretched in length and width for at least ten kilometers. As for its height? It completely dwarfed the 20 meter tall or so walls of the outer city. It rose up at least a kilometer in that aspect alone.

It could only be described as a behemoth.

With the illusion gone, the true size of the city seemed to become obvious. The outer city was just a small ring around the outside compared to the monstrosity that took up the center of all of their lives.

Seeing such a sight, Leonel felt the rage he thought he had calmed in his chest flare up again.

With such a large space, was it really so impossible to allow everyone in? Did they really disdain to do so this much?

The worst part about it all was that the alloys used to form this dome couldn't even be breathed in the same breath as those that built the outer wall. It was infinitely close to a Fourth Dimension metal. In fact, this was simply because it was formed of a collection of Third Dimensional metals. In terms of strength alone, if Leonel's analysis was correct, it put many Fourth Dimensional metals to shame.

Yet, the outer wall was only considered to be strong within the Third Dimension. The difference was so striking that one almost couldn't help but laugh.

Leonel didn't have the time to care why the illusion had faded. He wanted nothing more than to charge over and flatten the dome he saw before him.

"Yip! Yip!"

Just when Leonel was about to do something stupid, a little mink pounced in his arms. This small action seemed to snap him back to reality.

Leonel looked up to find Aina following after the little mink, her great sword seemingly unblemished by battle.

"They're clear?" Leonel asked.

Aina nodded.

While Leonel's job had been to stop any more from leaking in, Aina had teamed up with the little mink to take out any that had managed to make their way into the city.

Leonel sighed. He really wasn't sure what to do.

He shook his head. 'Maybe I should just try to repair this wall first... Can I do it alone, though?'

'Hm?' Leonel frowned, his gaze focusing back on the little mink.

What were these little faint black balls floating around Little Blackstar?