Badge in Azure

This grade-9 spell persisted. With the magic amplifier, the power of the ground-element spell multiplied. The petrification of the lake was in the upward direction instead of all directions. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was pushed upwards for tens of yards before finally coming to a stop.

If a grade-9 sorcerer cast such an area of effect spell on his own, he would use up all his magic chords in an instant. As such, the importance of scrolls could not be more obvious. A grade-9 scroll like this was the most powerful trump card that a sorcerer could possess.

The winged skeleton changed into his armor then opened up his spirit space to put away the pan’s turtle alchemical boat slowly. The alchemy ship had been refined by the winged skeleton for more than a year and had already become part of his special equipment, which explained why it could be put in his spirit space.

If not, the lake would be petrified along with the outer cover of the alchemy ship and the winged skeleton would have no way of adjusting it anymore.

The shape of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was not built for high-speed movement. If not for the giant magic bubbles, the highest speed limit for the ship was probably sixty miles an hour. Now that it had been stored in the spirit space, there was now an empty space of thirty yards tall and twenty yards wide within the petrified region of one-hundred and fifty yards in diameter.

There was no light nor air in the empty space. If not for the fact that the winged skeleton was a spirit of the dead, he would already have been suffocated.

On the surface of the lake where the grade-9 sorcerer stood, the surroundings were calm even as the waves were roaring just one-hundred yards away. After the grade-8 sorcerer caught up, he landed carefully beside the grade-9 sorcerer and said, “Master, is the target dead?”

“No. If he is a death mage, he will be able survive for at least half a day.”

“Let me deploy the combat vessels here and surround this area.”

“No need. I will go down and kill them all.” The grade-9 sorcerer’s tone was calm. The lake beneath his feet split open as the solidified wind elements on the surface of the lake opened up a passageway for the sorcerer to step in.

The sorcerer was full of hatred for the enemy that destroyed so many of Cloudflow’s troop carriers. If not for this diving combat vessel, Cloudflow would already have launched their attack.

No doubt, the impact would be greater if they attacked on Lex’s wedding day. If they attacked earlier, the enemy might be caught by surprise though.

Within the rock cave, the winged skeleton carefully took out a box made of jade. This box was filled with layers upon layers of spirit words. The winged skeleton unleashed a death soul flame from his fingertips and smoothed over these spirit words. He then opened up the jade box and released the object that had been locked inside.

This was a square piece of metal that looked like a material that mages used for refining. This piece of metal fell onto the ground and split open to release mechanical limbs. They disintegrated quickly before combining again to form a strange object that was more than a yard tall.

After this piece of metal completed its transformation, a ball of faint golden flame was burning at the top and was gradually seeping into the mechanical body. When this golden flame finally vanished, the winged skeleton spoke, “I have given you freedom so you shall obey my orders in return. After one-hundred years, I will send you back to the death dimension.”

The mechanical body suddenly released a thick death aura and shot out gray fumes that filled up the entire cave in an instant.

Its voice was filled with echoes of metal as it spoke, “Why should I obey your orders?”

“Sign the hundred-year bond or I will kill you immediately!” the winged skeleton replied coldly.

“Kill me?” The machine’s laughter was awful. “If you have the ability to kill me, then why have you locked me up all these years and not negotiated with me?”

“Because I am about to die. If you refuse to help me, I might as well destroy you before I die. Look, do you know what this is?” the winged skeleton took out a piece of divine crystal. This divine crystal was cut out from the statue of the Goddess of Myers. Saleen kept a portion for himself and gave the winged skeleton another. The remaining divine crystals, including the statue, had been used up by Nailisi for her twelve Notes of the Purgatory.

A red-colored beam shone from the machine. When it saw the divine crystal, it let out a shout of surprise before quietening down.

“It is true that mechanical souls are hard to kill. If I unleash the power of soul flames and burn the divine crystal along with it, you will die as well. I only have time amounting to one-hundred units of grain, I will do what I have to do if you are not agreeable.”

The winged skeleton could sense the powerful presence of the grade-9 sorcerer approaching. Although there were still rocks that were tens of yards thick on the outside, the winged skeleton had no doubt that the grade-9 sorcerer would be able to get through the rocks to attack the winged skeleton.

“I will not agree to it. Do you think I will be killed by that? It is just another amusing myth of spirits of the dead,” the mechanical soul replied mysteriously.

“There is a powerful human outside. With the divine crystal burning and enveloping you within, do you think you have any chance of survival if he discovers you?” the winged skeleton added even more coldly. There was a handful of magic sand grain in his palm and it dropped one by one through the gaps between his fingers.

“Humans, damn the humans!” The mechanical soul cursed. He turned his body aggressively and spit out a piece of metal that was thinner than the wings of a dragonfly. This piece of metal was almost transparent, but it was actually a soul bond.

“I’m glad you are aware of the situation!” the winged skeleton put away the divine crystal and slid across the bond with the death soul flame on his fingertips. The bond broke into countless pieces, which were then swallowed up by the mechanical soul.

Only spirits could settle something like a bond in such a decisive and efficient manner. After the mechanical soul signed the bond, he felt that something was wrong. He could sense that the person whom he had signed the bond with was not an ordinary spirit of the dead. There was an even more powerful force that was controlling his soul.

“You are someone else’s slave!” the mechanical soul roared. This was bad news because the winged skeleton’s master could deal with him in any way he wished.

“Don’t put it that way. He is just my Master,” the winged skeleton said and began to summon spirits of the dead from within the cave. At the same time, he also released all the spirits of the dead that he had been keeping within his green spirit.

When the mechanical soul saw them, he had to put aside the issue of the bond and pounced onto them.

As the mechanical soul absorbed the soul flames and devoured the bodies of the spirits, he grew larger and larger until he was even bigger than the winged skeleton. The mechanical soul has now transformed into a humanoid shape of metallic color. The only difference was that he resembled a giant scorpion as he had six legs.

This was a mechanical soul made from the components of mechanical souls that Saleen had obtained previously. Ever since the winged skeleton had completed putting it together, he did not dare to let it devour spirits so he only kept the mechanical soul locked up in the box. If this fellow returned to the death dimension, there would be chaos. At least ten Kings would probably have to sacrifice their lives in order to kill him.

Besides, the mechanical soul gained his power from devouring other spirits. If he devoured enough spirits, he would transform into a creature bigger than a mountain and leave behind a trail of destruction wherever he went. He would collapse only when his soul flame could no longer cope with his power.

At the end of the day, the death dimension was still home to the winged skeleton and so he would never want to see his home being destroyed.

Right then, the winged skeleton could not afford to care too much. If he died, who else would help his Master? The one-hundred year bond was a trap in itself as the winged skeleton estimated that Saleen would be able to destroy this thing in less than a hundred years.

Humans were much more powerful than spirits of the dead.

The mechanical soul grew bigger and bigger until he was almost eight yards tall. the winged skeleton leapt onto the mechanical soul’s back and patted it. A small slit opened and the winged skeleton crept into it.

The winged skeleton was gambling with his life on mechanical soul’s inability to be killed. If the grade-9 sorcerer managed to kill mechanical soul, then the winged skeleton would have no regrets.

The grade-9 sorcerer came to the bottom of the lake. There was a gigantic rock underneath him that was one-hundred and fifty yards in diameter and was extremely smooth. The water of the lake was still unable to get close to the sorcerer. He casually pointed his finger and a sphere made of water elements appeared and smashed against the rock. Then, the sphere flattened out and smashed at the rock to create a circular plane that was more than three yards in diameter.

After that, the sorcerer released a puppet that was more than a yard tall and began to create a magic array on the plane. He had no intentions of fighting the enemy within the rock. He had ways to attack even with the rock between them.

The magic array was close to completion. The grade-9 sorcerer tossed out six high-level magic nuclei and mounted them accurately onto the grooves of the magic array. He could sense that the person trapped within the rock was still alive. At the very least, the spirit of the dead trapped by the death sorcerer was still very active and showed no signs of wilting.

Using six high-level magic nuclei to kill a death sorcerer was definitely worth it!

When the six magic nuclei were in position, the sorcerer finally took his position in the center of the magic array. The ring on his finger unleashed powerful ripples of energy. This magic amplifier would allow him to take on more than three grade-9 sorcerers in one go. As long as his enemy was not in a magic tower, any Professional below grade-9 could not match him.

The magic array began to spin after being triggered. Within the rock that was dozens of yards thick, the mechanical soul was using a drill that has grown out from his chest to drill at the rock. This drill was a few yards long and covered in spirit patterns that released gray aura. The rock that was formed by the sigh of the earth began to soften under the effect of this powerful decomposing gas, so that his drill could pierce through easily.

Just as the mechanical soul was engrossed in his work and was also imagining how it would be when he returned to death dimension without any restrictions and constraints after one-hundred years. He forgot that these one-hundred years would be full of hard work and service to the winged skeleton. At that point, a twenty-four sided black body combined together from the darkness. This black twenty-four sided object was purely an element of darkness.

An eye suddenly opened behind the mechanical soul’s head and looked at the crystallization of dark elements. He did not expect this crystallization to shrink aggressively and transform its element very suddenly into a ball of pure and white light.

“Ah!” the mechanical soul quickly shut his eye as the surface of his body began to burn very quickly. The ball of light expanded rapidly and filled up the entire cave.

Light explosion of darkness!

A singular restorative spell of grade-9 could only be cast by a mage that was familiar with both light and dark elements. It possessed the four characteristics of disintegration, decomposition, cleansing, and burning. This spell was not meant to deal with spirits of the dead specifically, but when such a powerful spell was initiated in such a small space, even the mechanical soul had no way to escape.