Badge in Azure

Saleen was, on that very day, a king and a grade-8 sorcerer. He was one who had command over both grade-9 professionals, as well as grade-9 elemental creatures. He was but an orphaned beggar when he was a child. In a place like Sikenqinya, there was no hope for having nobles even help to raise him to adulthood.

Viscount Gug was one of the most friendly and kind aristocrats among the nobles to be found within Sikenqinya, yet in Ceylon City, Saleen had still almost starved to death.

Saleen’s fear of starvation was never truly gone. Ever since he got his hands on spatial equipment, he filled the equipment with food that would last him a lifetime. Even after he became a grade-8 sorcerer and his body evolved, thus making him have less need for food, his childhood trauma remained something unresolved.

Mages within magic towers all used specialized magic arrays to pick up external sounds in order to have a firm grasp of what was going on outside. Sounds filtered by such magic arrays did not possess offensive abilities, so such equipment was standard equipment in every magic tower. The sounds emanating from the face at the angel of fear’s torso however, gave even someone like Saleen a headache despite him being used to debuffs.

Saleen cut off the connection between the tower and the outside world without hesitation, yet the frustrating noise refused to leave his head. He tried using Mental Shock techniques to dispel the noise, but the attempt proved useless.

Saleen then tried meditating, but soon found that he failed to enter a meditative state no matter how hard he tried. That was bad news. A mage who was not able to meditate was no mage at all. Saleen frowned as he took out his family badge, and cast a grade-0 spell.

The family badge worked as it always did, absorbing his magic chords and mental powers. All debuffs came piling onto him, yet a smile spread over his face. The noise disappeared right away after he used the badge.

“Darn angel of fear!” The noise was erased from his mind, but the unsavory past that he was forced to remember was not something he was able to just shut out. Saleen felt hate for the first time at a monster. “This thing must die! I don’t care if my broken jade can control this angel of fear, I’m not keeping this thing.”

“Do you really think you can really shut me out, by just isolating the sound?” the angel of fear circled around the divine tree magic tower. The long blade on her shoulder shimmered with black aura like it was breathing, making the blade seem like it was contracting.

Saleen saw the lips of the angel of fear moving, but he was unable to hear what she was saying. There was no doubt that her voice made it inside the tower. Saleen continued his conversation with the angel of fear, “I understand where your powers come from. A simple source, really. Powers refined using the fear in every living being. Such powers are but a derivation of mental magic. Any professional above your level would be able to take you down easily. You are but a monster filled with high-level materials. Stick around if you dare. By the time I’m done crafting your body, I will make your soul suffer until the end of time!”

The angel of fear did not take Saleen’s threats to heart. The equipment left behind by the gods had a lot of weaknesses to exploit. She she would be able to break through it within just two or three days.

Saleen and the angel of fear were in a deadlock with each other. His divine tree magic tower absorbed the power of earth element, rendering it nigh-indestructible. Even if there were loopholes the angel of fear would not be able to break through it any time soon. That was due to the level difference in terms of materials used.

The massive statues guarding the entrance stood silently before the abyss. They were no true elemental creatures; they were simply constructed puppets created by modeling them after the stone statue soldiers. The constructed puppets did not attack any further after kicking the pan’s turtle alchemical boat away.

There were hardly any creatures nearby. Any who would have come would have been swiftly killed by either magic arrays, the single-horned white whales, or the puppets. Normal pan’s turtles would have been torn apart after taking that one kick.

Within the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, that was then lodged within the rock wall, the winged skeleton and Nicholas were depressed after finding themselves stuck. Escape was almost impossible. The constructed puppet then came up and delivered a flurry of punches and kicks to the ship, lodging the ship tight into the wall. The cave, that had collapsed from the collision between the ship and the rocks, was also shut tight by some powerful force.

It was simply impossible for those trapped inside the ship to get out by using teleportation arrays.

The ship was the winged skeleton’s equipment. While it was possible for him to simply put it away, doing so would force them out into the water. Nicholas was unable to bear the pressure of the seawater for long. His Scepter of the Fallen was unable to sustain him for long in such an environment.

There were still many spirits on the ship, but they could be stored with the Green Spirit Gem. The twenty-four ancient warriors had little to worry about when it came to surviving underwater.

Soldier laid out the current situation with Nicholas, and Nicholas replied, “Even if you were to head out right now, do you think you’d have any chance against those statues guarding the cave?”

“I could do something if it were just one of them. I have command over the twenty-four ancient warriors. The statues should be grade-10 creatures of some sort. Killing one should definitely be no problem if all twenty-four warriors were to lay siege on it,” the winged skeleton did not hide anything from Nicholas. A massive statue standing at more than two-hundred yards was something that would take them a while to take down if they were to simply keep cutting at it. Worse still, the statues packed quite a powerful punch.

“It didn’t seem to do anything after our lord burst through,” Nicholas said.

“You want to follow?”

“Do you really think it would better to just sit here and wait?”, Nicholas asked the winged skeleton, surprised.

“We should at least leave a permanent magic coordinate, or master will not be able to find his way back here,” Soldier said, and put the entire ship away. He had been trapped by a grade-9 sorcerer using Sigh of the Earth before. That time however, there was no damage on the pan’s turtle alchemical boat when they just put it away. The exterior of the ship did not actually stick into the walls.

Nicholas was experiencing such an eerie happening for the first time in his life. His body left the hold of the ship and landed on the ground, making even a grade-9 professional like him look rather confused and awkward.

The twenty-four ancient warriors landed on the ground without problem, and surrounded them both. The massive constructed puppet’s kick was fast and ferocious. It was also buffed as a magical attack. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was rendered stuck into the cliffs more than ten yards deep.

As the exit was completely blocked, and the cave made by the ship crashing into cliff was about as big as the ship itself, there was little seawater to be found beneath their feet. Outside the cliff, the constructed puppets were only about one-hundred yards away.

Within such a distance, even dormant constructed puppets would be able to detect movements around the cave. Soldier summoned some ghouls and had them spew sticky fluids, corroding the rocks blocking their way slowly.

The ghouls were only grade-4 creatures. That hardly made them worth notice by the constructed puppets. They would definitely not trigger the magic array within the puppets. Such creatures would not even be able to make it that far into the cave in the first place. The path leading to the abyss had many twists and turns. The passages would have barred any entrance for creatures below grade-9, as they would simply end up being killed by the magic arrays within.

The soul flames of the ghouls were only able to remain intact thanks to the help of the winged skeleton.

The winged skeleton was able to sense the incredible powers reverberating within the cave after leaving the ship. It was a power infused within the ground of the ocean floor, which was extracted by the magic arrays humans laid, that would never run dry.

It was fortunate for them that the rocks were not some strong magic material. The sticky fluids spewed by the grade-4 ghouls quickly ate away at the rocks inch by inch. Such minute movements had indeed gone unnoticed by the constructed puppets.

They were only able to make a hole big enough to fit two people at a time on the ten yard thick rock, after the winged skeleton directed the ghouls for about four hours. The winged skeleton had even needed to cast a magic barrier when their way was almost carved out, to keep seawater from gushing in.

The pressure from the seawater there was immense. If the seawater had indeed gushed into the sealed hole, not only would Nicholas have been unable to withstand the impact, the resulting boom would definitely have attracted the attention of the constructed puppets outside.

After setting the barrier in place the winged skeleton had the ancient warriors chip away on the walls slowly with their knives. It was to make their final exist. There were many kinds of magic barriers. Barriers conjured using death magic allowed for one side to be passed. That kept the seawater out while enabling them to still pass through the barrier. Two ancient warriors took their spears and made their way out.

Soldier came out last. Seeing the lack of reaction from the massive constructed puppets one-hundred yards away, the winged skeleton was rather pleased with himself. Nicholas cast a buffing divine spell on himself: Light of Salvation.

As he was a fallen holy master, the spell did not bring about the dazzling brilliance which the spell was known for when cast by adherents of the Lord of Glory. His version rendered him covered by pitch black darkness instead.

The twenty-four ancient warriors were not things that could be put away. They were something classified to be between living beings and spirits. Even Soldier did not know why there were no soul flames within the ancient warriors. Common sense said that the ancient warriors should have been dead a very long time ago.

Nicholas felt secure in having so many grade-9 warriors around him. He took the Scepter of the Fallen and passed through the magic barrier, making his way out of the cave.

Being enveloped by the Light of Salvation, the immense pressure from the seawater hardly impeded his movements. He did a rough calculation and determined that one such divine spell would have lasted for only an hour under such depths.

The Light of Salvation was a grade-9 divine spell, and a powerful defensive divine spell at that. Divine Protection could no longer be used in his case, as that spell was the only power that fallen holy masters were unable to steal. Nicholas was glad that he continued training with the Light of Salvation. It was seemingly a sign that he was destined to betray the gods.

Nicholas reminded himself that it was not the time for reminiscing. The winged skeleton behind him spread his bone wings and charged out. He carried a battle axe with him. The magic arrays resembling human eyes on its sides conjured black Light of Spirits. That time, the winged skeleton had intended to use purely physical attack spells.

It was Death Break!

Soldier moved incredibly fast. His bone wings seemed like fish fins in the water, propelling his movements. Twenty-four ancient warriors tailed right behind him. Their twenty-four spears were pointed unanimously at the massive constructed puppet about one-hundred yards away.

With the Winged Skull above, and the ancient warriors below acting without warning, Nicholas was briefly at a loss of what to do. He had only been quick enough to buff the winged skeleton with a lesser prophecy spell in time: the Immunity from Death spell.