Immortal Kingdoms

Leonardo laughed bitterly, if even a house from the higher realms was considered a backwater, what of his house on planet Earth?

"Ahem, uh, my original name is Leonardo of House Evernight."

"Evernight?" The man silently muttered to himself that this doesn't make any sense, he then asked Leonardo to translate the name from the English language to the divine tongue.

After thinking for a bit, Leonardo responded, "The 'night' in the name simply refers to the duration between dusk and dawn. As for the 'ever' part, it should be the omnipresent, ubiquitous, all-encompassing, everlasting, etern-…" Just as Leonardo was about to say eternal night, his mind buzzed with pain, causing his knees to buckle.

Aria was shocked, while the man burst out laughing.

"That's how it is!" He laughed happily. In his mind, he already guessed it.

This brat must belong to 'that' bloodline, the Infernals of Eternal Night, he almost couldn't believe his own thoughts. This must be a stroke of fate.

However, someone must have deliberately sealed this brat's memories, meaning that they didn't wish for him to touch upon these secrets for now.

This man suddenly found himself in an awkward position. His House Eternus was nothing but a branch household with minimal connections to the main bloodline, he should treat Leonardo as though he met his ancestors, but the ones above naturally didn't want Leonardo to become aware of his own identity or influence yet.

What a fucking headache, the man began to rub his head in annoyance.

As for Aria, her mind was momentarily blank.

All this time, she and her daughter thought that they've swept Leonardo into their mess. While as it turns out, they were the ones swept up in some deeper mess.

The man stood up with a laugh, thinking that he was taking things too seriously. Even he, someone from the same origins, could barely recognize Leonardo's aura, let alone outsiders. Thus, he dusted off his butt and looked at Leonardo in the depths of his lifeless black eyes.

"When they grow up and ask about their origins, just tell them this one word; Eternus."

When Leonardo heard this word, his mind buzzed once again, chaotic voices as though metallic claws scratching the insides of his skull, giving him an even greater headache. Only when Leonardo passed out in a puddle of his sweat did the man confirm his assumptions, breathing out in relief.

Then, he looked over at Aria, smiling faintly, "An incantation of will possessing this little toy, you must really think highly of this little brat. Good, very good!"

After thinking for a bit, the man said, "To thank you enough, I'll let you in on a little secret. It won't be helpful to you, but it could help your descendants who have yet to build their Immortal Kingdoms."

His voice then transmitted directly into Aria's mind.

"A Stellar World is just a bigger planet, a bigger cage; a set invisible shackle. Don't lead your descendants astray as they did to you. Don't poison them with those pitiful bits of Kingdom Essence. I will transmit to you a cultivation method to cultivate an innate Kingdom Essence, but I see that this little brat already forged a path of his own so it'll be useless."

"Remember, a true Immortal Kingdom is self-sustaining, self-sufficient, everlasting. Otherwise, why would we call them Immoral? Your Immortal Kingdoms can't survive without the presence of a Stellar World, while a true Immortal Kingdom can contain its own set of Stellar Worlds."

The man sighed. Then, he took a step and disappeared.

If he told her that Leonardo's main bloodline had governed over countless branch families, each branch family governing over a set of Stellar Worlds, that would utterly shatter her conviction and ideas of the cultivation world.

Thus, he merely gave her some pointers and advice.

However, these little pointers already gave Aria a fright, her mind a total mess as a few sentences resounded within.

Self-sustaining, self-sufficient, and everlasting.

Just a bigger planet, a bigger cage, nothing more.

Thinking that she actually persevered with two cores of Kingdom Essence for Nier and Leonardo for when they left for the Interstellar Supreme Institution, she broke out in cold sweat. If what he said was true, then it wasn't that no one knew the realms above immortal, it was simply that this immortal realm was nothing but clouds and smoke.

She suddenly felt that this was one huge scheme from the Interstellar Supreme Court, but she would never let these thoughts slip from her mouth. Even if a trace of doubt that linked these secrets to the disappearance of her husband and son popped into her mind.

…

"Move out of my way or die!"

The incarnation of Asmodian spoke coldly, his ashen eyes radiating killing intent.

Between him and Arcadia stood a group of what he considered children at best. However, these children were quite stubborn, irritating him.

Millions of years ago, a star from beyond the world barrier exploded. The might of that star's explosion was grader as a world-piercing level catastrophe, its fragments shooting like needles through the higher, middle, and lower realms.

The core of this star happened to enter the middle realms, smashing into planet Arcadia when it was but a little immature celestial body. Although the core of the star didn't have much of a momentum, it still smashed into the planet so hard it deformed, forever changing its geography.

The once massive sphere fractured into a floating landmass, four domains, and one massive sea. The intervention of the star core disturbed the natural cycle of Arcadia as a natural celestial body, helping it nurture a will as time passed over millions of years.

This will then create life and bring prosperity to a planet on the edge of destruction.

During this period of lost history, many of the other celestial bodies with aged and wise wills noticed the star core and wanted to consume its essence and ascend to the higher realms, as this star core was damaged to the point where they assumed its will to have been damaged as well, otherwise, how could a fledgling celestial body possibly overpower it?

Everyone wanted to harvest the benefits of two weak celestial bodies, which caused the eruption of a great war between celestial bodies, their incarnations, and the countless cultivators they nurtured over the years.

This battlefield between the cultivators was, naturally, Arcadia.

During that war that utterly brought havoc to the four domains, and mainly the Forbidden Domain closest to the star core was swept under the annals of history as the War of Dominion, but no one knew why it erupted, they only knew how it ended.

The strongest clans on planet Arcadia were transferred along with the invading armies into the land beyond the Sky Mountains, carrying on with a war that lasted for thousands of years.

As for the Forbidden Domain, it became a land of absolute death, a scar on this planet. Only the Sovereigns are aware of this fragmented history as the immature will of Arcadia isn't capable enough to conceal these scenes the moment it merges with these selected characters from the billions of citizens on its surface.

Asmodian seems to be one of the celestial bodies involved in that ancient war, and he seems to have recovered.

Only, when he approached Arcadia, he seemed to have noticed the faint fluctuations of will from the core of that star have disappeared, leading him to believe that Arcadia had fully merged with the external will and was in the process of evolving to a mature celestial body.

This is obviously bad news for him. Thus, he always carried misgivings about killing these three, allowing Arcadia's scattered will to congregate again, which could hasten the evolution if not outright complete it.

However, these three seemed to have given up on their lives, not caring the least whether they live or die, infuriating him!

"If you want to pass, you'll have to do it over this old man's dead body!"

The Human Sovereign coughed up blood. Nevertheless, a vast space of mountains, rivers, and seas opened up behind him, seemingly between the solid and illusory.

The Elf and Beast Sovereigns had the same resolute expressions, their rudimentary pocket dimensions expanding behind them, not caring about over-drafting their energy, essence, and blood.

It was because they could feel the childish terror that stemmed from the depths of Arcadia's will.

Even if they had to die, they wouldn't let this bastard through.

"Well, it sure is lively around here, isn't it?"

"Haha! Asmodian you old bastard, you sure like to bully little girls the most!"

"Oh my, this big sister isn't late to the party, am I?"

Everyone's expressions changed, the three Sovereigns having the ugliest of expressions. As for Asmodian, he turned in the direction of the three voices.

Two old men and one young woman were walking through the void languidly, their eyes smiling but seemed not smiling.

"Uranus!"

"Elyos!"

"Veranda!"

"You bastards actually recovered as well!"

Asmodian's expression was cold and dark, glaring at the three children who blocked his path for so long. When the other three arrived, they seemed to have anticipated this situation, so they weren't in a rush to reach the scene.

Just as the three Sovereigns were in the pit of despair, another voice echoed in the void. However, this one was filled with frustrated profanities.

"I wanted to continue watching this show quietly, but you bastards are too fucking noisy! If this keeps up and my wife is angered awake, even I can't predict what will happen, and I'm her damn husband! Fuck!"