Badge in Azure

Bolstered by the magic amplifier, Saleen's territorial powers concealed all the warriors within. Electrical discharges flashed about in the sky.

Powerful light of magic emanated on that mages' castle. A huge magic array was activated and the Bug Angel Warriors at the forefront all rammed into that screen of light.

The ones wearing armor were all demons. The potency of the crash was forcefully absorbed by the demons inside. That, coupled with the excellent buffering abilities of the armors, thwarted the mages' strategies and plans.

To be more precise, the Bug Angel Warriors were all tossed to the ground, landing on their backs. Saleen, however, didn't sense any of them perishing in battle. The defensive capacities of those armors were superb; they were buttressed by several fearless warriors who barged their way into that screen of light.

The Wind Blades generated on the wings cut energy defenses. Even such large-scale defensive measures could have been easily penetrated, provided the wearer had ample control skills. As for ordinary troops—forget it! They didn't have these abilities, to begin with.

There were, however, level-9 supreme demons inside the Bug Angel Warriors.

Saleen was in no hurry. He had the warriors from the Floating City take their time assembling in front of the castle. Large mechanical puppets were pushed to the front, forming a defensive formation while Saleen nonchalantly activated the Lightning Constellation in the sky, discharging electricity downward.

Countless bolts of thin lightning lashed out on the screen of light, causing the mages of the Elemental Hand to fret.

The screen of light came at a great cost in fuel. There were no magic-power furnaces, thus necessitated the use of high-level magic nuclei to activate the screen. The number of high-level magic nuclei acquired within the Baldur's Gate was limited.

While the power of the lightning bolts was nothing special, those bolts were best used for disintegrating energy shielding just like that. Zap! Crack!

And then there was the screen of light. It got increasingly thin as the bolts lashed out on it. New magic nuclei needed to be replenished to stabilize the line of defense.

Saleen had an idea: After seeing the soldiers assemble, he took out his family badge and released a bolt of powerful lightning at the screen of light.

Boom! That screen exploded into thousands of bits of light.

The mages of the Elemental Hand were totally flustered by then. That huge bolt of lightning not only crushed the screen of light but destroyed several force fields along with it.

D*mn it! What kind of skill was that?

The mages of the Elemental Hand looked at the defenses in horror. With a broad smile, Saleen said to Rafel in the air, "Protect me. We'll get to the screen of light."

What? Rafel was puzzled. That screen of light was erected at the edge of the place in a heartbeat.

Saleen sped up and Rafel flapped her wings and went after him, positioning herself at the front. The weapon spirit of the magic amplifier turned invisible as it followed. Though the metal angels were slow, they were not far off. The distance between where Saleen was and the screen of light was only around 1,000 meters.

The metal angels caught up to Saleen when he zoomed before the screen of light and shielded him with their bodies.

Saleen cast a layer of Water Shield on every metal angel. Over 100 level-7 Water Shields were capable of defending against magic spells below level-nine for several times.

He then plastered his family badge on the screen of light after casting the spells and finished up by casting level-0 magic.

The energy of the screen of light was quickly absorbed into Saleen's family badge. The mages of the Elemental Hand were about to go crazy. Within the great hall in their castle, the magic nuclei on the magic array with a diameter of over 100 meters were all drained in a flash.

The speed of the drain was quicker than burning them for warmth.

The mages had never experienced anything like that before. Defensive energies being sucked away? Unheard of.

Saleen was elated! This family badge had not been able to absorb enough energy. Despite being stocked up for half a year, it could be used for attacking only once. However, the electrical attack was not necessarily a be-all-end-all. Saleen had experienced being blocked by godly items several times.

He did some experiments himself. Under certain unique circumstances, the effect of his family badge was less than that of his Thunder Dragon Blaster.

Literally no powerful beings were equipped with powerful equipment. Saleen's Thunder Dragon Blaster fired seven lightning icicles every hour. That rate of fire proved useful in battles. Put to good use, the lightning icicles would prove to be a constant threat to his enemies.

On the other hand, if the family badge stayed as it was, it would be like deadweight that was too precious to discard.

The lightning and Sea of Cloud in the badge boiled in an instant as Saleen absorbed the energy on the screen of light. The screen was faltering and there were hundreds of thousands of warriors awaiting his orders from behind. They would charge inside as soon as the screen crumbled.

The mages of the Elemental Hand were having a hard time. In truth, even if there were thousands of magic towers inside the castle and over 100,000 mages to man them, they still would not fear the soldiers charging inside.

The development of the castle, however, was still incomplete. If those soldiers were able to break through the screen of light and the large-scale puppets began to tear the buildings apart, the losses would have been staggering.

The mages already saw elemental creatures appearing far behind the soldiers, which looked to be Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers. They were over 100 meters tall, and all of them carried enormous magic cannons poised to attack at a moment's notice.

Attacks of magic cannons were indiscriminate and were incapable of locking onto targets. They also proved to be the ideal tools for taking on the mages' castle.

If they had sufficient power to enable the mages' castle to run full force, repelling attacks would have still been possible. Unfortunately, their magic amplifier had been broken during the Battle of Alchemy City and restoration was faulty.

When the dragon they captured attempted to escape, it broke the magic amplifier yet again. It was a real challenge keeping the mages' castle's functions working at the bare minimum.

The joy Saleen felt was indescribable. He saw through the facade of the badge and found the internal parts feverishly absorbing the screen of light's energy.

The mages of the Elemental Hand kept dumping all sorts of magic nuclei acquired from the Baldur's Gate into the magic array, which ended up being absorbed by Saleen.

Saleen might have had a ton of magic nuclei in his hands, but he would have never been willing to waste them like that.

Using the enemy's power to open up space in the badge while attacking the Elemental Hand turned out to be the best course of action.

Other than the Sea of Cloud, changes were also seen in other parts of the badge. Under the Sea of Cloud was a vast ocean and with magic beasts inside. It was the first time Saleen came to fear and revere his equipment, which actually housed a world within.

Furthermore, the level of that world was probably still being in development. Even a model would like that had already come to harbor powerful beings.

Those magic beasts began killing each other in the sea; the survivors were reduced to energy and returned to the badge.

Saleen finally came to understand that he was not actually stocking up power to enable the badge to shoot lightning bolts. The energy he had used in the badge turned out to be a key opening it instead.

Every opening required half a year's worth of energy being stocked.

Were it not for this stockpiled energy or the availability of having ample energy absorbed within, he would have only been able to look at all that energy within the badge and not be able to use any of it.

After coming to realize how it worked, his intentions on continuing to absorb energy diminished. The badge was of similar to common equipment, apart from the fact that it was of a ridiculously high level.

He would have been able to use some of its capabilities often if he were to just work on the badge using the secret arts.

If it hadn't absorbed the power of the screen of light from countless magic nuclei, there was no telling how long it would have taken him to realize on his own. His personality dictated that he would have never have wasted that much energy just to peer into the depths of the badge.

He had originally thought that his Elemental Eye enabled him to see through the badge. It was only then that Saleen realized that what he had seen was just a corner of the badge. It might have even housed continents inside. Given enough time, the continents might have harbored life.

The benefit was humongous. If he worked on such level of equipment using secret arts, it would have taken him a year at most to finish it. He would have been able to use lightning powers from it frequently after a year!

Saleen might have been overjoyed, but his hands did not stop. The army behind him was all set and ready to go. There were magic beast cavalry, spirit cavalry, elemental soldiers, ancient warriors, and Bug Angel Warriors waiting to charge the castle.

The mages of the Elemental Hand had finally had enough. One magic order after another was issued from the center of the castle, letting the magic towers everywhere to prepare for assaults.

The Baldur's Gate lacked the synchronization of the Floating City. Once the screen of light was broken, it became very troublesome to use.

Safilos stayed at Saleen's side all the while and observed how he worked. He noticed how Saleen seven changed the way he worked and frowned.

Saleen smiled and said, "Your Highness, I'm only here for the Baldur's Gate. I'm not interested in anything else. As long as the goal is achieved, I don't care how I get there."

"But you're still the commander of an army."

"The commander is a post that I'll give up sooner or later. Your Highness, I'm a mage after all." The screen of light crumbled again as Saleen continued to laugh. The crumbling this time was totally silent. It was as if the screen simply disappeared in a flash.

There was only some energy left working in the air, emitting odd, beautiful colors.

The beauty was deceptive: Beneath it lay a bloody battlefield.

The Bug Angel Warriors were the first to charge, with 40 warriors in one platoon to take on the magic towers. The Bug Angel Warriors no longer fought alone this time.

Other than the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers bombarding the place from outside, all the other elemental creatures followed the angels and warriors to attack the castle.

The mages' castle stretched over an area tens of square kilometers—it was practically a large city in itself.

The Bug Angel Warriors rattled their wings to emit sonic attacks, harassing the mages in the magic towers, distracting them. The elemental creatures hoisted huge weapons and banged on the towers.

Regardless of how sturdy a magic tower was, it would have weak areas regardless. Those magic towers initially had a myriad of ways to be used for defense. The Baldur's Gate, however, could not be developed in time and all functions were still in the test phase.

The mages of the Elemental Hand could only use the magic towers as they used to, even opening up windows in towers that were fully enclosed.

The compound around the magic towers were places where troops and students of the mages lived. Inside were all sorts of magic buildings. Instead of picking targets when they charged, the soldiers attacked anything they saw.

The generals before said that it was a territory of evil mages and all targets were very dangerous.

Those were not lies. Several Qin soldiers charged afterward. One platoon encountered several children and intended to take a detour before discovering that "children" were true-to-life humanoid puppets.

Mages of Alchemy City did not get married and there was no way they would have been able to bear children.

The puppets released three level-7 magic spells and one level-8 spell, killing all of the soldiers in that platoon. Even in their armor, they had an astonished look on their faces.