Dimensional Descent

Nilrem's laughter was sad and broken.

Life liked to play jokes. The Demoness had only truly fallen in love twice in her life, though that wasn't for lack of trying.

Every time she forced her husband of the past to reincarnate in some way or form, she tried to be with him. But that ended tragically almost every time.

Nilrem's stories of being chased by Empresses, or how emasculated he had been in the Luxnix Clan, these weren't foolish facades or made-up tales.

They were his truth; they were the tapestry woven between him and the Demoness.

Him and Ophelia.

The second time she fell in love—the second time she lost herself in a man, an iteration of Nilrem—was Velasco's father, Leonel's grandfather: I.

She really had loved him. She had given him her life and everything, birthing two children for him.

Throughout all the iterations, this was the one thing that Ophelia had never done for any other man. It was the one thing that she had barred herself from until she found the husband she was looking for.

But as life went on, and she observed Leonel's grandfather more, the potential she thought she had no longer being twisted through rose-tinted glasses, she realized that he couldn't be the man she fell for.

That man had been able to sacrifice himself to save the entire world. He had been able to shoulder the burden of an entire race. He had been able to protect her—she who was the strongest Dream Force user in all of existence… The First Dream Force user.

That man, despite her own strength, had been able to stand before her and carry mountains and rewrite constellations, overwriting laws and forging new ones with his own hands.

How could that man and this one possibly be the same?

Ophelia tried everything to change his talent, to help him grow stronger, to throw challenges at him that would force him to improve.

But in the end, she pushed it too far. He lost his life in the hands of one of her schemes, and it completely broke her.

No… maybe she had already been broken before.

Far too broken beyond repair.

The words his father told him about his grandfather rang in Leonel's ears. He told them not to blame her… that it was all his fault…

It seemed that he realized what Ophelia was doing even when she tried to hide it. He might not have been the talent that she wanted him to be—needed him to be—but he was intelligent enough in his own right.

Over the years, he gained an understanding of his wife and what she was looking for. And he knew that he could never measure up.

Leonel could feel the very remains of his soul tearing up, a pain ripping through what might have once been his chest.

He had deduced it, he had. But hearing it out loud hurt so much worse than he expected, hearing it said in such bold words.

His talent, the one thing he couldn't control, wasn't enough in the end.

Leonel thought about how lucky he was to be born the way he was, how lucky he was to have his intelligence, to have this talent of his.

He had always been the man who felt that all lives were equal regardless of the strength they were granted at birth.

And then his emotions twisted, melding darkness, helpless fury, a broken guilt…

The only reason he had this talent was because of who his grandmother was. And yet, it was because of who his grandmother was that his life was so broken, that he had lost almost everything that meant anything to him.

And then he laughed too, a laugh no less broken than Nilrem's own.

"Don't chuckle at me like that, kid. I've been through far more than you. This is my turn to be the edgy mess; you just sit there and see a bright future like you're meant to. I'm depending on you to bring my wife back to me."

"Would that be in between your mistresses, or?"

Leonel made the joke through his tears, knowing it was exactly this sort of thing that his master… that his grandfather wanted to hear.

He still wanted to feel rage, feel anger that Nilrem hadn't saved his father. But he knew that fury was worthless…

Nilrem was just as helpless as he was.

"Those women were there to numb the pain. This handsome face can't go on without use, you know."

"There's nothing handsome about a ghost, bastard."

Leonel could finally feel Nilrem's smile.

"… You're the apple of her eye… Little Lion. She wants to see you come back, she wants to see you do the impossible, she wants to see her grandson do what only her husband could do in the past.

"Don't disappoint her. And be sure to kick her ass."

Leonel didn't respond for a long while, so Nilrem had no choice but to speak again.

"Don't disappear on me, little bastard. I swear to God, if you made me talk big to my wife just for them to be empty words, I will pull you out of the afterlife just to give you the spanking I never could."

Nilrem grew more heated as he spoke, somewhat worried that Leonel had truly dissipated, but then a calm voice came.

"There's no need to worry, gramps," Leonel finally said.

It was obvious what Ophelia wanted to do now. She felt that the only two in the world strong enough to survive the end of everything were her and her husband.

If she destroyed the world… her husband could finally let his burden down; he could finally stop being the Northern Star… he could finally come back to her.

"In this world, the only way to live forever is to be remembered by those that you love. Luckily for me… I have just one woman who loves me very much."

Leonel's consciousness trembled.

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