Badge in Azure

Saleen patiently waited for Nicholas’ illustration. The old fallen holy master looked rather lost. While he had been elevated after becoming a level nine holy master, he was still able to hear comparative secretive things going about.

According to convention, there was no way he, as someone from the Pivotal Council, would have come into contact with the Tribunal. However, due to his rather awkward status in the Pivotal Council, there were many from the Tribunal trying to have him on their side.

As time passed, he came to know a lot about the Tribunal. The Divine Tablet spell was not known outside the Tribunal, but it was not a big deal within the ranks of the Tribunal.

The Tribunal had too many brutal things going about them. The Divine Tablet spell looked rather odd in comparison. As a skill for keeping oneself alive, the spell would have taken a very long time to work and was costly, making it a spell easy to know about but hard to use. Only someone at the level of the great head inquisitor could have afforded to use a century to nurture a Divine Tablet.

“My liege, if a human soul were to enter another body, it would have done a lot of damage to said soul, especially in the case of holy master,” Nicholas said. “They could have lost the blessings of their gods.”

Saleen nodded to indicate he understood. From the perspective of the gods, if a human were to switch their souls about, it would have amounted to sacrilege. If a human were to know too much about the secrets of the soul, who would believe what the gods preached?

“The Divine Tablet spell was done by selecting a female adherent to conceive a divine fetus with…” Nicholas did not go deep into the details in this department since the selection process hardly mattered. It did not even matter if the selected adherent was against it or not.

“After the divine fetus was conceived with said female adherent, the one to cast the divine spell was to extract a sliver of their soul and cast it into the divine fetus,” Nicholas said. “This was a dangerous and easy-to-fail process. If the process were to fail, said sliver of soul would fall and continuously devour the female adherent’s soul to grow during the incubation period.”

Everyone suppressed the icky feeling in them and continued to hear Nicholas’ illustration.

“Even if the spell were to succeed, that sliver of soul would have absorbed the soul of the mother to grow regardless. When the divine fetus was finally born, that female adherent would have turned into a total retardate.”

Boom!

A rumble was heard, but it was the sound of Sika regaining some of her strength and punching the ground. Everyone was startled by the power of her punch.

“Those b*stards!” Sika was not Nailisi. She hardly scolded or cursed anyone, but such a simple line was the best she was able to come up with.

Nicholas stopped. No one smiled. Sika’s punch made the pent-up emotions within everyone erupt. The Divine Tablet spell was so evil that it made professionals, who were used to killing, feeling queasy.

“The birth of the divine fetus became a Divine Tablet in itself,” Nicholas said. “If the tablet were to grow further, it would have required female adherents to nurture. Any woman who was not of the faith was not allowed to even feed the divine fetus. Furthermore, the divine fetus would not have any siblings, so any women who would feed it, the other children…”

Nicholas grew reluctant to elaborate the details. He had thought something like that to be little more than an idea. Seeing how the great head inquisitor was able to escape the power of the stars, he was convinced that it was none other than the Divine Tablet spell at work.

“Go on. Keep your point on the limitations and weaknesses of the spell.” Saleen wanted to hear the rest. The Divine Tablet spell was not just a diving spell used to keep oneself alive in dire situations.

“As you wish, my liege,” Nicholas said. “Speaking of the probabilities, it would require the sacrifice of over a thousand people to nurture a divine fetus for the spell. When the Divine Tablet was matured, it needed to be stored within a sealed equipment, with the only contact with the outside world being the Great Divine Tablet Rune Charm Array. If said array were to be activated and the soul of its master was unable to return to the fetus, the fetus would grow on its own.”

“There would probably be no one capable of destroying that Divine Tablet Fetus, right?” Saleen asked.

“Indeed. When the great head inquisitor gave up his body to activate the spell, his soul was immediately returned to the divine fetus used for placing the spell, which meant his soul was right inside the Divine Tablet,” Nicholas said. “The process is an indestructible one. Furthermore, when a soul enters the Divine Tablet, it isn’t able to restore its power within a short period of time. It would require at least three months to do so.”

“That means we won’t be attacked by the great head inquisitor within the coming three months,” Saleen commented.

“Indeed, my liege, but the Tribunal still has the second and third head inquisitor available,” Nicholas said. “The powers of those two are far above the ones right outside Daliang City, and their gear…”

Saleen came to understand. It was impossible to destroy the Divine Tablet when the skill was completed. The great head inquisitor had returned to the Tribunal. The skill was indeed a powerful one.

In comparison to that, his own Figure of Fate was the true skill to keep oneself alive. While the figure was destroyed by a dark prophecy spell, it hardly bothered Saleen. The spell was comparative easy to deal with so long as he had the Star Gathering Needle with him.

What made the Divine Tablet spell more powerful than the Figure of Fate was that it enabled a soul to return to a designated point instantly to evade danger. While his Figure of Fate was able to take hits for him, he would have still been within the range of attack after the attack was executed, unable to immediately leave the battlefield.

“Nicholas, tell us everything you know about the Tribunal!” Nailisi felt her double had gained complete control of the dark double, so they were no longer threatened. She began to tell the old fallen holy master to hurry up.

She was very irked by Nicholas. He was acting very greedy just moments ago, searching for equipment on the dead adjudicators while his neck was on the line.

Nicholas smiled bitterly and said, “My liege, the Divine Tablet spell was not that much of a secret in the Tribunal. Many knew it but were unable to afford doing it. The great head inquisitor had been in charge of the Tribunal for too long, which was why it was completely normal for him to be able to complete the spell. No other person would have been able to do so. The second and third head inquisitors are newly appointed people. I know little of their skills. One thing is certain, both have a right to a piece of equipment equal to the rank of godly items. I don’t know if the great head inquisitor has given them their gear.”

“Assuming he gave them their gear, what would that be?” Saleen asked.

“The Tribunal had six godly items, the powers of which paled only in comparison to the three held by the pope,” Nicholas said. “The great head inquisitor had the Armageddon Codex, the Divine Skull, and Purgatory Holy Mountain. The second head inquisitor might get the Eternal Fire while the third, Wings of Heaven.”

“Isn’t there one more?” Saleen asked.

“The remaining one rests in the hands of the head warden of Black Dungeon,” Nicholas said. “Nobody knows what that is.”

Six head inquisitors and only three of them had godly items. Saleen came to a decision. The two supreme demons had also escaped into the purgatory of the fallen with the demons. The altar in the air made the demons shudder. They all hid behind Nailisi.

“What about the remaining two head inquisitors?” Saleen asked. “What are their powers like?”

“My liege, in theory, both the second and third would be inferior to the great head inquisitor in terms of power, even with their powers combined,” Nicholas said. “But, both of them would never act alone like the great head inquisitor. He was simply too sure of himself…”

Nicholas was beating around the bush with his words, but he was not wrong. If the great head inquisitor had brought ample help instead of just 12 adjudicators, the outcome of the previous battle would have been hard to tell.

The death of the 12 adjudicators was closely linked to the great head inquisitor’s skill. Nicholas alone would not have been able to kill those adjudicators. Even if the adjudicators were just professionals forcefully brought up to level nine, a veteran level nine holy master like him would not have been able to take all of them down.

Nicholas had simply gotten lucky, and he dared not boast. So, he elaborated on that weakness to Saleen in a roundabout manner. That meant that within a certain vicinity, Saleen would not be able to summon elemental creatures and even his greatest power would be limited. The number of star figures he was able to control was still low, and their powers were weaker than those of the level nine holy masters’.

It required time to raise their powers. However, the longer the matter got drawn out, the greater the number of powerful ones from the Tribunal showing up. From Saleen’s perspective, it was a bad idea to simply keep buying time.

The other two head inquisitors would come looking for trouble with Saleen soon enough after the great head inquisitor returned with clipped wings. Furthermore, the great head inquisitor had learned of all Saleen’s tricks, which meant there was no way the second and third head inquisitor would fall for them.

“How long would you all need to recuperate before you can fight again?” Saleen was only able to ask the most realistic question at the moment. Everyone had been under the influence of the great head inquisitor’s dark prophecy spell, diminishing their combat capacity.

Sika rather glumly said, “Saleen, my weapon is contaminated. It would need about half a month to restore, longer than I expect it to be.”

Jola and Sul were just as frustrated. They were attacked by the dark prophecy spell before they were even able to fight anyone. The prophecy spell type attacks were capable of suppressing anything of lower levels. “My liege, even if you’re in no hurry, we’d still need two weeks to rest.”

Nicholas said, “My liege, it’s best to rest for a few more days. Jola and the others will suffer diminished lifespan. I’ll need to dispel it gradually with lesser prophecy spells. That’s the power of a curse after all, so it’s best that we exercise caution.”

Nailisi added, “Master, better listen to them. I can still keep everyone safe for the moment. No harm would come to any of us here. The Tribunal will choose to block us from the front instead of tailing us.”

“Where’s Eleanor?” Saleen asked.

“I’m here, my liege.” Eleanor was seen dragging Don, who was all bloodied, into the purgatory of the fallen. Its portal remained open, but Nailisi was not worried about any of the golden-armored knights coming in. While she was unable to take on over a hundred of them outside, if they were to make it inside, she would have been able to take on a whole company of them.

Don felt glad to see Saleen and the rest of the party alive. There was no way he would have been able to bring the Tribunal down even if he was able to come back alive.

If Saleen were to die, he had no idea what he would have done. He might have just brought the God-hunting Spear with him to keep killing important figures within the Holy See, in all territory under the Holy See’s control, until he was surrounded by the adjudicators of the Tribunal, fighting to his death.

“What about the knights?” Saleen asked.

“They’re gone,” Eleanor said. “I can’t keep them here on my own.”

“Gone, huh… It’s best that we leave too. We can’t stay there for too long,” Saleen said and opened a magic map. Pointing to a river at the west, he added, “We’ll move south and cross the river to the area under Cloudflow control.”