Badge in Azure

Doom!

Saleen beat at the drum hard again, halting Jinn in their steps.

“Get back here, or I will wipe you out for good,” Saleen’s voice turned calm. He took out his family badge, and was no longer thinking up anymore tricks in his mind.

The training of one’s will was more than just to learn how to properly face a life-and-death ordeal. At times knowing how to let go was also one of the most critical and rare qualities to be found. Saleen would have gained nothing by killing Jinn with the badge. Doing so would have even wasted the badge’s attack, and there would not likely be yet another grade-12 angel of fear lying around for him to recharge the badge.

He would not be able to be at ease without killing Jinn though. As he put it himself, leaving the Divine Tree Magic Tower would have given Jinn a chance to deal a lethal blow to him. Despite the fact retaliation from him would be able to take Jinn’s life as well, doing so would be utterly meaningless by then to Saleen.

If he desired Jinn’s powers so much that he was unwilling to kill Jinn no matter what happened, that would be very foolish of him. Seeing how Jinn was about to turn around and run, he made up his mind right there and then.

He would kill Jinn and be rid of this menace for good.

Jinn turned around sharply. They were able to sense Saleen’s mind. The ability was an instinct inherent in grade-10 creatures, but it was also due to Saleen having no intentions of hiding his murderous intent.

“Can this human mage really just completely wipe me out?” Jinn was still having doubts. Regardless of the human’s understanding of powerful rules of whatever sort, he was still just a grade-8 mage. They deemed it almost impossible for the human to kill them still. Then again, Saleen’s adamant will did not seem to have a single bit of deceit in it.

“If you can…”

The tower wall right in front of Saleen parted all of a sudden and a thick bolt of lightning shot right through it, before Jinn was able to finish their sentence. The thundering sound from the badge was even more terrifying. It could be heard even from hundreds of miles away.

Nailisi and the winged skeleton both had soul bonds with Saleen, while the ancient warriors were not in any of the seventeen floors. Flare, however, was not able to withstand a thundering sound of such magnitude. The flames of their body exploded outwards and tens of cracks were seen on their body. Saleen wasted no time calling them back into the elemental badge in his hand.

Flare was left shaken to the core inside the elemental badge. It was fortunate for them that the Eternal Control shard kept their soul in one piece. The massive boom that took place would have severely wounded their soul otherwise.

Saleen had locked down onto Jinn. Given that both parties were near each other the bolt of electricity hit squarely onto their body, yet avoided the short sword. three-fourths of Jinn’s body dissipated in an instant. A crater appeared on the ground right behind where they stood. While the crater did not look as impressive as the ones created from the impacts of aria spells, and was not as powerful as the phenomenon of Jinn’s sword parting seawater, the crystallization within the crater still served as a testament of the attack’s power nonetheless.

All that was left of Jinn were two of their lower legs, and the forearm holding the short sword. Nailisi went right outside the magic tower without Saleen’s prompting, taking her devil form and flying straight for the short sword. There were still other dark elemental creatures lurking around prior, but all were rendered unconscious by the badge’s thundering sound. Nailisi made off with the short sword without any problems, and threw the arm and the legs into her collection of purgatories.

Saleen was still sharing senses with her, and was able to see her brandishing a huge spear. The spear was the one she originally had and repaired. All unconscious dark elemental creatures were stabbed one by one by her, tied up in a bunch, and thrown into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory. The broken elemental cores of the elemental creatures were quickly disintegrated and absorbed by the purgatory of darkness. Nailisi continued her slaughter and the purgatory of darkness was finally fully repaired.

“Nailisi, get back in here!” Saleen’s voice sounded harsh. The elemental creatures that Saleen had subdued all rushed at Nailisi. She felt danger ahead. There was an invisible Darkness Screen right in front of her.

The Darkness Screen was a grade-9 spell, and it was unknown how it appeared there. Nailisi shared Saleen’s senses, but she had not noticed it. The Darkness Screen had only revealed itself when she came about six yards away from the spell.

Nailisi took her devil form and grew to more than twenty yards tall. The spear in her hand grew to almost forty yards long. She thrust her spear at the spell while halting her steps immediately. She then quickly returned to her imp form after that. The spear in her hand was cast away.

The hundreds of elemental creatures behind her pounced at it and went right into the Darkness Screen. Nailisi turned around and ran instead.

The short sword that Saleen wanted was in her bracelet. If it was lost, Saleen’s lightning attack would have been completely wasted.

The Darkness Screen burst without making a sound. Eight dark tentacles reached out from behind the screen and swiped at the elemental creatures. Tens of the creatures were swooped up, and thrown into a huge monster’s mouth, which appeared out of nowhere.

“What the hell?!”

Saleen saw a dark creature with up to one-hundred tentacles crawling out from the ground. The creature was huge. The hole it made in the ground had a diameter of more than eighty yards. It looked to be a combination of an octopus and a crab. Two huge pincers were seen among the closely packed tentacles.

While the level of the creature was unable to be determined, it was definitely not as powerful as the angel of fear. Nailisi ran for the tower. The huge monster swept its way clean of all the elemental creatures that Saleen sent at it. Its ferocity made him determine it to be something of at least grade-10.

The warhammers of the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers and the swords of the Blue Ice Maidens, were all only capable of leaving flesh wounds on the elemental monster’s tentacles. The wounds dealt to the huge dark elemental creature quickly closed, just like the case with the Midnight Fang.

The monster lashed out with its tentacle, coming straight for Nailisi’s body. Without even bother turning her head, she threw a scroll at it. It was the Elemental Shock spell.

She was no mage, but her soul bond with one allowed her to use scrolls. The scroll was intended to be a tool for breaking large scale spells of mages. It would also fare adequately against elemental creatures.

The dark element was a very stable element, but under the effects of the Elemental Shock, the element ran rampant nonetheless. The monster’s tentacle blew up with a snap.

Nailisi wagged her tail and sped up, running right into the tower.

She took out the short sword immediately after entering the tower. She handed it to Saleen and took out her spear. “That was not the time to fight.” Nailisi had grown more mature, and knew that she should prioritize delivering the goods over fighting.

Crack…Doom!

A weird noise was heard from outside the magic tower. The huge monster bloated up and one of its tentacles had a mouth open on its end. It then floated upwards, and swallowed the entire Divine Tree Magic Tower from top to bottom.

The monster apparently did not have much intelligence. It was true that it had enough body mass, but when the mouth appendage reached the bottom of the tower, it attempted to swallow the entire construct down, and failed as expected. The mouth appendage then began biting on the tower with the teeth within. The attempt was futile as expected, as the tower was made of divine wood material.

Saleen put off dealing with the monster for that time being. His Elemental Eye was able to see twenty-four markings on the short sword. The markings had originally been hidden inside the sword, yet they appeared as soon as Saleen took hold of its hilt.

Saleen did not recognize any one of the markings. He was unable to even fathom where they came from. He was able to sense that all twenty-four of the markings contained different rules of power though.

Saleen’s mind twitched, and the twenty-four markings rose up from the sword in response, seemingly able to pick up his thoughts. Saleen twirled the short sword for a moment. He then saw an inscribed line on the hilt that read: “Sword of Rules”!

The script of the Ancient Myers language was elegant. The entire blade was made of metal, and the grayish material used to fill the inscription was something Saleen was unable to recognize.

“A pity that this is not an equipment for mages.” Saleen played with the sword a moment as he wondered who he should give it to.

“Master, what do you intend to do with that thing out there?” Nailisi knocked on the tower walls.

“Don’t worry about it. It will leave as soon as it finds that this is not something it can stomach,” Saleen’s Elemental Eye analyzed the twenty-four markings, trying to figure out anything that could have been of use to him.

Every attack dealt by the Sword of Rules contained the power of rules. The sword was an incredibly powerful piece of equipment. He had yet to come across any weapon with properties like it. An assassin armed with the short sword would be able to kill just about any mage they would encounter.

“Nailisi. Take this for the time being. It doesn’t seem like it will be of any use to me,” Saleen said as he threw the sword to her.

“Master?” Nailisi took the sword and looked at Saleen.

“Mages have little use for such a weapon. It would be better to use my own rules than to spend potentially too much time trying to understanding these ones. This thing will be of great use to you though. Even if you were to take your imp form, you have the spear for longer range and a sword for very close range. The defensive capabilities of the three shields have served well defending against grade-9 magic attacks. I would be relieved.”

Saleen felt a sense of relief as he elaborated. He suddenly came to realize a principle regarding the rules there. The twenty-four markings disappeared when his lightning bolt shot out, and that was due to the rules of lightning overwhelming the twenty-four rules on the sword. If he was to be able to gain a profound understanding of his family badge in the future, the twenty-four rules on the sword would be useless to him.

Knowing how to weigh one’s choices and make the right call was not the same as being able to do it. Saleen was then capable of such a feat. Despite having such a powerful weapon in front of him, he was hardly moved at all.

Saleen gained an even deeper understanding of his teacher’s intentions after throwing out the Sword of Rules. To rely on one’s own strength to train instead of using the six element space, or to go out on a personal adventure and to know the world; those were not some old-fashioned and pointless rules or traditions. All of that was meant to foster the vital conditions to help a mage to grow.

“Master, you…”

“Relax, Nailisi. I still have this,” Saleen waved at her with the badge, which sent a chill down her spine. Every time Saleen used his family badge, she was there to suffer the consequences with him. That was something the winged skeleton had never experienced. While she understood that such experiences would allow her mental powers to grow indefinitely, the pain incurred was still a headache to her.

There were a myriad of ways to practice one’s art, and her master chose the most difficult way to do so.

Saleen had only begun to pay attention to the dark elemental creature outside after having relaxed. The huge dark elemental creature swallowed the tower without realizing that the tower had roots reaching hundreds of yards into the earth. Its large and sharp teeth were still doing their best to bite down on the bottom of the tower, trying to snap the magic tower and swallow it down whole.

Saleen took up the bone mace and spoke to the winged skeleton, “Do you know of any way to kill that thing out there?”

“I do, master,” the winged skeleton looked outside the tower and answered calmly.

“Very well then. I will help you out from here. You just get out there and kill that thing,” Saleen said as he raised the bone mace and beat hard on the War Drum of Fear. The tens of thousands of pests within the drum shrieked and the linked soul of the angel of fear howled. A face twisted and writhed on the face of the drum, letting out an eerie voice.