Immortal Kingdoms

It wasn't until morning of the next day that Leonardo went back to the inn with three contracts holding the imperial seal of three different human kingdoms from the human domain. As he expected, those with enough power and influence to scheme against the pact of the three domains aren't your ordinary Tom, Dick, and Harry.

The moment Leonardo made it into the room, what greeted him was a levitating Juvia in a seated position with beads of sweat running down her cranium. To the side, Pandora stood at attention with fidgeting fingers, not knowing what to do.

It was only a moment for Leonardo to realise what went wrong.

Since Juvia was trying to ascend into sainthood with an imperfect soul, the process of assimilating her sentiments into her internal energy. After giving the matter some thought, he sank into his own consciousness where the seed of Juvia's soul revolved within the confines of his mind's eye.

A wisp of grey martial intent wrapped around the soul seed, and under Leonardo's will, the wisp of martial intent integrated into seed like beautiful veins enchanted across its smooth surface. From Pandora's point of view, Leonardo simply stood face to face with a Juvia who seemed to be suffering from an untold amount of pain.

Then, under her shocked eyes, Leonardo pulled out the soul seed from his forehead before pushing it into Juvia's. Although she instinctively felt that something was different about this soul seed, she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.

She was shocked because Leonardo willingly gave up his only leverage and control over the female elf to assist her ascension. Was this trust or something else? Nonetheless, what transpired next entranced the female ranger.

Leonardo cut his right index finger before flicking a drop of unusually dense red blood that shot directly into Pandora's chest. It was so fast, she couldn't recognise the sliver of desolate intent joined within the blood essence. The next instant, she had the urge to sit down and regulate her energy as a sudden enlightenment assaulted her mind.

Thus, she sat down and immersed herself in the sensation of having her immature martial intent blossom under the guidance of Leonardo's martial intent, much like the current Juvia.

Leonardo didn't know which aspects of his martial intent would their immature martial intents inherit, but he knew that his understanding would influence and compliment their comprehensions, and because the nature of desolation is a universal concept, regardless of in whichever direc their martial intents mature, it wouldn't become a detriment to their future growth.

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Of course, Leonardo wasn't stupid enough to give up his control over them. He imparted his will and influence into their blood essence and soul seed respectively, meaning that their lives were directly under his control on an essential level.

Juvia's contorted face visibly relaxed when her soul seed remerged into her mind's eye, and Pandora's face gained an additional layer of fairness to the ruddy complexion. Witnessing this change, Leonardo nodded to himself before walking over to a nearby desk to review the contents of the so-called essence ore mine project and everything related to it.

Jeffery would have never provided this information to Leonardo as a mere prime investor, hence why he manoeuvred for a seat as a shareholder. Within minutes, Leonardo went over every little detail of the material before he sank into thoughts.

However, he then decided to go over these materials together with Juvia as he opted to train her into a capable aid and representative.

Thus, he instead took out a dense energy crystal from his space ring and began his first formal cultivation session. He was wondering how lomg does it take to naturally grow in levels since his only experience was that moment of dual cultivation with Nier…

Just as Leonardo was busy calculating his body's speed of absorbing the natural energy, he was shocked that his levels were climbing at an exponential pace. Being ignorant of the difference between constitutions from Mortal, Saint, Divine, and Immoral constitutions and their talents for cultivation respectively, Leonardo was in for quite the pleasant surprise.

Soon, day turned into night, and by dawn of the next day, the energy crystal crumbled into dust and powder, startling Leonardo awake.

A cursory inspection of his body showed that he was already at level 30.

Increasing 5 levels overnight brought him immense joy. However, he understood that the only hindrance in the mortal cycle is energy and comprehension of martial intents. Currently, Leonardo only lacked energy, and judging based on his absorption speed, he could make it into sainthood within the month.

Only after attaining sainthood would climbing the levels of cultivation prove somewhat arduous, which would increase in difficulty as he approached the levels of the divine. Of course, the laws of Arcadia would restrict him to the level of saint. Thus, unless he fully conquered Arcadia, attaining divinity is but a fancy dream.

Suddenly, violent waves of energy began to wreak havoc throughout the room, drawing Leonardo's attention to the source; Juvia.

Shocking, Pandora's hair had somehow flipped from black to silver white, whilst Juvia's golden hair was in the midst of transitioning into the same colour. Only now did Leonardo notice that he could barely sense Pandora's presence, which indicates that her martial intent had inherited the ability to conceal and sever connections with energy all around.

As for Juvia, a sense of natural dread and death loomed around her figure. Apparently, the combination of nature and desolation allowed her martial intent to derive the concept of death, which is a force that could branch out from both the aforementioned laws.

Seems like the near death experience in the cave impacted Juvia so much that her expressed and perceived sentiment of the world revolved around the concept of death. Then again, such a pampered princess, this didn't strike Leonardo as a surprise at all.

The sudden commotion awakened Pandora from her cultivation session as she cast a bewildered look at Leonardo, unaware of the silver gleam that consumed her pupils as she redirected her line of sight to Juvia, and finally at her own silver locks of hair that draped over her shoulders. Pandora had a weird look on her face as she asked Leonardo, "Leader, can you actually share your martial intent comprehension with other people?"

Leonardo shrugged, responding, "I guess it was only possible because I had your blood essence and her soul seed implanted within my body long enough. If not for that, the compatibility would have been absolutely zero."

Pandora figured as much. However, before she could voice out her following thoughts, Juvia's eyes snapped open with a silver flare before she rushed impatiently into Leonardo's embrace, brazenly locking her sultry lips with his own to express her joy and gratitude.

Leonardo's brain went out of commission for a good few seconds whilst Pandora's mouth hung wide open. Juvia was almost taller than Leonardo, but because she was practically levitating because as a saint, she gained control over a natural energy field around her body that permitted enough control to enable flight.

A moment later, Leonardo's eyes dimmed into a lifeless state once again before he circled his arms around Juvia's waist to pull her body down to the ground. After she stood in front of him, he smoothly pushed her back with a flat smile on his face, "Well, congratulations. I was worried about finding a suitable disguise for your appearance, but it seems like that's no longer an issue."

Leonardo nodded to himself before continuing, "As for your name… You can keep it, but I'll give you the nickname Winter Soldier for public meetings. For now, go ahead and browse through those papers and the various contracts."

Leonardo pointed at the desk by his side before he directed his attention to Pandora, who was still in a daze. With a light chuckle, he said, "As for you, I need you to focus on reaching level 41 within a month. Don't worry about your cultivation resources, I have plenty of those." As he spoke, Leonardo waved his left hand, sending out a dozen or so high density energy crystals.

"This… You're not worried that we'd simply leave?…" Pandora asked the question in her mind while she accepted the energy crystals. Leonardo merely shook his head in response before asking rhetorically, "My martial intent and will are an integral part of your existence by now, what can you possibly do to me?"

Pandora and Juvia blinked their eyes as they realised that their leader provided them with both opportunities and restrictions. However, Juvia didn't care one bit, she happily sat by the desk and began browsing the documents. Of course, she took pride in the moniker provided by her leader, as it matches well with her new hair colour and silver eyes. Unlike Pandora, as a saint, she could now project her energy and consciousness to inspect herself from the outside.

When both girls were busy with their own matters, Leonardo softly touched his lips absentmindedly with a rueful smile. He thought that his first conscious kiss would be reserved for Nier, but it seems like that fantasy was shattered.

He wouldn't blame Juvia for her reaction, but he felt weird about women forcing themselves onto bim over and over, was it universal thing outside of his home planet for women to be the aggressive type?