Badge in Azure

In the city of angels, the core building was a huge metal tower, which served as prison. It had over 100 floors, and only mages were capable of building such a terrifying metal structure.

Every floor was over 24 meters tall. The vicinity of the metal tower was hardly any different from that of a castle.

The monstrous structure was overseen by mages. Unless the Goddess of Myers were to attack the place personally, nothing on the plane would be able to take it down.

Saleen went into the metal tower. None of his followers were present at the moment. Jola and the others had gone to oversee things in other planes. Saleen believed that the goddess would not opt to take those planes; she would come for him directly instead.

That was because while he was not as powerful as the goddess, he had ways of destroying her religion, and he could target her followers to vent his anger as well. People of such fearsome powers would not do pointless things.

The enchanters within the metal tower revered Saleen as if he was their god. The magic net’s design made it so that it might not have been a good thing for humans, but to the imps and demonic spirits, the magic net became their quickest way of enhancing their powers. The creatures of demonic blood were utterly incapable of fighting the likes of supreme demons in the demon plane. They were always on the run, and they were prey from birth.

The magic net drained one’s life and one’s future, but they were not creatures that cared about living to begin with. They simply sought power and wanted to live as they fancied.

Abyrus returned as well. While it was unwilling to become Saleen’s follower, it was still tied to Saleen’s chariot. It heard about Saleen’s conflict with the Goddess of Myers from Dante. The goddess was definitely after the Lord of Glory’s divine kingdom. As for why he had yet to act, Dante had no idea.

Even if Abyrus were mentally impaired, it would know a lot of a god’s needs. Even a servant god like Abyrus was reluctant to let go of all the benefits provided by the divine kingdom, and the place that had once belonged to the Lord of Glory was one that made powerful level 16 gods envious.

If Abyrus were in her shoes, it would have declared war on Saleen without hesitation.

Saleen then said to Abyrus, “The war in the divine war is nearing an end. You’re now of no use to me.”

Abyrus had initially wanted to negotiate terms with Saleen, intending to shake off Dante. However, it knelt on the ground immediately after hearing Saleen say that, expressing its eternal loyalty to Saleen, and that it would follow Dante’s orders as well.

There was no way Saleen trusted such a fickle being. Abyrus had better talents than Rafel, but that servant god who had once been an angel was quite difficult to control.

It was not to say that Abyrus had great ambitions, but that it had no idea what it actually wanted.

Anything that would earn the envy of others would be compelling enough for Abyrus.

Saleen was able to do nothing about it, so he only had to add another layer of insurance to it. He handed an Eternal Control Shard crafted using divine personas to Abyrus, telling the grey-winged god to add another shackle to itself.

Saleen summoned Nailisi and the Winged Skull after he was done with Abyrus. The two bonded creatures had almost reached the pinnacle of their own powers. Both of them were at the pinnacle of level 16, but they took different paths in evolution. Nailisi needed to continue collecting other abilities, while the Winged Skull was able to become the strongest spirit in history, simply by relying on the formidable power provided by the spirit plane.

The inherent disadvantage of spirits lay with their Soul Flames.

The most powerful of spirits was at level 17. The Winged Skull’s Soul Flames had taken solid form, making it no more inferior than a complete human’s soul. As such, the Winged Skull was capable of getting to level 18.

Saleen’s Metatrin City was transformed into a city of commerce and little else. The Kingdom of Metatrin monopolized the magic nuclei trade from the Oceanic Ice Block. While there were limits to how many magic beasts could be found on land, there were no such limits at sea.

The Elemental Hand of Alchemy City was finally rebuilt under Saleen’s support.

The two organizations of mages were at odds with each other, but it was the same man pulling the strings behind.

Low level mages were oblivious to that fact. Having such organizations gave them an alternative, letting them decide the way of life they preferred, which in turn, decided where they would take up residence.

Be it Metatrin City or Alchemy City, none would take in any mages who were of average caliber or talents.

Such mages had two choices left for them—venture to the Principality of Bitterwater and become a life mage or become an enchanter in Daliang City.

Generally speaking, most mages faced difficulties advancing due to shortcomings with their magic chords, which was inherent. They could only continue to walk the path of a mage like Saleen if they had practically endless resources to waste.

The goddess had not been doing anything for the past 100 years. Saleen believed that she was getting ready to leave the main plane.

He wondered if that would be worth giving up the divine kingdom in return.

But he quickly dismissed the thought. The goddess’ departure did not mean that Myers Mainland would be safe. If she were to take the temple in the Purgatory Dessert away, Myers Mainland’s power of the Source would end up almost entirely depleted.

If the goddess were to forsake that temple, her own life would end up being shortened tens of millions of times, making it so that the level 18 god might not have been able to outlive Saleen.

The best news to him at the moment was that Lex’s Fifth Dynasty had finally stabilized. The hundred years of wars were not only fought within the divine kingdom. The fires of war never ceased on Myers Mainland either.

However, Lex did not deploy troops en masse against forces that refused to yield. She did it by gathering powerful professionals to deal with the problems instead.

As the Fifth Dynasty stabilized, Lex achieved successive breakthroughs with her secret art, making her a level 17 professional. Saleen would definitely have a better chance of taking on the Goddess of Myers with Lex’s help.

Even though it was widely known that level differences at such heights were especially apparent, Saleen never had any worries. That was because he, Lex, and his teacher had all relied on the power of secret arts.

The Fifth Dynasty currently ruled over the entire mainland. The power that Lex was capable of absorbing had reached the pinnacle, making it pointless for her to continue sitting on the throne. If she were to get to level 18, she would have needed to develop comprehension of rules of higher levels before such breakthroughs could have been made.

Saleen’s initial plan was to have Lex sit on the throne until she reached level 18, but his time at the edge of the crystal wall system made him realize that, in order to advance further, he would have had to do something with the chaotic void.

If he, Lex, Sika, Nailisi, and the others were to all head to the chaotic void, it was certain that they would have the chance to advance to level 18. However, the time required to do so would have been so long that by the time they returned, the goddess would have most probably regained rule of the mainland again. The Fifth Dynasty, by then, would have collapsed, just like the dynasties before it.

Just as he was wondering if he should pay a visit to Sika at Metatrin City or visit Lex in Holy Rock City, news came from Lex in Holy Rock City. The goddess’ emissary had reached Holy Rock City, and was requesting to see Saleen.

The goddess no doubt knew where Saleen actually was, but she had no intentions of declaring war on him right away, so she opted for a more gentle approach instead.

Myers Mainland was her home as well, and furthermore, the mainland was, at present, named after her. Unless her options were completely exhausted, she absolutely would not want to destroy the mainland.

If she were to go to war with Saleen right away without any care for consequences, Saleen could have destroyed Myers Mainland without a second thought.

Both Saleen and the goddess had difficult choices to make. The goddess’ current level of power would have naturally allowed her to leave the mainland with her followers and the Nature Legion to head for other planes.

There was more than one main plane in their crystal wall system. However, there was no way she would leave without her temple, and that was the condition that she was about to negotiate with Saleen.

Saleen thought about it for a bit and chose not to summon his followers, who were spread throughout the many subcontinent planes. He took Abyrus and the army that he fought the divine kingdom with, and headed towards Holy Rock City.

Holy Rock City was currently busy seeing to matters pertaining to Lex’s abdication. Saleen was rather surprised to find the successor to be one who seemed to go against convention—Safilos.

Safilos was Lex’s uncle, and having one’s uncle succeed the throne was something that had never been seen in any dynasty before.

There were few who objected to it, as there were few suitable candidates to begin with. Lex hardly had interfered with political affairs personally in the past century. Safilos had been doing most of the political ground work. While he never bothered to surround himself with his own people, his status in the hearts of the subjects had long been second only to Lex.

Getting a successor who was more suited to the throne than Safilos was a matter that not even those who objected were able to provide a solution to.

The Golden Plains kept to themselves, seemingly waiting for the opportunity to strike.

No mages from Golden Plains stepped out to stop the turn of events, even in such tumultuous times.

Under such circumstances, Saleen’s return bore significant meaning to the Fifth Dynasty. That was because Saleen’s words could sway Lex, as well as swaying most others.

There were many kingdoms under the rule of the Fifth Dynasty, but the only kingdom there was in all of Myers Mainland was the Kingdom of Metatrin. All other kingdoms under the Fifth Dynasty’s rule were in subcontinent planes.

It was stated clearly in the laws of the Fifth Dynasty that the Kingdom of Metatrin would never wage war with the Fifth Dynasty ever.

It was due precisely to such powers that everyone looked forward to Saleen’s return. He did not travel through teleportation portals nor did he use any spatial equipment. He flew all the way with his army instead.

Holy Rock remained grand and majestic, but Saleen no longer found it to be impregnable. He had advanced to level 17 and felt that he was no longer human. While a city of such scale was still majestic, it was no longer something that could stand against ravages from level 16 beings.

The goddess’ emissary had been waiting in the royal palace. The emissary was not in a hurry. The goddess’ Nature Legion had been completely restored. It would not have mattered if Saleen were to be at level 18 by then. He would need to fight the goddess personally in the end.

The goddess never had any concerns with sheer numbers. The Nature Legion was practically inexhaustible. So long as the goddess remained, all dead warriors would be resurrected by the next sunrise.

Saleen met up with Lex first and spent the night in the royal palace, before summoning the goddess’ emissary.

The meeting place was arranged to be held in the only magic tower in the royal palace, which was also Lex’ residence.

Saleen looked at the emissary and said right away, “I take it that this will be the last time I collaborate with the goddess then?”