Badge in Azure

Things below Daliang City practically went to the dogs. Fossilized gods poured out of both exits at the statue of the giant at an increasing rate. Massive casualties resulted in the ranks of the Tribunal army.

It was bound to happen. With the head inquisitors separated, Divine Territory proved useful for controlling only one exit, the other requiring soldiers to block it off.

However, without help from Divine Territory, the difference in combat capacity between the Tribunal troops and the fossilized gods became very apparent.

Stone projectiles stopped being thrown from the walls, as the stockpile of ammunition was limited in the city. With the Tribunal struggling to deal with the fossilized gods, the city above saw no reason to waste their own resources.

Demons and human powerful ones continued to observe the battle below from the city. The fossilized gods did not bother telling apart people from the Tribunal and the city when they attacked.

The ones from the Tribunal were closer and contained traces of divinity of the Lord of Glory, which had a greater appeal to the fossilized gods.

Once everyone from the Tribunal was killed or forced to retreat, there would be only Daliang City left. It was only a matter of time before the fossilized gods began attacking the city.

Both head inquisitors were knew that, but they were reluctant to let the shells of the fossilized gods go to waste. The shells would be useful in helping both the Tribunal and the Pivotal Council to build a powerful army.

Even the Oracle Corps, who had lost their first oracle and was at the brink of disappearing, mobilized, just to get their hands on the fragments of the fossilized gods.

There was a huge number of Holy See soldiers gathered near Daliang City, and there were still armies from Kroraina, Qin, and Titan heading their way.

The two head inquisitors were compelled to acquire more fragments of the fossilized gods and looked as if they wanted to continue fighting, even if it meant all of their subordinates would die.

The most apparent sign of their desperation was that some of the light-armored troops tasked only with logistics were mobilized to the frontlines to help with the battles, despite the fact that the best types of soldiers for fighting the fossilized gods were heavy infantry and cavalry.

Saleen waited for full a 24 hours in the Magical Element Tower, before Nailisi emerged from her collection of purgatories.

“How was it?” Saleen was unable to help but ask as soon as she got out. He soon found out the results from the joy in the depths of her soul, but since it concerned the secrets of Jalin’s magic, Saleen still felt rather restless.

“There doesn’t seem to be a problem, master. Nicholas, you’re up. Heal Jalin with your divine spells. She forgot everything about me, so make sure you don’t stir her memories up. Master, come with me,” Nailisi said and dragged Saleen to the 18th floor of the magic tower and had him shut the floor off.

Nailisi took out a small crystalline structure and stuffed it into Saleen’s hand.

“A memory crystal!” Saleen was able to tell at once using his Elemental Eye. A memory crystal was fragment of copied memories forcefully extracted out of a person’s mind. It caused huge damage to the one subjected to the procedure.

“Relax, my liege. Jalin is mostly fine. She isn’t harmed in that new space, as I don’t want to get on Arbola’s bad side. I’ll have to wait till you’ve reached level ten to do so.” Nailisi urged Saleen to absorb the contents of the memory crystal.

Saleen knew that since the deed was done, if he became reluctant to absorb the crystal, he might as well have offended Arbola for nothing.

Saleen covered the memory crystal with his mental powers and absorbed the information within. The information was immensely pure, as it was all about the training of earth magic. He was puzzled as to how Nailisi had been able to get the information. No other part of Jalin’s memories were touched in the extraction.

Having seen Saleen forcefully absorb all the memory within the crystal, she took it back quickly and put it in her collection of purgatories. The memory crystal flew right into the specter of the fossilized god, fusing with it.

Nailisi had only sighed a breath of relief then. After the crystal was being fused, nothing would be able to decipher the secrets within, not even when Arbola questioned or holy masters casting prophecy spells.

Jalin had already forgotten about Nailisi tricking her for her memories. She would not have regained that part of her memories until that specter inside Nailisi’s purgatories was completely broken and dissipated.

Jalin slowly regained consciousness on the topmost floor of the magic tower. She saw Nicholas beside her, drenched in sweat.

Jalin sat up all of a sudden, feeling very dizzy.

“What happened?”

Nicholas checked her condition and said in a puzzled tone, “Jalin, Nailisi was going too far. I hope you won’t mind.”

Jalin froze for a bit before saying slowly, “I understand. She didn’t want to see me having equipment crafted by Saleen. Yeah, I still remember that she was the one taking me out of that exit…”

“Your injuries are minor. You can see for yourself,” Nicholas said carefully and cast a lesser prophecy spell. It was a double-layered safeguard. If Nailisi’s skill failed for any reason, there was still the lesser prophecy spell to prevent Jalin from recalling what actually happened.

Jalin checked her body and found herself to only rather weakened. But Nicholas was a holy master and it was actually a good thing feeling weak after the healing session. It was a sign saying that Nicholas did not go on to burn her life force as cost for the healing.

“Thank you.” Jalin expressed her gratitude and Nicholas felt exasperated.

Nicholas had done something to her after all. Lesser prophecy spells were difficult to detect. It was impossible for even Arbola to detect anything. The key was Jalin.

If she had something to counter fallen divine spells, everything would be exposed.

However, his lesser prophecy spell did not activate. It seemed that Nailisi’s abilities were more intricate than his, as he was unable to tell what Nailisi had pulled.

Saleen was more curious than Nicholas. He thought of sensing Nailisi’s mind, to see how she did it.

Nailisi let out a bitter laugh, which was rare. “Master, the space was the product of a pure accident. I can only call it… purgatory of purification. Nothing inside that space will suffer any attacks, unless I want attacks to happen.

“Purgatory of purification?”

“Yes, capable of purifying souls of people and dispelling hostility, even make them your subordinates. The purgatory is most effective to gods and least effective to mages. I only had Jalin elaborate on the secrets of her magic, and even that took me one whole day. If she were a god, I’d have been able to do the same thing in just half a minute.”

“You said there is no danger involved?”

“Master, I… used a double in the purgatory. Until that double is destroyed, Jalin will never be able to recall what actually took place, and not even her teacher will be able to tell what happened. Furthermore, she would never tell anyone that I bested her in something.

“Nailisi, what you did was very, very risky,” Saleen only began to chastise her then.

“I know, master, but it’s either take the risk or wait until we run out of time.”

Saleen cut Nailisi off. “I know that. I wouldn’t have agreed to you taking her down there otherwise. This was a test to you. If you had screwed things up, I would have never let you do anything on your own again.

Nailisi pouted. If she knew what Saleen had been up to, she would not have made her move like that.

It was near impossible to trick a mage of Jalin’s level if they left the environment they were in. Without her being able to use her most powerful spell, Jalin was little more than a toy to Nailisi.

“Well then, master. How should I go about dealing with Jalin from here on out?” Nailisi asked something she had been stuck on for some time. Saleen had gotten what he wanted, so he could just kick Jalin off the boat.

Keeping her around would be like continuing to work with Arbola. Her master was having some conflict in his mind.

“Continue being hostile to her, or she’ll cause trouble for me,” Saleen said. There was hardly anyone by his side capable of getting along with Jalin, and that was troubling to him.

Jalin came to see Saleen and as expected, she brought nothing up, only glaring at Nailisi with eyes full of hostility.

Saleen thanked Jalin. “Jalin, Nailisi is crafting equipment capable of transporting the troops in Daliang City, she…”

“I know. I only have a shot at getting the giant bone crystals when the crisis of Daliang City is averted, right?” Jalin’s felt rather awkward. Her deduction led her to the conclusion. What Nailisi did was most probably Saleen’s idea.

There was little she could do, as the contract between her and Saleen clearly stated that she could not have the crystals yet. Her original staff was broken by Sika and she was not permitted to settle her score with Sika.

Jalin might not have spent much time around Saleen, but she observed quite a lot. Battles usually took place with Sika at the center of things if Sika was around, even though it appeared that Saleen and Lex were the ones taking charge.

It was Sika’s decisive last blow that killed the fourth head inquisitor. The sheer irresistible brute force was something that even a level nine mage found frightening.

Even if she were to give her all in defending one blow, her chances of being able to actually defend against a blow like that from Sika was close to nil.

Any type of fighting methods, when refined to the extreme, would be extremely frightening, so much so that they might develop into unique rules. Sika’s attack was an example. The sheer unbridled power, when coupled with that unique weapon of hers, would make her into something like a dragon.

“Alright, Jalin. I need you around to fight. I cannot give you the giant bone crystals just yet. Use this instead.” Saleen took out a level 12 magic nucleus and handed it to Jalin.

Jalin’s resentment subsided quite a bit after taking the magic nucleus, and she stopped asking Saleen to make a new magic staff for her.

“Go get some rest. The Magical Element Tower will not see use for the time being. There are several newly built magic towers at the royal palace. Split up and protect the place. Alchemy City and Holy Rock City will be sending emissaries at noon tomorrow to discuss the cemetery. We’ll have Lex do the talking, and no one is allowed to have any opinions or suggestions, are we clear?”

Saleen was warning Jalin. Jalin nodded in agreement before Saleen dismissed them.

He returned to the 17th floor of the magic tower. That was where Sika and their children took up residence, and no one else was allowed inside.

“Sika, take the kids and head back to Metatrin City,” Saleen said.

“What then?” Sika looked at Saleen with angry eyes.

“I’ll have teacher re-craft the tower a bit. I can’t take you and the kids with me as long as the tower remains grounded.”

Sika only realized what happened then. She grabbed Saleen. “You’ve got quite some nerves playing me like that!”