Badge in Azure

Chapter 1496: Thought Patterns of Powerful Beings (Part 1)

Saleen was unable to see anything that was happening within the Cemetery of Heroes very clearly. He only saw a good number of magic spells shooting out of the goddess’ wrist, destroying the graves one after another.

He heard the general’s angry roar as well. That roar was a tremendous one, which almost caused the seawater around them to shake so badly that it seemed as though it was about to evaporate. Saleen was only able to put up his Water Shield, and he resisted it head-on while outside of the cemetery.

The graves in the Cemetery of Heroes were broken up one after another, and yet the goddess had no intention of stopping. She had to make the general yield in order to make her plans work.

“Alright, what do you want? I’ll work with you!” the general said.

The goddess only stopped her attacks after he spoke. She pointed at the youth who was sealed beneath her feet and said, “I’m going to kill the Heretic God, but I can’t do it on my own. I need your help.”

“Deal!” The general then gestured to the grandmaster, telling him to fix the graves destroyed by the goddess.

“Hold on for a second. A contract,” the goddess said as she threw a contract scroll that had been prepared beforehand in front of the general.

The general knew what the goddess was like. She had already acquired help in the form of over 1000 magic soldiers, and she was almost capable of casting elemental powers at a near-limitless capacity. Furthermore, there was another powerful piece of equipment above her that she had yet to deploy. If the general were to fight her, the best he could have done was to kill both himself and the goddess in one shot. But if he were to do that, it would have been the end of the Cemetery of Heroes.

If the goddess were to have had some other requests, however, the general would have chosen death and refused her instead.

But, the goddess had said she wanted to kill another god, and so the general was unable to refuse.

Saleen’s jaw was gaping as he watched what was happening from outside. He thought the general would have resisted with his life, and the goddess would have deployed the Lightning Moon, killing every single heroic spirit within.

It seemed as though the general did know how to weigh the pros and cons, as well as make compromises.

Saleen had actually thought wrong. The general’s hands were forced, and he had had to yield. He knew the Goddess of Myers too well. She was one who would have never turned back on her word and would have seen it through to the end. If the heroic spirits were to all end up dead, the Heretic God would have been the one with the most to gain instead.

Despite being a goddess, she at least refrained from killing if at all possible, and there were still other ways to deal with her. If they were to become able to leave the Cemetery of Heroes, the power of the general would have recovered considerably.

“No need to fix them. I’ve only brought 180 divine personas on this trip.” The goddess’s voice was cold as she threw the divine personas out. The general took them in his hand, feeling hesitant.

“Heh, I’m not going to absorb the rules within the divine personas this time. I’m walking another path. General, all 180 of these divine personas are low-level ones, but they would allow you all to leave the cemetery for quite some time. I’d need 100 men before I even have a shot at taking on the Heretic God,” the goddess said.

“Don’t you have magic soldiers with you?” the general asked.

“They’re reserved for dealing with you people,” the goddess said frankly. Both sides would likely remain enemies after they killed the Heretic God together.

The goddess had everything well-planned. Those divine personas would have been able to allow about 100 heroic spirits to leave the cemetery for the time being.

Those hundred would have needed to kill the Heretic God as quickly as possible in order to still have had time to deal with her. If they were to take on the goddess first, then the chances of being able to take down the Heretic God would have been considerably reduced.

She actually had more of those divine personas with her. She killed a great number of low-level gods after all, and the number of divine personas she gathered were only treated as decorations instead of being used for crafting equipment.

The goddess had done meticulous calculations before taking out the 180 divine personas of low-level gods.

Over 60 divine personas were taken by just the general and the grandmaster alone. They signed the contract under her watchful eye, then slowly took their time with absorbing the divine personas. Broken graves were everywhere in the Cemetery of Heroes. The goddess did not let emotions get in her way when she acted. She knew very well that if she had not subjugated the magic soldiers and brought the Lightning Moon with her, the heroic spirits would have definitely ganged up on her, tearing her apart and eating her up.

“You’ve seen enough out there. Come on in.” The goddess called Saleen, who was still standing outside of the cemetery.

After walking into the place again, Saleen had only just discovered that the fighting had been more intense than what he had imagined. The goddess had already lost over 100 magic soldiers, and all of them had been destroyed by the general and the grandmaster. From what he was able to see inside, at least one-third of the graves in the cemetery had been destroyed by the goddess.

Those heroic spirits had been completely destroyed, and there was no hope of resurrection for them.

The enmity between the general and the goddess ran deep and went back a long time. So, what about me, then? I was the one who brought her here, and I was the one who lent her the Lightning Moon. The general is probably itching to kill me too, no?

Saleen felt somewhat frustrated. He had to stand with the goddess, whether he liked it or not. If the goddess were to die, he would not have been able to escape the general’s wrath.

The goddess did indeed have her way with things. She might have looked short-sighted, yet she was actually meticulous with her machinations.

The benefits that he had received from her were hardly worth mentioning. It was being able to remain alive that he should have been grateful for.

The goddess waved and had Saleen enter her territory. She then shrunk the area of the territory considerably. Saleen had to stand within three meters of her before he was able to feel the territory’s protection.

“So, Saleen, you’re finally in the mood to play nice with me?” The goddess flashed a beautiful, brimming smile at Saleen, looking very happy.

“You didn’t need to go that far,” Saleen answered, exasperated.

“Really? I’m not certain that I’d be able to get you to help me wholeheartedly, otherwise,” she replied.

“It would do if you just give me enough goodies. I’m weak when it comes to riches. What you’re doing now is only causing me to resent you,” he said.

“And you think I care that you resent me? Saleen, I was still very humble when I was at your level, and everybody liked me.” The goddess’s mood had gotten even better.

“Is that so, eh?” Saleen mumbled just to give her an answer. He was able to hear Dante’s voice deep within his soul.

“Master, how about we ambush her and kill this witch once and for all?” Dante was getting extremely frustrated, hiding in the Lightning Moon. It felt as though the level of the goddess was not far off from its own, and it had three divine personas, making it equal to three level 15 gods.

“Hold your horses. You’re no match for her at all!” Saleen immediately stopped Dante’s scheming. Dante still did not understand the difference between it and the goddess. Even if Dante were to have impeccable control of lightning, it still would not have been enough to hurt the goddess, who had once been at the pinnacle of the plane’s powers.

“Master!” Dante said.

“Shut up!” Saleen did not want to talk to Dante anymore. He suspected that the goddess actually knew that he was communicating with someone else through his soul.

“Relax, Saleen. I’m quite interested in that god too. I never imagined you could actually control something like that,” the goddess’ voice suddenly appeared in Saleen’s soul.

Dante immediately stopped speaking. It knew by then that Saleen was not wrong. That weapon spirit god was indeed no match for the goddess.

Saleen could not find the right words to shoot back at the goddess.

“Saleen, you may not know what kind of beings the heroic spirits are. Actually, the lifespan of heroic spirits is somewhat similar to the gods. They lived on the power of faith. Why do you think they like stuff related to gods so much, especially divine personas?” The goddess and Saleen spoke behind the heroic spirits’ backs. Saleen’s reaction deep in his soul was still unable to escape the goddess’ probing.

Saleen had no choice but to really think about the question. The general and his people had indeed been eerie. Souls would have usually dissipated when one died before they returned to mere matter.

Even if they were to be converted into spirits, they would have actually lost a considerable amount of power of the soul. Dead spirits were incapable of remembering their past lives unless their level surpassed level 15, enabling them to recover their lost souls.

The heroic spirits did resemble the gods somewhat, or it should have been said, that they resembled believers of gods.

Believers of gods would have lived indefinitely in divine kingdoms, which was kind of similar to the heroic spirits when they were in their graves.

Saleen took a fragment and took a look at it, sensing that it contained rules of space that contained power, as well as some other attribute-less ones having some rules in them. The heroic spirits did resemble the gods somewhat.

“But then again, these fragments alone wouldn’t have been able to make you believe anything. Human faith is something very difficult to make out clearly. The graves of those heroic spirits are not good. If the general and the others were to resurrect, it would have made the Imperial City of the Abyss something like a divine kingdom, and that Heretic God would have been able to take it for itself,” the goddess said.

Saleen shuddered at her words. He was unable to help but ask, “Are you saying that the general knew all of that?”

“Heh, he just thought that he would get a lucky shot and kill the Heretic God when the time came. If the Heretic God was really able to make it into the Imperial City, there was no way he could have done anything to resist,” she answered.

Saleen was at a loss for words. From his perspective, the general had at least been concerned with the rise and fall of Myers Mainland, and he could have been considered a man of principle. Saleen did not think that the general would have made such a decision at all. If that place were to become a divine kingdom, then the Heretic God would have had an easy way of getting in and doing so with all its powers.

Attacking Myers Mainland from the Imperial City of the Abyss would have been a piece of cake. If the general were unable to kill the Heretic God, the entire mainland would have fallen.

Saleen knew just how terrifying the Heretic God was. Just a speck of that god’s aura would have made anyone its believer.

The only choices available were to either be killed by it or submit to it. The Heretic God did not bother with enticement. The way it went about business was through sheer violence. A god like that was more terrifying than the Lord of Glory. The Lord of Glory was still someone who hoped that he could dupe his believers, resorting only to bloody means when he was out of other options. The Lord of Glory would not have dealt divine punishment so long as his believers remained loyal and had not taken up the faith of another god.

It seemed that the only thing humans were able to trust was contracts.

Saleen felt complicated, yet the goddess said, “Saleen, if you were at our height, you’d think differently as well.”

The goddess wanted more than just to chat with him. She called Saleen to her side and handed a bunch of water magic scrolls to him. No level 18 things were given to him at that time; the highest of all of them were only level 15. That was also the most formidable of powers that Saleen was able to cast.

She was able to see his weaknesses, and she was able to make those weaknesses into strengths. The body of water element would have allowed him to raise attacks from water elemental scrolls somewhat. That had nothing to do with the power of the soul used when unraveling the scrolls.

On top of giving him the scrolls, she had also taught him how to control the magic soldiers.

The 300 magic soldiers that the goddess had made for him had all been imbued with lightning magic patterns. They were made specifically for him. Saleen could have used them in his own unique ways, making all manner of magic arrays by arranging those magic soldiers in formations.

That was the first time the goddess had truly guided Saleen, and he was unusually attentive to those lessons.