With those words, something awakened on Kit. Taunts from his childhood resurfaced, igniting his trauma. His power exploded and his eyes began glowing a blood red and everything quaked violently. The little shack in the heart of the Agard Greens, crumbled and a red wave of energy exploded out of Kit, disintegrating everything around him. The officers that was told to wait in the distance with the other ministers, immediately ran towards the explosion. Their Lord is under attack. However, Leon was nowhere in sight. Before they could act, they became ensnared by blood vines, unable to move. Kit freed the other ministers and their powers showed itself.
Wasting no time, he sends them to warn the Vineyard. Kit laughed maniacally exclaiming, "none of you are worthy to face me. The underdogs shall now become the alpha!". However, he notices that the blood vines were not draining the officers or causing them any discomfort. They also did not seem the least bit worried for their lives. Upon further investigation, Kit discovers that the silver flame symbols hanging from the chain they wore, was countering the blood vines. However, he is unable to remove them. The moment he touched the chains, his hands burned and he was knocked back. The officers then vanished in a flash of blue flames and Kit became even more enraged.
Leon's voice then filled the air with a dark laughter, and a look of shock fell across Kit's face. He slowly came to his feet and frantically looked around for Leon. He shouts, " Show yourself!!". Leon taunts, "Again? Fine, let me show you power, monster". Storm clouds rolled in and thunder rumbled following each strike of lightning. Kit became encircled by blue flames and Leon spoke again, "Here I thought you knew who I was. Disappointing". The blue flames became taller and taller, joining in the middle above Kit's head, into a ball of fire that slowly morphed into a person. A blinding light exploded from the core and Leon emerged from it.
His hair was as wild as fire and his clothes was flapping violently in the wind, with a blue hue around him. Leon remarks with a wicked smirk, "you say I am not worthy to face you. I shall give you a lesson in the Sapphire Arts". Leon summons a barrage of lightning to come down on Kit, but he conjures a shield ripe with the bloody magic he has cultivated. Kit's eyes begins to bleed as he summons a wave of blood vines to ensnare Leon. He manages to get the vines around Leon's arms and legs, but it was of no use. Leon then asks tauntingly looking down on Kit, "do you want to see mommy and daddy? They have some words for you".
From the wall of flames that surrounded them, a single jet of flame shot out and two figures appeared with one saying, "what a disgrace. We've left this in the world? I told you we should have gotten rid of him ourselves". Kit let out a painful scream as Leon laughed at him. Unsheathing his sword and with a single blow, he shattered Kit's shield and the two crossed blades. Every one of Kit's aggressive blows where met with Leon's calm flick of a wrist. With each blow, the ground beneath them cracked and Leon says nonchalantly, "Oh. Are you taking yourself to hell? Let me help you". At a speed too fast for Kit to react, iron chains burst through those cracks, pining Kit to the ground.
Blue lightning struck his chest, leaving the mark of the Sapphire Clan. With a single gesture from his hand, the ground slowly opened and the chains dragged Kit down into a pit of fire that projected agonizing screams and cries for help. That wall of blue flames dissipated and Leon simmers his bubbling fury and exhaled deeply.
The ministers Kit sent to the Vineyard, were met by Adrian and Mathias who learnt of the Vineyard's practices through their own interrogations. However, they would have a tougher time facing these mad magicians on their own turf. In fact, they were unable to get into Vineyard because of the blood shield they erected. The Sapphire Knight that Leon had sent for, finally arrived at the Vineyard after dealing with some matters at the boarder. He unsheathed his sword and entered a similar form as Leon, but as intense. A barrage of lightning trample the shield as he stuck his sword through, causing it to crumble.
This allowed the others to storm the Vineyard in search of those being kept against their will and to get rid of the mad magicians. The Sapphire Knight instructed everyone to avoid the blood vines if at all possible and leave them to him and his senior officers.
Adrian and Mathias managed to find one of the buildings where the captives are being held and attempted to set them free. Unfortunately, many of them were to weak to even speak, much less run on their own. That is when Mathias says, "I can get them out, but I will need you to cover me". Adrian nods and Mathias took out his flute and began playing 'the puppeteer's melody'. This will allow him to make even a new born baby run like a horse. Hearing the flute, two mad magicians came stampeding towards them. However, Adrian instantly reacted, blowing one away with a powerful gust wind and crossing blades with the other.
Not even a full round, and it became apparent that the mad magician couldn't keep up with Adrian's sword skills, so he switched tactics. Together with the other magician who has now regained consciousness, their powers exploded into a single focused beam aimed at Adrian from both directions.Adrian steadied himself and had his sword ready to block the blast. As the beam of energy met his sword, he is slightly pushed back but he manages to hold his ground. Considering that the Vineyard is the source of their power, they would be able to maintain their power almost indefinitely. They did after all, have a massive reserve of human blood to siphon from.
From behind Adrian, two balls of blue flames came flying and struck down the magicians, giving him some relief. Turning around slowly, it was Leon who asks rhetorically, "I take it that you're too busy to ring the bell?". The two then continued following Mathias as real Feral Téras Fídi now charged at them. Each wave of those ghastly creatures became more and more unrelenting and belligerent than the last, but Adrian and Leon prove to be an unbreakable wall. Eventually, they reached a safe point, where Mathias released his control over the captives and turned his attention to the creatures in pursuit.
Leon turns to Mathias and says, "you are indeed the great necromancer I heard so much about. A prodigy I heard. I am truly very impressed and happy that it is not just smoke in the wind, but the truth". Rather shocked, Mathias replies, "wait... You know who I am?". "I do. I should probably reveal that I am a Governor of the Underworld. One of the Hidden Hands to be exact. I took the position after my father. Only other Hidden Governors know my identity. I have been looking forward to meeting a fellow young Governor. Well, Governor to be", Leon responds.
"Wait. So you've known about this mission the entire time?", Mathias asked. "Of course. In fact, I am the one who brought this to the council's attention. When I heard our resident necromancer took interest, I decided to take part myself", Leon answered. Just then, a blitz of lightning pummeled the ground in the distance, drawing the attention of the Feral Téras Fídi. Given the nature of the energy, this was definitely the work of the Sapphire Arts. They rushed over to see, and as it turned out, the Sapphire Knight was attempting to destroy the blood vines, but he was being thwarted by mad magicians. The trio engaged the magicians, leaving time for the Sapphire Knight to complete his task. As the attack continued, the Knight shouted, "the roots have made home here! It has run deep and formed a blood gem below! I need to perform shattering earth!".
Shattering earth has the ability to remove most concealment charms and shields of planetary levels. However, as it's name suggests, if used incorrectly, it can cause great damage to the world. Historically, it was used to sink an island of plagued cultivators that threatened to infect the world. This is something Adrian knows well, as it was His Excellency who did it. Everyone was ordered to leave the Vineyard immediately so he could begin. The Sapphire Knight's powers exploded and he took on the wild sapphire form of the Sapphire Arts. This is said to be the most powerful form of anyone who is successfully able to practice the Sapphire Arts. In this form, one can do some of the most impossible things. Using shattering earth to destroy a blood crystal is one of those things.
The amount of power required is too much for one knight to perform and Leon explains this to him. However, with no one else around, the Knight says, "My Lord, allow me to do this for you. I know you are capable of doing this yourself, but it will weaken you greatly for some time. Time that we cannot afford. This blood crystal is the size of a grapefruit. For the Queen and for you my Lord, I will give it all. For what's to come, allow me to do this".
Something that is outside the tradition of the Sapphire Clan, a Knight's name is spoken aloud outside the court. Leon says, "Lord Gun. (he straightens his posture in response to his name.) You will not be forgotten. Thank you for your sacrifice". Leon turns away and goes to the border of the Vineyard with his eyes glowing blue as he erects a shield. With Adrian and Mathias stood behind him, he watches as the purple magic of shattering earth and the blue magic of the sapphire arts meshed together and bombarded the shield. From this moment, Versorging Vineyard is no more. Leon placed a hand on the shield as the magic dissipated, leaving only the dust and smoke to clear out. For a brief moment, a blue hand appeared on the other side of the crumbling shield, matching where Leon's is.