Badge in Azure

Chapter 1446: Making Friends (Part 2)

In the minds of both Saleen and Grand Duke Iron Blood, Imposa had to be killed. This would be an acceptable solution for a common mage, but unfortunately, he was a formidable alchemist capable of crafting huge, vastly damaging magic equipment. If someone like that had evil intentions, he could inflict significant damage to the empire.

Hence, taking down the Holy See was of the highest priority at the moment—and time was running out.

The monsters emerging from beneath the island supporting the Palace at Sea were of too high a level. Moreover, there were too many of them. Saleen sensed that the rules of Myers Mainland were indeed loosening up.

What was happening right there and then was a harbinger of things to come. The last time such ominous signs appeared, Myers Mainland advanced less than a year after the calamity. True level-10 powerful beings appeared without having to seal their powers.

Grand Duke Iron Blood was a level-11 true might, so he naturally knew that was the key to the problem. Getting the bodies of those monsters before him would have naturally enabled him to heighten his army's combat strength. Further, he was the only true Dragon Knight in his clan. If he acquired the magic nuclei and whatever materials that came with defeating those high-level monsters, it would have been easy to bait several other dragons into signing contracts with them.

Although the ability to sign contracts with dragons mostly had to do with bloodlines, those creatures would still hope to benefit from any deal that was struck. They also expected the procedure to be done properly. In many respects, this prospective union was like a marriage contract. There was no way the dragons would agree to the proposal if the "dowry" was less than satisfactory.

Saleen had his own plans. While the Tainted Blood Armors were great, they were only meant for level-9 or level-10 warriors. Better armors would be needed for warriors who had risen above level-11. The materials that could be extracted from those monsters right before him were best suited to true mights like Jola and Sul. When he was in the Hall of Gods, he fostered little more than 1,000 true mights of which nearly a hundred had reached level-11.

The near 10 percent ratio was a rather high one.

Saleen had no time to think about the devastation that would be wrought on the mainland by provoking those monsters. The grand duke would have incurred sizeable financial losses. That being said, a single hair from those monsters would be worth more than a pot of gold coins. Hence, the grand duke would have made a nice return on his investment.

Splitting the loot 50-50 wasn't such a bad deal for Saleen after all.

The entire island was still breaking up and crumbling. Preserving the buildings on top was impossible: One by one, they slid into the ocean. The powerful beings around Saleen did not dare to dive into the waters. The only way to kill them was by provoking them and letting their powers exceed the permissible levels of Myers Mainland.

Combat would have proven dangerous and risky. Saleen had Nailisi and the Winged Skull return, leaving only him and Rafel, whose speed was close to that of Saleen, to finish the job.

The grand duke had his seven-colored dragon serve as backing. His dragon was fast enough to overpower the monsters, and he didn't have to worry about tangling with the monsters. All three of them chased after those newly hatched monsters, killing them one by one and putting them away in Rafel's space.

Such battles were a drain on the power of the soul. Saleen felt as if his power had transformed after doing battle for several hours: The results were more effective than training at the last month in the Hall of Gods.

It was also fortunate that those newly hatched monsters didn't have a chance to reach reasonable levels of power. Furthermore, they were affected by the rules of the plane and had their powers bound to the parents of that silver fish, preventing them from leaving the ocean floor for the time being. If they were to flee or attack the Floating City by bursting out of the surface, Saleen would have suffered severe losses.

The entire island gradually sank to the bottom of the ocean. None of the monsters made it out alive. Their purpose, right after they were hatched, was to serve as the silver fish's food after all.

Saleen unleashed his lightning warriors and had them clean up the ocean floor afterward. He saw what the grand duke was capable of in battle. Dragon Knights were indeed formidable, and attacks from the dragon spear were hardly different than attacks from Rafel.

If Saleen hadn't reached level-13, there would be little need for the alliance between him and the grand duke to continue.

A true might capable of signing contracts with two dragons was considered a top-notch being in all of Myers Mainland, especially given that of the two dragons he signed contracts with, one was adept at physical attacks while the other was adept at magical ones. It allowed the grand duke to easily switch his steed in combat depending on the opponents fought.

While the grand duke was surrounded by many mighty ones, all of them had gone to the Floating City to hide when the fighting began, so none of them dared to venture down to clean up the battlefield. The grand duke stayed with Saleen and emerged from the ocean surface, looking at the lightning warriors ferrying the goods up to the Floating City in midair. The monsters' fresh corpses were all in Rafel's space. Saleen hadn't brought them up, and neither had the grand duke.

The lightning warriors, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands, were all super-strong mechanical puppets. Under the workings of the Lightning Constellation, each could carry thousands of pounds of cargo in flight. There was little of value to pick up from the grand duke's island because the structures there had all been for overpowering the eggs that were about to hatch, so as to profit from them.

What happened that day was foreseen on the first day of the construction.

Most of the materials were still salvageable after the buildings were destroyed.

Eventually, the Winged Skull began summoning spirits and had them move the eggshells. There was little need to speak of the hardness of the shells themselves. All had naturally forming cracks on them, and external attacks could never break them.

Other than the scales of the silver fish and the monsters' corpses, the most valuable pieces to be found there were those eggshells.

Among the hundreds of eggs, little more than a dozen had hatched. The monsters inside had run into problems during incubation and died. The Winged Skull dumped those eggs without care into its own plane. It had no intention of sharing them with the grand duke.

It was still possible for some of the eggs to hatch in the spirit plane. Those that did would become powerful spirits right away.

The jade skeletons hadn't yet gained suitable steeds. The Winged Skull saw fit to look out for their subordinates and did not care one whit if the grand duke was suffering any losses from it.

In truth, the grand duke hardly suffered any losses. He knew that Imposa was the one who ruined everything at that time. If Saleen hadn't shown up in time, the duke would have lost everything.

The grand duke and Saleen flew back to shore after clean-up. They didn't choose to settle down at Lianyun City. The Floating City was too huge, so they simply found a remote area and landed there instead.

The Floating City cost magic nuclei simply by remaining airborne. Saleen saw the need to conserve everything as best as he could. They were about to attack the Tanggulasi Empire, and every minute could be costly.

If he made it possible for more human warriors to survive, it was imperative to enhance the quality of equipment produced and invest in more magic equipment, puppets, figures, and whatnot.

Saleen split the loot with the grand duke after they landed. The grand duke had hardly done anything. He had only killed about 30 monsters, but they had made a deal beforehand to split everything 50-50 and Saleen didn't want to go back on his word.

After divvying up the corpses evenly, Saleen then asked, "Duke, about the eggshells…"

The grand duke then smiled bitterly and said, "Shells are of course yours. They're not part of the loot."

Saleen nodded and continued, "Very well then. But now that Imposa has run off and you don't have alchemists as competent among your people, let me know if you need anything."

It was the first time Saleen had been so generous. The grand duke was baffled. He quickly smiled and said, "Well then, I'll do the calculations later. I'll indeed have a hard time dealing with the materials."

The powers of the grand duke's family were such that it wouldn't have been a problem getting those materials processed. On the other hand, who knew how long it would take. Saleen's proposal of taking out the Tanggulasi Empire would have reaped astronomical rewards.

The grand duke had wanted to invade the place where the Holy See was a long time ago. The Tanggulasi Empire had favorable weather, ideal for farming. The reason so few crops grew there was that most of the fertile lands had been taken by the Holy See. And who was farming the land? Not peasants but slaves.

Having slaves work on the farms yielded less than half of what the peasants would have yielded. In addition, free folk refugees were growing increasingly large, so food had always been in short supply in the Tanggulasi Empire, requiring them to purchase supplies from external sources.

The Holy See sold food too, but at hugely inflated prices.

A vast empire had the Holy See sucking its lifeblood out of it and grown increasingly weak. The Tanggulasi Empire still matched the other three empires when it was first founded, but the royal family was reduced to a shadow of their former selves about 1,000 years later. Most of the nobles latched onto the Holy See; no one bothered with the emperor.

The grand duke's forces only extended to the coastal areas and did not manage to truly get into islands of Qin, with most of his forces focused on Lianyun City. The grand duke had initially taken the place for the purpose of building the Palace at Sea on the island. He never expected the magic beasts hatching from the islands to be so powerful. They were lucky to escape alive, let alone subjugate the monsters.

If it hadn't been for Saleen's 24 thunder dragons, the grand duke would have run for his life.

Saleen let the grand duke organize his forces, move all of them to the Floating City, and travel to the Tanggulasi Empire on it.

Both parties were thinking about consolidating their forces in one place. Saleen's armies consisted mainly of demons and some Bug Angel Warriors intended as shock troops. Now that he was armed with the Floating City, virtually no one stood in his way, save for the likes of Holy Rock City.

Saleen wanted to destroy everything the Lord of Glory built on the mainland before it could advent again.

A god without an army to command and support from believers would have been considerably weakened. The grand duke could tell from Saleen's actions of allying with him that he had no intention of reigning supreme throughout the mainland. He only wanted to continue training as a mage, which was why the grand duke was chosen.

He had an army of about 300,000 strong stationed at Qin territories. Such a force far exceeded what a grand duke should have been able to keep. A duke like him should not have been able to have a force exceeding 50,000 strong.

The grand duke transported 200,000 of his troops to the Floating City—a testament to his bravery and willingness to go all out. He knew that if he had to rely solely on his powers, expanding his territories and reigning supreme over the mainland would have easily cost him hundreds of years, a period considered very short.

Don's Nature Temple Knights were hardly affected within Kroraina territory. Because of a natural barrier in the form of the Purgatory Desert, he didn't have to worry about harassment from Cloudflow when they marched to God Grace Duchy. There were little resistances to be had from within the duchy as well since they had been cleaned up by Saleen a month ago.

Owing to internal conflicts and the new pope missing, the Holy See would never be able to take back God Grace Duchy.

The Nature Faith's forces had moved all the way to the borders of the Tanggulasi Empire under such circumstances. The headquarters were set up in Cologne City. While the walls here were intact, the internal structures had been razed, making it suitable for stationing troops. The people of Nature Faith set up temples within and created drainage systems allowing them to consolidate the army inside the city. Two large camps were set up outside the city. The place, which was to serve as the main base, marked the start of the invasion into the Tanggulasi Empire.