(The Time Stilled World, Leo’s POV)
After his meeting with Soron, Leo returned to the Time Stilled World feeling sure of what he needed to do to prepare for Veyr’s rescue, as he finally had a clear vision forming in his mind on what exactly needed to be achieved for that impossible dream to become possible, as the plan was no longer vague or theoretical, but rather sharp, structured, and brutally realistic.
There was no hesitation left in him.
No doubt about the path forward.
As for the next fifty days, Leo trained without interruption, without indulgence, and without allowing even a single moment of complacency to take root, as he threw himself entirely into mastering Space Tunnelling, repeating the same motions again and again while refining angles, correcting micro-deviations, and forcing his body and mind to obey precision rather than habit.
He practiced opening tunnels at fixed degrees until the numbers no longer required conscious thought, as slicing at specific micro angles became as natural as breathing to him, while distance calculations shifted from something he measured to something he felt, each tunnel forming cleaner, smoother, and more stable than the last, as mistakes became rare, then nonexistent.
By the end of the fiftieth day, Leo could open a space tunnel almost instantly, its structure stable, its membranes uniform, its slope predictable from entry to exit, allowing him to cross planetary distances without hesitation or drift, as though the Fourth Dimension itself had finally acknowledged his presence rather than resisting it.
Yet despite that progress, a limitation remained.
The tunnels he created were precise, efficient, and reliable, but only for one.
They could hold him.
And only him.
Any attempt to widen them destabilized the structure immediately, as the membranes strained, warped, and threatened collapse under increased spatial load, making it painfully clear that while Leo could move like a blade through the Fourth Dimension, he could not yet carve a path wide enough for others to follow.
An assassin’s road.
Not a general’s.
As it was only after Leo reached this wall, after he confirmed beyond doubt that no amount of brute refinement would change this limitation, that Moltherak finally chose to speak.
They stood together at the edge of the floating island once more, the endless stilled ocean stretching beneath them, as Moltherak watched Leo close another tunnel cleanly before letting it dissolve.
"You have mastered Space Tunnelling for an individual," Moltherak said calmly, his voice heavy with something unreadable.
Then he turned.
"But that was never how an army crosses the Fourth Dimension."
Leo’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked up at the ancient Dragon, confusion flickering across his expression, because up until this moment he had been certain that the entire purpose of mastering Space Tunnelling was to lead an army through it.
"Only Gods possess an aura powerful enough to anchor and guide entire armies through the Fourth Dimension," Moltherak said calmly. "And since you are not one yet, your aura alone is not sufficient to achieve that feat."
Leo frowned deeply at those words, his frustration surfacing immediately.
"Then what was the point of all this training?" he asked, his tone sharpened by impatience as Moltherak shook his head slowly, a faint note of disappointment passing through his gaze.
"Did I ever say you would not be able to lead an army through it?" he replied. "No."
He continued without pause.
"I said your current aura is not strong enough."
Leo stilled.
"That is why I will store my aura for you, in special orbs."
He said, as he lifted a claw slightly, and presented Leo with three spatial orbs.
"Crush one, and you will temporarily gain the output required to open a wide, stable tunnel capable of transporting an army. However, beware, crushing one also means surviving the full might of my unbridled aura....
Which won’t be pretty unless you have appropriate aura shield protection"
Leo’s eyes widened.
In an instant, everything clicked into place.
This was exactly the solution he had been searching for, because quite simply, he did not have the luxury of time to master yet another layer of Space Tunnelling before the war arrived.
"Sounds good to me...."
He muttered, as with that his training under Moltherak officially drew to a close, allowing him to leave the floating island in favor of the upcoming war.
"Do not forget our deal boy. The promise you have made me.
I did not put all these efforts into you and teach you space tunneling out of the goodness of my heart.....
It is an investment.
An investment that I hope will give me miraculous returns and a new body."
Moltherak reminded as he stopped Leo before he left.
"I won’t fail you, old dragon, for it’s either my plan works and you get a new body, or it fails and I die.
So if I’m still alive, you should be pretty certain that you are getting your desired body."
Leo said, as he stepped away from the edge of the floating island and let the space around him fold once more, carrying the weight of that promise with him as something solid rather than burdensome, as the implications of what lay ahead settled into his thoughts with quiet inevitability.
The path forward was no longer chaotic or uncertain as it had been weeks ago, but rather frighteningly clear, mapped out by limitations, sacrifices, and points of failure he could no longer afford to ignore, as every step from this moment onward would either bring him closer to saving Veyr and setting up a new unshakeable foundation for the Cult, or bury all of them beneath the consequences of a single miscalculation.
He understood now that this war would not be won through raw strength alone, nor through miracles or desperate improvisation, but rather through precision, timing, and the willingness to stand at the center of a storm without flinching, as he would be required to carve a single opening through the finest warriors the universe had to offer while holding together a plan fragile enough to collapse under hesitation.
’I can do this..... I have to...’
He thought to himself, the floating island fading behind him as he opened a spatial tunnel to Skyshard City, his mind focused on what was coming instead of what had already been survived, because there was no longer any room left for doubt, no space for regret, and no luxury of retreat.
Only forward.
Only execution.
And only one chance to turn the impossible into possible.