Badge in Azure

Gloria returned to the elemental badge and Saleen took a look at Nailisi’s shoes. She smiled and said, “Master no. You should give these to Sister Sika.”

“Humph, no need. I’m thinking that if all ancient humans wore such clothing, then there is no need for us to search for any equipment for the time-being.”

“Master, do you think we can enter the core of the city?”

“A little difficult.” Saleen was frank in his assessment and said, “The exterior is filled with ordinary soldiers that are grade-9 creatures and a grade-10 leader. There will be even more danger as we go deeper into the Imperial City of the Abyss.”

“Then let’s forget about finding those items. Master, you are only a grade-8 sorcerer. You are still considered weak.” Nailisi was blunt with her words. Saleen patted her face, then sat down and began to meditate.

Saleen’s rules of meditation were passed down from Jason and his magic chords were able to restore very quickly. After an hour, Saleen managed to use the elemental badge to train his mental strength before replenishing it with divine crystal.

Nailisi searched through all three levels of the tower but did not find anything. She was not disappointed, after all she did not expect many things to be left behind in such a dilapidated city. The box that contained shoes was thrown into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory by Nailisi so that it could be used to repair equipment.

Not only was the Twelve Notes of Purgatory taking in all sorts of materials, it was also producing large amounts of rubbish every day. Not all materials could be used to restore the Twelve Notes of Purgatory so those that were not needed would be thrown out again. After the box was thrown into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory, it was quickly dismantled and absorbed. Other than some decayed metal on its surface, nothing else was thrown out.

Outside of the crystal tower, the water puppet opened the door and dashed in while shouting, “My Lord, something is coming!”

The huge door behind him closed automatically and not even a single droplet of seawater entered the tower. Only an extremely intelligent magic design would be able to prevent seawater from entering a space in a water-element dimension.

Saleen turned around and went up to the third level. This crystal tower was completely unscathed. Saleen stood at the window and looked into the distance. His location was two-hundred yards high and he was higher than all the surrounding buildings. When Saleen looked out the window, he saw tens of thousands of black shadows heading towards their direction on the streets of the city.

Saleen opened his elemental eyes and finally saw what the black shadows were. They were a group of things that seemed to have fused with dirt and dust and their appearance was like magic beasts that had curved skeletal thorns all over their bodies.

“What is this?” Saleen observed carefully and realized that the monsters came from several directions but were all gathering at the crystal tower. His memories contained plenty of information on strange and mysterious creatures, but he knew nothing about those monsters.

“Gloria…” Saleen weakly summoned the Blue Ice Maiden leader and used magic to create an image before asking, “What is that?”

“Master, that is… a pest.”

“Pest?”

“Yes, countless battles have been fought in the Imperial City of the Abyss and too many lives have been lost here. It was impossible for the mages to clean up all the soul shards, so these items can fuse together and turn into magic beasts of all shapes and forms. I think I participated in pest-control activities long ago.”

“What was it like?”

“I was only an auxiliary soldier back then. My job was to use Sword of Water Element to break down the pests’ soul shards even further.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Not really. They only feed on flesh and blood and will not attack elemental creatures.” Gloria was obviously speaking from her own perspective.

“Will the pests pose any danger to me?”

“Only some of them. Master’s soul-bonded creature can use its long lance to pierce them to death one by one. It may be troublesome, but it won’t be difficult,” Gloria replied nonchalantly.

“What about your subordinates?” Saleen had no choice but to press on.

“The Blue Ice Maidens? Vermillion Knights will be most suitable since fire elements can kill these pests very quickly. The Angel of Brightness would be a good option too since light elements are also very effective in destroying souls. Of course, the best is still the Midnight Fang. Dark-element creatures can turn these pests into tonic.” Gloria kept going on, but Saleen finally understood that the water-element badge and the ground-element badge would not be as effective as Nailisi’s long lance when it came to dealing with the pests.

Vermillion Knights, Angels of Brightness, and Midnight Fangs were three creatures that were even more powerful than stone statue soldiers. Saleen finally understood what Gloria was trying to say. Gloria did not mention wind-element creatures, which meant they would not be effective against the pests either.

It was best to use spells of the elements of fire, light, or darkness to kill the pests.

Saleen did not know much about light-element spells while dark-element spells were mostly of a manipulative nature or situational. He was most proficient in water-element spells, and considering the conversion of elements, he used fire-element spells quite often too.

The pests were made up of dirt and dust and were able to move very quickly at the bottom of the sea, where ground elements were rich. While Saleen and Gloria were conversing, hundreds of pests had already reached the crystal tower. Saleen could not tell how powerful the pests were. The core of the pests were soul shards. If Nicholas was there the pests were natural ingredients to be made into soul beads. To a fallen Holy Master, it was relatively easy to deal with soul shards.

Nailisi stood beside Saleen and started jealousy at Gloria, who was floating by her side. Nailisi would not be able to fly if she did not use her wings. At that thought, Nailisi transformed into spirit form. Gloria was confused by the appearance of the three-faced bone demon.

“Master?” Gloria pointed at Nailisi, not understanding how a creature of flesh and blood could suddenly transform into a spirit of the dead.

“Don’t bother.” Saleen retrieved Gloria and left the window to release Vinny.

“Vinny, the pests are coming. Ask your subordinates to protect me.” Saleen did not say too much before releasing thirty-six elemental stone statue soldiers and placing twelve of them on each level. The stone statue soldiers were twenty yards tall and that was the size at which they would be most agile. On the other hand, one-hundred yard tall stone statue soldiers would be suitable for charging into battle. Although the crystal tower was broad and open, it would not allow for one-hundred yard tall creatures to gather together and fight.

There was no use being afraid. There were tens of thousands of pests outside. Even the ancient humans had to form up soldiers to eliminate the pests, so they had to be hard to deal with. Saleen searched for the magic staffs in his hands and chose twenty-two of them. The spells within these twenty-two magic staffs were of light, dark, and fire elements.

As a grade-8 sorcerer, Saleen could cast around twenty-four grade-8 spells consecutively. After that, he would not have too many magic chords left. He must still save some magic chords in order to unleash the spells that had been stored in his magic staffs or scrolls.

Saleen would be able to cast twelve more grade-7 spells compared to grade-8 spells. That would still only amount to about two-hundred and eighty-eight grade-7 spells. That would not be enough to deal with the tens of thousands of pests. On the other hand, how much damage would grade-6 spells deal on those pests? Saleen was not confident at all.

Right then, he would still have to depend heavily on the water-element and ground element elemental badges. Each of the twenty-two magic staffs contained two grade-9 spells and they would only be used for Saleen’s self-protection.

Both Nailisi and Rossen were very capably helpers. At least Nailisi’s spirit form would be effective in killing the pests. On the other hand, the water puppet’s spells were created by the resonance of elements in his body rather than magic chords. That method would allow the water puppet to cast more spells than Saleen.

Although the water puppet possessed intelligence, he did not possess Saleen’s ability to plan and estimate. Saleen’s familiarity with the Figaro Magic Formula surpassed most grade-9 sorcerers, but the water puppet’s ability to plan and estimate was not even one percent of Saleen’s ability.

The most important difference between mages of the same grade was intelligence and not the number of magic chords.

Bang bang bang…

The knocking sounds kept coming and almost immediately, the pests dismantled their bodies to burrow through the gaps in the door to enter the crystal tower. The magic arrays in the tower only prevented sea water from entering, but not pests. Saleen was rendered speechless by such a design. If that was his own military depot, he would definitely have magic arrays in place that would initiate attacks.

Saleen was quickly amused by his own thoughts. If that had been the case, there was no way he would have been able to enter the crystal tower.

There were twelve elemental stone statue soldiers in one level. Tens of pests entered the tower in the blink of an eye. The pests were smaller than the elemental stone statue soldiers. The stone statue soldiers swung their war hammers and smashed the pests into pieces.

The floors of the crystal tower were smashed into pieces by the elemental stone statue soldiers. The pests were also smashed into dirt and dust, but after about ten seconds, they merged together again. Two of the pests pounced onto the elemental stone statue soldier and bit onto it. Due to the difference in grades, their attack was not very effective or obvious.

The scratches on the bodies of the elemental stone statue soldiers healed very quickly, but the number of pests entering the first level of the tower was increasing. There were no soul flames in the places where the head and eyes of the pests should have been. There were just black bottomless pits.

If the location of the pests’ soul shards remained unknown, the stone statue soldiers’ war hammers would only cause physical damage and not destroy the soul shards. At that rate, they would need about thirty to fifty attempts before they could kill a pest successfully.

Even though the elemental stone statue soldiers were many grades higher than the pests, they were still unable to destroy them quickly. It was a matter of attributes. The elemental stone statue soldiers focused too much on physical attacks, but they were not effective against the pests.

More than ten pests reached the second level of the tower. Nailisi, who was guarding the second level, saw the pests and immediately all three of her mouths and let out a sharp scream.

It was Wail of the Spirit! That was a grade-6 death magic spell. Nailisi was smarter than the water puppet. She chose to cast a powerful grade-6 death magic spell first to see if middle-level spells were effective against the pests. If so, there would be no need for her to use high-level spells. Even though she had absorbed the soul flames of two of the Three Kings, she could not possibly keep casting death magic spells without any limits.