Badge in Azure

Qin pricked his finger and wrote his name on the starline scroll with his blood. Starlight lit up on the scroll, and it was reduced to dust.

Saleen confirmed that nothing was wrong with Qin’s contract before continuing, “Qin, now that you’re my follower, I will tell you things regarding the temples. You won’t be excluded from what we talk about from here on out.”

“Yes, my liege.” Qin never worried about his treatment under Saleen, as his liege never spared expenses in the department. Even a professional who was close to him would not be treated very differently.

He was a rare find—a level nine archer—and so he did not need to worry about being mistreated.

“Alright, listen up. A part of the Sky City lay within this temple, which should be a piece of land. The land is just too big, over 30 miles in both length and width, and is over two miles thick. I’m unable to bring it out with me, and I will have it one way or another. If I can’t have it, no one else can. We can’t afford to lose the city. Things will be safe here for a short period of time, but I’m concerned about Agares.”

“Agares won’t necessarily know the secret here, Master. You can just draw his attention elsewhere.”

“Indeed.” Saleen agreed to Nailisi’s words. “I don’t plan on expanding here. We’ll only need 10,000 to hold it, since I’ll be using demonic spirits and demons. The Magical Element Tower can make it back here any time once we’ve got the teleportation portal set up.”

“My liege, who do you plan to leave behind?” Daniel asked, concerned. He was reluctant to go back to handling day-to-day affairs, and coming with Saleen had been the right choice.

Saleen had absolute trust on Daniel by now. During Saleen’s most difficult time, he had stayed in Metatrin City and worked hard, passing the test.

Saleen smiled. “No need to worry, Daniel. I’ll have you around. I’m planning on building a second Demon City here, and I’ll leave things to Cuisi. He will set up a mercenary group consisting of demons.”

Sika and the others followed Saleen’s trail of thought and found the plan sound, as it was capable of concealing their true motives from everyone else. With the headquarters of the demon mercenaries there, the southwestern nobles would have access to reinforcements at any time.

They needed to resist the pressure from Alchemy City from the east. Building a demon force would not alarm any of the locals.

“Master, Vinz and the others got familiar with my place and they won’t choose to leave.” Nailisi was reluctant to let them go. The four magic beast swordsmen that Saleen had taken in had all advanced to silver grand swordmasters.

Actual combat prowess notwithstanding, the four had developed a keen sense in training demons and become very familiar with them. They were able to pick all types of demonic tongue accents and were very knowledgeable on demonic bloodlines and breeds.

With the four handling things in Demon City, elite demon army units were able to be trained quickly, easing Nailisi’s burden considerably.

“Heh, Nailisi, there are many who would kill for the position, you know,” Sika jabbed at Nailisi, seeing how she was reluctant to make sacrifices. Sika felt that she needed to remind the imp to keep her in check, as she was prone to frustrating antics if she got too full of herself.

Nailisi lowered her head, looking as if she knew what she did wrong.

Saleen pretended as if he did not see any of it. “Daniel, I’d need you to advance to level nine, or you’ll be too easily suppressed when fighting the Holy See. Make a list of what you need as soon as possible. We can pretend that the temple doesn’t exist for the moment. We need to attack Pompeii City immediately.”

Eleanor added, “it was said that Pompeii City was in league with Alchemy City and gained a lot of support from mages. There were many towers in the city, making it very difficult to deploy the metal flyers.”

“So we’ll see how many troops the Grand Duke will send in our way. If they’re not coming here, I’d just set up the Demon City. If he’s here…” Murderous intent glimmered in Saleen’s eyes.

Everyone but Sika was taken aback, sending shivers down their spines.

If the Grand Duke of Pompeii sent his forces to attack the Demon City that Saleen built, it would be the end of the invading army. The Grand Duke was formidable, but he did not come from a thousand-year-old clan like Grand Duke Iron Blood. Being in league with Alchemy City was simply a move to help in Pompeii City’s defense.

On the other hand, Saleen had 100,000 demons, as well as thousands of demonic spirits at his disposal. They were capable of dealing with enemy forces ten times their size.

“Acknowledged, Master. I’ll send demons to scout for news and see how large of the force it will be. We’ll see if Alchemy City will move against you at once.” Nailisi summoned demons capable of flight. There were even some flying demonic spirits. Nailisi gave her orders and the demons nodded, flying off to carry out their tasks.

Saleen met with the generals and commanders of the allied forces after finishing his discussion with his followers. Saleen stated that he intended to build a Demon City and that he would be able to keep the demons in check. Only trained demons would be assigned to the nobles.

Qin people were envious of and intrigued by the demons. “Your Highness Saleen, how about this? You create an alliance with the nobles and everyone chips in to organize these demon mercenaries. I’m fully aware that you’re not concerned about the cost, but doing so would allow the demon mercenaries to serve directly under the allied forces,” one high ranking general suggested.

The general continued after seeing a lack of interest from Saleen, “none of the southwestern nobles will fight for loot that mercenaries acquire. Everyone simply wants their name in this, which means that if any of the southwestern nobles are harmed, the demon mercenaries are obligated to help out, and no one would have any right to refuse.”

Saleen laughed. “The Qin Empire really is something. Nice idea. What’s your name?”

“The name’s Bourg.”

“Well, Bourg. If there is a day you feel like serving me, just come look for me. I’ll make you the commander of the elites.”

“Your Highness, military officers of the Qin Empire hold loyalty in high regard,” Bourg refused Saleen’s offer in a roundabout manner. Saleen was not ticked off at all. If the warrior behaved like the Cloudflow ones, it would only be a matter of time before the Qin Empire crumbled under the Holy See’s assault.

Saleen had fought with the Holy See personally. A hastily organized expeditionary force had been more than enough to make Saleen’s army retreat to Metatrin City.

If Saleen did not have Metatrin City as his back-up, his forces would have been annihilated by the expeditionary force.

Believers do not care for their own wellbeing when they fight. No, they are worse than that. Believers believe that death on the battlefield is the greatest display of loyalty to their god. In return, they get to enter heaven where they attain immortality.

People like fight and welcome incoming blades with a beaming smile, as they fear nothing.

The northern nobles of Qin fought only with personal and regular troops, and they were able to stop the Holy See’s advance, giving them a hard time. It prevented the Holy See from attacking the south, so much so that they were not even able to take the river for themselves.

The southwestern nobles were very united. The plan that Saleen had was originally formed according what Bourg mentioned. He knew that the nobles would suggest something like that. He would play things to their wishes. He only wanted the city.

Saleen made a snap decision and renamed the place New Demon City.

New Demon City served as the alliance headquarters for both the southwestern nobles and Principality of Bitterwater. The southwestern nobles would send envoys to stay permanently in the city, helping Saleen’s men deal with political affairs in the southwest.

The southwestern nobles would side with Lex. The New Demon City that Saleen took became a waypoint for Lex.

As such, Saleen grew even more reluctant to leave. He reinforced the tower at the center of New Demon City and redesigned the layout. The core of the city served as a hub for training and summoning demons. It made expansion at the outskirts a lot easier.

New Demon City was built on high ground. There was about an 80 meter difference between the old and the new city. Saleen wanted to hold down the old city, as the portal was at the center.

Saleen took out the Magical Element Tower and contacted Lex. She was impressed with what Saleen had done. “Saleen, you have finally become a true king.”

Saleen laughed. He felt that after advancing to level ten, it became easy for him to think his way out of problems and often went straight for the core of problem. He had a lot of personal problems to iron out, and all of that became matters of the past.

Any living being would gain considerable evolution when reaching level ten, as if they were about to become some other type of creatures. A level ten human had incredible intelligence and brimming life force. Their speed of processing knowledge was enhanced.

If things can reach this far by getting to level ten, how about level 13? That’s the territory of pseudogods, and they possess very long lives.

Flying demon scouts had been sent out for three days and nothing of value returned. New demons were deployed constantly. The demons looking for signs of Pompeii City’s plans of assault were practically everywhere: the sky, the land, or even the rivers.

They were only about over 400 miles away from Pompeii City. While there were mountains in the way, there were many broken places in the ranges, and there were eight routes that assaults could be carried out through.

If the Grand Duke of Pompeii wanted to march his armies in, they would reach New Demon City in no time.

Saleen refurbished New Demon City in the three days that the Pompeii army did not bother to show. He had been set in how to go about the southwestern strategies, so Saleen built the core of New Demon City into a fortress.

The Puppet World Territory ran all the while. 500,000 puppets worked tirelessly, building New Demon City according to layout of the demon plane.

A hexagonal city popped up from the high ground, no cracks in the walls to be found. Metal towers used to lay out the magic net were erected everywhere. Huge bunkers were built underground, each one housing a magic power furnace.

Nailisi installed 12 huge summoning arrays at the center of the city, surrounding the tall metal tower. The entire city was turned into brutalist-looking fort. Demons loved the architecture design for its loud and showy display of power.