Badge in Azure

Chapter 1473: Soul Armor (Part 1)

"Well then, Rafel. What kind of creature is this, and how do I tame it?" The only thing Saleen about that lifeform is that it had a weak soul before it was hatched.

"Technically, the creature wouldn't serve as a steed but as equipment, called soul armor, for steeds. The Metal God had a hydra serving as his steed. When used in conjunction with soul armor, it provided additional strength to fortify him in battles against level-18 gods."

Rafel impressed Saleen with her explanations of a soul armor's qualities.

That creature could only have been born in the void and would only develop a soul when exposed to countless streams of energy. What Saleen held in his hand then was not an egg but a shell covering a dimensional space.

He had heard about the hydra, a level-18 creature of low intelligence that was unsuitable for use with equipment. That was why it never confronted level-18 beings. When clad with the soul armor, however, it was reputed to fight ably against level-18 gods. This meant that its powers were boosted to match those of a god.

After all, level-18 gods were beings that contained terrifying equipment in their hands.

After pondering the situation, Saleen concluded that he did not need a steed. As a mage, he had the means to go wherever he wanted as long as he had powers of the elements at his disposal.

"The Thunder Dragon Bangle," Rafel reminded Saleen.

"I have 24 of them!" Saleen reminded her in return.

"When a hydra runs amok, it splits into nine separate entities. A while back, the Metal God took advantage of that to kill a great number of gods at the same level," Rafel answered.

Saleen sensed a tinge of sorrow in her voice but not an ounce of longing for her god.

Rafel hadn't forgotten about her god. Rather, she accepted the reality and finality of his passing.

Saleen wondered…if I die, will Nailisi forget me one day too?

When Saleen fell silent, Rafel changed the subject. "My lord, how about we just hatch it here? I think the ruins are done for."

"The ruins are done for?"

"Definitely. You'll only know for sure after forcing that thing to hatch. Pick a skull of a god of the highest level, my lord, and let the egg consume it."

"Very well." Saleen did as instructed. He picked up a piece of the most precious skull to be had that came from a level-18 god. That god was thoroughly dead and its remains were incomplete. The skull was the only thing remained; its inner power was not something he could have worked on. Saleen gingerly wrapped the skull in Water Flame and placed it next to the metal egg.

The Metal God's frail soul had guts that were disproportionate to its current status. In one shot it sucked all the god's mighty energies into the egg. Suddenly the metal egg cracked open, it's parts looking like a cross between shark teeth and tightly packed razors.

Crack! When the thing opened its mouth, every tooth crumbled.

Rafel elaborated from the sidelines, "Soul armors are beings that conjure new weapons according to the material they consume."

The metal egg contracted as if it was confirming Rafel's words. New metal teeth formed when it cracked again. When those teeth chomped down on the food beside it, they made a shallow dent before breaking again.

"The power absorbed was inadequate, preventing it from conjuring harder weapons." Rafel was patient. When the Metal God was forcing the soul armor to hatch, she just happened to be next to her god and observed those changes.

Everything proceeded according to play while the skull was wrapped in Water Flame. Saleen sensed the power of that creature, also known as the soul armor. His Water Flame could do nothing to those broken teeth.

It was a matter of time before that level-18 god's soul was devoured, as the Metal God was absorbing the energies in the remains while attacking.

"Working on soul armors is easy. Those creatures are parasitic, so you won't have to do anything if one of them bumps into special creatures like the thunder dragons. The soul armor will make its choice on its own, and the thunder dragons will not separate from their host until it dies."

The 24 thunder dragons took to the air and circled the metal egg under Rafel's instruction.

The metal egg rattled violently as if it sensed the thunder dragon's unique powers. Level-13 thunder dragons were too weak to take on a demigod; however, when there were 24 of them and their souls were interconnected, advancement was a real possibility. The lightning rules were irresistible to the soul armor.

After being tempted by the 24 thunder dragons, the metal egg sped up its hatching process.

Rafel foresaw that happening a while ago, so she left the tower early. Saleen came out of the tower too but was still concerned about the thunder dragons. He reminded himself of how weak the soul of that metal egg was and realized that regardless of how powerful the soul armor might be, its soul would never rise to terrifying levels.

The reason is, it was a parasite: The creature it latched onto would have thought of ways to protect its soul too.

Technically speaking, the relationship was a symbiotic one.

Saleen saw a mystical side to living beings on that soul armor. It might have been able to consume powerful creatures because of its powers, but if it encountered a creature proficient in attacks on the soul, its days would be numbered.

Thunder dragons were not as powerful as soul armor, but they did possess lightning skills, the best thing for protecting the soul. Any skills related to soul-control and soul-destruction would have had their powers more than halved before lightning skills. Breaking protection of lightning would have required ten to 100 times the usual cost of doing so.

Shortly after Saleen left the tower, it began to shake. Then it crumbled to the ground. Saleen saw all 24 thunder dragons take to the air. Each dragon had an additional layer of scales on its body, so different from the thunder dragons.

The 24 thunder dragons flew toward Saleen and nodded before heading straight to the ground.

The thunder dragons began to eat voraciously, right under Saleen's baffled eyes. The hovering ruin in the void was a metal structure. The thunder dragons' rate of consumption grew increasingly high, so much so that they eventually bit through the one kilometer-thick place.

Saleen saw another layer of armor form on the thunder dragons. The color slowly turned from transparent to grey and then dark grey. The more metal the thunder dragons ate, the darker the armor became.

The ruin in the void looked unsightly from how the thunder dragons ate it, and they had only been eating for half a day.

The thunder dragons' teeth turned black. Saleen did not know how to test their sharpness. That soul armor had no doubt chewed and digested the skull of the level-18 god. The thunder dragons and the soul armor had already melded, so the dragons had inherited such powers.

The soul armor would not have been able to advance otherwise.

"Well done!" Saleen saw the thunder dragons begin to get picky about what they ate. They didn't bother biting any inferior metallic things left in the place. When called, the thunder dragons circled in the void before returning to the Thunder Dragon Bangle resting on Saleen's wrist.

Rafel drew her sword and swung it at Saleen's Thunder Dragon Bangle.

Being a mage, Saleen had good reflexes, yet Rafel was unable to evade that sudden attack.

A dent appeared on the edge of Rafel's sword. That longsword, which was made from attribute-less granules, seemed as if it was about to break.

Saleen knew what Rafel was up to when he was attacked. If unprepared, he couldn't activate his territorial abilities. The Thunder Dragon Bangle was taking the brunt of Rafel's attack all of its own.

Looking down, Saleen noticed a slight gash on the bangle, the result of the bangle deliberately concaving when attacked, thereby dissipating the force of the attack. It quickly reverted to its original form.

Rafel's sword was not something to be trifled with. After Saleen acquired that vast wealth of the cemetery of the giant, he armed Rafel to the teeth. The sword's sharpness eclipsed any weapons Saleen's subordinates wielded. Its hardness exceeded that of any other metal but rhenium gold.

If such a resilient sword were dented in battle, the damage could only come from the bangle's defensive attack.

Saleen damaged the weapons of others by using Thundering Sound skills alone, but that could only be done when he was of a higher level and when the power difference was obvious. Rafel was only one level below him. Though that strike was an all-out attack, it still failed to damage the bangle.

From then on, the glaring weakness of his thunder dragons' low defense was compensated for.

"My lord, have the thunder dragons start consuming more strong materials, such as the remains of gods, metals of high strength, magical pharmaceuticals and so on. Those things will bolster the soul armor's capabilities."

Saleen swiftly took out some 12-dimensional metals and fed them to the thunder dragons, letting them have their time with it. He then added some wrought gold, Mythril, the remains of the god creatures, dragon crystals, divine persona fragments and so on. Speaking of hardness, even though divine persona fragments eclipsed that of the remains of gods by a considerable margin, the thunder dragons chewed them up like candy. That was very reassuring to Saleen.

Likewise, Rafel was able to relax after Saleen took out some 12-dimensional metals. Soul armors were capable of revolt. After being fed such strong metals, they displayed their utmost loyalty to Saleen. No one would have succeeded in tempting them to betray him or the thunder gods. Not even the skills of the gods would have been able to do this.

Saleen took a look at the hideous ruins and said, "Rafel, what do you want with them?"

"I want to advance but lack some rare metals that coincidentally are found here," Rafel answered.

She could not advance simply by consuming the remains of gods alone. The barrier between level-13 and level-14 might not a big deal to humans. To her, however, it was an insurmountable obstacle.

One requirement was to master higher-level metal rules on her own without guidance from her god.

"We'll think of something." Saleen did not promise anything. He knew Rafel might be making excuses. The ruin in the void was almost destroyed, and it was possibly something left by the Metal God all those years ago. Though the Metal God was not a mage, that was not to say he couldn't have found mages to help set up a hall like that in the void.

Rafel changed her mind after finding the soul armor. In other words, she came to value him more than the memories of her god.

The thought filled Saleen with sadness.