Leonel raised his head and took a deep breath. Black, spiderweb-like veins pulsed up his neck and across his sharp jawline. He had only absorbed a single drop of blood, and yet it seemed like it was going to consume his own body. At this point, even Aina was feeling worried.
At the same time, though, Tolliver seemed to have been triggered by something. All along, the little guy had been wrapped around Leonel's left arm like a sleeve tattoo, silent and unassuming. But at that very moment, it too began to pulse wildly.
All at once, veins of black and gold began to fight for supremacy in Leonel's body, but the calmness in his eyes never faded for a single instant.
However, what the world didn't know was that by this point, Leonel was no longer paying attention to it. Instead, he was standing within the world of the Life Tablet.
He looked up at the enormous library, no longer in shock and awe about its size, but rather focusing all of his attention on something.
Wise Star Order.
Wise Sea Order.
The names no longer mattered to Leonel, because what he cared the most about was what they represented.
The first sought out the stars, seeking to understand the universe and all of its mysteries. Ability Indexes, Lineage Factors, fantastical abilities that couldn't be fathomed by man in a time long since passed.
The second sought out the seas. Down to earth, focused on earth and water, the two substances that probably had the most to do with keeping the frailest of creatures alive.
It focused on understanding the self and the living beings of the world. Free from the shackles of Existence and its pressure to evolve and grow, it focused on the purest definition of what it meant to live and breathe.
One shot for the Stars in an irony of ironies, and the other was grounded.
Together, they formed a perfect and whole image of the world, one that went beyond just being an Oracle... it felt like the mysteries of the universe were all laid out before him, and the mysteries of his own body might as well have been an open book.
Through their union, he could feel the Northern Star Lineage Factors within himself more clearly than ever before, and the moment they sensed some stimulation, he was able to grasp them in his hands and force them back into focus.
In the past, he had sacrificed his Lineage Factors for the sake of elevating his constitution and rising above his Mortal coil.
However, it had never truly vanished precisely because of that.
And now, he was going to do what Wise Orders did best... pass on knowledge.
However, this time, he was going to do something absolutely unprecedented.
Not only would he both awaken the Infinity Beast and Void Beast in a single body, something that had not been done in countless generations...
But he would elevate them to something beyond.
Anarchic Force? He didn't need it.
He reached out a hand, wisps of airy crimson flashing around it. Cracks of red began to appear across his skin, shimmering like molten metal.
Infinity Force? He also didn't need it.
He reached out another hand and wisps of silver-gold floated around it.
What made these God Beasts so special were never their Forces. Infinity Force might have been the number one ranked Force, but it was a jack of all Force, difficult to use on its own and capable of following far too many paths.
Anarchic Force was technically also its own number one ranked Force, though it was more accurate to say that it existed outside the rankings entirely because more mistook it for pure Destruction when it wasn't that at all.
However, it was unruly, could break down even one's own body, and didn't allow for the use of any other Force in existence.
They were extremely powerful, but likewise extremely limiting.
Of course, with Creation Sovereignty and Destruction Sovereignty, Leonel didn't need to worry about such things... but it was just that he didn't have the time to start from scratch to learn the Force Manipulation of a whole new set of Forces.
No matter how powerful they were, if he was in the mere Unfurled State with them, they would be far weaker than any of his other Forces.
But now... he truly didn't need them.
Leonel's body seemed to be split in two.
One half had skin that paled considerably, and hair and eyes that became as black as night.
On the other half, his skin shone like a dazzling gold, and his hair and eyes were a shade of silver that was even brighter than that, looking like polished utensils.
His aura continued to grow, but Leonel firmly suppressed it every time, compacting it into a smaller and smaller space.
He knew that his cells could take more, that they could swallow more.
At that moment, his hungry cells were akin to greedy leeches, sucking away everything they could.
Slowly, the transformation began to come to a stop.
And in the end, Leonel stood firmly at the pinnacle of what was possible for Demi-Gods.
Every one of his movements made the world shudder.
When his eyes finally regained their focus and he paid attention to the world again, he exhaled slowly.
His heartbeat echoed just once, causing the world around him to fragment once again.
He clenched his fists.
'No. I have more to take... This is just a foundation that's given to me by two worlds. If I absorb more, the difference will be even more exaggerated... In that case...'
Leonel's aura seemed to plummet, and at that moment, he did exactly what Aina had before, but to a far more exaggerated extent.
In that moment, he became a Mortal once again. And yet, when he shifted his steps just the slightest before, an enormous crater was formed beneath him.
He exhaled and his hair returned to its pale violet color, as did his eyes.
"It's time to go," Leonel said.
"Go where?" Aina asked.
"You just stay here and look pretty."
Aina rolled her eyes, but when she was about to say something, Leonel spoke first.
"I know you haven't finished your breakthrough yet. Do that first. Eventually, I'm going to need you...
"But not yet."
"... Where are you going?"
"To put a few God heads on pikes."