Badge in Azure

Chapter 1320: Being Set Up (Part 2)

Saleen had access to magic monitoring the central group of fortresses where he was. He saw the abominations clad in silver storming the place and destroying the fortresses in a frenzy.

"The real battle has begun!" Saleen gave the order immediately. He told his troops at the front to split up, shooting the abominations from afar instead of standing in their way.

The Floating City above began to bombard the ground below using level nine magic spells.

It looks like Fycro is trying to take me out! Saleen was able to tell what Fycro was thinking as he saw the abominations heading east. You want to take my Floating City? What a joke.

There was already a weapon spirit on the Floating City. He named that weapon spirit Dante as a way of commemorating the dead Big Guy. That weapon spirit was totally under his control, so it was impossible for anyone to take the Floating City from him. If he were to end up dead, he would have gifted the place to Sika, and the city would still have a master to serve.

Huge rocks were dropped from the Floating City. It was not a move to attack the abominations but to create rows of stone walls within Highland City. The walls were an irregular pattern, making them look like natural forests of stone. They made roads twist, preventing any path from being able to head straight outside.

It was only then that Saleen began to command his troops from the walls to get ready to fight.

The number of abominations was large. He saw no fear of death from their behavior. According to conventional logic, the higher the level of intelligent life, the greater their fear of death. Gods, for instance, spent their entire lives thinking about how to extend their lifespan.

The armor crafted by the abominations was at least considered high-level equipment. A species capable of creating high-level equipment yet had no writing systems necessitated them to comprehend the symbols using their own perceptions. The symbols on their armor were able to work in ways similar to magic patterns or magic arrays.

Those abominations were even more primitive and block-headed than the Caucasians. Beings like that were unafraid of death, which made them difficult to deal with.

The abominations at the forefront charged all the way to the wall. Saleen only had Nicholas and Jola with him. However, his mind was incredibly calm instead of being in a state of crisis like he once would have been. He no longer needed protection from others.

There were four magic towers at his side that were not yet attacking. The ones that were attacking the abominations at the wall were the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers, which were summoned by Saleen earlier. They attacked using magic cannons.

The magic cannons Saleen had with him were relatively powerful. Their rate of fire was 12 shots per minute, which meant that they were almost able to fire once every five seconds. Such a frequency of attack enabled the cannons to be fired for three minutes consecutively without breaking.

The abominations did not bother to circle around the over one-mile wide wall from the sides. They attacked the wall head on. The spot that Saleen took was coincidentally at the center of the abominations' attacks. Level nine magic spells from the enchanters rained from the sky, clearing out the abominations.

The magic cannons at the wall were rotated between three formations. There were hardly any abominations capable of getting too close to the wall. They were completely wiped out by the spells and beams before they even got within 900 feet from the wall.

It would have actually been difficult to kill level nine abominations, but Saleen's rate of attack was simply too terrifying. There were 10,000 enchanters specifically assigned to the task in the air. The magic cannons were also capable of clearing out over a dozen abominations with a single shot. The 32-foot-thick wall was actually only 24 feet tall. The way it was constructed made it look less like a city wall and more like a wide platform.

Saleen never made any moves. He searched carefully with his Elemental Eye for the officers of the army of abominations and directed the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers to attack them specifically. The officers were more or less of level 10 prowess. Due to the twofold attacks from the sky and ground, not even those level 10 abominations could get close to Saleen's wall.

The holy masters paid close attention to the fighting as they spied on Saleen. They were thoroughly impressed and shaken. They never expected Saleen's Floating City to be so powerful that not even level nine warriors could destroy it. None of them knew that when the Floating City cast a level nine magic spell, it consumed energy equal to that of a level nine magic nucleus.

Saleen mostly used level four magic nuclei to power his magic power furnaces. The highest ones used were level six. As such, the energy levels reaching that of level nine magic nuclei had to be stacked using sheer numbers. Tens of thousands of magic nuclei were constantly thrown into the magic power furnaces to sustain the Floating City's magic net. One level nine magic nucleus could have only provided the magic net with 12 level nine magic attacks.

With over 10,000 enchanters casting level nine spells, the consumption was difficult to calculate, even though they were being cast regularly. Saleen was actually feeling heartache for using his resources like that. Killing abominations in such ways would, at times, vaporize targets altogether, making recouping the cost impossible.

If they were to use low level magic and restraint was practiced in skills used to kill the abominations, dead bodies would still be left behind. The value of their bodies plus the armor they wore would have at least equaled one-twelfth of the value of one level nine magic nucleus.

To Saleen, fighting wars meant having to spend a lot of money. He had no need to painstakingly nurture mages.

Due to the magic net on the Floating City capable of completely bringing powerful combat prowess to bear on the enemies, Saleen had only needed several months to nurture a batch of imps or demonic spirits to man the net. If the enchanters were humans, he would have only needed about a year to get them into shape.

There were many shortcomings to using humans, especially since humans had short lifespan. Fighting as enchanters for extended periods would leave them dead before hitting 60 years old. That would have halved the lifespan of an enchanter. Furthermore, the mental powers of humans were inherently inferior to demons. They also quickly became exhausted, which made humans poor candidates for fighting prolonged battles.

Recovering mental powers repeatedly in high-intensity battles would have meant consuming materials like divine crystals. That would have been quite an expense in itself. As such, Saleen's magic net was manned using beings of demonic bloodlines exclusively.

The natural lifespan of many imps and demonic spirits was not short. They were hardly able to live for long in demon plane due to constantly being eaten by demons and supreme demons. Some were not even able to make it to adulthood before they ended up killed. Serving Saleen allowed them to live out the entire natural lifespan. If they were to not run into any danger, those imps and demonic spirits could live for 500 to 600 years.

The very reason he had divided the 120,000 enchanters into six shifts and rotated them in battle was because he was unable to keep up with the expenses of having the magic net fully opened all the time.

"My liege, look!" Jola pointed at the spot where an abomination was killed.

Clouds of black smoke billowed from the ground, which did not dissipate. Saleen scanned the black smoke with his Elemental Eye and found minute crystalline particles spreading the black smoke, clouding the entire ground.

He did a quick analysis with his Elemental Eye and found the black crystalline particles were not toxic. The black smoke was actually coalesced, tangible forms of energy. The abomination did not possess magic nucleus but had something resembling magic nucleus. Rather, it had something better.

Saleen was getting excited. It was something only seen happening with level nine abominations. They were able to be conserved without fear of level nine magic attacks. That meant that the cost for attacking them could be recouped.

He did not hesitate and cast his Lightning Constellation. He summoned the lightning warriors to collect the minute black crystalline particles.

There were pests among the lightning warriors, and those pests were able to do little to level nine abominations. Letting the pests eat up the black granules was an effective way of collecting them. Most importantly, those pests did not absorb the particles as they ate them, which meant they could be transported back to Saleen's War Drum of Fear.

The drum still worked against level nine abominations, but he had no intention of wasting his strength. Saleen beat the drum once every half 30 seconds just so to slow the abominations' advance.

He needed to conserve his last resort due to Fycro intending to take the Floating City. He was not worried about any unforeseen circumstances since he had Rafel, who was at level 13, by his side. Rafel might not have been able to kill Fycro, but there was no way she would have been inferior to Fycro in terms of powers. It was also impossible for her to fail to protect him.

Rafel almost had nothing to do staying by Saleen's side. No abominations had been able to get far enough to scale the wall. Even if those abominations were able to get up to the tall wall in a single leap, due to attacks from the Floating City, there would have always been a vast distance between the abominations and the wall.

The black crystalline particles were taken back. Saleen held them in his hand. He took a look at them and handed them to Rafel, asking, "What is this thing?"

"Pure dark energy, but it is assembled in ways that you have yet to comprehend," Rafel replied. "These things are rather dangerous because they induce madness, which mean they can't be used to restore magic chords of mages."

"How about embedding them in magic arrays?" Saleen asked.

"It would be better for you to chuck them in the magic power furnaces and see for yourself," Rafel said. "The black particles are unable to generate much power. Most of the energy was wasted during the conversion process."

"Magic power furnace, eh…" Saleen thought for a bit and let Nicholas take charge while he retreated behind.

The old holy master had very high mental powers. There was also a powerful being sealed within his Scepter of the Fallen, making it possible for him to oversee a one-mile-wide battlefield and not miss much of any detail.

Even Jola thought it was rather ridiculous seeing Saleen taking out a miniaturized magic power furnace and doing magic experiments in the middle of a fight. While they still had the upper hand during such an intense battle, it did not feel right to have him give up command altogether.

Saleen had different ideas. The true battle had yet to come. It was better for him to familiarize himself with some of the abominations' properties before really powerful ones showed up.

If those crystalline particles proved to be of little use, it would have meant continuously shaving off his own reserves in battles. Even if there were practically limitless magic nuclei waiting to be collected at the Oceanic Ice Block, he had limited time to hunt the beasts harboring the magic nuclei.

Furthermore, the way the Floating City cast its attacks made the consumption of magic nuclei like burning firewood. The rat at which the hunts were made, it was inadequate to keep up with Floating City's consumptions.

The miniaturized magic power furnace was something that he and Jason had recently come developed. With a bit of theory concerning magic perpetual-motion engine added to the development, its magic nucleus consumption was half that of conventional magic power furnaces. At present, such devices were still unstable.

Magic perpetual-motion engines were never something matured to begin with. The miniaturized magic power furnace itself was embedded in the body of a puppet. Saleen put a black dark energy crystalline particle into it. The miniaturized magic power furnace began to work dissolving the black particle, which was only as large as the tip of a finger, into liquid form.

That easy?

Saleen felt the conversion to be rather odd. The puppet began to operate. The crystal on its head began to light up with a weak red light, awaiting Saleen's orders.