Badge in Azure

Chapter 1455: Black Dungeon City (Part 1)

Of course, there was no way for every demon serving Saleen to be of level-9. Only the supreme demons and a handful of demons had reached this level. Level-10 demons were fewer in number. The amplification of their combat prowess was due to the Devil Possession Armors.

At first, the demons were in awe. Then they cackled, saying, "The head warden was right. This place is going to be invaded. Now we can use all those contraptions laid beforehand."

The leading holy master gave the order.

"Yes, sir!"

The wardens acknowledged him and activated the divine-rune charm arrays at the beach.

As gray light burst from the arrays, all 10,000 demons were struck by the beams. But…

None of them fell.

The holy masters were baffled by what they saw with their very eyes. How could that be? The Great Prophecy Spell Arrays were the only divine-rune charm arrays in the Holy See capable of using prophecy spells in a concentrated manner. They could only be used in a special environment like the Black Dungeon Island with a 30 percent success rate.

Such high prophetic abilities! According to conventional calculations, even if all 10,000 of those invaders were extremely lucky, at least 3,000 or so would have perished.

Suddenly they were struck by silver beams. Roar! None of the demons was felled by the curses being hurled at them. The armor they were wearing had been crafted by Saleen. That was, of course, referring to the lightning-magic patterns on the armor.

Saleen discovered that those patterns were probably the best method for defending against prophecy spells.

If the level of the spell was the same as the target, the prophecy spells would have been nullified by the lightning-magic patterns. All demons wore level-9 magic armor. Be it the prophecy spells or the curses, they were only at about level-7 because of the multiple-target spells fired from arrays.

While those spells were terrifying, it was still impossible for them to break the lightning-magic patterns' protection.

Saleen had done detailed research into Tribunal tactics. For every bit of information he gathered, he had more than 100 thousand enchanters do calculations on them over and over. Saleen had long been prepared to deal with such attacks.

It was usually challenging to place arrays of any kind in the sand, which would have caused them to break easily. But Saleen caught sight of the divine-rune charm array embedded in the soil for prolonged periods in that divine smith's compound.

Although the soil was less shifty, its stability was even poorer than sand.

Saleen had prepared mightily. He first let the high-level demons storm the beach wearing Devil Possession Armors, triggering attacks from the divine-rune charm arrays before sending in the star figures and ancient warriors.

As for the ancient warriors, he saw them in a different light and was no longer concerned about their loss. Those people had died a long time ago and their souls were in fragments. The combined powers of the ancient warriors would have far exceeded those of golden grand swordmasters.

Those people were little more than level-9 beings, after all.

Although Saleen had sympathy for them, he had to use whatever means were available to him. He presented the Black Dungeon Island as the final battlefield after discovering that he had no way of saving their souls.

Black clouds hovered above the island. Untold numbers of flying magic beasts were inside but all were illusions. The large illusion originated from the core of the Black Dungeon Island, an extinct volcano.

The power emanating from that location was more potent than Saleen's family badge. What was even more terrifying was that the power was controlled by others. Despite being illusions, those beings in the sky were capable of solid attacks.

If Saleen had brought the Floating City there, the place would have been attacked.

He had been observing the many changes to the Black Dungeon Island, due to having possessed a plane map. That was why he brought the Baldur's Gate and attacked from the waters instead.

Be it divine or magic spells, once the battle was taken to the ground, it would be a matter of personal strength, with combatants clashing head-on with each other.

The demon army marched forward and took the entire beach. They laid down a line of defense and stopped advancing, waiting for the forces from the rear.

Saleen was surprised that the wardens did not emerge to stop them, which meant that he would have had an easier time initiating the battle.

Riding on the Violet Angel, he and Rafel disembarked at the forefront of the battlefield.

"Rafel, you're in charge of the fighting now," Saleen said and took off. He hovered high in the sky and looked down on the battlefield. He was simply keeping a close eye on enemy movements. If the head warden showed up, he would have had to take him out personally; no one else was capable of doing that.

"Yes, my lord," Rafel was behaving unusually respectfully toward Saleen. She was born with a mission to fight wars. She had great respect for the act of combat.

The Violet Angel's golden dragon form stood instead of lying prostrate, its head held high, proudly looking at the ridges in the distance. A group of holy masters was there too, but none dared to come near the dragon.

The forces behind the demons arrived soon enough, consisting of Bug Angel Warriors and some low-level elemental creatures.

After different troops mixed with the demon army and reorganized, Rafel summoned someone to her side—Gusion, who hardly spent any time with Saleen.

Because of talent or advancing too late, he was only at level-11 of powers at present. But that was more than enough. As a military officer, level 11-beings were capable of leading 1,000 people even in ancient times.

The ones serving Gusion were not from the Dragonslayer Army but were an army of puppets assigned by Saleen.

They were weaker than usual, mainly because they had no magic perpetual-motion engines installed in them. That also prevented them from going crazy and taking out allies.

The puppet army was the last to get to shore and was put in front of the demon army. Gusion commanded them alone, wielding a Dragon Slaughtering War Flag over seven meters long.

A huge war drum appeared before Rafel. It was the War Drum of Fear.

She wielded the bone hammer and beat on the drum, signaling the start of the battle.

One beat on the drum resulted in massive casualties among the thousands of wardens laying in ambush in the woods. Most had gone crazy and attacked anyone around them they could find. Others cowered in fear, with those remaining running in fear. But were quickly slain by the wardens who went crazy.

Among the wardens were more than 100 black-robed holy masters. Although all possessed powerful equipment, they were unable to use it before having the weakest parts of their minds attacked directly by the drum.

"Attack according to plan," Rafel shouted to Gusion. He nodded in response. He rode a steed himself, an earth dragon incapable of flight. It was also of a breed that was closely related to the true dragons, compliments of Saleen. The combat prowess of that earth dragon was comparable to that of Gusion himself.

Gusion waved the Dragon Slaughtering War Flag for a bit. The puppets behind him then marched with him.

Saleen didn't waste the wealth he had obtained in Alchemy City. He used it all in his army. Rearming and reorganizing his troops were shortcuts for mages to advance. Only during wartime did they get opportunities to practice their craft.

Crafting armors went without saying. The crafting of the puppet armies had been more than enough to enable the advancement of thousands of mages.

The Violet Angel held its head high and walked proudly while being ridden by Rafel as they headed toward the center of the Black Dungeon Island. The place was vast, its landmass spanning a radius of thousands of kilometers. If they had proceeded with their attacks just like that, they still wouldn't have made it to the central region even after a fortnight.

Saleen saw the retreating enemy in the distant ridges. He smirked coldly. There were a few scouts out to see what his forces were capable of. He saw no need to let them leave alive.

The magic amplifier behind his back emerged. The Thunder Dragon Blaster fired lightning icicles from the core at the holy masters over a dozen kilometers away.

Seven icicles were fired once, and seven volleys were fired back. Saleen's lightning icicles were no longer what they once were. He fired them quickly and in great numbers. Saleen easily killed any target near him.

Dozens of icicles appeared in an instant at the ridges and all hit their targets. Two holy masters repelled the first wave of attacks only to be killed by the second wave.

Those people were simply sent to observe and to trigger the divine-rune charm arrays, so they would not have been elites of any kind.

The Black Dungeon Island was run according to a strict hierarchy. None of those people even had the right to enter the core areas. They were laughing a few minutes ago; now they were dead. Those wardens who attempted to flee halted their steps.

That was because they saw a lone holy master surviving the attack. It was not due to that holy master's power that their lives were spared but because they didn't take a single step throughout the onslaught.

Saleen's voice was heard over a dozen kilometers away, saying, "Stay where you are. If you take even half a step, I'll kill half of you. If I see two of you move, I'll kill all of you."

Saleen threatened them without continuing to attack. He was doing that because he realized that those holy masters were all lacking in levels. The magic nuclei needed to be expended just by firing the lightning icicles, which were once of far greater value than the targets those icicles hit. Saleen resorted to threats instead because he had to conserve ammunition.

None of the wardens dared to move after he finished saying what he said.

Because of high casualties, none of the holy masters was able to relay what they had seen back to their superiors.

Meanwhile, the puppet army advanced inland. The forces Saleen brought with him on that expedition hardly had any mages among their ranks. An all-magic force did not need aid from mages. Those Bug Angel Warriors were more than capable of shooting Wind Blades.

There was also the fact that Saleen had brought many forbidden curse scrolls on that expedition.

If magic spells were needed, he alone would have had the tactical edge the forces needed.

Crafting forbidden curse scrolls was considerably difficult. Even Saleen was inadequate in crafting them, so he had to ask Jason to do it. His teacher did not disappoint: He crafted 28 forbidden curse scrolls during the half-year that Saleen waited.

Making one scroll a week was like crafting common level-14 scrolls. Saleen was also fortunate in having a lot of starline cloth at his disposal. Level-14 forbidden curse scrolls had exceeded what the starline paper was able to handle. Only starline cloth, which was used for crafting high-level figures, was capable of handling the forbidden curse's power.

Other than the 28 forbidden curse scrolls, hundreds of scrolls above level-12 were crafted. While multiple-target spells were not as powerful as forbidden curses and were even considerably weaker than single-target magic spells, in a war scenario those spells were the ones that killed the most people.

The Bug Angel Warriors finally took flight and spread out to the flanks. The Black Dungeon Island was of thousands of kilometers square and had a city in it. Saleen's target was the largest city on Black Dungeon Island that also served as the largest prison—the Black Dungeon City.