Leonel stood in silence for a while, digesting everything he read. It was a long while before he looked up to meet Old Bow's eyes once again.

Honestly, he was a bit confused. What about this was an opportunity?

Was the opportunity just knowing that the world was going to end? He already knew that.

Was the opportunity to know why the world was ending? Who cared about that?

Old Bow chuckled as though she could see through Leonel's thoughts.

The opportunity was actually to feel Time Force and learn how to incorporate it into your Weapon Force. Those that could pull themselves out from the illusion would always come back with this understanding, and if they could refine it well enough before the end of the battlefield, then they could leave here with their knowledge intact.

Otherwise, the Regulator of the Idol Battlefield would be able to erase their memories, much like they had done with everyone that came before them, and the end result would just continue to be more of the same.

Old Bow didn't explain because she knew that Leonel would be able to figure this out on his own. And Leonel's next question proved that.

"Then why is the Regulator obsessed with erasing the memories of those that enter here? What am I missing?"

It didn't make sense to Leonel even after some thought. The Regulator was birthed through the efforts of the Ancient Humans, fine. But the Regulator obviously didn't listen to these Ancient Humans, or else there would be a very clear path to succeeding here.

Someone like Leonel, who had two such powerful Weapon Forces, should be treated like a VIP if the Regulator was listening to the Ancient Humans.

Not only was Leonel a true Human, but he had exactly the potential in both Spear and Bow Force to succeed where they had failed in the past. He should be exactly the sort of candidate that they should be propping up.

This was all to say that the Idol Battlefield wasn't on the side of the Ancient Humans unless these Ancient Humans also didn't consider him a true Human, which Leonel doubted was the case.

That meant that the Idol Battlefield shouldn't have a vested interest in protecting the Ancient Humans from the rage of the world.

The only reason Leonel could think of for why the Idol Battlefield would erase the memories of those that came here of these events was to stop another wave of mass genocide against the Humans. But as had already been established, this Idol Battlefield didn't give a damn about the Human Race or the Ancient Humans.

That left practically no explanations as to why they would go so far. Leonel realized that he must be lacking some information, or else why would the Idol Battlefield go so far?

Unless...

"The Idol Battlefield may not be on the side of the Ancient Humans any more than anyone else, but it does have a vested interest in preserving the Path of the Weapon. If everyone found out that no longer using Weapon Forces would help Existence to last longer, what do you think would happen?" Leonel shook his head, looking off into the distance.

It was as he expected. This world was designed to fail. Not the Idol Battlefield, but Existence itself.

Creation was the opposite side of the coin of Destruction. One couldn't exist without the other, and there would be perpetual Creation for only as long as Destruction didn't take over.

Then there would be a period of Destruction before Creation returned again. But by then, all those living wouldn't have a place in the world anymore.

There was simply no circumventing this. Leonel's future self had seen it personally. So long as there was one shred of Creation left remaining, the Northern Star could never truly reset the world and start anew. It wasn't until he died in this future that the universe could begin its final Destruction before sprouting life once again.

By then, there would be no point to anything. Everything they had known or had known would be gone, leaving nothing more than an empty carcass of a world for the next round of Races to raze to the ground before the cycle started all over again.

There was no escaping it. It was inevitable.

If even World Spirits and Regulators were susceptible to driving the world into a ditch, then what good was it to fight against it?

Leonel shook his head and sighed.

Indeed. The world did feel like one big practical joke. It really made a man wonder... why?

However, after his sigh, his lip curled a bit.

Old Bow, who was watching his expression like a hawk, couldn't help but be taken aback. The sigh was pretty common, albeit much more muted of a response than she had received from everyone else.

She assumed that this was because unlike the others, Leonel and the talents that had entered the Idol Battlefield this time around were dancing on the edge of the end of Existence. Compared to the other talents who still felt like the end of the world was an impossible distance away, this was a very different situation to be sure.

It was only natural, then, that Leonel would take it more in stride.

But that smile... it was completely out of place.

As for Leonel, he wasn't thinking about any of the matters that weighed Old Bow down. He was smiling because he felt that he had made the right choice to allow his wife to experience happiness.

If the world's end was inevitable, what was the point of holding out hope, waiting for everything to settle down before they could finally chase after their happiness?

In this case, they might as well do their best to grasp what strands of jovial memories they could before they faced off against the inevitable.

Who knew? Maybe this obsession with improvement, of delaying, of finding a solution...

Had always been the problem.