Badge in Azure

The goddess talked about ideals with Saleen, without bothering to bring up the matter that Saleen had taken the majority of the faith’s believers away. Those who were oblivious to what happened between them would have thought the two of them were friends, having a heart-to-heart.

“Good question. I initially thought about going to higher crystal wall systems to search for a future for the mage. Right now, however, I’ve come up with something else.”

“Which is?” The goddess was unable to help but ask further. It was a dream of many powerful ones to get into crystal wall systems of higher levels after all.

“I’m thinking if it’d be possible to just make our crystal wall system advance instead.”

What Saleen said caught the goddess off guard. She met many legendary figures, and all of their ideals had been nothing short of earth-shattering. However, when compared to what Saleen just said, what they said was insignificant.

Saleen intended to advance the entire crystal wall system. By doing so, it would make venturing into other crystal wall systems like going on a trip, without the slightest hint of solemnity to it.

The wall between level 18 and 19 was something that even the king of gods had been unable to break through.

Many of the powerful ones in the First Dynasty back in the day had simply left the crystal wall system, but Saleen wanted to make the crystal wall system evolve instead. She wondered what it would cost to bring such an ideal into reality.

Saleen smiled and added, “Of course, they are just thoughts. If I am able to get to crystal wall systems of higher levels to learn, without having to advance to level 19, I think it would be possible to realize my ideals though.”

“Why?”

“A level 18 crystal wall system would see its end one day. I don’t know if crystal wall systems of higher levels would suffer eventual destruction, but at least they would be able to stay around longer. There are no dynasties that last forever, but that is not to say that it is futile for humans to work hard and fight for it. My teacher told me that, if one were to see a possibility in something, then by all means work to realize it. Even if one eventually failed, it would count for something.”

“Jason is indeed unique. If he had been around in ancient times, he might have actually surpassed the King of Glory,” the goddess said, praising Jason.

Saleen nodded in agreement. There was no doubt that Jason’s current achievement had actually been a result of hard work throughout the years in a low level plane.

The speed at which they flew at currently was hardly considered. At the very least, for beings at level 17 and above, such speed would have been a walk in the park. They had deliberately slowed down so the ones behind would be able to catch up more easily.

Both Saleen and the goddess actually possessed space equipment capable of housing living beings. However, they had their people fly all the way instead just to familiarize themselves with each other’s powers. The synchronization would come in handy when fighting the heroic spirits.

All of the goddess’ 12 followers were above level 15. They had their divinity erased after they were resurrected, becoming human again, but retaining all their skills during their time as god creatures.

Saleen’s two former angels were similar. One had lost all god creature traits of angels, while the other had become a servant god. Abyrus had great fear of the goddess, which was a feeling inherently prevalent among the gods. In Abyrus’ perspective, a level 18 god would be able to wipe it out in a moment’s notice after all.

Both former angels still retained their wings, however. Rafel felt the trip was rather tedious after a while, and summoned the Violet Angel in its golden dragon form, stepping on its back. The Violet Angel would be the only way who needed to fly then.

Flight of the Violet Angel was different from the dragons, as it was dependent on the magic arrays carved into its body and cost magic nuclei in its magic power furnace to function. As such, the Violet Angel actually had an easy time flying. The goddess took a very keen interest in the puppet, but she was unable to just hop onto the Violet Angel and look into it.

Both sides tried to be friendly with each other to the best of their abilities, and they gradually warmed up to each other.

Rafel was reluctant to talk, but Abyrus ran its mouth. The servant god learned everyone’s professions and identities, as well as levels, after only a short period of time.

While Abyrus was not actually sensible, it was by no means stupid. It did not give a feeling of it probing into the ones it talked to, while it talked to them. The ones whom it talked to simply thought the winged bird-humanoid creature felt rather mentally impaired.

None of them was all that much on guard against Abyrus because it embodied the flaws of god creatures very well—arrogant, self-righteous and boastful.

Saleen never thought Abyrus had actually grown so much. It was difficult for both sides to get along, as Saleen actually killed some of the goddess’ people.

“Saleen, I don’t think it’s really that possible to have the entire crystal wall system evolve,” the goddess continued to delve into the topic with Saleen, without bothering how her people mingled.

“How so?”

“I’ve met people who were above level 18. The system of crystal wall systems in its entirety is far larger than you would have thought it to be. Our crystal wall system is fundamentally still a small crystal wall system. Level 18 is already a fixed point. Crystal wall systems resembling ours are practically uncountable, and the individuals of levels lower than ours are of even greater numbers. There is almost no way you could get to the edge of the crystal wall system without using teleportation portals. Flight alone would nearly be impossible.

Saleen nodded as a sign of comprehension. He had been to the edge of the crystal wall system, and yet, he was unable to truly reach the terminus of the crystal wall system through flight.

“It is like having a bunch of bubbles stuck close to each other, and the space containing them is fixed. Every single bubble is a crystal wall system. If the power within a crystal wall system were to exceed its limit, it would cause the crystal wall system next to it to collapse, even if the expanding system were to survive without bursting. With that said, if you had our crystal wall system evolve, you would at least need to destroy the power of another crystal wall system. Do you have that kind of power?”

“No.” Saleen was hardly discouraged after hearing the goddess’ explanation. He grew even more determined instead.

“Huh? You’re still confident, eh?” The goddess truly became interested in Saleen after seeing his reaction. Anyone would have felt dejected over what she said, including herself. She had actually acquired such knowledge from a level 19 supreme god after she became a god all those years ago. The supreme god told her that if a high level crystal wall system were to swallow up a low level crystal wall system, the beings of the low level crystal wall system would have faced thorough mass extinction.

“Of course. The more difficult something is, the more fun it is to do it. If evolving a crystal wall system were to be easier than mages advancing, we would have lost this world altogether.”

“Hehe.” The goddess chuckled at that. Saleen had no certainty but he was confident, and that was something she was unable to bring down. A man who should have been puny and insignificant had most probably been able to get that far due to that hidden trait in the depths of his soul.

The goddess knew very well that the soul was the fundamental reason someone would eventually amount to anything.

The slow flight allowed Saleen to pick up a lot of flight skills from the goddess, while she learned some lightning skills from him. Of course, the lightning skills were only meant for aiding flight. Powers of lightning that the goddess was able to manipulate were below level 14. While lightning powers of such levels would have been formidable for common folks, they remained utterly useless for killing the high level heroic spirits.

That was why the goddess had never bothered to do anything in earlier stages, and had waited for Saleen’s level to catch up before proposing such a trade with him.

It was not that she was not capable of pulling something like it on her own, but the cost would have been overly hefty if she did it personally.

If she were to kill the heroic spirits thoroughly on her own, she would have needed to tap into the power of the Source of Myers Mainland. If she were to continuously drain such powers for prolonged periods, at her current level, she would have caused Myers Mainland’s powers to drop below level 16 before long.

The goddess had experienced having the mainland’s level drop below level ten once and she suffered immensely for it. It was not something she would have wanted to go through again.

With the average level of the participants being above level 16, it would not take them that long to reach the Oceanic Ice Block, even if they had flown even slower than they did. However, Saleen came to the ice cap directly, instead of having everyone take the undersea tunnels. He then summoned all of his lightning warriors.

He summoned large mechanical puppets next. Both the lightning and mechanical puppets began to clear out an area and build a city. The ice cap, which was several kilometers-thick, was being punched through bit by bit by Saleen.

The reason why Saleen wanted to build a city on the ice cap was because of the power available there. The power of the Imperial City of the Abyss was related to the ley lines over there. While Saleen was incapable of building an underwater city, as it simply cost too much, it was a lot easier to build one on the ice cap. The city he built was not meant for common folks; it was to build a magic academy of the highest level.

There would be many mages found throughout the mainland in the future, and that place would serve as a sacred ground.

Saleen chose that location because the palace of the Imperial City of the Abyss was directly under the ice cap. While the city below was wrecked by the goddess, there were still a lot of things that remained usable. Furthermore, Saleen’s powers were such that restoring the palace would be a breeze.

They were in the central region of the Oceanic Ice Block and there were many magic beasts around, which was a point of huge significance to mages.

Saleen set the place up without considering what the goddess would think about it. In his perspective, the goddess needed to leave sooner or later, or be killed. He had no intention of bringing his people and leaving the mainland.

Saleen had found the goddess’ weakness, one that not even the goddess was aware of. The Signet of Silence had been completely melded with him in his third eye. He became capable of stopping time without even having to open his third eye.

That time, the time stop took less than a millisecond for him to peer into the goddess’ weakness in detail—the red bangle of her hand.

The Withering Dance—a godly item of the Goddess of Nature.

Godly items that represented a god’s own powers were always the strongest and the toughest. For instance, Saleen had no way of destroying the Lord of Glory’s scepter.

As such, despite having the chance to observe the goddess in the past, Saleen never found any problems. It was as if the goddess was a perfect being that was incapable of being defeated.

However, when Saleen checked the Withering Dance out, it shocked him to the core.

The goddess had actually placed her power of the Source into the Withering Dance.

Saleen was able to realize that it was a measure for dealing with him. His Crystal Finger was a skill that could deal with that. If it hit the power of the Source of a god, it would definitely be able to kill the god, and the Goddess of Myers was not an exception. As such, the goddess placed all of her powers in the godly item, which was tens of millions of times sturdier than her own body. It was simply too difficult to break a godly item.

However, doing so created an opening for Saleen—taking the bangle away would mean robbing the goddess of the source of her powers.