Badge in Azure

Chapter 180: Book of the Fallen (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The shattering of the black deacon’s robes only served to push away the woman that had ambushed him. He was still shaken. The long robes that he was wearing had been processed by the cardinal, and the magic that had been released contained the powers of god and were as quick as an instantaneous spell. From a defensive standpoint, it was not any less than level-5 divine protection.

The black deacon felt more danger than he had from the girl in the colorful robes. He could tell with his acute senses that she was a grand mage. Ignoring her sarcastic remarks, he instead took out a covered black book and held it in his hands.

“The Book of the Fallen? No wonder you dared to come to the Qin Empire. It’s too bad you’re only a deacon.” The one who blocked his way was Lex. Seeing the black deacon bring out his book, she brought out her own silver magic book as well, releasing four fully armed puppets.

Saleen had directed Nailisi to attack the black deacon while Sika would attack the dark warriors. He would defend the entrances of the village. In order to provide protection against any magic beasts in the mountains, the road to the village was extremely narrow. The Guogan people had no carriages anyways, so there was no need for a wide road. The puppet that Saleen controlled blocked the entrance and he stood behind the puppet, waiting for any enemies that would attempt to escape from this point.

Ahhh!

A scream resounded from within the village, and it turned out to have come from two high priests being chased by two magic beast skeletons. A grade-1 high priest was faster than a dark warrior, and when he realized that a dark knight had died and two more were injured, he had come to aid them, unable to have cared less about the skeleton puppet which was falling apart.

The three skeleton riders gathered together, surrounded by the dark warriors. The assassins entered the wooden house. Once the death mage was dead, the puppets outside would become useless.

The black deacon did not seem to be the least bit concerned about the battle happening behind him. He looked at Lex and said slowly, “Mister Mage, what use does that death mage have for you? If you will help me, I will give you ten times the reward.”

Lex was a female mage, and hearing the black deacon address her as mister was something rare. He was from the tribunal, and in Tanggulasi, his position was comparable to the Red Clothed Chapel. At least the Red Clothed Chapel were not permitted to kill people.

“Ten times the reward?” Lex gave a cold laugh. The Holy See had gone to such great lengths to kill her father. No matter what rewards they gave her, it would never be enough. The ambush this time was merely for her to vent her anger.

“Mister Mage, if I wanted to leave, you would not be able to stop me,” the black deacon patiently explained to Lex. The battle in the village was already heating up.

“Why should I stop you? I only need to kill your men and you’ll be duly punished when you return,” Lex said sarcastically. Only then did the black deacon’s face turn dark.

Lex’s words had struck a chord with him. He possessed flying equipment and could still escape the village. If the female mage he was facing were to chase after him, she would not have the help of her teammates. However, if all of his men died, even if he returned alive, he would be punished by the Black Clothed Cardinal.

Saleen stood at the entrance, a little bored. The people from the tribunal were certainly dumb. Once they had realized that it was a trap, they should have escaped. Instead, these people had chosen to fight their way through, and not a single one had escaped. Saleen stood on the puppet’s shoulder and looked towards the village.

Around the wooden house that Daniel was in, everything was in shambles. A magic beast skeleton had been beaten into smithereens while the two others were severely injured. These magic beast skeletons were grade-3 puppets, and even though they had been disguised as summoned creature, their combat abilities had not increased. Saleen saw six white lights shoot out from a holy master and envelope a skeleton puppet. The puppet had been pouncing towards the holy master, and as its body was struck by the divine light in midair. It disintegrated on the spot.

Saleen gave a slight smile as the skeleton scattered as it fell. A fist-sized shadow pounced onto the chest of the holy master and a spurt of blood appeared. Saleen’s witcher spider had landed on the holy master’s chest and broken through their divine defenses, burrowing itself deep into their chest.

Saleen had lent the witcher spider to Daniel, who had hidden it inside of a skeleton puppet. It had managed to ambush a grade-1 high priest.

It seemed that no one would be escaping from here. Saleen did not see the black deacon join in the onslaught and knew that he must have caught up with Lex and Nailisi. If the black deacon did not give any orders, the people here would only be able to fight to their deaths.

Since the three assassins had entered the wooden house, there had been no movement. Saleen furrowed his brows and thought, Daniel could not have died, could he? Since they were not planning to escape, he would need to take action. The spider could not kill all of their enemies. It may have been useful for an ambushes, but in face-to-face combat, a swordmaster would be able to catch it.

Saleen jumped off of the shoulders of the prepared puppet and activated it, a red glow emerging from its eyes. Saleen pressed against the wound on his left shoulder and felt that it would not affect his movement. Only then did he command the puppet to follow behind him as he entered into the village.

At this moment, Saleen was calm. There were over thirty enemies, but compared to the battle at Dragon’s Tooth Town, this was not much.

Psshh!

The prepared puppet rushed into the midst of the dark warriors, and with a swing of its axe, cut a dark warrior into two halves. With another swipe, it cut open the chest of another. Only a puppet would be able to use such heavy weaponry without its movement being affected. Even Sika would not have been able to handle it. With all this movement, the muscles of most humans would have torn from the stress.

The three skeleton riders had been fake from the start and under the attacks of the dark warriors, two of them had been hacked into many pieces. As the puppet charged in, the dark warriors had not paid much attention to it, but when they saw two of their comrades murdered within seconds in front of them, they realized that something was wrong.

This metal being had not been summoned by the death mage. It was an elemental mage’s puppet! Its movements were far too nimble, and by the time the two dark warriors had drawn their long swords, the puppet had taken another swing and had hacked another one of them into two halves. Another long sword slid across the metal armor of the puppet and the puppet lifted one of its legs, stomping aggressively at the dark warrior.

Saleen hated the Holy See as well. Had it not been for their incitation, Earl Sufonso would not have destroyed his family grave. He had no mercy for them. When fighting with the puppet, professionals beneath the grade of a swordmaster essentially only required one hit to kill. Only a swordmaster could defend against such heavy weaponry.

The dark warriors had plenty of experience too, and upon seeing this, the armor of the remaining dark warriors began lighting up rapidly. They began to recite a prayer under their breaths and their eyes turned blood-red. Their weapons began shining with a bright light as well.

It was the special skill of the tribunal: Life Sacrifice.

This was a method of sacrificing a little of their life force to the gods in order for a warrior to activate their combat ability. The strongest effects could result in the warrior advancing by two grades. The eight dark warriors could not have cared less about their lives and they pounced forward. All the weapons in their hands moved about in a flurry as they started hacking at the puppet.

The puppet began spinning on the spot, and with its axe and the power from its body, the dark warriors’ weapons were flung out. The dark warriors had lost their weapons but were not about to give up. They increased their life powers to their maximum and pinned the puppet to the ground. They could not find any weak points on the puppet’s body, but they could hold it down.

The remaining dark warriors could not have cared less about their comrades as they rushed towards Saleen.

Once they killed the mage, the puppet would be useless.

If this had been the past, Saleen would have been nervous, seeing more than a dozen people holding knives and swords while approaching him. After the battle at Dragon’s Tooth Town, his combat abilities had been excited and he consecutively released two scrolls, casting a swamp illusion and blocking the path between him and the dark warriors.

He took advantage of the time they stopped moving to prepare an Icicle spell.

Hundreds of icicles froze into the air and struck down hard. Without the cooperation of the environment this time, the short time that Saleen had taken to freeze the icicles had resulted in less than half the number he had conjured before. However, it was enough, and with the narrow construction of the village, the dark warriors had no way of escaping.

Their sword auras criss-crossed over each other as they flew about. The dark warriors could only protect their bodies with their lives, attempting to chase away the magic with their sword auras.

Saleen gave a cold laugh. It was not a secret that they could increase their combat abilities by sacrificing their life force, but it only served to increase their assaultive abilities, and their defensive abilities had dropped. A true mid-grade swordmaster was required to be able to counter his icicle magic, and the defensive abilities of these high-grade swordsmen had dropped to those of a mid-grade swordsman.

The icicles struck in three waves, the first one killing the four dark warriors stuck in the swamp illusion. The movements of these four dark warriors had been slowed down and they had not had time to defend, more than a dozen icicles having diced them up completely.

By the time the holy masters who had killed the last magic beast skeleton realized that things were going wrong, it was too late. Saleen had used himself as bait to draw in the dark warriors and had killed them all at once. If their enemies had been anyone else, they would not have been as crazy as the people from the tribunals.

Saleen was not afraid of a crazy enemy. He was afraid of a calm one.

The dark warriors outside the swamp illusion all sustained injuries. When the second wave of icicles shot down, another six dark warriors were slowed and were shot to death right away. By this time, the remaining dark warriors’ weapons had been frozen and their sword auras no longer worked. The third wave of icicles destroyed them and their weapons together. All over the ground were frozen bodies and blood that were remaining from the bloody battle.

A holy master looked at Saleen and said to the other two dark knights that had been treated, “Kill him!”

Two dark warriors and six grade-2 holy masters walked towards Saleen. This grade-1 holy master had wanted to turn around and help the black deacon deal with Lex when the wooden wall of a nearby house smashed apart and Sika appeared, swinging her cudgel which landed squarely on the back of the holy master.

Pshhh…

He spat out a mouthful of blood, and with a stagger, nearly fell to the ground. The light of god surrounding his body faded rapidly. Sika pursued, giving another bash to the grade-1 holy master’s head.

Two years ago, she would not have been able to harm a grade-1 holy master. When they had entered the cave near the Chaotic Swamp and been surrounded, Sika’s cudgel had barely left the holy master seeing stars.

Boom!

The house that Daniel had been hiding in was blasted into smithereens and the winged skeleton pulled Daniel into the skies. The three assassins in the house had been mashed into blood and flesh. They had not expected that the winged skeleton had not only been restored, but had advanced another grade.

The black deacon looked at Lex, his eyes no longer concealing his killing intent, and said, “Do you think you have won?” As he spoke, he opened the black book in his hands.