Chapter 165 Through The Gate

"Is there a way for you to confirm chich one is the cause?" Leo asked.

"No, Sir. Not without sending someone there to look in person." The soldier replied.

"Are there any Gates close to Zoren?"

"There's one but it would take two days on horseback to reach the city from there, is that going to be alright?"

"It's fine." Leo replied. The soldier looked over the crystals and picked the one he needed, placing it into the gate.

'It's better than traveling from here to Zoren, that would easily take twice as long. Although...' Leo thought as he stepped through the Gate, arriving on the other side instantly.

He was surprised to see that the building around the Gate was mostly destroyed and there was a battle ongoing all around him.

[Battle Aura]

After only a moment Leo activated his Battle Aura and a dark blue, translucent Energy surrounded his body.

It wasn't hard to recognize the cultists as they wore their typical cloaks and masks. Where Leo expected to see The Royal Army fighting the cultists, instead he saw regular people.

They were using a mixture of good quality weapons, that Leo assumed were scavenged off the corpses of soldiers, and everyday objects like rakes and pitchforks.

The cultists were heavily outnumbered with there being around 3 civilians for each cultist. Even with the large difference in numbers, the cultists were still pushing the civilians back.

One of the men had just been disarmed by a cultist and was staring at the sword that was about to be shoved through his chest.

The cultist pulled his arm back and pushed it forward. The man closed his eyes and accepted his death but felt no pain. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a man holding onto the cultists wrist, a dark blue Energy surrounding his body.

The glowing man twisted the cultists wrist and a snapping sound was heard as his sword fell to the ground.

"Aaarrgggh!!" The cultist screamed in agony, the bones in his forearm poking through his skin.

The glowing man lifted his hand and the cultist was flung ten meters away, landing on top of another cultist.

The glowing man held out his hand, offering some help in standing. The man accepted the help and was brought to his feet within a second.

"Y-Youre the Blue Death!" The man said, his eyes filled with admiration.

Leo felt strange about hearing this nickname be used to address him, it almost made him cringe. He begrudgingly nodded and then dashed away to continue fighting, leaving the man feeling awestruck.

After dealing with several cultists and saving several civilians, Leo noticed there was a bigger threat.

One of the cultists was dressed differently than the rest. He had no mask and wore an altered cloak that had no hood, the common attire of an Imperium within the cult.

The Imperium had his hand extended towards a civilian that was floating in the air, grabbing at her throat while struggling to breathe.

'Telekinesis.' Leo thought.

Staying on the side of caution, Leo created two Wind Blades and sent them towards the Imperium.

The woman fell to the ground instantly, the Imperium jumped to the side and avoided the Wind Blades with ease.

'He knew I would attack, he was baiting me in... That's why he reacted so fast.' Leo thought as he and the cultist stared at each other, a few meters apart.

The Imperium lifted his hands and shoved them towards Leo. Two large rocks were pulled from the ground and flung towards Leo.

Leo dodged the first rock and smashed his fist into the second, causing it to explode into hundreds of pieces. From behind the second rock, a long sword was suddenly lunging towards Leo's throat.

This didn't surprise Leo one bit. He had seen the sword hiding behind the rock through his Battle Aura and was waiting for it.

He dodged the strike and grabbed onto the sword, channeling his own energy into it. As his Energy channeled into the sword, Leo could feel the Imperiums Energy fade from it momentarily.

In less than a second, Leo could feel the Imperiums telekinesis attempting to regain its hold over the weapon.

Leo knew he couldn't stop the telekinesis from controlling the sword again, so he spun around and flung the sword back at the Imperium.

The Imperium focused his attention on the sword, which made it most of the way before it stopped in mid air.

"Did you really think that would hit me?" The Imperium asked with a smile as he looked up. His smile quickly faded when he couldn't see Leo anymore.

Leo used dash to increase his speed and ran in a semi circle around the Imperium, arriving behind him. He pulled his arm back and delivered a powerful punch to the Imperiums side.

The Imperiums body was flung several meters before crashing into the ground and rolling. He slowly stood up, to Leo's surprise, a large hole in his side and blood running out his mouth.

"Nice... But it's not enough to kill me." The Imperium said with a smile. The hole in his side began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Leo frowned "I don't understand your motivations in all this. I know the cult wants to capture me but why are you attacking the kingdom so heavily?"

"Capturing you is something the Great Ones want, not us. We couldn't care less about you. Think of it like a trade for giving us power. Taking over this kingdom though? Now that's the real goal." The Imperium replied.

"What do they want me for?" Leo asked, for what felt like the tenth time.

"Don't know, don't care." The Imperium shrugged.

'The ones who know something refuse to talk and the ones who talk don't know anything... I'm getting sick of asking the same question!' Leo thought, frustrated.

The Imperium extended his arms toward Leo and suddenly there was an invisible force pressing down on him from every direction.

It wasn't able to do much more than hold Leo in place, making him question the Imperiums goal in using his ability this way.

"Quickly, someone kill him while I hold him in place!" The Imperiums shouted.

'Oh... What a coward.' Leo thought. "Here I thought we were having a one on one fight but now you're bringing in your friends? That's not exactly fair you know."

"Shut up! This is war, I don't care about fair! Besides, you can talk all you want but you can't move because of my ability pressing down on you, that means you can't use your ability. Only brute strength can escape that attack... Or Teleportation I suppose." The Imperium said.

"What makes you think I need to move to use my ability?" Leo asked.

[Fire Ball]

A small ball of fire appeared at the Imperiums feet, as he looked down at it with confusion, it exploded.

A ball of red fire expanded around his body and the surrounding area with an emmense force pushing everything near it away.

The force surrounding Leo vanished and the upper half of the Imperium landed at his feet. Somehow, the Imperium still hadn't died and was reaching for Leo's ankle as his body tried to heal itself.

Leo could see the lower half of the Imperiums body regrowing. He wouldn't be able to fight for a fee minutes but even so, it was an impressive healing speed.

Not willing to give him the chance to recover, Leo lifted his foot and stomped it on the Imperiums head, crushing his skull and killing him.

[Imperium Killed]

[250 000 XP]

[Source Material Aquired]

The few cultists that remained were no match for Leo and were dealt with within five minutes. After killing the last one, he noticed the civilians were all staring at him.

"It's the Blue Death..."

"He really came to help us."

"He made it look so easy."

The people began whispering to each other, talking about Leo and saying what they've heard about him.

'You've really become something of a legend to these people.' Dreifus said.

'Yeah but how? Half of the stuff they're saying I've done is exaggerated.' Leo replied.

'That's what happens, as long as people aren't making up random stories then you shouldn't worry about correcting them. Let them keep their hope.'

Leo stopped using his Battle Aura and his blue Energy retreated back into his body. " Where are the Royal Army soldiers that are supposed to be here?" Leo asked while looking from person to person.

The people seemed hesitant, each of them looking to the person next to them. Finally, one person stepped forward. It was a middle aged woman with short, brunette hair.

"Most of them died. The cult attacked this place almost every day, forcing them to defend. Eventually, most of them had died due to the repeated attacks. The ones who were still alive decided to run away..." The woman said.

"How did all of you end up here, fighting in their place?" Leo asked.

"Well, we're all refugees from Zoren. Two days ago... The city fell."