Badge in Azure

Eleanor seemed to be more astute than Saleen. Along the way, she consciously avoided the mightier presences. The team advanced in a bendy manner towards the center of the city.

It was not difficult for one to enter the core of Lorga City, the onerous part was exiting it. Those powerful presences hidden behind the holy prose and magic arrays would not emerge now, but when one wanted to leave, there would be trouble.

Saleen even smelt some hints of a conspiracy. “Could the goddess have left behind the Divine Crystal in order to make someone inherit her religion? If a person does not have faith in the goddess, they will not be able to leave.”

Based on the understanding mages had of the gods, gods survived on faith. Even though the goddess had fallen, she could be resurrected, provided there were sufficient believers and a long time had passed.

Then again, this did not seem to be the case. The goddess’ main temple was located in the Purgatory Desert, so no one would enter at all. Saleen and company were banking on the fact that Lex had an extremely powerful godly equipment to help them escape anytime. After entering, the outcome would mostly likely be bleak otherwise.

Before the goddess fell, she built twenty-four obscure temples, and there had to be a reason for her to do that.

Saleen shook his head vigorously. It was no big deal even if he believed in the goddess for the time being. Anyway, in the Goddess of Myers’ doctrines, there was neither heaven nor hell. A person believed in the goddess solely for the intention that they could return to nature after death. Other than being a believer and needing to devote oneself to the world, there was no clash between the goddess’ doctrines and a mage’s principles.

Mages did not really engage in sacrificial acts, they loved to have equivalent exchanges. If one wanted to obtain something from a mage, they would have to pay a corresponding price.

The mages were standing on the inside while the swordmasters stood outside. All the magic armor had been blessed with more than two kinds of spells. The team advanced cautiously, no one dared make any noise. The magic compatibility of the Spirit Snake Armor was considered to be perfect. The mages could bless it with magic effortlessly, and there would not be any errors. Saleen noticed this feature, then he thought to himself secretly, “I have to obtain a set of perfect magic armor drawings. Lex would surely not give me such things, but Sregl Island would have it.”

The team reached a forked road. Atop the street up ahead was a covered bridge extending out from the third story. The boundary of this forked road was underneath this covered bridge.

“To the left,” Tolesi announced.

“To the right!” Eleanor immediately rebutted.

Tolesi glanced at Eleanor frostily, then said, “What right do you have to command me?”

Eleanor shut her mouth. From behind, Saleen said, “Eleanor, explain why do we have to head right.”

Hearing Saleen’s question, Eleanor then pointed to the holy text carved into the covered bridge, and said, “It states that the left side leads to a deadly restricted area, a place where dangerous creatures are imprisoned. To the right is a church.”

Tolesi furrowed his brows and said, “I hate churches.”

Standing beside Saleen, Cuisi was outraged when he heard that. He then told Tolesi, “If you dare talk to Lord Saleen in this manner, I will remove all the bones in your body, do you hear me?”

Hearing Cuisi’s warning, Tolesi felt chills go down his spine. He did not dare rebel against Cuisi, this demon was at least ten times mightier than him.

It was purely coincidental that Cuisi was defending Saleen. Cuisi had remembered Saleen’s words when Saleen requested Lex’s subordinates to harass the supreme demon for three frames in order to create an attack opportunity for him.

Given Cuisi’s powers, Cuisi could actually harass the supreme demon, but his life would be in peril. When Saleen disallowed him from risking his life, he had already grown fond of this master. Cuisi was a high grade demon, so he knew certain events which took place between the demons and humans. He was not very repulsive towards the idea of following Saleen. As long as this master behaved almost the same way as the humans in the past, he could accept it.

From Cuisi’s perspective, Saleen would die very soon, but Cuisi’s own life was very long. Once Saleen died, he could receive quite a bit of benefits, so it was only right for him to be loyal. It was different for Tolesi. If Saleen became a grade-9 sorcerer, Tolesi might even die in front of Saleen.

Cuisi also had tremendous intelligence. From Nailisi, he had seen the attachment Luoluokaluos had towards the humans. After Saleen’s death, this Luoluokaluo would be his superior, guiding him into the future. By creating a good relationship with Saleen, Cuisi would be able to survive better in the future.

Towards Nailisi, Cuisi was full of admiration. A Luoluokaluo who had already developed three abilities would enjoy unlimited prospects.

Saleen was taken aback, but he still asked Tolesi, “Now tell me, why we should go left?”

Tolesi hesitated for a moment, then said, “For us, going left will not have any have fatal perils. This city is only left with one living creature, who is at the exit. We will only face half-spirits along this road. They do not possess death magic and have lost their inborn abilities. If we were to fight, they will only be as powerful as me.”

“But the right side is very safe.”

“Many skeletons are buried on the left side, they belong to creatures from various planes. Master, if you want those skeletons, you should use this route in order to extract those remains.”

Lex said, “Saleen, the Divine Crystal is of utmost importance.” Seeing Saleen being slightly tempted, Lex quickly reminded him on what they should place emphasis on and what they should give up.

After getting a warning from Cuisi, Tolesi no longer dared give Saleen an attitude, but he did not give a hoot about Lex.

“If you don’t want to go left, then suit yourself.”

Lex was slightly annoyed, and the swordmasters around her also turned to stare at Tolesi. Not being fearful at all, Tolesi said icily, “A skeleton belonging to the Six-winged Flying Snake is buried in the cemetery on the left. I don’t believe you do not want it.”

Lex lost her fury in that moment. The Six-winged Flying Snake was the guardian totem of the Grukos family, it was also a very powerful creature. If Lex was not currently in Lorga City, she would have obtained the Divine Crystal first before returning to consider whether or not to extract the remains of the Six-winged Flying Snake. This city was an enormous maze though. The moment one went to the right, they might take several years to look for a particular road again.

One could only advance, there was no going back. This was the feature of the Lorga Maze which infuriated people. The moment someone took a wrong step, all their previous efforts would go down the drain.

Nailisi whispered stealthily into Saleen’s ear, “Master, go to the left, Tolesi should have discovered some things which are more valuable. He is more afraid of death than we are.”

Nailisi’s words made sense. Out of the few demons, Tolesi was the most fearful of death. Demons from Tolesi’s race did not have long lives. At most, they could live for two-thousand years, but most lived for only eight-hundred years. Since Tolesi was already at an intermediate age, he would not have much time left, he would place more emphasis on life. If it was too dangerous going left, he would have given up that idea secretly, he would not have told Saleen about the treasures.

Even though demons were different from humans, they were both intelligent species. They would have the same natural instincts of trying to gain benefits and avoid harm.

“Cuisi, go and protect Eleanor, we will go left.” Seeing that Lex also could not stave off the temptation, Saleen did not continue talking. If danger was mentioned, then entering the Purgatory Desert was the largest danger already. If they were afraid of everything, they should have simply hid in Metatrin City and waited for his teacher to arrive.

The moment they entered the road on the left, the place became spacious. The houses on both sides appeared to have retreated hundreds of yards, forming an extremely spacious region. The transparent cover in the sky was now gray and dull. Tolesi and Eleanor walked at the front and suddenly, they crashed into an invisible wall and entered it, creating ripples in the air. Jola and Cuisi could not react in time, thus they also crashed into the wall immediately.

“Halt!” Lex yelled, and the swordmasters who were about to enter the wall froze in their tracks.

“Why are we stopping?!” Seeing that Eleanor had disappeared behind the wall, Saleen got anxious. He still had not learned a great amount of knowledge from Eleanor. He had also promised to protect her. Now that Eleanor and two demons had disappeared, Saleen would definitely be nervous.

Lex caressed the God’s Ring on her finger, feeling it, then told Saleen, “Look at your surroundings.”

Saleen released his perception, surveilling the surroundings thoroughly. At this point in time, he realized that his team had unknowingly fell into a sealed environment. Invisible walls were situated in all directions. These walls were not fixed, they were constantly changing.

“If we follow them now, we will not be able to locate them either. We should not split up.”

“There is no choice but to split up now.” Having fine perception, Saleen could identify that the surroundings were not filled with walls, they were filled with the power of space separation. It was still easy for three to five people to enter the same space, but it was almost impossible to allow an entire team to do so unless Lex utilized the God’s Ring now.

“Master, there is no such as thing as a cemetery in the demonic language,” Nailisi suddenly said.

“What do you mean?”

“Demons don’t need a graveyard. The closest word to it would be battlefield, or…, killing land. If such words appeared, Eleanor would have mentioned it. She only said that there was danger.”

“So what is behind this?”

“I cannot comprehend holy prose. Master, since you have been studying it for such a long time, you can try analyzing it.”

After Nailisi said that, Saleen then began thinking about this matter. After a protracted duration, he then said to Lex, “This is a Countless Door, a button in a maze. We will get to a location in the end, as long as we make it through. I don’t know for sure what we have to do. Five people to a team, there can be no more than that.”

“You are definitely sticking with Sika right?”

“Of course.” Answering Lex was Sika herself. Sika shrugged her shoulders, not feeling any shame at all. No matter how jealous Lex was, it also could not change the fact that Sika had gotten Saleen first.

Due to her identity, Lex could not argue with Sika. She simply nodded her head, then told Saleen, “Be careful, we will meet later.”

On Saleen’s side, there were just five people. He and Sika, Nailisi, and two demons. On Lex’s side, there were more people. According to the method of three warriors protecting two mages, Lex’s team was split into four groups. Lex had one more person in her group, the assassin Bain seemed to be confident in keeping pace with her.

Saleen sighed. Seeing Lex’s men enter the invisible wall, he grabbed Sika’s hand, then told Nailisi, “Follow closely.” Speaking, he walked forward. Ripples, like those found in water, brushed past his body, feeling extremely cooling. Saleen even felt that his perception had been greatly expanded as a result.

Sika actually bellowed violently. She raised her leg to kick, sending a pouncing monster flying. The two demons, stood on both sides of Saleen, while Nailisi turned around to protect Saleen’s back. At this point in time, Saleen then realized that he had been besieged.