Badge in Azure

Crystals were minerals capable of replacing magic nuclei as means for storing elemental energies, but crystals were hardly found on crust veins. They did not emanate radiation like magic nuclei, rendering detection impossible. The crystal mines Saleen found in the Demon City were not pure, and refinement was needed before the end products could be put to use.

True crystals were something that could be set on magic arrays as soon as they were cut or be used directly by mages for training.

Most of those crystals were exhausted during the Second Dynasty, and not even areas near the ocean were found to house much deposits. What Nailisi saw right there however, was a red crystal cave with a diameter of at least three miles.

Nailisi shuddered. The great snake’s body still resided within that cave. The temperature of the lava in the cave was very high, yet the liquid was clear as water.

It was not magma, but liquid congealed by fire element. Nailisi knew little in the way of magical knowledge and she found it tedious to study. There was nothing like it back on the demon plane, and she had no choice but to ignore the liquid she was currently submerged in. Her gaze shifted to a pile of eggs.

The eggs were piled at the center of the cave, very near the snake’s body. Every egg was translucent with a diameter of about one foot and were about two feet in length. The eggs were arranged in a ring, stacked in layers. The middle of the ring was full, unlike some common magic beasts, where they make an empty space in the middle of their nests.

Nailisi dived for them and peered closely, confirming that they were no signs of life within the eggs. “This is good stuff! They’re the eggs of an elemental creature!”

Elemental creatures were incapable of giving birth by default. Only those who had developed souls would be capable of reproduction when their souls fully developed. The soul of the great fire snake had yet to see any growth. The eggs laid had only the power of life and were incapable of developing souls.

As such, the fire element power within the eggs was more condensed than anything else found within the cave, several hundred times more potent than even the red crystals found earlier. Nailisi thought on it for a full three minutes before taking out her purple-gold sea urchin pouch. She began collecting the eggs laid by the great fire snake.

The power of life within the eggs would have been lost when chucked into any other spatial equipment. Without said power of life, the eggs would have just been crystallized bodies of very high levels. Due to being left in charge of the demon army, Saleen had given her 5000 said pouches. One would be able to tell from Nailisi’s inherent personality that she never gave any to the demons; she left all of the pouches for her own use.

The space in the purple-gold sea urchin pouches were not big, but they proved adequate for storing the eggs, yet maintained the power of life within.

Nailisi was quick with her movements, fearing the great snake would become aware of what she was doing. She had only found that the great fire snake was hardly capable of sensing its eggs after filling more than a dozen pouches.

It was only then that she found that the great fire snake was incapable of sensing any life without souls being moved. With the snake busy fighting Saleen, it was utterly incapable of knowing what was happening in her nest. Nailisi kept bagging one egg after another in the pouches in glee, before chucking them into the dimension stone.

The space within the dimension stone was devoid of life, but Nailisi was able to find a way to circumvent the obstacle to store the eggs within. The space within the dimension became capable of housing anything with life, so long as it was protected with the purple-gold sea urchin pouches.

It was still utterly incapable of storing any life with souls though. The eggs were something like the water puppet, but of even lower levels. If the eggs were able to develop normally, most would not give birth to anything. The end result would probably be losing all power of life within, reducing them to a pile of red crystals.

Even if the eggs became capable of producing anything, what resulted would simply be low-level elemental creatures, which would die as soon as they left the place. As Nailisi bagged the eggs, she looked around her, finding the giant cave of red rocks to have nothing else but the snake’s body. Its body seemed to have been simply too big to be tricked into entering the purgatory of elements.

Nailisi thought for a bit as she cradled one of the eggs in her arms. The temperature of the egg was not high, at least it was several hundred times less hot than the clear liquid in the red rock cave. Nailisi opened the Twelve Notes of Purgatory. An opening with a diameter of thirty yards formed, and the clear liquid from the cave gushed into the purgatory of elements. Nailisi swam with the current with the eggs in her arms.

With the clear liquid in the red rock cave gushing into the opening, the great fire snake was finally aware of what was happening. Something happened to its nest. The great fire snake lost all will to attack the water elemental creatures conjured by Saleen, and its huge body retreated into the cave. It saw the opening of the collection of purgatories as soon as it returned.

Nailisi immediately took the form of the skeleton king as soon as she saw that the snake made it back, sending death aura into the egg in her arms. The power of life within the eight was no match for the skeleton king at the pinnacle of grade-9. The egg died completely within the span of a single breath, becoming a translucent crystal.

The snake’s instinct allowed it to know that Nailisi was killing its child. While said child would have shared little similarities with it even if it was hatched, the snake remained furious.

It dived right into the purgatory of elements without a care. The space of the purgatory of elements had been expanded to reach more than five miles and was filled with wind element power. Elemental storms whipped up as soon as the clear liquid gushed within. Both fire and wind element clashed, producing violent impacts. Destruction happened again and again within the sealed space, before giving birth to even purer wind and fire elements.

As the great fire snake made it inside, a shadow of the Eye of the Storm was congealed in the air. The Eye of the Storm was about to be resurrected within the purgatory. It had no soul, and it immediately detected the great fire snake, which had a soul. The Eye of the Storm attacked immediately, launching hurricanes that seemed to threaten to tear the space apart. Countless wind blades whipped about, and sonic boom attacks were launched as well. Fire element was almost completely disintegrated after being subjected to such attacks. It was about to be converted to wind element.

The great fire snake tangled with the shadow of the Eye of the Storm and had long lost the ability to attack Nailisi. While it had been more powerful than the Eye of the Storm, its capacity for combat was quickly downgraded by a dozen times after leaving the red rock cave. The Eye of the Storm began to get familiar with more wind element rules within the purgatory of elements and was creating a wind element space.

The addition of the great fire snake ruined its efforts in completing the rules within. Having lost its soul, the Eye of the Storm’s body was reduced to a shadow of its former self, acting solely on instincts alone. With the great fire snake having ruined its plans, it took the new intruder as its archenemy.

Nailisi escaped from the purgatory, as the fighting within was simply too violent. As it was still being completed, Nailisi did not even have the ability to control anything within it. She let the clear liquid within the red rock cave continue gushing into the purgatory of elements, instead of shutting it tight. The lava at the top of the cave did not end up flowing inside as well, seemingly be prevented from doing so by some unknown forces.

With the clear liquid within the huge cave gradually being siphoned into the purgatory of elements, the enraged double-headed great fire snake continued to tangle with the Eye of the Storm and was in no mood to leave. As more and more clear liquid gushed in, it became more and more ferocious.

Nailisi had not expected to be able to trick the snake into entering the purgatory so easily. “That thing does not seem to be all that intelligent after all, it’s far easier to deal with than humans.”

Nailisi only went shutting the entrance to the purgatories when the clear liquid was all siphoned, and then put it away. Saleen took Nicholas into the searing hot cave. Many of his elemental creatures were severely damaged, and he had lost four ancient warriors.

Seeing Nailisi was unscathed, Saleen let out a sigh of relief. Nailisi waved the Twelve Notes of Purgatory about in glee and informed Saleen, “Master, I tricked that thing inside.”

“Good job!” Saleen was incredibly excited as well. He was more knowledgeable than Nailisi had ever been and was able to see the cave for what it was clearly.

“This place is a red rock egg!” The entire cave itself was a large egg laid by the earth itself, and the great fire snake was something hatched from said egg. The red crystals on the walls of the cave were actually the eggshell of the egg housing the great fire snake.

“Nailisi, we are rich!” Saleen’s mood could not have gotten better eyeing the cave around them. The eggshell of the snake was, without saying, more precious than crystal veins. While the amount of crystals found within such veins was astounding, they were hardly ever as pure in fire element energy.

“But master, how are we going to bag all this?” Nailisi looked at the thick red crystals with a dazed expression. The great fire snake was tricked into leaving and it would not ever return. Yet the size of the eggshell itself was humongous, with a diameter of three miles. Even a sorcerer the likes of Joey would not have been able to chuck something so huge inside a spatial equipment, let alone Saleen.

“We’ll break everything!” Saleen decided right there and then and unleashed Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers. He had them wield their hammers to knock on the shell.

Boom…

The magic warhammer ended up being warped, with the striking surface completely melted, even the shaft on the hammer severely twisted. Having encased himself in a Water Shield, he was unable to feel that the temperature of the interior of the red rock egg remained high. Despite having lost the great snake itself, the temperature within was still more than enough to burn most beings to death.

Saleen was dumbfounded and felt frustrated at being unable to bag such a huge pile of treasures right before his eyes.

The red rock egg was equivalent to the purest of crystals, and mages used fire element spells the most during battles. As such, fire element magic was common, sporting the most balanced offensive capacity among all six major elemental magic.

Lex was a mage who specialized in fire magic. If he took the shell of the egg back to her, her speed at training and study would have been sped up by at least several times. Saleen had thought of crafting a one-floor magic tower for Lex using the shell of the red rock egg.

Such equipment would be so unattainable to most, that most people would have nothing but envy for anyone in possession of it.

“But how am I going to go about dealing with the red crystals? Current Cutter? Ridiculous. As soon as the water currents reached within, they will have evaporated in an instant. Sword of Rules then? But those crystals would have regressed being cut with that sword, becoming only common crystals and losing most of its value.

Nailisi gritted her teeth and took out Gray Memory. “I have to try no matter what. The colors of the crystals here are too perfect. No selling any of them, strictly reserved for use of our mages.” Nailisi had no intention of giving up all those eggs that she had bagged. “For Lex? Hell no!” She would have considered if they were to be given to Sika though.

From Nailisi’s perspective, she was far closer to Sika than she was to Lex. When Saleen first entered the temple, Sika had already been by his side, and Sika was also one of the contemporary humans known earliest to her.