Badge in Azure

“Bullsh**! I’ve met the God of Purgatory and he granted me eternal life. The Lord of Glory is nothing compared to him!” Baudelaire laughed maniacally.

The image of the great head inquisitor in the Armageddon Codex hovered high in the air, yet Baudelaire dove into the water, heading straight for the cave of the cemetery of the giant.

Divine Punishment descended from above in the form of a huge sword.

The sword zipped down with a flash trailing behind it for several miles, diving into the water. The flash swiped past Daliang City, drawing a gash that was about 200 meters wide. Nothing was left alive in the wake of the flash of the sword.

The great head inquisitor’s specter continued to expand, transforming into over 300 thousand holy prose and coalescing into a tight defensive array. Nonetheless, it was quickly cut to pieces by the Sword of Divine Punishment coming down from above.

The great head inquisitor’s face formed into images that were shouting at Theisio. However, this time, the only thing he was shouting was holy prose. Saleen was in no mood to hear him out. The sword from the sky was upon him.

Baudelaire was not able to make it into the cemetery himself, so he simply turned around and snuck behind the Magical Element Tower instead.

Hundreds of thousands of solemn faces flashed on the sword. It was as if the believers within the divine kingdom were coalescing on the sword.

The Magical Element Tower rattled and the sword ricocheted off with a clang. Level-18 elementite was not something that could be broken through by sheer force alone. Despite being imbued with powerful rules, Divine Punishment failed to damage Saleen’s tower.

Furthermore, the Magical Element Tower was not God’s Ring and had no level requirements from Saleen to bring the best of its defensive abilities to the forefront.

The sword dealt 13 slashes to the tower. Saleen responded with 13 Thundering Sounds.

The Divine Punishment spell consisted of more than physical and energy attacks, it was also imbued with powerful stunning effects. If Saleen had not been nullifying said effects with Thundering Sound, all 3,600 demonic spirits within the tower would probably have been converted into believers in the Lord of Glory.

Theisio’s Divine Punishment spell was surprisingly overbearing.

Baudelaire continued to hide behind the tower. The stunning powers of the Divine Punishment did not seem to be able to do much to him. His statement about having met the God of Purgatory was probably true.

The 13 slashes of Divine Punishment were symbolic.

The 13 slashes caused a corner of the city to be destroyed, yet the cemetery of the giant and the Magical Element Tower below remained totally unscathed.

While Theisio had borrowed the power of the holy items within that space to cast Divine Punishment, he remained incapable of breaking through the entrance of the cemetery.

Theisio was shocked and wondered if it was wise to continue attacking. Baudelaire leaped out from behind the tower and disappeared into the cemetery.

Theisio was baffled. He had expected Saleen to permit Baudelaire entry into the cemetery.

He quickly calmed down and realized his error. Saleen was a blasphemer and Baudelaire was one as well. There was simply no need for him to fight Baudelaire, even though Baudelaire had used Saleen’s tower to survive something that should have killed him.

While the Sword of Divine Punishment was powerful, it was capable of independent thought. While Saleen’s tower was getting in the way, the sword refused to take a detour around the tower to get to its target. There was hardly anything that could survive a hit from the Sword of Divine Punishment.

“That sly as**ole!” Nailisi cursed Baudelaire for making Saleen take the brunt of the sword for him as he snuck into the cemetery himself.

“Isn’t it great though? Theisio could no longer keep waiting outside. I’m more than relieved to see that he is going in with us after all.” Saleen deemed the outcome to be a good one.

“Master, are we going?”

“No need to rush. We’ll just tail him after he gets in.”

Saleen had just finished his sentence when Nailisi saw Theisio leaping up from the surface with 49 red-robed bishops following right behind him. He was heading straight for the entrance into the cemetery.

There were also at least 50 squires and knights assigned to each of the 49 red-robed bishops who jumping in as well, meaning that the group had over 2,000 people going with them. Theisio did not even leave reserve forces on the surface. He dove into the water with every single one of his people, heading straight for the cemetery.

There was no way he would let Baudelaire off, even if it meant having to let go of Saleen. Saleen had two nations that he could not forsake. Baudelaire had nothin. All of his relatives had been massacred by the Holy See.

Baudelaire was little more than a mad dog at that moment. He would bite any person from the Holy See that he was able to find. From the perspective of the Holy See, Baudelaire was a greater liability than Saleen.

Theisio was forced to bring his people into the cemetery. Every single plan had changed due to Baudelaire’s emergence. Fate was something seemed resistible, but the opposite was always true.

Saleen watched as Theisio brought his men to the cemetery’s entrance. He only put the tower away after everyone had already disappeared within. Then he brought his own people into the cemetery as well.

With the exception of Truman, every single follower at Saleen’s side was more than able to handle the situation.

While those followers might have been lacking in terms of level, their equipment was nonetheless powerful enough for the job.

Saleen cast Water Shield on every one of his followers. His magical abilities meant that a level-7 Water Shield could last for up to six hours. Even when repeatedly hammered on during a battle, the spell could be maintained for over an hour.

Breathing and movement were not limited within the Water Shield spell. It enabled them to fully use their greatest powers underwater.

Saleen did not leave anyone outside to watch the place. While Daliang City was broken, there was still an army within. Furthermore, only the 500-meter city wall and some buildings within had destroyed.

Saleen and Lex had discussed this in length earlier. Lex would not have entered the energy barrier within the cemetery recklessly. She would have searched and cleaned up the outer areas with her people beforehand, and that would have taken her about half a month to do.

They tailed the forces of the Holy See into the cemetery. Saleen gestured that they had reached the huge cavern that the fossilized gods had formed. The true entrance to the cemetery was within the cavern.

The warning words on the gravestone were still intact. Theisio and the red-robed bishops actually halted, watching things from the outside. He did not even bring his forces out to pounce on Saleen’s group, even though he saw them coming.

Theisio gestured to his people and all of them remained standing where they were. Theisio walked up to Saleen.

Saleen was getting very excited. If they got close enough to each other, he would not mind taking the pope out with the Crystal Finger.

While the pope was the symbol of many things in the eyes of many, to Saleen, the pope was little more than a blob of elements with a soul attached to it. Mages had no concern for religious backgrounds whatsoever.

The Holy See, the Tanggulasi Empire, the Lord of Glory… Saleen’s considered none of it.

Theisio was his mortal enemy. There was no more need for words.

“Your Highness, Saleen.” Theisio stopped about 50 meters away from Saleen. It was a close enough distance that Jola could launch a full-powered attack. However, Saleen knew well enough that even an attack from a true knight would prove inadequate for ending Theisio.

If a level-11 powerful being armed with the three most powerful godly items from the Holy See were killed like that, the Holy See would not be able to achieve what they wanted to that day.

The most reliable spell at hand was the Crystal Finger. It was an attack meant specifically for dealing with gods and their believers. One single shot was all it would take to break even the souls of its victims.

“Theisio.” Saleen put on a cold face as he looked at the pope.

“Baudelaire is incredibly dangerous. He brought with him the faith of the God of Purgatory, which could turn the world into a terrifying, gory place. If he were to acquire more power, he would need to continue making sacrifices to the God of the Purgatory, and that means slaughter. Only by him doing this would the God of the Purgatory gain souls and provide him with greater power.”

“And what does any of that have to do with me?” Saleen looked nonchalant. It was as if he would have been happy to watch the world burn.

Theisio looked past Saleen at Nicholas and said, “You tolerate a traitor of the Holy See, yet you won’t just talk with me without hostility for a second?”

Saleen smirked and said, “Theisio, I wouldn’t be where I’m today without the Holy See, but I don’t like the Holy See one bit, and I sure as hell don’t like you. Regardless of how kind you are to your adherents, that’s little more than a facade. The Lord of Glory was unable to kill off and purge its evil side. I take it that the Flower of Evil is a part of the Seal of Divine Power, no? Why would I bother with a believer of the God of Purgatory then?”

“If Baudelaire gains power here, the first thing that he will have destroyed is Daliang City.”

“I’ve given orders for all subjects of Metatrin to leave Daliang City. Should I take it that most of your forces have retreated? Let’s focus on what’s at hand then,” Saleen said, chatting away.

It was not that Theisio’s army had retreated, it was that his forces had been wiped out by the flood Saleen had brought.

“So the possibility of us working together is zero?” The pope’s face looked ice-cold.

“Not quite.” Saleen laughed. It was a pleasant one, the type that made people feel warm and trusting. Saleen possessed the bearing of a ruler without realizing it, enabling him to influence the people around him as well as his surroundings.

The pope loosened up and continued, “Well then, Your Highness, let’s talk terms. My only goal here is to kill Baudelaire.”

“So you’re saying you want nothing of the riches in there?” Saleen asked curiously.

“If those riches are indeed something obtainable, you wouldn’t have let Baudelaire or me in here, would you? All of this has always been part of your plan, am I wrong?”

“In that case, why are you worried that Baudelaire will end up getting in there then?”

Theisio looked at Saleen, intending to read the mage’s intentions from his face. However, Saleen was a mage, which meant that he did not plainly wear his true emotions on his face. A mage’s expression was, for the most part, designed to fit the vibrations of elements.

It was part of the equation, done solely to enable them to channel their magic chords at any given moment.

Saleen was a mage through and through. He provided no information of use to Theisio through his facial expressions.

“Your Highness, you really have no idea what the God of Purgatory is like, do you?” Theisio asked in return.

“I know the God of the Underworld,” Saleen answered truthfully.

The God of the Underworld was the greatest being on the purgatory plane.