Badge in Azure

Saleen’s advancement and magic chord changes were hardly any different from Lex’s, with the only notable difference being the absence of the rainbow colored transmutations. Even among mage peers of the same grade, his casting abilities had already reached twice the usual of a grade-7 sorcerer.

Saleen was not satisfied with such results. He had came into contact with the power of lightning during this advancement process, and was steeped in it.

He initially had no control over such powers. The use of the Eye of Lightning drained most of his stamina, even when he had only done so once. Such weakness with the Eye of Lightning disappeared altogether when he had advanced to the rank of sorcerer.

The effective range of the move was about ten yards. The strength of attack was completely adjustable by Saleen himself. When the attack was to be used at full power, Saleen was able to keep with it at least four times.

The greatest use of the Eye of Lightning laid not within utter annihilation of the enemy, unless said enemy was a weakling close to the grade of a bug. The greatest use of the ability was the ability to tear down enemy defenses. Professionals of this world were armed with a wide range of defensive abilities of very different natures from one another. None would have been of any use against the Eye of Lightning, for lightning was capable of disintegrating elements, or rearranging their structures.

If the structure of elements employed was to be changed, that particular move would have no longer been able to provide defense for the mage casting it.

Armed with such an ability, Saleen no longer feared powerful enemies, especially warriors, whom he no longer needed to be concerned about them getting close. Everyone attacked by the Eye of Lightning would be stunned for a short while, which would be more than enough time for Saleen to unleash several spells on them.

The true problem then, was with the range of attack. The Eye of Lightning’s effective range was less than ten yards. If the enemy was to be a powerful mage, they would not allow opponents to get within one-hundred yards of them.

To lock onto targets outside of one-hundred yards and attack would require the stability provided by grade-8 magic. The devil’s armor was a Sealing Suit, allowing Saleen to slowly undo the seals, and reveal the suit’s true powers.

Casting two grade-8 spells would have allowed Saleen to maintain half of the combat capacity equivalent to a grade-7 sorcerer. As such, advancement did him a lot of good. He still lacked the ability to learn Endless Night entirely through self-study though.

The cost incurred by magic spells were not the same. Even with spells of the same grade, the difference of the cost incurred might have been as great as ten times of one another. Magic spells with hefty cost yet producing less than impressive effects would phase out eventually. That was where the awkwardness of Endless Night laid. The cost of the spell was twice the other spells’ of the same grade.

If it was not for the fact that Endless Night was a powerful spell and certain mages specialized with casting Dark Element magic passing them down, the spell would have vanished from the face of the Myers Mainland for good. Even in their day and age, mages capable of using the spell were probably few and far between.

Lex borrowed the eighth floor of the magic tower for three days to help Saleen with his advancement, yet Saleen had only used a little more than eight hours to do so. His next task was to research ways to undo the sealing of the devil’s armor. Lex thought it would be best for her to just leave the eighth floor and let Saleen go at it alone.

She had a lot to attend to herself. With the palace destroyed, the city would be rendered to a state of panic if she did not show up personally.

Lex went down the magic tower and the flames burning at the ruins were almost extinguished entirely. She came to the edge of the ruins using the Wind Travel spell, and saw the soldiers of the Dragonslayer Army waiting outside anxiously. They were decent fighters, but they were not cut out for rescues.

The soldiers grew excited seeing her out there with them, but the destruction of the palace remained a sad event no matter how one were to word it. While they had not been spending a lot of time staying there, they nonetheless knew full well that the place had been fundamentally a fortress. Their ordeal with the grade-9 sorcerer had been a depressing one. Unless said sorcerer was grounded, surrounded in very close distances by a great number of fighters, and strafed by Alchemy Crossbows from all sides, there was no way they would be able to even make the grade-9 sorcerer bleed. Even then they’d need military commanders kept on with the assault in conjunction with several grand mages who were willing to suffer heavy elite troop casualties.

The difference in grades were simply too great. No conventional army would have been able to take the grade-9 sorcerer down.

“All of you did well saving a great many. Saleen is currently training in the magic tower, which will require about two days. Take my personal order and go help hold the line at the south of the city. Your mission is to serve as reserves. When the first two lines of defenses are taken down, you all will go plug the holes,” Lex spoke as she took out the personal order, and handed a combat serial badge to Gusion. Gusion’s army was only able to acquire supplies at the front lines with the badge.

The southern city wall was in a dire state. Daliang City was unlike most cities of the Qin Empire, which were built close to the mountains. Daliang was built instead, with wide tracts of flatland on all sides, making it impossible to assign the garrison of any side to reinforce other sides.

Lex thought she might as well go take command of the battle at the south within the magic tower there. The tower was equipped with a sound amplification magic array, enabling Lex to give orders to the entire army of the city at the same time, should there have been a need to do so.

The Cloudflow invaders were not as cowardly as most thought they were, while the soldiers of Bitterwater prefecture consisted mostly of new recruits. They were able to hold the line due only to the edge they had with the walls on their side and being armed with better equipment.

The garrison in the south was excited to see Lex arriving. One-hundred death mages were even gathered at the barbican, summoning dead spirits by the thousands and having them run amok outside the city. That way they fortified the line of defense in a clean manner. The breather provided by the deployment of dead spirits allowed for the damaged catapults in the city to be replaced and repositioned.

The grade-9 sorcerer did not head back to the army after venting his rage. He had instead returned to the new city near the sea. Destroying Lex’s palace was only an act fueled by passion at that moment. When he was done, the sorcerer’s temperament as a Cloudflow citizen returned. He even felt a bit of regret on what they he.

“Will this result in the retaliation of the Grukos family? The sorcerer knew well that no matter how strong he was, he was no match against the entire clan of Grukos. The size of the Grukos’ land and the extent of their power was probably second only to Alchemy City’s.

The thought had the sorcerer seriously considering returning straight to Misty City. The war was not his. Having followers end up dead was still a better option than having ended up dead himself.

If Lex had known what was going in his mind, she would have been steeped in rage and frustration. No one would have expected someone so cowardly being able to pull off something so drastic in the heat of passion. Cloudflow people were indeed a unfathomable bunch.

Without continued attacks from the sorcerer, Daliang was able to fortify its defense and began retaliating. The wedding was completed and the Cloudflow invaders had had no chance of taking the city. That meant the war would not last long.

Metatrin City in April remained cold, as the snow on the peaks of the mountains had yet to melt. Ancient trees preserved within the city were all in vibrant green though. Some plants planted by Eleanor were full of life. The city had a prosperous look to it.

The city’s operations remained steady even after Saleen’s departure. While the Oceanic Ice Block was rendered off-limits, the territorial waters of Metatrin were still teeming with low grade magic beasts to be hunted. While official records from the municipal council stated that the population of the city still remained below the one-million mark, Metatrin City’s population had grown to more than one-hundred and twenty-million.

The one-million mark was an important cornerstone signifying a city’s development. Daily operations of a city with a massive population would have been difficult without the help of mages, even grinding to a halt without them.

Metatrin City however, never had such concerns. The city was originally designed and built by mages. Methods of supplying water and heat were taken after cities before the fourth dynasty.

There was one underground water reserve for every square mile in the city. They supplied every single household using metal pipes. The sewage system went even deeper into the ground, and was designed in a manner different from contemporary cities. Disintegration took place at early stages. As such, the sewage flowing underground had little to no toxic elements in it.

There were garrisons stationed in the northern and western towns, with the bulk of them focused around the temples. The remaining troops were stationed at camps near the walls. The military and the civilians were segregated; everything was in order.

Merchant ships from Qin were seen to number by the hundreds at the docks. Many had no choice but to wait at sea. Most merchants were not there for magic nuclei, as even common goods were just as attractive.

The southern city consisted mostly of Caucasus people, but a lot of temple guards and their families moved there as well. The northern city consisted mostly of nobles while the western city consisted mostly of commoners. The temple region remained the most quiet.

When the temple guards were formed, their equipment was replaced in phases, enabling them to truly become a fighting force. Lithushanga barbarians and Caucasus people trained by fighting each other every day. The intensity of their sparing rivaled gladiatorial matches. As the alchemy factory was established in the southern city, low grade mages and apprentices were abundant. Injured troops were able to get swift medical attention.

The temple in the middle of the city was where Sika resided. She gave up on returning to the south. The elites chosen among the Caucasus were made into part of the temple guards, tasked with nothing other than her protection. No one wanted her moving about and doing much as she was pregnant. Martial arts practice was even forbidden altogether.

Sika, who was distressed, had no other way of venting her frustration but to drill her troops to the bone. She felt like she was only about to get any measure of comfort when her troops were thoroughly exhausted.

The person attending to the day-to-day affairs of the temple guards was Jola for the time being. His assistant was the younger sister of Duke Guya, Sharman. She was gradually becoming accustomed to leading a proper army throughout the months. She became capable of giving orders with the mind of a general. Jola might not have been a good general, but he was knowledgeable in how to train a capable general or swordmaster.

Sharman was not known for her intelligence, but she was able to learn quickly given her age.

Her height remained diminutive despite being another year older. The armor of a general looked rather funny on her as a result. The tall helmet, with a feather of an intermediate flying magic beast on it, became a source of grievance to her.

Having just trained the magic shield infantry, she was still in the field. Sharman struck the ground repeatedly with her short sword, releasing wave after wave of sword aura. “Saleen, you good-for-nothing. Getting married yourself and dumping me on someone like Jola.”

Jola tapped her shoulder as she was still steeped in her thoughts, which frightened her. Jola had always been able to get close without her noticing, as if he was an assassin.

“What do you want!?”, Sharman had always had a loud voice, the volume of which she only turned down when she was buttering someone up. The problem was that she was a lieutenant of the temple guards, which meant there was no one she was able to butter up. Sika was definitely off-limits, while Jola gave her a headache.

Jola smiled at the maiden, “Dear Sharman. It is a hot day out here, you can take off the helmet if you want too.”

“Hot? Tell that to my arse! Stupid Metatrin City!”, Sharman evaded Jola. She distanced herself and asked, “What brought you here?”