Immortal Kingdoms

Rumble!

Early dawn after a cruel battle that lasted for over a week of the ceaseless bloodhound, the five towns surrounding Grace Imperial Palace were drenched in blood, the buildings scarred from the aftershocks of what could be described as a holy war to the ordinary people caught within.

Two hundred warriors that crawled their way through piles of flesh and bone flinched in fright as the ground beneath their feet quacked. Furthermore, they felt a wonderful sensation through their souls; as though something incomplete had finally been mended back to perfection.

They realized that their missing stands of the soul were set free from the enslavement bracelet and returned to their mind's eyes. They couldn't help but feel moved and delighted, as although they were promised top-tier treatment and grooming if they were to survive, no one mentioned anything about their freedom.

Everyone felt emotionally moved, except a few who weren't slaves, to begin with, but a band of mercenaries to say the least. As Leonardo expected, Misaka and company survived to the last day, even that unremarkable Kristopher who simply stuck to Andreas like a leech survived, which was somewhat unexpected.

Pandora and Juvia reported that this guy's luck was simply heaven-defying, always making it out of danger in some unexpected, unorthodox ways. It almost felt like the world was genuinely biased toward him.

Another shocking thing was Lucas' performance. The thing is, they didn't know how to evaluate it because they couldn't exactly recall his fighting style. More accurately, he seemed to have been overlooked by almost everyone.

And when he actually fought, the formation would have been coincidentally broadcasting another fight as it would prioritize based on the intensity of the fluctuations, allowing the two ladies to keep an eye on those incapable of controlling their energy.

By the time they realized it, Lucas was already one of two survivors. Leonardo was positive that Lucas had a mystical martial intent that was related but not limited to the psyche of the human mind, it might even be on a deeper level.

However, he didn't care much about that. If Lucas could make it to the end, then no one would doubt his battle strength. While everyone was in shocked joy, the ground trembled as they felt an illusory force wash over them and the five towns.

Those more experienced could tell that this was a saint's domain.

As a saint's domain could stretch as far as a saint's eyesight could reach, simply by levitating in front of the Grace Imperial Palace, Leonardo who was dressed in a striking battle fit of black leather scribbled in crimson red array inscriptions, could release a domain that encompassed the entire Imperial City; the five towns already being recognized as separate districts.

A massive energy projection scaling from the ground all the way into the sky in a size observable by the entire elite squad of one thousand warriors drew everyone's attention. They knew this was for those lacking the eyesight to clearly see what was going on, and thus everyone quietly observed this mysterious figure who stood there, in a mask, but a pair of terrifying crimson eyes that felt like the gates to an ocean of blood captivated them.

Pandora and Juvia's projections appeared standing respectfully behind this mysterious man, causing some of the warriors to raise their eyebrows. However, no one spoke as they simply watched in awe.

It was Juvia who spoke first.

"This is your Supreme Commander on a path of no retreat."

"A path of bloodshed."

"A path of no mercy."

"A path of glory."

"A path of grace."

"A path of darkness and light."

"This is your Supreme Commander Bloodthirsty, and you shall accompany him on the path of absolute slaughter. Pay your respects to your commander or die!"

Juvia's voice was anything but impassioned. It was a flat tone lacking any emotion or motivation, but it was as direct as it could get. The moment she finished her words, Leonardo stretched out his right hand as it flashed with a sanguine light, a halberd that was now no short of three meters tall, circling it were intertwined wisps of dull gray and crimson red, its spear tip as dark as the midnight sky due to the immense concentration of blood.

Flanked by sharp, curved, yet serrated blades on either side, a dense bloodlust pulsed from the weapon. This bloodlust traversed the incorporeal bloodthirsty domain, sending shivers down every warrior's spine, including the battle-hardened previous Grim and Reaper protectors group.

Even the seemingly lazy Lucas felt his life flash before his eyes as though he was nothing but a dried husk of flesh and bone without a drop of blood. That illusion was too realistic for him to deny, and sweat poured down like rain.

In front of everyone's shocked eyes, the blood on the streets, walls, and even in their clothes and bits of hair, began to bubble over and gravitate in an accelerating momentum towards the dreadful halberd.

The light of dawn was instantly swept by a crimson sky as countless tributaries of blood rushed like flood dragons and plunged into the shaft and crown of the halberd, the scene sending shivers down everyone's spine.

They now understood one thing, whoever this man was, his path of cultivation relied heavily on bloodshed. And, to think that he followed this path into sainthood, they could only guess how many people he had killed.

They have all seen a saint before. After all, they were slaves to no other than one of the three ruling powers, a saint was like a common commodity to such powers. However, their intuition led them to believe that something was different about this saint and his powers.

Leonardo would understand their feelings as by now, he saw through the deficiencies in the middle realms and their saints, or might simply be something exclusive to a planet like Arcadia.

Leonardo assumed that most houses would groom the inhabitants of their respective planets in the middle realms, it just happened that this one was a private property to Nier, not something under the jurisdiction of House Hestia. Thus, ironically, although Nier is their goddess in name and essence, they're unaware of her existence.

Not many believe in the existence of the higher realms, and for those who do, they don't believe they'd be associated with them anytime soon. If Juvia didn't personally witness Leonardo and company entering through a spatial rift, she would subconsciously deny the possibility of them descending from a higher realm as well.

The saints in the middle realms are lacking in both saint-grade battle skills and combat-oriented martial intents. Though, the second reason was simply something to be blamed on the environment of the planet as the majority of the cultivation population enjoy an elemental-oriented martial intent, as for those who diverge from the populace, their martial intents have absolutely nothing to do with combat.

So, the introduction of a saint with such destructive and dangerous essence was something borderline otherworldly to these people. It couldn't have helped, as the circumstances shape the people, this is merely the cycle of natural evolution.

People may think they are free to choose their paths, but was that really the case? This is merely a psychological prison people inadvertently reject due to how narrow their understanding of the world as a whole is.

This is no different than a multiple-choice question. One may answer thinking they had the power to choose their future, but if that was the case, why would they brew over the presented options?

Why not question who gave them these options? Why were they limited to that specific number? Were they really given the freedom of choice? If that unknown force bothered presenting them with these options, would it matter to it whatever choice they eventually made?

This is the case with planet Arcadia and its will. The planet itself restricted its inhabitants, and when a power that could rebel against its natural selection of rule, it would simply suppress it.

Perhaps they delude themselves into believing they're free to choose one of one thousand paths to sainthood, but who is to say there weren't ten thousand? A hundred thousand? A million?

They wouldn't know because they never bothered thinking that deeply about it. When a household takes over a planet in the middle realms, the will of the planet could either submit or die, no third option, as it could hinder the growth of the potential slaves.

Just like Leonardo's desolation and the will of Arcadia, only one of them can prosper. Leonardo wouldn't be surprised if Juvia would start to feel these invisible shackles once her cultivation advances in the future, but he truly didn't care about that.

For now, all he wanted was to carve a path of blood and utterly force these into submission within five years.

Leonardo looked down at the warriors below and gave a simple command.

"Follow me."

Then, he landed on the ground in the direction of the Regalia Kingdom's border in a direct march. This was because a declaration of war had its own principles to follow, they couldn't simply bring an army and land directly into the depths of the opposing party and start a slaughter.