"-so you were thrown into the in-between worlds to collect demons for the juniors, and this happened while you were inside?" Vivak's gaze narrowed. "You're quite... lucky."
Leonel laughed, scratching the back of his head. "My Dream Force is quite good and my reaction speed is excellent. Plus, I was lucky enough to find a spatial tear out and took my chances."
Vivak nodded slowly. Leonel's Dream Force was indeed powerful, abnormally so. It should also explain why he managed to become a Spear Sovereign.
'A Destruction Sovereign and a Spear Sovereign in the same body. He's exactly the kind of specimen we were hoping for... no, he's more than we could have ever hoped for. But that doesn't explain why we didn't sense him.'
"Your Spear Dom-"
"Ah! Noah!"
Leonel's eyes opened wide as though this was the first time he noticed his cousin by his side.
Noah was a bit sluggish to react, but he looked at Leonel with a dull gaze before nodding lightly.
"Oh... Hello, Leonel."
He nodded and then lowered his head to the floor.
Leonel blinked in "confusion," before he pursed his lips and pretended to be peeved by Noah's reaction.
"We're cousins and you still act like this every time you see me? Is it that big of a deal that I was named Crown Prince and you weren't? You even went and changed your last name." nOvE/lb(1n
The nonsense flew out from Leonel's mouth with a practiced ease.
He had thought about pretending not to know Noah at all, but he tossed that idea to the back.
For one, he didn't know how much information these people had about him. If he pretended not to know Noah, and then they found out that they were cousins, then wouldn't he be shooting himself in the foot?
But this was a perfect compromise. It gave him a reason to expose their relationship without appearing to be too close to him.
Plus, if they investigated, they would find that he and Noah were indeed not that close. Though, their relationship also couldn't be said to be bad either.
What Leonel really needed was an excuse to help Jessica out. He couldn't let her die just like that. If Noah ever snapped out of it and found out what happened, he would never forgive himself.
"Cousins?" Vivak's gaze narrowed.
"Yes, my mother and his father are siblings," Leonel said lightly, still a bit "annoyed."
Vivak's eyes seemed to flash with a fierce light. This sort of thing...
He pushed it aside for now.
"Your Spear Domain Lineage Factor, how is it?"
"Spear Domain..." Leonel's eyes lit up. "... Oh, you mean that. Sorry, I haven't called it that in a long time."
Vivak raised an eyebrow, "why's that?"
"Well, everyone in my Morales family calls it that, but when it awakened for me, it was different. I think it might be because I have too many Lineage Factors; it might have mutated."
Vivak's brows shot up. "I see..."
If this was true, it would explain everything. It was no wonder they didn't sense it; this brat managed to evade them by luck.
In truth, Vivak wasn't necessarily wrong. At the very least, the first avoidance was due to sheer luck.
Leonel never finished the Bow Domain Lineage Factor, so he didn't suffer its corruption. And then his Spear Domain Lineage Factor fused with his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor and the Midas, Radix, and Florer family Lineage Factors as well, so he was completely in the clear.
"Tell you what, Leonel, is it?"
Leonel's eyes brightened. "Sir God remembered my name; I'm flattered."
Vivak chuckled; he found that he quite liked this kid.
"How do you feel about going with me instead of Molexi?"[Author's note: spelled like that on purpose]
"Ah... This..." Leonel was hesitant.
Vivak observed Leonel.
He really couldn't tell that anything Leonel was doing was an act, but he still felt a hint of suspicion. It was difficult to reconcile this Leonel with the Leonel that boldly spoke to all of them and "demanded" to be a Seeded Participant.
But then he remembered something, that beautiful young woman who was by his side.
He was a man, so he understood. Men did stupid things all the time for their women. If Leonel had only acted back then to make sure that he and Aina went to the same place, it would be easy to reconcile this Leonel and the one of back then.
"Tell you what, I'll even contact Molexi about bringing your little lover over too."
When Leonel heard this, his face sank, and tears began to pool in his eyes.
Vivak understood immediately. Something must have happened to that little girl. Grasping this weakness, he changed his tactics immediately.
"I won't ask you what happened, young man, but I can tell you that in this world, power is everything. If you want to seek revenge, all you can do is make yourself as strong as possible.
"The Three Finger Cult only treated you as half a Seeded Participant, even making you run errands for them. But I'll take it upon myself to give you full rights as a Seeded Participant so long as you comply with some experiments my family scientists will hold.
"You will grow far stronger under my wing as opposed to theirs."
When Leonel heard this, he looked toward Vivak with his red eyes.
"Thank you. I accept," he spoke through gritted teeth.
...
It wasn't long before Leonel and Noah were escorted out of the region of destruction. Leonel even got his own room and board, and it was semi-luxurious at that.
He sat onto his bed, his gaze flickering.
He was really playing with fire right now, but what else could he do? He wondered what kind of experiments they would try to run on him?
Regardless, there was one thing Vivak said that was correct. He had to get stronger.
He had stalled their preparations, and soon the fusion of the worlds would be complete and these higher ups would be entirely occupied by fighting off the armies of the demons. It would be all hands on deck.
He felt that it would at most be half a month before the worlds stabilized and there would be a full-scale, all-out war.
In that time, he had to finish his father's first three tasks.
Even if they were impossible, he had to make them possible.