Badge in Azure

Lex wracked her brain on how to infiltrate the Sikenqinyan Empire, locating Bain with her hidden arts. Bain was had serious injuries, and he had only six of his men left with him. Lex snatched the seven assassins away from the surrounding mercenaries and ran nonstop until they reached Didypus.

The march of an all-magic army was incredibly fast, and reactions of the likes of mercenaries could have never hoped to catch up to Lex’s forces.

Unfortunately, the regular army of the Sikenqinyan Empire was deployed. The army was even split into two groups and made their way straight for the Kingdom of Metatrin. Lex was soon caught in a pincer maneuver as soon as she got out of the Chaotic Swamp. It was fortunate that Aini was building a city there, which deployed an army to take Lex back.

As Sikenqinya had truly formed an alliance with the Holy See, the regular army deployed was over three-hundred-thousand strong, and more mercenaries joined the fray. An army of a size close to one-million surrounded Lonestar City.

Worse still, the attack was backed with support from the Tanggulasi Empire, the army of which broke through the gap between the territories of Bitterwater Prefecture and the Qin Empire. The army divided the land controlled by two states and went straight for the borders of Qin. The balance of forces at Kroraina was once again broken.

The army deployed by the Tanggulasi Empire was of a never before seen size. The Qin Empire was not even able to calculate how large of a force they were expected to fight. They were hardly able to do anything but receive news delivered using magic. One city after another of theirs fell. The Tanggulasi Empire pushed on regardless of casualties suffered. Such manner of attack would not last in general, yet the Tanggulasi forces were able to push all three fronts to places just less than a hundred miles away from the Qin border.

The northern nobles were terrified, as the bulk of their armies were still inside Kroraina. The Tanggulasi army kept outflanking their enemies, separating the expeditionary forces the northern nobles sent into Kroraina. They trapped and isolated forces.

As if things could not have gotten any worse, in the eastern seas, Alchemy City’s line of defense finally fell. Cloudflow warships entered the Qin Empire’s eastern waters and kept harassing the shores. Holy Rock City deployed over one-hundred-thousand hastily to defend Lianyun City. Under such a situation, Metatrin City was unable to even trade, and was unable to deploy much to help Lonestar City.

The Holy See had finally gathered the forces of three empires to launch a general offensive against Qin.

Sika was in charge of Metatrin City, and she was unsure if the Sikenqinyans were simply feinting it. If she were to deploy forces to reinforce Lonestar City, Metatrin City would be deemed ripe for picking, even with thirty-six sorcerers holding the fort at Metatrin City.

There was hardly any point of deploying forces to Lonestar City if no sorcerers were deployed as well. The Sikenqinyan army had large numbers of mages among them. It seemed like Emperor Danny deployed every mage he was able to find in his place.

In the middle of April, the Ancient appeared near the waters of Metatrin City. The port encased in dread was suddenly bustling with noise and excitement. The few boats left at port that went out to receive the giant ship all had their crew rendered mute from the sheer size of the Ancient.

There were no other sounds to be heard other than the waves and the wind. The soldiers were astounded; they had their mouths gaping wide open at the miracle of a time long past.

The Ancient would have been able to park at the city’s port, but Saleen had the warship anchored at sea nonetheless. It was ready for attacks from Cloudflow at a moment’s notice. When Saleen and the entourage of mages and soldiers taken with him to hone their mettle walked down the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel, and saw the empty port, he did nothing but curse at Alchemy City under his breath.

Qin merchants did not dare venture between Metatrin City and Lianyun City. Ports further down south did not even have ships going out to sea. The port at Metatrin City was left with only a handful of warships.

The bone warships were all destroyed in the battle of the Separation Sea. Metatrin’s navy currently consisted only of the dozen or so ships that Saleen took with him to the oceanic ice block. The small-sized warships were adequate to handle pirates but were completely useless against the Cloudflow fleet.

Saleen still had several islands at sea that did not have much development from the get go, and as such, served only as supply points for warships. If the islands were to be attacked, the forces stationed there would prove too weak to do much, and they would fall quickly.

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat went into the underwater boathouse while the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel parked at shore. The soldiers at shore were relieved at their return. With the return of the main forces of their fleet, defense of the shoreline would be a lot easier. While the soldiers were no mages, they were nonetheless able to tell that the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was very powerful. Warships crafted from the bones of dragons had initially only been deemed the stuff of legends.

Saleen did not make an extravagant entrance and simply made his way quietly back to the temple. He went to see his teacher, Jason, first. His teacher did not let him stay for long though, sending him off to see his children instead. Saleen had Nailisi and Soldier return to their quarters, then he went to see Sika.

It was noon and Sika was not around. The two children were playing with a small animal under the watchful eyes of the Caucasus warriors.

Seeing the animal his children were playing with had Saleen’s expressions looking very nasty. The animal was smaller than Saleen’s palm. It had tiny scales, a thin, long tail, and horns like toothpicks. It was but an extremely weak grade-0 magic beast from the first look, but Saleen was able to tell that that was the mythical beast brought out from the goddess’ temple.

“Shouldn’t the mythical beast be sleeping? Why has it awakened?” It was without a doubt that letting his children play with the mythical beast was very dangerous. Even if it was one that had just hatched, it still possessed skills enough to cause lethal damage after all.

As soon as the children saw Saleen, they turned around and ran in his direction. Saleen bent and picked up both of his children.

“Papa!” their childish voices filled his heart with limitless warmth. He spoke to the Caucasus warriors in anger nonetheless, “How could you let the children play with something like that?”

Saleen was busy being angry and failed to take note that his children were just eighteen months old. It was a wonder that they were still able to recognize him with him being away for so long. That would have surprised Saleen initially, but he was burning with rage at the moment seeing his children in danger. He had not been able to take in the wondrous fact of it.

“Your highness, it was the prince and princess who insisted on playing with the beast. Her highness Sika was not even able to keep them from doing so.” The Caucasus warriors who served Sika were all loyal to her, and those deemed trustworthy enough to be entrusted with the care of the children were among her closest. These Caucasian warriors were friendly to Saleen, and they did not take offense at Saleen’s attitude.

“Papa…” Saleen’s daughter slapped at Saleen’s face, which he found rather painful. It was only then he realized that his daughter was just eighteen months old, yet the strength she had was greater than most regular soldier’s. He was a grade-9 sorcerer and the toughness of his body easily rivaled that of a grand swordmasters. That did not stop the child’s slap from actually being able to hurt him!

“Gwaahh…Uuurrghh!” The beast cried and ran to the corner of the room.

“Pa…pa…” Saleen’s son was not as good with words as his daughter was and pointed at the mythical beast with his finger.

“What happened?” Saleen asked the Caucasian warrior.

“Her highness Sika advanced to the rank of a nature priestess; she somehow awakened the beast. The prince and princess took a liking to it and insisted on playing with it. Rest assured, Your Highness, the little one isn’t all that dangerous.”

“Isn’t all that dangerous?” Saleen looked at the sharp fangs of the mythical beast. While there were only four of them, Saleen believed that the baby beast was capable of biting through the breastplate of magic armor.

Saleen’s son also slapped at Saleen’s face lightly like his daughter, while extending his other hand and pointed at the mythical beast running to a corner.

Saleen hesitated, but nonetheless walked to the corner of the room with his children in his arms. Saleen was surprised to see that the mythical beast stuck its head into the corner of the wall and wailed. “Just what is happening here?”

He gave up holding his then struggling son and put the boy down. His daughter struggled as well, straightening her legs. Saleen had no choice but to put her down too.

His children walked to the corner confidently. He saw a wooden stick appear out of nowhere into his son’s hand. The stick looked very familiar to Saleen, and it did not take him long to find out why; it was a branch from a divine tree. With his magic tower crafted out of the four divine trees taken away by the great grandmaster, he was then short on divine tree materials. Seeing the branch in the boy’s hand made him want to just snatch it away from the boy.

The following action of his son stopped him from doing so.

The eighteen month old boy whacked at the mythical beast’s head with a loud crack. The collision between the head and the stick was strong enough to spout out sparks.

Saleen’s daughter then took out a rope, which was surprisingly one made out bark from the divine trees. Saleen had crafted it to tie up important figures in the Holy See, yet Sika simply let her daughter play with it like a toy.

Seeing his daughter making a noose on one end of the rope, Saleen was rendered speechless. “What is with this little girl? Isn’t her intellect growing a little bit too fast? Is it really true that children of nature priests inherit knowledge directly from their parents?”

The mythical beast kept digging at the wall with its tiny horns. The material of the temple was built according to specifications of magic towers, so its horns were only big enough to dig out a visible dent on the wall, before being stuck. Saleen’s son whacked at it with the stick again, causing the beast to wail in pain.

The little mythical beast had no choice but to climb out, due to the whacking being too painful to take. His daughter went right up and tied the noose at its neck. She laughed happily after tying the noose tight, taking it to Saleen.

“Are those two really my children?” Saleen could not have believed his eyes. His children, bullying a mythical beast.

“Your highness, her highness Sika is a priestess. That thing won’t dare harm her children. Besides, both of the children…” a tinge of regret was written on the Caucasus warrior’s face as she paused. She knew well that Sika did not intend to have either of the children become a priest or priestess. “They have great strength. That thing is unable to fight against them,” the Caucasian warrior continued.

“Unable to fight against them? Do you know what that thing is?” Saleen was a bit irked. Knowing that the Goddess of Myers was a grade-18 god, it was only natural for him to be on high alert around the mythical beast. The higher the level of a god, the higher the level of the mythical beast kept around them.

“That thing seems to be a mythical beast baby,” the female Caucasus warrior answered.

Saleen was all in a knot by then. “What do you mean mythical beast baby? Mythical beasts are mythical beasts. They are dangerous!” Despite how his children tortured the animal, he did not see any anger in the animal’s eyes, only grievance. “That little thing is dangerous. Haven’t you see what it is capable of?” Saleen asked the Caucasian warrior.

“I did, but its skills were quickly disrupted by the children. It won’t dare try anything like that again,” the Caucasian warrior answered.

“They were capable of disrupting skills?”

Saleen was silent for quite a while. He was still unable to securely disrupt skills cast by people of his own level. Back when he advanced to the rank of a mid-level mage he could not disrupt skills. He had only begun to master the techniques for disrupting cast skills when he became a sorcerer. “Did my children just developed the powers of a sorcerer?”