Badge in Azure

Nailisi dived into the purgatory of demons. The Skeleton King was not able to hold on for long in the lava. Nailisi siphoned large amounts of lava into the purgatory of demons along the way. Demons loved the smell of lava, while the rules within the purgatory of demons were complete, the place had an area of about thirty-six square miles and was six miles wide. No volcanoes could be manifested in such places.

The lava siphoned into the purgatory would eventually cool and hardened regardless, but it was able to increase the thickness to the place, as well as bring about the air of the earth’s fire, giving birth to a more diverse environment.

Nailisi was simply doing it on a whim. She immediately returned to her imp form after entering the purgatory of demons, to avoid getting attacked by the demons inside. one-hundred-thousand demons were having the time of their lives within the purgatory. The space mimicked the demon plane, and there were large number of magic bugs found within, making it easy to get fed.

After siphoning the lava, Nailisi turned around and found several snakes emerged from the molten hot rocks, writhing about on the ground. As the lava cooled, the snakes gradually petrified, becoming statues.

“That place was the lair of the great fire snakes!” Nailisi was at loss, not knowing if she was supposed to be happy or worried about finding that.

Great fire snakes were powerful fire elemental creatures. While their powers were nowhere near that of fire type elemental spirits, they were not something Nailisi would have picked on in the lava. Regardless, such types of fire elemental creatures would have made a good addition to the purgatory of elements to complete the collection of purgatories. The little snakes were all things spat out by great fire snakes, which were capable of developing intelligence and becoming fire elemental creatures.

However, the smaller snakes were simply too weak to last long outside of the lava.

Nailisi was happy of the fact that if she was able to capture great fire snakes, her elemental spaces could be made three, even four times more powerful. What worried her was, if a great fire snake was able to break through the purgatory it was housed in and enter the purgatory of demons, the rules within would prove inadequate to kill it, and she would have to rely on Gray Memory.

Regardless of how powerful the Sword of Rules was, it was still a close combat weapon, and the space tens of yards around a great fire snake was easily filled with searing heat. Most of Nailisi’s tricks would not have proven to be much of use in such situations. While she had some ideas it, she dared not open up the collection of purgatories and look outside.

Van Gogh chased Nailisi to a dead end. His Lance of Order went breaking the rocks that were getting in the way and was going about it at reduced speed. He lost track of her when he came to the lake of lava. He eyed the lake of lava that hardly had an area of one-hundred square yards and thought it was all so peculiar. “Did the demon end up jumping into the lava That demon was but a grade-9 being, so how long would she be able to last in lava? Half a day? Or just two to three hours?”

Van Gogh was puzzled about how Nailisi went about it. He lifted his hand and drew a circle before him. The white circle gradually expanded, reaching a diameter of five yards, and a heavenly angel emerged.

Summoning a second heavenly angel proved to be his limit. Van Gogh pointed at the lake of lava without wasting time saying much. The heavenly angel held on to the Sword of Glory and jumped into the lake without hesitation.

The heavenly angels themselves were constructs of holy light and the power of faith. The temperature of the lava did little to harm beings like that. That particular being’s level allowed it to easily withstand high temperatures of several thousand degrees.

Nailisi did not cause much of a commotion when she jumped into the lake of lava, as she dived into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory almost at the very same time. When the heavenly angel jumped into it, the small puddle of lava boiled immediately. Hundreds of giant pillars of flame spouted from the lake and lashed out at the heavenly angel.

Van Gogh stepped back from the lake, as the high temperatures burned to him. It was fortunate for him that the level of his armor was high enough. So long as he stayed clear of the lava, he would not end up dying from the heat itself. The spouted lava splashed all over the cave, being blocked by Van Gogh’s Lance of Order. The lance formed a triangle in the air with its chains, isolating him from his environment.

Hundreds of flashes were seen from the Sword of Glory, cutting up all the huge fire snakes emerging from the lava. The fire snakes dropped into the lava as they writhed about, before combining and lashing out at the heavenly angel again.

Seeing how lightspeed skills proved incapable of killing the elemental creatures, he had no choice but to order the heavenly angel to switch skills. The Sword of Glory split, and twelve giant holy prose emerged, wrapping up the sword in the heavenly angel’s hand. The heavenly angel slowed down with its swings. Every slash emanated powerful beams of light.

The cut up fire snakes dropped into the lava one after another but were unable to congeal again. The Sword of Glory was buffed with a rule of the gods—Holy light Cutting.

Boom!

Two ten yard thick snake heads emerged from within the lake. Both heads had three eyes respectively. The head on the left opened its big mouth and spat purple flames, while the one on the right did the same but spat out black poisonous smoke.

The flames hit the heavenly angel, which ended up burning it. The smoke quickly encased the heavenly being. The heavenly angel swung its sword around, cutting both flames and smoke to pieces, and dissipating them with the holy light.

The flames that jumped about on the angel’s body were yet to be extinguished. Pockmarked holes appeared on its body shining with divine light. The smoke that encased it seeped into its body through the holes, before making it out through its nose.

Van Gogh felt dizzy before realizing the connection between him and the angel had been severed. It felt like something wiped the holy prose at the core of the heavenly angel, robbing him of control.

He began to feel tense all of a sudden. The two snakes in the lava were probably creatures of grade-10 or above. The heavenly angel, even when killed, would not evoke something so peculiar otherwise.

“The demon that had jumped into the lake was probably devoured by those two snakes, and I don’t see any point of carry on fighting anymore.”

Van Gogh felt a tinge of desire to retreat. He could come back at a later date if he wanted to capture the great snakes. The enemy was still out there. If he ended up losing too much of his equipment, he would not be able to fight the mage toe-to-toe. The giant tower weighed on his mind in an indescribable manner. He had to report his findings to the head inquisitor and head warden when he returned to black dungeon.

One such mage would have posed a great obstacle to the Holy See’s ambition to unite the mainland. Van Gogh had yet to hear about a mage capable of bringing their tower on their person, and the tower was even one that was capable of moving underwater. It would have been possible that one such tower could have even been capable of flight.

As he was about to leave, Saleen emerged from the cave behind him.

Seeing what happened before him, Saleen was dumbfounded for a second or two, before shouting in rage, “You killed Nailisi!”

Saleen summoned the Stone Statue Soldiers from his devil suit as soon as he finished the line. Six nine yard tall Stone Statue Soldiers rushed at Van Gogh. Saleen followed up with summoning a fire elemental creature, which appeared in a random form; the one summoned that time was a fire fox.

Regardless of the types, anything the devil suit summoned was no lower than grade-9. The six Stone Statue Soldiers and the fire fox charged in Van Gogh’s direction. His expression was a puzzled one when he saw the crazed look on Saleen’s face.

“I didn’t kill that demon!”

Saleen’s acting was good. He saw the two giant fire snakes behind Van Gogh and knew the place to be a dead end, which meant that Van Gogh did not necessarily fight the snakes; the man might have wanted to just leave. Psychology came into very important play at such moments.

Saleen knew Nailisi was still alive. If Nailisi had died, the soul bond with him would have disappeared.

Putting oneself into another’s shoes, Van Gogh felt that he would have reacted the same way if one of his demon servants was killed. As such, Saleen’s expression managed to fool him, and caused him to hesitate for a moment.

An angry mage would bring about angry devastation. It was something many holy masters reminded him about. The mage was unable to do anything to him with him being protected by the Lance of Order. He intended to kill the mage when the summoned creatures were all dead.

Van Gogh changed his mind about leaving. Seeing how careless Saleen had gotten, he planned on killing him right there and then instead. “Without his tower, that mage is no match for me!”

The six Stone Statue Soldiers and the fire fox stopped at a spot about nine yards from Van Gogh in a very abrupt manner. Van Gogh was able to tell that the grade-9 elemental creatures did not ram into his lance. They split and went sticking close to the sides of the cave’s wall. A flash of blue lightning lit up and a thunderous boom was heard. Van Gogh stood there dumbfounded, unable to move.

The cave was too narrow. The reason why Saleen summoned the Stone Statue Soldiers was so that he was able to block Van Gogh’s view, allowing him to unleash his badge at someone so powerful.

Saleen had complete faith in the badge that had killed a grade-10 thunder dragon and a grade-12 angel of fear. Van Gogh was but a grade-9 professional. He would have been reduced to dust under the fury of the lightning blast.

The Lance of Order formed many triangles, with each having a holy prose in the middle, forming a shield that provided denser protection that any mage could have conjured. With the thick bolt of lightning hitting its target at such close range, Saleen and Nicholas shut their eyes tight, as even dark element spells would not be able to completely block the light emanating from the bolt.

The light from the bolt of lightning was too intense that time. All three-hundred and sixty holy prose conjured on the Lance of Order were blasted clean. When the light subsided, both Saleen and Van Gogh stood, staring blankly at each other.

Van Gogh emerged totally unscathed, and Saleen was almost able to feel his heart jumping out of his mouth.

Van Gogh ended up more terrified than Saleen. He completely lost his connection with his lance. The godly item he wielded was bestowed to him personally by his god, and the Lance of Order came to be like a part of his being, instead of just something controlled by his soul. The feeling of losing the Lance of Order felt like someone just cut off one of his arms: incredibly painful, and incredibly terrifying.