Badge in Azure

“Master, leave this to me. The only thing is that the demons’ city will need a Lord. Who do you want it to be?”

Saleen’s curiosity was piqued by Nailisi’s question and he asked, “Can the Lord of demon city not be of demon bloodline?

“Of course. The Pope is not a God, but he still oversees a group of disciples with godly nature.”

Nailisi’s reply left Saleen feeling torn. Who amongst his subordinates would be suitable to become the Lord of a demon city? The mages of Sregl Island would not be suitable. If they were, Saleen would not have been troubled over the lack of talent to manage things in Metatrin City. The pirates’ grades were too low.

Jola should stay in Metatrin City to train and guide warriors while Su should be leading armies and not demons. As for Daniel, Saleen was prepared to let him lead Metatrin City when he was not around. At the very least, Daniel could be tasked with the daily administrative duties.

“Saleen, let Nailisi be the Lord of the demons’ city,” Sika said.

“Master, I don’t want to!” Nailisi rejected immediately. Although she yearned to lead a demon army, she did not wish to leave Saleen.

“What about Cuisi?”

“Not advisable. Master… Cuisi knows some of the weaknesses of demons’ cities. I don’t entirely trust him to take up this responsibility.”

“I don’t have anyone else that I can use. Lex does have a few mages who are already grade-5 and are quite capable.”

“Humph, don’t tell me you miss Narnia?” Sika pinched Saleen’s nose.

Saleen felt wronged and said, “She is only grade-4.”

“By the time demons’ city has been built, she will probably have advanced to grade-5,” Sika was merciless. She was not jealous, but she was certain that Narnia was fond of Saleen. It was obvious from the way she looked at Saleen.

Narnia was a nice lady so Sika would not treat her like how she treated Irene. Should Narnia confess her feelings one day, then things would be hard to handle.

“Sister Sika, why don’t you be the Lord of the city?” Nailisi’s green eyes blinked quickly as she stood behind Saleen. Sika wanted to reject, but suddenly changed her mind. She smiled and said to Saleen, “Why don’t I give it a try? Sounds like it will be more fun managing a bunch of demons than Caucasus people. What do demons eat? I can’t do anything about that.”

“Sister Sika need not worry about that. Demons’ City will have a huge magic summoning array where many magic bugs can be summoned from the demon dimension. Since we will have many magic bugs, all we need to do is to find some good cooks so that the demons can have delicious meals. Ingredients are not a problem.”

“Cooks? Who will dare to be cooks for demons? For all you know, they will be the ones eaten by the demons.”

“Master!” Nailisi’s tone sounded like she was acting cute.

“I’m just kidding. Demons don’t really have any particular tastes, but they do need to replenish their salt levels so we need to have suitable vegetables to do that. Demons don’t just eat meat after all. We need to quickly find salt.”

“Master, let’s just open a saltworks outside demons’ city. We are just beside the sea so we don’t need to buy anything.”

“I am too overwhelmed.” Saleen patted his head. In Qin, salt was exclusively sold by the royal family. Even the noble families needed to get permission from the royal family and also pay a large amount of tax before they could sell salt. It was not within Holy Rock City’s jurisdiction, even Alchemy City would create their own salt.

“Saleen, let’s not be too loud about it. It’s good enough that we have our own source of salt and our mages can help to refine it further. It should not be for sale or Holy Rock City might not be too happy about it.” Sika was cautious when it came to the big picture so she made sure to remind Saleen.

“I know. If we intend to feed a city of demons with our own salt, we probably won’t have extra to sell to others anyway.”

“Master, shall I begin preparations tomorrow?”

“Alright, this matter is urgent. Can you complete this task within a year?”

“A year… it will be tight because I don’t have enough materials and resources at hand.”

“Go find the winged skeleton. You and he try your best to find salt. Keep whatever you find from the sea. You don’t have to give it to Metatrin City, unless you find very useful or rare items…

“Of course, I will keep them for Master.” Nailisi was overjoyed that Saleen was giving her permission to keep valuable items.

Saleen knew Nailisi’s intention in salvaging items from ancient sunken boats. She was bonded to him so her possessions were equivalent to his. He did not care too much about it so as to satisfy Nailisi’s greed.

Demons were generally possessive and Nailisi was no exception. Even if Nailisi salvaged items that were useless to her, she would still keep them in her spatial equipment so that she could take them out to admire once in a while.

As for the winged skeleton, he was extremely loyal so all the resources that he and Nailisi salvaged together in secret were all used to expand Saleen’s navy. Right now, Saleen did not lack materials for building of boats because the winged skeleton had supplied them to him long ago. Saleen lacked sailors instead so the winged skeleton allowed his subordinates, the jade skeletons, to stand in as sailors for the time-being.

This arrangement had to be temporal. It would not be appropriate for Saleen, a human, to own ghost ships and demon cities

The winter nights in the north were long. Saleen finally managed to have a good night’s rest and even dreamed. Mages rarely dreamed because they could control their mental strength very well. This time, Saleen dreamed that he had expanded his territories beyond ten-thousand miles and was wearing a devil’s suit. He was leading millions of demons towards the pearl of the glorious plains, the Holy City.

The plains were filled with corpses everywhere including death knights and corpses of disciples. Daniel and Aini used their death magic and the corpses began to get up and attacked the armies of Holy City.

Suddenly, a strange beam of light appeared from the sky and struck the center of Saleen’s army.

That was God’s punishment spell! Millions of armies were struck by God’s punishment and were sent straight to hell before being turned into ashes by the explosion of a volcano there.

In the dream, Saleen was calm. The demons and spirits of the dead that had died were all revived in the flames. They were gathered in front of Raphael’s magic tower and Saleen was standing on it. The pride he felt while looking down at his own army was unimaginable.

There was lightning everywhere and it was coming out from his clan badge. It tore open the dimension and his army appeared on the glorious plains again. Saleen laughed with glee when he saw the shocked expression on the Pope’s face.

The dream suddenly ended and Saleen woke up. Sika was staring at him.

“Why do you have a silly smile on your face?”

“It’s nothing. I dreamed of Pope Theisio.”

“Theisio? You saw his magic images?”

“Of course not, but I know it’s him,” Saleen laughed and got up from the bed. One dream meant nothing, but Saleen suddenly had a feeling that the Holy See’s strength was not as powerful as he thought. The Pope had three godly items and one of them had been given to Joey. Once the three godly items had been separated, the Pope’s power would be drastically reduced. He would not have lost so many men in the attack on Emperor Chanake otherwise.

“Sika…”

“What?”

“Since Nailisi is not around, let’s go for another round!” Saleen’s energy has fully recovered after a good sleep.

“What are we waiting for?!” Sika smiled and pressed herself into Saleen. The hole in the wall was still there, but Nailisi has left long ago to look for Cuisi. Sika felt more at ease knowing that no one else was around to disturb.

In Cuisi’s room, he was standing and listening to Nailisi’s dressing down. At the end, Nailisi finally revealed her purpose for coming over and Cuisi was overjoyed.

“Master wants to build a demon city? I volunteer!”

“I already said, you will lead the first demon army. Sika will settle the demon city.”

“Sika? She is nothing!”

“Bastard!” Nailisi gave Cuisi a punch. It was a heavy one and Cuisi felt his bones almost break.

“Remember this. Even if you advance into a devil, do not upset Sika. I will ask Master to draw out your soul and let it burn in hell for ten-thousand years if you do.”

“Okay.” Cuisi bowed his head and asked, “Master, I will not upset her. What if she comes looking for trouble?”

“What if I give you a slap? What will you do?”

“Of course I have to bear with it since it is Master who did it. I will bear with it even if I am angry.” Cuisi did not dare to deceive Nailisi and answered honestly.

“If Sika slapped you, you will also bear with it. That is the woman that my Master values the most. If anything happens to her, both of us are finished. Do you understand?”

“I understand now.”

“Any other questions?” Nailisi saw the expression on Cuisi’s face.

“How strong is Sika?”

“If you fought with her in your human form, you would lose. By the time you fully possess a supreme demon’s powers, she will probably have advanced as well. Her subordinates are Caucasus people and some of them are very strong.”

Cuisi was convinced after what Nailisi said. Sika was stronger than him, there was nothing wrong with submitting to her. The demon dimension worked that way, the weak would submit to the strong.

“Alright, Cuisi, do you have the diagram of a demon city?”

“Yes.”

“Give it to me. After the city has been built, make sure you build a good relationship with Sika. The soldiers making up the first demon army will be chosen from the demon city. If you serve Sika well, you will be give the best demons for your army. Do you understand?”

Cuisi finally understood. Profess his loyalty to Sika now so that he would be able to reap the benefits in future. He gave the diagram of how to build a demon city to Nailisi. She was satisfied and left with the diagram.

She was never going to allow Cuisi to lead an army and become Lord of a city at the same time. She would not be able to control him otherwise.

As for Sika? Sika did not have such a strong thirst for power. Even if she was given more lands, she would still be a Caucasus priestess at the end of the day.

For the rest of the day, Saleen and the rest of the mages studied the diagram on how to build a demon city. Nailisi was also there to translate the demon language. According to the diagram, the city of the largest scale could contain more than five-million demons.

There was only a small plain near the port downstream. The entire plain would be almost used up if such a big city was to be built there.

Fortunately, this was not a city for humans. Demons did not like to wander around nor deal in businesses. They did not care for roads either. The surrounding mountainous areas were sufficient for the demons to move around.

The port that was beside the sea would remain unchanged. They would be building a shipyard there that would contain more than two combat vessels. This matter would soon be handed over to the winged skeleton. Even Saleen was afraid to let spirits of the dead and demons become neighbors and for humans to live there.