Badge in Azure

Chapter 1480: God Creature Assassin (Part 2)

Saleen handed over the giant's skull to the Winged Skull and had them bring it to Nailisi. Saleen had his own thoughts as well. While the cemetery of the giant had been a huge, elaborate trap, it was unknown who it was meant for. However, that giant skull was real. If it actually turned out to be the King of Glory's friend, Saleen's blasphemous actions would mean that he would die a horrible death.

Letting Nailisi have it, be it to have her eat it or put into the 12 Notes of First Purgatory to be broken down, she would destroy it one way or another. Leaving it intact would be like having a sword hanging above his head.

Saleen was known for petty advantages, but he dared not do so anymore. That contract with the Goddess of Myers embroiled him into the conflict between the goddess and the Imperial City of the Abyss, and he had only been doing it to acquire greater power all those years ago.

In hindsight, it was really a sh**ty deal.

If it had not been for the goddess and the heroic spirits in the Imperial City of the Abyss, he would not have gotten to his current level. But then again, he also would not have been so anxious to advance his level, fighting wars to expand his powers.

He was incapable of mastering the trajectory of fate and was only going with the flow, preparing himself as amply as he could for what was to come.

At present, Saleen had nine pieces of broken divine personas, and he had no doubt known of their value. Giving just one piece to the heroic spirits would keep them happy for a very long time.

The broken divine personas would be sufficient to get him good deals from them, but that would piss off the goddess. Saleen had no idea on how to shake off the goddess' watch.

As he expanded his lands and conquered increasingly large numbers of planes, Lex's power grew increasingly strong. Saleen learned how powerful secret arts from higher crystal wall systems could be. As such, he had to dedicate himself more to the conquest of the planes.

However, it was not feasible to let Lex manage the empire. The best way to solve that was to have a child, and let their child become emperor. Doing so would allow Lex to step down, but she could continue absorbing powers from the subjects of the empire without hindering progress on the secret art.

'Making a kid huh? I wonder if Lex is still up for it now.' Saleen thought.

Saleen felt that since the goddess was resurrected, he and Lex had grown increasingly distant.

Mages had little sex drive, and it was entirely normal for them to not be intimate for a hundred years or so. However, if one took the closeness of their relationship into account, things looked out of place.

He wondered if it was Lex felt dissatisfied with him, or if he no longer had any thoughts that had little to do with magic.

Saleen was no longer able to suppress his urge to see Lex. He had been by Sika's side. It would be ridiculous to just head to Holy Rock City and tell Sika he was doing it just to have a baby with Lex.

It was awkward and felt too sudden. He was at a loss of what to do.

Saleen cast his gaze faraway, finding a young archer practicing their skills in the forest, killing low level insects with their arrows.

An archer?

Saleen thought of someone else. He asked for his people to fetch Eleanor.

Eleanor had finally gotten over level 13, and there were signs that she still had room for progress. She had been teaching Qin archery and Saleen hardly summoned her. He did not take Eleanor as a bruiser. The elf had taken the Metatrin surname after all.

"What's up, Saleen?" Eleanor still kept her human body, as if she had no intentions of returning to her elvish form.

"I'm thinking of heading to Holy Rock City for a bit. Care to join me?"

"No problem."

"That umm…"

"What is it?"

"That potion that you elves craft. Do you still have any of it left?"

"You're talking about the one to make women get pregnant?"

Saleen blushed. "Yeah, that one."

"You want to have a baby with Lex?" Eleanor asked straightforwardly. To the elves, it was not something to be embarrassed about.

"Right."

"Lex might not agree to it though."

"Why?"

"Why? You've been busy with your own stuff, and you left her alone at Holy Rock City. Regardless of how strong she is, she is still a girl. She has probably been resenting you for a very long time now."

"How?" Saleen was baffled. The working relationship between him and Lex was still going strong. There was hardly any need to be very clear with words when they worked together, and they were still able to work with each other seamlessly.

"How not? If my man was someone like that, I'd shoot him and get myself a new guy," Eleanor answered.

The relationship between Eleanor and Saleen had changed. They could be really direct and honest with each other. She was afraid that Saleen might not get it, and if he and Lex clashed, things would turn bad for Saleen.

Her surname was Metatrin, and she naturally had to give more thought when thinking about Saleen's affairs.

"Huh. But I'm a mage, what can I do?" There was a bit of grumbling in Saleen's words. Saleen had not been very invested in the emotions. He and Sika were interdependent. The thing between him and Lex was probably sentiment from his youth.

He admired Lex immensely back then, and that had been very real.

However, after becoming level 14, he was like a demigod in the context of gods. He had lived a long life, and the way he looked at problems differed from common folks. It was impossible to rekindle that youthful sentiment.

"Well, you can't just show up at her door with my potion, and just tell her 'I want to have a baby with you', right?"

Saleen's face turned even redder. Eleanor was right. He was unable to bring himself to do something like that.

"How about let Sika do it?"

"Are you telling me to piss Lex off? I'm afraid they would start fighting each other if I did that!"

"Heh, you care about her feelings then. My, oh my!" Eleanor laughed. "It won't be as bad as you think it'll be. Just bring me, Rafel, and Sika along. Oh, and the kids."

Saleen nodded, puzzled. Eleanor then said, "Lex has no heir and that is one of the reasons why Golden Plains has been leaning on her. No need to talk to Lex about having a baby. Bring Sika and she'll be jealous, and she won't give you a hard time. Everything will be fine. Sika is not the kind of woman who would keep you away from anything and anyone. Stay at Holy Rock City for a bit and get on the bad side of the Golden Plains, and you'll get your chance to cuddle with Lex."

Saleen was exasperated, but nodded. Doing so would be better than him bringing the potion and just asking Lex to sleep with him after all.

He did not want to meddle in Golden Plains' affairs because Arbola was very powerful. The Mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake was very potent and destructive. If she brought all of her might to bear, Saleen's chances of winning would only be 70 percent, if she were a similar level to him.

Better to get near her and look into her weaknesses. It had been a while since he last saw Arbola, and he had no idea how powerful the mage had become. There was no doubt that she was anything but strong. If Arbola were actually weak, Lex would have Arbola dealt with a long time ago.

Saleen headed out to Holy Rock City. Lex looked at a dead body before her with a glum face right outside the gates of the royal palace at Holy Rock City.

It was one of her personal guards and a golden grand swordmaster.

She was surrounded by a legion of royal swordsmen, and the mages felt awkward. Lex had just returned from the House of Lords, and she was targeted for assassination right in front of the gates of the royal palace.

Three assassins attempted to assassinate her in broad daylight. She lost four guards, and one of them was that personal guard who had been at her side the whole time.

Lex's personal guard had blocked a fatal hit with their own body. Someone who was capable of forcing a golden grand swordmaster's hand to such an extent, making them block a hit from an assassin with their own life without attempting anything else, would be at least level 11.

While golden grand swordmasters were only level nine professionals, if they were serious, not even level nine sorcerers would be able to take them on. To have an absolute edge, the assassin had to be at least at level 11.

Worse still, it was not the first assassination attempt. Half a month ago, when Lex left the royal palace, she was targeted by an assassin as well. A mage died and the assassin was able to escape.

Most of Lex's powerful professionals were at Daliang City and the Principality of Bitterwater. Defense of Holy Rock City was mostly taken care of by mages of Golden Plains. They were unable to do anything about the two assassination attempts, which infuriated Lex.

She was having doubts about things. Logic said that the attempts could not be the work of Golden Plains. They were bound by contracts, forbidding them from acting against her directly, forcing them to only rely on political pressure to make her give up the throne. If they took such direct measures, the entire Golden Plains would suffer bad luck.

But who would want to kill her so badly then?

When the entire Myers Mainland was taken into consideration, the Cloudflow people were the most suspicious, but the Cloudflow emperor's hands were full, as the four dukes had considerable power. They would not be in a hurry to take care of her.

When the assassin was powerful enough to shake off tracking from her God's Ring, she thought of Agares.

She dismissed that possibility. If it was truly Agares, she would be in real danger. Saleen told her about Agares, and he elaborated the traits of that weapon in Agares' hand as well.

Only by activating the power of God's Ring would she have been able to defend against Agares' attack.

The two assassination attempts had not been bad enough to force the ring to work.

The God's Ring stored power of faith from the empire's billions of subjects. As long as she stayed the empress, that power within would continue to grow. That was her key to advancement, and she did not want to use the powers in combat.

"Your majesty, Prince Saleen arrived at the teleportation portal." A female officer of the court informed her cautiously.

"Send him here." Lex stood where she was, waiting for Saleen to come.

"Yes, madam." The officer excused herself, and Saleen brought his entourage to the gates of the royal palace within minutes.

Seeing the place filled with royal swordsmen and mages present to take care of the situation, Saleen realized what happened right away. The dead body on the ground was not moved, and Lex even used her territory to preserve all information pertaining to the assassination attempt.

Saleen frowned. He smelled something that would repel him. God creatures…

The high and mighty mages made way when they saw Saleen. Everyone heard that Saleen was in a bad mood lately. The few who fought over the portals with him all died horrible deaths.

Saleen came before the dead body and bent over.

"Rodick. A personal guard who had been by your side since young. When I first saw him, he was but a high level swordmaster," Saleen mentioned the guard's name, which softened Lex's expression considerably.

She knew that Saleen still cared about her. He would not remember someone so minor otherwise.