Leonel's gaze flickered, but he eventually calmly nodded. Then, he smiled.

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Okay" Leonel beamed.

High above him, an invisible pressure seemed to grow.

The weight of a father's love...

He had experienced it once before, but now it seemed that he would be on the other side of it.

A long while after, Aina left the bathroom, leaving Leonel to his own thoughts.

He ran a hand alongside the tub, lost in thought. They came fast and swift, but disappeared just as quickly.

Slowly, he stood from the tub, allowing the water to run down his body. The once clear water, radiating an herbal scent, had become a murky mess of crimson and sweat by

now.

He found himself in front of a mirror, staring back at the handsome countenance he

saw.

He drew a finger across the air and a pair of glasses appeared. They were an exact replica of his father's. Unfortunately, he couldn't access the Segmented Cube to pull out the real pair.

He stared at the clear-framed glasses for a long while.

Honestly, he didn't feel like he was worthy of wearing them. The day his mother made them for him was maybe one of the most uncomfortable days of his life. He just hadn't said anything because he knew that she needed that moment.

But now, he realized that there would be no delaying it any longer. There were many things in life that you had to do. Without facing them, you would never be ready... and you could never be ready to face them.

Leonel balanced the glasses on an edge, spinning them on his finger. It felt as light as a feather, and yet he knew that would only last a moment.

With a flick of his wrist, he slid them onto his face.

He looked at the face staring back at him, and he could almost feel his shoulders slouch beneath the pressure.

Was it really getting to him?

'It's just you and me here. Don't you think you can be honest.?'

Leonel stared back at himself as though he was looking for answers.

He stood to his full height, slicking his wet hair back with a hand and exhaling a breath.

After feeling like he had delayed long enough, he dried himself and walked out. With a motion, he grabbed a wood-body spear from the side.

"I'll be back," Leonel said lightly.

Aina nodded, rocking on a chair that Leonel had crafted for her this time. She had liked the one in Elaine's house so much that she had to use her wife privileges to get one of her own.

Leonel headed out of the door, smelling the air as it whipped around him.

'About 80%. Better than the usual!

That was how much he had recovered since his last battle. By now, they happened so frequently that he could smell them coming over the horizon.

That dense scent of blood, that subtle shaking of the earth, the shift of Force in the air.

He could feel it all almost... intimately.

He walked through the city slowly, and a silence seemed to fall.

Everyone who saw him had the very same gaze of respect in their eyes. Almost out of respect, the city had a moment of silence whenever Leonel went out to battle.

Though they had never seen him wear glasses before, they all subconsciously felt that there was something that had changed.

Every step almost seemed to make the ground more solid, almost as though they had gone from walking on soft soil to something as tough as granite.

By the time Leonel walked to the city gates, the entire city had fallen into this silence. Flags flew on the city wall and the clatter of weapons died down as the last of the militiamen took their posts. They might not be part of this fight, but they appeared every time Leonel moved to the city wall.

It was their way of showing respect.

Leonel had never led them personally. He hardly talked to most of them. In fact, they only seemed to receive orders through City Lord Anesse.

And yet, there was no doubt about who they respected the most.

Leonel took a seat, allowing his legs to dangle from the city wall. He laid his spear

across his lap, looking out into the world.

The approaching army wasn't even in the line of sight of most. At best, one could see lines of smoke rising into the air. But as they got closer, Leonel realized that this one was going to be a true challenge...

As though the others weren't enough already.

It wasn't just a single army, but two. Each one had what must have been upward of 2000 men. But the numbers weren't the real issue. It was the two that led them.

A Sylvan and a Pluto.

The Pluto was none other than Ger'Ain, the very young man who had once been by El'Rion's side. But just the fact that he was a Pluto spoke volumes all by itself.

And the Sylvan... a man who went by Vaelin. These two were the very same two that had caught Leonel's attention in their waiting room.

It seemed that his luck was truly bad, to have not just one, but both of his strongest competitors appear here at the same time... and not even three months into a Zone that was supposedly meant to last for years.

Was his luck really so bad?

Obviously not.

And neither was he meant to have faced enemies so frequently either.

Under normal circumstances, he shrugged off the machinations of the Regulator. He had managed to control that seething anger, and he hadn't allowed it to erupt again

since the first time.

But he was particularly sensitive today.

Targeting him like this on the eve of his child's birth? Was that supposed to be another coincidence?

A deathly sort of aura began to radiate from Leonel. Sparks of something unknown cracked and popped around him.