Chapter 72 - Hellish Graveyard

Leonel stood silently for a moment then took a step forward.

Aina gazed toward his back with a complicated look. Why would he allow her to come here? It can't be that he really trusted her to this extent, right?

But when she thought about it, what other choice did Leonel have? She sprung this sudden mission on him without warning and even plainly said it was in the area his Paradise Island might have fallen.

Let's assume for a moment that he didn't come here? What then? What if he waited until he separated from Aina to come to this place? What would those observing him think of this?

It was obvious. Their first instinct would be to think that he was hiding something.

However, Aina's actions gave him a good opportunity. There was a level of spontaneity that made everything seem natural. He really seemed like a boy who was looking for the remains of his father.

When Aina analyzed things to this point, she found a corner and crossed her legs in meditation.

Of course, she had no idea that this was only part of the truth. There were ultimately still many ways Leonel could have avoided this outcome. He could have made her wait outside under the pretext he wanted to grieve alone, for example.

The ultimate reason he allowed her to come here was because he trusted her. It was as simple as this.

Whether that trust was due to his rosy colored glasses or if she was really worthy of it, maybe even Leonel himself didn't know.

Leonel noticed that Aina had closed her eyes and had stopped paying attention to her surroundings, but he didn't say much about it. He continued forward and eventually stopped at the pedestal furthest to the left.

He reached forward through the barrier of energy. He had thought that it would stop him, but surprisingly, it didn't. His hand passed right through as though it was nothing more than air.

Leonel picked up the unpolished ring. As expected, it had a texture similar to an uneven coat of dry paint.

After observing it for a while, he couldn't find anything special about it. He even got the vague feeling that it wasn't even in front of him despite the fact he was very much aware that it was in his hand.

Suddenly thinking of something, Leonel stopped observing with his eyes and focused all his attention on his hands. Maybe he could find something similar to the Force Art on the door handle?

But, Leonel was soon disappointed. No matter how he looked at it, this really was just a ring with a poor finish quality. Whoever made this thing really must have not cared for his craft very much.

'Wait...'

Just when Leonel was feeling stumped, he thought back to Montez teaching him how to use his spatial bracelet. What if this was a similar item?

'... Take control of my Internal Sight... Concentrate it... Imagine opening a door...'

Another BOOM resounded in his mind.

He suddenly found himself in another world, racing through a jungle.

A single layer of beast skin covered his lower half, his bare torso rippling with muscle as he hopped from tree to tree with nothing but a wooden spear in his hand.

What seemed to be a saber toothed tiger raced toward him from below, roaring as though completely enraged.

A laughter left Leonel's lips, but he somehow felt that it wasn't a laughter that came from him.

Completely unable to control his body, his free hand caught onto a vine and swung downward in a wild but controlled arc.

At the perfect moment, he let go, his spear cocking backward as a savage grin coated his features.

Unable to react, the back of the saber tooth tiger's head was completely pierced through, its last roar being followed by a gurgling of blood.

Leonel found himself sitting on the tiger's massive head. He pulled the spear from the beast's skull, savagely licking the blood that drenched his spear and palm.

A moment later, Leonel jolted awake. He suddenly felt something heavy on his chest, making him think that he might have returned to that hell scape graveyard of spears, but he soon realized that the pressure wasn't heavy enough.

"... Aina?"

Leonel frowned, realizing the weight on his chest came from a delicate fragrance that made his senses feel incomparably comfortable. When he noticed how soft the weight was, and even sensed that his chest was a bit wet, he realized that this 'weight' was actually a sobbing girl.

"You..."

Aina looked up from Leonel's chest. Her amber eyes were puffy with tears, giving them a red hue that Leonel felt bad for thinking suited her. There was something about this crying Aina that made his heart stir uncontrollably.

He didn't even think before he hugged her, causing her to fall back into his chest.

"What happened?" Leonel asked, trying to appear soothing.

But, he couldn't have expected what happened next. In fact, he didn't even truly register what happened at all. It was just that he found it weird he was looking up at the ceiling again.

When Leonel landed on the ground again, he only barely registered a pair of slender legs walking by him as he slid across the floor. And, by the time he sat up, Aina was back in her corner with her eyes closed as though nothing had happened.

Leonel couldn't help but laugh.