Aina felt as though a massive weight had suddenly been taken off her shoulders. Seeing Leonel standing straight and tall, a rain of blood falling around him, a smile couldn't help but bloom beneath her mask. If others could have seen it, it would have been the kind of smile that warmed the heart regardless of her scars.
Other women, when witnessing such carnage, would feel their intestines twist and their stomachs overturn. But, to Aina, it couldn't have been a more beautiful sight at that moment.
Leonel shot forward, the chains of his spears dancing as though the singing chimes of a bell. Their elation shot through the battlefield, their bodies intertwining and blotting out the skies above.
Leonel's speed seemed to touch a new level. His body was completely wrapped in Universal Force, making his actions breathe with an air of confidence that couldn't be denied.
Seeing his clones destroyed, Monkey quickly moved to form new ones, but by this point, Leonel had already appeared before his main body, the indifference in his gaze making the latter shiver.
Concepts of life and death weren't things the Savants quite understood. Their understanding of the world was too shallow and unlike other children, they never learned about these matters. Keeping them na?ve was the best way to nerf their abilities.
However, even with this being the case, a fear of death was an instinct ingrained in our very beings.
The cold look in Leonel's eye. The sparkling tip of his black spear. The looming aura that seemed to want to suffocate him down to his final breath…
Monkey felt as though the thing he should fear most had appeared before him.
At that moment, Candle finally reacted, forming a large mirror that blocked Leonel's path forward. At the same time, veins popped up across Vice's forehead, his entire being focusing on Leonel.
The space around Leonel constricted and warped. A single step that would have once shot him forward ten meters shrunk down to five, then two, then one.
"This is my Domain… Not yours." Leonel spoke indifferently.
Leonel's body suddenly blurred, leaving several afterimages in his wake. He shot through a gap in Candle's mirrors, the Bronze Runes dancing across his body finally coming into full effect.
A heavy Domain of gravity manifested around Leonel, trying to force the weak bodied Savants to their knees.
Vice, Lionel and Monkey reacted quickly, each countering via their own methods. Vice weakened the space around him, Monkey strengthened the muscles in his legs, and Lionel's Dream Force surged, weakening the gravity around him.
However, Candle had no counter. She fell to the ground, nervously biting at her nails with even more fervor.
Seeing the fear in her eyes, Leonel's cold indifference didn't waver.
"Bind."
Candle suddenly found herself wrapped in chains from head to toe, a gaseous blackness wafting around her body.
Candle's scream shook the hearts of all those who heard it. Not because it was fear inducing, but rather because she sounded no different from any other scared teenage girl. The horror she felt was palpable.
A strong repulsion slammed against Leonel's chains, causing the cocoon Candle had been wrapped in to bulge and buckle.
Leonel shot by as though he didn't notice the oddity. But, the slight paling of his expression told a different story entirely.
After grasping the Four Seasons Realm, Leonel felt as though the burden he once experienced when using his Domain had vanished. Whereas in the past a few minutes was an issue, at this current point, even holding on for an hour shouldn't have been a problem.
However, that would only hold true if all things remained equal. With such powerful opponents clashing against him, the stamina consumption he experienced was several levels higher than usual. In fact, if not for comprehending the Four Seasons Realm, his Domain would have already collapsed.
Having come to this point, though, Leonel had no intention of reeling back now. On this battlefield, other than him, there was no other person capable of dealing with these four. He had to deal with them, and he had to deal with them all quickly before he no longer had the stamina left.
The remaining three panicked as Leonel's Domain enveloped them. Hearing Candle's screams and watching her get trapped without hope of escaping made them feel as though they could very well be next.
In the distance, Anared's frown was deepening. By now, the archers of Hargrove City were supporting him to his back, so the pressure he felt from the 250 or so youths before him shouldn't have been much. But, as though they were rabid beasts without thought for their own safety, they continued to hound him, putting him in a difficult spot.
Aina especially seemed to have no interest in letting him retreat. Before, she hadn't been able to use her birthday present due to Vice's interference. But now, she blinked about the battlefield, cutting off Anared's path of escape every time he seemed to gain a bit of daylight.
Anared couldn't wrap his mind around just what kind of treasure could allow such frequent and fluid teleportation. However, when he saw that Leonel was actually suppressing the Savants, his frown turned somewhat ugly. He couldn't wrap his mind around what was going on.
'Dammit. If only they had more time to grow.'
Anared didn't believe that Savants were so weak. The only possible explanation was that they didn't have time to blossom to their full potential. And how could they?
Savants were existences that could grow more powerful just by eating and sleeping. As long as the world they were born in continued to evolve, so would they. But, these Savants had spent their lives in a cell. How could they possibly display their true potential?
Just when Anared thought the situation couldn't get any worse, his head snapped in a certain direction.
At that very moment, from the opposite side of the battlefield, Noah led a troop of youths forward, their number no less than that the 250 or so that harassed him.
The troop from the North had finally arrived.