Badge in Azure

“O’ stars of all planes, please guide us in the course of fate.” Saleen stood at the plaza and chanted spells of astrology in a low voice.

The plaza was huge, making the adherents of Nature Faith feel out of place. The arrangement of the 24 temples and every building in the city were in perfect harmony. The plaza was the only place that looked empty.

Saleen stood in the empty plaza, over 10,000 demons standing behind him.

The ground at the east side of the plaza had cracks in the rocks laid on the ground. A pale green tablet rose from the earth. The tablet had no signs assembly. It grew out of the ground like magic plants.

The believers were shocked to see the tablet getting taller, stopping only after becoming several meters taller than the main temple. The tablet was rectangular, and the front and back were covered in demonic script while the sides had nature holy prose.

Murals commonly seen in Nature Faith were carved onto the base of the tablet. The goddess’ image was on the mural as well. There were no signs of magic used, and over 10,000 believers witnessed the miracle personally.

It definitely would not be a trick by mages!

All of the believers, even the level nine holy masters, were in awe at the sight before them.

The Goddess of Myers truly is going to be resurrected!

While their faith was as devout as ever, what was happening before them meant that they had to put their lives on the line. If their goddess was unable to resurrect, they would be killed by the Holy See. The side of a religious holy war fought with guidance from the gods left little to the imagination.

Every single believer believed that Saleen brought luck to the goddess.

It was a strange phenomenon that would only happen on Myers Mainland. Humanity never lost their honor and glory. Most of the time, believers believed that humans and gods were not all that different, as there had been humans who became gods, such as Myers.

Saleen was like a hardworking peasant, spreading seeds within the hearts of the believers and waiting to harvest the fruits of his labor. What he was doing were investments for the future, which would see returns in tens of millions of times of what he invested.

Saleen did not use the power of the stars to project peculiar phenomenon. He simply raised the tablet buried deep underground using astrological powers. Holy masters were more sensitive to elemental powers.

If Saleen used magic to play tricks, his cover would be blown by the holy masters. Astrology, on the other hand, was similar to divine arts. While the power was from stars, it was imbued with the rules of fate.

Myers Mainland was a huge star, so large that it was tens of times, even 100 times bigger than a common plane. It was easy to use the power of the stars on such a huge star.

While Saleen was only a level nine astrologer, he raised a massive tablet without any of the holy masters noticing anything.

It was not actually that difficult to accomplish, given how Saleen had built the entire Nature City. He buried the tablet when he was building the place.

When the tablet froze, devils appeared on top of it. They were only silhouettes and roared at Saleen.

“Saleen, you should not have unraveled this secret!”

“I shall be the master of the demon plane. Be gone!” Saleen said and shot three lightning icicles. Blue electrical arcs formed between the icicles, trapping the devils’ silhouettes into it.

Some believers began chanting the contents of the book of prophecy somewhere in the city.

“Saleen, the great master of the demon plane, sage among mages and prophet, used the power of his life and gazed upon a torrent in the rivers of fate. The almighty Myers shall heed the call in the prophecy. The light of the goddess shall shine once again on Myers Mainland.”

“The goddess, the almighty Myers. Her divine fire shall purge the gods of evil. Her resurrect shall be eternal. The great master Saleen, shall record everything in the annals.”

“Gods of all planes are trembling. The power of demons coalesced into oceans and mountains. Under the guidance of the master, they shall purge the evil god’s armies and cast them into purgatory.”

“The great prophet Saleen shall awaken Myers. The evil god shall be drowned in his own wrath.”

Saleen felt a tinge of power of faith from the prayers of the believers. The believers had bestowed power upon Saleen as they served the Goddess of Myers. Saleen did not absorb the power of faith, sending all of it into his Puppet Constellation instead, which was then absorbed into the heart fragment of the God of Puppets and began to mend it bit by bit.

Saleen was able to see many more secrets that time. The main weapon spirit of the Puppet Constellation was the Big Guy. It was still unable to master the power of the stars, which meant that the powers would be Saleen’s sooner or later.

Saleen siphoned some divine power into the Puppet Constellation from the Ring of Gifts. The core of the Puppet Constellation was a heart fragment of the God of Puppets. As the divine power of the Goddess of Myers was siphoned, the heart fragments melded, leaving only visible cracks on the construct.

The initial mending of the heart allowed the puppets within to all be restored to their prime form. All of the puppets that were lost when Saleen was researching lightning were all revived as well.

“Big Guy, do you want to become a god?” Saleen was unable to help but asked.

“I do, master,” Big Guy answered without any hesitation.

“Why so?”

“Gods are puppets of the highest levels and it is my ultimate wish to attain godhood.” After Big Guy recovered, it seemed that his intelligence was no longer hindered by its injuries.

“Big Guy, that’d be a long journey, one that not even I would be able to see its end with you.”

“Master, if there comes a day where I would become a god, I shall protect the Metatrin family for eternity,” Big Guy knelt within Puppet Constellation and made a pledge that it could never betray. If it truly became a god, that pledge would be part of its divine persona.

“Well then, every bit of power of faith that I am able to steal from here on out, I shall siphon to you. As for the spark of divine fire, it’s up to you.”

“Master, I need a name befitting a god.”

“A name for a god?” Saleen searched his memories and found the names of many gods were tricky to pronounce, so he said, “how about Dante then?”

“Dante, the God of Puppets?” Big Guy thought the name had a nice ring to it. In reality, Dante was the shortened version of a great mage’s name.

The mage created Dante’s Sequence, elemental construct, and many powerful combination magic. It was said that the level of the mage was not one that the crystal wall system could contain.

“Take this, Dante.” Saleen took out a series of magic books and threw them into the Puppet Constellation. Knowledge regarding Dante’s Sequence and others were recorded within the books.

Other than Saleen, Dante was the other one who had control of all puppets within Puppet Constellation. Furthermore, Dante would be able to achieve control of the puppets in far higher precision compared to Saleen.

When the puppets were used in forming elemental constructs, the changes could be said to be limitless.

Saleen had little use of Dante when he was using the Puppet Constellation, so he had Dante learn from books instead. If Dante was able to master magic, Saleen would only need to install a large scale magic power furnace, and Dante would become a power magic puppet.

When mages crafted equipment, what was needed most other than skills was wealth. Someone as rich as Saleen was naturally able to select such a path.

In the case of other mages, they could not even afford a mini-sized magic power furnace without bankrupting themselves, let alone a large one.

Not all mages were rich. Grand Duke Iron Blood’s family would not be able to keep so many mages around for thousands of years otherwise. Even Imposa had only taken the grand duke’s side due to severe lack of materials.

Saleen had an increasingly clear view into his own future. His senses turned pure and his thoughts unwavering. His magic chords grew at a frightening rate and compressed, becoming dense and refined. What he had not been able to fathom just a while ago became clear.

Saleen was neither elated nor sorrowful. 360,000 lightning runes flew out from his sides. All of them were transparent as they circled him, forming into lines.

The lightning runes coalesced on their own, and Saleen had no control whatsoever over them. However, he was able to remember the combination flawlessly. His understanding of lightning rules grew again.

Some mistakes in his Thundering Sound were found. When the greatest part of his Thundering Sound manifested, Saleen originally had trouble mastering the details and was able to maintain control for three seconds at most.

The newfound understanding contracted his Thundering Sound’s burst within one-sixth of a second.

While it was hardly instant casting, one-sixth of a second was short enough. Saleen became confident in being able to break every single spiritual type spell cast by mages of his level. Even if he ran into the angels of fear again, he would not be set up anymore.

As for lightning skills, Saleen gained a lot, managing to acquire three skills at once.

Thundering Explosion, Thundering Shock, and Thundering Phantasm.

Thundering Explosion was capable of breaking an enemy’s skill. With 12 continuous thunder cast in the span of microseconds, it was capable of completely nullifying most spiritual type spells and causing severe rebound to the caster.

Thundering Shock was an active attack skill. One shout was capable of breaking an enemy’s skill, causing a very annoying rebound as well.

Thundering Phantasm was an accidental find. It enabled him to choose to cast all manners of complex, detailed illusions as the thunder was cast. Anything Saleen had seen before could be replicated in his illusions.

Thundering Phantasm also broke spiritual attacks. However, more important was the fact that while the illusions were incapable of causing much damage, if the enemy extended their senses to search, they would be attacked by the thunder.

The attack attracted the enemy, making it practically indefensible.

Elemental illusions were mixed within Thundering Phantasm. If the enemy dared not search the illusions, Saleen would have many more options to deal with the enemy. If the enemy searched, their souls would be damaged.