Dimensional Descent

Aina rolled her lips over themselves. In a motion that was far slower than she cared to admit, she washed her hands clean, wiped away the portions that fell on Leonel, and covered his body in a blanket.

Even hours after she finished, her heart still beat wildly.

Days later, Leonel startled awake, finding himself in a rocking vehicle. It took him a moment to realize that he was lying on a bed made of straw and that the 'vehicle' was a horse pulled carriage.

Leonel shot up, taking quick and deep breaths.

How could he let this happen? Not only had he gone to sleep, but he was completely out of it. He was in a Zone, he wasn't at home.

It took several moments before Leonel realized that Aina was sitting on a cushioned bench opposite his, averting her eyes.

Leonel looked down at himself and blinked in confusion. He could tell that he was naked now, but at the very least, his lower half was covered. There was no real reason for her to avert her gaze like that. But, he didn't question it too much.

"Are you alright?" Leonel asked.

Aina finally turned to face Leonel, seemingly stunned by his question.

"… I should be asking you that." She said softly.

"Me? I'm fine." Leonel smiled, rotating his arm as though to prove a point.

He really did feel great.

said apologetically. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if

mouth to answer, but she felt that if she tried to speak now, she wouldn't be

but he had awoken a Lineage Factor he wasn't even aware of. Usually such awakenings happened in a controlled space under the protection of your family. It happening in such

it would have in the future. If her vague thoughts while she was unconscious were correct, Leonel had stayed awake for more than half

been fighting a battle against thousands of enemies. It wasn't an exaggeration to say his degree of difficulty

wasn't exact. It was just a vague metric of how much the Lineage Factor managed to be stimulated. Therefore, if Leonel was battling while his was activated, it went to reason that every second of his remaining awake

one she knew of who could match him was her… But the difference between them was that when her Lineage Factor activated, she lost control of her mind. So while her performance

had almost killed her

to me…" Aina finally

"It's not

"I…"

pants?" Leonel cut

for a moment before nodding. She had even managed to patch together the tears

now, though."

"So you pay enough

and turned away, throwing his

on before standing up and stretching. He was certain that this carriage was only built recently. He likely had the siege engineers

haven't answered my question." Leonel turned back toward Aina. "Are you

on first and I might consider