Badge in Azure

Chapter 1458: Eruption (Part 2)

Saleen quickly dismissed the notion and put aside all thoughts about luck. Luck couldn't be relied upon. Effort was what mattered. He attributed his successes in life to his effort.

He welcomed the notion of having luck, taking advantage of it time and again. But he never blamed any of his misfortunes or setbacks on the absence of luck or bad luck.

To be sure, both Saleen and the head warden had made some miscalculations. According to the head warden's plan, if he was unable to leave the volcano, he would turn it into the main battlefield. Saleen would attack while he commanded hundreds of thousands of subordinates from inside the volcano.

Saleen had considered planting large Thunder Dragon Blasters around the volcano, barring any exits, and only brought the Baldur's Gate over when they had cleaned up any remaining divine-rune charm arrays. The six godly items in the gate were to be used to attack and defend.

No one anticipated the head warden going berserk or the loosening of the plane rules of Myers Mainland. A battle that was supposed to be fought between opposing forces was now reduced to a showdown between two high-level professionals.

Worse still, now that both parties had thrown in their forces, it was nearly impossible to get them to quickly retreat.

In reality, many of those troops had already fled to the mountains. The Black Dungeon Volcano was not the highest point. Things would be comparatively safer on higher ground when the eruption occurred, and anyone capable of blocking off the high-temperature volcanic ash would probably survive.

Troops from both sides gathered around; inevitably, they were on guard against each other.

Saleen realized that some demons were incapable of flight. While ancient warriors were capable of flight, some did not receive Saleen's orders and retreated on foot instead.

That was a miscalculation on Saleen's part. He never expected the intelligence of those awakened ancient warriors to be so severely compromised.

The demons opened their mouths to discuss the situation with the wardens.

"If we stay down here when the volcano erupts, none of us will make it out alive. How about we just share the mountains?"

The wardens looked at each other. They were elites of the Black Dungeon; the weakest was at level-6. Things were the same as the enemy. All were wearing high-level armor, and their combat prowess was a bit higher than the wardens'. The dumb-looking people wearing dark red armor seemed to be of even higher levels, eliminating the advantage of having level-10 professionals at the warden's side.

The two parties quickly reached a compromise. If they were to fight each other during the eruption, only a dozen or so would survive among the thousands who were about to share the mountain.

They decided to wait until the fighting at the top was over. If Saleen died, most of his forces would retreat; the remaining ones would never be able to take on the wardens. If the head warden died, the wardens would surrender.

The troops on both sides constructed stone walls at the center of the mountains to avoid unnecessary fighting. Then they took out their equipment and set up safe havens.

It was worth noting that by the time the volcano erupted, the air was unbreathable. Not even the demons would be able to survive near an erupting volcano.

Saleen and the head warden ignored the compromise between their troops. Saleen had no illusions of the demons remaining in service should he die. Now that Nailisi wasn't around, they had probably already run off to Metatrin City, wondering what to do next. If Metatrin City fell, the demons would return to the demon plane instead of surrendering. They would never attempt to avenge Saleen's death.

The demons Saleen had brought on the suicide run were not the most loyal bunch. Powerful enough, yes, but that was about it. The most loyal ones either had stayed with Nailisi's or been sent to the interdimensional space.

"Head warden. I'm here. And I have no intention of leaving. I'm waiting for you, so there's no need to shout," said Saleen looking down at the volcano from up high. Because he had been near the mouth of the volcano, he had to fly as high as possible to protect himself.

As the ground shook, rocks began rolling down the mountain. Saleen noticed that the surrounding areas of the volcano were filled with dense woods, but no magic beasts were seen anywhere. The head warden's lair was devoid of life.

All at once, a deafening blast came from below. Saleen saw a glimmer of crimson light at the mouth of the volcano. Then came a roaring, booming sound.

A pillar of flames tens of meters thick shot into the air, exceeding Saleen's expectations. If he had stayed above the mouth of the volcano, he would have been caught in the blast.

What happened next was even more mysterious to him.

As the volcano erupted, a long crack formed on the ground. The earth shook violently. If the troops hadn't set up camp in the mountains and stabilized the ground using divine or magic spells, they would have been sent flying to the ground below.

The earthquake grew increasingly intense, while the volcano spewed flames and lava as the surface cracked open. The crack, more than three kilometers long, gushed lava. Smoke billowed. Trees burned. What a sorry sight.

Although the mountains had been cleaned up, the temperatures kept climbing. The wardens all wore glum expression in the shelters. Things would have fared better with holy masters around. Without them, their crude shelter wouldn't have kept them alive.

Saleen then pointed at the clouds in the air. The thick, stuttering storm clouds spun as the rain began falling. The areas within tens of kilometers radius became shrouded in mist.

The soldiers put up their visors. Saleen's troops were armed with magic equipment, enabling their visors to filter dust and smoke. The lowest-level wardens could only wet their towels and stuff them into the crevices of their armor for protection.

The armor worn by the units resisted high temperatures. The only difference between them lay with the details.

Saleen saved quite a lot of people with that one move, but many more were falling into the lava and burning to death. In response, Saleen cast an Ice Strike with a wide area of effect. Six huge blocks of ice that were tens of meters wide rammed onto each other and dropped into the mouth of the volcano.

Saleen's calculations were impeccable. The volcanic eruptions had their rhythm. He was doing it at the interval where the eruptions stopped. Ice Strike was not some less-known magic spell. Those six blocks of ice didn't melt right away in the lava, causing the mouth to be blocked.

Boom!

The ground shook, and more cracks split opened. Saleen looked at the swaths of lava lakes and spotted a tiny house at the center. Its roof had already collapsed, and only three walls were left standing. There sat a middle-aged man.

He was wearing a black robe and had impeccable features, looking like a wise bard.

The image stayed only a second before the man's clothing was torn, revealing the skin underneath. His fair skin quickly turned red. Muscles began to bulge all over his body.

That was the head warden. The changes to him did not stop there. His height continued to climb, reaching six meters tall in a matter of seconds. A pair of longhorns grew out of his head, and the muscles all over his body disappeared as flames engulfed him. Through the flames, however, Saleen saw them turn into a shiny, crimson sheen as if composed of fire-elemental crystals.

One of the head warden's arms became even longer, and a layer of scales grew on it. An eight-meter-long tail sprouted behind his back. His body was engulfed in flames by then.

The flames were dark, with pitch-black colors showing in the red. The flames danced, and all spaces that burned turned ethereal before being taken over by new flames.

Rafel saw the creature high above and shouted to Saleen, "My lord, that's a creature from the underworld plane!"

"That's the head warden," Saleen replied in a low voice.

The head warden looked at the spot where Saleen was before lowering his head to look at the changes on his body. He didn't appear to be shocked at all. He then uttered flatly, "I have fallen indeed."

He grasped at the air with his right hand after saying that. A weapon appeared in his hand—a single-edged great sword that was merged with the scales on his army, fusing into a peculiar-looking weapon.

The side of the blade that was not holding an edge was serrated in blocks, each one a square. In every protruding tooth was a square-shaped space. Saleen saw purple flames burning in those interior spaces.

One side of the blade was meant for inflicting formidable physical damage; the other side, powerful elemental damage. That weapon was definitely of a godly item.

To test his speculations, Saleen fired a lightning icicle at the head warden's throat.

It was not meant to kill him; it was just a test.

The head warden brought the sword up, and the icicle shattered with a tang.

Saleen's mind sank to the bottom. His lightning icicle had fundamentally advanced. The lightning icicle spouted by the powerful thunder dragon was harder than any metal. The reason the sword was able to easily break the icicle was that the power of rules was used.

There was no way to circumvent them.

Jola and Sul shuddered at the same time at Saleen's side. That was their expression of feeling strained by the might emanating from the powerful one before them.

"Level-14. It's okay." Saleen's thundering voice was heard, and the two level-2 true mights could barely calm themselves. The power of the head warden was higher than Saleen expected. That creature used the rules perfectly. The test result told Saleen that if he were to not use level-18 scrolls, the head warden could not be killed by his family badge alone if he was still wielding the godly item in his hand.

Jola and Sul were of no help. Only his three weapon spirits and Rafel, as well as the Violet Angel, would have been able to do decent damage. The upcoming battle was going to be tough.

Despite Saleen's superior numbers, all combatants were at level-13; he nonetheless knew how much difference there was between level-13 and level-14.

Further, from the look of things, the head warden seemed to be wielding more than just the power of rules; there were also rules of the fire element.

The head warden's expression was hard to read. He was engulfed in flames, and any parts seen underneath appeared to be red-hot, burning metal.

"Saleen, are you coming to get me? Or should I go to you?" The head warden seemed to be in a good mood. The undoing of his seal did not result in any penalties by the plane rules. Seems like a good time to leave this blasted island indeed!