Immortal Kingdoms

"Pffft!" Leonardo swayed and spat a mouthful of blood as the circulation of his energy essence was interrupted. He wiped his mouth and looked up at the sky, a trace of disdain and derision in his eyes.

Under the mask, his face was pale white, but his eyes remained as lustrous crimson as they could be. Obviously, that lightning washed his cells and managed to destroy the wind essence contained within, but he managed to trap a sliver of destructive lightning that was trying to escape the bindings of his martial intent, even now as he cast the sky a look of derision.

"Guess you're still an immature child…" Muttered Leonardo, confusing the other five in the distance as to whom he was speaking. Of course, Leonardo was taunting the will of Arcadia, as it was so naive to think that it could wrestle for control over whatever already entered his body.

That was laughable, but not to the extent that Leonardo would actually laugh about it.

"Boss! Are you alright?!" Shouted Miko from the distance, not daring to get any closer. He may be a rouge, but he knew to respect and fear Goddess Arcadia.

"I'm fine, it barely gave me an itch!" Shrugged Leonardo, spitting the sweet blood in his mouth before shooting directly into the heart of the storm above.

Misaka covered her mouth in shock as everyone stared, dumbfounded, while Leonardo disappeared into the tribulation clouds.

"Boss sure is boss…" Miko muttered, his green eyes unblinking as he observes the flashy show of thunder. Ony Pandora overcame her shock as she realized that this might have something to do with Leonardo's original martial intent, so she wasn't entirely worried.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The moment Leonardo entered the dark clouds, it was as though he phased into a new world, a world that rejected and hated him. He could sense the omnipresent hostility and the will to destroy, as well as a trace of fear from these clouds.

He knew the fear was birthed in response to the essence of desolation throbbing from the depths of his cells, but it was this will that provoked him and not the other way around.

Thunder flashed and a hail of lightning bolts struck Leonardo's body at a frequency so high his clothing disintegrated into torn rags, revealing a bloody and scarred lithe figure. Lightning coiled around his arms and legs like winding dragons before rushing into his pores, skin, flesh, blood, and bones, and directly washing away at his cells.

Leonardo groaned in pain as he endured. A strand of lightning might go in, but it won't ever go out. His skin was charred black, splintered, shaved off, and regenerated by drawing the essence and vitality from the bloodthirsty halberd. Only now did he realize that he could draw on the blood essence that the halberd was yet to refine and heal his wounds with it, but that didn't mean the process itself wasn't painful.

Millions upon millions of his cells worked in tandem to split the volume of the incoming destructive lightning, while Leonardo tried his best to segment the bloodthirsty essence, desolation essence, and destructive lightning essence into three distinct portions within his cells.

The more he could endure, the better it will be in the future. Luckily, both his desolate and bloodthirsty intents were at the peak of the higher realms, genuine immortal intents, and they could barely hold on against the destructive tribulation lightning of the immature Arcadia's will.

Time trickled by, and by the dawn of the next day, Leonardo's cells were already packed full with lightning. Only, the will of Arcadia was intent on destroying his body because it could still sense the trace of its will within the lightning.

"Fuck it!" Leonardo clenched his teeth, seems like Arcadia won't ever allow him to merge with its will no matter what. If that were the case, he will find a better way around utilizing the essence of desolation in the future.

Leonardo endured the pain and sat down in a lotus position in the sea of lightning and began to crazily urge his desolation essence to wash away the lightning space within his cells, directly eradicating the will of Arcadia attached to the lightning.

Seemingly noticing what Leonardo was doing, the intensity of the lightning increased in volume and size, directly blowing holes into Leonardo's body. However, he didn't care, even if he had to draw on the blood essence of the hundreds of thousands of people he already killed, and the six saints, to get this matter done.

Just as he thought he was on the verge of collapse, the last remnants of will within his cells were destroyed by his desolation essence, cutting off his connection to Arcadia's will on the outside world. Followingthis, the clouds finally began to disperse, revealing a clear morning sky and a naked young man charred black and dyed red in blood falling from above.

With a sonic boom, Misaka rushed to catch Leonardo's unconscious figure, but a petite silver-haired beauty already beat her to it and caught him while eyeing Misaka with cold dead eyes.

Misaka shivered lightly, presenting an awkward smile as she said, "I meant no harm, I was simply worried about the boss."

She cursed inside that this little girl still doesn't trust them.

Only now did Miko and the others arrive, gasping in shock at Leonardo's condition and grave injuries.

"Now what?" Asked Sitri, they obviously couldn't continue the campaign with Leonardo in this state.

"Let's head back to Grace Imperial City, for now. The leader will decide on what to do later."

Pandora spoke before wrapping both herself and Leonardo in a veil of nothingness and shooting off into the distance, not caring about the other four.

"Sigh, she doesn't trust us yet."

Misaka shook her head gloomily, her mood shifting from bad to worse.

Lucas and Sitri on the other hand remained silent, as they didn't care for the opinion of Pandora, their loyalty lay with Leonardo and not his followers.

"Um, I mean yeah, we barely know one another?" Miko spoke up his thoughts, thinking it was only natural for Pandora to be on guard against any potential danger.

Even he wouldn't dare approach Leonardo in such a sensitive and delicate situation, let alone those who were forced into taking part in the brutal culling. Thinking about it, he felt bad for Andreas and Kristopher who defected with the rest of the army, he could think with his knees to figure out that it was all instigated by that stupid Andreas.

He was probably the one to deliver the information regarding the defections to the other party as well.

"What do you know?!" Barked Misaka with a red face. In fact, she still remembered how she kissed Leonardo back then, and this memory only surfaced now because her perception of the man changed from a smart young man who couldn't cultivate to…

However, since he acted as though nothing happened, she couldn't thicken her face and bring it up on her own, it would be too damn embarrassing. Just as she thought a chance presented itself, a thick city wall called Pandora blocked her path.

Now she truly felt helpless and irritated, taking it out on a dumbfounded Miko before she rushed back to the Imperial City.

"What did I say wrong?" Miko stared blankly at his sister's fading figure, feeling helpless.