Immortal Kingdoms

"Don't you want to go see her in the higher realms?..."

The morning after Leonardo's discussed his future plans with Aria, she looked at the sleeping child in his arms before asking gently.

Leonardo shook his head, "If I'm not mistaken, the realm king already has my aura locked within his perception. The moment I leave the middle realms and enter the higher realms, they will act against me. Hence, the best course of action is to have you escort everyone else directly to House Hestia, while I will ascend on my own."

"If I didn't guess wrong, the Interstellar Supreme Court's Holy Land for cultivation should be in this plane's mainland. You can press the Interstellar Supreme Court for compensation after they took me away, perhaps you can use this compensation to deal with those twelve families targeting your house. As for Wendy and Ingrid, I believe that Wendy's co-soul has the means to make it to the plane's mainland after achieving divinity, so I'm not worried."

Leonardo already explained that every plane has its core mainland, this mainland serves as the bridge connecting the multiple universes of the plane, and each universe has thousands of stellar worlds; three thousand at minimum.

Each stellar world is a cohesive minor universe with its diverse and complex ecosystem of higher, middle, and lower realms and each of these realms is a complex ecosystem in and of itself.

For example, the lower realms are further segregated into multiple galaxies, each galaxy is segregated into multiple star fields, each star field is segregated into multiple roaming celestial bodies, and star systems numbering in the billions.

This is truly a vast world, and taking everything within it into one's calculations proves quite the headache.

"Leo?"

"Mhm? Oh, I was lost in my own thoughts for a bit."

"Papa…" A soft voice echoed from Leonardo's chest, causing him to freeze over on the spot.

Looking down, the baby was holding onto his index finger tightly while mumbling, but she was still asleep. He truly didn't want to send her back.

Aria's eyes were smiling, "You've been holding her for like two hours now, aren't you going to let me send her back?"

Sigh…

Leonardo reluctantly handed the girl over to Aria's side, placing her into the cradle. After thinking about it for a moment, he kissed her flat forehead with a smile and whispered, "Till next time."

Then, after taking a deep breath, he stood up and left the room decisively so as to not hold Aria back from leaving.

…

Space shuddered as Aria pushed the cradle into a spatial tear with its destination already predetermined.

…

On the other end of the spatial tear, Rosaline opened her eyes before extending a hand into the portal, pulling back the cradle.

Nier's beating heart suddenly calmed down, having been worried that something would go wrong with the teleportation, regardless of how stable the passage was. The moment she saw her daughter safe and sound, she breathed out lightly before taking her to the chest.

"What did Leo say?"

After calming down, Nier's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at her mother.

Rosaline pursed her lips, "I get it, you're jealous. However, I only have that one divine marionette, so don't think about it."

Nier remained silent for a moment before shaking her head with a sigh, "Why didn't you bring him with you then? With his potential, the entire probationary period is useless."

Rosaline chuckled wryly, "I did ask him to come, but he said that the Interstellar Supreme Court's realm king has already locked onto him, they're just waiting for him to leave the middle realms before taking action. I wanted to tell him your name, but let alone that, he wasn't even willing to learn of his daughter's name."

She explained the entire karma-related matter from start to end, eventually concluding with: "He mentioned that he will find out about your name when you two meet on the plane's mainland. Before then, the less he knew, the safer you two will be… Relatively speaking."

Nier laughed out loud, unexpectedly smiling.

"The irony, I wonder if he's doing this out of spite for what happened in the Exiled Paradise?"

The more she thought about it, although she knew that wasn't the case, she couldn't help but want to laugh.

Although Rosaline didn't know what exactly happened between them in that place, she tacitly chose to not ask. Instead, she smoothly changed the subject, "We need to find a way and contact Maria Evernight on Earth, tell her about these developments. I'm afraid she might do something reckless if Leonardo didn't make it back home after the ten-year promise."

"Is it that serious?" Nier asked.

"I don't even wanna find out," Rosaline sighed. "If he does manage to escape their grasp, they most likely will focus on planet Earth, I have a feeling this won't end in a good way if things reach that point. She will most likely slaughter her way out of this stellar world and hide elsewhere."

"I'm not saying that she wouldn't be able to handle the heat, I'm saying she would rather disappear than risk exposing some secrets. Then, there will be a good chance that they'll come after our house." Rosaline's expression was rather serious as she said, "Which means that Leonardo will allow himself to be captured and tortured for at least a few years to buy us enough time, giving them the illusion that they have him in their grasp."

Nier's expression went pale, realization flashing in her eyes.

Rosaline nodded, "He plans to drag out as much time as possible until you make it to the plane's mainland. There, you can at least hide from the Interstellar Supreme Court's forces. As for me, you don't have to worry, I'll at most stay behind while I send your daughter away with trustworthy people."

"No!" Nier screamed out, her shout almost startling the baby awake if Rosaline didn't envelop her in a soundproof barrier. Regardless, Nier's crimson eyes turned even redder, tears rolling down that flawless face.

"You can't stay behind all alone. They'll vent their anger on you, I can't even imagine what they'll do." Nier's body shook, "You can't! I won't accept it. Talk to Leo about it, I'm sure he must have a way."

Rosaline smiled bitterly.

With the mark of the Kingdom Essence, there is nowhere in this vast universe for her to hide from the Interstellar Supreme Court. However, she couldn't tell her daughter that, so she took a deep breath, cupping her daughter's stained cheeks in her dainty hands.

"Fine, I'll discuss it with him when the time is right. Anyway, the worst thing they can do to me is killing me as I wouldn't allow them to capture me as a hostage. This body of mine is not good to give birth, and I'll announce to the world that you got pregnant as well, this should lower the immediate attention we're receiving. Oh right, those pests that dared invade your little planet, it seems like this seat will have to take a spin around the higher realms to send them another message."

Nier still shook her head, her voice shaking, "You must promise me. Swear on this child's name— this child of mine and Leo's name, that you will discuss this with Leo no matter what. Just don't sit around waiting to die, I won't forgive you if that happens."

"Although I can't do anything about him deliberately facing torture for the years to come, I can do something about your foolishness."

Nier's voice was resolute, albeit shaking.

It wasn't easy on Rosaline either. Hence, she bit her tender bottom lip and nodded her head seriously, "I swear on my name and this child's name that I will exhaust every means and avenue available to me. At least, till I breathe my last."

Worst case scenario, she would have to do 'that' ceremony. Hence, she had no problem making this promise.

Nier smiled despite her tears, chuckling as she asked, "At least tell me he sent me something with you, else I would truly feel disheartened."

Rosaline chuckled as well.