Dimensional Descent

'Oh?'

Leonel looked at Gregwyn, his thoughts flickering. He took note of this, but when he looked at the veins of red, he vaguely remembered something else.

'That's odd, how could those two things be related?'

He slotted these things into the back of his mind as he did with everything. In this world, it didn't seem that there was such a thing as useless information. He had lost count of the number of times he had connected seemingly unrelated matters.

"Let's begin." Leonel's voice boomed.

He noticed that Eamon was practically shaking, but he could only smile bitterly.

Gregwyn's maleficent aura was, indeed, probably the worst sort of outcome for Eamon. He was already nervous, facing off against a person with such a great amount of hatred and animosity was, well...

Leonel put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, victory is certain. Just do your best, I'm not asking for anything more."

Eamon nodded shakily.

Leonel sent a glance toward Goggles and the latter looked serious. Seeing this, Leonel smiled inwardly. That was the Goggles he remembered.

The man was outwardly a coward, but when it came time to put his foot to the gas, he did so without hesitation.

He was a person whose character Leonel could trust. No matter how he acted, Leonel with certainty.

They would win this.

The pair of trios vanished, appearing in a familiar courtroom-like environment.

They stood around in a circle, facing off in high stands while there was a podium down below in the middle of them. It looked like an enormous senate, and though most of the seats were empty unlike last time, the grandiose atmosphere was no less.

At that moment, the podium in the center of the circular room thrummed awake and three small pillars of light came from them.

"Please," Leonel said with a smile.

According to the rules, Leonel got to pick the participants, but it was the one that was challenged that got the chance to choose the actual challenge.

The catch was that the range of challenges wasn't endless. The True Dream World would randomly generate three, and they would have to choose from them. But usually, there was an excellent balance between these three challenges, meaning that the one picking would almost certainly be able to pick one that suited them the best.

Leonel had already taken a look at the first three spawned challenges.

Two were one on one sequences, while the last was three on three.

As for the specifics of the challenges, one of the one on one sequences was a Dream Beast challenge. They would each fight against the same caliber of Beast and whoever secured victory faster would be the winner.

The second was a more normal one on one combat sequence, but it was instead based on speed of comprehension. Whoever grasped a Force Art and replicated it faster would win.

The third, the three on three battle, was more complex. Essentially, it fell into what was called a "control center" battle. In this case, one of the three participants would be given control while the other two were "blinded". The controller would have to give commands to his or her two teammates to lead them through a task.

The task could fall into a myriad of categories. This one was a maze of Force Arts. It required the action of both blind teammates to unlock the exits and as with all this related to the Dream Pavilion, it was overly complicated.

The choosing of the challenge was a battle in and of itself, though. The opposing Dream Pavilion Head had quite a bit of pressure on their head because the way they chose might reveal the strengths and weaknesses of their team, something that could be taken advantage of the longer the rounds became and the deeper they got into Challenge Sequence.

There was another variable to consider as well, and that was what was called a "Twist".

This Twist was incorporated at random no matter the challenge type. It would tweak the rules here slightly. Not enough to completely change the challenge, but enough that it might be a surprise.

This meant that in addition to picking the challenges, Patriarch Khafra had to be cautious about what Twists might appear. If he chose a challenge that he wasn't proficient in just to throw Leonel off, a Twist might appear that would make him suffer.

However, if he chose a challenge he was confident in, then even if a Twist appeared, he would still be ready to deal with it regardless.

This was the balancing act he would have to play. It was akin to a game of chess within a game of chess.

To the surprise of the spectators, though, Patriarch Khafra didn't take his time to analyze each one of these options. He immediately chose the one on one battle against Dream Beasts, and he also immediately made it a battle of Dream Pavilion Heads.

Leonel smiled. "Confident, are we?"

The Patriarch's reasoning was clear to Leonel. He wanted a swift and decisive victory, one that would demoralize Leonel and his partners.

The two vanished from the gathering court and appeared on the top of a mountain. Each one stood on their own mountain, separated by over a hundred kilometers and yet still capable of seeing one another with absolute ease.

Both of these mountains had flat tops, smooth and almost as reflective as marble. The shimmering golds and whites of the True Dream World were just as vibrant as always, painting the image of a paradise.

At that moment, there was a golden Force Art that appeared high in the skies above both mountains. They rapidly expanded until they blotted out the skies, spinning like a pair of gorgeous magic circles.

Then, a beam of light came from their center striking down onto the flat-topped mountains.

When the beam faded, the flickering image of a beast took shape and then solidified. At that moment, the two immediately launched themselves into action.

The Challenge Sequence had begun and a bright grin spread across Leonel's face.

The world couldn't help but think...

Where was his fatigue?

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