Badge in Azure

Saleen’s fleet traveled very slowly as the ancient combat vessel led the way while the skeletal warship stayed at the rear to clean up the magic beasts in the sea that had been killed by the ancient combat vessel. The dragon skeleton combat vessel became Nailisi’s ship. The winged skeleton decided to go to the pan’s turtle alchemical boat to continue looking for the route towards the Oceanic Ice Block at the bottom of the sea.

The magic compass became dysfunctional occasionally when they were near the Oceanic Ice Block. The mountains at the bottom of the sea did not change drastically, so they could be used to draw out a map of the underwater. It would be easier to enter the Oceanic Ice Block in future.

They would cover two to three-hundred miles a day, and as the number of floating blocks of ice increased, the ancient combat vessel had to be more careful not to crash into them.

If they were to crash into a floating block of ice head-on, the vessel’s hardiness and the sharp horn at the front would be able to break the ice apart, but it would also use up the more expensive grade-9 magic nuclei. Saleen did not wish for such wastage to happen so the Mechanical Soul had no choice but to reduce its speed. He had no interest in seeking out the single-horned white whale cemetery because there was nothing in it for him.

Saleen made use of that period of time to create twenty-four shards of eternal control. Saleen, Nailisi, Nicholas, Eleanor, and the water puppet were on the Ancient.

“Genga, give me one-hundred clones and open up the smallest cabin. I need an ancient warrior.”

“Master, I cannot guarantee…”

“Just do it,” Saleen said impatiently. The Mechanical Soul was really disobedient. It was true that the Mechanical Soul did not have control over every single corner of the combat vessel, but there should be no danger in opening up a single cabin. There were more than one-thousand clones on the vessel and they were all extremely powerful and hard to kill.

Controlling an ancient warrior on the vessel should not be a problem, yet the Mechanical Soul kept putting up a resistance. Saleen was irritated.

“Alright, Master, please follow me.” One of the clones bowed and opened one of the doors on the deck, inviting Saleen down the spiral staircase.

The three levels above had been cleaned up thoroughly by the Cloudflow soldiers. The Mechanical Soul duplicated itself according to the diagram, but there were only slightly more than one-thousand clones spread across the vessel that was more than a mile long and three-hundred yards wide. It seemed a bit too spacious.

At the rear of the vessel, Saleen came to the fourth level. There was a hive structure in the cabin at the rear. The cabin was meant for tens of soldiers to sleep in and it was locked up by a red metal door. The shape of the door was circular with magic words carved into it. In the middle was a complicated magic lock.

“Open the door.” Nailisi stood on Saleen’s left while Nicholas stood on his right and Eleanor stood behind him. As the place was narrow, there were only slightly more than ten clones around him.

The Mechanical Soul had no choice but to devour the metal door. As the red metal door slowly became silver in color, the magic lock was decoded instantaneously by the Mechanical Soul. After tens of thousands of years, the magic lock was no longer supported by spells, so even middle-grade mages would be able to break it by using their magic chords.

The Mechanical Soul knew that the warriors in the cabin were all asleep and they were all extremely powerful. Even at his current grade, he had no wish to face them. He had no choice since Saleen had given the order. He decided that he might as well devour all the metal components of the cabin so that it was within his body.

The door opened without a sound. Saleen did not dare to be complacent. He had many layers of water shield underneath his ice plate armor. He was familiar with how the ancient warriors fought by and was certain that such defensive measures would be able to block off one or two blows.

After advancing to grade-7, his water shields would be able to reduce half of the warrior’s attack.

Inside the door was a simple rectangular-shaped cabin. The space was limited and there were forty beds placed on both sides. On each bed laid an ancient warrior that was fully dressed for battle.

The ancient warriors wore tainted blood armor. When the door opened, their eyes popped open immediately as they turned their necks and woke up from their sleep.

Saleen did not expect the warriors to wake up immediately. According to his estimation, the souls of the grade-9 warriors should be extremely weak and should take at least an hour to wake up. The amount of time required for souls to regain their powers was twelve times that of the reduction in elements.

Fortunately, there were only forty of ancient warriors, which was much less than what Saleen estimated. His crystal ring had already been returned to the water puppet, so before the warriors could rush out, the water puppet was able to seal off the door long enough for the Mechanical Soul to close the door once again.

At the end of the cabin was a rack of weapons. On the rack were forty long lances and half-swords that humans in the past loved to wield.

“Nailisi!” Saleen saw ten warriors leap up from their beds and were about to charge out of the room. The remaining thirty warriors dashed to the weapon rack to pick up their long lances.

Nailisi had no choice but to activate the Twelve Notes of Purgatory and the ten warriors fell straight into the Purgatory of Darkness. Nailisi dove in after them and turned into her devil-form once she was there. Out of her four arms, one of them had yet to recover. A powerful impact had broken one of her arm into several pieces when she was hunting a white bear king.

Three arms were more than enough!

Nailisi took out a long lance and a new giant shield. She smashed her shield down and all ten ancient warriors were within her attacking range.

By then, the Purgatory of Darkness had more or less been completely restored. There was only silence when the giant shield smashed down. The warriors had only just regained consciousness and their souls had been close to dissipating. Even ancient spells like the one on them would not allow them to live past tens of thousands of years. The condition that the warriors were in could be considered as half dead.

The mages that designed the Ancient in the past would never have imagined what was happening so far in the future.

The ten warriors pierced their long lances upwards and into the shield. The shield was one yard thick and was extremely heavy. If Nailisi had not transformed into her devil-form and utilized the Power of the Giant Dragon, there was no way she could have raised the shield.

In the boundless darkness, the senses of the warriors were at their lowest. After their lances pierced into the shield, all of them were crushed by its weight.

They had not been refined by the bone alchemy technique, so their heads were crucial yet unprotected. Tainted blood armor might possess powerful defense abilities, but they were no match for such a heavy metal shield. The ten warriors were in a daze after being crushed by Nailisi’s shield. They tried to draw out their long lances, but they were crushed onto the ground by the shield once more.

Boom!

By the time they were crushed for the third time, there was a red light glowing on the surface of the warriors’ bodies. Their heads passed through the shield while their bodies infused with it.

Nailisi released her grip and the shield fell, with the upper bodies of the warriors on it.

Blood-red aura and sword aura were different from each other, but their effects were the same. Nailisi’s shield did not kill the ten warriors. Nailisi knew that this was because her weapon was not of good quality. If she had used the skull of the giant dragon on the dragon skeleton combat vessel, the grade-9 warriors were as good as dead.

Nailisi had expected that outcome. Back then, when her devil-form was considered to be very resilient, she had tried to step on a grade-9 Holy Master who was protected by Divine Protection. In the end, the Holy Master’s body penetrated her foot and it took a long time for the injury to heal completely.

Nailisi swept her long lance across and viciously struck the brains of the warriors stuck in the shield.

That time around, Nailisi made use of the weight and length of the long lance, along with its speed and angle of attack to the maximum. Even the grade-9 warriors were no match for such an attack. The red aura was dissipated by Nailisi’s long lance and the warriors were knocked into unconsciousness.

Nailisi’s long lance was like a giant dragon’s tail in the darkness. She used it to whip the warriors into a daze before stabbing them to death with the sharp tip.

In devil-form, she possessed power beyond grade-9. Nailisi was familiar with the fighting style and abilities of the warriors, so she was able to employ the strategy of subduing them with the shield, which was something that usually required the use of magic spells.

After killing the ten warriors, she quickly left the Purgatory of Darkness and returned to the cabin.

“Master!”

“Nailisi, don’t worry.” Saleen stood there calmly. The thick metal door was already closed, but the magic lock could no longer be activated. The warriors inside were attacking the door with their weapons. Tips of lances with bright red aura kept piercing through the door and it looked like they would eventually cut out a big hole.

“I will kill them all!” Nailisi said simply.

“Alright, just kill another six at most.” Saleen’s reply left the Mechanical Soul feeling faint. No wonder Saleen did not want him crossing Nailisi’s path. She was one vicious character.

What the Mechanical Soul did not know was that the warriors had just regained consciousness. Since the Purgatory of Darkness could control the warriors’ senses, the fight was always going to be one-sided.

Boom!

There was a sudden crash into the circular metal door and a hole appeared. A warrior that was exuding blood-red aura rushed out with a long lance aimed at Saleen’s chest.

The golden magic book in Saleen’s hands flipped open and Endless Night was cast!

The grade-9 warrior had rushed into darkness that knew no bounds. Darkness elements fed on his weapon and armor. If not for the protection by his red aura, he would have been melted into a part of the darkness by the grade-9 Endless Night.

Saleen opened his elemental eyes and quickly found the central location of the warrior’s Power of Life.

“Stone Statue Army!” Another grade-9 spell was unleashed from Saleen’s devil armor. Six towering stone statues dashed out and blocked off the hole in the door. The stone statues had elemental bodies and six of them would be produced every minute for up to three hours. That technique might not be very useful to mages, but in such a small and narrow space, the six stone statues would be able to protect mages for a very long time.

Eleanor nervously notched an arrow on Seven Nights. If Saleen made a mistake, she would have no choice but to shoot down the grade-9 warrior. If Eleanor failed, Nicholas was already prepared to cast a Fallen Prophecy spell to stop time and save Saleen.