Badge in Azure

As life was viewed cheaply, the world had one too many martyrs. Those who would have gladly and practically sold themselves to the rich and powerful for little more than a single meal were abundant. They gladly did so in the name of courage, fairness, or some such other thing.

An assassin need not be a martyr, but martyrs could definitely be assassins. They did not operate under bright daylight, their notion of fairness had nothing to do at all with the principle of Equivalent Exchange held by all mages.

Martyrs who went about fulfilling their missions in the battlefield, did so for victory and glory.

Cuisi looked up and the word ‘martyr’ crossed his mind. There were no martyrs among demons. What demons wanted more than anything was to live for as long as they could manage. They yearned to live, even if it meant living a life filled with humiliation and suffering.

On the demon plane, demonic spirits and imps stayed alive for millions of years living such lives. Always hunted by the likes of high level and supreme demons, always risking their necks just to live another day.

“Nothing is more precious than one’s life. One should never give up their life easily, no matter the odds ahead. Of course, Nailisi’s pressure is an exception!” Cuisi added hastily, out of reflex resulting from fear of being sensed thinking so by Nailisi, who was at the moment, thousands of miles away.

A light footprint appeared on the steps, which under the shadow cast by the clouds, was nearly undetectable. Cuisi knew that that was the assassin’s most careful way of testing the waters. If nobody was able to detect this one step they took, the infiltration into the palace would have definitely been a success. There were pillars up front, which cast more shadows, allowing the assassin to slip past the eyes of those around.

Cuisi side-stepped, revealing the whip in his hand. A following half-turn saw enormous power erupting from his hips, sending the whip flying sharply forward.

With a sharp crack, the tip of the whip lodged itself into the assassin’s back. The invisibility effect vanished instantly, revealing an assassin wearing leather armor. Cuisi’s whip burst right through the assassin’s heart like a flash of lightning.

The ease of ending one such assassin had Cuisi dumbfounded for a bit. In that split second, the flash of a sword gleamed under Cuisi’s shadow.

Swooshh!

The sound of the attack was unceremonious. A short sword a little longer than a yard and a half, flew accurately at the demon and lodged itself into his chest.

Cuisi felt a sense of numbness running all over him. A steel wire from an assassin lurking in the shadows latched onto Cuisi leg soon after. A firm knot wrapped around both of his legs, tying them down securely, with a single pull. The steel was not only durable, but also barbed. Its hollow insides were filled with venom capable of inducing a paralysis effect.

The assassin went around Cuisi carefully to reach his back, and stabbed two metal needles at the spot where his knees bent. Cuisi slumped. The assassin then went to his front, to pull out the sword lodged in his chest.

The assassin saw fear in the demon’s eyes, and decided instead to slowly plunged the sword further in. “Better kill this demon before anything else,” they thought, as there was no guarantee that their venom was capable of controlling one such powerful demon.

Inside the bedchamber, Saleen’s Water Shield was filled with Restorative Water. Both Saleen and Lex had had no concern of being submerged within, as Lex was capable of breathing underwater, and Saleen was even capable of directly absorbing the air diffused from within water, as well as breathing with his skin.

These feats were no big deal. What made Saleen’s case different however, was that he could have stayed underwater indefinitely.

Both of them swam within the water bubble, and they were able to sense the smallest detail of each other’s movements, using only sensory elements. Saleen condensed the Restorative Water, while at the same time, he helped lift away the fatigue in Lex’s body. Said fatigue was accumulated over the past half year without she herself realizing it. Minute wear and tear started to show on a body sustained using only using magic.

More than twenty droplets of Restorative Water quickly formed under Saleen’s instruction, all of which had density greater metals’. He threw all of them into his Devil Ring, and held Lex again.

“Lex, tell me. Who do you think would come for us, now?”, Even though he had recovered, he had simply wanted to talk to Lex.

“The Holy See, I think,” Lex continued caressing Saleen in the dark, hinting that she wanted him to continue.

“I thought it might be someone from the Cloudflow Empire instead. There was hardly anyone worth mentioning among the emissaries of the Tanggulasi Empire. They had grade-6 professionals at most. I alone would be more than enough to take on all of them.”

“We have no quarrel with Cloudflow, but we sure do with the Holy See. After all, you took Nicholas out. You think the Holy See wants to see you dead?”

“Yeah, the Holy See can’t stomach betrayals after all.”

“Relax. Both Cuisi and Gusion have reached grade-8, and the dragon slayers are out there surrounding the palace,” Lex poked at Saleen’s chest and said, “So, you don’t want me around anymore?”

“I just don’t want you getting yourself too tired.”

“I’m not tired. I just rested.”

Outside the walls of the palace, one-thousand soldiers of the Dragonslayer Army stood, motionless and without any hint of spirit in their eyes. The air was still filled with the scent of grass, but the air was warmer than most would have been comfortable with, sending waves of paralyzing gases into the bodies of the soldiers.

Within the two compounds where the one-thousand soldiers were stationed, stood one individual armed with a Codex from the Holy See respectively, right in the midst of the soldiers. There was no light in their divine spells, and their eyes seemed devoid of life. Every inch of their being, they had offered to the gods, for nothing more than for one opportunity at assassination to succeed.

Paralysis medicines were harder to defend against than poisons. This was hardly considered a debuffing attack, as the gas itself was originally used by Holy Masters to heal. The release of such gases would have never triggered any magic array.

The assassin from outside the palace lifted his sword to stab at Cuisi’s eyes, and yet saw the fear from the demon’s eyes disappear. An arrow from above flew right at them.

The arrow flew too quickly to evade. What made matters worse, was that the profession of assassin had little to no defense skills. Without any equipment worn for defense, one such attack from a common iron arrow would have rendered an assassin dead.

The dark red arrow flew right through the assassin’s body, entering through the head and exiting through the leg, and lodged itself into Cuisi’s thigh. The assassin dissipated into a wisp of green smoke, and appeared at the palace gates. The shadow shot disintegrated into nothing.

It had been body double equipment. It probably would have been rendered useless, if it was not for the fact that Eleanor had reservations about killing Cuisi.

Instant reaction equipment would have never been as quick as true space arrows.

The assassin evaded the first arrow, and was attempting to break into the palace to evade attacks from above, when the second arrow came. This time however, Eleanor used the true Seven Nights. The head of the assassin exploded from the enormous impact of the powerful shot. What made the two assassins so frightening, was that they were capable of transferring one’s signs of life entirely into another. When the one taking the lead was attacked, that was where the true killing blow was unleashed.

Unfortunately however, such tricks were no match for the archery prowess of elves.

The two arrows that Eleanor fired from above saved Cuisi. All of a sudden, a tear formed on the moon above Eleanor due to the work of some unseen mysterious power. A great shadow emerged from it. Eleanor and the Water Puppet hid well within the clouds, but they were found out nonetheless. That two shots created energy fluctuations that were too great to conceal.

At the very least, Eleanor was unable to conceal the fluctuations, given the fact that she was still a grade-6 elf.

An angel of more than four yards tall emerged from above the duo, spreading its wings, conjuring huge wind elements, and flying straight for Eleanor. The giant, was armed with a sword of light that was more than three yards long.

This heavenly angel seemed to have been literally coming out of a hole torn in the moon, as even Eleanor’s superiorly sharp senses failed to detect anything prior. Judging from the distance of attack, both sides were less than fifty yards away from each other.

The Water Puppet activated a skill, which brought tens of tornados into the clouds. Eleanor drew her Seven Nights full, and was startled to find that she was unable to lock onto her target.

The angel burst right through the tornados, as if it was a shadow; wind elements had had no effect on it whatsoever. The angel’s face was devoid of expressions like a statue. The sword of light it held went straight for Eleanor’s torso.

The Water Puppet shot a beam of white light from its finger, penetrating the angel’s body. Its wings seemed to have been affected by the magic attack, exploding and scattering white feathers all over the place.

The heavenly angel remained unfazed. The Wings of An Elf dived for the ground, but was stabbed by the angel’s sword. The Crystal Finger attack failed. At the very least, it failed to kill the creature summoned by the Holy See.

Cracks were heard from the Wings of An Elf, and cracks formed on the left wing of the device. Thundercloud wood was stronger than metal, but was not strong enough to withstand an attack from the sword of light. There was no need to use the Wings of An Elf for flight with the Water Puppet around. Wings of An Elf’s acceleration, was far quicker than the Water Puppet’s magic though.

The Wings of An Elf was damaged and its speed dropped drastically. The Water Puppet took hold of Eleanor, conjuring layer after layer of Water Shield from its body. The heavenly angel’s sword came for them again, cutting right through more than ten layers of Water Shield and landing on the Water Puppet’s back, forming ripples.

In the inn at the north of the city, there was a group of emissaries from the Tanggulasi Empire residing within the compound. The group consisted of more than ten officials, over a hundred soldiers, and more than three-hundred servants; all of them dead on the ground, with empty eyes. A divine rune charm array with a diameter of seven yards, shone with pale light in the middle of the compound.

A red-robed Holy Master sprawled out in the middle of the charm array. The Holy Master disguised himself as an official and followed the emissaries into Daliang, for no other intention than to kill Saleen, instead of being there to present gifts as claimed.

“Saleen must die. This is an order from the pope.”

A Soul Bead was found broken in the hand of the red-robed Holy Master. The bead was unleashed using more than four-hundred hundred souls of the living. The summoning of the grade-9 angel was accomplished by offering all the souls within the bead to their God.

The red-robed Holy Master sacrificed his own life too, but a smile of happiness was seen on his face. The sight of such a smile with empty eyes was an eerie one.

Common followers were only able to enter heaven after death. The pope said that killing Saleen enabled one to enter heaven immediately however.

A grade-9 angel was comparable to a grade-10 human professional, as physical attacks were ineffective against it. More than one-hundred and sixty thousand from the entire region of the faith gave their lives, just to summon that one angel.

This was Daliang, not Holy Rock City. A being comparable to a grade-10 human professional, was powerful to raze everything on the ground.

Cloudflow’s assault on the southern city wall was intense. Mages were seen risking their lives to get close to wall, just so to cast buffing magic on the troops. Nicholas stood on top of the wall, searching meticulously for anyone suspicious. Divine fluctuations appeared at the royal residence, distorting his expression. He turned his head sharply and saw a tear on the moon. Even though he was more than three miles away, there was no mistaking it; he had just witness the advent of a heavenly angel.