Badge in Azure

Saleen continued after Sika didn’t respond. “The coming age will be boring. It’s lucky that I’m a mage. I’d be bored to death otherwise.”

“Why would things turn boring?”

“Because might makes right, and that’s a very shi**y way for things to turn out. I hate Alchemy City, but if the order of mages that Alchemy City created were to crumble, there would only be more messy, disgusting affairs taking place afterward. In an age without order, killing would be everywhere, and I wouldn’t have much time to spend staying in any one space to research magic or look into the secrets of the world.”

“Will you still think so when you’ve come to stand at the pinnacle of this world, Saleen?” Sika asked in a peculiar tone.

Saleen was silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t know. If I were to stand at the pinnacle, I’d probably end up becoming like the grandmaster… no, someone like Gaine, who no longer cares about life or death of common folk, and focuses only on getting to higher levels single-mindedly. Even without a divine persona, I’d probably end up being a little different than the gods in time.”

“That was probably why the ancient humans fell,” Sika said after putting her metal totem pole away. She stepped closer to Saleen.

“Is that a nature priest’s prophecy?”

“Nature priests despised skills like prophecies. Whatever happens, we’ll just let it unfold.”

“Don’t you want to rebuild order again, Sika?”

“I don’t.”

“So you want to leave then?” Saleen caught on to Sika’s thoughts and felt rather sad. Have I been so engrossed with how things are that I’ve forgotten what I once had?

“Not really.” Sika smiled and said, “You’re my man and I’ll follow you wherever you go. You’re not turning out too bad at least, so we’ll just face all of that together.”

Face it all together, huh? Saleen was unable to bring himself to smile. In Sika’s point of view, all of that fighting was pointless. If it had not been for him, Sika would have probably left for somewhere far away with her Caucasians.

With the metal totem pole in her hand, she could move all the Caucasians inside. “Nature priests taking control of the world” had once been a legend, but it no longer was. The powerful priests of bygone ages probably brought all of their people along and left Myers Mainland a long time ago.

Religion, war, greedy nobles, and self-righteous mages. All of them felt pointless to a nature priest.

The metal ship took less than half an hour to sink. There had been almost 100 sorcerers onboard. Alchemy City had wanted to kill Saleen, so they had made ample preparations. It was a pity that Saleen’s power far exceeded their expectations. The ambush laid out by Alchemy City had ended up in total failure.

Saleen saw the Ancient killing sorcerers using the magic cannons and said to Sika, “So the Elemental Hand had taken Devil’s Horn in. It seems like it won’t be long before they take Sreeger Island as well.”

“Another reason to start a war?”

“No. It’d be for my teacher this time,” Saleen answered.

Sika only nodded slowly and said, “That’s a given, since…”

She did not continue. When Earl Sufonso of Yaoyang City destroyed Saleen’s family cemetery, Jason stood up for him without having any concern that he was at a low level.

It would have been peculiar if Saleen did nothing should anything happen to Sreeger Island. If that were the case, Sika would not like Saleen anymore.

Very little could have escaped Saleen’s search when the place was being covered by his territory. The young sorcerer killed one lightning puppet after another in despair. The lightning puppets had become rather powerful, and their rate of resurrection was over a dozen times faster than it had once been. The levels of all puppets had been enhanced in the process when Gaine modified the Lightning Constellation.

The smaller ships from Alchemy City were sunk by the Winged Skull. Any mages who dared to board the Ancient were quickly surrounded and taken down by the enchanters onboard. Metatrin City suffered considerable losses in that battle. Consumption of magic nuclei was incalculable and the fleet lost over 30 ships. Two of them were larger warships with over 3,000 demons on them.

“Saleen, I surrender. I surrender!” That young level-10 sorcerer shouted.

Saleen’s expression turned cold. If every mage in the world turned out like that, then there would be little meaning to the profession. Did that mage come from Cloudflow?

It was no wonder that Alchemy City had to forcefully enhance their power. If it was not done, that mage would have no future to speak of.

Sika sighed and did not bother with the battle anymore. The Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship floated. Both Saleen and Sika went inside. Saleen said to the Winged Skull, “Bing, there is one level-10 mage left on their side. Go out and practice fighting with a mage.”

The Winged Skull nodded and left the controls of the ship to Saleen while they flew outside, heading straight for that level-10 sorcerer.

The sorcerer stood on the water and saw one dark, golden skeleton flying at them. They had no idea if they should attack the skeleton or not. The sorcerer had just pleaded for mercy with Saleen. If I were to attack the skeleton, would I be…

Their thoughts were unable to continue. The Winged Skull’s Reaper Scythe came down, cutting both the human and the shield in half. The level-10 magic shield maintained itself in the shapes of two half-circles. It took quite a while before the halves dissipated.

The Winged Skull was puzzled. Why is this sorcerer so weak? Dead before I get to use any of my following measures?

It was not the sorcerer’s skills that had been weak, it had been their mental fortitude. They’d thought that Saleen would want a prisoner of their level. It was worth noting that, despite the rise of levels throughout the entirety of Myers Mainland, there was still only a handful of level-10 sorcerers to be found.

However, there was no way that they could have understood that Saleen never wanted someone that spineless. To Saleen, keeping one such person by his side would have meant sowing the seeds of disaster. Even if Saleen were to sign an extremely harsh contract preventing that mage from revolting, at some point, the mage’s cowardice would cost irreparable damages to Saleen.

The temptation of taking in a level-10 mage was, of course, great, but Saleen was already powerful enough himself and there were already many followers that he needed to keep and maintain. Those followers’ interests were directly tied to Saleen, so they would not betray him. There was simply no need for him to keep someone unreliable by his side.

“Let’s go home.” Saleen witnessed that sorcerer being killed. There was only one level-9 mage left among the defeated troops. All the other powerful ones had been killed by his puppets.

Most of the ambushers had been forcefully enhanced. The only true threat had been the three metal angels. It seemed that Alchemy City was not trusting enough of those mages to give them powerful equipment. There were not even level-9 scrolls distributed among them.

There was a small Demon City at the nearby island with a teleportation portal. Saleen brought Sika and the Winged Skull directly back to Metatrin City. Saleen had little else on his mind after he sent Gaine off. The astrologer had given him ample returns as well. He had no intention of returning to the Imperial City of the Abyss for the time being.

What he needed to take care of at the moment was Alchemy City.

The Holy See was the true enemy, yet Alchemy City remained a thorn in Saleen’s side. If he were to simply leave the thorn alone, he would not have a good night’s sleep.

Saleen, however, had to change his mind after returning to Metatrin City. He had received a letter from Fycro. He did not sneak into Metatrin City anymore, as he seemed to know that the city was no longer what it used to be. Still, he could not simply run around the place as if he owned it.

The letter from Fycro had only asked for Saleen to meet him at the Chaotic Swamp, to talk about the propagation of the faith.

The “faith” meant here was naturally the Nature Faith. With the exception of the Kingdom of Metatrin, the pastors had even gone all the way to the Cloudflow Empire and begun to spread the Goddess of Myers’ teachings there.

There were, of course, some who entered the Sikeqinya Empire. It had always been in a state of chaos. A considerable part of it had been created by Fycro. Saleen would not have been able to push the empire to the brink of collapse simply by taking two port cities for himself.

Fycro had hope for Sikeqinya. He had gained control of Laiyin Duchy and Didypus after taking over the Chaotic Swamp. The base of power that he had created in the Chaotic Swamp had been rebuilt after suffering a devastating blow. He traded the godly items with Theisio. Fycro regained his vigor and reset the roster of the Oracle Corps, appointing six new oracles.

The reason he came looking for Saleen was to ask Saleen to take down the Holy See with him.

Fycro had had enough. The emergence of the two oracles made his oracles utterly pointless. The oracle that descended from the divine kingdom had to be the leader of the Oracle Corps. He, being a native of Myers Mainland, had to give up his position soon.

“How about we use this chance to take out Fycro?” Daniel made a suggestion that seemed brainless.

“No, Daniel. You’re thinking in the right direction, but we shouldn’t take out Fycro. He might be a greater threat than the Holy See in the long run. Have you considered the fact that, before reaching level-15, Fycro wouldn’t dare take Myers Mainland? Due to the presence of the Lord of Glory, Fycro was forced to rely on other forces as much as possible in whatever he wanted to do, including me.”

“My liege… holy prophecy spells! Fycro definitely used holy prophecy spells to predict the fate of Theisio!” Nicholas said all of a sudden.

Saleen’s thoughts became even clearer. There were definite reasons why Fycro had been willing to hand the Seal of Divine Power to Theisio, and the greatest possibility was, as Nicholas had put it, that Fycro had predicted Theisio’s death.

Theisio would not have dared to take the risk of entering the cemetery of the giant without the Seal of Divine Power. He had only made that severe mistake after his power grew considerably. As such, it also meant that if it had not been for Saleen having so many lightning skills at his disposal, he would not have entered the cemetery and ended up killing Theisio.

When someone came to possess formidable powers, their confidence grew. Both Saleen and Theisio were taking risks. What differed between them was that Saleen was the one emerging with a good outcome.

“Sika, stay with the kids for a while. I’ll bring Nailisi and the others to the Chaotic Swamp.” Saleen made his decision right there and then. Despite having lost the Magical Element Tower, he was still able to ensure that he could leave at any given moment. Fycro’s level was level-11 at best, and his family badge was also functional. Saleen did not believe for one second that Fycro intended to capture him. Both of them had contracts with each other and said contracts were still in effect.

He saw no problem with Fycro wanting to become a god, as Saleen was nurturing a Goddess of Myers himself. When Fycro came to possess divine fire, the goddess would probably be resurrected as well. By then, due to not being allied, Myers Mainland would truly see real chaos.