[Sorry to everyone who saw the earlier two day hiatus message... I guess I lied]
Leonel's body convulsed, the white of his eyes being taken over by a deep red.
Despite this, he felt oddly in control of his body, so much so that it was almost as though adrenaline had been injected right into his heart. Even still, he couldn't feel the needle.
Something snapped and his Dream Force rolled out in waves, the strength of his Internal Sight increasing tenfold and his Ability Index taking another enormous leap forward.
The world slowed and the complex Runes of his Scarlet Star Force almost felt… Simple. His Internal Sight only swept over it just a single time, but his number of comprehended Runes increased from eight to nine in the blink of an eye.
At that moment, the red-gold Runes snapped together as though pulled by a rubber band, forming a larger Rune that danced within Leonel's irises as though it had a mind of its own.
Leonel didn't even need to check. In that moment, he was absolutely certain that he had perfectly grasped Third Dimensional Scarlet Star Force. So long as he wanted to do so, using his Mage Core, he could rip it out of the atmosphere just like his Stars had done.
Of course, this didn't mean that these Runes were Third Dimensional. Even for Scarlet Star Force, using the Third Dimension to harm the Sixth Dimension was impossible. If this had been the case, then the use of his Runes against the Rapax would have only been a lesson in futility.
Rather, it was more accurate to say that grasping these Destruction Runes gave Leonel all the knowledge he needed to understand the foundation of his Scarlet Star Force and thus use its Third Dimensional form without harming himself or using an Innate Node as a medium.
However, this wasn't what Leonel was focused on at all.
His mind seemed to be boiling, spilling over with strength that seemed to come out of nowhere. It was almost too much, as though he was suddenly being overwhelmed with strength that he had no method of controlling.
It spilled over, rushing out of his body and into the surroundings.
The sudden change made Leonel's expression change. He had never been able to force his Dream Force out of his body before, it had never allowed him to do so. Everything he did with Dream Force was constrained within his body. Even when he drew Mage Arts using Dream Force, the process was internal, and yet had an effect on the outside world, similar to how Internal Sight functioned.
There was a reason Internal Sight had its name. Although it could be used to observe the outside world, its roots were internal, and its external influence was a sort of forcefield of sorts and not truly tangible, at least not in the most obvious of ways.
'What the hell?'
Leonel was so focused on himself that he didn't even notice the Spiritual sent forward another harpoon. But, before it could even get close, it became stuck in a swamp of Dream Force, before being crushed and twisted as though it had suddenly run into a heavy gravitational environment it didn't have the structural integrity to survive.
The Spiritual's brows furrowed, its gaze flickering with a hint of fear and apprehension. It wanted to retreat, feeling that Leonel was a danger, but every time it thought of doing so, it looked toward its tree and then back at Leonel, before turning back to the tree.
The truth was that Spirituals paid a price for their oneness with nature. Well, from a human perspective, it was a price. To a Spiritual, at least the one in question, it was a beautiful thing. To wider Spiritual society, though… It was a curse and a mental illness.
Just as easily as a Spiritual could fall in love with another member of their species, it was just as likely for them to fall in love with a beast or a, in this case, a tree. Things wouldn't be so bad if the target of their affection could move, but in this case it couldn't, well… The Spiritual might refuse to move from a singular location all their lives.
In practice, this was actually quite rare. Most Spirituals would never end up feeling this sort of connection, and still some others, even upon feeling it, would choose to sever it entirely to maintain their freedom.
However, the trouble was that in taking the latter approach, said Spiritual would lose much of their oneness with nature and thus their affinity upon making such a choice.
Likely in order to make this boss fight more 'fair', the spawned Spiritual was anchored to a tree it was in love with. It was almost like an easter egg, an opportunity for easy victory.
So long as the tree was destroyed, the Spiritual would fall into despair and likely kill themselves, thus resulting in victory.
Unfortunately, things almost never worked out in this way. A soul attack was far faster than any physical attack, the only reason Leonel could even begin to dodge was because he sensed it coming before it was levied.
It was impossible to destroy the tree before the Spiritual killed you.
But, in this case…
Leonel's Dream Force continued to roll out of him, refusing to listen to any of his commands.
The Spiritual stood before his tree to protect it, unwilling for any harm to come to it. But, Leonel's Dream Force continued, coming out in wave after wave.
When the Dream Force made contact with the Spiritual, nothing seemed to happen at all. But, the Spiritual's eyes still widened.
Leonel's Dream Force was like a thick oil, latching onto his skin and blocking all of his pores. Even when the Spiritual tried to project his soul out again to attack Leonel and stop this madness, he found that his soul rebounded against its skin, being locked into his body.
Leonel continued to stand in silence, his mind still clear as he focused on trying to take control of himself again.
He couldn't decide whether what was happening was a good or bad thing. What was happening to him, exactly?
😉