Badge in Azure

The sorcerer signed the contract and followed Nailisi about obediently. They saw what was happening and asked out of pity, “Sir, can you…”

“Can I let the common people go?” Nailisi asked, looking in the eyes of the sorcerer.

The sorcerer nodded and continued, “It is meaningless to kill them. If you want to set an example, Ironwall City is already a good one. It was more than enough to strike fear into the hearts of people.”

“Nope. I’m not doing this to set an example. It’s revenge against Sufonso. Golden swordmasters don’t die that easily. I just want to know how it’ll feel, for him to come back to a dead city,” Nailisi answered plainly, however that was far from the truth. There was only one soul in her Blood Soul Tower. She would be able to get the item running again, if she killed every single living thing in the city.

Of course, it was a given that she would be scolded by her master for pulling off such atrocities. “So, what? It’s not like people will have a better opinion of demons even if the demon army ends up killing no one.”

Demons actually did not kill once they were done eating, yet most people had the opinion that demons hated humans and would hunt down every last human they saw. Only the temple guards, and most people from Metatrin City held no enmity to demons, and Nailisi was not happy with that.

Rumors came with a price too. What happened in Ironwall City had spawned a lot of rumors. Most people believed that it was the demon army that crushed Ironwall City, not the human army serving under Saleen.

The longer Nailisi followed Saleen, the more she came to understand humans. The very reason she went on a killing spree was because she knew that humans were a contradictory bunch. People would not have a better opinion of her even if she did not go about killing people. With people fearing her after she went about killing people, only then would the humans truly begin to think seriously.

The temple guards were established to have humans get along with demons. His assumptions were then verified. The humans and demons within the temple guards trained and went about killing alongside each other, so there was solidarity within the ranks of the temple guards. Demons within also became comparatively easy to control.

Demons were more loyal than humans. When they had acknowledged everyone in the temple guards to be one of their own, no demon would have betrayed their comrades. Nailisi gained confidence in that as well. So long as the demons did not go about doing anything untoward within the Kingdom of Metatrin, she would not care if many more others out there went about scolding her. It was due to that, that she did not restrain herself when she went killing people and capturing souls.

Her methods were more brutal than the Holy See’s. The Holy See tricked believers to convert, and then went about feeding their god with the faith of their believers. What Nailisi did was to forcibly throw souls inside the Blood Soul Tower, and she had yet to know what to do with the souls harvested.

Saleen had grown rather careless from his hectic schedule. He would not let Nailisi come to Yaoyang City alone otherwise. Nailisi needed souls, or she would not have bothered going all the way to prepare a Blood Soul Tower. Souls of humans were the most wholesome out of all creatures and were able to provide the highest amount of power. Even a common farmer’s soul would be more wholesome than that of a high level magic beast.

Despite the great fire snake’s painstaking efforts to break through into grade-10, its soul remained incomplete. It was precisely because such that gods loved using humans to spread their faith.

When the Myers Mainland had truly broken through the limit of grade-13, gods would descend upon them. By then, no one would care about demons anymore. Nailisi paid no heed to reputation. All she was concerned about was to enhance her own powers as soon as possible.

There were quite a number of spells geared specifically for dealing with souls in demon magic. Having a fully functioning Blood Soul Tower would allow her use of the power of all manner of soul magic at a fraction of the effort originally required. Nailisi’s mind was more adamant than Saleen’s. She wanted to get stronger, and for that, she ignored the plight of innocents in Yaoyang City altogether.

When the planes reconnected with each other, there would be no innocents to speak of. Perished living creatures were calculated in billions in the war between planes. As the power level was raised across the entire Myers Mainland, the barrier between the planes would grow weaker. Humans of the primary plane would have to deal with countless enemies they would have never seen before otherwise.

Nailisi speculated that Saleen’s temperament would cost him dearly when fighting reached such stages where things were more violent and unpredictable. It would not be of any use to try to buy the hearts of people pretentiously, as the clashing of planes would shatter all pretenses.

“I want souls, and I want to grow stronger!”

The atrocities wrought within Yaoyang City were indescribable. Nailisi handed two Blood Soul Towers to the supreme demons to be used for collecting souls, while she remained in the earl’s residence to clear a piece of land among the rubble.

“Right, Charles. Come over.” Nailisi had, without him saying, learned of the name of the sorcerer for having signed such a contract, and handed over a good bunch of materials for drawing magic arrays.

“Sir, you didn’t mention anything about helping you kill in the contract.” Charles was starting to feel regretful of having signed a contract with the demon before him. He had not anticipated Nailisi to slaughter the city. He watched the city before him crumble and was able to do nothing, not being able to be of any help to anyone around there.

From a certain perspective, he had become an accomplice out of fearing for his life. A grade-8 sorcerer would not sit idly seeing all those atrocities about. The demon had gone too far by involving him in all of that.

Nailisi stared at the sorcerer with cold eyes and said, “Kill? All lives are equal. If humans can go about killing other creatures, why can’t they die themselves?”

“No! At the very least, humans have honor, and morals!” Charles retorted loudly.

“Honor? That’s something built on the foundation of strength. I’m sure you’ve heard of the First Dynasty, no?” Nailisi did not lash out. It would have been problematic if the sorcerer was one to say yes to everything instead.

Charles had no idea why Nailisi brought the First Dynasty up, but he nodded nonetheless.

“The emperor of the First Dynasty, was a grade-18 professional. Do you know what his most powerful equipment was?”

“The Crown of Glory!” Charles answered feverishly. Most matters regarding the First Dynasty had been lost to history. There was still a lot of information going on about the emperor who founded the First Dynasty, and that piece of equipment was one of them.

“On the Crown of Glory, there were 18 jewels. All 18 gems were crafted using the kings of gods.”

Charles never heard of something like that, and his eyes sparkled immediately. Kings of gods were equivalent in power to grade-18 human professionals. The emperor would have indeed been a powerful being for able to kill 18 kings of gods, and a testament of the strength of the First Dynasty!

“Every king of gods housed their own nation within their bodies, and within each such nation, were believers in the trillions. Your great mighty emperor of the humans killed 18 of the kings of gods, and that meant killing at least 18 trillion lives. Do you still think I’m all that cruel now?”

Charles was stunned. It was the first he had heard of such arguments.

18 trillion lives was a number that thoroughly dazed Charles, rendering him utterly incapable of retorting. “How many of those 18 trillion were humans back then?”

“So, Charles, do you still think there is such a thing called ‘innocent people’? The honor of you humans was built upon mass murder. So, I ask, who has the right to point fingers at me? Even if I were to kill every last human on the Myers Mainland, it would still pale in comparison to that highest honor you speak of!”

“You are just making up excuses here,” Charles answered dejectedly.

All three of Nailisi’s heads nodded and said, “I’m not denying that, and you’re unable to retort, mage. Logically-speaking, every word I uttered made sense. Now come on, I only need you to draw me a summoning array.”

“Just a summoning array?” Charles was terrified of Nailisi in a different way then. Traps were simply everywhere dealing with that demon.

“Of course, do you think I need you around for killing?” Nailisi smirked in sarcasm at the sorcerer.

Charles was utterly speechless. He took the paper from Nailisi and started drawing summoning magic arrays for her. The materials were complete. Steel rocks were set on the ground, and even the materials used for drawing were high class ones. For a grade-8 sorcerer, that job was a breeze.

The summoning magic array was completed in about half an hour. Nailisi even let Charles drink a bottle of magic liquid, gave him a piece of grade-8 magic nucleus, and gave him some divine crystal shards.

With such logistical help, Charles completed a summoning magic array of more than 20 yards in diameter. He straightened himself and felt only envy looking at the steel rocks on the ground. “The Kingdom of Metatrin sure is rich, using such materials used for building magic towers to set up magic arrays and all.”

Nailisi took out large amounts of grade-7 magic nuclei and set them on the magic array. Charles counted the total to be 216 pieces.

Nailisi felt nothing about using up so many high-level magic nuclei. She called several demonic spirits to her and had them drag a few bodies around. She then reduced the bodies to minced meat before throwing them on the array. Charles felt something was off and asked, “Sir, what are you doing?”

“Summoning demons of course! I brought too few with me. While they are enough for killing everyone in the city, I still need extra hands to completely wreck the place. Charles, thank you indeed. I wouldn’t have been able to draw something so difficult without you.”

Charles was thoroughly dumbfounded. He had not expected to truly become an accomplice to the demon. Nailisi’s gratitude sounded like nothing but sarcasm to him.

Nailisi began chanting in the ancient demon tongue. Bloody mist began to rise in the magic array, and a portal began to open. The portal’s width was about a 10 yard radius, and demons gushed from within. The demons that emerged all wore fine armor, and they also wore the same badge on their armor.

Nailisi made a portal to a city of devils, summoning an army from the devil plane itself.

“Eat everyone in the city. Leave the souls behind for me!” Nailisi’s voice reverberated in the vast space of the portal. Her true devil aura was more concentrated than those devils who led the demons. Those demons paled in comparison to Nailisi’s demon army in terms of intellect. After sensing powerful devil aura, they did not bother verifying Nailisi’s true power, and went charging at Yaoyang City to execute Nailisi’s orders instead.

Nailisi clapped and said to the sorcerer, “See, doing it like this will be way faster. We can head back sooner to meet my master. Of course, if you keep your mouth shut, I won’t go about telling anyone that you were the one who drew the magic array.”