Badge in Azure

A Cleaning spell was cast repeatedly and the hall was finally clean. Jola opened the door and Saleen commanded the fully constructed puppets to throw the dead bodies out and take off all the equipment that was on the dead bodies.

The dead bodies that were corroded by the poisonous fog looked miserable. The scariness of a mage was displayed entirely at that moment. If it was in the wild, although poisonous fog was condensed, it could not withstand the wind. Strong light could go through poisonous fog too, so that the people within could retain slight visual ability. In such an enclosed area, the damage of poisonous fog would be increased by a dozen times.

It was also because there was no mage among the people that Bifano had sent. It would not be difficult to disperse the poisonous fog with one.

Bifano was panicking. Regarding the missing soldiers, he did not not put Saleen in the wrong. There were really soldiers that were missing and the numbers were increasing. It was unbearable for Bifano as the number of missing soldiers were not few, but over two-hundred people.

Among the selected elite troop that he brought along, there were only two-hundred that died during the fight with the pink army. The five-thousand soldiers were what his dad gave him to protect his life. Forget about two-hundred, even if there were only two missing, he would look for them. Of course, the two-hundred infantrymen that were sent to search Saleen’s hall were intended to probe Saleen’s standing too.

Those people that were sent to search the central hall were hit by Wild Bear and the two-hundred soldiers that were sent to search Saleen’s hall had no returning news. There were underlings that reported that there were another two-hundred soldiers missing.

Even since the missing soldier incident, Bifano gave orders that during action, they had to at least move as a small troop in a unit. They should move according to a big troop’s principle and not go separate ways. This time, those who went missing were a big troop of two-hundred soldiers, mainly light armored infantrymen who were in charge of guarding their assets.

Bifano would not be able to compare with Lex. Lex had a godly item that could store countless asset while the mages under Bifano were only grade-4, so they could only use the most simple spatial equipment. In such normal equipment, the biggest space would not be more than a load in a carriage. Normally, it would only be the standard size of a box.

Bifano did not bring much food, but the pink army did not burn their assets so he could wait in the temple. His soldiers would be starving otherwise.

“What about the items they were guarding?!” Bifano lost control. That was the first time he did not care about the soldiers, but the assets and food. It was not like he was not concerned about the soldiers that were lost, but if they lost the food too, everyone was doomed.

The soldier who was there to pass the message was pale when he answered, “Master, the items, were lost….”

Bifano could not help but pressed his hands onto his sword. He fought his urge to kill. It was not the responsibility of the soldier before him.

“The few of you, follow me to see her highness Lex.” Bifano told the few mages around him.

The four mages followed Bifano and he brought along two hundred soldiers to the hall that Lex was staying in directly. In the temple, the layout was not flat. In between the halls were of different heights and the center hall was the highest. It was surrounded and protected by twenty-four halls that were different in size.

When the Goddess of Myers was still alive, these halls had their own responsibilities. Each hall could contain more than a thousand believers and the main hall could even take in up to ten thousand believers.

In between the halls, there were other buildings, but mostly functional houses. They were used for storing food, clean water, medicine, equipment, and so on. Although the Goddess of Myers was a god, humans did not send troops to suppress her like they did with the other gods. It was very strange, those who knew of such history could not explain it.

At least half of the gods that humans were hostile towards survived, but the Goddess of Myers that humans believed in passed. Along with her fall, there were another twenty-four deputy gods.

These deputy gods were actually trained from humankind. The temple of the Goddess of Myers was designed for human habitation. With a little transformation here and there, it would turn into a tough militarized fortress.

Bifano brought soldiers to the door of the central hall. They saw Wild Bear carrying his war axe and staring at the plaza before the hall with hostility. He did not look like he would let anyone in.

Bifano had a headache. Wild Bear was a barbaric person with hair all over his body. It was useless to talk any sense with him. If Lex were to order him not to let anyone else in, he would carry out the order strictly and he would not be the least bit negligent.

Bifano belittled Wild Bear. Wild Bear was a simple man, but it was not like he had no wisdom. He knew clearly why Lex made him stand outside, so he pretended to look unreasonable. Wild Bear used to be a cook, regardless of his hands or his heart, his acute sensitivity was not comparable with anyone else.

Most of the people had no power so they became smart, but it did not mean that those who were powerful would become stupid. Creatures like giant dragons and supreme demons would all become idiots otherwise.

Wild Bear saw that Bifano and his troop came to the plaza. He put down his huge war axe heavily and it made a loud thud. The blade of the war axe was face down and slanted before his feet. At such an angle, it was the easiest way for him to raise his war axe.

Five meters before him there was a line drawn with chalk. Wild Bear’s eyes displayed strong hostility, no matter how ignorant Bifano was, he understood that if his men were to go past that white line, they would be attacked by Wild Bear.

The hall door was half closed. If he were to set up a strongbow, Wild Bear could hide in there.

Bifano’s soldiers were fuming with righteous indignation. No matter how honorable Lex’s identity was, it was too much for the small duke. Bifano hesitated, but he dared not approach on his own. Although Wild Bear was only the standard of a high level swordsmen, he was gifted with strong power. With his advantage of weapon, Bifano going up to him would be difficult if he were to go crazy.

At the awkward moment, Lex’s voice was heard from inside the hall.

“Bifano, your missing soldiers had nothing to do with me. I’ll stay here for a month and before I leave, I will pass you the temple’s keys.”

“Your Highness, not only did my soldiers go missing, food that I found went missing too.” Although Bifano did not want to fight against Lex, without more food, the food that the army brought along could only maintain them for another week, which was six days time.

“Are you suspecting me?” Lex’s voice obviously sounded unhappy.

“I dare not. Just that Mage Saleen is not with you. I think this might be related to him.” Bifano had no choice so he came out and said so.

The hall was quiet as Lex was thinking. She was busy practicing for the past few days, but she did not care about anything happening outside. There were only a dozen of them and food relied on her. With her door closed, she had nothing to ask for from Bifano, but she was not certain what Saleen did it.

“Alright, I’ll ask Saleen then.” Lex decided.

“That’s unnecessary.” Saleen’s voice came from behind Bifano.

Behind Saleen, were Nailisi and Sika. Jola was with them too. Nailisi looked crestfallen, she had obviously been given a lecture by Saleen.

Bifano felt chilly in his heart, when had Saleen and everyone around him arrived without making a sound?.

“Mage Saleen…..” Bifano looked at Saleen and he took two steps back unconsciously, closer to the mages around him. “Four grade-4 mages should have no problem to fight against a grade-5 mage, right?”

“Bifano, you sent two-hundred heavy infantrymen to my hall, what does that mean?” Saleen raised a difficult question and questioned Bifano directly. Bifano could not find any reason to attack him.

“My soldiers…”

“What do your soldiers have to do with me? I did not give you the key to the temple, do you think you can leave here alive?” Saleen spoke coldly with a threat.

Bifano suddenly felt that he was not in a desirable position as he was afraid that Lex was angry, so he brought two-hundred of his soldiers. Now that Saleen was behind him and Lex was before him, although he had more people, Lex’s few grand mages were obviously stronger than his. If there was a conflict, it would most likely be instant death.

“If you want to know where your soldiers went, I can’t help you with that. I can certify that it has nothing to do with me.” Saleen said as he walked forward. He released a strong mental power to oppress Bifano’s soldiers. These soldiers that had seen blood and killed others were forced to open up a way to let Saleen pass through and come before Bifano.

“You follow me in then, all of us are here. If you are here with me and there are still soldiers that get into trouble, would that be sufficient to prove that it wasn’t me?” Saleen smiled at Bifano, showing his snow white teeth.

“Yes.” Bifano replied without thinking.

“Alright then, follow me.” Saleen said and walked past Bifano. The few grade-4 mages did not dare to make a move because there was suddenly a stream of green water current that came from Saleen body and wrapped around Bifano.

The water current was equal to a grade-4 magic and these four mages were dumbfounded. They had seen how the water current cut metalized steel rock and the speed was not achievable regardless of any magic they cast.

Saleen’s face was cold when he brought Bifano into the central hall. There were too many soldiers under Bifano. If he took immediate action, the effect would not be good. Why not control him first and send the few bastards that Nailisi found to kill soldiers slowly outside. When the soldiers were demoralized entirely, even Bifano would not be able to reignite their morale.

Saleen spoke high sounding words and those soldiers dared not make a move. If Saleen were to kill Bifano directly, these people that were loyal to the Agares family would fight until the end. Although Saleen was rude and unreasonable, he made it clear that he only wanted to testify to his innocence. How would these soldiers dare to take such a risk, their small duke was in Saleen’s hands after all.

Nailisi hung her head low and followed behind Saleen closely. She felt that her master was really strong. What he did was much more than her own scheme. She only did surprise attacks while Saleen was using a technique of warm water poached frog to let the four demons that she summon slowly eat up Bifano’s entire army.

Wait until the army was almost eaten by the demons, Bifano would then have no affect. To take care of him then would be better than killing him immediately. To kill him immediately, those soldiers from the Agares family would fight with their all. Bifano’s army was different than the pink army, they would not give up their battle because of anyone’s death.