Badge in Azure

The souls of the two oracles were over a hundred times more dreadful than Saleen had anticipated. Gauf and Gessica both boosted their level forcefully when they were in danger. However, they relied on the equipment left behind by the goddess to do so.

The equipment was a set instead of one single piece. Despite being level 15, the material the equipment was constructed of was far inferior compared to the Lance of Order.

The Lance of Order was crafted from the body of a god and it had a miniaturized kingdom of the gods within. Such kingdoms were capable of housing over a hundred million adherents and enabled procreation as well. As such, the power such items held was massive.

The two crescent-shaped belts that the Goddess of Myers left behind, however, only worked when they were used together. The combination was interrupted by the Dark Sky Devil and the equipment destroyed by Saleen’s lightning. Their divine arts only allowed them to leave behind a pair of soul stones. Both Gauf’s and Gessica’s souls were broken within their respective stones, relying on the bit of power left behind by the goddess to painstakingly repair them to keep their consciousness intact.

Saleen observed the two soul stones and saw some of the inner secrets of the soul.

“Who among both of you intended to entice me to fight that monster?” The souls of the oracles looked similiar. Saleen’s Elemental Eye was not yet able to enable him to discern the minute differences within, and was utterly incapable of allowing Saleen to see the true, original forms of their souls. He needed to advance to level ten before he could see what the souls actually looked like.

“Defiler, do you know who we are?” Gauf’s voice was heard outside of the stone. Saleen took hold of that stone and laughed.

“I don’t care who the hell you are. You want to do me harm, then prepare to pay for it.”

“I’m an oracle of the goddess. You have her powers on your person. Do you know the consequences of killing me?” Gauf’s voice did not sound like someone who had just sustained grave injuries.

Saleen did not fear him. The Dark Sky Devil had a strong soul, which posed a threat to him. The oracle, on the other hand, Saleen could simply use something like Soul Impact on him and it would end him. Saleen was the one capable of deciding the oracle’s fate. The oracle could call himself a god, and Saleen would not budge at all.

His attitude began to resemble what Jason had asked of him. A mage’s path was one of no return. One could only forge forward, leaving no means of retreat.

Saleen was thinking that he could shoot both of them with his family badge, and there was no way he would allow them to revive after that. What was done was done, and there was no room for regret, just like how they enticed him. If Saleen had headed down back then, he would have been killed by the monster. Of course, I could have done something right before I die and that would have turned the tables of the battle. A level nine sorcerer armed with powerful equipment is a force to be reckoned with. In ancient times, Saleen could have been among the ranks of the most elite forces and be off to great battlefields on other planes.

“The consequences of killing you are indeed dire.” Saleen narrowed his eyes. Although Gauf was unable to see his expression, the oracle was able to tell from his voice that he did not mean well.

“I bear the mission of the goddess…”

“I know,” Saleen interrupted Gauf. “Me too.”

“What!”

“Is that really surprising?”

“Ha, hahahaha! Not in the least, there’s someone who tries to pull that every hundred years or so. You’re but the latest unlucky a** to be added to the list.” Gauf laughed maniacally. He was able to perceive the oozing animosity emanating from Saleen and did not try to sway the mage in any way.

“Unlucky huh? I thought as much myself. But since you’re her oracle, I see no reason to go easy on you.”

Saleen was not at all surprised by Gauf’s words; he felt relieved instead. It seemed that he was not the only one chosen on the mainland. There were some who attempted to look for the temple of the Goddess of Myers every few years or so, and there were people who signed a contract with the goddess every century or two.

He was not the only chosen one; he was but one of the unlucky one among countless unlucky ones. How could the Goddess of Myers put all her hope of getting resurrected on one low-level mage indeed. Saleen had finally figured everything out.

Before the goddess perished, she crafted a batch of Ring of Gifts. All who were deemed capable of resurrecting her only gained access to the temple after acquiring the rings. If he had not signed the contract, he would have perhaps died. The matter with the goddess would spread throughout the mainland otherwise.

The oracle, Gauf, knew that it would only take three to five days for his soul to disperse and there was nothing anyone could do to save him. As such, he pulled out all the stops and fought the Dark Sky Devil, and was affected by the powers of the Dark Sky Devil without knowing it. If his body had been intact, he would have been able to cast divine spells to get rid of such awful powers. However, his soul was the only thing left of him. There were countless cracks in his soul, with all of the unseen damage he had sustained during the fight with the Dark Sky Devil emerging.

The difference in power could be huge even at the same level. Saleen was a level nine mage, yet no mage at his level could be Saleen’s match, and that was without taking Saleen’s special equipment into consideration.

Eye of Lightning and Crystal Finger, as well as Quickcloud, which was twice the speed any mage of the same level could pull, allowed Saleen to be nigh-invincible among his level nine peers.

The only ones capable of fighting Saleen on equal footing were those who were close to advancing to level ten.

Gauf was about to die and, as such, did not bother choosing his words. Saleen let out a cold laugh and took the other soul stone in his hand. “You too are going to die soon. Say whatever you want to say.”

Gessica was dumbfounded for a moment, before replying calmly, “I should have died a long time ago. It’s boring living for as long as I did. Do your worst.”

Saleen could have simply crushed the soul stones and wiped the two oracles from the face of the plane. However, he saw use for both of them and would not let them die so easily.

The grandmaster and Gaine both had the opinion that the very reason gods appeared was because powers across the Myers Mainland had weakened. In general, Saleen believed it, as he had witnessed with his own eyes how the Divine Baby treated her adherents.

The gods saw their adherents to be little more than sheep. There was, without a doubt, need to keep their sheep protected. But what about when the sheep grew up? Their wool would be harvested, or they got killed for their meat, of course.

Humans herd sheep and gods herd adherents. Both went along the same line of thought.

“You can’t die yet. It’s coincidental that my followers lack souls like yours. Bing, prepare to suck both of them in,” Saleen said as he took out the Ring of Gifts. The ring was filled with the power of faith collected from the Divine Baby. Saleen splashed a bit of the congealed power of faith onto both soul stones.

The gush of pure power of faith enabled the two oracles to quickly repair their souls.

Saleen had no intentions of allowing both of them to resurrect. If both of them were to live, it would be him who had gotten the short end of the stick, especially when they both knew the connection between him and the goddess. If they were to resurrect, they would monitore his every move. Every deed of his needed to be for one specific purpose—helping the goddess resurrect.

When Saleen felt that the souls of the two oracles were mostly repaired and the cracks on the stones disappeared, he brutally crushed the soul stones, allowing the souls to be absorbed into the Winged Skull’s eye sockets.

The soul flame coalesced into the form of eyes again within the Winged Skull’s eye sockets, instead of dancing about like other spirits. There was one Blood Soul Tower within each of the Winged Skull’s eye sockets. The souls of Gauf and Gessica flew into an eye socket, to be absorbed into the Blood Soul Towers within.

Gauf and Gessica were still in shock. They saw the liquefied power of faith that Saleen poured and thought Saleen had robbed a god of some sort. But they quickly found the power of faith to be the ones belonging to the Goddess of Nature! Both oracles were sent in a state of confusion and panic instantly, and were absorbed by the Winged Skull without a glitch.

When they were both inside their respective Blood Soul Towers, the Winged Skull wiped their memories without a second thought. Two powerful souls ended up sitting at the 13th floor of the Blood Soul Towers.

Gessica and Gauf’s souls peered forward and saw the top of their towers, which looked like a boundless sky. A silhouette looking down from the sky.

Is that my god? But why does it look so foreign?

That’s not what a god should look like. It’s a pale golden skeleton with a pair of bone wings behind its back. A golden heart is beating within the chest of that skeleton, sending eerie power to every single bone, circulating and returning to the golden heart.

The oracles looked at the silhouette for some time before deciding to bow and worship the projection of the soul of the Winged Skull. The Winged Skull, however, did not absorb their power of faith; they turned such power into pure soul power instead, fortifying the Blood Soul Towers. Both oracles had power of faith to spare, but ended up wasting more than half of their powers after conversion, but the Winged Skull nonetheless felt their Blood Soul Towers getting increasingly strong.

That was the true use of the Blood Soul Towers. The souls within the towers fortified their own prison with their own power. When the cages were deemed sturdy enough, then the Winged Skull would use the powers for their own battles.

Saleen saw everything going well with the Winged Skull and took something out of a dimension stone.

It was a half-broken rock. Its original shape was a drawing of a shield. Saleen’s Elemental Eye scanned it and saw criss-crossing gashes on the half-broken rock badge, which he was unable to help but sigh at.

It had been an equipment of rules, which unfortunately, had been broken by the monster.

Saleen’s judgment had been sound. The Dark Sky Devil was able to restore its powers due to having devoured half the badge. If the badge had been whole, the Dark Sky Devil would have probably broken the shackles of the plane and advanced to level 13 or higher. However, the badge contained countless natural magic patterns, which made Saleen reluctant to throw it away.

The power of rules was something Saleen had yearned for. The rules within the half-broken badge were of far higher status than those on the Sword of Rules. Saleen had not been able to figure out how to use the badge yet, and so he simply put it away in his Devil Ring.

The last thing within the dimension stone was a piece of jade ring. 24 holy prose were carved on the inside of that ring. Saleen’s lightning attack had not been able to even scratch the ring.

Saleen held the ring and felt rather dazed while looking at it. What kind of jade is this? From the looks of the material, the ring was the sturdiest item that Saleen had ever seen other than his family badge and the level 19 Star Gathering Needle.

The peculiar material piqued Saleen’s interests. If he had not been in a hurry to get to Golden Plains, he would have stayed right where he was and looked into it, finding out what that ring actually was.

An item with such sturdy qualities yet devoid of any attributes.