Badge in Azure

In the Myers language, there was a set term for a concept—the revenge of mages.

The term had existed before the Ancient Myers tongue came into being. In actuality, the term itself had always been an independent one, harking back even before the Mark of Hatred existed. The Mark of Hatred used by the gods was actually something learned from mages.

Mages hardly spoke of vengeance, as everything was built upon the concept of equivalent exchange for them, and that included battles. When a mage was really enraged, they would plant a seed of vengeance on their enemies. The seed was something that could be sensed by other mages, attracting enmity towards the target.

Offending a mage meant having such vengeance perpetuated, until the soul of the target was no longer intact.

One was allowed to kill a mage, but one was never allowed to make a mage feel like they were being treated unfairly. Revenge of mages would be visited upon the one making said mage feel unfairly treated otherwise. It was a powerful mental type spell, and only usable by those of very high levels. When the power of humanity had fallen, people gradually forgot about the spell, leaving only the principle that one should treat mages well.

If one shall obtain something, one shall pay the equivalent price.

Earl Sufonso had offended Saleen and did it in a very bad way. If he sent people after Saleen, even if he were to persist until Saleen was reduced to mush, Saleen would not blame him for anything. Regardless of what started the feud, it was a fact that Saleen had killed someone else’s son.

Earl Sufonso had torn down Saleen’s family grave and did so in a very thorough manner. When Saleen had first returned to the stone house outside of the city, he had already sent the leader of the Midnight Fang to investigate. The result was that nothing was left.

Earl Sufonso had gone too far. To the people of the Myers Mainland, graves were something that should never be defiled no matter what. Saleen had lived a poor, wretched life since he was a child. What Earl Sufonso did was akin to driving a knife deep into Saleen’s heart. Saleen was still able to feel the pain even then, as such, he would have never given up getting his revenge.

Saleen thought differently compared to how he thought it once. It was appropriate to punish only the one responsible for matters like that. In Earl Sufonso’s case, he had someone else helping him with the task. Saleen had not want to drag others into it, unless…

He called for Nailisi and handed her a letter, ordering her to deliver it to the magic tower of Yaoyang City. If his teacher still held enmity towards that mage, he would let his teacher to get rid of them himself. He had no intentions of destroying that magic tower, unless that mage themself got in his way of exacting his revenge against Sufonso.

If possible, Saleen would have rather not get anyone else, not even a single person, into that.

“Master, if it was up to me, I’d do it how we did to Ironwall City. Send 300 metal flyers there, and Yaoyang City would be razed within hours. Why all the extra trouble?” Nailisi asked with full intention to incite his hatred further taking the letter.

“What we did to Ironwall City, we will never do a second time. Doing it once was for deterrence. Do it twice, and we’ll make everyone feel dread looming above them. If we go that way, no one else will be able to tolerate the existence of our nation any longer. They will have to get rid of us, before they can go get rid of Qin. Do you understand that reasoning?”

“I do, I do, master. So, what I meant was, can’t we at least go scare them a bit?”

“What makes you think I haven’t done that already? Just go and get back before it gets dark. There is hardly anyone that can be of use to me here in Ceylon City.” Saleen dismissed Nailisi with a smile, before taking out the dimension stone and releasing the Magical Element Tower. He then began crafting equipment for Lex. He had bagged massive amounts of red crystals, so much so that he was able to afford to splurge however he wanted. Lex was very good with fire magic, and Saleen decided to make her something specific for that.

Nailisi had recovered from her injuries in the past several days. Her devil form was severely damaged with its heart half-melted. It was fortunate that they had the body of the divine baby and the power of faith within that body with them, as well as the dead bodies of nearly 1,000 blue monsters. All that enabled Nailisi’s devil form to quickly heal.

She knew that Saleen wanted to get rid of Sufonso with his own hands, and thus dared not do anything to him herself. All she did there was to simply make her way to Yaoyang City in her devil form, with the letter in her hand.

Her new devil form sported three heads and four arms, and the wings were gone. Nailisi ran across the plains instead of flying by using demon magic. She did not bother hiding her aura, as her near grade-10 powers meant that no magic beasts would dare get near her. With the two extra arms growing on her back, manifesting devil wings became quite troublesome, as she had to put those arms away first. At that moment, she liked the speed she was running at.

Ceylon City was less than 500 miles away from Yaoyang City. Due to problems with the roads, a long detour would be necessary. Nailisi however, went in a straight line by scaling the mountains in her way instead.

She reached the outside of Yaoyang City before noon. Nailisi took a look at Yaoyang City from far and saw a pass.

If Ceylon did not have a port, the passage northward on land would have effectively been locked down by Yaoyang City. Merchants and armies were unable to simply scale mountains like Nailisi after all.

Nailisi smiled. While Yaoyang City was indeed tall, it paled sorely in comparison to Ironwall City. There was no sea to be found there, meaning the place had no retreat. On a narrow plain, one such city would pose as quite an obstacle to conventional armies. In the case of Saleen’s army however, he could have easily razed the place if he wanted to.

A seven-floored tower stood outside the city. Nailisi’s eyes were good enough to enable her to see the topmost floor, and there was yet another piece jutting out. It seemed that the sorcerer within was about to advance to grade-8.

Yaoyang City’s gates were shut tight, and the place seemed to be in a recession. Nailisi’s smile turned to a cold smirk. “So, Earl Sufonso knows Saleen is back, eh? And what? He thought he’d be safe by just shutting the gates?”

She opened her purgatory of devils and summoned 1000 demons. Nailisi became able to open large openings to her Twelve Notes of Purgatory, and her rate of summoning whatever lied within grew several times faster as a result, unlike how she used to need the beings to actually form lines to get in and out.

All 1000 demons came well equipped and followed Nailisi to the tower. The magic tower did not launch any attack. Nailisi stood about 100 yards away from the tower and called for one of the demons. She handed the letter to it and had it deliver the letter to the magic tower.

Hu An, the sorcerer of the tower, felt conflicted seeing the demon army from afar. If it had been in the past, he would have launched an attack and even took some for his research. Now? Everyone knew the king of Metatrin commanded an army of demons.

If he was to attack those demons, his days would be numbered.

Curiosity killed the cat as they say. Regardless of how tempting the research potential would have proven, it was far less than enough to have Hu An make a move. He was even anxious, as he heard Saleen had already taken Ceylon City and had begun expanding the place, even building fortifications. “It seemed that he was there to stay. What would happen to me if I attacked? I know well of Saleen’s feud with Sufonso from way back.”

There was no peaceful resolution to it. If he had been the one who had his family grave wrecked, he would not have even endured for as long; he would have thought of ways to kill Sufonso off as soon as possible. The reason why Saleen had bothered enduring for so long, was because he had his eyes set on taking all of Yaoyang City.

Seeing the tall demon walking in, Hu An asked his apprentice to get out there to greet the demon. Said apprentice’s legs were shaking as soon as he saw the demon, yet they dared not defy the orders of the sorcerer.

The ugly demon did nothing unbecoming however, and simply handed the letter to the apprentice, and then went outside the tower to wait. Hu An felt an itch as he saw the demon.

The air about the demon said that the being was a true warrior. While Hu An’s mind was still somewhere else, the apprentice brought him the letter.

The letter was not a large one, and it did not bear a wax seal. Hu An took out the paper and was already shaken before he read the content—Saleen had used starline paper to write the letter.

Astrologers went extinct a long time ago, and such materials suitable for making scrolls were only seen in Alchemy City. Such papers were also several times the price of conventional scroll paper.

The content of the letter was simple and to the point. The content, which was written with Dragon’s Blood Ink, read as followed: Sir mage, please leave Yaoyang City. Or else this place will be turned into yet another Ironwall City.

The signature said Saleen Metatrin.

Hu An’s mind was shaken, and the starline paper burned all the sudden. It was a hidden spell triggered by his own mental powers. Saleen meant this as a warning instead of an attempt to sneak up on him. A sorcerer such as him was hardly seen as a threat to someone like Saleen.

Hu An had ran the possibilities in his head. He had even imagined Saleen hiring him with a handsome offer, or at least bribing him to leave. He was, after all, a grade-8 sorcerer, and he would not be considered weak wherever he went.

Saleen had only sent a letter, and the content of which was insulting.

Hu An clenched the ashes left in his hands until his knuckles turned white. He could even hear his joints popping lightly. “That Saleen is just too much.” He relaxed his hands and let the scraps fall, as his mood calmed. “I can’t get angry. No getting pissed off right now.” Saleen was right to seek revenge. He had offended yet another mage who spoke in Saleen’s favor back then. Strictly speaking, he should be on Saleen’s hit list as well.

Hu An kept consoling himself. Despite Saleen’s rude and aggressive way of going about it, the man had at least differentiated himself from Sufonso. He looked at the 1000 demons standing outside the tower and the one leading them. He saw no choice but to suppress his anger.

“What right do I have to get angry? Is it to say that I should stay to help Sufonso?”

Ironwall City had nine magic towers and three grade-9 sorcerers guarding the place, yet the city fell all the same. Yaoyang City be no match for Saleen’s might.

As to the question of whether Saleen dared to go on a killing spree, what happened to Ironwall City was an answer in itself. More than 1,000,000 died within that battle alone. There were not many in Yaoyang City, and that meant Saleen would do anything at that point.

The head of the demons walked up to the tower as he was still thinking of what to write in reply to Saleen. The demon slowly took to the air. Hu An’s eyes were dazed with shock. Such means of flight meant that the demon was grade-9.

“Grade-9? That’s a supreme demon!”

Seeing Nailisi’s three-headed form, Hu An was rendered dumbfounded, and looked rather unlike a sorcerer.

“Open the window, and talk,” Nailisi said to the tower.

Hu An activated the magic array and opened a window. He was not even aware that he was being ordered around by the demon.

“You…” Hu An was at a loss of words seeing the demon in front of him.

“Mage, my master needs you to leave. Before you go, I need you to do something for me,” Nailisi’s head facing forward said to him.