Leonel took a breath and closed his eyes, taking deep and slow breaths. He had spent all of this time completely focused on Vital Star Force and hadn't spared time for his other Force, but now it felt very necessary to do so. The trouble was that he didn't have a cheat this time like he had with his Vital Star Force.
Leonel was certain that the one who was obscuring his path forward was far weaker than that so-called grandmother of his.
For one, his person was in this Incomplete World with him, while the demoness most definitely was not. In addition, the demoness only allowed him to sense her out of sheer amusement, that was something else Leonel was certain about. If she didn't want him to know of her gaze, he wouldn't be able to sense a single thing.
This was to say that while the manipulation of this person that was opposing him now felt far more subtle and he wouldn't have noticed if not for Maxx's hint, it wasn't impossibly beyond him, he was just ignorant.
The most important thing he learned was that... Dream Force could be used in this way.
He fell into the trap of always thinking about Dream Force as an internal thing, and the fact that his Ability Index was designed the way it was made it even more difficult to break free of this thought. But it could be said that Dream Force was the most abundant Force there was, or at the very least, it was among the top few, sharing the spot along with neutral Force and Star Force.
Where there was life, there was Dream Force. It underlied the very fabric of reality, and it was probably the very foundation of the Second Dimension, the same way...
'Star Force is the foundation of the Third and higher Dimensions...'
When Leonel first learned about Star Force, he didn't understand what it was. What did it mean for there to be Star Force?
Light Force was straight forward enough, it was light. So was Dark Force. So was Earth Force or any other elemental Force. Most Forces made perfect sense to him, except for this one...
Stars emitted light, so why wasn't it a kind of Light Force? Or, what about the heat they emitted? Why wasn't it a kind of Fire Force? Why was there a need for a distinct and separate category, and why was it that all of the most powerful Forces seemed to have a foundation of Star Force within them?
It was only after meeting El'Rion that it clicked for Leonel, and it was due to a single like the Pluto youth had spoken...n.-O-(V))e(.l--B/(I-.n
Complete Worlds have just a single star, a single land, only Incomplete Worlds are so scattered.
It all made sense, and it was even more obvious by the fact the representation of Existence itself, was none other than a Star, the Northern Star.
Fire Force wasn't the representation of the spark of life like Leonel had thought. No, that was a Star Force. It was something even more fundamental than Fire Force, even more fundamental than Light Force as well. It was why there was no "Star Force" like there was Fire Force or Light Force, it was always accompanied by something else. And this wasn't because it was weak, but rather because it was the strongest, it was the very foundation of all that was.
After the big bang, there was an endless soup of energy, and it was only when these soup of hot energy organized into Stars that the planets that formed afterward could begin to teem with life. More accurately, without Star Force, there was no Life Force, and without Dream Force that came before it, there was no potential for Star Force to spark Life in the first place.
If Dream Force was even more fundamental than Star Force which represented all things, then why was he treating it so separately? Why was he treating it like his mind was separate from everything else? His mind was just one kernel in a sea of kernels, and his Dream Force wasn't as separate as he thought it to be.
Not being able to expel Dream Force out of his body didn't equate to it being separate, rather it just meant that his Dream Force didn't need to exhibit such skills to display its understanding of the wider world.
If he took an extremist view, his Dream Force was just a borrowed strength from this world. Dream Force was never separate, not at his level. Much like Star Force, it was always attached to others, always infused into a fabric, a fabric that existed within the Second Dimension, the fabric of everything, the Life State.
His Dream Force rippled out and he stepped past the Fourth Layer and entered the Impetus State. His thoughts seemed to enter a completely separate plane and within it, he could sense countless swimming minds, minds that seemed to immediately sense him and then attack.
Leonel felt a shuddering pain and his nose began to bleed. He pulled his mind back as quickly as he could, but still fell to a knee, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Looking inwardly, he saw a hairline fracture run through his Ethereal Glabella that left his gaze burning.
That Plane, he didn't know what it was, not exactly, but he felt that it was all too similar to the Shadow World of Shadow Sovereigns. He didn't think himself to be a Shadow Sovereign, or rather, a Dream Sovereign. But then again, wasn't this situation very similar?
Little Blackstar wasn't exactly a Shadow Sovereign, but rather received it as an Ability Index. Modred, however, was a true Shadow Sovereign as her Ability Index and her Shadow Sovereign abilities were separate.
Leonel was more like Little Blackstar, having an Ability Index that could tap into the abilities of a Dream Sovereign, but he seemed to have suffered for it.
His burning gaze became surprisingly cold and the temperature in the surroundings plummeted. He took a breath and a large amount of Dream Force from the surroundings flooded into him. And then, his Scarlet Star Force Stars began to rotate with a pulsing vibrancy and as his Ethereal Glabella was coated with Destruction Runes.
He wasn't a Dream Sovereign, but he was a Destruction Sovereign. He wanted them to dare to destroy his soul again, he would crush them.
Without hesitation, Leonel entered the Dream World again.
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[Author's Note: Just two chapters today everyone, and no chapters tomorrow unfortunately]