As Leonel worked, news began to quickly spread back to the Green Thread Faction and beyond. It was quite rare for challenges like this to happen between Factions, let alone for two individuals without a Faction at all to suddenly rush up to challenge a Faction on their own like this. It only made it a hotter topic when it was considered that the Green Thread Faction had just been promoted to the Silver Grade.
Leonel, though, had focused so much on the task at hand that nothing else seemed to matter to him at all. However, what no one could have expected that on this day, the situation would completely change.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Even if he didn't want to, at this point, Leonel had no choice but to snap awake, the sudden backlash of the incomplete Force Art nearly throwing him into the air.
Leonel coughed violently, his expression warping.
The ground shook and quaked, the earth that looked so sturdy and impenetrable before splitting in several regions.
'What the hell?'
Leonel grabbed out toward something to stabilize himself, his gaze turning cold as he ran through possibilities. His head turned up, looking in the direction that Aina had left, but he suddenly realized that it had already been half a day since then. He had been so focused that he didn't notice the time passing.
This much wasn't unexpected, Leonel was already prepared for her to be gone for a while. According to their original plan, Aina would get certified by the Force Pill Faction. Leonel had faith that Aina would perform astoundingly. Once she did, her name would spread for a reason other than her combat prowess, and then their next steps would flow much more smoothly.
According to Leonel's estimations, it would probably take Aina about this long to succeed. But, before she could return, something seemed to have happened to the Violet Palace?
Before Leonel could think any further, the coldness in his eyes vanished, and a portal the size of which he couldn't even fathom appeared.
The Void Palace itself was already larger than any construct Leonel had ever seen. Its mountains and moons loomed in the vastness of space, stretching out for dozens of planets' widths and heights. Yet, this portal appeared to dwarf it in size.
No matter where you were, whether at the bottom of the mountain or the top, and whether you were still in the Fifth Dimension or the well into the Seventh, there was not a single soul present that didn't feel as though their souls were being sucked out of their bodies.
'Is that… A Zone…?'
Leonel couldn't breathe.
It didn't make any sense. The Zones of the Void Palace should have long since been cleared. The only ones that remained open for missions were Unique Zones kept open so that their resources could be benefited from. It didn't make any sense for a new Zone to suddenly appear like this one.
And why was it so large!?
Leonel could barely tilt his head into the skies to find a flood of powerful auras rushing into the skies, each one of them wearing a serious expression. It was hard to tell if they understood what was going on, or if they were just as confused as everyone else was.
But, at that moment, nothing seemed to matter at all. Unable to do anything to stop it, the Void Palace and all of its students, teachers and volunteers were swallowed whole.
…
In a distant location, Velasco's head snapped upward, his expression changing. If Leonel had been here to see his father, his own heart would have skipped several beats. This was something that he had never seen before.
Soon, Velasco's shocked expression turned from surprise to unbridled fury, his glasses cracking and shattering beneath the pressure.
Bits and shards threatened to blind him, and yet he didn't even blink a single time. A Craft that had been formed of Seventh Dimensional materials shattered and attack the most vulnerable location on his body, and yet they rebounded off of his irises as though meeting a steel wall. From beginning to end, the usual prankster of a father didn't even flinch.
Velasco's fury shattered the bounds of reality, the planet he was standing above going from hole to pierced through in the blink of an eye. It was as though a massive rod had run from its north pole to the south pole, its core being obliterated.
Just like that, an Eighth Dimensional planet was torn to shreds, its implosion cascading into the surroundings like a supernova's eruption.
Velasco didn't say anything for a long while, simply staring into the distance. However, his expression became calmer and calmer until the point it seemed as though nothing had happened at all…
Until he erupted into boisterous laughter. The sonic waves that billowed out from his lungs formed concentric circles in the depths of space, the waves cracking and shattering space.
It seemed no different from a normal laugh on the surface. In fact, it even sounded jovial. But, anyone who knew Velasco was quite aware that he was absolutely enraged. Thoroughly enraged.
The last people who had heard this laughter were those of the Void Palace almost 30 years ago, and now it had appeared once more.
Why was he here in the first place? Why was he trudging and slaughtering his way through a different Domain instead of staying by his wife's side and wasting the hours away teasing that useless son of his? It was precisely so that he could make sure that this exact thing didn't happen.
And yet, they had actually dared to test his bottom line like this. It seemed that since he had disappeared for so many years so that he could raise his son, they had forgotten just who Velasco Morales was.
He would make them pay dearly. And if a single hair was harmed on his wife's head, he would show them something worse than hell.
As for his son? Well, he could always make another one.