He didn't feel it when he first stepped onto a battlefield, he didn't feel it when he was thrust into the Dimensional Verse for the first time, he didn't even feel it when half a dozen Races invaded the Human Domain with thoughts of murder.
In fact, when he entered his first Sub-Dimensional Zone, he never feared the Mayans. His thoughts were entirely consumed by the guilt of killing. He never really feared the event itself. He hadn't even hesitated to jump into that unknown Zone on his own.
Now, though, it seemed he actually had to deal with those emotions. And quite frankly... he found it to be highly annoying.
He took a few moments to calm his thoughts and exhale a few breaths.
The Respect aspect of his Dream Force Sovereignty forced him to look at this objectively from the perspective of a mere Fourth Dimensional expert. In his current position, he had no right to face off against such an enemy, and it kept drilling that into his mind again and again, and again.
"If the Demoness was really some sort of God, then in her eyes the current Leonel was just a little plaything. Even if she was 'only' a Demi-God, he had seen the kind of power Minerva wielded. If not for her personality, Leonel would have had no path to survival in that battle."
His mind was so good at analyzing things, and now it was holding up a mirror to his nose, forcing him to look at his inferiority right in the face.
He hated it.
It felt like he was deviating from a path designed for him in favor of one that wasn't very compatible with him at all.
'Is that even true...?'
"Elthor didn't say anything, but he knew that it wasn't just the Morales family that died that day. The Oryx who had put their trust in him, a small race of beings with barely a few thousand to their heritage, had been entirely wiped out, leaving just a single Elthor behind."
"It was easy for him to focus on the success, easy for him to shield himself from his failure and inject that endless pride into his blood, using it to fuel his next tirade."
"But then what would be left?"
"Would he be that soul, left all alone staring at a star that could neither kill him, nor could he kill it? Would he be alone, his brothers gone, his parents gone, his wife gone?"
Leonel found himself having these same exact thoughts more and more often.
"But they were what kept him sane, what reminded him of the reason he chose this path instead of sticking with the one he was on."
"He didn't just want to read and react to situations anymore. He didn't want to be the pawn in someone else's game."
"He wanted to be ready for anything that might happen long before it did. He wanted to be prepared."
'Ready for anything that might happen long before it did...'
As the pieces of glass began to float, Leonel's gaze became brighter and sharper. He seemed to have understood something and his perspective shifted somewhat-not a perspective toward his Dream Force, but rather his Crafting.
"It was funny, he had just had thoughts of Simulating battles so that he could read and react to the changes faster rather than waiting for them to happen first, but he had completely glossed over that thought... until now."
"Why wasn't he incorporating his Simulation abilities into his Crafts? How much better would he grasp Simplicity if he did so?"
The thought was so stimulating that it felt as though his mind had imploded.