Badge in Azure

“Theisio, it’s no use scaring me like that. I slaughtered over a million in Ironwall City,” Saleen answered with a snicker.

“That was different, Saleen. The ones who will die here will resent you and know who you were. 128,000 souls shall torture you so long as you live.”

Nailisi snickered. “So they’re vengeful souls? You can’t create ghosts, so you create vengeful souls, eh? What’s there to be afraid of? They’re like supplements to demons. Master, don’t be frightened by this old fart.”

“Bul**hit. How can he create vengeful souls? I think that the divine rune charm array is meant for breaking the tower’s defense. We’ll just get ready to bail.” Saleen kept his eyes faraway. Every single point of the huge array had someone who was ready to be slaughtered.

A warrior stood behind every single one of the people, holding axes to cut their heads off.

“This is brutal, Teacher!” Truman felt reluctant. He was not feeling bleak like the common folk. Waiting to be slaughtered was nothing like dying in battle. There was no dignity and no value in dying in such a way.

Death was not a sad thing to mages and would not rile them up. If a mage thought that such a way of dying was too much, then it was too much.

“It is indeed brutal, but what can we do? Just get ready to run. The guy in the sky is level 12.”

“Level 12! How can we possibly run from a level 12!?” Isabella found escape the most unbelievable.

“Why can’t we? Our master is better at running away than fighting, you know,” Nailisi glared at Isabella.

Saleen did not feel abashed. He simply said, “it is nearly impossible for them to break the tower. I think Theisio is trying to seal us in a space that we can’t run from, and he’ll take his time to deal with us.”

“Teacher, we can’t contact Metatrin City.” Truman tested the magic array for a bit, finding the space surrounding the tower completely cut off. They were indeed trapped.

The Heaven Knights surrounded the magic tower and began to chant prayers.

The oracle in the sky joined in the chanting. Saleen felt that the oracle behind Theisio had eyes that were too pure.

Saleen had seen an oracle in the temple of the goddess in Cloudflow before. The oracle’s eyes had been filled with desire.

The oracle before them was bereft of any desire for the world. Its eyes held no material or emotional desire. One would simply feel a clean rain falling when the oracle looked.

Saleen took notice of it and looked at Theisio, finding something hanging against his chest.

He knew the thing too well. It was the Seal of Divine Power that he found on Raphael.

“Sh**!”

The Seal of Divine Power, the God Grace Staff, and the Bramble Crown. When all three of the holy items were put together, it would bring the greatest power down on enemies.

Did something happen to Fycro?

Saleen recalled that Fycro had not contacted him for a while. He also recalled how Joey had fought Fycro, and both of them were severely injured. If Fycro had encountered Theisio in such a situation, he would not necessarily be able to fight the pope.

Saleen checked the contract deep within his soul and found the contract between him and Fycro intact. That meant that Fycro was still alive. But if Fycro is still alive, why would he give the Seal of Divine Power to Theisio?

Fycro saw Theisio to be an obstacle to his plans.

If Theisio acquired the Seal of Divine Power, his combat capacity would be boosted more than ten times. Saleen wondered if Arbola would fear Theisio as he was.

Saleen had no one to rely on but himself. He turned his eyes downward and saw a shadow moving in a corner outside the magic tower.

Heh… Saleen let out a dry laugh and sent his voice at the shadow. “Agares, I didn’t expect you to get trapped here too.”

The shadow rippled and Agares’ voice was heard. “Saleen, let me inside the tower!”

“Why should I?”

“Theisio is trying to send us to the kingdom of god! I will be able to help you fight it.” If Agares had not feared being detected, he would have shouted a long time ago.

“Sent to the kingdom of god?” Saleen shuddered. He did not fear getting thrown into any interdimensional space, but if they were thrown into a kingdom of god and had to face the Lord of Glory, not even having his teacher would suffice, let alone just Agares.

The Lord of Glory was a lesser god of level 15. Regardless of the tower’s level, it would have some weaknesses because of him, and professionals above level 13 would be able to find it.

The Lord of Glory was a level 15 god, and he would eat Saleen alive.

“Agares, if we get into the kingdom of god, we’d be dealing with gods. Even if I worked together with you, our chances of coming out alive would still be zero. It’s better that you just stay back at Myers Mainland and die here. At the very least, your soul would still be free,” Saleen said without flinching.

“Saleen, the pope has no way of sending us to the kingdom where the Lord of Glory reigns. He is only able to send us to some that the Lord of Glory took. The kingdoms would only have believers and they would be level 12 at most!”

“Agares, do you really think that makes any difference to me? I feel things are more dangerous with you here.” Saleen was relieved to hear that they were not being sent to the Lord of Glory’s own kingdom of god after all.

“Saleen, what do you need me to do to let me in? Look, we’re both enemies of the Holy See. Don’t you want another ally on your side? I heard that you’ve just a treaty with Grand Duke Iron Blood.”

“That was because the Grand Duke was sincere.”

“Alright, what kind of sincerity do you need from me?”

“Who’s the spy that you put at my side? I don’t like it when you know where I’m all the time.”

“This umm…”

“I can inspect with magic and see if you’re telling the truth. We might be the same level, but don’t think of lying to me.”

“You’ll let me in if I tell you?” Agares asked.

“Of course not. I need to check if you’re telling the truth and if you’ve missed any seemingly unimportant people. I’m talking to you about this, meaning that even if you’re telling me nothing, I’ll check my people one by one when I get home. It’ll take a lot of time, and time is precious.”

“So we…”

“We’ll sign a truce until we’re free from Theisio’s control.”

“Sure!” Seeing the divine rune charm array about to be completed, Agares knew that if he disagreed with Saleen, he would die very soon.

It was not a lot to ask from him to tell Saleen about the spy. The spy that he was able to put at Saleen’s side was accidental. The news that he got was not up to date. If the news had been effective, it would not have taken him so long to catch up to Saleen.

Agares told him three names, and Saleen opened the magic tower to test Agares for lies with magical detection, letting the assassin onto the tenth floor of the tower.

“Saleen, why aren’t you coming to see me?” Agares shouted.

“Hold on for a bit. I’m writing a contract.” Saleen answered nonchalantly. There was no need for him to draft any contracts, as he carried a variety of contracts with him all the time. When a contract needed to be signed, he only needed a name and a signature.

However, Saleen had gotten two level ten scrolls ready and put them into his Starline Bangle’s star chart. The two scrolls were made specifically against assassin’s skills. Saleen did not want to face Agares unprepared. He had no intention of wasting the level 11 spells imbued in his robe.

Saleen had Nailisi follow him and let Eleanor take charge of things for the moment. He arrived on the tenth floor of the tower. The floor had a garden created by the mechanical core. Saleen placed the power of stars above the garden, forming starlight and shrouding the surrounding buildings.

Agares stood in the garden with his hands by his side, astonished. Saleen had opened up spaces within the magic tower.

While it was little more than 300 meters in length and width, he was impressed with Saleen’s power. It could not be ranked by conventional definitions of levels. He felt it was best to give up trying to assassinate him for the moment.

Before he was able to escape the trap, the best way to deal with it was to form an alliance with Saleen.

“So, what do you think of my place, Your Highness Agares?” Saleen appeared out of nowhere without any warning, startling Agares. He quickly realized that he was still in Saleen’s tower and the mage had eerie movement skills, which were hardly inferior compared to high level assassins.

There was simply no way he could beat Saleen in such an environment.

“Nice place, and the air is fresh. If you’d keep expanding, you’ll perhaps be able to open up an interdimensional space right in the tower.”

“Too early for that. If every single floor was an interdimensional space, I’d have to be level 16,” Saleen answered with a smile.

“Shall we sign the contract?” Agares was unfettered. He saw the deep well in the garden and all kinds of magic plants and knew that Saleen would grow into such high levels one day.

“What’s the hurry, Your Highness? There’s something I’d like to ask.” Nailisi was standing behind him, holding Grey Memory. She would launch with the most powerful attack as soon as Saleen gave the order. She would go so far as to injure her imp form to kill Agares with one shot.

“What’s up? Are you reneging on your word, Your Highness Saleen?”

“I’m a mage and I don’t go back on my word. I’m only asking if you’re interested in propagating Nature Faith in your kingdom.”

“Nature Faith?”

“Indeed. A faith that belongs to the Goddess of Myers.”

“What do I get for doing this?”

“Oh you’ll get something. The Nature Faith doesn’t do things like the Lord of Glory. You’d have good weather in your kingdom once the Nature Faith is in place. Furthermore, with the adherents of the faith in place, it would be a lot harder for the Lord of Glory to invade Cloudflow.”

Agares was on high alert. “Saleen, you’re a mage. What do you get by doing this?”

“Agares, sometimes, you only need to do things when you know it’s beneficial to you. That’s the true spirit of merchants. The interests of the other party is none of your business.”