"WHAT?!" V spat a mouthful of blood, wiping her face clean and gaping in surprise at Leonardo. "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?"
She hadn't expected gratitude, but c'mon! She was just about to rescue his stupid ass and free him from whatever the Holy Order had thrown him in!
Usually, when a person is in prison and another is trying to save him, the victim tends to act like "My God! Are you here to save me from this evil? Please, take me out of this dreadful place."
Instead, this douche was attacking her. Maybe his mind was broken? Maybe they had beaten him so badly the brains got mixed up, and now he didn't know good from bad—a classic case of mistaking a good person for an enemy and the bad guy for a friend.
'Well... I didn't come with all good intentions,' V admitted, smearing blood over the grin cracking her face, 'but speaking of heretics and xenos?'
She slowly rose to her feet, one gloved hand rubbing the bruised ribs through her black latex bodysuit as Leonardo glared at her like he was already imagining how much holy blood he would be spilling by the end of the night.
"Alright, so you're mad. Big surprise. But attacking your rescuer? That's Church-level stupid."
Leonardo moved with terrifying speed, closing the gap between them in a blink. V barely dodged the fist aimed at her skull, flipping backwards with the grace of a falling leaf caught in shadow.
"I don't need rescue," he snarled. "Not from a cursed spawn of blood and shadow. I know who you are, Beast."
"Oh, come on," V muttered, rolling her eyes mid-dodge. "You used to have a brain, Leo. Or did the chains rattle it loose?"
Before coming here, V did some deep research on Chapter Master Leonardo. What she found was shocking.
Leonardo grew up poor with his mother. His father died serving the Church. He used a powerful skill to save his brothers at the cost of his own life, and because of his status as a 'commoner' not only didn't the Church take care of him as it was the rule of the Kingdom, not only they didn't have a nice funeral—his own comrades from the noble houses simply buried his father without telling his wife and child.
From the day his father died, things went even more to shit. His mother had to work to the bone just to keep a roof over their heads, cleaning noble estates that spat on her husband's memory. Meanwhile, young Leonardo trained with nothing but a stick and hate in his heart.
They reached a certain point in poverty—no friends, no money, and no prospects. His mother was a woman of honor and dignity, a rare find these days, and she was tired of all the shit the nobles gave her. One day, she got sick and thought that she would die and leave her son alone, starving, so she offered her own flesh to Leonardo to eat and survive.
That was when young Leonardo snapped. His sense of morals couldn't accept the idea of eating the flesh of his own mother, so he took a risk and stole food, medicine, and clean clothes for his sick mother. Fortunately, she survived and stood proudly watching her son becoming a Chapter Master and receiving Uriel's Tear, transforming him into a half-angel.
Due to the propaganda spread in every corner of the Kingdom of Vandor, Leonardo too grew up hating the xenos and the non-humans. And when the Church commanded him to lead the army south into the elven lands, he happily took the order like any other religious fanatic.
And that was the turning point.
He spent years commanding the extermination campaign. It was bloody, violent, and deadly—like any invasion is. His enemies, even more so. Elves knew how to make a brutal war. Their magic and guerrilla tactics were frightening; the druids and archers tore through the human armies. Yet Leonardo and his knights managed to seize more than 30% of the elven lands.
Leonardo believed that he was serving his goddess Uriel and defending humanity in her name. His blade never trembled, his shield always raised at least until that fateful night.
A scout reported a hideout of the elves deep in the forest, so Leonardo led a detachment of three hundred knights to deal with the elves in person. But what he saw shook him to the core.
It wasn't a hideout for elven warriors but a small community of elven women, children, and elders. They were no more than 100—sick, weak, defenseless, and starving.
He saw two kids, crying in silence as they 'ate' their mother's arm. She cut it with a smile on her face, hugging them, whispering soft words of encouragement and love—as they ate her severed arm, bite by bite.
At that moment, Leonardo remembered his mother's choice that night. If he didn't steal those items, she would definitely have forced him to consume her flesh to survive. And in those tearful elven eyes, in that blood-soaked moment of impossible love, Leonardo saw himself.
The shame. Mercy. Humanity.
These elves weren't monsters as the Church painted them.... they were just parents protecting their young, fighting for the ones they loved.
Leonardo did the unthinkable.
He ordered a retreat.
He told his men to fall back, to lower their weapons, to leave them be.
Some obeyed, stunned into silence by what they saw. Others didn't. One even tried to kill the elf woman on the spot—and Leonardo cut him down with his own sword.
From that day forward, he was no longer their Chapter Master. He was a traitor.
A heretic. A "fallen one" who dared to question the divine will of Uriel.
So they dragged him back in chains. Stripped him of his armor. Beat him. Tortured him. Called him impure—even though it was the Tear of Uriel herself that still burned beneath his skin, gifting him wings that now only unfurled in darkness and shame.
That was the man V had come to find. A man cracked, not shattered. A man at war with himself, not a blind puppet.
But now?
Now he glared at her like she was the monster in his story.
"Uriel watches," Leonardo hissed, his wings unfurling—not like an angel, but like a blade drawn for blood. They shimmered with golden fire, but that fire was twisted, flickering at the edges like it burned him too.
"She watched your whole life, and still let it happen," V growled, standing tall, eyes glowing. "Your mother feeding herself to you, your friends dying, your mind breaking in that forest—she watched everything and did nothing!"
Leonardo's fists clenched, golden energy sparking from his fingertips like tiny suns. But he didn't attack.
Not yet.
"You think I don't know?" he whispered, voice ragged. "You think I haven't asked her why she allowed all that suffering? Why did she let me live after that night?"
"Then ask her again," V snapped, shadows writhing at her feet. "Ask her why she keeps using people like weapons and throwing them away when they start thinking for themselves."
'I just realized that Morgana is probably the best goddess out there... minus the horniness.'
"..."
After a long pause.
Leonardo's breathing slowed. His golden eyes dimmed. For just a second, V thought she reached him.
Then his voice dropped, quiet and cold:
"A beast like you can't be allowed to live."
And he charged.
Their clash this time was brutal—no grace, no elegance. Fist met claw, holy light collided with cursed blood. The cell block shook, stone shattering beneath their feet as power screamed between them.
"OH FOR THE LOVE OF! FUCK IT!"
V ducked under a swing and carved a line of blood across his ribs—but he barely flinched. He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall, cracking stone and bone alike.
"You fight like a beast," he growled, eyes blazing.
"And you fight like a fallen dog obeying a shitty master." V rasped, spitting blood into his face before she turned into mist and slipped free from his grasp.
"A puppet dancing to the strings of a goddess who cares nothing for you."
Leonardo staggered back a step, wiping the blood from his eyes, golden fire coiling around his limbs like chains of divine wrath barely held in check.
"Your blasphemy against Uriel, the one true god. You shall burn in fire eternal and suffer the dark for all time."
'Fuck I had enough of this,' V growled inwardly, rising to her feet again. No matter how strong she becomes after transforming into a daywalker, Leonardo is a half-angel with years of experience in combat. V could fight him right now and by luck surprise him with her vampire skills—but why take the risk?
V was an assassin, a spy, and a sneaky snake, not a heavy hitter or a one-man army.
"Your end will be miserable, Leo, by your own blind faith."
With those words, V's body exploded into a swarm of bats. They first charged at the man from each direction, only to fly off at the last moment—but not before one of them left a small scratch on Leonardo's hand. He realized that the woman in black was escaping, but he chose not to stop her and turned, walking back to his own cell.
At that moment, V's voice echoed through the prison, leaving a promise that Leo hoped would never come.
"I'll be there when your faith shatters like broken glass."