Badge in Azure

Chapter 1438: Resurrection (Part 3)

What he was about to learn were things that would give him a decisive edge against others even though he had little use for those skills now. They merely provided him with a direction—where he should be heading with his studies. The general was unlike the grandmaster. As a warrior, he was more frank and forthcoming, making him more willing to share his knowledge with Saleen.

The general’s level suggested that he had a profound understanding of the world. If he had been willing to train in magic again, he would have reached similar heights in that discipline too.

Saleen initially had things he wanted to ask the grandmaster, or, more precisely, information he wanted to acquire by trading. Seeing how easy it was to talk with the general, however, he simply posed his questions to the level-18 warrior. It was no big deal.

What Saleen intended to ask was simple. The first matter had to do with movement skills using earth element; the second was about the use of the territory.

Saleen had few problems dealing with other matters. Mainly, he felt he was progressing too slowly.

The general was patiently willing to instruct Saleen, seeing how he had brought him a piece of a broken divine persona. While that did not sit well with the grandmaster, he couldn’t object to the general’s decision. Saleen had exceeded his expectation by bringing them a demigod after all.

After chomping down on that demigod, none of them would have lost any soul powers for tens of thousands of years to come. That was especially so in the case of the general, as common god-related items were of little use to him. Besides, he spent most of his time hibernating.

Without the general, the rate at which everyone’s soul power was lost would increase. That was a vicious cycle and everyone was glad Saleen did what he did.

If Saleen brought them stronger gods in the future, they might actually be able to leave the Cemetery of Heroes.

Rafel took her last breath. The general told Saleen to place the angel on the table. He took out a piece of bone from the Lord of Glory’s double and stuffed it into Rafel’s body. The bone melted right away, causing her injuries to heal instantly.

Saleen looked at the general’s territory and found it overwhelming. A bone of a god was able to disintegrate right away, becoming energy that Rafel was capable of absorbing.

Ever since Saleen came to possess the Eye of Souls, he started learning how things worked just by looking at them. He managed to learn a great deal about controlling territories after seeing what was going on before him.

The lightning territory was by no means weak. In terms of the level of rules, it was probably around level-18.

Saleen was only able to overwhelm his opponents using the power of his territory, specifically by compressing it to an extremely small area. Given how far the distance in his combat level had grown, Saleen felt as if he had become a warrior capable of using territories.

As for control of earth-element power, the general only elaborated verbally instead of giving demonstrations to Saleen. He was a warrior, which meant that he relied also heavily on the power of the earth.

Saleen knew little about that, so when he heard the general talking about the secrets of earth element, he felt insignificant.

If there were such enormous differences between mages and warriors, then he had indeed been ignorant about the problem regarding levels.

Levels were not just a standard measuring a professional’s strength; they were also a standard for segregating rules.

Saleen came to possess power of the soul, which was supposed to be something acquirable after level-13. That’s not to say he was able to simply challenge beings above level-13.

The ability to move using earth element was a skill of warriors. Saleen initially thought it had been something developed by Arbola. But then again, Arbola was a genius who was able to analyze down to the last detail of a warrior’s skill at that level, transforming it into a mage’s skill and into something suitable to mages. That was how daunting Arbola was.

As for Jalin, she was but a learner, so Saleen paid little attention to her.

Then it was Nicholas’s turn. Given that he was still breathing, it became a matter of treatment instead of resurrection. The grandmaster took over from the general. A level-15 Healing enabled Nicholas to sit up right away. He found it ironic to be sitting on a dining-room table.

“Thank you, my liege.” Nicholas got off of the table and bowed to Saleen. He went to thank him instead of the grandmaster, who was the one who had saved him.

Saleen had no reservations about the grandmaster and kept asking questions patiently. After he learned the skill he needed to continue evolving his power of the soul before he was capable of saving Nailisi, Saleen saw that he had no choice but to quiet down and take a metal house, walking inside with Rafel and Nicholas.

He had no fear of the general of doing something against him. If the general was up to no good, he could have done something right in front of Saleen and there was nothing he could do to stop him. Getting into a private space to train was just a habit of his.

Saleen cast lightning territory with the metal house. Under the general’s instructions, he barred others’ probing attempts using lightning territory. There would have been no way for Saleen’s territory to repel someone of the general’s level. Given the territory’s characteristics though, it would have been impossible for the general to spy on Saleen without his noticing.

Saleen was training his power of soul right. He had no patience to wait since there were a lot of matters throughout Myers Mainland to be taken care of. The Floating City still hadn’t been repaired and two of his weapon spirits were severely injured. Saleen had too many things to take care of at the moment. If he couldn’t crush the Holy See, he wouldn’t be lucky enough to escape if the Holy See called on their god next time.

He already had a way to make his power of the soul more robust—the divine persona on his Thunder Dragon Blaster.

That divine persona was tens of thousands of times more precious than the broken one of the double of the Lord of Glory. Even if there were tens of thousands of such fragments, they still would not be able to piece one single divine persona of such a high level.

There was no doubt that the Goddess of Myers had been brutal back in the day. The acquisition of one such divine persona meant the divine kingdom of that god had been annihilated.

Saleen’s current power did not allow him to fully absorb that divine persona. He took the divine persona off his Thunder Dragon Blaster and held it in his hand before beginning to slowly absorb its power, per the general’s instructions.

The way Saleen went about it was different. He had to first infuse his lightning territory into the divine persona before extracting power within the divine persona as slowly as possible.

Saleen felt the pulse from the depths of his soul. Such a pure power of water element triggered his soul in a parallel space easily. Two souls of even higher purity burst through the barrier in space and were absorbed into Saleen’s body. All three pieces of his soul melded within the lightning territory without any signs of rejection.

The enhancement of the power of the soul was much easier than before. That was because Saleen had begun to master territory and the naturally formed lightning rules in his territory were of the highest rules after all, which afforded extremely powerful protection to his soul.

There was no need for his souls to generate greater power to return to his body. Saleen did not anticipate any of that. He nonetheless remembered what the general told him—seeing his soul stabilized did not mean he could let his guard down. He needed to continue to stabilize his soul.

Saleen then continued to extract more power from the water element god’s divine element in order to strengthen his soul. This wasn’t a common method; it was a method created by the general. Saleen did that because he had a body of water element that melded well with the divine persona of the water element god.

Even so, the level difference between him and the general was still too great. Most of the power in the divine persona ended up being wasted.

Fortunately, Saleen didn’t need that much, to begin with. The divine persona hardly changed at all even after Saleen extracted power from it.

The contracts he had signed at the depths of his soul became even clearer. Saleen saw the contract belonging to Nailisi and it basically the same. He was somewhat relieved and looked at the two kept being at his side all the while. Rafel then answered, “Only a month has passed.”

Nicholas was frustrated, by contrast. He was not capable of not eating or drinking like Saleen, and there was little good food to be had in the metal house. For one whole month, he had been eating stale bread instead of fresh loaves.

A month?

Saleen felt as if it had taken less than an hour to feel the rise of his soul’s power.

There wouldn’t be too much happening in the mainland in just a month. The priority now was to save Nailisi!

By the time Saleen walked out of the metal house, the heroic spirits had long returned to their respective graves. A lot went through Saleen’s mind when he saw that desolate cemetery. He had once thought he would never visit the place again, much less expect he would show up there for Nailisi’s sake. He had even promised the general to come again, bringing them more items related to the gods.

Saleen came before the general’s grave and took out the crystal coffin. Nailisi’s appearance was sad and pitiful. The space where her heart once beat had been thoroughly penetrated. Because of the Winged Skull’s protection, Nailisi still looked like she did when she was killed.

Sigh…

Saleen let out a long sigh and said, “General, please come out.”

“No need for that!” A huge hand extended from the ground and took Nailisi’s crystal coffin into the grave.

Saleen quickly took out the crystal ball and ended up being taken into the grave himself as well.

The space inside the grave was not very big. In fact, it was far smaller compared to Nailisi’s 12 Notes of First Purgatory. Saleen sensed right away that his power of the soul had become unnervingly stable within that space. If he used his sensory powers as they were outside, he’d be able to extend them to an area far larger than his territory.

The power of the soul kept vibrating, just like waves of an ocean. Such vibrations granted power but consumed the soul’s power at the same time.

Saleen realized all of a sudden at the very second he was thrust into the grave how he should be treating souls and what he should do to walk the path from then on out.

An enormous stone coffin was seen a the center of the grave. The general sat at the side of the coffin and waved to Saleen.

“You happy now, Saleen?” The general asked.

Saleen bowed solemnly and replied, “I will always remember your teachings. As for the gods, I will definitely think of something. I will bring whatever is within my power to bring. For those that I’m unable to, I will just lure them here instead.

Saleen could only comprehend how precious the grave was after he entered it. The reason the general permitted him entry was to learn of Saleen’s soul vibrations in order to enter and extract Nailisi’s soul brand and repair her damaged soul.

The second reason for bringing Saleen here was so that the general could instruct Saleen using the power of the grave, regarding knowledge of the soul. The instruction would have used up some of the grave’s power. Saleen was not in a soul state and entering the space of the grave came with a price after all.