Immortal Kingdoms

The saint was so angry he actually started laughing uncontrollably, his laughter shaking the heaven and earth, sending spatial ripples that blasted into the defensive formation in the distance.

A faint sheen of crimson aura shrouded Leonardo's figure, protecting him from the stray fluctuations. He had to admit that this person was truly powerful, his dense essence energy touching the borders of space when excited.

"All saints, go and hunt down those dogs! Leave this pretty thing to me!"

His voice boomed through the battlefield, killing intent blazing in his eyes. He was truly enraged now, but he wouldn't bend down or take a step back for the sake of some psycho-maniac. He reached out toward the distant commanding tent as a faint humming sound echoed from its depth.

A golden streak of light shot through like a strike of lightning before a metallic clang rang out from his palm. Looking closely, a golden spear wreathed in golden flames now rested in his hand, its flames dancing to the whims of his desire and aura.

"I, Alfred of House Regalia, never took the life of an innocent man my entire life. Although my house is corrupted, where there is light, there is darkness."

"I hoped to settle things peacefully, but your corruption puts the entity of House Regalia to shame! How many must die to satisfy your twisted sense of vengeance? Today, I'll have your head hung on the tip of my spear."

Alfred's aura erupted like a golden pillar of flames that connected the earth and the sky, dense waves of heat pushing the soldiers back.

Leonardo's bloodthirsty armament began to sizzle and boil from the intense heat, almost deformed out of shape in his hands. However, a pulse of desolation swept across the halberd, extinguishing the heat.

Leonardo didn't have the patience to explain himself either, and his aura burst explosively. From the distance, people watched in awe as a dense pillar of golden flames clashed against a dense pillar of boiling blood.

"Die!"

Alfred roared as he swept his spear in a full moon that drew in the entire pillar of golden flames, condensing it into a disc of energy that whizzed through the air toward Leonardo's midsection.

Leonardo grasped his halberd vertically to block the incoming attack, and the collision sent tremors throughout his body, his arms bending slightly from the pressure before he redirected the disc high into the air with a mind-numbing boom.

The sound of air tearing apart whistled past his ears as the disc exploded into a golden midday sun. However, under the curtain of these flames, the ground began to sizzle and the soldiers' clothes caught on fire. Leonardo barely had any time to admire the pyromancy techniques as a towering figure blocked him from the light.

Alfred shadowed Leonardo's figure as he brought his spear hacking down as though it was a staff. Leonardo snorted coldly, raising his halberd in a horizontal stance this time around. However, his grasp over the halberd's shaft was very light, merely providing a pivoting juncture for when the incoming attack struck.

With a loud clang, Alfred's eyes constricted as he struck the shorter end of the halberd near its base, causing the extended section crowned by a menacing blade to whirl through the air, striking at his face. He immediately took advantage of the recoil to tilt his head back in retreat, only for the cold semicircular, serrated blade to splinter his cheek open.

Blood splashed as a bone-deep cut ran from Alfred's chin to his cranium, claiming his left eye in the process. This move bypassing counterattacking, simply laying down a death trap within the enemy's attack shook Alfred to the core.

Leonardo's halberd was yet to stop its crazy spinning due to the fierce inertia, it appeared like a replica of Alfred's golden disc, but only this one was dense red with a hint of ashen gray.

Cold gasps echoed far and near from the soldiers below the two saints.

The fight almost ended before it even started, shocking them speechless. Even Lexus in the distance couldn't help but suck in a cold breath of air after observing Leonardo's battle instinct. However, Leonardo didn't give Alfred the time to bask in the shock of narrowly escaping indirectly committing suicide; he directly flung the spinning Halberd in a slated angle towards Alfred who instinctively dodged to the side.

However, the instant he dodged, miserable screams and the sounds of flesh tearing and bodies blasting apart buzzed in his ears. Enraged, he looked down only to see Leonardo's attack indiscriminately reaping the lives of his soldiers until the momentum of the spear ground to a halt, its blade wedged deep into a random soldier's chest.

"BLOODTHIRSTY YOU BASTARD!"

Boom!

Alfred's body exploded into flames as he leaned forward like a leopard before stepping on empty air and launching himself once again at Leonardo. He figured that Leonardo could remotely control his weapon since it was impossible for the inertia's momentum alone to carry out such a slaughter.

Of course, Leonardo only utilized his weapon that way because he felt it would have been far too wasteful to rely on his own strength to mitigate the power contained within. Thus, he generously passed down Alfred's passion to his soldiers.

Learning from his previous experience, Alfred didn't hack down with his spear but rather stabbed forward with it. His hands bulged with veins, his knuckles creaked, and a spear image that threatened to rip space itself sealed Leonardo's path to advance or retreat.

"You already knew what kind of character I am, yet you dare send people my way? Was the ravine of demise not enough for you? Was the one-sided massacre in the Crouching Dragon Province not enough? What do you people have to prove so badly?"

Clang!

Just as the spear was about to pierce Leonardo's chest, his halberd condensed from the blood once again and smashed it away, barely scraping past his right shoulder. Leonardo then propelled himself backward from the impact, stabilizing himself in the air as his black robes fluttered furiously.

"Stop playing these stupid games of right and wrong with me! Everyone who came marching against Prince Leonardo marched with conviction to look death in the eye! Well, open your goddamn eyes, I am death!"

Leonardo's aura exploded once more as he bolted towards the staggering Alfred with his halberd hacking down like a falling red moon. Alfred quickly propped his spear up horizontally to block, but the halberd quickly dissolved into a bloody mist a hair away from the collision, throwing Alfred off guard.

Before he could even register the sudden change, a heavy foot slammed into his chest, caving it down so hard a footprint bulged from his back. After a moment of silence, a sonic boom shook heaven and earth as Alfred came crashing down into the center of his military camp.

Only his spear remained in the air as Leonardo's kick numbed his nerves to the extent he subconsciously let go of his weapon. However, the spear didn't hang in the air for long before Leonardo kicked it piercing toward Alfred's forehead.

An overwhelming sense of danger forced Alfred to roll out of the way. The next moment, it was as though a golden sun exploded in the midst of the army, flames rushing like a massive tide that charred the soldiers black.

Lexus' expression was ugly because he was caught in the radius of the explosion. However, the reason his expression was ugly was the fact that his energy subconsciously circulated to protect him from the heatwave, and only saints can project their energy outside their bodies to construct protective membranes.

He just happened to look up to find a pair of crimson eyes staring intently at him. Leonardo's attack was an attempt on Alfred's life, a blow to slaughter the soldiers, and a means to probe Lexus' cultivation base.

This attack scored full marks in Leonardo's opinion as this allowed him to expose a hidden saint in the army's camp. Of course, he also had Juvia who was watching the battle through the observatory formations with Leona and Kieran by her sides.

"Why bother holding back? By trying to protect them, you're simply signing your own death warrant."

Leonardo looked into the heart of the explosion where Alfred stood up in his battered state, his military uniform in shambles and golden flames flickering in his eyes.

Leonardo sighed, "Really, why bother?"