Leonel wiped his mouth with a sleeve out of habit even though there was no blood. His father was already coming, but Leonel's Ability Index had activated. Time slowed to a crawl as his thinking speed accelerated.

Come to think of it, everything he knew about Destruction was built on Creation. It was no wonder his comprehension of Destruction was shallower than his father's.

His original foundation for his Destruction comprehension was his Scarlet Star Force. But as he had already deduced, Scarlet Star Force was actually just a strong Force of Creation, one taken too far to become Destruction.

Leonel was supposed to be a Destruction Sovereign, but those aspects of himself only came out when he was angry... his feet began to smolder, and the corners of his eyes billowed with smoke... but did he truly understand Destruction?

Why couldn't he just blast enemies to ash like his father did? Why wasn't his blade nearly as Corrosive?

Leonel's eyes brightened with enlightenment. Or, rather, they were brightening when his father suddenly slashed down.

Leonel felt an attack right against his psyche as his father somehow tore through his own thoughts. His expression couldn't help but change as he hurried to block. But the shock in his heart couldn't be hidden as he was sent rocketing backward again.

That was possible too?

Leonel's Dream Force had Time Force characteristics now. This meant that his already exceptional thinking speed could be accelerated even further just by twisting the time in his head. He didn't have to try to influence the surroundings at all.

But his father had cut off his thinking time with a slash that seemed to supersede Time and Space. Leonel's eyes widened as he rolled to the side again. He hopped up, trying to round to his father's back, but Velasco's fundamentals were too solid. He only pivoted his foot slightly, his steady blade remaining pointed at his son's throat from start to finish.

The concentration in Leonel's gaze practically solidified as he bent his body backward, just barely watching as the blade soared over his nose.

A burning sensation touched the first layer of his skin, and even without being able to see it, Leonel almost felt as though he had just gotten an acid peel. Just being this close to his father's spear had actually caused him so much damage.

He somersaulted backward, leaping out of the way further.

The echo of his heartbeat thrummed through his chest, and the world slowed down around him again.

He could feel his father's slash coming again, ready to pierce it all in two, but the calmness in his expression didn't change.

BOOM!

Leonel's aura suddenly changed, and for the first time, cracks appeared in the floors beneath him.

This endless room of white had always seemed to be both endless and indestructible. And yet, for the first time, there was real damage done to it. And it was caused by nothing more than an aura release from Leonel.

Leonel didn't have to completely overhaul his understanding. All he had to do was realize that he needed a shift in the way he looked at things. Only by shifting the way he viewed Destruction could he tap into the truest layer of his strength.

He had already been standing on the edge of the cliff for so long... his only problem was that he had focused too much on Creation.

It wasn't truly his fault. After all, he realized at that moment that he was never born a Destruction Sovereign... Instead, he had been born a Creation Sovereign so powerful that most people mistook it for Destruction Sovereignty.

The true natural, inborn Destruction Sovereign was his father. Between the two of them, he had always been the only true Destruction Sovereign.

When Leonel understood this, everything seemed to make sense, and his views of the world changed.

The plumes of smoke that came from his feet and the corners of his eyes settled down into a gentle stream of violet. Butterflies, songbirds, and motes of light fluttered around Leonel.

But very quickly, they became more substantial.

The butterflies morphed, becoming phoenixes that cried to the skies above.

The songbirds shifted and changed, metamorphosing into dragons.

The motes of light burst apart, becoming a large shell that seemed to want to blot out the skies.

Deep within Leonel's eyes, a roaring tiger could be seen, and when he opened his mouth, that sound echoed through the world in a booming cadence.

One after another, these constructs wrapped around his body, vanishing into his World of

Destruction that was also shifting and changing.

All of a sudden, it felt like the weight of a world was stabilizing Leonel's blade. No matter how he shifted and moved his spear, his blade always remained steady.

And for the first time, he seemed to truly be the mirror image of his father.

In that moment, Leonel could swear he saw the shoulders of his father relax. But it was only for a moment before Velasco accelerated forward.

His strength now felt dozens of times heavier. It was like Leonel was fighting it out against an entirely new man.

From an outsider's perspective, their clashes were inexplicable.

Their blades wouldn't even touch, and yet an invisible force would repel them.

Every time they clashed, the world in the surroundings would shudder and collapse.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Father and son spun around one another in a sharp spear dance that balanced on the edge of life and death.

As they fought, both of them were improving at a shocking pace. It was like a race between a pair of geniuses, each one learning something new with every strike they levied, making it stronger and

more shocking.

BOOM!

Their spears froze in the air, a violent crack in space separating the two. Fissures appeared in reality, and a black hole threatened to form beneath the pressure of their might.

14:24

On one side, there was a man wreathed in gorgeous violet.

On the other, there was one wrapped in a dense red-black.

2/3