Badge in Azure

Eleanor stood on the top floor, gazing at Saleen and Lex who sat under the fragrant tree. The singing had stopped, but the aftermath lingered on. Not only Saleen and Lex heard it, the soldiers downstairs, the swordsmen in the palace, and the mages also heard Eleanor’s song. The area sunk into a faint melancholic atmosphere.

Eleanor was homesick, very homesick. She thought that an elf could forget the past events and was adaptive, just like the elders had said.

It did not turn out like that. When Eleanor gazed at Saleen’s and Lex’s silhouettes, she was not thinking of the marquis, she was actually pining for her first lover in the elvish plane. The marquis’ fatal attraction had become a faint shadow, it was almost gone already. Her oldest memory had become increasingly clearer.

“Eleanor is thinking about home.” Saleen broke the silence, but was still holding onto Lex’s hand.

“You cannot go and console her on your own!” Lex wrinkled her nose, using a small girl’s voice to warn Saleen.

Saleen simply laughed it off, as he thought to himself, “There is nothing to worry about, I don’t have such feelings towards her. Even if I did, Eleanor would never agree to be with me. She is homesick and I cannot help her to ease such feelings.”

“You are laughing so smugly, what are you thinking of?”

“I am thinking of something very troublesome,” Saleen replied solemnly.

“What is it?”

“I heard that once a mage advances to a sorcerer, it will be more challenging to have offspring. Can you pause your advancement for the time being?”

A fireball appeared in Lex’s hand immediately, but was immediately snuffed out. She rebutted, “Don’t you and Sika already have a child? We are mages…”

“You will be empress in the future!” Saleen interrupted Lex and said, “An empress must have a successor.”

Lex’s face became redder than the fireball. She was at a loss for words, eventually she gave up and only glared ferociously at Saleen. If Lex discussed this topic with others, she would not blush because she was a grade-6 mage, she would only regard it as a technical problem.

Now all she could think of was that she had to engage in intercourse with Saleen after marrying him.

“Since Saleen is broaching this topic now, it seems like he wants to do it right away.” Lex tried to break away from Saleen, but Saleen gripped her hand tightly. Saleen was stronger than Lex, she could not break free. Lex wanted to berate Saleen, but was worried that Saleen would get angry, “I cannot do this, he has finally expressed his feelings after much difficulty. If I behave coldly, he will be hurt.”

“Lex, I am trying to say that Sika can create a medicine which can solve this problem, what are you doing?”

This time around, a fireball appeared in Lex’s hand, almost on the verge of hitting Saleen. Saleen giggled, as a tiny icicle appeared atop his fingertip, destroying that fireball.

“Aye, forget it.” Lex decided to lean half her body against Saleen. Tilting her head slightly to look at Eleanor’s silhouette under the moonlight, she muttered, “You are right, I have to think about the future.”

“This medicine isn’t expensive, Sika has concocted some and it costs eight-hundred-thousand gold coins.” Saleen mentally prepared Lex first, in case she got caught off guard.

“Ah! That’s fine…” Lex almost spouted something which embarrassed herself. She quickly changed the topic, “Saleen, is Eleanor…”

“There is no use, it cannot be resolved easily. I think we would need godlike powers to truly fix her problems.” Saleen had no idea how to help resolve Eleanor’s trouble. To let her return home, the planar passageway between the elvish plane and Myers mainland had to be opened, this was neither the demonic plane nor the death plane. The spaces between these two planes and the Myers mainland were not stable, but there were precise coordinates available.

On the other hand, the elvish plane was very far away. The elves betrayed the humans in the past, so the human experts who were mightier than the gods had sealed all the available passageways.

Given Lex’s intelligence, she could easily guess Eleanor’s identity, but she was helpless to do anything. She and Saleen would have to advance past the limits of grade-9 to help, or perhaps even grade-10 would not suffice. They might have to at least be above grade-18 in order to possess the ability to alter planar rules and reopen the channel to the elvish plane.

On the entire Myers mainland the number of grade-10 professionals could be counted on one hand. Grade-18 experts only existed in myths, neither Saleen nor Lex had ever thought of progressing to this grade. Advancing to grade-10 was a practical goal. It would be daydreaming to want to advance to grade-18.

In one of the sewers in Daliang City, Tyrant sat up. It was already the end of December. He still could not control this body thoroughly. Using a ghost’s perception to judge, his current powers were only two-thirds of the power he had when he used the dwarf’s body. This current body was more perfect than the dwarf’s, but most of a ghost’s abilities did not rely on a physical body, there was no obscurity like that of a dwarf.

Tyrant woke up from his deep slumber having heard Eleanor’s singing in the depths of his mind.

The voice of an elf could stimulate a ghost deeply. Eleanor’s depression caused Tyrant to be unable to sleep. Tyrant paced about his hideout with his bloodshot eyes, unable to compose himself.

“That damned elf, that damned elf! I have to kill her, otherwise I cannot do anything in Daliang City. My powers have deteriorated a lot, it is too difficult to kill an elf who can counter my powers.”

Tyrant kept pacing about as his hands rummaged through the leather pouch, inspecting his equipment.

“That elf will be accompanying the mage who knows how to cast the Mirroring spell. If I try to assassinate her, I will surely die! That mage’s strange finger can even shatter my divine weapon. I cannot use the Soul-cutting spell now. If my original body gets hit one more time, I will lose my third and last chance of attaching to a human body. That damned elf, she took away more than six-hundred years of my life with her two arrows. Even if I die, I will drag her to hell with me!”

Unbeknownst to Tyrant, Eleanor did not release the Life Arrow with all her might because she took him as a human. Tyrant would have been killed in one hit otherwise. Pacing in the sewer for around an hour, Tyrant finally took out an equipment, it was a gray bead.

“The Soul Bead. I can only kill normal civilians to absorb power now, but I cannot do it in Daliang City. The mages in the magical tower will know if I do. Mm, I heard that the Cloudflow people have set up camp near the shore. I shall kill their scouts to lure out an army without any high grade mages, then I should be able to regain most of my abilities.”

Making this decision, Tyrant left for the south in a flash. All the mages in Daliang City originated from Qin. No matter their grades, they would not be deceived easily. Since Tyrant’s powers had been reduced, he did not dare create trouble in Daliang City, so he turned his attention to the Cloudflow people.

Usually, people would never return once they left Daliang City. A ghost’s hatred was too intense though. Tyrant’s hatred for Eleanor had even exceeded his interest to assassinate Saleen.

In the blink of an eye, it was January. During the winter, Daliang City did not experience snow, so the temperature was maintained above freezing point. Listening to Saleen’s suggestion, Lex reinforced Daliang City’s defensive facilities.

The core of Daliang City was a small square-shaped city with a long history. At the moment, the three layers of walls surrounding Daliang City had been built by Lex.

Lex had many low grade mages serving her, so she decided to use magic to reinforce and raise the small city. Only four city gates were left behind to function as Lex’s palace. Two of Lex’s palace swordsmen camps were stationed in the palace. The three-layered walls at the periphery did not need to be raised, but they needed more large and intermediate-sized appliances.

Daliang City had a total of six city gates and each gate was fitted with metal battlements. The city gates were replaced with magic facilities coated with thick red copper. A passageway was dug out to connect the fortresses outside the city to the city tower, the fortresses no longer had any openings. Only archer holes were present, to allow soldiers to fire arrows out.

The winged skeleton had delivered all the remaining skeletal magic stone cannons over and installed them atop the city walls. These magic stone cannons had no effect against Cloudflow’s warships, but it was lethal when dealing with infantrymen. Other than its high level of consumption, it was flawless.

Saleen did not worry about the consumption of magic nuclei, he was willing to spend any amount to extirpate the Cloudflow people.

Six regions were developed within Daliang City in preparation for building magical towers. The sewers in the city were reinforced again and many more magic barriers were installed. There was a river outside Daliang City, but the river did not cut through the city, so water was a problem. Fortunately, with mages around, a secret river was constructed deep underground and lead to the city’s reservoir.

That way, if the city was besieged, the soldiers would not crumble and be rendered powerless due to a scarcity of water.

Lex could not replicate so many copies of equipment for Saleen’s heavy infantrymen. She possessed sufficient manpower however. If work was sped up, she would be able to produce around six-thousand sets of equipment by April.

Saleen gave half of his trusted soldiers to Lex. These one-hundred soldiers were Saleen’s mightiest troops who wielded the best equipment. The elvish alchemical crossbows could not be replicated because divinecherry wood was required. The swordsmen which Saleen gave to Lex were given purplish-gold liquid.

When this liquid, produced from purplish-gold sea urchins, was smeared onto a normal alchemical arrowhead, the arrowhead would be able to destroy magic easily. It was a pity that this item was disposable and purplish-gold sea urchins could not be bred. Once used, it would be gone.

Lex asked Saleen for all the metal ores from Metatrin City for the past few months. Her Metal Titan had not fully recovered yet from the grave injuries it had recieved. In order to let the Metal Titan act as Lex’s main offensive force, it would have to keep devouring metals and magic nuclei.

If the Metal Titan could recover by April, Lex would be confident of quashing the Cloudflow people. At the very least, she would not need to worry about Cloudflow’s large equipment. By releasing the Metal Titan, the Metal Titan could destroy the large appliances before the enemy’s sorcerers got to it.

“The Cloudflow people will use the worst method to invade the city. Let their soldiers scale the walls using ladders.” Lex did not believe that her elites would not be able to defend Daliang City.