Dimensional Descent

"I am the absolute best of the Human Race. I am unmatched by no one other than my lovely wife. I am the Pavilion Head of a Dream Pavilion. I am a Wise Star Order and the wielder of the Life Tablet-"

Somnus seemed to understand what Leonel meant almost immediately, but unfortunately, they didn't have another silence to use, and if Celestia used hers here, the point of Talon intervening on their behalf in the first place would become moot.

"-Now you tell me... why was my answer lesser than yours despite my Class being unmatched within my Race?"

The Dream Asura fell into silence. He felt like everything kept going back to this issue, this one mistake, and no matter how hard they tried to pull themselves out of the quagmire, they couldn't do so. He almost felt that Leonel had done all of this on purpose, even going as far as to weaken his answer just to get this very result...

But he had no proof, nor did he have a good argument to make it sound plausible either.

"Also, don't you think you're a little bit too stupid?" Leonel asked, still stroking Aina's hair. "By definition, just to be capable of coming here, we all have to be of exceptionally high Class.

"One, we had to survive the culling-I'm sorry, I mean the Gathering of Kingdoms. You might not find it to be a big deal since you didn't have to participate, but I'll gladly paint the picture for you.

"Two, we had to have enough resources to practice these two streams of Crafting. Not only did we have to have the resources, but we had to have a teacher that was willing to pass down such knowledge to them, an individual who's likely worth far more than the resources we used to get here in the first place.

"Then, on top of all of that, we had to be the cream of the crop to even show our faces, let alone get to this debate round where there's less than a hundred of us left total.

"So, when you say the Owlan descendent was referring to Class and not Race, it's either one of you is the idiot, or both of you is the idiot.

"If there's a certain Class you can only reach by being a Demi-God, then what's the point of making the distinction? Semantics? Does telling people beneath you that they can definitely achieve what you have-even when their circumstances are entirely different from your own-make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside?"

Leonel seemed to speak all of this in a single breath, but he didn't raise his force, nor did he rush. Every word was akin to its own resonating hammer strike, even keeled and tempered to perfection.

Those who were watching the multi-layered and multi-staged debate seemed to realize that Leonel was baiting out this interaction from the very beginning. If he never mentioned Race, it would have never gotten so far. And yet, somehow, by mentioning Lumina, he seemed to reframe the entire argument as something she had started.

To make it worse, every time he mentioned her, he referred to her as the Owlan descendent, drawing attention to the actions of Aurora again and again.

Even without mentioning it, everyone was drawing their own conclusions. Why else would the Owlans take action if not to protect their descendent? It didn't seem to matter how far from related Lumina was to them, and it suddenly became a matter of a lesser Race against a greater Race.

As though all of this wasn't bad enough, because Leonel was saying these things to the Dream Asura and not Lumina or Orion, it hit even harder.

There were many members of Races at the same level as the Cloud Race, but because Leonel was lashing out against Somnus, it felt like the whole world was joining him to lambast a silver-spoon-fed elite who didn't understand the plight of those beneath him.

"It's fine, though. I'm very used to this, that's just the natural course of things. The Human Race has been at the bottom of the barrel for a long while. I personally have no ability to raise up trillions of people. If the members of lesser Races that have formed Dharmas couldn't do so, how am I going to?

"But I would suggest you all watch your words. I may be brash or crass, in your eyes, but my words ring true. So instead of using underhanded means to secure your victories, how about you meet me head on like real men or women?

"Of course, you could also just directly give up. I can take my victory and go home."

Somnus' expression became placid and unreadable.

Orion and Lumina panicked as they seemed to realize something.

Then, in that instant, the pillars trembled and erupted with a blinding light.

Leonel and Aina's points moved up from three points, all the way to ten.

A silence fell on the arena, a smiling young man sitting there as though the weight of the world didn't seem to matter much to him at all.

He took a casual glance toward Minerva and a casual sneer tugged at the corner of his lips. He had to admit that this little game was almost as fun as Crafting.

Almost.

...

El'Rion watched this scene in a garden that was much of a garden... at least not in the natural sense. Rather than being filled with beautiful greenery and a delicate fragrance, it was instead filled with carnivorous plants that put beasts to shame.

Of course, he had been watching Leonel's performance and he couldn't help but shake his head. He knew what Leonel's goal was, so he could see countless underlying tricks he was playing that others couldn't. That line about how he alone couldn't raise the entirety of the Human Race was especially potent. But what made it even more potent to him was the fact that even though Leonel said all of this...

He didn't believe it at all.

El'Rion felt he knew Leonel well enough to know that that man believed that he could do what even Gods had failed to do.

He was lying through his teeth and yet doing so with a bright smile on his face.

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