Chapter 62 Ominous Clouds
The following morning, Pandora woke up to find herself sleeping peacefully in her bed. She didn't even remember how she got here. After climaxing for like seventeen times, all she could see was a blur and her mind was blank. Nonetheless, the pleasure kept washing over her.
Smiling, she picked up her communication bracelet and sent a message to a certain someone.
"Daddy fucked me all night long."
After sending the message, she had a smug smile on her cute face before she dropped back into her pillow, too exhausted to get up for the day.
…
In a secluded region of the mountain range near the military camp, Leonardo sat in a lotus position under the bark of a massive tree a few kilometers long. A long rustic sword rested on his lap, its scabbard scarred from the dregs of time, to a point where no one could accurately determine its age.
Specs of dew and green leaves fluttered down and rested on Leonardo's shoulders, arms, back, and face. However, these elements of nature quickly withered, their livelihood dulled away by a gray contamination before disintegrating completely.
As usual, as long as it was within his body or the aura surrounding his skin, Leonardo could freely control the desolate martial intent. However, once he attempted to project this energy, just like how any fledgling saint should be able to, an omnipresent will in the atmosphere would almost instinctively demolish every and any trace of desolation.
If Leonardo was to treat his body like his own domain, then his skin would be the atmospheric layer protecting and isolating this domain from any external interference. He thought about flying into outer space, escaping the presence of this will, and then advancing to the second-cycle of sainthood. However, that wouldn't help him in any way whatsoever because once he returned to Arcadia, the suppression would be the same.
With a metallic click, the sword left its scabbard with a layer of dull gray energy coiling over its sharp edges, and Leonardo causally swung the sword horizontally, releasing a burst of desolation essence that burrowed into a nearby tree. However, that was the extent of it, the martial intent didn't travel further from that, although the tree eventually withered away and disintegrated as well.
After a morning session of meditation, Leonardo returned to the military camp in his Bloodthirsty disguise and stood there, lost in thought. If this war of conquest was to take more than three months of time, there was a high possibility of reinforcements arriving from the forbidden domain as most of the military might of the vassal kingdoms should have been dispatched there over the past year.
Although he couldn't tell how intense the situation there was, he could make an educated guess about it, but he wasn't aware of how terribly far from the truth his guess actually was.
Quickly, the week went by and the day of reckoning came.
In front of Leonardo right now stood five people.
That was it, only five people.
He was truly speechless that out of the one thousand warriors who pledged to brave through blood and fire with him, no one showed up.
However, that was also to be expected. Closing his eyes briefly, Leonardo triggered his will.
Misaka, Pandora, Miko, Sitri, and Lucas silently stood there with solemn expressions, wondering what their commander was doing. Soon, however, their expressions changed as one streak of blood after another came rushing their way across the sky.
It was like a volley of shooting red stars, one thousand strings descended from the sky, and into Leonardo's right hand they crept.
No one was stupid and they guessed the origins of these blood strings. I mean really, they literally amount to one thousand, anyone can make an educated guess with their knees, let alone their minds.
What horrified them was that they were killed in a way that ignored distance. They couldn't even sense the expansion of a domain, let alone fluctuations of magic or techniques.
The five saints were dressed in a similar fashion to Leonardo, though they were missing a cloak each.
"Alright, I've disposed of the filth. Since there is no army, you no longer need to address me as your Commander Bloodthirsty, just Bloodthirsty is fine." Leonardo swept his eyes across the five followers who stood before him, his mere gaze making them feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Miko couldn't wrestle away the feeling of familiarity, but being the blockhead he was, since he got the permission to act informally, he let out a sigh and dropped to his butt on the ground.
"Fuck, man! This was stressing me out too much! Here I thought you'd be the stoic, cold, kinda insufferably arrogant person!"
Misaka glared at her brother and smacked the back of his head, "Behave! You can't be this disrespectful to Senior Bloodthirsty!"
Miko might not have been there on that day to witness a practical river of blood cover the entire sky. However, those who did were shaken to the core, and the last thing she wanted now was to have her little brother sucked dry just because of a slip of the tongue.
"Hahaha!" Leonardo laughed, his laughter shocking everyone not because of their preconceptions concerning his temperament, but because that voice was too damn familiar.
Leonardo took off his mask, ruffled his silver hair, and swept back his heavy hood to reveal his handsome face. However, the only difference now lay in those crimson pools as everyone was used to a pitch-black lifeless abyss, not a pool of dense bloodlust.
Even Lucas had a shocked expression, let alone the other three who were like stone statues after witnessing something inconceivable.
"B-b-b-b…. Boss…" Sitri stuttered while pointing out his trembling finger. Although, they could only guess so because of the heavy bandages swaying about through his arm.
"Shhh, you guys can keep a secret, right?" Leonardo gestured shush with his right index finger before giving them a playful wink. This white shift in personality shocked them beyond their capabilities to respond.
Seeing them like this, a sinister grin crept along Leonardo's face before he concealed himself once again, his voice cryptic and cold as he spoke in that diabolical tone, "Let's see if you guys can keep up with my pace as we make the ravine of demise anew! Remember, I'm Bloodthirsty! Hahaha!"
Leonardo didn't wait for them to respond before stretching out his hand, dense bloody aura condensed into a heavy halberd that struck the ground with a bang, causing it to cave in from the pressure.
With a sonic boom, Leonardo rushed like a streak of black light into the borders of the Regalia Kingdom, his bloodlust stirring dark clouds in the sky while his domain exploded to ingest fear and terror into the hearts of the unfortunate souls ahead.
"Holy shit! Don't tell me he was the one who killed everyone back then?!" Miko was the first to respond, his inner divine calling for chaos urging him on. He knew those eyes were too damn familiar, but he simply forgot where he noticed them first.
Laughing, his domain also exploded, aura surged, and a green flame burst forth and coiled around his feet and daggers before he followed with a sonic blast of his own.
Sitri, Lucas, and Misaka realized that Pandora was nowhere to be seen. In fact, she was also nearby, but her concealment techniques were simply too heaven-defying, Leonardo suspected that she inherited the essence of nothingness from his desolate martial intent.
Not to be the ones to lag behind, three consecutive sonic blasts echoed like thunder in the dawn sky as dense clouds of bad omens spread across the skies of the Regalia Kingdom.