Immortal Kingdoms

BOOM!

Rumble!

Leonardo and Pandora hurriedly swam to the surface of the water, and what greeted them was the ghastly scene of a long wolven arm reaching out for them, but the entire structure of the cave collapsed onto itself, burying Mordred and what looked like a six meters tall dog with three heads and six crimson eyes.

The beast clamped down on Mordred's thick waist with two of its heads, the last one parting its mouth wide enough to fit a normal human adult before plunging down to chew off Mordred's head, shoulders, and upper torso in one bite.

Everything happened too damn fast, and the two could only watch helplessly in abject horror as rocks piled up to seal the exit. Rivulets of steaming hot blood ran along the rocky surface of the ground and outside the gave. When the dust settles, all they could see was a screen of mountain rocks, a puddle of blood, and a cloud of dust yet to disperse.

Only now did Leonardo notice the naked elf clinging to his waist while trembling unreasonably. Her once lustrous skin was pale, and bite marks dotted her neck and shoulders. From the looks of it, Mordred was sucking her blood to satiate his bestial desires, but the scent of her blood most likely drew the attention of yet a more badass predator.

Pandora's childish face lost all color as well, and she instinctively drew near to Leonardo who was even weaker than herself. This type of behavior was beyond her control, just like how Leonardo's mind was filled with the images of a petite woman dressed in plain black dress for clothes, the only thing remarkable about her might as well be the cascading midnight black hair that swayed hypnotically.

Leonardo snapped out of his daze, gave Pandora a slap to her face that shocked her world silly before the pain and humiliation reestablished order to her thought process. When she came to, Leonardo was already making a detour toward another edge of the lake.

"Move already! We have as much time as it takes for that thing to finish eating up that bastard. If we're lucky enough, it might decide that one werewolf is enough for breakfast." Leonardo had no emotional attachments to Mordred whatsoever, much less one or two reasons to daze about waiting for death.

On the other hand, Pandora was well acquainted with Mordred as they climbed their way from invasions in the lower realms all the way here. Watching him get chewed apart like that wrenched her heart. She knew his warning was for her; not Leonardo.

Leonardo just happened to be nearby, be it out of fortune or otherwise. However, one hard fact remains that he owes his life to Mordred, yet he abandoned him in a heartbeat.

Must he be so cruel? Pandora gritted her teeth and rushed after Leonardo with a flashy handprint on her right cheek. That handprint still hurt, but she didn't bother about it.

About fifteen minutes of rushing through the trees in a single breath, Leonardo tossed the traumatized elf princess on a bed of grass before dropping to his knees and propping himself on his two hands while heaving deep gulps of air. The poor elf princess simply lay paralyzed in fear, her naked body shivering with goosebumps. Unlike Leonardo who had to carry a mentally scarred woman, Pandora had it much easier.

Well, physically easier to say the least.

God knows how many times her knuckles itched to simply draw her bow, knock a blood arrow, and sail it through Leonardo's head as she caught up from the rear. Rationality and reason told her he did nothing wrong, but her grieving heart pleaded for bloodshed.

Leonardo took one deep breath at a time before slowly adjusting his breathing pattern. Then, he clenched his fists hard before unleashing a fit of mad, meaningless jabs at the ground while gritting his teeth.

"Careless!"

Bang!

"Careless!"

Bang!

"Careless!"

Bang!

"Careless!"

Bang!

…

About a hundred low curses later, two deep depressions of mud and blood rested before Leonardo. His knuckles were mashed out of shape, and he retreated to rest lifelessly against the nearest tree trunk. Both his arms rested on each of his knees, and the two women simply stood to either sides in silence.

Honestly, they were frightened, thinking that he went mad or something. The elf princess was still butt naked but that was the least of her worries at the moment.

A deep shade of gray swirled within Leonardo's previously glaring pitch-black eyes, but the odd color quickly receded into the natural, abyss-like darkness.

Of course, the melancholic vacancy reemerged once again. However, he didn't care for that at the moment. His heart was anything but calm, and the pumping blood found a path of release through his busted skin near the knuckles.

A drop of blood never sounded so loud, clear, and disturbing to Pandora and the female elf as Leonardo's blood fell one drop at a time to puddle beneath his feet.

"I don't care anymore." He muttered just loud enough for both of them to hear. Honestly, what kind of an experienced veteran would make that type of rookie mistake? Dropping his guard in an unfamiliar environment, losing himself in the pursuit of soothing his instinctive desires?

Did he have to venture so deep into a region unknown? And for what?

Moreover, Leonardo also realized that Mordred's warning was for Pandora and not himself. They were supposed to be his guardians, but clearly they simply joined the ship looking for opportunities of their own.

As for the elf princess? Leonardo could care less about her fate.

He slowly closed his eyes to rest the turmoil in his head. "I don't need guardians like you; I'm better off alone. Good luck with attaining sainthood. As for miss princess or whatever the fuck you may be; get lost."

Pandora's mind was clouded with grief and anger for the most part of the wait. However, witnessing the distressed attitude of Leonardo and thinking back to how she and Mordred treated their supposed leader in retrospect, it dawned upon her that they never took him seriously.

Mordred treated him like a kid, while she treated him like a spoiled sugar baby. A temporary toy lady Nier picked up and would soon discard. However, both of them knew deep down that they looked down on Leonardo out of jealousy, nothing more and nothing less.

What happened to Mordred was the guy's fault. Worse yet, he could have dragged them both with him. Leonardo never even gave him permission to touch a hair on the captive, much less feast on her blood essence.

She wanted to say something, but words wouldn't come out. Eventually, she squatted nearby and brought her knees to her chest, sinking into silence as well.

The princess was in a dilemma as well. She knew from the very beginning that Leonardo, who appears to be the group's leader, had no interest in her whatsoever. Nevertheless, this can't be more false after a change in perspective.

Due to her special circumstances, she needs help attaining sainthood.

She needs it as soon as possible.

However, unlike the higher realms where sainthood doesn't amount to much due to the existence of divinity and immortality… Sainthood on Arcadia is literally the lifeline of every powerful family.

What people like Leonardo consider a matter of course, just a matter of when and not how, is a matter of life and death on planet Arcadia.

Just the fact that Leonardo was confident to become a Saint within 5 years speaks volumes of the difference in realms. Since the forceful approach literally got her nowhere, she might as well…

She eventually stopped trembling and curled up to the side, just like Pandora.

Time crawled by and the morning dew vaporized, the sun scaled the high blue sky and eventually settled behind the mountains in a curtain of dusky hue.

Night descended and departed repeatedly, and three days went by.

On this morning, the female elf could hold it in no longer and carefully approached the slumbering Leonardo who resembled a resting demon in her eyes, obviously after his outburst.

She kneeled in front of him with her massive breasts on full display, not even bothering to hide her shame, and slowly but gently held Leonardo's left hand before running her tongue across his wounds. Leonardo's eyes snapped open when he felt a cool sensation cleaning his infected tissues and clotted blood.

The princess flinched lightly, but she continued to boldly lick his left hand clean under the silent watch of his inky, lifeless eyes.

Pandora swallowed nervously as she observed the two. Then, she gathered her courage and brought out a small box containing some medicinal mucus. She also carefully approached Leonardo before kneeling right next to the princess.

After hesitating for a moment, she dodged eye contact with Leonardo and began applying medicine by smearing the mucus in even portions over the knuckles of his right hand.

Leonardo watched them silently without a ripple of emotions in his eyes before closing them once again.