Badge in Azure

Chapter 1472: Cornering a God (Part 2)

Gods were like wolves in the way they stalked and hunted their prey: Peeping at a variety of planes, once they spotted an opportunity, they sent their doubles to establish their religion, propagating their faith.

If they were on the same plane as such beings as dragon gods, which were extremely powerful and resistant, the gods simply waited patiently. Dragon gods had no divine personas. Though they had the title of "god," they lacked the lifespan of one.

When dragon gods died, gods from the outside moved in and pounced on any being capable of inheriting the position of god in that plane. They repeated this modus operandi to spread their faith even farther.

This time, things were different. Saleen was wiping out the faith of a god on his plane, an act a god normally found intolerable. Worse, Saleen had all the time in the world, unlike the gods, who usually needed years to figure things out or craft certain types of equipment.

Gods always had an ample amount of time.

For example, when the Lord of Glory's Holy See in Myers Mainland was being destroyed, he knew about it right away. Plotting his revenge, however, would take hundreds of years.

It's not that the Lord of Glory was chicken. He was simply busy fighting other gods and attending to myriad details while battling divine kingdoms. He also had to resurrect angels and create new ones, as well as to advance his powers with powers of faith collected.

Every detail was painstaking and tedious.

By the time he was poised to attack Myers Mainland, Saleen was ready and waiting.

If Saleen were to advance beyond level-14, unless he had divine personas at his disposal and gained access to the Hall of Gods, the Lord of Glory would have needed another three to five thousand years.

In due time, Saleen began searching for ruins on Myers Mainland. With the plane map at his disposal, doing so was a breeze.

The first ruin that caught his attention was way up in the sky. The ruin resembled the Floating City tens of thousands of kilometers above Myers Mainland.

Had Saleen not mastered Comet Flash, such heights would have been off-limits to him.

Escaping Myers Mainland also required tremendous speed. Rainbow would have worked well; the problem was that it operated differently from Comet Flash. Rainbow's workings were such that there was no inertia when a spell was lifted. That's why it was also unsuitable in ambushes.

That floating wreck in the void contained nothing worth plundering. What piqued Saleen's interest though was the presence of all those magic arrays.

It was unusual for an earth-elemental magic array to lift something like that to such heights.

If he could copy that wreck and use the materials on the Floating City, Saleen could reduce that voracious gas guzzler's reliance on magic nuclei. While the magic power furnaces onboard consumed low-level magic nuclei, the magic nuclei were still obscenely expensive. Now that was something worth fighting for.

Saleen always looked back longingly on his days as a magic apprentice. He remembered how excited he used to get about several low-level magic nuclei. His elation was so intense he could hardly contain himself.

Further, the use of earth element involved high-level rules.

Saleen couldn't sit around anymore. He grabbed Rafel, and the two of them took to the skies. Rafel was capable of safely flying into the void since she had godly items at her disposal. Once she entered the void, however, she needed a guide to lead the way.

Saleen didn't take anyone else with him since the place was too dangerous. For one thing, it had no air. It also contained energy currents that could inflict massive damage on the body. Anyone below level-9 would have died instantly. For those below level-12, it was a matter of time before they too perished.

Because she was an angel, Rafel was accustomed to fighting in the void. But then again, she was aided by her god. In this case, Saleen served as her god, emitting a large number of elemental powers to keep her body from corroding and allowing her to flap her wings and follow him.

After entering the void, Saleen's speed was reduced by more than half to accommodate Rafel's slower speed. She, in turn, had to travel faster to catch up to him.

The void, which was tens of thousands of kilometers from the ground, was so vast it took Saleen several hours longer to arrive while traveling at this lower speed. Although the two were flying at different speeds, Saleen could still see distant nebulas.

It's too bad he wasn't an astrologer. The power of an astrologer would have been several times stronger in a place like this.

Saleen resisted the urge to use astrology again. He knew if he started doing astrological calculations in this place, the results would be impeccably accurate.

The stars shone and the nebulas were enigmatic. Ahhhh! So nice.

The void's ineffable beauty differed from the ordinary beauty on the ground. Wherever he looked, Saleen saw so many peculiar forms of energy.

Each form had its own rules.

Saleen wondered how many living beings could be made into gods or their equivalent.

"We really should come up here and open our eyes more often, Rafel," said an awestruck Saleen.

Rafel smirked. She was used to such scenery. Lost lives were the price for all that beauty. Among the battles fought by the gods, the ones waged in the void were by far the most brutal: even a slight graze could be lethal.

Rafel had seen countless professionals spilling their guts because of a single, seemingly insignificant gash. She shuddered at those gruesome memories.

Too many lives had been cut short by relying on the wind element; luckily, hardly any wind element was found in the void.

Only mages like Saleen who knew how to use Comet Flash and didn't need to breathe could come and go as they pleased. Even gods needed to use wind element. But then again, their powerful equipment allowed them to fly in the void without needing to unleash the power of rules.

That capability was restricted to gods above level-15. Level-14 demigods would have found it dangerous to fight in the void.

Angels, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about any of that.

Likewise the metal angels.

At last Saleen and Rafel landed on the ruin. He took out a blank magic scroll and began to copy every magic pattern he came upon. If he were to simply memorize them, some special magic patterns would probably disappear in his mind as soon as they were memorized.

Memory magic was useful only for memorizing lower-level things. Many magic patterns caused the caster damage if he or she used memory magic to deal with them.

Saleen arrived amply prepared for all possibilities. He copied every magic pattern and magic array he found while Rafel helped out from the sidelines. Both moved over 30 kilometers, closing in on the center of the ruins.

The central region still had some left buildings standing. Rafel was baffled. When observed from afar, those structures looked as if they were made of stone. When observed up close, Rafel could see the metal-elemental powers on them, and that excited her tremendously.

The Metal God had left these things behind after her divine kingdom was destroyed. Rafel thought that she would never see them again.

Seeing Rafel's quizzical expression, Saleen asked, "What is it?"

"My bad. I thought the place was a ruin left behind by the Metal God. They look so much alike." Rafel suddenly felt disappointed. Gods were incapable of casting magic unless they the same level as the Goddess of Myers, the most powerful mage before becoming a god.

Saleen thought for a bit and said, "Let's head inside, Rafel."

He pointed at a broken tower sliced clean in the middle with the top part, that had long decayed, on its side. The bottom part, however, was still intact. Saleen's interest was piqued.

Rafel nodded as the two of them sauntered into the tower, where they immediately came face to face with a unique stone wall.

It was filled with lines of words that made no sense to Saleen. He knew they were somewhat related to the secret arts his teacher imparted yet at the same time were altogether different.

"My lord, can we tear this place apart?" Rafel asked.

"No problem. But why?"

"I'd like to work on it. But of course, I'd need your help, my lord."

"Very well. How can I help you?"

"Wait until I get to level-15. This place won't be going anywhere for a while." Rafel finished and felt embarrassed. She then added, "You could place a large-scale attack-magic array here and hide in the tower."

Nodding in agreement, Saleen focused on some books that caught his attention walking up the tower stairs.

It's too bad he didn't understand one word. Luckily, he had enough manpower at his disposal. By the time he gathered two million enchanters and had them do calculations in Daliang City, the basic meaning of those words could be deciphered in three to five years.

It went without saying that Saleen didn't need to understand everything written in the books. Words conveyed more than literal meanings; they also carried cultural associations.

It was impossible to fathom the writings of civilization without understanding the history of civilization too.

Mages could only deduce the basic meanings of words and were unable to calculate the cultural extensions imbued within. That was why they created the Magic Language, which forbade any texts with ambiguous interpretations. Every symbol represented only the rawest and the most basic meanings.

Even though the Magic Language was the most complex one in existence, it was the easiest one to pick up.

Saleen collected every book that had the lightning warriors copy all the magic patterns before returning to the mainland with Rafel. When they were about to leave, she pointed at the ground and said excitedly, "My lord, look! There's something down here!"

Hearing her, Saleen scanned the area with his power of the soul and discovered an oval object hidden underneath the hard metal floor.

"I'm about to do some damage," Saleen smirked while casting an Ice Blade. The crescent-shaped blade, which had some vague lightning magic patterns on it, was extremely resilient. It cut the metal flooring open under Saleen's control. Rafel picked up a square piece of metal, which revealed the space hidden underneath.

It was an egg, about the size of a fist. Saleen never expected to find something like that in such desolate ruins. What an odd structure! He also noticed a few signs of life at the core beneath the layers of shells.

"Metallic life!" Desire flashed in Rafel's eyes, but she quickly suppressed it.

"My lord, if we hatch this lifeform, it will serve as your steed."

"A steed?"

"Yes! The Metal God had a steed like this; that's why I recognized it," Rafel answered frankly.

"If you want this for your own…"

"No, my lord. It's yours," she said adamantly. "I'm an angel and have no use for it."