Badge in Azure

Chapter 1352: Evil Oracle (Part 3)

“Hehehe…” An eerie voice was heard from the vortex, and Saleen cast Thundering Phantasm without hesitation. There were then 12 illusions surrounding that vortex and Saleen cast yet another skill.

It was none other than the first half of Comet Flash, where Saleen’s entire body was immediately encased in a thick layer of ice.

That layer of ice was the most powerful defensive skill Saleen could cast at the moment, even far more powerful than Water Shield. It was the layer of armor he wore when using Comet Flash.

But if the latter half was not used, Saleen would be rendered immobile. He was relying solely on his massive mental power reserves to keep the latter half of the spell from being activated, postponing the completion of the spell. His mental powers were draining with each passing second.

Saleen wasn’t afraid of losing his mental powers. In his current state, even if he were hit by a level-13 divine spell, his Figure of Fate would have been able to resist it. If the enemy were to assault him, he could escape at any given moment.

The speed of the Comet Flash was second only to Rainbow after all.

Saleen promised himself he would master the skill for tempering one’s body in the list of secret arts. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to learn powerful movement skills like Rainbow while his human body remained as it was.

Rainbow allowed its user to move in the matter of frames in time. The great thing is that these movements were controllable. This spell would have been far more effective than teleportation magic, which didn’t allow for much control. That was how it would have stayed until level-16.

A movement skill that didn’t allow for precise control could have easily jeopardized safety and even gotten someone killed.

The Comet Flash’s ability could have been enhanced even more. Rainbow was unable to be cast in vacuum, because it was actually a combination of water, wind and light magic. Comet Flash, on the other hand, was a combination of water and earth magic.

Being an astrologer, Saleen could have easily used constellation power as a substitute for the power of Earth element. Moreover, he had a body of water element and was able to coalesce water element at breakneck speed. While he intended to learn Rainbow, he still had no intention of giving up on Comet Flash.

A youth was seen in the black vortex. Saleen, while wearing his ice armor, caught sight of two short horns on that youth that were smaller than a thumb. The power contained within the horns, however, made him feel as if the divine baby he killed a long time ago had been resurrected.

Worse still, power was contained within a pair of horns. The youth’s gray eyes contained bright spots like the stars. Every single spot seemed like magic nuclei of powerful magic beasts containing massive power.

The youth took a look at the illusions and smirked somewhat, mumbling, “Looks like I’ve wasted my time learning the language of this place. Man, I thought I could get some kind of good exchange with the beings here instead…”

Sigh!

The youth sighed and unfastened a sword from its hip. Then it vibrated the sword in its hand for a bit and began stabbing, quickly wiping out all of Saleen’s Thundering Phantasms.

They did not bother to find out which illusions were real; even if they had been real, the youth would have killed them with a single thrust.

If they were to use mental powers to search the phantasms, the thundering sound within would have seeped into their soul. Even if their level was far higher than Saleen’s, they would have been injured. The weakness of the Thundering Phantasm was that it didn’t allow the illusions to attack enemies proactively.

After destroying those 12 illusions, the youth looked up and said to Saleen, “You pissed off Lord Heretic God and he sent me here to take your life.”

“Who are you!?” Nailisi returned to Saleen’s side. She asked that question merely to buy time.

Saleen’s Thunder Dragon Blaster needed only one hour to be completely recharged. Even though the equipment was unable to lock onto the youth, it would still have posed a threat.

Rafel snatched the Gray Memory from Nailisi without saying a word. Brandishing her Inferno Spear, she spread her wings while holding those two spears and slowly took to the air, aiming her weapons at the youth walking out of the vortex.

Even level-11 abominations could have gotten out by being forcefully shot out of the vortex, yet that youth simply took its time walking out. Rafel could already tell how powerful that youth was, and she could not match its strength.

Rafel was puzzled about why she was so worked up. Am I doing this for my people? But those metal angels have already found their place. Am I doing it for Saleen? But he’s just my employer.

But then again, seeing Nailisi and the Winged Skull standing before Saleen even when they knew they could have died from the ensuing fight made Rafel feel as if something was awakening within her.

She had shown such loyalty to her god once, but that was different: It had only been the natural reaction of her body and she could do nothing against those instincts.

So this is what my life chooses to do then? She had fought at the side of her god because she had no choice. That day, Nailisi and the Winged Skull could have just run away.

Their powers were such that they wouldn’t have suffered retribution from their contracts even if they had run off. However, facing off against that youth would surely have resulted in their deaths.

“Me? I’m an Evil Oracle serving Lord Heretic God. Are you interested in learning my name?” The youth sounded rather gleeful.

“Not interested,” Nailisi rudely interrupted the youth.

“Oh? And why not? Aren’t you trying to buy time? You could ask me my name, where I came from, who else is in the family, if there was any way I could spare your life and such. All those topics would have bought you a lot of time,” the youth chuckled.

“You’re look too ugly for me to continue asking.” The youth looked hurt by Nailisi’s words .

“Oh demon. I’ve been trying very hard here. There’s nothing I could do if you’re not happy with it.”

“Nailisi. That thing is buying time too!” Rafel reminded Nailisi of this while she was still in the air. However, she knew this reminder wouldn’t have done any good. She still had no idea what to do with that youth: It looked as if it was right there in front of her, but its true body remained in the abomination plane.

If she were to attack the abomination, it would have only interrupted that Evil Oracle’s teleportation skill. But even if that Evil Oracle’s skill was interrupted, it would not have stopped them from trying again.

Going at that youth now would have only revealed her own skills prematurely.

That Evil Oracle was like Rafel—a being created to fight for a god. For angels, having to use the same skill twice would have diminished its effect. Only overwhelming attacks using superior rules would have overwhelmed angels.

That Evil Oracle was of a level higher than Rafel. None of the rules she knew would have been able to overpower that oracle.

“We’re all just buying time here then. That’s totally fine for me. But you people are just…ants! Am I using the right word?” The Evil Oracle laughed heartily.

Saleen thought his decision to cover himself in ice and let his mental powers go to waste had been incredibly stupid. His preparations would have been worth it if that Evil Oracle were to attack him. Instead, the oracle simply chose to stand and chat, which made Saleen’s preparations totally pointless.

All of a sudden Saleen charged at the Evil Oracle. It disappeared from the vortex and Saleen forced himself to stop. The ice armor encasing him had mostly melted and blue flames were burning on his body.

Even though the Comet Flash was traveling at its highest speed, Saleen couldn’t touch that Evil Oracle’s shadow.

That Evil Oracle emerged from the other side of the vortex and said, “I forgot to tell you, mage. I’m in spectral form and I’m best versed in speed in this form. But, of course, the ability of my other form would be attack.”

“Rafel, get down here.” Saleen retreated to Nailisi’s side. Rafel heeded Saleen’s call and went down to Nailisi’s side without knowing why she did so. Nailisi then took out the 12 Notes of First Purgatory.

The purgatory of the fallen opened and the four of them stood at the gate while 24 chains of the Shackles of the Fallen shot out from the portal, protecting all four of them.

There was no way for them to get inside the collection of purgatories, as that Evil Oracle would have simply taken the equipment back to the abomination plane. Things would have taken a turn for the worse if that were to happen.

It was also impossible to have Nailisi run with the equipment, because she was much slower than the Evil Oracle.

The only thing they could do was wait until Lex to came to their rescue. Nailisi knew that she would not have been able to fight with the oracle toe-to-toe, but with her double and Rafel around, as well as using the Shackles of the Fallen, they would no doubt be able to at least resist that Evil Oracle’s attacks.

It’s too bad that the Evil Oracle was so clever; otherwise, it would have been sufficient to lure it into the purgatory of purification. The power of the purgatory of purification would have turned one such powerful oracle into a statue without special properties.

This was the first time Nailisi had met her match: With all her past enemies, regardless of how powerful they had been, she always had ways of dealing with them even if the chance of success was one in ten thousand.

She heard Saleen’s voice deep within her soul as those thoughts crossed her mind.

“When that thing’s true body gets here, we’ll suck it dry with the badge.”

Nailisi didn’t even dare to nod. That was the only way they could get out of this mess. If Lex didn’t show up, none of them would be able to leave.

That hall underground was shaking. None of the other abominations around them dared to get close.

The Evil Oracle wore a friendly smile, yet there was only one expression worn by over 100 thousand abominations literally flooding the hall—fear.

“For some reason, I want to know your name,” Saleen spoke. He knew that the ones from the magic cube were watching. Lex would not have just sat there and done nothing. The God’s Ring would have at least been able to keep her safe, after all.

If he hadn’t been so careless using the family badge earlier, he wouldn’t have run out of options now.

The Heretic God, however, had violated the rules of the plane by sending an oracle that powerful. It would not have been able to stay for long and yet, from the looks of things, that Evil Oracle did not seem to be in any hurry. Nor did it look as if it was bluffing.

The Evil Oracle looked at Saleen with a dazed expression and only responded after quite a while, “That is something for sealing the power of gods. Where did you get that thing?”

Saleen did not answer, staring at the Evil Oracle with puzzled eyes instead.

The Evil Oracle smiled and said, “I’m only asking. If you don’t want to answer, I guess I’ll just take it by force.”

They then stepped forward and grabbed onto a chain of the Shackles of the Fallen. The equipment whelped immediately and the Evil Oracle flung the chain away with a startled yell .

The Evil Oracle felt as if they had been thrown into a purgatory created by the gods at the very split second they grabbed onto the chain. But of course, that feeling was limited only to that hand.