Badge in Azure

Sharman came to slowly and touched her head with her hand, before jumping up abruptly and pointed at Aini. “You! You…”

Aini had knocked her out with his staff. Sharman had the wrong idea about mages, thinking them to be inferior to warriors in terms of strength. Mages who made it to the rank of sorcerers, even the likes of Saleen, would be something normal. They could have bore down on swordsmen with a swing of the sword.

“Sharman, go check things out with the temple guards. There are dead and injured demons over there,” Saleen cut Sharman off.

“Big brother Saleen! I’ll go…” Sharman was reluctant to leave Saleen’s side but seeing how Lex wore a solemn and severe expression herself, she knew in her mind that something dire happened, and that was something that was beyond what was she was capable of handling. Everyone within the magic tower possessed greater combat capacity than she did, even Aini.

Sharman left dragging her feet, and only then Saleen returned the Twelve Notes of Purgatory back to Nailisi.

Aini hesitated for a moment and asked, “Saleen, is this thing a godly item?” Aini only addressed Saleen directly by name when there were no outsiders around. He stuck to addressing Saleen as his highness when there were three other dukes around. Aini had not wanted to see any of the dukes being dissatisfied with anything. He shared a close relationship with Saleen. Saleen did a lot for him, which he had kept in mind. He would have been doing his lord as disservice if he was to displease any of the nobles serving under Saleen.

Saleen took a look at Lex. Seeing that no outsiders were around, she lifted her left hand, showing the God’s Ring on her finger.

“I had wanted to use this thing to contain the radiation of the Twelve Notes of Purgatory, but there seemed to be no reaction doing so. As such, it would be safe to say that this equipment is of the same level as my God’s Ring. The God’s Ring…is something created from the bodies of true gods, which was handed down from the first ancestor of the Grukos. A piece of the heavens is sealed within. While it is not limitless, the size of it is comparable to the Myers Mainland itself. The power I’m capable to wield with it far exceeds my own level. Anything that the God’s Ring is unable to contain, would definitely be a godly item.”

Aini was able to comprehend her elaborations. There were two types of godly items: superpowered gear created by humans, and high-level equipment crafted by the gods. Both types of godly items shared one characteristic—they were definitely items beyond grade-12.

“Nailisi, let’s go in and have a look. We’ll see what this thing is like…”

“I’d rather not. I don’t have good control,” Nailisi shook her head furiously. The reason behind it was simple: she still felt pain when she entered the purgatories. Controlling the purgatories felt the same as well, as it was capable of reminding her of the pain she had went through.

Saleen understood Nailisi’s feeling, and as such, he said, “We’ll need to get it sooner or later. I’ll go in with you. That beats going in there while doing battle.”

Nailisi nodded slowly. She opened up the purgatories. The solid picture did not appear that time. A gate in the void sucked all three of them in it, and she followed into the purgatory of demons.

Saleen spread his senses and found that the space of the purgatory was not big, but it sported a partitioning that was different from before. The original Twelve Notes of Purgatory was like rooms being pieced together, with walls separating the rooms in between. Anyone powerful enough would be able to simply tear down the wall and cause havoc to the space within the purgatory.

The collection of purgatories was separated by an intangible void that was not traversable. All manner of power: mental powers, and even souls that were just as intangible, would have been deflected the moment they touched the void, barring travel into it altogether. Despite being said, the void worked differently from mirrors when it came to deflection. It appeared as if there were innumerable folded spaces creating a deflection angle.

Such methods of partitioning worked just like the barrier separating planes. If coordinates were not available, even magic would not be able to link two planes together. It was not until one were to possess mastery of rules surpassing that which separated the planes, that such folded spaces could be traversed, making travel between planes at one’s will possible.

Such powers capable of tearing the separating barriers apart did not exist below grade-12, and only above grade-16 would one be able to actually travel between planes while ignoring the barriers entirely. Between grade-13 and grade-15, traversal between planes would still be troublesome, and should not be attempted lightly.

As such, it was said that when the crafting of Nailisi’s Twelve Notes of Purgatory was truly completed, the collection of purgatories would turn into something that was able to confine gods with some effort.

The flaw of the gods in such levels became very apparent. A grade-18 god would be no match for a grade-18 professional. If it had not been for the fact that the gods were in great numbers and possessed innumerable, inexhaustible amounts of believers, the war of ages past would have probably ended differently for the humans—an ending that would not have had humans ended up being pitiful losers.

When the equipment was upgraded to the highest level, not even the king of gods would be able to make it out safely. The collection of purgatories would simply sever the connection between the gods and their believers.

Only when a piece of equipment became capable of such a feat, would humans call them godly items.

Saleen had no idea how far the power of rules had spread. He had already sent out men to search all over the place piloting Wings of an Elf. He stood on the ground of the purgatory of devils, observing with his Elemental Eye. He was able to make out that the landmass of the purgatory to have equal length and width, which was thirty-six yards respectively.

Nailisi was able to feel that the space was expanding as well. She was unaware that Saleen was still looking for loopholes within the space they were in.

The space was completely controlled by rules instead of magic arrays. Saleen had only come to that conclusion after researching it for quite a bit. If it was a space that was created using magic arrays, his Star Gathering Needle would have been more than enough to destroy it. It went without saying that professionals with more power would have been able to wreck the space with other kinds of equipment all the same.

“Nailisi, I’m going to do one thing, and I need this space of yours for ferrying troops. Expand it as much as you are able, so much so that you can enable demons to actually stay here.” Saleen and Lex looked around for quite a bit, and they were still unable to find any loopholes with the space. They then made the decision in their mind, that they would attack Sikeqinya using the equipment.

Saleen and Lex felt rather excited at the prospect. While their army of demons were powerful, it was utterly impossible to move using stealth when done conventionally. If the space was to be expanded further, it would have served well to keep countless demon armies within. Anywhere warships were able to reach, Saleen had only needed to have his magical elemental tower erected and fly up the shore. Countless demons would have been able to be summoned easily afterwards.

That was how ancient humans went about their assaults, which enabled them to ferry great numbers of troops and transverse planes.

The original plan of theirs had required them to wait until Lex advanced into grade-19, or even grade-11, before she became capable of storing lifeforms within her God’s Ring. That meant troops in that case. Nailisi’s success in crafting true equipment capable of ferrying troops happened at a very convenient time, which enabled the ancient tactics of war to be used again on the Myers Mainland itself.

Nailisi’s the Twelve Notes of Purgatory had always been able to hold lifeforms, but even demons would not be able to stay long within. Only a handful of mages were capable of staying alive within it for extended periods using special skills. Conventional troops would simply be killed off by the inherent elements of the equipment, if they were to be thrown within the original Twelve Notes of Purgatory.

“Master?” Nailisi did not know what to say. She found out that when she entered the purgatory of devil, she did not have a single room there…it was something that happened on its own, and that required time. “I can arrange for demons to come stay here, I…” Nailisi stuttered, reluctant to tell him that she feared that place.

“Who would you need to assist you, tell me.” Saleen thought her tired look made her look rather pitiful. The imp was able to feel pain when expanding her own space within, and she was not able to tell if it was all just an illusion. Regardless, Nailisi held on to Saleen’s hand and did not let go.

“Nailisi, what happened?”

She looked completely helpless.

“Eleanor,” Nailisi blurted the name. She felt that she was able to relax when she was with Eleanor, as she had no need to be on guard against the elf.

Saleen thought for a moment and said, “Well then, return to Metatrin City for the time being. You won’t be needed here for the fight. Go seek help from Eleanor and have some demons from the Demon City stay within this space.”

“Yes, master.” Nailisi let out a sigh of relief. She had originally intended to keep collecting souls there. Having more than eighty-thousand souls at her disposal enabled her to set the foundations of the devil space right. It would not have done the space any more good collecting more souls. Seeing how Saleen needed her demon armies, she knew that he needed them to launch an assault. He indeed had no need for her to hold the place they were in.

Saleen had forty-eight ancient warriors at his disposal, thus making him more capable to hold his own in a fight than she did.

Saleen waited for everyone to leave the purgatory of devils and then sent Nailisi away, before discussing it further with Lex and Aini.

“Aini, how much of the spirit army can you maintain here?” Saleen tried to gauge Aini’s combat capacity.

“The limit of my summoning is eight-hundred-thousand spirits, but if I were to actually keep them, I would be able to keep only six-hundred-thousand, and I need more than two-hundred death mages’ help to do that.”

“So that is to say that you can replenish the loss of one-hundred-thousand spirits within three to four days, no?” Saleen asked while doing the calculations in his mind.

“Four days at most. If we don’t have to keep fighting, three days.”

Saleen clapped his hand and called for the twelve ancient warriors standing guard outside and said, “I will hand over command of these twelve grade-9 warriors to you. Will you be able to hold Lonestar City?”

Aini peered at the twelve ancient warriors for a moment and said, “Saleen, these warriors are powerful, but how come their souls are so weak?”

“Sigh…” Saleen sighed. Every time he laid eyes on the ancient warriors, he was reminding himself that grade-9 sorcerers were no big deal. In ancient times, grade-9 professionals served as little more than elite troops. The ones most pitiful in a war were the soldiers. They would have to move forward even if that led only to their deaths!

“Don’t bother with that. Make good use of these grade-9 warriors. I won’t be able replenish their numbers for you for a while.”

“Saleen, you are going to attack then?” Aini heard the conversation between Saleen and Nailisi, and he was able to make a good deal of deduction out of that. Aini had wanted to make use of Nailisi’s equipment for ferrying troops. He would not want to do so if he did not intend to hit some faraway targets.

“Indeed. I’m heading to Sikeqinya. As such, Lonestar City has to stay in one piece.”