Immortal Kingdoms

Sonya ripped off the golden sleeves from the right arm and used them as thick cloth strips to bandage her right eye, a drop of thick red blood leaking down her chin and crimson fangs.

"Nya~ how comfortable! Hehe…"

She then held the arm and used its fingers to point at the old man.

"What to take next? Left arm? Right leg? Left eye? Or your head?…" There was a crazy glint in Sonya's left goldeneye, the slitted pupils shimmering ominously.

The old man was just about to make a move when his expression froze.

He wasn't a combatant, he only dropped by because of their intelligence that mentioned the realm lord sending everyone who could disturb the current balance of power on Arcadia, but he never expected Teala's people to be so unreasonable.

"Director Sonya! Stop being unreasonable!!!"

He shouted, eyes red, "My Arcadian church lost thousands of priests! They weren't even fighting back, but they were cut down nonetheless! You all will give me an explanation today!"

"I-…" He was about to continue talking when he noticed that Sonya was looking at him weirdly.

"You don't know? My Tesla's have already killed every priest in Valdmor to the last. Sigh, you religiously transcendent perverts shouldn't have descended to the mortal soil, your pure hearts are easily corrupted nya~…"

Thinking back to some of the reports on her desk this morning, Sonya shuddered with disgust.

The old man was truly speechless now. Then, with a spurt, he spat out a mouthful of blood from anger.

This undertaking was supposed to be smooth and without anyone noticing, but their traces have been exposed somehow, leaving them with no choice but to rush their plans.

Without a solid foundation that was established over at least a decade, they knew that forcing their claws into the secular world after thousands of years of independence would suffer from brutal retaliation, suppression, and resistance.

But this is too much!

"You've gone too far!"

The old man exploded in anger, his skin cracking apart as his worldly energy ran rampant in his body.

"Child, calm your anger," a soft, borderline divine voice sprinkled down from beyond the dark clouds like a shower of divine radiance, calming the turmoil in the old man's heart.

The shock was replaced with joy as the old man looked up, shouting with a trembling voice, "Divine Emissary!"

Divine Emissary? The rumored Envoy of Goddess Arcadia who carries the will of the Divine?

Sonya looked up curiously, watching the dark clouds as they were slowly dyed crimson, the raging thunderstorm calming down as the shower of lightning ceased and began to retreat.

Wendy furrowed her brows, looking past the crust of the earth and searching for Leonardo's whereabouts, wondering whether this much tribulation lightning was enough or not to support his cultivation session. However, she couldn't find any traces of movement or usual fluctuations underground.

The only solace in this situation was the fact that she couldn't feel the presence of the energy veins either, suggesting that their entire deposit of essence energy was absorbed by Leonardo.

She was sure that even if this news got out though, no one would care, as the current state of things leans towards who gets to own this land and establish an independent power in the Forbidden Domain, a domain where all three major powers agreed to keep neutral about.

Whoever could establish themselves independently in this domain as the sole major power would have endless material and human resources at their disposal.

Compared to a mere energy vein, the latter truly paled in comparison.

…

The clouds parted to reveal a young man with long golden hair, golden eyes, and embroidered golden dragon robes.

Behind him to the right stood a face way too familiar in Pandora and Juvia's eyes; Lexus.

What surprised them was that another man with short golden hair and baby blue eyes stood not too far next to Lexus as well, it was Lucas.

However, from the tens of hundreds of spectators in the dark, only a few people actually noticed Lucas' presence.

These people were respectively Juvia, Pandora, Ingrid, Wendy, and her co-soul.

Under the umbrella, Ingrid's eyes flashed with an unknown light, feeling intrigued by this person whom she immediately recognized as the infamous Ghost Face.

To think that he made it so far as to stand behind the Divine Emissary today, she was truly surprised.

The old man didn't know how to respond to being called a child by someone who looked in the prime of his age, but it somehow felt natural and just. Thus, he reverently bowed his waist while hugging his right shoulder.

When he bowed, he noticed that his blood on the ground was gone, but he didn't give the matter too much thought and instead glared at the woman who somebody, someway, made it to the epicenter of this region and stood there silently in a domain of docile black flames.

"Divine Emissary, that woman claims to be a subordinate of that wicked child Leonardo! His subordinates have walked from one inhumane massacre to the next ever since he stepped foot on this planet!" He howled to the sky, his red eyes actually jutting out with tears.

"You shameless old thing!"

Sonya raged, but her apprehension of the man in the skies stopped her from making a move.

The man above furrowed his brows and looked down at this tranquil woman below the umbrella, a trace of worry flashing past his eyes.

"Who are you?"

He asked lightly.

"My lord's faithful servant."

A voice responded faintly a moment later.

…

"I see," he nodded lightly. Then, with a step, he landed a few hundred feet away from the woman under the umbrella, his movements gentle as he spoke calmly, "Summon your lord for me."

The black umbrella twitched lightly. Then, the faint voice echoed, "You don't qualify to have him cut his cultivation short just to talk."

"Impudence! You dare blaspheme His Eminence the Divine Emissary?!"

From the sky above, Lexus shouted in anger, his aura exploding exponentially. Earlier, Leonardo knew that Lexus was at least a saint, but he didn't know the extent of the man's power.

Now, Lexus' aura easily cycled from the lower levels of sainthood all the way to the third cycle, level 62. Apparently, he also held reservations about Leonardo's background in the past, hence sealing his cultivation all this time.

Only now did he dare release the seal and expose his fangs as the Divine Emissary was present.

The Divine Emissary's heart skipped a beat, his body exploding into a radiant wave of golden light that quickly appeared in front of Lexus, extending a hand that seemed to cover the sky.

Boom!

Space shook as the sleeves of his golden dragon robes tore open, a thin crack of blood running down his arm. Then, everyone saw a small black lotus petal burrowing into the protective membrane of golden radiance on this Divine Emissary's hand, and it almost seemed like the tiny insignificant pearl would penetrate deep into his bones within moments.

With a soft, inaudible roar, he flung this petal into the sky.

Everyone watched it leave a streak of pitch-black light in its wake, the strong ones perceiving it to be a long crack in the fabrics of space-time. Then, with an explosion, a massive canopy of black flames filled the sky above, quickly dissolving between heaven and earth.

The old man's tattered golden robes were suddenly drenched in a cold sweat as he stared blankly into the sky above…

"You people have overstayed your welcome, please leave my lord's territory as I am truly reluctant to spill blood on such an auspicious day," Ingrid's faint voice sounded in the eerie silence.

The Divine Emissary took a deep breath before saying, "I will be waiting for him in Valdmor then."

These words were nothing short of taking a step back to avoid a catastrophic fight, though he then added, "What is your name?"

There was silence for a while before the faint voice answered, "Oh my, I guess telling you wouldn't displease my lord. My name is Ingrid."

The Divine Emissary nodded heavily. Then, he brought Lucas and Lexus with him, disappearing.

No one noticed the trace of disappointment in Lucas' eyes as he had truly believed he would get to meet Leonardo on this day, but it seemed like it wasn't fated to happen.

No one expected that the Divine Emissary would suddenly retreat without a fight after blocking one blow from the woman under the umbrella, having everyone speculate about her power.

No one knew that the one most shocked about this power was Ingrid herself, as the chosen successor of Tesla's weren't allowed to leave the isolated dimension until the chosen one appeared. Realizing the extent of her power, she was actually scared of killing everyone here if they fought; friends of foes…