Dimensional Descent

Eamon slowly opened his eyes. The shock within their depths no less than Leonel's had been a moment ago. Soon, this shock was replaced by pleasure and excitement. His heart threatened to beat out of his chest, and his teeth were practically chattering as though he was cold rather than just trembling from his exhilaration.
Leonel smiled, genuinely happy for him and the Dream Pavilion both. Another Life State Sovereign was huge for tilting the balance of the formula. In fact, this might be enough, and the drastic measures he had planned wouldn't be necessary.
It almost made him want to stir more trouble just to gather more Forgetful Orbs. He had used them all up in this endeavor and the outcomes weren't bad at all.
There were a total of 1287 talents that Leonel had picked up, not including Eamon.
Of course, over a thousand had reached the Lower Impetus State, over 150 had reached the Middle, and there were still a few dozen who had reached the Higher.
Cindra and Eamon were the only ones to reached the Quasi Impetus State, though Eamon had obviously superseded that, leaving Cindra as the only one at that level.
But beneath them, there were still three others that managed to make it to the Peak Impetus State.
Although their overall numbers were still far lower than more than half the Dream Pavilions in Existence, when it came to the raw number of those in the Impetus State, they had comparable numbers to as many as 80% of the Dream Pavilions.
The only Dream Pavilions in the top one to two thousand would have more Impetus State experts, but where they really tipped the scale was with the addition of Leonel, Aina, and Eamon.
Eamon was at the Lower Life State now. Aina could match Leonel's comprehension and was at the Higher Life State.
In addition, Eamon was a Sovereign, which was an additional boost.
As for Aina, she could copy Leonel's comprehension, but from their experienced they had realized that her actively using Leonel's Sovereignties was a detriment to her.
A Sovereignty was like a fingerprint, a unique path taken on by each individual expert. Taking on Leonel's Sovereignty would be like Aina changing the person she was. Even if she was willing, it would have an overall negative impact on her overall strength unless she was just willing to be a perfect mirror of Leonel.
That was something neither of them wanted.
Like this, the Vast Dream Pavilion had three Life State experts and two Sovereigns.
Of course, Leonel had had another trick in his back pocket, and that was to use captives from the Cult to make up the numbers. He was actually quite confident that he could bring a few of them to the Life State if it came down to it.
But in the end, he didn't have to go so far.
That said...
"Come out here."
Leonel raised a hand, and the handsome Somnus appeared. He was beaten and ragged, his gaze listless.
Leonel gave him a slap on the back that woke him up.
"Don't pretend around me, I don't have the patience for it."
Somnus subconsciously flexed beneath the weight of the attack, but that was the wrong choice. It just exposed him quicker.
With that slap, Leonel branded Somnus as a member of the Dream Pavilion, and like that, they had gained yet another Life State expert.
Somnus wasn't just an expert, though. He was a convenient shield, even if he didn't have the Dream Pavilion Head.
From what Leonel could tell, Somnus was only at the Lower Life State, another example of how higher Races seemed to be slower at progressing their Forces.
That said, Somnus had more than one Life State Force. It was just that Leonel had yet to bother to learn what the second was yet.
There was a reason why Leonel wasn't very afraid, though. With his King's Might awakened once more, branding Somnus' soul was easy.
He could have just killed Somnus and turned him into a loyal servant that way. The trouble with that was that if he didn't want Somnus to disappear after 24 hours, he'd have to find an object he could [Assimilate] him with. He only could imagine how valuable that item would have to be to match not only a Demi-God, but an exceptionally talented one at that.
Leonel had never run into anyone with two Life State Forces aside from him and his wife, even amongst the Demi-God geniuses. Somnus was clearly special.
Realizing his plight, Somnus played his role.
He didn't look much different from a human aside from his horns and the sparse scales beneath his eyes. With how obedient he was under Leonel's commands, it made him easy to accept for everyone.
Who didn't like a handsome face? It also helped that Somnus was maybe a little
too charming.
'Perfect. This should be enough.'
Leonel left everyone to their tasks and entered the main Pavilion. Soon, he was
before the exchange.
He had already calculated everything, but with how complex everything was, he
still preferred to check with his own eyes.
Only then did he exhale a breath of relief.
"Good. Now, before those bastards change anything."
Leonel went all out and spent 80% of his remaining funds on a barrier.
It was hard to look at the long string of numbers and gain anything out of their meaning. At some point, the digits surpassed a point of human comprehension.
Instead, Leonel looked at it another way.
Even 1% of these funds could easily fund Leonel's current consumption for a century. He had essentially just given up 80 centuries of prosperity for a barrier that would be unlikely to last for more than a year.
But he needed to do it.
Time wasn't his friend right now, and if he could buy some, it was the best thing
to do.
And yet, he wasn't done spending yet.
With another 20%, Leonel bought information.
It was about time to pave the path to the Sixth Dimension.
This world wasn't waiting around for him, so he would have to give it a huge
surprise.
'There's just three years' worth of points left. That's how much time I have left.'