Immortal Kingdoms

Kienar's deep brown eyes snapped back to attention and he was shocked to find his Godfather standing among their group out of the blue. He didn't know when or how the young man got here, but he threw these doubts to the back of his head and hurriedly picked up his little sister in a piggyback.

Kienar didn't know why his Godfather's flat voice didn't sound that soothing anymore. If anything, it felt somewhat scary. However, the kid quickly trained his eyes back to the big sister called White Specter as she cut down the contingent of mercenaries with a sense of reckless abandon.

Although it confused him why she attacked every except the bastard who almost killed his little sister, the intelligent boy knew better than to speak up at this point in time.

Leonardo levelled his tranquil eyes at Jeffery who was just as confused by Leonardo's appearance as Kienar was. Nevertheless, he was more shocked to know that there was such a terrifying expert protecting Leonardo's group in the shadows, and that expert was as bloody as bloody could get with their methods.

Jeffery felt uncomfortable under Leonardo's scrutinising eye, but he didn't have to endure it too long as Leonardo picked up Juvia over his back and gestured for Kieran to follow him into the heat of the slaughter.

At this point, everyone and their mother knew better than to get involved with the small group of Leonardo and his entourage, lest they drew the attention of that white silhouette— no, she was already red from head to toe in the blood of tens of freelance mercenaries.

The group of fifteen armed bodyguards stood in a tightly knit formation around Andrew who was quaking in his boots. The command to aim and shoot down this woman who was chipping away at his army hung on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't find the guts to spit his orders.

"Halt! Stand back!" One of the bodyguards noticed Leonardo approaching their group from a distance, and decided it was a wise move to shout out a verbal warning that landed on deaf ears as Leonardo wholly ignored these naked threats and advanced firmly.

The bodyguards weren't idiots and like everyone else in the scene, they've become aware of the fact that they had dragged a potentially uninvolved party into the dispute over the stolen goods, and matter's might have spiraled out of control.

A number of new faces stood on the high fortified walls of Valdmor and watched the show with interest. However, their presence went unnoticed in the heat of the moment below.

"Leonardo, my friend!" Andrew pushed through his bodyguards with a distressed smile on his ugly face. He just remembered that Leonardo mentioned having an elf assistant, and thus it wasn't out of the ordinary for Jeffery to be accompanied by an elf.

Sadly, he was too confused, angry, and anxious to think straight.

All he could do now was hope to settle the dispute as peacefully as possible since he didn't feel like offending Leonardo without probing the young man's background or origins.

However, Leonardo didn't bother mincing words with this idiot. The moment they stood face to face, Leonardo's right hand went ablur, and the next thing everyone saw was Andrew's twisted right cheek with Leonardo's backhand smacking the man's teeth into oblivion.

The middle aged man spun on his heels before he crashed into two of his bodyguards like crumbling dominoes. Before his bodyguards could retaliate, Andrew barked an order through his bloodied teeth.

"Don't! Hold your fire! Ptiu!" He spat a tooth and a spittle of saliva and blood with an ugly smile, feeling lucky that it was resolved with a simple backhand.

Leonardo didn't even grace the bodyguards with his attention as he braved through their ranks and approached the blood soaked Pandora whose features were unrecognisable at this point. She stood there panting in a sea of blood, flesh, and painful groans.

Out of the tens of hired troops with ranging levels from 10 to 21, the majority of them were lying dead. All of this to satisfy a sliver of Leonardo's excessive thirst for blood that he couldn't keep in check, something he didn't know was dormant in his personality.

In a sense, this trait wasn't innate but inherent from Nier, it simply lacked the catalyst to ignite it. The mere prospect of having to witness his own Goddaughter fall to the idiotic conclusion of some low lives almost drove him to the brink of insanity.

Leonardo quickly trudged through the stench of blood and stood face to face with Pandora who stood blankly in place, not knowing what took over her instinct in that moment of befuddlement.

Sighing, Leonardo patted the girl's head, unaffected nor was he repulsed by her current state. In fact, he felt relieved and thankful as she expressed what he had to keep bottled up as to not blow his cover as a cultivator, ruining his plans for the long term.

Pandora, who was worried about getting scolded for acting on inexplicably whims, felt relief wash over her at the sensation of her leader's gentle caressings, getting the urge to simply groan in satisfaction as she lunged forward and hugged the young man tightly.

She was utterly scared to displease him one day after their union.

Back on the fortified walls of Valdmor, the infamous, influential, and great figures of the ancient town got plenty of information to digest from this cruel display of might.

One thing was certain, any plans to keep things undercover went with the winds. Now, everyone and their mother would be intrigued with the ins and outs of this peculiar situation.

Many of these intrigued parties would reach out to Leonardo sooner or later, and the young businessman would find himself thrust in the eye of a political and economic storm between the natives of the forbidden domain and the kingdoms infringing upon its territory.

It would have been a wonderful moment if Andrew didn't intrude with his wasted mouth that he didn't even bother cleaning up.

He swallowed nervously and said, "Leonardo my friend…"

Leonardo sighed and kept his emotions to himself before fashioning a faint, flat smile before nodding his head, "Don't worry, no hard feelings. Business is business, and this whole farce is just a mistake on your part."

Andrew sighed, wiping the sweat off his forehead as he glanced fearfully at the petite lady hiding in the young man's arms. He couldn't for the love of god associate this little girl with the spectre of death that plagued his troops moments prior.

If he had any plans of targeting Leonardo's small settlement prior to this day, those plans were shelved into a corner of his mind that he would bring to his grave.

On the far cliff where Leonardo and Pandora just stood, two men stood upright and watched everything unfold with calm expressions.

One of them, shockingly, was the same burly man who was reluctant to part with the two children. Next to him, a middle aged man with streaks of grey hair mixed in his black locks watched silently, the centre of his attention being Kieran and Leona.

"Let's go, Henry." The man spoke calmly before turning around and walking into the distance. Henry wanted to say something, but the moment he turned around, he found that his friend has vanished into thin air.

Henry sighed, cursing under his breath, "Fucking House Eternus bastard, you seriously need to read some parenting books in your spare time!" Alas, he knew his words and advice were redundant.

"Well, they seem to be in good hands I guess."

Henry then embarked on a long journey back to the settlement of convicts, his heart at ease after watching the lengths Leonardo would take to protect the two children who were the closest thing to a family he ever had, even if from the shadows.