Lady Emberheart's gaze lost all emotion. Her robes fluttered just before she vanished. When she appeared again, her palm had struck out.
Leonel saw this and left his spear to the side. Pulling a fist back, he punched.
Pat.
It was a soft, unadorned attack. His knuckles met her palm.
Lady Emberheart's eyes opened up wide before she was suddenly sent flying back.
BANG!
The Emberheart Palace nearly crumbled on its foundation as Leonel took a step through the air.
"Bring out all the strength you have," Leonel said uncaringly. "It's because you take my Human Race so lightly that you thought you afford to offend us, but not the Dream Asuras.
"Today, I'll show you that you should have picked someone else."
Leonel's aura surged as he watched Lady Emberheart use her body to protect her injured husband from the rubble. A device on her fair arm vibrated, and he sucked in as she struggled to her feet, pushing the piles of debris off of her.
This time, her indifferent gaze was filled with hints of trepidation and coldness.
With a flutter, a ribbon around her waist extended, wrapping around her arms and coiling around her.
Suddenly, it snapped out, and Leonel's gaze finally sharpened.
It was about time.
His spear twisted in his palm, and he struck out to meet it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lady Emberheart didn't move from her location, but she forced Leonel into the skies, moving him further and further from the city.
Leonel knew that there was something odd going on with Lady Emberheart. The last time he had seen her, she wasn't even at the Peak of the Life State, but now she was suddenly at the Middle Creation State?
Such improvement didn't even make sense for him, let alone her.
When he saw this, he was immediately curious. It was clear that there was another secret of the Spiritual Race, and the strength she had exploded with just now proved it.
But Leonel wasn't moved in the slightest.
The scene suddenly became chaotic. It was as though Lady Emberheart's red ribbon had covered the whole sky, appearing everywhere at once. Leonel was oppressed and attacked from all sides.
But that was when he placed his second hand on his spear once more.
His aura changed, and he pierced out several times in quick succession.
BOOM!
Hundreds of strikes landed all at once, leaping through space and time to break its very laws.
It was like a claw of red had been stripped of its power and torn apart in the air. Leonel, who had been about to be enveloped, appeared amidst the rain of crimson fabric.
He took another step forward, and a vortex of spherical wind rotated around him.
[Domain].
The technique layered with Leonel's Absolute Domain and at that moment, the wisps of flames that had been about to take shape shattered into fluttering butterflies.
Leonel took another step forward, and he thrust out with his spear.
[Finality].
The skies were split in two.
The clouds above him, despite not being his target, parted like the Red Sea.
The air below him split, forming a void as sharp as a laser beam.
Before the blow even landed, the temporary void began to collapse, the air around coming together with such fierceness that it boomed like a clap of thunder.
Lady Emberheart's pupils constricted.
It didn't feel like she was facing the spear, but rather the world itself. How was it possible to display this kind of strength without calling forth Spear Force?
It was likely Leonel had grown detached from the need to use the Force at all. He had returned to a state only the Ancestors of Weapon Forces knew, one where strength was dictated by skill and not the Force itself.
It was skill that birthed Weapon Forces. Not Weapon Forces that birthed skill.
And in this lane...
Leonel had skill in spades.
Lady Emberheart's ribbon quickly formed a rotating drill before her, meeting the strike head on.
But her pupils constricted when she sensed that Leonel had already appeared to her right... and her left... and above her... and below.
Her eyes widened, but her reaction wasn't slow.
Her chest began to glow, and a fiery eruption of Emberheart Force surged.
Its Force Manipulation began to soar, quickly crossing into the Creation State. Her power seemed to increase ten times over, and in a single sweep, her ribbon fluttered, forming a protective vortex around her that danced with flickering flames.
Leonel hadn't expected such a change to take place and his spear was repelled again and again, his Light Force mirrors shattering as he was sent flying back.
Leonel felt his inner organs shake and rattle, his bones nearly collapsing. The heat licked against his skin and would have already swallowed him whole had he not been a wielder of two Scarlet Star Force Innate Nodes.
'Her Middle Creation State Force is definitely not Emberheart Force. She has two Creation State Forces?'
Leonel's gaze narrowed.
Until now, he had never met an enemy with more than one Force at their highest State. Even the geniuses were no different.
'... This is no different either. I understand. Her Emberheart Force is only at the Peak Life State. Even this is shocking because it definitely wasn't so powerful when I last met her, either.
'But Emberheart Force is a Fire Force that feeds on emotions. She's using her Dream Force Path to bolster and enhance this aspect. That means that when she broke into the Creation State with her Dream Force... in reality, she gained two for the price of one.'
This was out of Leonel's expectations, and it was a form of Force Manipulation that he had never seen executed before. It could only be said that Lady Emberheart was a true genius. If not for the weakness of the Spiritual Race, she would've long since formed a Dharma.
Leonel looked down at his spear as its body crumbled to ash, eaten up by the flames.