Leonel completely ignored the crumbling world around him. The moment he sensed the Zone had been cleared, he shed the body he had been using all the while and pulled his wife out from the Segmented Cube.
Aina didn't even have a chance to react before Leonel wrapped his arms around her tightly.
He breathed in her scent and only now did he finally feel at peace. He didn't even really care about his success, nor did he care to pay attention to the changes in his surroundings.
It had been ten years since he saw his wife. A day was too long, let alone so much time.
Aina bit back the words she was going to say and hugged Leonel back, burying her head in his chest. She could feel his emotions clearly.
This last year had been hard on her, but how could it match up to the ten years of Leonel?
Not being able to sense whether he was dead or alive was probably the hardest. She just kept staring at the tattoo of her finger, wondering if it would disappear in the next second.
Leonel took a deep breath and smiled.
"You didn't go and find another husband, did you?"
Aina pinched his waist, and Leonel winced.
He coughed. "You've grown stronger."
Aina smiled, cheek still buried in his chest.
"Of course."
Leonel grinned. Aina had returned to the Eighth Dimension.
Unlike Leonel, Aina had been in Anastasia's world, a perfect world equivalent to a God Realm. With so much time to meditate and focus on her progress, she had managed to find a new breakthrough path and had finally stepped out of the Fourth Dimension, returning to the Eighth.
Not only that, but she was several times more powerful than the last time, as expected, thanks to her rebirth method.
"Okay, stay right here," Leonel said.
"You're leaving again?" Aina frowned.
"Hell no. I just want eye candy while I change the world."
Aina smiled, but that didn't stop her from giving Leonel another pinch.
Leonel took a sharp breath, half in pain and half in focused meditation.
At that moment, the Sea God Verse rumbled.
As the motes of light descended, Leonel could feel it transcending, and quickly, it reached his standards.
His Mana Core trembled, and the light of the world seemed to concentrate on him.
Every Star across the Incomplete World suddenly exploded, sending beams of lasers all around. These lasers connected with one another, forming an enormous array in the blink of an eye.
...
Outside Sea God Verse, the situation wasn't very good. At least it wasn't for Leonel.
The Barbarian Race had already realized that something was wrong and a familiar burly and skinny pair of Barbarians stood outside the world.
The Barbarian Race was still trying to keep what was happening here a secret, so they couldn't mobilize too many of their Race.
But according to the information they had received, they were facing off against two Mortal Races, and this confused them.
The people they had sent in were getting outplayed by mortals?
Suddenly, the skinny Barbarian Race man flipped a palm. His pupils constricted.
"Dead. They're all dead."
"WHAT?!"
The skinny Barbarian Race man slapped a hand over mouth.
"What do you think you're doing, exposing your aura like that? Do you want to send out a beacon to everyone?"
"Piss off!" The burly Barbarian ripped himself free. "This doesn't make any sense."
"They entered a Zone... the only way I see for them to have lost their lives like this is if they lost control of their own bodies."
"Even so, their Force-"
"Leonel Morales attracted a lot of attention because of the sheer number of Life State Forces he controls. If he was also granted a stronger body than the others in the Zone, then this was an inevitable result."
"What about Talon? If he's dead, that woman will kill us."
"... He doesn't seem to be among the tally. But there's also been no word from him, either. They sent him out in the first wave and he just disappeared."
"That brat couldn't be playing hooky, right?"
BOOM!
The two looked toward the Incomplete World simultaneously. Their eyes went wide as they could, the world slowly shrinking before their eyes.
No, it wasn't shrinking. It was common knowledge that Incomplete Worlds looked far smaller from the outside than they were on the inside. So what the hell was happening now?
...
Leonel held onto Aina, feeling every corner of the world.
He was still in Tier 1 of the Fifth Dimension. Technically speaking, he should have been absorbing one World Spirit with God Realm potential.
However, right now, Leonel was killing two birds with a single stone.
World Spirit orbs began to appear around him, one after another. At the same time, World Spirits from the Sea God Verse surged toward him, fusing and improving them.
Tier 2.
He absorbed the first.
Tier 3.
A second.
Tier 4.
A third.
His power surged, improving by leaps and bounds.
The more his strength soared, the more access to his Forces he gained.
Slowly, he was beginning to feel the true power of the Life State and he realized just how much he had been being screwed over.
Tier 7.
Tier 8.
Tier 9.
Leonel raised his head to the skies and roared.
At that moment, the connecting Stars all converged with him as the center as though he had become the centerpiece of his own Constellation.
Leonel's Constellation Realm entered the Silver Grade.
His True Dream Sovereignty reached the Silver Grade.
His True Destruction Sovereignty reached the Silver Grade.
Leonel's aura blazed so brightly it seemed that he had truly become a star of his own creation.
Standing in the center of the world with his wife in his arms, he truly felt invincible.
And that was when he poked a hole right through the Sixth Dimension.
His aura skyrocketed once again, his violet hair fluctuating wildly.
The Sea God Verse completely converged, fusing into Leonel's body.
The couple found themselves standing out in the expanse of the void, two Barbarian Race Ninth Dimensional experts staring at them in shock.