Badge in Azure

Nicholas put away his fallen staff and took out his Forbidden Code. The Code was refined by Saleen from the materials he had gathered in Metatrin City.

It was more difficult to refine equipment for Holy Masters compared to mages. Fortunately, Nicholas already possessed the power of fallen faith as a result of his blood soul tower and was more powerful than before. After the constraints that Fycro placed on him had been removed, Nicholas was finally able to unleash the full abilities of a grade-9 fallen Holy Master.

On the purple cover of the Forbidden Code there were words written in the Tanggulasi language, which Nicholas was familiar with. Every Forbidden Code was different. All the words on the Code were written by Nicholas and all the souls that had been bewitched by him were the source of power for the Code.

Amidst the soldiers that had collapsed, Nicholas opened his Forbidden Code. There were only 24 pages in the Code and each page was written with the faith that Nicholas had created. He had only opened up to page six when tens of cursive words flew out of the Code and into the soldiers’ brains.

With a single shout, the soldiers sat up and looked around them before nervously reaching for their weapons. Nicholas asked in a low tone, “Why aren’t you kneeling?!”

He was speaking in the Tanggulasi language. When the soldiers heard it, it was as if Nicholas had instantaneously turned into an almighty God who had a halo high in the sky. Although the soldiers felt uneasy about it, they still knelt and bowed down to Nicholas.

“Carry on with what you all were doing. Don’t mention what you have seen. Go,” Nicholas ordered, and the soldiers obeyed.

Saleen was confused to see how quickly Nicholas managed to settle the soldiers. Nicholas smiled and said, “My Lord, the strongest among those soldiers was only a high-level swordmaster and most of them were swordsmen. It was easy to deal with them.”

“How long can you control them?”

“About two to three days. I don’t think we will be staying here for more than a day anyway. As long as these soldiers don’t encounter any mages or Holy Masters above grade-7, our secret will be safe. If they do meet any sorcerers, I can’t guarantee anything.”

“No worries. Sorcerers rarely noticed soldiers of such grades. Let’s go.” Saleen led them through the narrow corridor and headed towards the interior of the island. Saleen had followed Nicholas’ suggestion in splitting up the coordinates of the entire island into several regions. The prison was located in the middle of the island. While a distance of 20 miles might not be very far, they had to avoid patrols and would constantly have to stop here and there. If they reached a place that they could not pass through, they would depend on Nicholas to bewitch the soldiers with his Forbidden Code.

Saleen was shocked by how quickly Nicholas managed to control the enemy, even though Saleen and the ancient warriors were the first to knock the enemies down before Nicholas did what he had to do.

By then, Saleen had developed a more intuitive understanding of souls. He was able to guess that if the soldiers had been conscious, Nicholas would have had a tougher time against them. The technique could be utilized in battles too, but by controlling enemies to fight for you, one would also reduce the amount of time they had control over them.

Of course, the Forbidden Code could be utilized in other ways. It could also store divine spells, otherwise Nicholas would not have specially requested for Saleen to gather materials to refine that equipment just before they left.

Before they could travel five miles, tens of gigantic shadows suddenly appeared in the sky. They swooped past swiftly while letting out deafening cries. Saleen could not help but use his elemental eyes. He saw gigantic metallic monsters that were tens of yards long. Underneath the monsters were mounted magic lamps that would light up the places that they flew past.

Saleen cursed silently. “D**n these Cloudflows. They really managed to study those flying alchemy mechanics on the ancient combat vessel. These flying monsters were one out of more equipment on board the ancient combat vessel.”

Nichola was right. They would not be able to stay too long on the island anyway. There would be a significant number of sorcerers on the island. Once the soldiers that had been bewitched by Nicholas were discovered, they would be able to track Saleen and the rest down very quickly.

The sooner they could complete the rescue, the better. Therefore, Saleen decided to take the risk and increased his speed as he headed towards the direction of the prison.

On the exterior of the island, and along the wagon track by the sea, a group of elite soldiers were searching carefully. 200 men made up the group of soldiers and they were led by a sorcerer and a general. The general was personally accompanying the sorcerer in this search. The sorcerer was wearing a black magic robe, which had two rows of magic symbols on it.

The grade-8 sorcerer was close to two yards tall. His facial features were gentle and clean. He was moving slower than the other soldiers in the patrol. Although the general was following close behind him very anxiously, there was nothing much the he could do.

“Disgusting smell…” The grade-8 sorcerer pinched his nose and walked over to the palace wall before unleashing a detection spell. The light magic light shone on the palace wall and revealed traces of the wall being cut before.

“Here, a Holy Master has been here,” the sorcerer said as he pointed at the wall.

“Master, what exactly happened?” The general gestured to his men behind his back while asking the sorcerer. His men immediately blew a whistle, gathering even more soldiers towards them. Huge metallic monsters were still circling around in the sky. When the flying monsters descended down, the soldiers on the ground could smell a fishy smell that was mixed with metal.

The metallic monsters let out roaring sounds, as if there were hundreds of metal puppets inside them that were constantly clashing against each other. All the soldiers on the ground were relieved that they were not chosen to look after the metallic monsters. They had no idea how those that had been chosen were able to put up with such noise.

Two towering metal puppets were pushed up with giant axes in their hands. They managed to hack down the wall very quickly, allowing the soldiers to enter. The sorcerer chose to follow behind the soldiers instead of leading the way.

By then, Saleen had almost reached the prison. The location of the prison was a standalone stone fortress. Clearly, Grand Duke Iron Blood did not treat the fairer gender any better. Even though Cuisi and the other demons had turned themselves into beauties, they were still locked up together with the other demons. When Saleen reached the exterior of the prison, he bumped into a group of soldiers that were about to bring 10 or so demons out of the prison.

Although a demon city had been built in Metatrin City, demons were still considered something that was very rare to mages from other countries. They were often the subjects of mages’ research. The demons were chained up and they looked extremely pitiful. Their mouths were stuffed with metal balls and they could only let out sounds of anguish through their noses.

When Saleen saw that, he made up his mind to kill the soldiers. He shouted, “Go!”

The 24 ancient warriors pounced. Before the soldiers could react, their foreheads had already been pierced through by the ancient warriors’ long lances. The difference in grades was so huge that Saleen could not be bothered to command the ancient warriors. After killing the enemy, the ancient warriors easily dismantled the chains on the demons.

Nicholas shouted, “Loosen!”

The metal balls in the demons’ mouths and the metal chains on their bodies were all loosened. With one glance of his elemental eyes, Saleen knew who the strongest demon amongst them was. He threw a bottle of magic fluid to that demon before throwing over another huge leather skin, which was filled with restorative water.

Saleen said, “Distribute that, then follow us.”

That demon did not recognize Saleen, but fortunately, Nailisi has taught them well. The demons silently took the restorative water and drank it. Saleen led the way in front and did not pay much attention to the demons. From his magic robe, he immediately unleashed the grade-9 spell of stone statue soldiers.

Although Saleen’s devil suit was made of better materials, the spells on it had not advanced. The magic array that Gaine replicated was not as good as the one refined by Joey. There were only six grade-9 spells and he would no longer be able to remove the seal to advance. Besides, as astrologers lacked understanding of magic, the recovery time for the six grade-9 spells remained at six hours.

The only redemption was that the magic nucleus on the mask of the devil suit was of a higher grade. In terms of the power and speed of the grade-9 spells, they had all increased.

Saleen unleashed six stone statue soldiers. After their magic nuclei had been changed, the stone statue soldiers were finally wielding elemental war hammers. The stone statue soldiers were as tall as nine yards. They dashed to the front and smashed down the main door of the prison.

The prison was built like a fortress, so that huge puppets could come and go so naturally. It was easy for the nine yard tall stone statue soldiers to enter as well.

Everything happened so fast that the soldiers in the prison did not even have time to lock the main door before it was destroyed. Then, the 24 ancient warriors dashed in and stabbed the soldiers to death.

There was a small plaza after the main door. Saleen commanded the stone statue soldiers to stay here and block the entrance so that no one else would be able to enter. Then, he took out his magic compass and once he managed to locate Cuisi, he summoned six Midnight Fangs and six Vermillion Knights from his elemental badge.

The Midnight Fangs immediately blended into the shadows and laid in ambush while the Vermillion Knights commanded their flaming warhorses to charge towards the walls of the prison.

This prison was not built to withstand attacks from grade-9 creatures. If it had been a magic tower, a grade-9 creature would only succeed in destroying itself. Rows and rows of walls were knocked down by the Vermillion Knights. All the soldiers that tried to stop them were burnt into ashes.

Saleen led the 24 ancient warriors to the dungeon, where Cuisi and the rest were locked up. Once Saleen located the dungeon, Jola stepped forward and hacked off the gigantic magic lock.

To a golden grand swordmaster, only the magic locks of grade-9 sorcerers were difficult to handle. On the other hand, magic locks like that one, which was not even grade-7, was child’s play.

Saleen cast water shield on himself and jumped down. The entrance of the dungeon was vertical and there was a metal ladder for climbing up or down. Saleen was too lazy to use it. Ever since his return from the Imperial City of the Abyss, the way Saleen went about doing things had become more direct and efficient.

“Cuisi!” Saleen shouted. The smell in the dungeon was horrible. He was sure that he was at the right place, but his elemental eyes failed to spot Cuisi. His shout was embedded with a bit of power from the Angel of Fear and the rule of lightning.

All of a sudden, the ground began to shake, and a gigantic magic array was activated. The 24 ancient warriors pierced downwards with their long lances at the same time. The ground collapsed and revealed a water dungeon underneath.

In the water dungeon, four demons were chained up against the wall. When they saw the light of magic above them, they raised their heads.

“Your Highness, I knew you would come!” There was no joy in Cuisi’s tone, just an undeniable certainty.