Dimensional Descent

While everyone was distracted, Leonel had already moved, making it to Conrad and James in a few steps and grabbing a side of the latter's collar himself. Another person might have chosen to fight off Conrad first, but Leonel was well aware how foolish such a choice was.

No matter what just happened, securing James' safety came first. No matter what happened between them, James was still his best friend. And, luckily, he had the now darkened lights on his side.

As expected, Conrad wasn't able to react. Seeing that Leonel now had a firm grip on James himself, he could only let go, allowing Leonel to pull James up.

"Leo…?" James' words slurred.

It was only now that Leonel realized James had actually been unconscious. It was likely his head that had smashed the window apart, it wouldn't be surprising if he was diagnosed with a concussion. Coupling that with the fact he was drunk and it was a recipe for disaster.

"Heeey, maaan. You're late, my sister-in-law was waiting on yoouu…"

Leonel sucked in a cold breath through his teeth when James heavily leaned on him. He was really in no shape to be taking on such a burden, but he still carried him out, letting him sit on the couch.

"Chef, do you have any gas burners back there? We need some light." Leonel called out.

The Four-Star Chef who had not said a word even when James' life was on the line finally looked a bit shaken. He didn't seem to know what was going on.

"… Yes… We use a blow torch for the finishing touches of certain dishes…"

He absentmindedly fumbled through the dark, pulling out the draw of a hidden compartment to take the torch he was speaking of. But, before he could think to hand it to Leonel, it happened.

In that few minutes, it felt that the planet would collapse. A cacophony of booms so loud Leonel had no choice but to cover his ears sounded. The earth beneath their feet trembled fiercer, the building swaying wildly from left to right.

It was then that Leonel froze. He didn't need to think to know what was causing this…

The Paradise Islands!

'Dad…'

A bout of worry seized Leonel's chest. No Paradise Islands were allowed to have routes that crossed over important landmarks. The top ten Academies, government buildings, and historical landmarks all fit this description. So, they were safe, for better or worse.

However, Leonel didn't care about his own safety. He was worried about his father.

Higher class Paradise Islands like the ones him and his father lived on had several safety features in case an event just like this one happened, however they weren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. This was especially so considering the scope of this power outage.

of the high rise skyscrapers first, it could slow its descent enough to save his father's life.

the end, Leonel could

some sort of system-wide failure, he would immediately run out of here, even leaving Aina behind. However, before everything happened, their wrist watches had warned of a Class 9 Code Red. It was very obvious that

his jaw, Leonel weathered the shaking earth with his hands firmly clasped over his ears. It was lucky that their buildings were built with the highest earthquake technology, or there was no way

gloomy. Students who could go here didn't think often of the Paradise Islands above their

with each crashing boom, they became more and more aware that each represented the

fourth floor

catastrophe the Ascension Empire warned of had yet to even begin, yet billions had

managed to keep their bearings looked toward Leonel with unconcealed pity. Even though he had closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, keeping his

surface, not all of them were able to have a home in those protected zones. Their families might very

they had become aware of just how many of those islands hovered above their heads… of just how many lives they hadn't even cared for to

began to work as though nothing had happened. He carefully took James' shirt off, being

a concussion, but the remnant shards of glass on the bottom ledge of the windowsill had left deep gashes to his lower

Four-Star Chef, Leonel borrowed a few scented candles from a resident of the dorm and lit them, finally giving them

a medic, but he had taken a few first-aid classes. He was unsure if the medics they had on standby for the game were still here, or if they had left to their homes. After all, it had been over an hour, approaching two, since

lower back as best he could, he slowly removed pieces of glass stuck in

"Love you, man…"

light snoring soon after. Those here couldn't help but think he was the luckiest one of

his gaze turning empty for a moment. What

knew as well. As one of the protected zones, they could obviously be among the first

but he had to admit to himself that he had no real evidence for this being the

was something that caused this outage actively. It wasn't a mistake, but rather an event even their Empire had no

and board. The academy also stockpiles several years worth of food in an abundance of caution thanks to previous rebellion and

party. Also, without power, the large freezers will slowly lose their heat. It'll be even faster if people are constantly opening and

The food here is enough to last a month easily before they start to go bad, no one would think that the Empire would be unable to recover in that time, so they wouldn't be willing to make

understood that unless people had evidence toward how dangerous this situation was, they wouldn't listen. This was simply the

of this. He only wanted to go and see if his father

I can't stand

there a second longer. Usually such a mess of vomit would be cleaned easily

from walking away, and why would

wasn't destined to

building quaked once more. For a moment, Leonel thought that the foundation was too shaken by the previous earthquakes and that the dormitory was collapsing. But in the

one, but he had a vivid enough imagination to know that if there ever was a spatial tear, it would look exactly like this. Maybe the only thing that deviated from his fanciful image was the fact it lit up the night sky as

abrupt cognitive dissonance, its black, starry innards, the way it seemed