Montez

Montez is Velasco's younger brother, Leonel Morales's paternal uncle, and a former patriarch of the Morales family. He first reaches Leonel through the reward system attached to Earth's Zones, quietly bending what discretion he has to give an uninformed child a viable foundation. Their apparently accidental “uncle” bond is later revealed to be literal. Montez's guidance shapes Leonel's cultivation, Crafting, movement, partnership with Little Blackstar, and understanding of the spear, even while Montez's own life remains trapped in comparison with Velasco.

Biography

Guardian of Earth's first clearer

Montez first appears in the white reward space after Leonel clears Earth's first recorded Zone. He identifies himself as a Guardian whose work is to evaluate the clear and distribute rewards in exchange for Karma. Although the system restricts how much he may explain, he repairs Leonel's injuries, warns him that entering a four-person Zone alone was reckless, and gives him the essential framework of Zone grades, world maturation, and historical collapse. Leonel impulsively calls him “Uncle Montez”; Montez is startled, then warmly accepts the address without disclosing why it carries real weight. (Chapters 15–16)

His mentorship begins by preserving Leonel's agency. Montez narrows an overwhelming reward catalog and advises against concentrating every reward into one high-grade object, but lets Leonel use his own perception to choose Dimensional Cleanse. He then helps him assemble armor, movement, detection, storage, and throwing support rather than dictating a single combat path. On Leonel's later return, Montez steers him toward Crafting materials and tools—including gloves, ores, a quill, and the Metal Spirit—while withholding family information that the reward-space rules or his own judgment do not permit him to reveal. (Chapters 16 and 59–63)

The result is a foundation rather than a temporary rescue. Leonel's later Force Crafting, constitution, and route out of Earth all depend on choices made at Montez's counters. Montez also keeps the identity of Earth's first clearer private even though other overseers gossip, protecting Leonel from attention the younger man is not yet equipped to survive. (Chapters 62–63, 579, 815, and 844–865)

Unique-Zone rewards and a partner's future

After Camelot, Montez reads the record of Leonel's Unique-Zone clear and explains the political bargain hidden in its rewards: surrendering the evidence would buy a far greater payout but bury the attempted manipulation of Earth's history. He does not make the decision for Leonel. When Leonel refuses the bribe, Montez accepts the danger and continues administering the lesser reward package, including an unusually valuable Memory Ore carrying a route toward later portions of Dimensional Cleanse. (Chapters 328–331)

Montez then evaluates Little Blackstar as a young Shadow Sovereign rather than treating him as an object. He explains that Shadow World makes many offensive, defensive, movement, and auxiliary branches possible, while a compatible bloodline should supplement the mink's native ability rather than replace it. Leonel chooses the Dark Mimicry Bat path because it extends a Mimicry tendency Little Blackstar already displays. Montez emphasizes suitability and method: even beasts require compatible blood and careful integration, while a human taking the same blood would gain little and risk lingering injury. (Chapters 332–333)

Leonel uses his last choice on mobility, producing the SSS-grade black board that can switch between a nimble surf mode and a faster one-person shuttle. Together with the route encoded in the Memory Ore, these rewards remain active long after Montez leaves the immediate plot: they help Leonel travel, develop his constitution, and leave Earth's limited environment. Montez's importance in this period is therefore causal even when he is off-page—he selects leverage points that continue producing options. (Chapters 330–333, 395, 815, and 844–865)

The uncle behind the Guardian

Leonel finally meets Montez openly in the Void Palace's spear-training region. Montez's conspicuous golden armor and unauthorized presence draw the anger of his wife, who reveals that he was expelled from the Palace and that he and Velasco are estranged brothers. Montez confirms the relationship: accepting Leonel's familial address was never casual, because words and recognized ties have real metaphysical weight at his level. His earlier favoritism becomes legible as an uncle protecting a nephew without prematurely exposing him to Morales politics. (Chapters 1455–1458)

Montez responds to Velasco's failure to provide personalized spear instruction by imposing his own. He makes Leonel study calligraphy, music, and painting, beginning with the single-word intents Forceful, Subtle, Swift, and Gentle. A pen teaches how intent controls the stroke, rhythm teaches the organizing principle of an Absolute Domain, and painting teaches how power and atmosphere give the spear a larger world. The lessons force Leonel to condense meaning rather than rely on raw Force, and they help turn his Fifth-Dimensional Spear Force into something Montez considers exceptional. (Chapters 1457–1464)

This training is not effortless display. Montez exhausts himself trying to paint only part of a spear, destroys the result in frustration, and later reveals that his constantly active Divine Armor conceals a body drenched in sweat and a violently beating heart. He uses that confession as a warning: effort cannot be replaced by talent. He also explains the Spear Domain's approaching Mythological tribulation, its lethal mastery requirement, and the limited family record, giving Leonel a concrete danger to prepare for even though Montez cannot supply an easy answer. (Chapters 1460 and 1464–1466)

Patriarch in his brother's shadow

Montez's own Heir Wars history explains the strain beneath his humor. When Velasco declined to participate, Montez entered alone with only his spear, determined to prove that he did not need supporters and was not weaker than his elder brother. He won and became Morales Patriarch, but was the first such winner in the family's memory to take no pride in the office. Every administrative burden reminded him that he had fought for a role Velasco did not even want. (Chapter 2111)

That comparison also shapes the brothers' estrangement. Montez criticizes Velasco's arrogance and refusal to accept Ishmael's spear legacy, yet knows that Velasco carried burdens Montez could not. When their father died, the then-Sixth-Dimensional Montez could only rage at home while the stronger Velasco hunted the responsible traitors. Montez's insistence on self-reliance and his resentment of being second become a cycle: they push him to work, but make every achievement feel like evidence of somebody else's superiority. (Chapters 1457–1460, 2111, and 2172–2173)

After Velasco is killed, Montez confronts the transformed Leonel while Leonel is exterminating whole populations in grief. He tries to redirect him toward the guilty rather than women and children, but admits internally that he is too weak to have saved his brother or physically stop his nephew. Montez finally breaks Leonel's momentum with a desperate lie that Aina is pregnant, then helps him face the reality of Velasco's death. With shaking hands, he removes Velasco's restoration necklace and asks Leonel to deliver it to Anastasia with Velasco's final promise. (Chapters 2170–2176)

Dream Asura awakening and stolen identity

Velasco's death awakens a Dream Asura Bloodline Montez had believed he lacked. Montez and his wife explore the Dimensional Verse and find a route outward because he believes revenge requires leaving its limits. Outside, enemies already know and fear Dream Asuras; Montez is initially too weak for their preparations. He survives by learning, adapting, increasing his power, and developing the scheming habits expected of the bloodline, moving away from the straightforward Morales path. (Chapter 3222)

That adaptation leads into the Demoness's design. She suppresses or rewrites Montez's identity so deeply that he spends a year near Leonel without recognizing his nephew and subjects Leonel's toddlers to lethal battle pressure. Leonel patiently probes the restraint with Dream Force and controlled words, while the children's instinctive use of Destruction and the Morales name disturb buried memory. When Leonel finally addresses him as Uncle Montez, the constructed identity collapses; Montez's first restored concern is the location of his missing wife. (Chapters 3221–3223)

Recovery leaves him ashamed rather than triumphant. He remembers thoughts of killing Leonel, sees that his nephew has surpassed him, and recognizes that comparison with Velasco and revenge against the Demoness have consumed every plan for an “after.” Watching Leonel guide his children forces Montez to confront what he denied his wife and himself. He chooses a Valiant Heart centered on being free from comparison, finally distinguishing respect for his father from imitation of him. (Chapters 3223–3224)

Idol, last search, and final death

That choice triggers an explicit transformation. Montez had already reached the Ninth Dimension at an unspecified earlier time, but his Forces now catch up through several stages. He forms an Idol in the image of Ishmael, not because he wants to become his father, but because Ishmael's warm, uncomparative heart represents the freedom Montez has chosen. When the soul tie on his finger lets him sense his wife, he leaves immediately and refuses the practical implication of Leonel's offer to call his name for help; finding her is something he believes he must do himself. (Chapter 3224)

The Demoness uses that independence against him. She has already converted Montez's wife into an Invalid and uses her to lure him into the same fate. The conversion also suppresses the Dream Asura mind in which she has hidden part of Ishmael's mental pattern, making Montez both bait and storage in her effort to reconstruct her husband. By the final battlefield, the surviving pain in Montez's eyes is directed toward pleasing and protecting the Demoness rather than resisting her. (Chapter 3290)

Leonel does not allow the trap to create the hesitation the Demoness expects. He crosses spears with Montez, remembers the Guardian behind the counter and the uncle who revealed the cost of his training, then decapitates him; Aina Morales simultaneously kills Montez's wife. Montez's motes of light fuse into Leonel's spear, and Leonel later feels an extra hand guiding it. In the final attack on the Demoness, Montez's spirit is layered with Velasco's and Ishmael's inside Leonel's World of Creation, giving his death a continuing role without reversing it. (Chapters 3290–3291)

Appearance and personality

Montez first appears as a handsome man who seems carved from precious stone, more physically perfect than an ordinary human and dressed in gold-plated armor. The armor remains his identifying image across most of the corpus, to the point that its disappearance exposes the sweat and thunderous heartbeat it normally hides. His stalwart features and imposing presence visibly connect him to the Morales family, while his later power manifests Ishmael as a bronzed, white-haired figure rather than changing Montez into that form. (Chapters 15, 1455–1456, 1464, 2170, and 3224)

He is hearty, teasing, proud, and genuinely protective. Montez enjoys withholding an answer long enough to make Leonel work for it, dramatizes exits, bends rules to visit family, and laughs readily at both danger and romance. The same pride makes him reject help, measure himself against Velasco, and turn every waking moment into training. His final development does not erase that independence; it separates it from inferiority, allowing him to choose family and personal desire for their own sake. (Chapters 15–16, 328–333, 1456–1466, 2111, and 3222–3224)

Abilities and cultivation

Montez's cultivation is only explicitly fixed late: by Chapter 3224 he has long been in the Ninth Dimension, after which his lagging Forces advance through several stages and he forms an Idol. Earlier scenes establish overwhelming superiority over Leonel and high standing among spear practitioners but do not safely date each intermediate dimension. His most consequential capabilities combine Morales spear inheritance, Divine Armor, artistic Force control, Guardian-system access, and an awakened Dream Asura Bloodline. (Chapters 329, 1455–1465, 2170, and 3222–3224)

Spear path and artistic conception

Montez is a lifelong spearman who won his Heir Wars without backers and became Morales Patriarch. He can express spear intent through words, calligraphy, rhythm, and painted atmosphere: changing the intent of a pen stroke demonstrates different spear characters, Earth Force shaped into resonant keys turns one mallet into an orchestra, and a partial painted spear generates real blades and cutting pressure. These are training translations of spear meaning, not separate unlimited reality-writing abilities. (Chapters 1459–1460 and 2111)

He understands the Spear Domain Lineage Factor, its three tribulations, and the distinction between primer weapons and the deeper inheritance that begins in the Sixth Dimension. He can sense an abnormal aura in Leonel's Spear Domain Ring and recognize the approach of its first Mythological tribulation. His knowledge has limits: he never owned the Ring, did not study the full legend, and directs Leonel to the Void Library rather than inventing details he does not know. (Chapters 1465–1466)

Divine Armor and physical conditioning

Montez can manifest and dismiss golden Divine Armor. It supplies a barrier strong enough to stop Leonel's concentrated Fifth-Dimensional Spear Force without moving Montez and conceals the visible consequences of his conditioning. He deliberately keeps it active almost everywhere as part of a continuous training regimen, leaving his unarmored body soaked in sweat and his heart beating hard enough for its sound pressure to affect Leonel. (Chapter 1464; Chapter 3224)

The armor is not evidence of effortless invulnerability. Its constant use is self-imposed work, and Montez's partial spear painting still exhausts him. In the final war, an Invalid Montez is explicitly among Leonel's easier named opponents; the armor and Ninth-Dimensional endpoint do not bridge the gap to Leonel's transformed final power. (Chapters 1460, 1464, and 3291)

Force shaping, words, and instruction

Montez demonstrates very fine Force malleability. He shapes Earth Force into strings, bars, and keys whose thickness and vibration reproduce different instruments, then links rhythm to the principle of an Absolute Domain. His single-word exercise teaches that Forcefulness, Subtlety, Swiftness, and Gentleness are controlled intentions whose timing and context matter as much as output. (Chapters 1459–1463)

This framework also explains Myghell's spoken combat words: sufficiently understood intent can make the world respond, but the word is not a free command divorced from comprehension and Force. Montez explicitly starts Leonel with single words because poetry is beyond someone who cannot yet embody the components. His own failed partial painting shows the ceiling: vivid artistic conception demands enormous control and stamina even for him. (Chapters 1459–1460)

Dream Asura Bloodline

Montez's Dream Asura Bloodline awakens only after Velasco dies. It supports Dream Force, rapid mental adaptation, and the strategic habits needed to survive enemies who prepare specifically for Dream Asuras. Montez grows in both power and scheming ability after leaving the Dimensional Verse, but the bloodline does not arrive with inherited mastery or guaranteed protection; at first, prepared enemies repeatedly place him and his wife on the losing side. (Chapter 3222)

The Demoness can also exploit and suppress that mind. Her long preparation alters Montez's memories and identity beyond what raw strength can break, requiring Leonel to work for a year with Dream Force, linguistic triggers, and controlled family exposure. Later, conversion into an Invalid suppresses the Dream Asura mind more completely by replacing personhood with destructive compulsion. The bloodline is therefore a powerful mental architecture, not immunity to a more experienced Dream expert. (Chapters 3221–3223 and 3290)

Ninth Dimension, Valiant Heart, and Idol

Montez's decisive late breakthrough begins with a change in motive. He abandons comparison as the foundation of his striving and chooses freedom to live his own life. His Forces then catch up to his already-achieved Ninth Dimension through several stages, and an Idol manifests in Ishmael's image, carrying spear light in its eyes. The causal sequence ties persistent power to a clarified Valiant Heart rather than to a new weapon or external resource. (Chapter 3224)

The corpus does not show a completed campaign using that Idol or define its full techniques. Montez leaves immediately to follow his soul tie, is later made an Invalid, and dies in a battle where Leonel greatly outclasses him. His latest meaningful effect is spiritual: his Force and remembered presence reinforce Leonel's spear and Creation World during the final attack. (Chapters 3224 and 3290–3291)

Guardian authority and constraints

Within the Zone reward space, Montez can inspect a clear through a scroll, heal the clearer on arrival, translate information, display catalog counters, and filter rewards by need. These are functions of his Guardian assignment and the joint reward system, not proof that he can freely conjure the same treasures in ordinary combat. He receives Karma for the service and operates through what is later described as a projection. (Chapters 15–16, 59–63, and 2172)

His discretion is real but bounded. He repeatedly says that he is not allowed to explain certain information, works within reward grades and exchange rates, and cannot simply hand Leonel later portions of Dimensional Cleanse. He helps through selection, unusually useful packaging, and carefully chosen hints, making institutional constraint part of the mechanism of his mentorship. (Chapters 15–16 and 328–333)

Power progression

Relationships

• Leonel Morales: Montez's nephew, first presented as a talented Zone clearer and later openly claimed as family. Montez gives him foundational rewards, teaches his spear intent, tries to stop his grief-driven massacre, and ultimately survives in Leonel's last spear strike as a carried spirit. (Chapters 15–16, 328–333, 1455–1466, 2170–2176, and 3290–3291)
• Velasco: Montez's elder brother and lifelong point of comparison. Love, estrangement, inferiority, and disagreement over Ishmael's legacy shape Montez's Heir Wars victory and patriarchal burden; Velasco's death awakens Montez's Dream Asura Bloodline and redirects his life toward revenge. (Chapters 1456–1460, 2111, 2170–2176, and 3222–3224)
• Ishmael: Montez's father and the source of the spear path he refines for Leonel. Montez finally recognizes Ishmael's uncomparative, forgiving heart as his own chosen ideal and forms an Idol in his image. (Chapters 1459–1460, 2172, and 3224)
• Wife (“Ness”): A powerful spearwoman and Void Palace resident who wants a child with Montez. She accompanies him beyond the Dimensional Verse, becomes the leverage used to convert him into an Invalid, and dies beside him in the final battle. (Chapters 1456–1458, 1465–1466, 3222–3224, and 3290)
• Aina Morales: Montez treats Aina as the newest member of the formidable women surrounding the Morales men and recognizes her bond with Leonel. In the final war, she kills his Invalid wife at the same moment Leonel kills him, preventing the Demoness from splitting the couple's resolve. (Chapters 1466, 2170–2176, and 3290–3291)
• Anastasia: Montez understands Velasco's promise to Anastasia and entrusts Leonel with the necklace meant to restore her after Velasco's death. His explanation turns an object taken from the body into Velasco's last fulfilled obligation. (Chapter 2176)