Badge in Azure

“Nailisi, you must know how to do your sums. I may seem like I have many high level magic nuclei, but these items are not disposable. It is very difficult to procure them. Once I advance to a sorcerer, those normal magic nuclei will be useless to me in battle.” Saleen stored the magic nuclei in his own Demonic Bangle as he consoled Nailisi.

Nailisi’s tears fell against her will, and Saleen wiped them off her face. Then he said, “Are you trying to conjure a demonic army by summoning those demons?”

“They are for protecting Master.”

“Nailisi, you must do the math. Once we return to Metatrin City, you can use a much smaller price to summon demons in my underground space. The intermediate level magic nuclei from the Frozen Sea can be accumulated to open a magic array.”

“I was trying to… surprise you.”

“Surprise? It was more of a shock. Forget it, since the deed has been done, there is no point harping on it. If there are things like this in the future, you mustn’t hide them from me. If… If you had gotten eaten by the summoned demons, I would be filled with immense regret.” Saleen placed his hand on Nailisi’s head, gently stroking her hair, feeling like she was a real human and not a demon.

“Got it, Master.” Nailisi smiled secretly, then she suddenly said, “The winged skeleton has also been up to some activities behind your back, Master needs to be careful.”

“Humph, don’t try to sow discord, I just scolded you!” Even though Saleen was berating Nailisi, he felt very helpless.

“It’s true. I needed the coordinates of the demonic dimension when I was summoning the demons, and he was the one who told me the coordinates. He also threatened me into helping him salvage a number of those sunken ships.”

Nailisi was fuming, and revealed whatever she could say.

“Let him be, Nailisi, the winged skeleton is more loyal than you. Since you are a demon, I won’t need your loyalty. Don’t be calculative about the freedom I give him, Daniel has hurt him in the past.”

Seeing that Saleen was eagle-eyed, Nailisi was upset. She threw her face onto Saleen’s chest and rubbed it all over his magic robe, wiping her tears off. Then, she jumped down from the tree.

As Saleen caressed the moist part of his torso, his mood lightened up. No matter what, he would not really blame Nailisi. Long ago, he had deceived her as an underage imp. In actual fact, Nailisi had a more pitiful past than him. It must be really terrifying for her to endure tens of thousands of years of imprisonment.

In the magic war chariot, Lex did not sleep. She locked eyes with Sika for a long time, then finally said, “I heard that a war priestess will be able to advance into a totem priestess then will be a nature priestess if they advance any higher. Almost every single Caucasus person will obey the order of a nature priestess.”

“That’s correct, you really are knowledgeable about the Caucasus people.”

“You should be a totem priestess by now.”

“Kind of.”

“You are not even twenty years old yet.” Lex sighed.

“You are very young too.” Sika pointed out.

“Can you tell me why?”

“Why what?”

“In the last thousand years, you might be the only Caucasus person who can advance to a nature priestess. A nature priestess cannot form a family, so why did you choose Saleen?”

Sika laughed. Her eyes were pitch black, as if the whole night sky was concentrated within them, with a tinge of starlight.

“Viscountess, you are thinking too much. The Caucasus people are simple and straightforward. Since I am fond of Saleen, I will not allow others to take advantage of him. I will go forth and get whatever I desire. As for the future, everyone will have to return to nature eventually. When Saleen becomes a grade-9 sorcerer, he will only live for twelve-hundred years. If by any chance I become a nature priestess, my life will not be more than one-thousand years. It might be ten times more than others, but it’s still too short. When people are alive, they should fight for what they want, they shouldn’t have regrets.”

Sika’s way of talking was just like her fighting style, causing Lex to be stumped for words. Sika did not think about the future, she was like any other Caucasus person who lived their live according to their heart.

The most infuriating thing was, Sika was referring to someone when she said that she would not allow others to take advantage of Saleen.

Lex had thought of her relationship with Saleen before. In her eyes, if she could get together with Saleen, it would be unacceptable. Even though Saleen had a powerful backing behind him, he was a person who did not have ambitions. If no one pushed Saleen, he would be like Sika, living in the moment without planning for the future.

If Lex had to build a dynasty in the future, she was fine with making Saleen the emperor. Such a person was really rare in this world already.

Lex did not ponder about this matter with much urgency, but she felt like she had been abandoned after Sika had the upper hand. Lex had never experienced such profound emotion before, so she thought that she was jealous of Sika. It was only after that day’s conversation that Lex realized she adored Saleen, but it was not that kind of unforgettable love.

Her fondness was solely due to Saleen’s compatibility with herself. Saleen was a mage who possessed the same style as her.

Sika did not snatch Saleen away. She was Saleen’s first love, so no one would be able to replace her position in Saleen’s heart.

Lex had been indifferent to this competition. Now, she felt like she had lost and she had lost to a Caucasus person.

To think that when Lex first met Sika, this beautiful lady who took her breath away had a head of messy hair. If Saleen did not force her, she might not even shower at all.

“Viscountess, it’s not entirely impossible for you to marry Saleen.”

“Why would I marry him?!” Lex raised her voice, feeling strange at her own agitation.

“It’s better if you don’t marry him.” Sika was giggling, and once more, Lex felt like she had been defeated.

“I have too many things to accomplish, I might not even finish all of them in the next one-thousand years.” Lex sighed again, changing the topic.

“Same here. Anyway, no matter how many tasks there are, they will not impede our childbearing plans.” Sika spoke blatantly, causing Lex to feel helpless for the first time in her life.

As Sika was not a fanciful person, a noble would not be able to deal with her straightforward character.

At this point in time, Nailisi opened the chariot’s doors and came onboard. Lex was astounded, then said, “Why aren’t you on the other chariot?!”

Lex had guessed that the four women were demons. Lex’s heartbeat had gotten faster knowing that four demons were left alone with her mages. If those four demons went berserk, her mages were doomed.

“Viscountess, please rest assured, the mages are in safe hands.” Nailisi spoke respectfully, but her concept of respect was non-existent. She only loved the pretense humans put up in front of others. Unlike Sika, Nailisi loved to act smart and was scheming. As to whether it would yield results, she did not care. The eventual solution would still involve her teeth and claws.

The problem was, no matter how respectful and obedient Nailisi acted, Lex would not be so dumb as to think that she could command Nailisi. Her attitude, thus became a form of provocation towards Lex.

Lex was helpless as Nailisi was Saleen’s subordinate. As long as she did not attack Lex, Lex could only continue patronizing her.

When Saleen was around, Lex did not have such strong feelings. Now that Saleen was absent in order to avoid suspicion, she discovered that these two women beside Saleen were not easy to deal with at all.

Saleen did not know that Sika and Nailisi were causing so much frustration to Lex. There was another reason why he went into hiding; to practice magic. The effect of practice was better onboard the magic war chariot, but Saleen had been studying the magic patterns found on the badge and the lightning dragons. All the magic patterns could be expressed using words. The purpose of magic words was to translate a certain power, so that humans could use their mental strength to control it.

Regarding the secret of the badge, it could not be disclosed to anyone, even if the person was Lex.

The stupidest idea would be to use the Figaro Formula to decode the magic patterns. The difficulty of doing double calculations was thousands of times higher. Firstly, the meaning of the magic patterns had to be studied, then the power of the magic patterns had to be described using the magic language, before being verified one by one. Even if Saleen could calculate thousands of times faster than other people, he would die due to exhaustion. Even after dying from all that fatigue, he would still fail to decode even one percent of the power contained in the magic patterns.

This was more challenging than creating a new spell. With so many magic beasts in this world, humans could emulate the different magic patterns to produce countless spells.

Saleen was inevitably envious of Nailisi. Nailisi only had to swallow a few lightning dragon’s eggs to obtain a portion of the lightning dragon’s abilities. Even though she could not release the electric current for long distance attacks, it was already akin to her donning a piece of armor which was immune to elemental magic.

Saleen could only use another route, by signing a soul contract with the twenty-four lightning dragons. The moment he was free, he would go experience the soul vibrations produced when the dragons released an electric current. The mental strength was also related to the soul. After one was familiar with the soul vibrations, they would be able to simulate the secrets in a lightning dragon’s lightning release process.

Even if a spell for releasing lightning could not be produced, a control appliance similar to Saleen’s clan badge could be manufactured. Such an appliance would have to release lightning autonomously, it should not be like the badge, which had to be fully charged with energy before being able to release a lightning attack.

Even if Saleen’s lightning dragons were reared to adulthood, they would also require about one month to recharge the energy in the badge.

Within the Goddess of Myers’ necklace, the twenty-four lightning dragons swam about cheerfully. Saleen had thrown all the magic bugs given by Nailisi into the necklace. Since the bodies of the magic bugs still contained the special energy from the demonic plane, they were considered supplements for the lightning dragons. In the spaces of the necklace, time flew past very quick. The moment the lightning dragons ate a large amount of food, they would develop at a speed which was observable by the naked eye.

Each of these twenty-four lightning dragons were about two meters long. Golden magic patterns glistened atop their slightly transparent skin. Not only did Saleen have to feed them, he also had to add the Restorative Water into the necklace constantly. He cast wind magic to replenish the air in the water, so that the lightning dragons would not suffocate.

No matter how big the spaces in the necklace were, the air in water would be depleted really quickly due to the flow of time.

When the twenty-four lightning dragons felt the exploration by Saleen’s soul, the surface of their bodies released a pale blue electric current. Since they had not matured, their electric currents were weaker than that released by Nailisi. Following the frequent release of electric currents by them, the strange color of those magic patterns in Saleen’s pupils had grown paler by a few shades. His pupils started to assume a slight tinge of gold.