Chapter 72: Hellish Graveyard (1/2)

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…'

The truth was that not everyone could use spatial treasures even if they had one on hand. To the current Earth, those who even had Internal Sight were a rare few. And, those who could control it were even fewer.

If Leonel had been willing to risk it and hid the existence of his spatial bracelet, it was unlikely anyone at Royal Blue Fort would be able to call him out on it.

Just when Leonel was about to succeed, he felt a BOOM resound in his mind.

Pain ravaged his thoughts and blood dripped from his nose.

He fell backward in a daze, crashing to the ground.

To an outside observer, he was staring blankly at the ceiling, not even reacting to his head rebounding off the hard floors. However, if one looked closely, his eyes were completely vacant as though he had already died.

Shocked by the sudden noise, Aina's eyes flashed open. When she saw Leonel on the ground, she shot up and to his side, but no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to wake him up.

While Leonel's body was being violently shaken by Aina, his mind was in a completely different place. He felt as though he had stepped foot into a hellish world. No, he might not even disagree if one said this was hell itself.

Above, clouds of black-red rolled, the low rumbling of thunder beating against his ears repeatedly.

In the distance, these clouds formed vertical swirls of cyclones and tornadoes, touching the ground like demonic omens of greed and gluttony.