Badge in Azure

“Master, stay back. It’s a trap!” Saleen heard the mechanical soul’s voice say all of a sudden. The mechanical soul used some unknown method to transmit its voice to him without alerting the enemy.

Saleen smirked. He knew without a doubt that it was a trap, but there was no way he could have just stayed away. His enemy would have crushed his entire fleet otherwise. There were still about 60 ships of various sizes remaining, and he could not just give them all up.

Furthermore, he had little to worry about traps, as there was no way he was still afraid of traps set up by Alchemy City. Having a body made of water elements, he had all the advantage he needed in naval battles.

The power of water element magic was amplified by his magic amplifier 24 times. Not even level-11 mages were a match for him.

Having eight balls of lightning and seven lightning icicles at his disposal meant that he could make plans to kill 15 professionals of his level.

Better still, Sika was around, which made destroying the huge metal warship an easy feat.

The dark clouds reached them and Saleen chose to cast a scroll imbued with level-11 Meteorite. The huge rock descended from above. Both Saleen and Sika followed right behind, heading straight for the metal warship that was attacking the Ancient.

Tens of level-9 mages took to the air. Saleen’s cloud was no longer able to fool anyone, as there was simply no cloud that would have descended together with a meteorite.

Saleen counted, finding that, with the exception of the three mages taking the lead being at level-ten, the other 60 mages were all level-9 sorcerers.

Alchemy City truly thought highly of him for having so many mages ready to take him on. It seemed that the secret about Quickcloud had been leaked. Saleen shouted midair and cast 12 Thundering Phantasms.

One level-10 mage used their senses to tell the illusions apart as soon as the Thundering Phantasms were cast, determining which among the 13 silhouettes was truly Saleen.

The mages had been toiling to pierce the cloud, putting all of their focus to telling the illusions apart. The level-10 mage was hit by the Thundering Phantasms’ traps.

Smoke billowed out of the level-10 mage’s orifices without warning. Their brains vaporized as ten other level-9 mages dropped with them. All of those other ten mages observed their targets, incapable of observing three at the same time as the level-10 sorcerer had been able.

11 enemies dropped out of the fight in an instant. The remaining level-10 mages were startled. They knew Saleen had advanced to level-10, but they had never expected him to be so ferocious. None of the remaining mages knew how their compatriots had died.

Yet another level-10 mage went about sensing the Thundering Phantasms. That illusion broke with a crack, but an unlucky level-10 mage still dropped out of the sky. They did not die immediately, but nonetheless suffered a drop in power as the Thundering Phantasm attacked their brain.

However, they were not able to stay alive for long before having their throat slit by a triangular bone. The white bone zipped about in the cloud, its trajectory flighty and unpredictable.

The magic beast soul within it had already been successfully matured, making it impossible for a severely injured level-10 mage to defend against it.

The remaining mage could have been dumb, yet there was no way that the only remaining level-10 mage could be oblivious as to how the two level-10 mages had died.

“You’re dead, Saleen!” That mage determined Saleen to be the enemy and cast a stream of magic flame at him. Saleen saw the huge Ancient accelerate all of a sudden as it rammed the Devil’s Horn’s metal warship.

While it was not actually a suicide attack per se, the mechanical soul had nonetheless been uncannily valiant. It knew well that if it were to leave Saleen’s side, it would simply be made into someone else’s slave and would never acquire its freedom.

There was no way to shrug off the Eternal Control Shard. It was simply playing the victim when it did what it usually did. But when Saleen was truly in danger, it saw no choice but to help out.

“There’s no need to go that far, Genga.” Saleen felt heartache for his own ship due to what Genga had pulled. He consoled the mechanical soul using Thundering Voice. He then took Sika behind the meteorite and crashed into the metal warship.

The opposing mages were spread out. A three-dimensional magic array appeared on the metal ship. There were 36 magic power furnaces surrounding said magic array and there were 36 powerful mages standing on the furnaces, all looking as if they had been waiting for Saleen for quite some time.

“Fools!” Saleen let out a cold smirk as he said it. He cast a black ball of lightning straight at the magic array.

There was immediately a mage casting a huge fireball at him. The mage’s combat skill was formidable, as they were able to determine the trajectory of Saleen’s ball of lightning in an instant.

It was worth noting that Saleen had only been able to determine a ball of lightning’s final destination despite having worked on it for so long. He was still incapable of controlling its direction of movement.

That mage was able to determine something that not even Saleen himself was capable of knowing. The mage probably either had formidable calculation equipment or exceptionally keen battle sense.

That mage did not need any magic shields due to having such abilities, as it enabled them to nullify high-level spells using low-level ones, conserving a huge amount of magic chords.

The ball of lightning phased through the fireball and pierced through another magic shield before landing on the magic array. Saleen had chosen an elemental point on the magic array. The black ball of lightning disappeared and the elemental point on the array melted all of a sudden.

Explosions were triggered as soon as the point melted. It was something that was rarely seen in the use of magic arrays. While magic arrays were capable of exploding, it was hardly ever due to a point being destroyed. An elemental point was a very stable location. Its stability even exceeded elemental vibrations within anti-magic territories.

“Whatever tricks you people still have, bring them on!” Saleen’s lightning icicles pierced the abdomen of the third level-10 mage. That mage had never expected a projectile to be capable of piercing his level-10 earth elemental armor.

That earth elemental armor was an extremely powerful defense skill after its wearer got to level-10. It was so formidable that even if it were to be hit by level-12 spells, it would simply shatter, absorbing the lethal attack in the mage’s place.

The attack that Saleen cast was indeed an elemental magic spell instead of a physical attack. In the conventional sense, while spells as low level as icicles had certain physical attack attributes, there was no way it could break a level-10 spell.

Saleen did not even bother using his equipment on any of the remaining level-9 sorcerers. He threw level-10 scrolls on each of them. Half of them downed and the rest fled in terror.

Saleen’s power had grown since he’d last clashed with them.

The three-dimensional magic array on the warship had been broken and the magic power furnaces stopped working altogether as well. The mage who was taking the lead began to tense up and shouted, “Summon!”

The remaining Thundering Phantasms had already charged at the warship’s deck, yet they chose to attack the magic power furnaces instead. The furnaces were stable and the phantasms would have only been able to disable them for a while.

It was something that Saleen had taken risks to test out.

Magic power furnaces did not explode, as they were capable of absorbing most types of elemental energies, yet the thundering sound within the Thundering Phantasms was something difficult to absorb, causing the elements within the furnaces to become chaotic instead.

The magic power furnaces would have then stopped working altogether as a measure of self-protection, until the elements within became stabilized.

All 36 magic power furnaces would have stopped working for at least an hour and a half, making it pointless to repair the magic array.

However, the mages apparently had no intention of repairing the magic arrays. They chanted short chants instead. Those chants were apparently something that had been prepared in some equipment and compressed.

Saleen dropped onto the deck within a second. The deck caved in at that moment, with three huge metal puppets appearing around him.

No. Those are not puppets. Those are energy beings!

“Saleen, even without the control of the magic array. I bet you won’t be able to beat these three metal angels!” The young mage who was in charge of the magic array laughed maniacally. That mage looked to be of similar age to Saleen, who was dressed in red magic robe and was at the pinnacle of level-10.

Saleen looked at that mage coldly and frowned. That mage was the first one he had seen from Alchemy City who had been forcefully enhanced. The young mage used some unknown means to have their powers enhanced from the rank of a sorcerer to level-10, and their soul suffered severe damage as a result.

It was a result that he had seen using astrology, and it irked him somewhat.

Alchemy City had once been the holy ground in the minds of mages, and he had not expected them to do something like that!

Metal angels? Did Alchemy City acquire control over some god?

The three metal angels were over four meters tall, approaching the height of the demons. The metal wings behind their backs coursed with elemental powers that Saleen was not that familiar with, and it seemed to have originated from earth element.

However, they possessed formidable offensive capacity, which differed from the attributes of the earth element.

“Who the hell cares!?” Sika’s voice was cold. She never laughed at her enemies. A huge metal totem pole was brought down right on top of the metal angel taking the lead.

That metal angel’s mask twisted for a bit, seemingly smirking. A heavy sword with a thickness approaching half a foot was in the angel’s hand, blocking the metal totem pole.

The metal angel apparently did not believe that a human would have been able to exceed that of the metal gods, who were known for their strength.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The continuous rumble forced all of the mages around to protect their ears using magic. A huge crater was seen on the deck, which was over ten meters wide. Sika had not only smashed that metal angel flat, but she had also broken through two deck layers, cracking even the third layer.

“The shell of a turtle sure is thick and hard!” Sika was saying that sarcastically instead of being impressed. She leaped into the hole and continued to attack with her metal totem pole. Violent sounds of metal shattering were heard. The mages were rather dumbfounded.

Is she even human? Not even dragons would have been able to break the Angel Warship!

The two remaining metal angels were even more surprised. Their leader had been smashed into a metal pie by that human female, and despite two seconds have passed, there was no sign of their leader returning to its original form. That metal angel was not afraid of physical attacks.

Even if it was to be cut into pieces, it would have reassembled itself and not suffered any injuries.

Saleen was in no mood to talk to the metal angels about resurrection in detail. Sika’s metal totem pole dealt more than physical damage. There were countless living beings within the totem pole and there was constellation power as well.

Be it the powers of priests or the power of the stars wielded by astrologers, both were capable of dealing lethal damage to gods.

If that angel intended to resurrected, it could be done if Saleen let it be for three days and three nights straight, letting it absorb all metallic energies to restore itself.

But Saleen would not have done such a thing. Two of his lightning icicles shot the two metal angels who were still completely dumbfounded. At the same time, he threw a huge net at one of them.