Badge in Azure

"You're mad!" Theisio came to his senses after seeing the great head inquisitor attacking him.

The huge spear of light was broken with a punch from the great head inquisitor. A sign from the Armageddon Codex could be seen on his fist.

"I'm not mad, I'm awakened!" The great head inquisitor's face began to twist and golden light dissipated from the Armageddon Codex, turning bluish-black.

Seven huge signs flew out at the same time, heading straight for Theisio. 49 red-robed bishops at the pope's side cast Divine Protection at the same time, erecting a dazzling barrier of light before the pope.

"Eleanor!" Saleen called. Eleanor acknowledged, drawing a lightning arrow and shooting it right away. Eleanor did not practice lightning magic herself. She was only familiar with the properties of lightning, enabling her to shoot arrows with lightning attributes gifted to her by Saleen.

It was more than enough. Lightning had devastating power on its own, able to reduce the power of all energy shields by over nine levels.

Eleanor's archery had reached the pinnacle of level-nine. No energy shields from anyone could defend against her common attacks. After all, the Seven Nights was a powerful god-tiered piece of equipment.

Eleanor shot 49 arrows consecutively against the 49 layers of Divine Protection. All 49 arrows lined up into a straight line, penetrating the defenses of Divine Protection as a flash of blue light.

Eleanor used the Elvish Space Arrow skill and did not feel any resistance shooting from underwater.

The lightning arrows' speed was quicker than the great head inquisitor's attack, wrecking the layers of Divine Protection completely. Pope Theisio's face went pale. The seven huge signs from the Armageddon Codex were upon him.

A huge specter appeared from within the God Grace Staff. It was over ten meters tall and stood before Theisio.

Saleen was stunned when he saw that, yet quickly composed himself. The specter actually held the image of their god. The Lord of Glory's blessing was actually sealing a part of his power within the God Grace Staff, protecting the leader of his shepherds.

God's grace. There is god's grace!

Eternal Blessing was like trash compared to the grace of their god. Theisio knew very well that Eternal Blessing would not be able to contend with the power of the Armageddon Codex, so he cast God's Grace instead.

The grace of God was akin to the ocean.

Theisio's status had never been so high before. A white light began to shimmer on the Bramble Crown on his head. The light was not shooting out at his surroundings, but wrapping Theisio in a white, transparent robe from top to bottom.

The pope was also known as the "Emperor of the Faith." The Bramble Crown cast Divine Robe, the power of which emanated from the inside out. It seeped into every cell of Theisio's body.

Theisio's powers were heightened in an instant and reached level-11 right away. Furthermore, the advancement was a true, solid one. Even when the skill dissipated, Theisio would not drop back to level-10.

The Seal of Divine Power on his neck cast a huge flower.

The black flower had thousands of petals and they opened bit by bit. The area within 100 miles was shrouded by the rules of the Seal of Divine Power, sealing in all manner of energy within.

A huge cage was conjured by the Seal of Divine Power's power.

The power of God was akin to a prison!

Only the image of the Lord of Glory continued to emanate light within the area of the Divine Might spell. The red-robed bishops at the pope's side all fell to the ground. They were unable to bear the power of Divine Might. They fell prostrate as they worshipped.

"What is this!?" The purplish-red pupils within the great head inquisitor's black eyes spun furiously, intending to see those huge petals clearly. However, his eyes blew up in his eye sockets, spraying black liquid everywhere.

The power of Divine Might forbade any to peer into it.

Saleen sealed the Magical Element Tower off altogether. His Ring of Cosmos did not act funny again, as if what happened earlier had nothing to do with the ring at all. Saleen knew, however, that the Ring of Cosmos had yet to be completely restored. He had no way of wielding that terrifying power.

The huge metal gears at the top of the Magical Element Tower rescinded. Saleen had no way of commanding the demonic spirits to do battle at the moment, but the tower's defenses reached their pinnacle nonetheless.

Saleen decided to simply sit by and watch events unfold after over 40 arrows were fired.

Saleen did not attempt to leave after the huge black flower bloomed. There was simply nowhere to run. The area within 100 miles was shrouded by the black aura from the flower. There was nothing holy about that black aura.

"Flower of Evil!" Nicholas shouted.

"Flower of Evil?" Saleen watched the huge petals and had no idea why Nicholas was so worked up.

"The Lord of Glory said that he was just, holy, and pure…" Nicholas uttered the three words in a very sarcastic tone.

He then continued, "During the time between the Goddess of Nature's demise and the advent of the Lord of Glory, many religions formed on Myers Mainland. There was one that had been of incredibly powerful, yet it was eliminated secretly by the Lord of Glory. All the gods of that religion were killed. The war between the two religions was very short, lasting less than 20 years. It was not even recorded."

Nicholas then continued to calmly elaborate while the crowd listened. He then said to Saleen, "My liege, the religion that was crushed also had a codex. The divinity of the Lord of Glory was mentioned in that codex. The Lord of Glory was actually the title of two gods who had been a single god. When he advanced from a demigod to a lesser god, he attempted to purge the evil part of his attributes, intending to acquire pure divinity and advance to level-16."

"You know about stuff like that too?" Saleen asked, feeling rather surprised.

"I was young and I was curious. I found the answers, I didn't believe them. Anyway, the Lord of Glory didn't succeed. He simply ended up suppressing his evil side, splitting it into a second persona. That second persona did not give birth to a corresponding god and it remained as a part of the Lord of Glory Himself. As such…"

"As such, that Flower of Evil is the evil side of the Lord of Glory?"

"More or less. And a very, very powerful side."

"I feel nothing though." Nailisi watched the battle on the surface.

Nicholas rolled his eyes. It was an expression only shown when he was around Nailisi.

"Nailisi, if you'd leave the tower for a second, you'd soon find out how terrifying that evil power is. The evils of the world often have their reasons for being so, yet the evil of gods is their very own nature and unusually pure. The purer something is, the more terrifying it is."

"So you've been prattling on and on just to tell us that the Lord of Glory's soul split?" Nailisi was hardly fazed. Soul-splitting was a type of terminal illness with no cure and there were hardly any healing arts capable of dealing with it.

While it was very difficult to split a person's soul and only very high-level professionals were capable of such feats, not even a level-18 professional would be able to rejoin a split soul.

"Gods don't have souls. They only have one divine persona, a whiff of divine fire, and a mind of origin." Nicholas recalled many things he'd dared not think about since he'd fallen from grace.

While his status within the Holy See was not high, he was able to learn many secrets nonetheless. The Holy See had never expected that a level-9 holy master would fall.

"So the Lord of Glory's mind of origin cracked and he was still able to stay alive and kicking. Impressive," Saleen said to Nicholas.

"That was why I never believed such legends. That was not to say I was pure in my faith, it was just that things like that were unbelievable."

"Yeah, well, we'll just keep watching the show then. I think the great head inquisitor is done for. But Theisio, he actually advanced in an instant like that, yeesh…" Saleen sighed.

His Ring of Cosmos did nothing. His family badge was emptied and wouldn't be usable again until half a year later. The Thunder Dragon Blaster would take an hour to recharge and be ready for use again, but it still wouldn't be of any good against Theisio.

The Flower of Evil had completely bloomed. The evil side of the Lord of Glory. Within it, there was no chance of escape from slaughter, curses, resentment, and much more. Saleen cut all of those sentiments off and he became the only one capable of feeling it. Everyone else in the tower simply saw the images of what was happening outside.

Such feelings were extremely appalling, yet they had been something that Saleen had been bearing since his teenage years every day. The family badge loaded Saleen with all manner of negative statuses every time it was used to train his mental powers, including what was illustrated by the Flower of Evil.

Saleen had been incredibly pure back then. He'd had to endure what no one else would have been able to endure simply because he wanted to stay alive.

Not even Jason would have been able to help him back then. If he was unable to develop magic chords, there would have been no way for him to become a mage. When the opportunity showed itself, he threw everything away and jumped on it.

Just like a caged animal, or floodwaters right outside a dam.

It was not all that difficult to comprehend. It was difficult for gods to stay alive. A god who failed to attain greater strength would end up being killed by enemy gods and be used to refine their divine kingdoms.

The Lord of Glory had become something with a peculiar divine persona in order to attain greater power. The two personas were of the antithesis of each other. It was no wonder why the Lord of Glory's teachings were so extreme, so much so that they were hardly seen in any other religion.

Saleen began to feel pity for the Lord of Glory. Yet his drive to kill the Lord of Glory grew even more intense as well. If that thing were to appear on Myers Mainland, the entire place would be in trouble.

He felt awfully disgusted as he recalled those living things that behaved like walking dead in the divine kingdom that the Lord of Glory had conquered.

The battle on the surface became intense all of a sudden. The seven huge signs seeped into the Lord of Glory's specter. The entire specter became far from powerful than Nailisi's in the purgatory of purification.

The one in the purgatory had been conquered and refined by Nailisi, yet the one before them seemed to be imbued with the very will of the Lord of Glory himself.

Pfftt…

The Lord of Glory's specter spat the seven signs from its mouth. Seven long, deep slits appeared on its body. The slits were continuously mended and split again…

The rules of the Armageddon Codex made the Lord of Glory's specter created by God's Grace difficult to mend. However, the Flower of Evil had completely bloomed, and 360 female angels walked out from the flower.