Badge in Azure

Chapter 1457: Eruption (Part 1)

The inmates from Black Dungeon City stormed the prisons. The first problem they faced was not how to escape but what to eat. The wardens had absconded with everything edible. Regardless of whether the inmates intended to leave or stay, they still had to eat.

Food supplies on the island had always been meager. Except for higher-ranking officials, most of the inhabitants had always experienced hunger.

Some of the inmates knew that if the prison bosses didn't take them along, they would never be able to leave. Those people had long forsaken any thought of survival. They watched the 12 leaders bring their people east without continuing to fight. Soon they gathered among themselves to discuss the next steps.

Heading west, Saleen's forces took a quick detour around the Black Dungeon City. He turned around to take a look at what was happening, smirking before speeding up again.

If his forces had arrived at Black Dungeon Island at such a moment, they would have clashed with the inmates.

While his plan had been a good one, it's a pity he had the Eye of Souls and no mountains blocking his view. There was no way he would have fallen into that trap.

The true battle would have only begun when they were within 100 kilometers of the volcano.

Heavy forces, which were everywhere, were meant to hold the line per the terrain.

Those wardens did not consider their own life and death, though their armor offered some protection against the War Drum of Fear's effects. Rafel's drum beats would only diminish their combat prowess instead of tearing down enemy formations on the spot, as had happened in other cities.

Charging in a narrow mountain pass, the combat puppets stormed the fortresses where the wardens were hiding.

The power of the combat puppets was average at best. The tricky and frustrating thing about them was their insane defensive capacity and endurance. They closed in quickly, able to withstand the bolts and divine spells fired from the fortresses.

The puppet attacks were also baffling. First, they went to their stations. The ones at the front were shooting iron balls to clear out the soldiers near the walls. The balls jumped around at the upper side of the fortresses; each was filled with pointy spikes. The balls' movement was caused by the earth-magic array imbued in them while the spikes were deployed once they came in contact with the enemy.

Rafel ordered the troops around impatiently. The army at the rear changed formations slowly, spreading out to the flanks and surrounding the volcano.

If that volcano had suddenly erupted, Saleen would have suffered severe losses.

Both Saleen and Rafel hadn't bothered much with such problems in the past. They expected the worst, so there was little they could do if the army had been defeated. The entire Black Dungeon Volcano was over 1,000 meters high. Its slope was gentle with untold numbers of divine-rune charm arrays laid down.

Saleen saw over 6,000 of them from the plane map in addition to the ones laid down hurriedly each day. That, coupled with those that were unseen at the edge of the volcano, meant there might be over 10,000 arrays in the area.

If left unguarded, Saleen would have stormed the volcano with his followers. Since there had been over 200 thousand enemy units in the mountains, he had to clip them before advancing.

Those troops might not have been much, but be it magic or divine arts, they were deployed most effectively using mass tactics.

While conquering the place might have been difficult, the volcano was the hub of the Black Dungeon, so there would be similar layouts and measures to contend with.

Sheer numbers: That was the reason the Holy See was so terrifying. If there was a leader capable of gathering the believers, things would have turned ugly for their enemies. The fundamental reason for the city's destruction was the loss of leadership and the inability of the people to gather. Saleen made a move only after tearing over half of the Tanggulasi Empire, due precisely to wanting to apply pressure to the ones at the Holy City.

His way of thinking was extremely intricate but seemed natural and effortless.

The war that had been waged for over a year caused severe psychological trauma to the people of the Holy See, making them believe the Floating City was invincible.

But it was hard for Holy City to defend itself against attacks from the Floating City. If it had gained a million believers and gone all out, Saleen would have needed more time and more troops to accomplish his mission.

By then, he would have only been able to send powerful warriors and mages to attack through brute force, which would have included himself.

The Holy City had many level-10 professionals among its ranks. If they were adept at using the divine-rune charm arrays and the ruins left behind by their god, they would have retaliated effectively.

What Saleen had done throughout the war was similar to setting up a game of chess.

In reality, he was only lifting his fist slowly during the process. By the time he was ready to bring his fist down, the enemy was so terrified it would have realized it had no choice but to run.

Things were different with Black Dungeon Island. There were many more powerful professionals as well as a head warden taking charge. Saleen knew nothing about his level, but seeing how the great head inquisitor didn't try to defy him, Saleen knew that the head warden must be one whole rank higher than the others.

Saleen was thinking of forcing him to a showdown.

His Bug Angel Army didn't take flight; instead, they mingled with the other troops and moved along the mountain pass. Faint noises were heard from the Black Dungeon Volcano. Be it Saleen's army or the Black Dungeon Island's army, everyone halted.

The ground was quaking beneath Saleen's feet and the volcano looked as if it was about to erupt.

All the fortresses along the way lit up with holy light. Saleen's flames of motivation were ignited when he saw that. The volcano had someone inside, and that someone was none other than the head warden.

"Let 'em retreat!"

With his Eye of Souls, Saleen saw that the volcano was spewing more than just ash; it was also discharging raging energy that was anything but pure. All sorts of energies were mixed within and he could not tell how they operated.

If something like that happened at the mouth of the volcano, even an extinct one could be brought to life again.

Gusion, who was leading the puppet army, waved his flag and proceeded elsewhere according to plan. Saleen didn't want to lose any of the puppets, as the price of one unit would have been enough for him to purchase several sets of magic armor.

Among the remaining troops were the demon army units, who were all wearing Devil Possession Armors capable of flight. They left the offensive formation first. That armor, designed and crafted for conventional warfare, couldn't resist something naturally occurring like volcano eruptions.

The Bug Angel Warriors were the second to leave. Despite being formidable defensive equipment, they were high-maintenance, and Saleen wasn't much of a spendthrift, to begin with.

Next came the army of figures. They chose to run along the mountain pass instead of taking flight, yet their speed accelerated to the point where not even level-3 warhorses could keep up.

Boom!

The volcano erupted. Red-black smoke shot to the sky while Saleen's armies moved in the other direction in an orderly manner.

This wasn't the result of a divine spell; it was a signal that someone was about to emerge from the volcano.

The place where the head warden took up residence terrified Saleen. He had once been inside the crevasse in the ground. Temperatures in lava lakes were terrifyingly high: Not even Saleen dared to stay in such places for prolonged periods.

Yet the head warden was living in that volcano. It was apparent that he had been training for extended periods where the lava moved.

"Saleen!" The mouth of the volcano was like a huge speaker, amplifying his voice. Even the clouds above took a funnel-like shape before spinning in a frenzy.

Saleen smirked and said to the people near him casually, "So the head warden knows me, huh? Seems like I'm famous."

There was no doubt about the extent of his fame. Virtually every professional on the mainland had heard of Saleen Metatrin. His joke, however, lightened the mood around Jola and the others.

Only Rafel said to Saleen solemnly, "My lord, the rules of the plane have loosened…"

"Great. If they hadn't loosened up, I'd be having a hard time fighting him!" Saleen felt the rules loosening too. For one thing, the seal in his body was crumbling. The seal would have automatically been undone as soon as the rules allowed them to be. There would have never been a stupid thing such as having one's power sealed by one's hands and yet be unable to restore them.

"Master!" The three weapon spirits appeared at the same time right behind Saleen. Everyone thought the God of Magic Net was still at Nature City. There had been several intense fights and even when someone had shown up right before Saleen, the God of Magic Net still did not show…

"Very well. Hold on. Whoever my lightning icicles hit, you all hit them too," Saleen ordered.

"Yes, master," the three weapon spirits answered in unison as if they were one being.

Saleen's army retreated at great speed. Not even the wardens dared to stay behind. The volcano was about to erupt, a palpable sign that the head warden's powers were running amok. The Black Dungeon Volcano would have stayed dead for tens of thousands of years had it not been for the warden.

Then a phenomenon occurred around the Black Dungeon Volcano. Many of the opposing sides mixed up with one another as they ran for their lives. Other than Saleen's flying forces, all other troops escaped as quickly as they were able, or they would have soon been engulfed by the volcano.

Saleen climbed to greater altitudes and thought about hurling a level-18 scroll into the mouth right away. But if he missed his target, it wasn't a sure thing that the level-18 would end up killing the head warden.

He practically lived inside the volcano, which meant that the eruption would not harm him.

Saleen wasn't hoping to damage the head warden through sheer dumb luck. Even he, at level-13, wouldn't have been easily harmed inside the lava.

The metal angels circled Saleen. The winds above were so fast that they didn't bother flapping their wings. They simply hovered about quickly and let the winds blow.

"About time you showed up, Saleen. I heard you have lightning powers, and I'm interested in seeing if they're more powerful than my flames of purgatory!" The voice emanated from the mouth of the volcano. A thick ground separated the two men.

Saleen frowned. Damn it. That guy's not a believer. He probably has little respect for the gods. The only thing he devotedly worships is power.

The head warden knew of Saleen's arrival. Coincidentally, his powers were on the rise and he was unable to contain it. The head warden exploited the rules of the mainland by loosening them to unleash all his powers, letting the volcano become active again without any concern for his well-being.

Saleen had shown up at a bad time. If he had arrived earlier, he wouldn't have been put on the defensive.

He observed the speed at which his troops retreated, knowing that the flying units would be fine. Some of those incapable of flight would be trapped there, or even scorched to death by the high temperatures.

Things weren't going well. He wondered if the Goddess of Myers had taken back the luck she had promised him.