Immortal Kingdoms

"Boss sure is taking his time, huh?"

"What's wrong with that? Clearly, he's using this fight as a training experience! You're forgetting he's barely eighteen years old!"

"Don't misinterpret my words, big sister, I didn't mean anything wrong by saying that…"

"Perhaps we should start using our weaknesses to fight our peers as well?"

"Don't even bother, you're not smart enough to keep up with the pace of a deadly fight while trying to comprehend something. You might die trying."

Miko was about to respond when he noticed Misaka's stern gaze. He shivered, but he felt warm inside nonetheless as he knew she cared too much for him.

"Sigh, fine! I don't want to embarrass my boss by showing how awesome I am when tackling my weaknesses. Then again, I guess leaving a weakness or two can be considered as good karma for my opponents lest they complain about how broken my combat prowess can be…"

As he was acting away, Miko noticed that everyone else was paying attention to his conversation with Misaka in one way or another, except for Pandora who kept her eyes locked on the apocalyptic battle in the distance.

Dark clouds churned, wind roaded, and blood splattered incessantly.

From high noon till dusk, and into the night, the fighting never stopped. Leonardo knew that this delay was at the cost of exposing their determination to blaze through the armies of the opposing feudal lords without a hint of mercy to the ordinary soldiers, and they would undoubtedly take some measures to avoid such a catastrophe, but he couldn't just ignore the fact that he came here to train himself.

He realized that although he feared no one in close-range combat after experiencing the skills of high divinities and immortals, he couldn't help but walk on thin ice when magical arts are involved in the picture. There were many instances where he almost lost his life in this one-on-one, and sometimes Pandora had to intervene on his behalf to save his life.

This was one reason why Pandora kept a close eye on the fight, not daring to even blink. That wind saint is fighting while being simultaneously blessed by the will of Arcadia, but Pandora's martial intent of nothingness, or for a better word, nihility, can bypass the man's perception and strike clean regardless if he saw it coming or not.

Both fighters are in a pathetic state at the moment, but Leonard's eyes were flaring crimson with battle intent while the saint's eyes were dim and exhausted. He already knew that no matter what he did, death was inevitable.

Even if he could kill Leonardo, the other five won't allow it.

He can't find a gap in their encirclement, and that stealthy marksmanship of the silver-haired woman is frightening. If she wanted his life, she could have reaped it in a flash during one of their intense exchanges.

And this battle maniac has already adapted to his magical arts to a point where he could deduce the flaw of every move and counterattack, no matter how hidden he thought his little tricks were. Even if he prepared for a move during the precious ten, twenty, or a hundred exchange; Leonard would immediately connect the dots and react accordingly, if not outright ruin the tempo and force him to play a different tune.

Just as he was dwelling on his predicament, the halberd in Leonardo's hands exploded into a bloody mist that occupied the man's entire vision. He wanted to blow the mist away with a gale of wind, but a bloody hand shot through the mist and aimed a palm right through his heart.

The man snorted, locking the palm down by grabbing the wrist with both hands. Just as he was about to channel currents of wind blades into Leonardo's body through the pores, his eyes flashed in horror as Leonardo's other hand gripped tightly around his collar.

The blood mist surged and flowed into Leonardo's right arm before bursting from his palm in the form of a three-meter-long halberd. The man had no time to act as he assumed that the halberd would emerge from Leonardo's left hand that was clawing at his collar, but it actually pierced through his heart instead.

Blood splashed, and the man spat out bits and pieces of his internal organs with a face as white as a sheet of paper. Never in his dreams would he have imagined that such a heavy weapon could dissolve into liquid or mist, as Leonardo did nothing but display his ability to remotely control its movements within his domain, nothing more and nothing less.

"Any last words?" Leonardo lifted the man off his feet as his blood essence flowed into the glowing bloodthirsty halberd, but Leonardo controlled its pace to leave the man with some dignity and a final farewell.

"Cough…" The man coughed up a mouthful of blood, staining the already-drenched halberd with a conspicuous hint of red that quickly faded. He struggled to spit out a few words.

"Forbidden… Domain…" He wanted to ask if those people committing unbridled slaughter in the forbidden domain had anything to do with Leonardo, but he could hardly construct a sentence let alone a question.

"What about it?" Leonardo asked in confusion, even the man could see the confusion in Leonardo's eyes, allowing him to heave a sigh of relief.

"Good…" He muttered quietly as his soul departed his body, and it quickly devolved into an empty, dry husk of flesh and bone. The halberd made sure to suck out every bit of blood and essence from the man's body as he wasn't a low-rate saint who advanced with the constitution of a mortal, but a genuine saint with potential.

Leonardo stood there, dumbfounded as faint, barely imperceptible blades of wind swirled around his bloodthirsty halberd. He didn't know if it was because the man's martial intent was inherently of a high grade, divine, or simply because he was momentarily blessed by the will of Arcadia.

Anyway, a trace of wind elemental mastery was attached to the man's blood essence, and that essence was now flowing through the halberd. With a thought, Leonardo quickly drew the halberd back into his arm and sat down in a lotus position, drawing the trace of wind that was yet to detach from the will of Arcadia into his cells.

"Now I've got you!" Leonardo celebrated inside.

Within his body, the figment of will lost its connection to the mother will outside due to the overbearing desolate intent. No matter how berserk the will was, the bit of wind element was isolated within a small space inside Leonardo's cells.

Now, a small portion of Leonardo's cells was split into three regions; bloodthirsty essence, desolation essence, and wind essence which was entangled by the will of Arcadia.

Leonardo wanted to test if he could refine this trace of will and merge it into a small portion of his desolation essence. However, this trace of will wasn't much, it couldn't count as a drop in the ocean when comparing the infected cells with the other cells.

Just as he was wondering how to make use of this trace of will the best he could, the world descended into darkness as clouds dark as ink blotted the sky.

Thunder flashed, and a bolt of pale blue lightning smashed down on Leonardo so hard it rocked him awake from his meditation with a mouthful of blood.

"The wrath of Goddess Arcadia!" Shouted Miko, Misaka, and Sitri in voices filled with shock and horror.

Even Pandora was shocked and worried as to why would tribulation lightning strike Leonardo?!