Leonel walked around in silence, observing everything he could as though he was building a rolodex in his mind. When he felt that he had reached the end of what he could observe, he shook his head.

This really was going to be quite difficult. The fog ahead of him, in a figurative sense, was truly tough to see through.

Figuring out how to take this next step of his was going to be difficult, especially since he didn't want to give up certain things.

Shedding the complexity of his Spear Force and Bow Force, or even dulling its edge a bit, would be hugely beneficial to a breakthrough.

For example, if he stopped them from being so overbearing and forced them to be more accepting, they would weaken, but it would also make a breakthrough simpler.

Or in a more tangible aspect, if he reduced their control over Time Force, that was an easy, surefire way to lessen the troubles he would have to face in a breakthrough. Though, of course, the easiest way to shed all these difficulties was just to abandon his unique Innate Node, and he had not the slightest intention of doing such a thing.

If it was just about making a breakthrough, maybe he would consider it. But the problem was that he needed strength. If he wasn't strong enough, then all of this wouldn't matter.

The only way forward was for him to grow strong enough to stand at the peak of the world and carry this burden on his shoulders.

But... he wasn't going to do that in a single step.

Leonel looked up, finding that he was standing at the end of the forest. A portal sat here in silence, and without much hesitation, he walked right through it.

When Leonel's vision cleared, he found himself in a hall that made his heart skip a beat.

He felt like he had been here before. Although he had read a description in his grandfather's information, seeing it for himself made him realize what he was truly looking at.

It was a long corridor, with shockingly tall ceilings and statues that depicted powerful men and women.

The statues were so tall that Leonel couldn't even make it halfway up the soles of their feet, let alone their ankles. They must have been at least several hundred meters tall, and it was enough to make a man feel small and insignificant.

Each one of them wielded a spear, standing tall and straight while they had a familiar halo around their heads.

This halo was the very same depiction of Leonel's Spear Domain Ring, or rather, his former Spear Domain Ring. And also the same halos that appeared around his wrists when he truly activated his Spear Force in full force.

However, these details weren't what distracted Leonel so much. Instead... he was thinking about just how much this space reminded him of the Valiant Heart Zone.

It had to be remembered that although he most often thought of the Valiant Heart Zone as the world on the inside, one depicting a war between the Humans led by King Alexandre and the Oryx led by Elthor's father, this wasn't the only aspect.

Leonel and Aina had entered the Valiant Heart Zone together, and at that point, they had ended up in a corridor exactly like this one.

It was only after the fact, thanks in part to an inconspicuous ring that Leonel had found on Planet Valiant Heart, that he was able to enter this secret region.

However, during the two years he was stuck inside the Zone, Aina had spent that time stuck in a corridor exactly like this one along with the other geniuses of the Valiant Heart Zone.

"Why?"

Leonel was confused.

He knew by now that Nilrem had created the Merlin Zone, but this Zone in specific was still quite a mystery to him... especially after he found it randomly reset.

While he had a guess that Nilrem had reset it in order to teach him a valuable lesson about the value of life, he wasn't sure if Nilrem had actually created it or not.

All he was certain of was two things: the fact that Nilrem was definitely involved in the resetting, and that Nilrem was likely responsible for the ring that had led him to the core of the world.

Leonel took a breath and exhaled.

He and his master never exchanged words about stuff like this. It was like they both subconsciously understood that Leonel would deduce it when the time came, and that speaking about such things before their time could lead to more trouble than not. After all, they were in the midst of playing around with timelines, and they were also facing off against a woman who was likely the strongest Dream Force expert to ever exist.

In such a situation, if Leonel learned things that were too important too quickly, it could give the Demoness time to prepare.

By now, Leonel was no longer arrogant enough to feel that he could perfectly protect his mind from the Demoness. It was best to take things one step at a time, and it seemed that soon... it would be time for him to learn about this.

Leonel finally snapped out of his thoughts and looked through the world around him.

Far ahead, he could see people of all sorts of races. They were trying to get further ahead, much like the corridor of the Valiant Heart Zone had been.

However, they were coming across a great deal of danger as well.

Further ahead, Leonel could already see that there were corpses accumulating along the ground. The number of dead increased every time they passed by one of the statues. This was where the real challenge of the battlefield began.

Leonel reached out at the air, and a spear formed, surging ahead with a beautiful arc as he took a step forward.

He swiped out casually, parrying a Spear Force that appeared from thin air before his vision swam.