Badge in Azure

“No!”

The specter stomped its leg in the air, breaking the shell covering it and exposing its translucent toes. However, the being was an actual double of the Lord of Glory and did not have power. It was simply tied to the core rules of the Book of Pathos.

The fossilized gods continued to rush at it. A bit of its body was quickly fossilized as one crashed into it as a layer of thin shell covering the crashed area. The specter struggled at the beginning.

It was still something that did not possess actual intelligence. Every time it was fossilized, the part beneath the rocky shell felt somewhat better. As such, it gradually lost the will to resist.

Nailisi was able to sense the change within the 12 Notes of First Purgatory as another space was opened up. That space was made specifically for taking out gods. It was quite a pity that the level of that space was not high enough. It was incapable of imprisoning gods above level 12. How about level 11? Probably not. Seems like the most it can take now are level 10 gods.

The specter of the Lord of Glory’s eventually became encased in a thick rocky shell. It was only then that it found itself no longer able to shake off the shell’s control.

More and more fossilized gods rushed at it and turned into thicker and heavier shell.

“Lost one, there is no need for faith…” Nailisi’s voice was heard within. The portal of the 12 Notes of First Purgatory was closed. The collection of purgatories returned to her hand.

Nailisi held the collection of purgatories in one hand and the Sword of Rules in the other. She easily knocked down two fossilized gods and dodged to the side. The fossilized gods within the cave charged at Jalin instead.

Jalin was filled with rage. She wanted to cast spells and sneak around Nailisi, giving the demon a dose of her own medicine. However, when Nailisi passed by Jalin, she rubbed the Sword of Rules lightly on the magic staff.

The staff snapped, and the bone crystal on the top shattered. Jalin was suddenly robbed of her most important power source.

Nailisi chuckled and charged outside. She turned around and shouted, “Hey Jalin, I dare not kill you, but I wouldn’t say the same for those gods.”

“You’re insane!” Jalin shouted in rage. What Nailisi did was no different from personally killing her. Is that bonded creature’s head broken? Or, has Saleen lost control of her?

The mask on her face was already torn as she continued to shout. She cast Crystal City with a wave of her hand and sealed the passage.

The fossilized gods began knocking hard on the barrier that Jalin cast with their weapons in a frenzy. She turned around and ran. Having lost the support of the magic staff and the bone crystal of the giant, her speed of movement was equal to that of a common beginner swordsman.

Jalin felt despair for the first time. The mask was akin to her double. A Crystal City spell cast by using the power of the mask would not be able to block the fossilized gods for long.

The depth at which both she and Nailisi found themselves in, and her current speed of movement, meant that the fossilized gods would be able to break her level nine spell at any moment.

Jalin felt cold deep within. There was simply no way Nailisi would have had everything calculated so well if she had gone crazy.

Has Saleen rendered the contract between him and Nailisi null simply to kill me? No way! A bonded creature of Nailisi’s strength wouldn’t have stayed at Saleen’s side if he had released her. Saleen would never give Nailisi up just to kill me!

The cold in her mind seeped into her bones as she pondered further.

Did Saleen have it all thought out? Why am I only able to figure this out now? To Saleen, I’m less than even a bonded creature!

If Nailisi knew what was going on in Jalin’s mind, she would have scolded the sorcerer, deeming the sorcerer brain damaged. She had been through thick and thin with her master and was willing to give up everything for him. Jalin was nothing compared to her.

Jalin continued running for hundreds of feet and began to pant. Her constitution was such that it would not have been difficult for her to run three to five miles. However, the sounds of the gods attempting to break the barrier behind her seemed to be hits on her mind itself.

The pride of a mage was turned to nothing. Without support of elements, any spell cast using solely her own magic chords probably maybe kill a level eight fossilized god. She would be able to fend off the gods’ attacks another six times before she exhausted her magic chords.

Am I going to just die unceremoniously like this? Jalin felt her feet tripping and eyes daze, but she quickly saw Nailisi turning around and hoisting her up.

Nailisi had long nails. When she was holding Jalin’s wrist, her nails scraped on the walls of her blood vessels.

“So Jalin, you’re afraid of death after all. And, I thought you were a brave young woman,” Nailisi said with a sarcastic tone.

Jalin’s blood was boiling, but she knew that it was pointless to resist now that Nailisi had grabbed her. “What do you want?”

“Do you want to live?” Nailisi asked.

“I do!” Jalin exclaimed.

“I’ve no certainty of being able to get you out of her. How about this? You get in here, and I’ll get you back to Daliang City,” Nailisi said and opened a portal.

Jalin had personally seen the door gobbling up tens of thousands of fossilized gods. There was no way she would have went inside willingly.

Nailisi laughed sheepishly and said, “Oh Jalin, I’m here to save you. If you’re not getting in, and if your teacher is going to question us in the future, even a level ten mage’s lie detection wouldn’t have yielded anything. I’m not the one who killed you after all.”

Jalin was clever but not as clever as an imp. Nailisi had become very adept at manipulating people. She had left Jalin pacing back and forth at the verge of death several times in less than half a minute.

“If anything were to happen to me, my teacher won’t let you off easy!” Jalin dared not delay and hoped that Nailisi was truly not there to kill her. She stepped into the portal.

Nailisi put the collection of purgatories away and quickly turned into a devil. She swapped her Sword of Rules for Grey Memory and charged at the entrance.

With her powers and in such an environment, it would have been easy for her to toss Jalin inside the collection of purgatories. However, Nailisi was worried about getting Saleen in trouble.

By tricking Jalin into it, even if she were to end up dead and Arbola got furious, it would not have had anything to do with Saleen. Neither prophecy spells nor lie-detection magic would be able to tell how Jalin died.

Of course, it’s still best that she stays alive. My new space will be rather fun after all.

Nailisi took her devil form and charged outside the passage. She saw the place filled with Tribunal troops and hundreds of holy masters guarding them against the catapults at the city walls.

The catapults did not even budge when Nailisi burst outside. She began stabbing with the Grey Memory. Many holy masters dropped from being stabbed by countless thrusts of the spear.

Nailisi had no intentions of getting herself surrounded. She flew up the walls while her enemies panicked.

Saleen watched Nailisi’s actions from the walls. She had been inside for several hours, but the Holy See forces dared not enter and attack. It worried him that they stayed around and guarded the entrance.

His heart sank when he saw Nailisi emerge alone. He asked before she landed, “Where’s Jalin?”

“I saved her!” Nailisi answered tactfully.

“Good. Is she injured?” Saleen’s questions worked well with Nailisi’s plan since they were being watched by many at the wall.

“It’s rather tricky,” Nailisi vaguely said.

“Head back to the tower as soon as possible and let Nicholas take a look at her,” Saleen said as he took to the air with Nailisi in tow.

He was the only one who was able to afford wasting his magic chords like that in Daliang City. While the Tempest Dragonmights’ combat capacity had been severely reduced, they were still capable of providing him with wind element power.

Saleen returned to the Magical Element Tower and barred anyone from entering the 24th floor. He locked Nailisi in the tower alone and asked, “What did you do?”

Nailisi thought for a bit and answered cautiously, “Master, there were too many fossilized gods around. Jalin was unable to cast spells, so I saved her using the 12 Notes of First Purgatory. Well, I didn’t break any of her equipment.”

Saleen pondered what Nailisi’s words meant. It was obvious that she broke the magic staff that had a bone crystal of the giant on it just to rob Jalin of her combat capacity. He had been the one who crafted the staff, which had nothing to do with Jalin nor the mages from Golden Plains. Nailisi’s description was accurate.

The contract between him and Jalin remained unbroken, which was a good thing.

“Do you have any certainty of being able to save her?” Saleen asked.

“Eighty percent,” Nailisi answered.

“You have one day.” Saleen left the 24th floor of the tower as soon as he finished and went on to completely seal the entire floor.

He returned to the 17th floor. Both Lex and Sika were in there. They both asked at the same time, seeing Saleen’s glum expression, “Did Nailisi get herself into trouble again?”

“A small one, yes.” Saleen gestured for both of them to drop the subject. Both of them shut up at the same time. They knew what Nailisi was like. This time, Jalin was really out of luck.

Nailisi took out her 12 Notes of First Purgatory. The equipment had become increasingly sturdy. The strength of the collection of purgatories grew twice as strong with every completed space. The four spaces were interconnected with each other. The power of every space bore was shared between the other three. The equipment would only be deemed complete when all 12 spaces were completed.

She knew what was happening inside the space that she had just created. The fossilized specter became Nailisi’s eyes and ears. It was as if it was her own double. What was different was that she was able to master a bit of power of rules, which was the fossilized shell of the specter.

The being within the shell still retained its consciousness. It was continuously being tortured.

Nailisi opened a portal and walked inside. It was a calm, tranquil world within. She saw a garden with a small fort at the foot of a mountain far away. The warm glow of the sun bathed every corner of the space, which was the only thing peculiar about the place.

There were no shadows to be found within that space.

All who were living within that space were fossilized gods. Those gods no longer looked pained. They all looked like humans, farming and living on the land. The sun in the sky would never set, always emanating warm light that shone on those fossilized gods.

The light made everyone feel peaceful and happy within.