Badge in Azure

Chapter 1471: Cornering a God (Part 1)

Myers sent the divine beast to the Imperial City of the Abyss specifically to find out if her most troublesome enemy was dead. The result proved rather disappointing. However, since the heroic spirits were unable to leave the cemetery, there was no need for her to rush into things as well.

Leaving the cemetery required help from outside, and only Saleen knew of the location of the imperial city. There was no one else capable of helping them.

From the looks of things, Saleen already knew what the general has done, and there was no way he would have stood with the general again. That worked just fine with her. She had no need for Saleen to serve her. He was a mage after all, and there was no way he could have done so.

She was content to have someone like Saleen stay put and do nothing rash.

Saleen did as she wanted him to. His family badge and other items were all sucked into the Ring of Cosmos. There was nothing else he could have done even if he were to clean up the entire cemetery of the giant. He had no way of fixing the problem for the time being.

Saleen returned to Metatrin City patiently, commanding the fighting forces of the Nature Faith from afar.

The Nature Faith did not go on to crush Tanggulasi City; it turned its attention to Sikeqinya instead. The Sikeqinyan troops were too scattered and the nobles too divided. They were quickly taken down one after another.

While the Nature Faith army had yet to enter Sikeqinya, the empire was done for in all but name only.

Saleen suffered considerable losses throughout the expedition and yet he did not care. He did not even bother sending the Baldur's Gate or even the Floating City for reinforcement. He simply let the Nature Faith forces fight on their own.

Grand Duke Iron Blood began to reap his rewards. He took his forces all the way into Titan Duchy, taking both shores of the Red River.

Saleen did little other than checking out the plane map for a bit, looking at Nature Faith's progress, before going to train with Sika.

Things were quiet in Golden Plains. The force that Saleen displayed began to make Golden Plains have second thoughts, yet they did not loosen their grip on Qin. Lex still only had several forces at hand to spare. However, since Saleen began expanding his territory, her subjects had technically doubled, enabling significant progress with training with her family secret arts.

That was something Lex was hoping to see as well. She would not have bothered much with making compromises with the mages from Golden Plains otherwise.

Emperor Chanake was able to quickly become a powerful warrior owing specifically to his profession. He was an emperor, and his hundreds of millions of subjects both feared and revered him. Such power was not actually power of faith, yet it was nonetheless essential for training in the Grukos' family secret arts.

Other than contacting Lex at times to check on Holy Rock City, he spent most of his remaining time working on the Ring of Cosmos.

There was no way he could have retrieved his family badge without working on the ring. There was also the Lightning Moon, which had effectively merged with the Lightning Constellation. That equipment was immensely powerful. If he were to be unable to make it his own, Saleen would have still felt extremely pressured about taking on the Lord of Glory.

The three weapon spirits have completely merged within the Lightning Moon, which was inside the Ring of Cosmos. The weapon spirit took the form of a three-headed, six-armed being. However, the core of that weapon spirit was already enveloped by a completed jade green rock.

Saleen's lightning magic patterns were still found on that piece of jade and they looked increasingly profound. It looked as if that it was not the lightning that was tempering the rock, but it was the rock borrowing the lightning's power to restore itself instead.

If it had not been for the Ring of Cosmos' control, that completed, whole piece of jade might have given birth to a powerful weapon spirit, which would have consumed Saleen's weapon spirit instead.

The Lightning Moon continued to temper the weapon spirit's body. That process, which would have proven destructive, looked like it was crafting a piece of equipment under the ring's control instead.

Blasts from the lightning did not cease until the fused giant weapon spirit gave birth to a brand new will.

There was a peculiar mark on each of the giant weapon spirit's heads. The markings were extremely complex, so much so that one was unable to even completely make out using the power of the soul.

The three heads represented the magic net, lightning and amplification abilities respectively. All three abilities supported and complemented each other, forming a rather imperfect balance.

The rules were considered unrefined still, yet such a weapon spirit was the first to appear in eons.

The six arms on the weapon spirit held a magic shield, an elemental spear, ball lightning, Water Flame, the attribute-less golden greatsword and a golden dagger.

The Lightning was only absorbed gradually into the Lightning Constellation after the weapon spirit was completed. They melded instead of trying to tear each other apart.

When the weapon spirit came to be, Saleen's family badge gradually returned to its original appearance within the Aqua Fulgur within the ring. It was none other than the Book of Lightning.

The Book of Lightning was ejected out of the ring's space voluntarily by the Ring of Cosmos. Saleen was totally unprepared for that to happen. He held the book in his hands and felt them feeling rather numb. His entire body was unable to budge for a moment.

Saleen was overjoyed, as he finally became able to control the Ring of Cosmos with his power of the soul. The functions of the ring hardly changed. The only thing different was that the space within the ring became completely opened. There were multiple rules imbued within and Saleen began to sense each of them, mimicking their functions.

That was more than enough for him. He was not expecting the ring to bring mighty offensive capacities. The Aqua Fulgur stored within one of the spaces alone proved adequate for him to quickly recharge the Book of Lightning's powers.

The Lightning Moon hovered quietly above Saleen's head. He truly sensed the raging power within by then. Regardless, the fact that he had subjugated something capable of pinning down tens of billions of god creatures remained unchanged.

Saleen willed and a level 16 god creature stored within a space, made specifically for storing the god creatures, was released. That god creature had long lost self awareness, and Saleen gave it to Rafel without a care.

That god creature's body had many other god creatures not lower than level ten to 12, and yet Saleen did not even bother taking them out. There were hundreds of metal angels around still. When the God of Magic Net perished, those metal angels did not die with it.

When Saleen's Lightning Moon's weapon spirit came to be, all of those hundreds of metal angels advanced. The sheen on their metal wings disappeared and soft feathers appeared instead.

When Saleen's Lightning Moon appeared, he thought about it and observed for a bit, finding the Lightning Moon's weapon spirit—the three-headed, six-armed giant—had a complete a divine persona in each of its heads.

That was quite a catch for Saleen.

The Lightning Moon actually fused the three demigods into a lesser god.

A level 15 god became a weapon spirit for the Lightning Moon and furthermore, it was an intelligent being that was only born moments ago, devoid of the memories of the giant's bloodline altogether. While that would have robbed the weapon spirit considerable amount of a giant's abilities, yet it was also one that definitely would not have thought of betraying Saleen due to being of higher level.

With that weapon spirit's emergence, Saleen was finally able to save on the level 18 scroll, using that one scroll left solely for keeping himself alive.

Saleen finally learned that if a level 18 being was to be hit by a level 18 scroll, it would have definitely done considerable damage. While it was impossible to kill a level 18 being through such means, neither the goddess nor the general were level 18 beings anymore.

The general maintained level 18 abilities while the goddess maintained level 18 memories, their bodies were considerably more fragile. If they were to be hit by that level 18 scroll, there was no doubt that they would have ended up dead.

But then again, Saleen was unable to use that scroll to attack the goddess, as it was something given to him by the goddess after all. If he were to use that thing against her, she would have only needed to detonate it while Saleen was still holding it.

The Book of Lightning returned to its original form and was no longer a family badge. Saleen was feeling sorry about that happening, so he resorted to use bone crystals of the giant to recreate another badge with an identical appearance, making the badge a keepsake.

Saleen was relieved that he was finally able to rework the Ring of Cosmos. He picked the cemetery of the giant clean. The only regret was that he was unable to take that stone tablet away as well. But then again, it was still nonetheless a good thing, given that there was an interdimensional space located right under Daliang City.

The best thing that could have happened was for the 24 thunder dragons to advance. Saleen was at level 14 and it seemed that the thunder dragons were about to reach level 14 as well, enabling them to fly and transform midair, making them far more powerful than the dragons he acquired from the grand duke.

He put those dragons at Nature City as a show of his power and wealth. The thunder dragons, on the other hand, were true weapons for killing.

Saleen also reworked the Floating City and placed magic patterns on it, preventing it from falling from the sky after certain parts were damaged. Saleen was able to control the place just fine, even without a weapon spirit onboard.

The alchemy factories on the Floating City worked tirelessly to produce all equipment that Saleen required.

It was easy to tell what Saleen needed—one would have only needed to look at the changes on the advanced metal angels.

All 894 metal angels remained on the Floating City. All of them were sent into the dead body of a god creature, fusing with it and reaching the pinnacle state of level 12.

Saleen was unable to do anything to advance them further, even if the metal angels were capable of advancing simply by consuming other beings.

Nearly 1000 metal angels all wore armors made from remains of god creatures. With tens of billions of god creatures at his disposal, Saleen's material reserve for such purposes was practically limitless.

Both the demon and human armies swapped gears. The human armies were all equipped with Tainted Blood Armors while the demon armies were equipped with Devil Possession Armors. Imps and demons were equipped with Bug Angel Armors.

More god creatures were made into either puppets or steeds for the soldiers.

Saleen slowly gathered over a million troops on the Floating City, with 124000 enchanters remaining onboard still.

Saleen began assigning mages to the Floating City. One magic tower after another was erected. He had even erected death magic towers surrounding the central elemental magic array. Those death magic towers were built using only dragon remains.

Saleen built the massive and powerful grand army for only one specific purpose—to take on the Lord of Glory's invasion. The believers of the Lord of Glory dwindled on the mainland, as all of them were either killed or cornered by the Nature Faith adherents.

If the Lord of Glory continued to refuse to show, he would have suffered tremendous losses, by the time all of his believers in that plane were wiped out.

That was the effect Saleen was after. The mage was forcing the Lord of Glory's hand, making him show up whether he liked it or not.

Saleen was most afraid of the Lord of Glory having advanced to level 16, as that would have meant that his double would have possessed powers at level 15. Things would have proven troublesome by then, and one that absolutely could not have been solved by solely relying on equipment alone.

Saleen was not afraid of the Lord of Glory not showing up. There was still a saint of the Holy See onboard the Floating City after all. With that saint serving as his hostage, he could have baited the Lord of Glory any time he fancied.

The initiative was completely in Saleen's hands at the moment.