Dimensional Descent

Ten Years

Leonel grilled the man and quickly got the information he wanted. He really wanted to know what the purpose of capturing a 12-year-old child was, least of all a human.

It turned out that he had a constitution that the Cloud Race decided was perfect breeding, and that just left Leonel sickened. Stealing children for the sake of breeding?

However, remembering the words of the Life Tablet, Leonel was fairly certain that this was a culture spurned on by the Barbarian race. Even so, that didn't mean he had to forgive the Cloud Race for doing such a thing.

He took a breath and shook his head. He was apparently also supposed to help the Cloud Race out, so he wasn't exactly in a position to wipe them all out.

Many races had done horrible things over the history of Existence. This was something Leonel knew intimately after studying the Life Tablet for so long. There were no objective good or bad Races, so there was no need to waste his time and ruin his future trying to get petty revenge in a Zone of all things.

It was best he focused on the task at hand.

In the end, it seemed that the reason they were torturing him rather than pampering him was because they wanted to corral and curb his sense of self. They wanted him to be a breeding animal, not a lover. It was more efficient to "breed" with several Cloud Race women than it was to impregnate one Human Race woman at a time, so this was why little human boys were chosen instead.

Leonel found this quite interesting. It went to show just how much of a choke hold the Barbarian Race had over the Cloud Race in this place. It also made Leonel realize that he had to be wary.

Although he might be lucky that the other Barbarian Race members were in other bodies now, that didn't mean he was necessarily in the clear.

Who was to say that there weren't a few Barbarian Race members who were native to this Zone monitoring things from the shadow?

As for why he felt that the Barbarian Race would likely have strong control over what was happening here, that was because Races across time and space were usually fiercely protective of their women.

To use them like this to give birth to children outside of their Race was quite novel given the historical context.

'What should I do now?'

Leonel hummed, looking at his hands. As expected, Anastasia wasn't there, and it should mean that Aina was still inside as well.

He wasn't worried about this as it had happened to him once before. It just meant that until he separated from this body, he wouldn't be able to access such things.

But he wanted to clear this Zone as perfectly as possible. Separating from this body would be a detriment to that.

Also, it wasn't necessarily easy. It took the power of an extremely powerful God the last time it happened.

Leonel tossed this idea from his mind.

The main issue was that the guards couldn't give him enough information. When he asked for details about exactly what the Cloud Race was trying to accomplish, he shrugged his shoulders and just said that the combination of Cloud and Human Races was extremely powerful.

What Leonel wanted to do now was to understand how exactly he would "elevate" the Cloud Race. What did the Zone mean by that?

The moment Leonel thought of this, he was surprised to find that an answer came to him. He couldn't help but laugh. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Having the Life Tablet was really too convenient.

According to it, raise up the Cloud Race meant helping them find harmony with the Human Race, erasing the animosity of the latter, and making the former more accepting.

Leonel shook his head.

Taking a deep breath, he started.

...

Thus began a legend that spread slowly, but surely. Starting as a little boy, Leonel freed the slaves of the Human Race and waged a silent war against the Cloud Race.

He changed their sentiments slowly, mostly using his Dream Force to influence them over long stretches of time.

Leonel already realized that the time ratio of this Zone was ten to one. So, for every ten years he spent here, just one would pass in the outside world, and it took him precisely that long.

He had no choice but to take so much time. He didn't want the Barbarian Race individuals who were certainly hidden in the weeds to expose him, and since their "breeding" project was continuing, they didn't care to pay much attention to the little details of how daily life in the Cloud Race proceeded.

Like this, over time, "breeding" became intermarrying and intermarrying became love in matrimony.

By now, it was certain that the Barbarian Race members who had become stuck in this Zone along with him were starting to grow antsy. Ten years had passed and yet they hadn't seen a sign of Leonel.

In fact, contrary to this, Leonel actually used their existences to help him as he found each one of them.

It was impossible for them to hide from the Life Tablet. Leonel picked them all out with ease every time he came across them, and yet they had no idea what was happening around them.

The best part was that forcefully breaking out of this Zone would only ruin their years of work. In the end, as Leonel had said, they could only help him.

However, it was also clear that their understanding of exactly what was happening in this Zone was limited. Their usual detection methods weren't working on this Zone and they had to use more conventional means.

That was when Leonel got information about how many of them had given up and had begun to set up a large-scale formation to completely shatter this world.

'Seems the easy mode I've been playing on couldn't last forever.'

Leonel grinned.

But that was fine too.

Giving him ten years to prepare? They were asking for a loss.