Badge in Azure

Nicholas knocked on the door to Saleen’s quarters. On the ship, only the quarters of mages were sealed off. Other than the ones who followed Saleen to the oceanic ice block, there were also more than four-hundred demons added to the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel on that expedition. The Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was finally fully-staffed.

“Nicholas, come in.” Saleen’s door opened on its own. Nicholas walked in and saw a huge ball of water flame floating in the air in front of Saleen. Fear struck Nicholas’ mind somewhat every time he saw the water flame. Getting touched by something like that would have dire consequences. Any warrior of lower levels would not be able to do him any harm with something like that being about.

There were two Caucasus warriors in the room; his personal guards were not with him. The Caucasus warriors saw themselves off as they saw Nicholas coming in.

“My Liege…”

“Nicholas, you are here to ask about Lonestar City, no?” Saleen continued crafting his Eternal Control shard. He was only crafting one at the moment, meaning that he had enough mental power to chat with Nicholas.

“Indeed, my liege. Do you really not worry about Her Highness, Lex?” Nicholas tried to ease his tone as much as he was capable as he asked.

“What is there to worry about? Aini is a level grade-8 sorcerer. Heh, as far as defense goes, Lonestar City won’t fall unless the Holy See is ready deploy quite a bit of holy masters at them. Tell me, what has Holy See been busy with as of late?”

“The breaking of the frontal assault of the Qin forces, of course. Qin has war puppets, and the puppets are what they need to avoid facing. They would be suffering great losses otherwise.”

“So, it would be hard for the Sikenqinyans to acquire support from the Holy See. They may be allied, but things will hardly be any different. The location of the war puppets is the northernmost highway in Qin. If the Holy See wanted to hit the central part of Qin, they would have needed to go south. All that talk about fighting at three fronts and all, it was pure crap indeed.”

“But my liege, the Sikenqinyans have a one-million strong army, and Lonestar City is no Metatrin City.”

“Well, Nicholas, tell me how to go about it best then?”

“Deploy all forces to Lonestar City, of course. With the power you now have in your hands, the Sikenqinyan army would be nothing. Metatrin City needs only to hold out. With sir Jason in charge of the garrisoned sorcerers, the city won’t fall even if the Cloudflow fleet was to launch a massive assault. You will then have Her Highness Lex call out to Daliang City, crushing the Tanggulasi forces with a pincer attack from the north and the south,” Nicholas elaborated without stopping for breath.

“Strategically-speaking, there was nothing wrong with that, but my initial plan laid out with Aini right from the start was to hold Lonestar City out.” Saleen cast a glance at Nicholas with gleaming eyes.

Nicholas’ mind froze. Saleen’s words were akin to a bolt of lightning flashing through his mind, shining brightly at every dark corner there was.

Saleen nodded slowly. “Nicholas, strategically-speaking, we shouldn’t be helping Qin.”

Nicholas had only been overpowered by Saleen’s brutality at that moment. “So, Saleen had decided to cast the Qin Empire aside right from the beginning. Indeed, if there was no Holy See, what excuse would he have to attack Qin then? The Qin is Lex’s familial land though!”

“Holy Rock City recently refused to help us out. Alchemy City also created trouble for us too. Nicholas, we can’t just keep giving and giving. If Holy Rock City wants something, they need to pay the price for it,” Saleen said calmly, yet every word seemed like a hammer knocking down hard on Nicholas’ mind.

“Even if Saleen got rid of Grand Duke Iron Blood, he wouldn’t have launched an assault on Kroraina like he said before. It wasn’t due to Saleen not having such powers; it was now due to him having enough power to affect how things play out on the mainland instead. He’s using the Holy See’s power to crush Qin, and then he will take Qin’s land in a perfectly justifiable manner, which would be then put under Lex’s name; this has all been part of Saleen’s plan. So long as the northern side of Qin is taken, at least half of the nobles on Qin’s south end will respond to Lex’s calling and became part of Bitterwater Prefecture. No, that would be no prefecture by then. An empire would be taking its place. What Holy Rock would be able to control, is no more than a great, yet old city. It will no longer pose a threat to Saleen’s kingdom. With the Six-winged Flying Snake mark in his hand, the power of the Grukos family will have to acknowledge Lex’s way of doing things. All that was probably decided when Saleen acquired the Six-winged Flying Snake mark.”

“Nicholas, Lonestar City is like a nail, and one that the Sikenqinyans won’t be able to pull out. The twenty-four warriors under Nailisi’s command were more than enough to keep the city safe. With Lonestar City there, it would be able to hold an army of one-million strong back. Anyone who intends to attack the Kingdom of Metatrin will have to walk through Phoenix. I will keep fortifying the line at Huoxing City, no, I will annex Phoenix, and have it become a part of the Kingdom of Metatrin!”

Saleen’s ambitions were laid out for all to see, and Nicholas had no further questions. He simply spoke lightly. “But, my liege, her highness Lex…”

“She is smarter than I am. She just didn’t want to move against her own little brother.” Saleen’s answer was not a direct one, yet Nicholas was able to get what he meant. Saleen did not hold anything back from him. It was just that Saleen did not like talking about things like that.

The hammer on Qin would be brought down sooner or later. Saleen had already showed immense patience for not taking the most direct route to it.

“Nicholas, you don’t understand. The problem is actually with Alchemy City. Don’t you think that Alchemy City has been a little too passive?”, Saleen elaborated on the critical points of things, seeing how the old man did not seem to catch on.

“No, my liege. The critical point lies with Lonestar City. That place controls the roads leading to Qin, Kroraina, Lianyun, and Sikenqinya. Alchemy City will fall sooner or later. What they are doing is like digging their own grave.” once Nicholas became clear of what was going on inside Saleen’s head, a lot of questions got answered and his mind became as clear as a sunny day.

Saleen looked at Nicholas with a smile. “That old man finally decided to truly follow me now. All those attempts at trying to carve out his own faction back then, I guess I will just let all that slide then.”

“Nicholas, I think I will need you to do something for me.” Saleen finally felt like opening himself to the old man, after seeing that Nicholas had become truly loyal to him. “I need you to make more holy masters fall and become my people. No, not my people, your people!”

“Make them my people?” Nicholas was shocked to his core.

“Nicholas, will fallen holy masters become gods?” Saleen asked.

“Of course not. Gods require true faith. We are simply stealing. While we use the power of faith, the principle of the fallen holy masters’ way of advancement was no different from mages.”

“So, no matter how great of a force you have made for yourself, I will not go after them. My enemies are the gods.”

Nicholas felt a great burden being lifted off his shoulders. With Saleen telling him about something like that plainly, he became free to go build his own force. That was how Saleen showed him trust, and that meant he would no longer need to do things behind Saleen’s back, and that felt great to him.

“Nicholas, do you know why I need you to do something like that?” Saleen asked.

“I don’t know, my liege.”

“Fycro,” Saleen spouted the name in a nonchalant manner. Even though he had gotten six grade-10 leaders of elemental creatures literally under his belt, he still felt immense pressure around that name. He would never be able to win against such a powerful oracle without advancing into grade-10.

Nicholas’ relieved mood tensed once again. Fycro, the powerful oracle, a thorn in Nicholas’ side. When he was forced by Fycro to fall, Fycro left means to subdue him in the soul bead, and there was nothing he could have done about it.

If it was not for Saleen breaking the lurking peril within his soul bead, he would have never been able to shake off Fycro’s control. That was also why he had been unable to follow Saleen in a dedicated manner.

“Nicholas, Fycro wants to become a god, and for that, he needs to die. I may be able to fight him and win one day, but I will never be able to destroy the faith built around him. The reason I need you to make more people fall is to destroy that faith. How is the blood soul tower?”

“It is amazing.”

“What does it mean for holy masters to have something like that with a lurking peril within?”

“It is ego and the ambition to become a god!”

“If I just let you go back to Fycro’s side, would you have liked to do so?”

“Definitely not!”

“Right, then make more holy masters fall. I want Fycro to be unable to find even one qualified believer!” Saleen said with a smirk. He initially had no choice but to keep Nicholas around. Fycro had forced his hand back then. In time Saleen wanted Nicholas to become Fycro’s nightmare.

Nicholas recalled Saleen’s resolve when entering the oceanic ice block, and the pressure in his mind was greatly reduced. Fycro had been the greatest obstacle in his life. He would not be able to advance, even with Saleen’s protection, as long as Fycro was still around.

Saleen’s fleet made its way south. Nailisi led a battalion of temple guards heading west on the highway of the Kingdom of Metatrin. In the days Saleen spent within the oceanic ice block, Metatrin City sent great number of death and elemental mages to open a straight path, with the help of the mechanical puppets.

The highway mimicked the ones in the Qin Empire, with the narrowest part being nine yards wide. The highway was a straight one and led west, stretching near five-thousand miles before turning north. At that point it was truly was all towering mountains. No number of skeletons and bloodstones would have been enough to make roads.

When observed from above, Metatrin’s highway was sickle-shaped, drawing a curve around the mountains. Caves were even needed to be made in the mountains when necessary before the road could be built further.

Such caves had cost countless skeletons, with some even being mid and high-level spirits. When Saleen departed at sea, Nailisi’s reinforcement had already made their way to the north of Lonestar City.

It was a fortress belonging to the Kingdom of Metatrin, locking down the tunnel path leading into Metatrin City. The garrison was only five-thousand strong, yet the Sikenqinyans did not choose to launch an attack regardless. That was due to the fact that the fortress was one built on the side of the mountain. When things went dire, the mages within the castle would simply destroy the cave and block the way thoroughly.

Without that road, entering the Kingdom of Metatrin would have required going further north to look for openings in the mountains. The detour would have taken them further away. The Sikenqinyans simply chose not to bother about the place, as the garrison within the fortress would not have dared to come out and face them. Five-thousand against one-million would have been like throwing eggs at stone walls.

Nailisi’s arrival did not alert the Sikenqinyans. Her temple guards snuck into the fortress and delivered a letter meant for Lonestar City.