Badge in Azure

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Outside the mountains, the winged skeleton, Jola, and Nicholas led the spirits to search for enemies. The terrain was complex, but spirits searched for humans by sensing their presence. Thousands of spirits weaved between the rocks in the dark. Red soul flames lit up, shining light on the land nearby.

At times, there were Tanggulasians discovered. They soon had tens of spirits gang up on them. Regardless of if the Tanggulasians resisted or surrendered, the spirits killed anyone they were able to find per the Soldier's orders.

The army that Saleen attacked was only a quarter of that was deployed into the mountains. The army was near Daliang City and had professionals to back them. The other three divisions only had about 20 thousand each, and there were hardly any level-9 professionals to lead them.

After taking that particular army out, he waited for Tanggulasian reinforcements to show.

The moon hung high in the sky and the air was cold. Screams were heard from the mountain every now and then. The shrieks and prayers for mercy were abruptly cut off, signaling the loss of a life.

Saleen realized that he must seem like the devil from their scriptures to those who were in the Holy See.

They were however, not wrong to think so. Even if the Holy See had no intentions of invading Qin, the army of Metatrin would invade the Tanggulasi Empire sooner or later. There was no right or wrong in it. No one cared what conventional troops thought about things in turbulent times.

The moon in the sky shone with blinding light, as if a red sun was hanging in the sky instead. Hundreds of shapes flew from Daliang City. They were all wrapped in that ball of light as they headed for Saleen's Magical Element Tower.

Saleen's pupils dilated. "Someone is capable of taking hundreds with them in flight?" To do such a thing one would have to have a very powerful godly item or be of grade-10.

Regardless of which it was, Saleen knew that the upcoming battle was one where he needed help from equipment.

Saleen's Magical Element Tower was masked by Lex's illusion. Lex had created a large-scale illusion of a specter of her. There was also an 'enemy' before her in the illusion. Both sides fought a fierce battle in the illusion. Divine and magic spells flew about all over the place. The huge specter of Lex seemed to be on the losing side, as the illusion magic cast became increasingly weak.

Saleen looked at that ball of light and saw a middle-aged holy master in it, taking 240 black-robed holy masters with them. Saleen had never seen anything like that.

There were thousands of mages in the Kingdom of Metatrin, but only a few dozens were deployed that time. Their battles were mostly fought using warriors. The number of holy masters was somewhat higher than mages, but high-level holy masters were definitely fewer than high level mages.

All of those 240 black-robed holy masters had to be over grade-4 four and below grade-8. The middle-aged holy master who took the lead shone with light so bright that it was rather painful for the Elemental Eye to look at.

Saleen was able to tell clearly that the 240 holy masters were channeling powers to the one who took the lead, as if the middle-aged holy master was a god of some kind, taking in the power of faith from their adherents.

"Eleanor, can you lock on to that fellow?" Saleen shared his senses with Eleanor. His mental powers were beyond level-10, yet he dared not stay in contact with Eleanor like that. He had to because the holy master was ten miles away and Eleanor was unable to see so far herself.

Eleanor sensed the enemy's presence in an instant and said to Saleen, "I can't do it. That fellow is armed with some very powerful equipment. I need to advance to the next level before I can even try."

Saleen hesitated as he opened the window of the Magical Element Tower and raised his left hand. Star charts spun slowly on the Starline Bangle, summoning the Thunder Dragon Blaster. Four dragon claws wrapped around Saleen's hand and the mouth of the thunder dragon opened, ready to fire icicles wrapped in lightning rules.

Saleen equipped his Starline Mask. The holy light swirling about the holy master's body was completely bypassed, turning it into energy flow under the observation of his left eye.

The holy master rose sharply and increased their speed, shaking away the targeting of the Thunder Dragon Blaster in an instant.

Saleen had no choice but to put his equipment away. The holy master was not exceptionally powerful; it was their equipment that was notable. The distance between them was too far. Even if Saleen was able to lock on to the holy master in an instant again, the holy master would simply shake the attack off again when the icicle flew close.

Having gathered powers from more than 200 subordinates, Saleen had no certainty of being able to end them with one shot, regardless of how powerful his equipment was. Saleen had done a thorough analysis, determining that the holy master was simply using their subordinates as scapegoats. If his attack was unable to lock onto them alone, even if the shot was a hit, the subordinates would take the brunt.

While the Thunder Dragon Blaster was powerful, there was no telling how many attacks it would take to kill. Even if there were just 30 of them, six consecutive attacks would have been less than enough to kill all of them.

Saleen had never expected to face such a problem. He came to understand why Nicholas had turned his back on the Holy See in such a clear-cut manner. When Nicholas was of a high-level, so he definitely had seen some inner workings. The internal classifications of the Holy See were far more brutal than that of nobles.

"Bing, back off. Do not tangle with those people." Saleen contacted the winged skeleton in a hurry. Regardless of how powerful the winged skeleton had gotten, he was still a spirit, and holy masters' spells worked against spirits.

The winged skeleton circled around smaller mountains with Jola and Nicholas in tow, hiding somewhere among the mountains. When he heard Saleen's orders, he put away his Meteor Hammer and took out his Reaper Scythe instead. The winged skeleton had not intended to use the scythe in the first place just to be safe, as the power of rules imbued within the scythe could deal fatal blows to other godly equipment. When the holy master who had been charging at Saleen's tower saw the Reaper Scythe, the huge ball of light turned the other way around, charging at the winged skeleton instead.

Jola mumbled, "Bones, you really know how to get us in trouble!"

"What's there to be afraid of?" The winged skeleton said in a deadpan tone. The Reaper Scythe in his hand began to gradually lengthen, becoming a weapon of about seven yards long. Magic patterns emerged from the black blade. Two eye-like magic arrays swirled on top of the scythe, devouring the power of all elements.

Death magic, when mastered to such levels, allowed the user to begin controlling elements. That was the very reason the winged skeleton had absorbed the soul of a death wizard. The death wizard used to be a powerful elemental mage when they were alive.

Saleen sighed in frustration, lamenting how he had to use the Thunder Dragon Blaster. The trio, with the winged skeleton taking the lead, was ill-suited to take on a holy master like that. Nicholas' lesser prophecy spell might have been powerful, but there was no way he would be able to fight more than 200 holy masters at once, they were blessed by the gods after all.

The winged skeleton was somewhere to Saleen's left, about two miles away. Saleen gave the order to prepare for the attack directly to the winged skeleton. He broke out the Thunder Dragon Blaster again and forced himself to lock onto the holy master's ball of light in an instant.

A thin pale blue beam shot out of the mouth of the Thunder Dragon Blaster. The beam was actually an afterimage left in the wake of the huge icicle. The icicle was more than three yards long and covered with blue lightning; it rumbled as it flew.

The ability of the blaster to break energy shields was actually just one of its attributes. The truly terrifying part about the weapon was the speed of its shot projectiles. The icicle shot from the blaster unleashed all of its stocked energy, which combined six attacks in one shot.

Its speed was six times what it usually was, and it would have been enough regardless of how short the time used for targeting was. An icicle's normal speed surpassed that of high-level magic. It was increased by six times, so the holy master did not have enough time to use their equipment to shake off the targeting. The three yard long icicle rammed into the ball of light.

Blood sprayed from within the ball of light.

The middle-aged holy master was crestfallen. "What kind of energy is that!? It punched right through my Simulated Territory!" The holy master's subordinates fell into chaos over the sudden casualties caused by one single attack. They were not even able to tell how many of their subordinates actually died. They were only able to tell that they lost more than half of their subordinates, and not even their souls were left intact!

If they had been the one to take the attack…

They had obviously been thinking too much. Two silhouettes were seen flying at their direction through the crevices between two low rocks at the peak before them. One of those silhouettes had huge bone wings at their back and held a seven yard scythe. The other one was clad in golden sword aura with blue flashes from top to bottom. Blue flashes were seen within the golden sword aura.

The holy master took out a scroll. They unfolded it within one hand and pointed at their incoming enemy with the other, shouting, "Imprison!"

The winged skeleton swung the Reaper Scythe, tearing a huge gash in the air. The gash grew in size quickly and the divine spell that the middle-aged holy master had cast was torn apart by the weapon. Jola held Tears in his hand and in the next moment, stabbed it into the abdomen of the holy master. The speed at which it was pulled was frightening. As he was done stabbing the holy master, he went to attack the remaining subordinate holy masters. There were two dozen or so, and they didn't even manage to pull weapons out.

The blade pierced right through that holy master's abdomen, yet it did not end up killing them. The holy master pulled the blade out and then and stabbed at the winged skeleton.

"Truth! Restore!" Nicholas called from the ground trying to protect his comrades. He knew all too well how frightening high-level holy masters could be. Holy masters who were experienced veterans familiar with battle were capable of casting skills no one else was able to comprehend.

There was a sore lack of variety in his fallen divine arts as he lacked support from adherents. The new Scepter of the Fallen granted him immunity to the recoil of some of the more powerful divine spells though. Nicholas had only begun to diversify his tactics.

The sword had only gone half way through the holy master. Golden aura burst from the wound, blowing them in two halves. The holy master was somehow still alive.

The winged skeleton brought the scythe into the opened scroll. Black aura and holy light burst at the same time, creating a large two-toned hole. The hole went on to devour everything around it in frenzy, including the bodies of dead holy masters that had yet to hit the ground.

The winged skeleton picked up Tears and stabbed the holy master in the head with his scythe.

Jola took out a dagger, which he filled with golden sword aura. He threw the blade at full force, hitting the heart of that holy master. The giant whirlpool did nothing to them.

The scroll, held by the holy master who had their heart pierced, fell to the ground and blew up yet again, bringing forth even brighter holy light. The ground shook with it.

"That b**tard is still alive!" Saleen said to Lex. Lex smirked. The holy master was simply transferring their soul from one subordinate to another, which made them frighteningly powerful. The rule with such powerful enemies was that they had to be killed as soon as possible, or one would have a hard time sleeping afterwards.