Badge in Azure

Chapter 1493: Cleaning up the Imperial City of the Abyss (Part 2)

The Book of Lightning suddenly opened up before Saleen, sucking in the black thread that the youth had shot at him.

The goddess watched the scene, smiling, before slugging the youth hard on their face with her fist.

"Do you feel like staying put now? You really need to know the enemy you're dealing with before thinking about ambushing a mage," the goddess said.

That youth had been hit so hard by the goddess that half of their face caved in. However, instead of dying, the damage was quickly healed.

"I don't care who you are. Release me, puny god, or face the wrath of the Heretic God. That wouldn't be something you'd want to deal with," the youth said.

The goddess laughed out loud before throwing the youth on the ground. She then said to Saleen, "I saw that you killed the Lord of Glory's saint in order to bait him. Tell me, if I were to take my time torturing this believer of the Heretic God, would that thing advent?"

Saleen felt like he was being played. Almost nothing he had done had been able to escape the goddess' eyes. By then, he thought himself to really be stupid. If the goddess had one plane map, there was a good chance that she had a second one. It was fortunate that some of the hidden places that he had visited were not detectable by the plane map.

"I don't think so. The Heretic God isn't decent after all," Saleen replied.

"Neither is the Lord of Glory. Saleen, your way of thinking really is too rigid." It was unclear if the goddess was teaching him a lesson or playing with him. She had sounded very gentle when she had spoken.

The Thundering Sound in Saleen's soul repelled all temptations. "So, you're taking this thing here to take on the Heretic God?" he said plainly.

"Indeed. I'm afraid that I'm no match for the Heretic God. Not even level 18 scrolls would have worked. I need to get to those in the cemetery, but I'm too much of a temptation to those dead fellows. If they were to eat me, they would then be able to break away from the cemetery," she said.

"What should we do then?" Saleen asked.

"Lend me your Lightning Moon," the goddess said.

Saleen felt somewhat shocked. That Lightning Moon had even more practical value than his Book of Lightning. What was even more important was that there was a level 15 god inside the Lightning Moon. While the goddess might have looked like she was of level 15 as well, it would have been incredibly easy for her to kill his weapon spirit.

The resurrected goddess' familiarity with rules was no different than that of a level 18 god. Furthermore, the more powerful a god was, the stronger the suppression they were able to place on beings of lower levels.

"Don't get reluctant on me. If I were to head inside the Cemetery of Heroes, I wouldn't have been able to get out without the Lightning Moon," she said.

"Alright, but that thing…" Saleen pointed at the youth that the goddess had just caught and said, "I'm taking that thing."

"Just who the h*ll…" the youth began to retort, but Saleen stuffed their mouth with a piece of tourmaline, which contained a lightning magic array diagram that Saleen had crafted on the fly. That lightning magic array diagram emitted lightning at all times, zapping the youth so severely that they were unable to utter a single word.

"Not bad," the goddess said, praising Saleen. Despite being a very crude piece, Saleen's ability to craft equipment on the fly like that had nonetheless proven his abilities. She then waited quietly.

Saleen took out the Lightning Moon in an exasperated manner. The Lightning Moon was shaped like a sphere with a radius of over half a meter, and it contained raging energies within.

The goddess threw the Lightning Moon above her, and it then gradually disappeared above her head. The goddess was able to use the Lightning Moon's invisibility function as soon as she had touched it. Saleen became very annoyed, as her display showed him just how much of a difference there was between the two of them in that sense.

What if Myers intends to just take my Lightning Moon for herself then?

She rolled her eyes at Saleen as if knowing what he was thinking, before adding, "My words are contracts on their own. I'd be borrowing your Lightning Moon for a bit, and I'd be returning to you right after I come out of the cemetery."

"What if you end up being killed by those heroes?" Saleen asked. His question spoiled the mood.

"Then they would definitely come for you next," the goddess replied. She turned around and headed straight for the cemetery. She was still hoisting around the youth she had captured, seemingly without any intention of handing them over to Saleen.

Saleen knew that the youth had something to do with the Heretic God. They must have been part of what the goddess was going to use to negotiate with the heroic spirits. Saleen wanted the youth for their soul, which he could then extract and give to his teacher.

He was unsure how far his teacher's Rings of Fire and Water had evolved, but he knew that there was something crucial lacking with them. He was unable to tell precisely what that thing was, just that it was absolutely not a weapon spirit. However, that youth seemed to have something like that in their soul, which could serve as a replacement.

Saleen hated the thought of not getting into one more level. If he were at level 15, he would have been able to use the power of the soul with impunity. Right now, Saleen dared not infuse his soul deep into that youth's soul, as that would have been very dangerous. So much so that he could have died doing so.

That thought reminded him of those heroic spirits who had died by his hand. The general had given them to him in order to prevent him from advancing. Saleen grew so angry at the thought that he wished that he was able to kill every single one of those people right then.

Suddenly, instead of continuing forward, the goddess turned around as she reached the halfway point to the cemetery.

Saleen was unable to help but asked, "Where are we going, Myers?"

"The royal palace," she replied.

Saleen gasped. He had been to the royal palace twice, and he had been inside the Hall of Gods on both of those trips. Without the general's badge, he would not have even been able even to make it through the gates.

"What the heroic spirits are relying on is but the last bit of luck in the royal palace, and I'm about to take that away," the goddess said.

"The royal palace, huh…?" Saleen shook his head. He had no intention of stopping her. People like the goddess and the general were not the type to be convinced by others. It would have been great if the goddess was able to tear down the royal palace's defenses. At the very least, he would not have needed to worry about getting intercepted if he were to go there again.

"I take it that you've used the Hall of Gods, given the rate you advanced at?" the goddess asked while walking in the lead.

"Indeed, I have," Saleen said.

"I'll take the Hall of Gods out, and you work on it. Consider this my payment," she said.

"Payment?" he asked.

"Indeed. Payment for borrowing your Lightning Moon."

Saleen thought that if the Lightning Moon were to end up broken, there was nothing he could have done about it. If he had access to the Hall of Gods, however, he would have been able to fuse it with the magic cube if he were indeed able to take it. Doing so would have been saying that he had created a miniaturized kingdom of his own, enabling more people to train within. Furthermore, a magic cube fused with the Hall of Gods would have been able to house a staggering amount of people. That place would have served as a place where mages and powerful soldiers were fostered.

If he were to have an ample number of divine personas, he would be able to unite the entire Crystal Wall system instead of just Myers Mainland.

The thought of the Hall of Gods proved to be quite exciting to Saleen.

The goddess smirked. She knew well what Saleen needed. She was concerned that Saleen would have acted against her for borrowing the Lightning Moon. Her abilities at lightning manipulation were average at best, far inferior to lightning mages back in her day.

That Lightning Moon had been a very famous piece of equipment back then. It would have at least served well for scaring the general public.

However, it was still better to first tear down the royal palace. If the general and his people were to turn hostile against her, her powers would prove inadequate to take them on.

A legendary figure like the goddess changed her mind within a split second, and there was not a single thing Saleen could have done about it. He had been receiving a lot from the goddess, so he had to help her.

The goddess knew well that while Saleen was far weaker than she was, if she were to find a helping hand, Saleen was the strongest person available in the entire Myers Mainland.

Jason would have been somewhat more powerful, but then, he…

The goddess had no intention of dying together with Jason. He would have more or less gained such powers after getting to level 15. That was the pesky thing about secret arts from high-level crystal wall systems - they enabled one to die together with one's enemy, so long as one fancied.

The royal palace was in sight. The goddess reached the gate, gesturing for Saleen to stand back.

All of the heroic spirits emerged from their graves in the Cemetery of Heroes, surrounding the general.

"G*dd*mn it. Myers is here, and she is thinking about attacking the royal palace!" one spirit said.

"General, there are still 1800 magic soldiers in the royal palace…" another stated.

"Of course, I know that!" The general said. It was quite a rare sight to see the general in such an irritable state. Those 1800 magic soldiers served as his capital after getting out. The goddess was targeting those magic soldiers as well.

Magic soldiers were something available only to the First Dynasty back in the day. Unlike elemental creatures, magic soldiers were crafted from powerful god creatures, which were scrubbed clean of their divinity and converted to operate on elements.

After the 1800 magic soldiers lost their divinity, they lost any bit of intelligence as well, reducing them to merely powerful weapons. It was due to such powers that mages had been able to hold their own against astrologers.

"General, how about we head out now?" a heroic spirit asked.

The general's face felt somewhat twisted. He sensed Saleen's presence, but what irked him somewhat was that he was unable to detect the heroic spirits following Saleen. Had those heroic spirits been killed by the Goddess of Myers?

Those heroic spirits were of formidable levels. Any who had been willing to follow Saleen had given up any hope of being resurrected and had made a great sacrifice. If those heroic spirits were to die in vain, then the general would have had a score to settle with Saleen.

Saleen had no idea whatsoever that he had already pissed off the general. He was still thinking about how to get the goddess and the general to fight each other. From the looks of things, the goddess did not seem to have any intentions of fighting the general; she was about to cooperate with the general to get rid of the Heretic God instead.

Wouldn't Myers' powers alone be enough to take on the Heretic God? She has level 18 scrolls after all. Saleen had used something like that once, and it had left quite an impression on him. That indisputable power, undeniable ferocity, and control capable of locking down everything was unforgettable to him.

The great enemy of his was without a doubt obliterated right after he had cast that level 18 scroll. Saleen had not known that scrolls without level requirements like those would have operated at a considerably reduced power. The goddess would have had scrolls that she used herself, and the Heretic God should not have been able to withstand something like that.

The goddess pointed her finger forward, and a crow conjured by lightning flew out from the Lightning Moon. The crow was over a meter in length, and it slammed right into the palace's gate.

A light point imploded and then expanded.

That unceremonious process seemed to have ended within an instant. Saleen looked at the gates at the royal palace and noticed a round hole in them. The hole had a diameter of over 12 meters. It was as if there had been nothing where the hole now was.

This really is some powerful lightning magic indeed!

The scene sent Saleen's blood boiling. That Lightning Moon had limitless lightning powers in it, and it had been a pity that he had not been able to have direct access to them. He was only able to use bits through Dante the weapon spirit. If he were to grow into someone like the goddess, there would be no need for him to be afraid of the Lord of Glory's invasion.

No number of angels would have been able to withstand attacks of such a scale.