Badge in Azure

The holy master opened up their scroll. Gold and white beams flashed about. It was only then that they found the enemy’s body to have been torn apart by the golden sword aura unleashed by two silver grand swordmasters. The remaining head opened its mouth and uttered a single line, “You are a fool!”

The holy master was baffled as to what that line meant. They had always been known for their cunning back in the Holy See.

Their way of attack differed from the usual tactics employed. Other holy masters would have worked to hold the enemy in place while the grand swordmasters would have been the ones dealing the killing blow. The holy master instead had the two grand swordmasters combine attacks to restrict the enemy’s movements, creating an opening for the holy master to land the killing blow instead. The tactic went spectacularly well, it was evident from the death toll.

Saleen’s torn body was sent flying in the air, splitting and recombining into two identical bodies, sporting the same expressions.

The divine spell scroll of the holy master was used up, and the resulting scene left them in shock, yelling, “Impossible!”

They were a holy master, which meant they were incredibly sensitive to signs of life. If what happened before them was simply an illusion, they would have known.

The holy master had no way of telling that Saleen had learned a bit of divine arts from the Goddess of Myers herself. He was capable of granting illusions with a certain measure of life simply by using the power of faith within the Ring of Gifts.

Then again, that trick could only worked once. The holy master would be able to tell the illusion from the real Saleen if he were to use the same trick again.

There was no need for that however, as Saleen cast Endless Night right behind the holy master, engulfing his stunned enemy. Two huge fireballs were conjured in Saleen’s hands, which he threw accurately at the two silver grand swordmasters.

The two silver grand swordmasters were hit by the fireballs as soon as they were done killing Saleen’s illusion. While they would not be the kind to care about low-level spells like Fireball, the ones that hit them made use of their magic equipment and silver sword aura very difficult. The fireballs thrown at them were peculiar ones, as a huge ice bomb was found within each. The resulting fierce impact crushed the bones in their respective torsos.

The very reason why Saleen deemed the holy master to be a fool was because, while the tactics employed by the holy master were intricate, instant divine spells would still work better to restrict a mage’s movements. The thought of using grand swordmasters to hold mages back was a preposterous one, as there had never been a warrior capable of pinning a mage down throughout the past tens of thousands of years, even though golden grand swordmasters were always known to be more powerful than grade-9 sorcerers.

While such a tactic may have worked well against mages lacking combat experience, it did nothing against Saleen. It allowed him to conserve his magic chord reserves.

Saleen felt lucky that he was capable of using Endless Night to finish things up. Other spells might not have yielded such excellent effects.

The two grand swordmasters were burned to a crisp. Saleen then took a step into the Endless Night spell and found the holy master struggled to keep the encroaching darkness at bay with Divine Protection.

A grade-9 Divine Protection was a tricky spell to deal with. While the dark element within Endless Night was incredibly potent and much more powerful, it would still take the spell some time to dissolve Divine Protection.

Saleen decided that he had no time to wait. He took his family badge in his hand and pressed it against the Divine Protection barrier.

Saleen’s family badge was a voracious energy eater without preference for the kind of energies being absorbed. Saleen’s mental powers were able to be replenished by the new ring he had just got his hands on, and as such, he did not concern himself with the cost of using skills. As soon as the badge was pressed on top of Divine Protection, the barrier was completely absorbed within three seconds. It went on to devour even the energies within the holy master, all of them.

Saleen was in no mood to waste magic chords. He could have used any kind of magic attacks on the trapped holy master, and that would end the fight in mere seconds. Saleen went to absorb his enemy’s energy using his family badge, keeping him from wasting any magic chords.

Other than the holy master who had lost all signs of life, there was also a scroll found within Endless Night. The divine spell scroll’s powers were devoured by Endless Night as soon as it was opened, yet the scroll remained instead of being destroyed.

Saleen took the scroll in his hand and saw it was packed with about 10,000 holy prose written in golden ink in dense lines. Saleen thought on the matter for a bit and concluded that it was but a coincidence. After the scroll lost its power, the dark element around it separated the scroll from the spell it cast.

The scroll would nonetheless serve well as an item for studying the weaknesses of divine arts. Saleen stored the peculiar scroll inside his Devil Ring and put the whole thing behind him. He had yet to find out the retaining of a grade-9 divine spell scroll was tantamount to having something that the Holy See had guarded. If he were to devote huge numbers of mages to study the scroll, they would soon be able to discover weaknesses shared by all divine scrolls.

If something like that were to be given to other gods, it would work well against the Lord of Glory.

Saleen was in no mood to study divine arts. He had intended for Nicholas to figure it out after taking it home. Saleen exited Endless Night and smirked at the sight of Arbola flying in his direction with more than 30 sorcerers in tow.

She was simply concerned about her student, which was something that had little to do with him.

“Chief, I was unable to catch up to Jalin,” Saleen said as soon as he came face to face with her, keeping himself away from the matter.

Arbola knew well as to how Jalin moved about, and Saleen was just a grade-9 sorcerer. It was a given that he was unable to catch up to her. Arbola did not dwell on the matter, and asked instead, “Where did she go? I’m unable to sense her.”

Saleen replied, “I’ll take you to her.”

Saleen turned around and headed for the place where Jalin was entangled. Having recalled his Tempest Dragon-mights, his speed of flight was far slower than Jalin’s. Arbola found it futile to worry. It was fortunate that the area of the camp was not too great to cover for a grade-9 sorcerer. Saleen quickly arrived at the scene with Arbola.

Jalin was seen being surrounded and attacked by nine holy masters and more than 100 warriors.

The warriors were all equipped with alchemy crossbows. They were firing bolts at her every now and then. All nine holy masters were attacking Jalin with divine spells. Saleen was able to see that the nine holy masters were taking turns at attacking her; they were all using instant divine spells.

Jalin danced about in the light of the divine spells, and no one was able to tell who she was under her mask.

Her eerie movements proved to be a headache for the holy masters. None of the nine holy masters were able to get a fix on her. Jalin’s attacks were dispersed by the combined powers of the nine, making her little more than a toy for them, but she was able to easily evade all of their attacks as well.

Saleen was perceptive to find out that there was a dead body of a holy master lying not far away, the peach blossom paper mask on Jalin’s face was a new one as well. Jalin probably killed the holy master at the cost of one mask.

Jalin was still all bubbly and spirited despite being under heavy enemy fire. She suffered no injuries whatsoever.

Arbola was barely able to contain herself seeing her student surrounded and attacked by holy masters. She shouted and had her sorcerers, numbering more than 30, rushing at the enemies below.

She was reserved enough to refrain from making a move herself. It was still 30 sorcerers taking on nine holy masters; the end result was as apparent as it could have gotten.

The grade-10 professionals among the enemy ranks and Pope Theisio were nowhere to be seen, and that puzzled Arbola. Saleen had been wreaking as much havoc as he was able to, and there was simply no way Theisio could have kept his hands to himself after seeing all that.

Even though Theisio might have figured it all out to be a trap, he would have simply gathered more professionals to have a better chance at getting Saleen, instead of letting such a chance slip by.

Arbola had seen the magic images in Metatrin City and felt that even if she were to have the mark of the Six-Winged Flying Snake on her person, the chances of her being able to take the city remained low, unless all 39 grade-9 magic towers erected in the city were just for show.

If Saleen was allowed to return to Metatrin City, the pope would probably have missed his greatest chance at getting rid of Saleen.

Jalin was sulking. If she wanted to leave, she would have easily left the scene. The fact that she had only ended up killing one holy master sacrificing one mask was incredibly irksome to her. She knew well what the enemy was up to, and it was only because she still had cards in her hand that she stuck around trying to find an opening instead of leaving. Jalin deemed there was no need to hide anything any longer as soon as her teacher showed up. She took out a huge magic staff, which lit up with the brightness of six spells. Saleen was shocked to find out that the staff could cast six grade-9 spells all at once, but it seemed like the staff had just cast one spell instead.

Jalin’s staff was far more powerful than the ones Joey gave him.

Even if he were to re-craft his Demonic Magic Book, its powers would still pale in comparison to Jalin’s staff.

Arbola found Jalin’s childish methods amusing. The student of hers was always known for her composure. It was probably thanks to Saleen that Jalin had gotten so irked.

Jalin could hardly be blamed. She had always been known as the most talented mage in the Golden Plains since Arbola took Jalin under her wing. There was no one capable of suppressing her in any way. Saleen, however, seemed to have endless amounts of tricks up his sleeve, which ignited Jalin’s desire to win. That, in turn, made her barely able to contain herself.

Saleen knew why Jalin acted the way she did. He kept a deadpan face while watching the elders of the Grukos gang up on the holy masters. The first batch of the 100 strong force of warriors armed with alchemy crossbows were taken care of. Jalin’s spell went on to take the holy master organizing their formations. Eight were left, and they were being picked off slowly by the elders of the Grukos.

Saleen observed closely, finding the ways in which the mages of the Grukos dealt with the holy masters to be rather impressive.

Divine Protection cast by grade-9 holy masters was a powerful spell capable of defending against grade-9 magic spells; they lasted very long as well. The mages were divided into two groups, and one of the groups went on to separate a holy master from their brethren, stopping them from getting help from other holy masters. The other half of the mages went on to take on the remaining seven holy masters, taking turns to cast magic attacks, making it near impossible for the holy masters to retaliate.

The holy master that was separated from their own brethren was having a hard time, as they needed to fight 12 grade-9 sorcerers alone. While Divine Protection was indeed a powerful spell, it worked best on groups. The limitations of using Divine Protection alone would eventually result in death. It was made even more inevitable due to the fact that the sorcerers had long figured out ways to take on Divine Protection.

The 12 sorcerers worked as a single unit, attacking in waves and disallowing the energies of the holy masters’ shields to stabilize. The simple elemental attacks in waves ground on the Divine Protection spells, causing the holy masters much stress.

The benefit of doing so was that attacking in waves required only power at grade-7 to be cast. With the 12 grade-9 sorcerers taking turns attacking, the expenditure in magic cost was kept very low. Such attacks would only work when the enemy was deemed helpless.

That lone holy master had enough. They began preparing powerful divine spells for retaliation while still being shielded by Divine Protection. The holy master was fighting grade-9 sorcerers, who jumped on the chance to launch greater attacks. Three grade-9 sorcerers went on to crank the elemental vibrations to the limit, while the other three went on to cast grade-9 magic spells, which were sent through the tiny crack in the divine shielding.

A fireball, a long ice sword, and a black-colored wind were launched at the holy master at the same time.

Saleen nodded. “So, this is how you gang up on people!”