The pain, it was unbearable.
Leonel felt as though countless tiny knives were ripping through his skin and bone. He had never experienced such a thing in his life.
It could be said that the worst injury he had ever suffered was a few fractures to his ribcage. Even the flesh wound his hands had suffered had been mildly less painful than that. But, compared to this, those injuries were akin to an irritating paper cut.
At that moment, Leonel had every intention of letting go. It was too painful. If he just let these doors close, everything would be alright. Then, he could take a rest, and try again later. That would be fine, right?
Leonel hadn't been one to lie to himself. He knew that he wasn't the hardest worker. He also knew that he didn't have the most resolute will.
These weren't things one was born with. The reason his father tried to ingrain those two values into him time and time again was to remind him the value of growth.
He was an 18 year old boy. He had hardly faced any hardships in his life. Though he lived on a Paradise Island, he had never truly felt restricted by it. And, even though he had lived in such a place, it wasn't as though they were slums. Each Paradise Island was well tended to and provided for.
Expecting him to have the will to trample the heavens and sunder the earth like some anime character was absolutely ridiculous. Let alone having such will, he wasn't even sure what he wanted to do with his life just yet. He was a kid. Though he had some talent, he was ultimately just that. A kid.
For a kid like him, such pain was absolutely unbearable. But somehow, whenever he thought of letting go and allowing these doors to slam shut, tears uncontrollably fell from his eyes.
Such a thing surprised even himself. He wasn't an emotional person. Though he had been worried about his father when the Paradise Islands fell, he didn't break down back then. When Simeon and the Junior Governor Duke decided to fire into the homes of innocents, he hadn't burst into tears. Even when his father mentioned that his mother was still alive… his emotions hardly fluctuated.
But, there were also many times he did inexplicable things outside the bounds of his calm and cold logic, things even he couldn't explain. He put his life on the line to save the lives of English and Frenchmen he didn't know. He wanted to be with Aina for reasons even he found difficult to put into words. And right now… he really, really, really didn't want to let go.
These were tears of frustration, pain, and conflict.
He could feel the doors making him buckle under their weight. It was as though they were enraged he had suddenly regained his senses and now wanted to make him pay the greatest price. They wanted nothing more than to shatter him to a pile of bone and flesh.
If he took a step back, they might still give him a chance at survival. But, if he dared to take another step forward…
They would go all out to kill him!
Sometimes in life, the different paths people follow can be decided in an instant.
That was what people who were pretending to be profound said, anyway. In reality, things weren't so simple. A single decision couldn't change anything. It was a continuous stream of decisions that would decide the path you would follow.
It might take ten or even a hundred correct decisions to take a single step on the path you wanted. Maybe along the way, you might make many incorrect decisions as well. But only by persisting would you eventually become the person you wanted to be.
Leonel was just a kid. A boy of barely 18 years old. Up to now, he had already made several incorrect decisions. However recently, he finally made his first correct one. That was to quell his arrogance and admit that he was wrong. And now… he would make his second.
It was quite the pitiful sight. When the world spoke of his exploits in the future, they would never know that an overlord who could overturn the universe with a single palm was once a young boy who had a face filled with tears and snot during his first attempt to release the shackles of his bloodline…
"AGH!"
Leonel took a step forward. He heard the sound of his legs cracking, but the adrenaline rush flowed throughout his body, masking the pain for but a moment.
He screamed his throat hoarse. Even he didn't know why he kept going. All he knew was that these damn tears wouldn't stop if he took a step back.
That was right. He wasn't crying because of the pain. That was his story, and he was sticking to it.
BANG! WENG! WENG! WENG!
…
Within the sacred land of the Morales family, the elders suddenly snapped their heads back in the direction of the red pillar of light, only to find that the red color was receding to be replaced by a resplendent purple light. It was the kind of beautiful violet that would enchant any woman, yet carried an air of nobility that made one want to prostrate themselves. Even these elders of who knows how many years felt the urge to bow down.
"Purple light? What's going on?"
The elders were stunned. They didn't know what this purple light meant.
The flagship color of their Lineage Factor had always been a shimmering bronze. The only exception was during Bloodline Deviation when it would become red, but that was basically a death sentence. The number of clan members who had survived Bloodline Deviation in their long history could be counted on one's hands…
But violet? This had never happened before. Even the nine doors of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Dimensional shackles of their Lineage Factor didn't carry such a color. They would always be bronze, the only difference was the brightness of their light and their strength.
Of course… the fact their bloodline shackles had five sets of doors and not four like the masses thought was a deeply held secret. Leonel hadn't thought much of it when he saw five sets of doors, having no idea how tightly held such a thing was.
"The ninth door!"
Suddenly, one of the elders called out in shock. They had been so caught up in the shocking color that they hadn't noticed that the signature of the ninth door had appeared.
The first three doors was a progressive purification of their bronze color… the fourth door formed the Runic Crown… the fifth form was the Force Node Runes… the sixth form the Force Skin Runes… the seventh form the Force Vessel Runes… the eighth form the Force Bone Runes… and the ninth form… Was the Force Halo Runes.
A grand violet bronze halo appeared above Leonel's head, causing the ground beneath him to shatter. In fact, it was to the point that a hole was blasted through the Segmented Cube entirely, causing him to almost fall through and directly onto the Force Crystal Core below. Luckily, a barrier was quickly formed, protecting him from such a tragedy.
At that moment, within his Bloodline World, Leonel pushed with his last bit of strength, causing the nine doors to blast apart of their own accord.
He hardly noticed the lights of bronze and violet that descended onto him before he fainted.