Badge in Azure

Normal people would have an easier time becoming casters than they would have becoming mages. For Saleen however, he had both the Blood Soul Tower and the dead body of the divine baby. Both items boasted abilities to enhance a human’s mental powers. The speed and height of the enhancements were also such that they would be able to make any common man into a caster.

Ceylon City was being expanded at a frightening rate. Earl Gugger did not go on to develop many ideas. The people and demons that Saleen brought with him had taken over management of the city, and he had a new earl’s residence to himself, as well as more servants. The captains and vice captains of his personal guard were still his own men. Saleen had also assigned him with two grand mages. They were, of course, not there to serve him, but simply to protect him.

Saleen had also arranged for four ancient warriors to stand guard at the earl’s residence privately. He had to keep Gugger safe. He was, by any means, one of the more kind-hearted ones among the nobles that he knew, and Saleen owed a debt to him as well.

The ancient warriors left with Saleen were not many. With 12 left with Sika, 12 with Aini, and 12 with Lex. The remaining 12 by his side, two of whom perished in the fight with Van Gogh, and four left with Gugger, Saleen was actually left with only six of them with him.

While ancient warriors were more potent in combat than elemental creatures were, they were irreplaceable. Once they were dead, they stayed dead.

Saleen did not bring many sorcerers with him, only grand mages. Saleen’s alchemic factories were unable to produce some of his most important equipment, like Wings of an Elf, metal flyers, or large scale magic cannons. He had to craft all three of those personally himself.

As such, Saleen wrote a letter to Metatrin City, asking Sika to send at least 12 sorcerers over, regardless of levels. He needed more people at his factories, and many things could not be run without sorcerers. No matter how powerful his own water flame alchemy had gotten, he was only capable of crafting one equipment at a time. He also needed breaks and meditations to restore his mental powers. If he relied solely on divine crystals, he would be reduced to a scrap of human sooner or later.

Jason wrote a letter to Saleen, informing him that the mages of Sregl were to be sent into interdimensional spaces to restore the environment there. The one Raphael had chosen was one capable of growth and may have grown into a full plane like the Myers Mainland in the next couple of hundreds of thousands of years.

There were at least 36 grade-9 sorcerers maintained within Metatrin City, allowing the city to be kept safe. What Jason meant was Saleen could also select some reliable ones to be sent into interdimensional spaces. With the forests on the place expanding and volcanoes diminishing, it would have allowed more to live within.

Saleen, of course, knew of the importance of the interdimensional space, as Raphael left a piece of an experiment behind—the world in the Metallic Cheese. The elements of that world were ample and balanced. The world alone would have been able to house millions or even more. Maybe Fycro had wanted a world like that for himself, taking his believers with him and setting up his own Holy See.

Saleen had no idea what level Raphael was at when he died, but it went without saying that no grade-11 mage would have been capable of creating a world like that. That interdimensional space was a shared property between Sregl Island, Bitterwater Prefecture, and the Kingdom of Metatrin. The reason why Jason had Saleen enter the place in the first place was to remind him that what he needed to take was more than just the Myers Mainland alone.

While the mages of Sregl Island had indeed sworn their allegiance for then, no one knew what would happen 1,000 years later. With the living spaces within the interdimensional space expanding rapidly, nations would form sooner or later. If Saleen simply left the place to its own devices, he would have ended up losing it as well.

Saleen was short on hands. No matter how important the interdimensional space was, he needed to concentrate on solving the conflicts on the Myers Mainland first. Meals needed to be eaten one mouthful after another, and matters needed to be looked into one at a time. Saleen had long grown past being one of those shortsighted oafs incapable of looking at long-term gains. He concentrated on setting up the magic net, awaiting the arrival of the Sregl Island mages.

The land under Ceylon City’s control was huge, but Sikeqinyans did not like farming much, and most lands were left uncultivated. Most lands that were deemed not quite up to standards were quickly given up, and that upset Saleen. He had been changed by the Qin Empire without realizing it. An example was the way he looked at land.

The Qin nobles were the ones treating their peasants best among all four empires, regardless of if they were freelance or privately hired ones. Their living conditions were tens of times better there than Sikeqinya.

Saleen knew that customs and traditions of the people were not something that could be changed using laws or decrees. As such, he did not make any of the nobles go against their nature. Since they liked being mercenaries so much and loathed farming so much, they were sent to fight wars. With Phoenix serving as backup, there were simply no worries with regards to food supply. Eleanor had also given him multiple formulas for crafting elvish medicines, which made storage of food a lot easier. The granaries of Phoenix were almost plundered clean by Saleen’s men. It was enough for him to fight wars lasting for a hundred years.

Saleen gathered 20,000 people and sent them to the north to take over his army after being given some basic training. Saleen dared not use his elite troops haphazardly, as they were taken from Lex’s own stores as well, and one elite dead meant one elite fewer to fight. As a king, he knew the way to victory laid not with piling up bodies of his own men. The troops were his subjects too, and everyone had families to go home to.

With the 20,000 mercenaries going to the frontlines, tensions in Yaoyang City rose. Saleen had also sent 10,000 demons to patrol the area not far away from the city, letting the soldiers at the walls watch.

When he was done setting things up, all that was left to do was simply to wait until Yaoyang City gave under the immense pressure and launch an assault. If Sufonso chose to simply endure, Saleen had his ways of provoking the man.

Saleen was under immense pressure himself, with the biggest problem at hand being the lack of manpower. All armies trained to the standards of elite troops, and he had no choice but to do so. If it was not for the demon army holding out, he would have had no choice but to rely only on Lex instead.

As such, Saleen devoted his energies to researching equipment, enhancing the combat capacity of his own troops. At that moment, he was researching the tainted blood armor of the ancient warriors. The armors boasted incredible defense. With the exception of being incapable of flight, all the other attributes of the armor eclipsed the flying devil armor. The flying devil armor was designed to be worn by demons. It would have put immense stress on any human wearing it.

Saleen resorted to violence to suppress any untoward movements in Ceylon City. The once destroyed royal harbor was fully restored. The management of everything in the city was taken over by the nobles serving under Lex, and they had an easier time than Saleen’s side.

On that day, Lex was busy instructing the Mechanical Soul doubles to fish sunken ships out at the harbor and cleaning the place up, when someone appeared out of nowhere in the sky and landed before her.

Lex was very frightened that the figure was green hair tainted with blood. The figure also looked pale while smiling at her.

“Master!” Lex was at loss seeing Joey looking like that. He was apparently injured. Who could have dealt such injuries on him? Lex noticed that blood was still coming out of his nostrils.

“Take me to your tower,” Joey did not bother saying much. Tens of the Mechanical Soul doubles that came near were immediately kicked away by him. The tens kicked were immediately rendered scrap and fell into the sea. The Mechanical Soul that was hidden inside the Ancient shrieked in terror, and almost dived into the sea in fright.

Joey’s kick directly reached its soul in its original body. The Mechanical Soul doubles never felt that much terror before. Its soul was protected by the shard, and it had long thought that no one would be able to punish it but Saleen.

Lex put down whatever he was attending to at the moment and brought Joey back to her tower.

“Master, what happened?”

“I went all prepared, and still I was unable to kill Fycro. He was ten times stronger than I thought he would be,” Joey sighed, and his eyes were filled with disappointment.

“Master, you went to fight against Fycro?” Lex was surprised. She and Saleen both had not wanted to speak that name. They were forced to sign the contract back then, and there was no way for them to back out unless Fycro was killed.

“Yeah, we had something going on between us before. Worse still, that scumbag threatened you. It is the least I can do for you. You are married now, and I’ll leave Saleen in charge of things from here on out.” Expressions like those of common men were seen on Joey’s face, and that was something that rarely happened.

“Saleen, he…”

“I won’t look for him anymore. I did what I had to do, and I don’t need him to help me with anything anymore. Lex, Saleen’s growth has greatly surpassed my expectations. If I hadn’t saved him back then, I probably would still have to deal with something like this now.”

“But master!”

“What else do you need? I have given him the God’s mulberry and the ghost oak tree that I kept for hundreds of years, and he only gave me the Seal of Divine Powers. Tell you what, Lex, if you find yourself unable to stay on the Myers Mainland anymore in the future, go look for me in the Eastern Sea.”

“You are going to the Eastern Sea?!”

“Indeed. I have a map with me. The ruins of the Second Dynasty. An absolutely well-kept one by the way. To get to the eastern waters, I’ll need to cross the Stormy Sea. I have taken Fycro’s godly item, which will allow me to pass the Stormy Sea easy enough. Too bad he took the Seal of Divine Powers though.”

Lex did not say anything. It was perfectly normal that Joey did not end up killing Fycro, as Fycro was probably the most difficult figure to deal with in all of the Holy See. He was someone who dared rob gods of believers and a grade-10 professional in possession of godly items. It would have been weird if such a person was to end up dead so easily.

It had probably been Joey’s plan all along to take Fycro’s godly item for his own use. Joey had indeed moved for his own benefit.

On the other side, in the sky above the center of the Chaotic Swamp, Fycro, who was dressed in snow white colors, looked at the ground with a three mile radius hole in it in rage.

The place was his fortress, and tens of thousands of believers had been moved there. His battle with Joey however, ruined everything he had built. All the facilities he had been managing below were destroyed, and there was no telling how long it would take to rebuild it all.

He had long been aware of the sorcerer following him. The range Joey kept at was one that was just about right for mages to launch their attacks. To holy masters however, such a range was rather out of reach.

Fycro had provoked Joey to strike several times, and the sorcerer remained unmoved, until they got there. It was only then that Joey took out the Seal of Divine Powers and went to clash head on with Fycro.

Both men ended up being severely injured. The Volume of Silence was a godly item that not even the pope had been aware of. The Seal of Divine Powers stored powers that Joey had been accumulating for the past several years.

The powers clashed, and the impact was led to the ground below, destroying everything that Fycro had painstakingly built.

What proved more infuriating was that Fycro’s Volume of Silence was taken by the sorcerer. While he took the Seal of Divine Powers from the sorcerer in return, it was something that had belonged to the pope, and thus was something of no use to him. Using it on his own would have alerted the pope, and the pope would come asking him for it.

If he insisted on keeping it, he would be branded a traitor to the Holy See and made a fallen one right there and then. He would not be able to open his own interdimensional space and create his own heaven then.