Badge in Azure

The terms and conditions that Fycro was offering were attractive. Not only would his people not bother Lex and Saleen anymore, he would leave Metatrin City alone too. Besides, the teleportation portal that Fycro wanted to build was in five years’ time.

“May I know where will this teleportation portal be built?” Saleen asked carefully.

“Chaotic swamp.” Fycro had no intentions of hiding it. Both Saleen and Lex would not be able to leave if they chose not to agree. There was no one in Metatrin City that would pose any threat to him so he was not worried at all that Saleen and Lex would be able to flee.

“Then I would like to add another condition. If not, you can kill me.”

Fycro smiled and asked, “Mage Saleen, what earth-shattering condition is this? Do tell.”

“I want to build a tunnel for smuggling purposes in the chaotic swamp. You cannot bother the group of people involved in the smuggling.”

“Ah? Smuggling? Sure. You write the contract and I will sign it.” Fycro did not seem to mind, which made Saleen doubt if he meant what he said. If he signed a bond with someone of grade-10, would the restricting powers still take effect?

Since Fycro had already agreed, it was better than nothing. As Saleen took out a magic scroll, he felt that the pressure on his body has lightened and his mental strength could be adjusted freely again. There was an impulse to take out his clan badge, but Saleen was afraid that he would not be able to kill Fycro with it. He chose to take on a passive approach and took out his magic brush from the demonic ring and began writing the bond.

When the bond was being signed, Saleen felt that something was very wrong. Although he was being forced into all this, the terms and conditions of this bond were actually beneficial to him. If the oracle had not done what he did and the Holy See decided to attack the city, it would take at least two years. The reason was even if the Holy See had vessels, they would not have been able to deploy enough holy masters to follow the troops.

Once the battle on the mainland began, it would be too late to try and build a navy.

Even if the Holy See was given another two years, they might not be the clear winner. It would depend on the progress of the battle at Luolan, whether Cloudflow’s combat vessels would carry out any harassments on the sea and other factors that might crop up.

Saleen was aware that his ability to analyze the big picture was weaker than Lex’s. He decided to keep quiet and would discuss it with Lex when they returned.

There were three bonds in total; two were written by Fycro and one by Saleen. There were no traps in Saleen’s bond because he was afraid that Fycro would be able to find them. In any case, not setting a trap was also advantageous for Saleen. Once the tunnel in chaotic swamp was completed, the armies of the Holy See would not appear here.

If the Sikenqinya and the Tanggulasi empire started a war with each other, Saleen would be able to use this tunnel to sell resources to Sikenqinya. If both empires formed an alliance, the tunnel could be used to spring a surprise attack on Sikenqinya’s flank. As for unifying the mainland? Saleen estimated that it would take one-hundred to two-hundred years at least.

The fourth dynasty’s collapse spanned across two-hundred years. Adding another one-hundred years of fighting, the dynasty basically survived three-hundred years of turmoil. Saleen’s goal of reviving the Goddess’ faith and unifying the mainland would surely take longer than that.

There were no signs that Fycro was going to disappear, but once the bonds were signed, the three scrolls turned into bright spots before vanishing into thin air. With that, Fycro’s body vanished as well as if his body was devoured by the elements.

What technique was this? It could not be stopped!

Saleen was taken aback for a moment then decided not think about it anymore. Lex and he reappeared on the pier and found themselves surrounded by close to one-thousand soldiers. Once the both of them appeared again, Su rushed to them and looked nervously behind Saleen.

“It’s okay. Dismiss everyone. The viscountess and I need to talk. Hmm, Lex, let’s go to my temple.” At this moment, Saleen also realized that he would probably need Eleanor’s help as well. That elf knew more about gods than any humans could.

Once Saleen and Lex left, the pier quickly went back to normal. The soldiers returned back to their ambush spots while some of the sailors, who had been shocked by what happened, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

When they were back in the temple, Saleen went straight to the fifth level, which was where he lived. Nailisi appeared soon after, but Sika was nowhere to be found.

“Go and get Eleanor here. We have some things to discuss.” On the fifth level were all of Saleen’s trusted aides. Saleen brought Lex to the canteen, sat down, and began to tap his fingers on the table impatiently.

Eleanor was also staying on the fifth level. Saleen did not wish to alarm too many people and decided that the fewer the people that knew about this the better.

The doors of the canteen were shut and the canteen was left with Saleen, Lex, Su, Jola, Eleanor, and Nailisi.

After the magic arrays had been set to contain their voices, Saleen recounted everything about how they signed bonds with Fycro. He then asked Eleanor directly, “What do you think?”

Eleanor was stunned for a while and said, “It’s very simple. This Fycro, he wants to become a God himself and wants to lead the disciples to an interdimensional space that the Lord of Glory would not be able to find. There are already so many disciples on this dimension, he just needs to take some away and turn them into his.”

“He wants to become a god?”

“Yes, he must have already possessed the ability to retain faiths. Didn’t you say that his right hand contained divinity that was independent on its own?” Eleanor shared freely, as if these were very common and normal incidents. Her knowledge of theology was rich and she understood many of gods’ secrets. In fact, elves probably did not respect gods all that much because they already knew of the many flaws of gods.

Saleen suddenly remembered Ismail. That fellow seemed to possess the ability to retain faith too!

“Then do you think we will be in any danger?”

“In the near future, no. Until Fycro becomes a God, he will not go against the bond. Neither he nor his disciples will come for you unless you attack him.”

“What if I tell the Holy See what has happened?”

“Don’t even think about it,” Lex interrupted Saleen and said, “Your Metatrin city and my Bitter Water Prefecture will both be destroyed by him.”

“Why would Fycro do that?” Saleen did not understand.

Lex said, “The Holy See has started the Holy War, but that may not bother the three big empires. If the war does not go well, even if the Lord of Glory is unable to descend onto this dimension, he will still think of ways to send his strongest subordinates here. If that happens, Fycro’s position will be shaky. It will be very normal to plan ahead.”

Saleen’s thoughts gradually cleared and said, “In that case, Fycro is of no threat to us in the near future.”

“At least not for the next five years,” Eleanor was confident in her reply. Saleen felt relieved that he had not killed this elf back then. Without Eleanor’s knowledge, he probably would not have figured out what Fycro’s real goal was.

Fycro left behind the state of mess that the Holy See was in and came to Metatrin City for half a year on his own. Clearly, he did not care about the Holy War. Saleen deduced that Fycro might even hope for the Holy See to be defeated, then he would be able to bring away even more disciples. While Fycro was in Metatrin City, he must have been observing his city. If he decided that the city had a future, it was entirely possible that he might give it a boost so that the Holy See might be defeated sooner.

Fycro said that he helped Saleen settle some problems. He was probably referring to the combat vessels from Lianyun City.

After the countries of Eastern Sea were defeated in their expedition, Lianyun City gained a large number of combat vessels. In comparison, Metatrin City only had two combat vessels other than the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The outcome of the battle was that Lianyun City’s three main combat vessels were sunk, which led to a crushing defeat.

While the pan’s turtle alchemical boat could certainly defeat one main combat vessel, there was no way it could defeat three at one go. Fycro did help him out in this matter. It seemed that he did not have any tricks up his sleeves, but just wanted to use Saleen’s left hand and Lex’s God’s ring.

“Jola, from today onwards, you will take over Daniel’s tasks. Let Daniel build another army.”

“My Lord?” Jola did not understand. Daniel was already put in charge of Metatrin City’s defence, why would Saleen want to take away his authority?

“Humph, the victory over Lianyun City was not as simple as it seemed. I want Daniel to form an army for offensive operations. You just have to look after the city. He is a death mage and has an advantage over you in field operations. When I am back, I will use Lianyun City as an excuse to attack Phoenix.”

Deep down, Saleen knew that little progress would be made if he did not merge Metatrin City and Phoenix together. Although Phoenix’s climate was similar to Metatrin, they produced much more grains and needed to be taken over. In the future, this would pose as a potential threat to his country if he were to expand it, but still rely on imports for grains otherwise.

Lex’s goal was probably the Qin empire. She only needed to win over the majority of the noblemen’s support in order to succeed the throne. With Saleen coordinating on the outside, it was even possible for Lex to become Emperor. Only when all these were in place would they have a chance of spreading the Goddess’ faith within one-thousand years.

Saleen was not against the Goddess’ revival. After all, magic was more popular when the Goddess of Myers was still around. The Goddess of Nature viewed magic more favorably than the Lord of Glory because most elements of magic were taken from nature itself. On the other hand, the Lord of Glory’s light had nothing to do with the light element from the six great elements.

At this point, Saleen said, “Lex, regarding the building of an army, I will have to trouble you to help out.”

Lex already knew before Saleen even asked. She supported Saleen building his country, in return, Saleen was also going to help her return to the center of Holy Rock City’s power where she belonged. If she had been the one to expand her lands continuously, she would have attracted the attention and pressure of the other powers instead.

“Rest assured. When you are back, you will see a proper and complete army. Now…,” Lex paused and laughed. If Saleen’s army were to fight against her swordsman’s camps, they would be crushed. To conquer Phoenix, they could not use her men yet so they had no choice but to take the tougher route of training up a proper army for Saleen.

“Let’s eat.” Saleen waved his hands. He had thought that things would get easier when he returned from the purgatory desert. Who knew that something like this would happen? Although this might seem like a good thing in the near future, if Fycro really were to become God, who was to stop him from coming over from another dimension? Saleen knew that Fycro was from the Myers Mainland. If he became a God, the rules of the dimensions would not stop him from descending into this dimension anytime he wanted.

Although there seemed to be more harm than good overall, there was no other choice. What Fycro did was simply coercion and there was no way Saleen could refuse.

Food had been ready for some time. When it was served, Saleen was shocked beyond words. Food was served by a group of spirits of the dead and grade-3 skeleton warriors. Their phalanges had been polished thoroughly and their bodies washed countless times, even a trace of blood could not be found.

Jola laughed bitterly, “Daniel said that this is an important place and the people that served you must be the most loyal and trustworthy ones. At the moment, there are not enough of these people so we will just have to make do with spirits of the dead for the time-being…”

Saleen nodded. At this moment, he realized that although his city’s population and army had expanded by more than ten times, the people that he could really trust were still those that had been with him from the beginning. He would not be around in Metatrin City most of the time, there was not going to be a quick fix to solving this issue of loyalty.