Badge in Azure

“Saleen, if you are willing to come back, I will give you a key. You can open the astrology tower of the imperial city with it, and gain the lineage of the astrologer’s. To mages, being able to see your fate ahead of you means getting yourself one more life,” Aragorn said, trying to tempt Saleen.

“I want to ask…have you, great grandmaster, practiced astrology? I have heard that astrologers are people who are just too lazy to practice magic, as they have greater power,” Saleen’s mind was firm, and he refused to simply sign the contract because of Aragorn’s words.

“Astrology is not something that can be practiced so easily. The ones doing so need luck. The very reason why we died in battle was because we lacked luck, otherwise, with our powers, hehehe…”

“You believe in things like luck?”

“Luck, is one of the highest rules there are. This is different from faith. Luck is something you can control in your hands. Saleen, we are people who have lost luck. If we were to practice astrology, you would perhaps be able to help us escape from it all.”

“Escape what exactly?”

“The shackle of our gravestones!”

“Great one!” the great grandmaster shouted, but decided against talking Aragorn out of it. He saw how calm and collected he looked. Their gravestones protected their souls from decay, but without being free from the shackles of their gravestones, they would not be able to venture too far from their gravestones. That meant they would have to stay at the cemetery for all eternity.

“So you wanted the stuff of the gods to break yourselves free from the shackles of your gravestones then. What happens if you leave?” Saleen’s mind calmed seeing how the souls still possessed desires, and that meant there were still ways to work at things.

“What else? We will of course continue doing battle, and kill all those detestable gods!”

Aragorn’s words almost had Saleen mistake him to be a lunatic. Having questions about the gods in his mind still, he asked, “Will gods really cause the collapse of a plane?”

“Of course, when a plane is rendered under the rule of a god, then the lifespan of that plane will be set to be one-billion and eighty-million years. The gods will rob the entire plane of its essence, turning a plane into an interdimensional space. It will then finally decay into a place where even space will be rendered unstable. The place will be full of elemental storms, and no life shall ever grow there again.”

“That is why you hate the gods?”

“No!” Aragorn laughed. “All this should belong to us humans, yet the gods go about wrecking it all! Tell me, should we not feel angry about it?”

“Alright, let’s talk about astrologers then.”

“What is there to talk about? You give us what we need, I give you the key. Then you just go look for the lineage yourself,” Aragorn answered in a natural, lax manner.

“I go there myself? The abyss is a very dangerous place. I’m afraid I will end up dead before I find that astrologer’s place.”

“It is only the first contract between us. I won’t want you dead. Saleen, just say yes.”

“If I say no, I can’t leave then?”

“Indeed,” Aragorn answered shamelessly, yet Saleen knew those souls had already been very polite and friendly with him. Given their levels and temperaments when they were still alive, having them make deals with someone like him was something really absurd to begin with.

“I will need to add another line to the contract then. When the contract is over, you will need to be responsible for my departure from this place, within a month,” Saleen said.

“Done,” Aragorn pointed at the Contract of Fate and another line of ancient scripts appeared, cementing Saleen’s request within.

Saleen only took out his magic brush then and wrote his name on the Astrologer’s Contract. The Astrologer’s Contract shimmered, and the words disappeared in a whiff of green smoke, leaving a star chart behind. The star chart fell onto Saleen’s hands, and Aragorn said, “Keep the star chart. It can be used for writing further contracts. These are rules beyond grade-18. Even gods would not be able defy the conditions written on such contracts.”

Saleen listened carefully as he put away the star chart and asked, “I would like to ask then. How are the grades above grade-10 divided? What are the levels of gods?”

What Saleen had asked was hardly considered a secret to the souls before him. It was just that there had been gaps in the flow of knowledge throughout the generations. Even someone like Joey had limited knowledge on subjects like that. That made those souls the only one he was able to turn to.

“Grade-10 to grade-12 mages are sorcerers. Gods reaching grade-12 become true oracles. Beyond the rank of sorcerers, grade-13 to grade-15 mages are called grandmasters. Grade-16 to grade-18 are great grandmasters. There are no titles for levels beyond that, as grade-18 would be equivalent to the king of gods to the gods.”

“King of gods?”

“Yes. Grade-18 are kings of gods, grade-17 are greater gods, grade-16 are middle gods, and grade-15 are lesser gods. These are divisions created by us humans. The gods have their own titles, but we just don’t care about that. Grade-14 are demigods, grade-13 are pseudogods, grade-12 are greater oracles, grade-11 are middle oracles, and grade-10 are lesser oracles.”

“So you are saying that the grades after grade-10 have huge gaps in terms of powers in between them!” Saleen quipped nonchalantly.

“Indeed, for grades after grade-10, advancement of every grade is more difficult than the previous one. Advancements of humans between grade-10 to grade-12 can still be done easily, so oracles are hardly a match for us humans. We…”, Aragorn did not continue from there, as he had already heard from Saleen that the power of humanity on the mainland had suffer a massive drop.

They were on the primary mainland plane. The weakening of humans there would have also affected the ones on secondary mainland planes. There would hardly be any powerful human left in planes nearby the mainland.

“The contract is signed. I take it you will give me the things I requested?” Saleen asked with a smile. They would not do him harm given that they had signed a contract.

“Great grandmaster, you are up,” Aragorn turned around and retreated inside his gravestone, leaving Saleen to the great grandmaster.

The great grandmaster was exasperated as he waved for Nailisi and Soldierto come forward.

The winged skeleton and Nailisi went to stand before the great grandmaster. Saleen took out a dimension stone and put away the tower the great grandmaster crafted for him.

“You two. Who will go first?”

“This one,” Nailisi pointed at the winged skeleton. She did not do so out of good intentions. She was simply curious about what the great grandmaster would be able to pull, allowing her to possibly to ask for the moon later.

The winged skeleton took a step forward and said, “My body is one that just got replaced earlier, and is very unstable. I also have two broken weapons,” he said as he pulled out his battle axe and meteor hammer.

“I have some experience in death magic, but I didn’t reach grade-16. Are you sure you want my help?”

“Yes,” the winged skeleton had no other choice. The great grandmaster said that their grade at death magic had not reach grade-16, but grade-15 would be very good still. Soldier himself had yet to reach grade-10. Grade-15 death magic was only something he was able admire.

The great grandmaster looked into the eyes of the winged skeleton and said, “You are king level already then. You have demon-crafted blood soul towers in there too. That stuff is upgradable, so I won’t be able to do much there. Your body…” the great grandmaster shooed his soul flames away from the body, and proceeded to take the bones apart.

“Bones of the angel of fear, and whale horns from single-horned white whales? This is a mess. You call this death magic?”

The winged skeleton stayed silent. The great grandmaster once again tore the space. He took out a green winged skeleton and said, “These are grade-13 spirit bones. They used to belong to a subordinate of my mine, but the soul has gone. I guess you can just take them then.”

The great grandmaster waved as he spoke, and stuffed the pair of soul flames inside the set of bones he just took out.

The Winged Skull sat down immediately and used death magic to take over the body. A grade-13 winged skeleton was probably the most powerful one in history. Soldier would not have been able to take over the body if the original soul within had not dispersed.

Seeing that the winged skeleton was doing fine with melding on his own, the great grandmaster moved on to his weapons instead of helping the spirit out.

The great grandmaster simply took a look at the weapons before throwing them away, and took out a pitch black bone with a length of about three-hundred yards. He then cast a black flame, which the three-hundred yard long bone was thrown into, crafting the winged skeleton’s battle axe for him.

The time spent on crafting the battle axe was surprisingly short. A seven yard long black battle axe was handed to the winged skeleton. It flew right into his left eye socket before Saleen was able to learn anything. The great grandmaster followed with the meteor hammer, taking out a huge piece of metal, which was thrown into the black flame. Within less than twenty seconds, a meteor hammer identical in size to the broken one was finished.

The great grandmaster threw the meteor hammer out, and it flew right into the right eye socket of the winged skeleton.

The great grandmaster thought for a bit, before taking out a dragon bone of about two-hundred yards long. The dragon bone was as white as snow all over, and without any sign of dead spirits. There were twelve bone chains on it, with a bone chariot on the other end of the chains.

The great grandmaster then gestured for Nailisi to step forward, after throwing the bone and chariot to Soldier.

Nailisi walked up with a bright smile and said, “Great grandmaster, I need even more weapons.”

“No issue with that,” the great grandmaster said, “State your requests.”

Nailisi was her in imp form and dared not take the form of the Goddess of Myers. She wagged her tail and took out her spear, the Sword of Rules, and three bone shields.

The great grandmaster spoke in a dismissive tone, “What a mess. You are the one that crafted the spear? All six Eyes of Rules, wasted. Take this instead.”

The great grandmaster waved and a streak of gray light zoomed past from hundreds of miles away. It was a complete silverline golden spearfish skeleton. It had a skeleton more than four-hundred yards long, with a spike exceeding thirty yards. Six Eyes of Rules remained intact on the bones of the fish, and without there was not even a scratch on the magic nucleus inside its skull.

Saleen’s eyes went bloodshot seeing all that happened on the side. The bones of that particular beast were probably above grade-12.

The great grandmaster seemed to be entirely ignorant of how precious those things were, and had simply cast a pale white flame before throwing the entire skeleton inside. The more than four-hundred yard long skeleton shrunk by tens of times and innumerable magic patterns were etched onto the bone. The great grandmaster then threw a dragon crystal inside, which melded with the gray bone.

“Such luxurious use of alchemic arts…it is something I will probably never be able to learn…”