Badge in Azure

Saleen wanted nothing more than to just run from the place. If I were to die here, would my soul be sealed within those shells and doomed to repent before the giant for eons to come?

The curse of the King of Glory was indeed powerful. No believers were able to receive their god’s blessing within hundreds of miles radius. No mages were able to draw power from the elements. With the exception of unpopular professions like Sika’s, everyone’s combat capacity were affected.

The magic fire shells slowed the movements of the fossilized gods. Their cracking bodies were no longer able to withstand the power of the magic cannons. Every shot ended up killing hundreds of fossilized gods.

However, Saleen did not see any auspicious signs of souls dissipating. The souls from the fossilized gods’ fragments were sucked back into the giant by some massive power. Saleen seemed to be able to hear their eerie screams.

Were those souls just going to keep being punished? Saleen cared little if they actually ended up being punished. What concerned him was if the retrieved souls would have simply be given another body to act as fossilized gods, and be deployed in battle again.

If that were to be the case, they would never be able to seal the hole.

“Saleen, why aren’t those things coming out from other places?” Sika asked something that Saleen had never considered before.

He was too stressed by the current predicament, putting all his mind into sealing the hole and little else, and that ended up with him being unable to see things as clearly as Sika who was watching from the sides. She’s right. There’re so many of the statues around, there’ll sure be other exits, no?

Even if his calculations proved apt and the giant they were at now was the main one standing right at the front, there still should have been another hole in another ear. He did not spend much energy digging the ear out. While the dirt covering the ear was hard, it was still way softer than fossilized dirt.

Why don’t the fossilized gods just open up the other ear then? If that happens, I’d have had to give up entirely, wouldn’t I?

“Take care of things here, I’ll go have a look around,” Saleen left the 12 sorcerers in charge of the battle, while he took Sika and Gusion to the other side of the statue’s head to look into the other hole at the ear.

Both holes were found to be parallel to each other and that other hole was filled with dirt as well. Saleen went up and dug up a piece with his nails, smelling it. The dirt did not have any special components in it, just the smell of sulphur. The collapse of the ground surrounding the place was probably caused by some magic over level 15.

The lava that erupted from the ground was probably caused by the aftershocks of the spell as well, instead of the earth truly splitting apart reaching the depths of the crust. Saleen scanned the dirt with his Elemental Eye and found no signs of power of rules.

Why don’t the fossilized gods simply come from this hole instead? Saleen wanted to do alchemic analysis of the dirt and see if there was something that the gods feared here.

It was a pity that there was no time for that. The army of the Holy See would be upon them soon enough, and what was more dire was that all three head inquisitors would be there soon as well.

Sika looked at the dirt in the hole.”Who cares what they are. Just dig a piece out and stuff it at the other end. We’ll see what would happen soon enough.”

Saleen slapped at his forehead hard, thinking himself really to be dumb. It was as Sika put it, there was simply no need for him to figure out the principles behind the dirt. The most pressing issue then to simply seal the hole. There was no point in understanding anything about the dirt if he was unable to get the hole sealed up.

He summoned six Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers and had Gusion carve up the dirt meticulously. The Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers then dug up the entire piece of dirt with the steel materials.

Six beings of over a hundred meters tall carried the dirt all the way to the other side of the head. The Stone Statue Soldiers looked rather flimsy compared to the huge statue right beside them.

12 magic cannons fired at once. The fossilized gods quickly turned to scrap while still burning. The Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers charged straight at the hole and stuffed the dirt into it.

Everyone held their breaths as they waited for the result. No further sound was heard from within. Saleen was the first person who sighed a breath of relief. The fossilized gods had truly retreated, and retreated very quickly.

The pieces of the fossilized gods outside the cave stacked up to a height of several meters. Saleen stored them inside his Starline Ring without saying much. The materials were rather special, as they were capable of isolating powers of elements and faith.

All 12 magic cannons were near depleted. Being fired at such high frequencies rendered them nearly completely broken. Sika brought another 12 from the city and had the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers replace the ones that were being used earlier.

Saleen dared not have more magic cannons set up when used at such a narrow place.

The last time he fired massive number of magic cannons and caused an elemental shock, which in turn triggered a catastrophe. He dared not pull any risky maneuvers like that anymore. If the earth had actually collapsed, the chasm of about ten miles deep would have been capable of swallowing the entire Daliang City.

While the hole was sealed, things were far from settled. With the head of the statue of a giant excavated for all to see, the Holy See army would be able to catch sight of it from afar.

Furthermore, he had built a magic tower and had 12 turrets aimed at one ear. It was a peculiar sight that would have piqued the interests of the Holy See.

The three head inquisitors would probably simply order their forces to attack that spot, taking out the turrets and digging up the hole. Once they had done so, Saleen would be caught in a pinch again together with the ones from the Holy See.

That was a very difficult problem and there was no way he could just go up to the people of the Holy See, telling them the hole was very dangerous and to not ever dig it up.

The Holy See would be insane to buy his words like that.

Saleen was reluctant to simply take the defenses apart. The dirt that filled the hole at the ear was little more than three meters thick, little more than a thin wall.

Saleen also had no certainty of being able to block the fossilized gods, and he knew nothing about the reason the gods did not simply dig the dirt up. He saw the defenses outside as a necessary measure.

Even if the dirt proved capable of completely fending off the fossilized gods, Jalin was still inside the cemetery.

Saleen thought that Jalin would not die so easily. If she ended up escaping, she would return to the place she came in from. If she were to get out from that hole, three meters of dirt were nowhere near enough to fend off Jalin’s powers.

If the hole was opened, the fossilized gods would definitely make it out again. Without suppression fire from the magic cannons, they would have no means of stuffing the hole. The more Saleen thought about it, the more he hated Jalin. Her greed almost destroyed Daliang City.

Is it necessary to guard the place like this? Saleen thought about his plan and regretted the decision of bringing Jalin with him into the cemetery very much.

His original plan was to explore temples and there were little dangers in temples. All that was left in temples was treasure left for later generations to uncover.

“Masters, let’s just head back for now.” Saleen sighed and left the sorcerers who replaced the ones who had been fighting in charge of the magic tower. All of the sorcerers were Lex’s men. The magic tower could still function adequately with the magic power furnaces installed.

Saleen summoned Stephanie and the others when he returned to Daliang City in search for ways to deal with the problem at hand.

There would not be much to deal with if they only had to deal with the fossilized gods. What was troubling at the moment was the Holy See forces that were about to show up.

Worse still, the head inquisitors were among them. With the sorcerers severely weakened and the limited number of magic power furnaces Saleen brought with him, there was no way they could simply go about erecting magic towers.

Furthermore, even if they erected magic towers, they would differ in nature from conventional ones, as their range would be very limited. The true solution to the problem was to construct a magic net, but the solution was very time-consuming.

Lex brought the Winged Skull back while they were still discussing, bringing back enough freshwater for the time being.

Lex gritted her teeth hearing Saleen’s description. She had never expected Jalin to be so bold. If she came back alive, there was no way Lex would let her walk free.

She saw a need to end Jalin without being seen doing so. Her city was almost destroyed by that woman. Of course, it would be best if she was unable to make it back alive. Lex had her reservations going against Arbola after all.

“I’m thinking of mobilizing Nailisi,” Saleen said to Lex.

Lex thought for a bit. Nailisi’s 12 Notes of First Purgatory allowed portals to be opened, which would be useful for sealing the hole. If the fossilized gods were stored with the purgatories, they would be a threat to her city.

“That seems to be the only way. But what about Ceylon City?” Lex asked Saleen, concerned. Things with Ceylon City was not going well. Nailisi lost huge amount of demons every day.

While the Holy See navy was indeed held back by the magic cannons, there would not be a way to get things in control with that little demon around.

If it had been other armies instead of Nailisi’s holding the line, things would fall apart even if the other armies were more than a million-strong.

“I’ll build a magic net in Ceylon City. Get more mages there. Nurturing of enchanters has been going on for months, and there are already thousands of low level mages around,” Saleen said without the intention of hiding anything, telling Lex of the plans he had for Ceylon City.

“Masters, Ceylon City is my birth city. I will build a palace and a magic net there. I believe you are all interested in magic nets.” Saleen turned around to the 12 level nine sorcerers from Golden Plains.

The sorcerers were now his palace mages. They were not difficult to keep around, and they cost less than followers. Saleen wanted to send them all to Ceylon City as soon as possible, or it would be a matter of time before the city fell. Without Nailisi around, he would have to send a huge number of mages.

The sorcerers felt things at Daliang City were rather hopeless and thought Saleen would simply give the city up. Saleen’s mention of the magic net got their attention.

Magic nets were of little worth to them, but the area covered by a magic net would be as if someone was in their own magic tower wherever they went. Compared to enchanters, conventional mages truly reaped the benefits of magic nets.

They cared nothing about what they could have gotten from the cemetery anymore. They were not extremists like Jalin. The sorcerers still feared the curse of the King of Glory.

According to Saleen’s description, Ceylon City would be the first city in the entire mainland to construct a magic net. Given that they were the first batch of sorcerers to settle there, it also meant that they were the first batch of magic net researchers in the entire mainland.

Ancient humans designed magic nets to be used for conquest in other planes by acting as a measure against extreme environments. They never bothered using it in cities on Myers Mainland.

Things were bustling in Daliang City throughout that night. Generals were called to rearrange defenses, mages were taught knowledge regarding magic cannons, such as how to use them and their frequency of use, and Lex filled each reservoir with freshwater.

Daliang City’s alchemy city was tasked with the dirty job of handling waste management by constructing new passages to handle the waste and laying magic arrays for breaking it down.

If such problems were not taken care of soon, the city, which was hanging 500 meters in the air, would be covered in stench, rendering the place uninhabitable.