Badge in Azure

Chapter 1494: Magic Soldier (Part 1)

The goddess turned around and smirked before saying to Saleen, "Electric snake, thunder hawk, and lightning raven. They are conjurations of lightning skills at levels 15, 16, and 17, respectively. Do you know what level 18 would be?"

Saleen shook his head, and the goddess answered, "Thunder dragon."

Seeing that Saleen had been rendered speechless, the goddess continued, saying, "When other people learn lightning magic, they take it upwards one level at a time. You're quite an exception, keeping so many thunder dragons and having even dissected one. I'm sure you are now very clear about the inner structure of thunder dragons. When you've amassed enough power to manipulate lightning, you'll be able to conjure a true level 18 thunder dragon. By then, you'd be able to grind that Heretic God to dust."

Saleen noticed that the goddess had said he would be able to grind the Heretic God to dust instead of saying that he would be able to kill it in one shot. It seemed that the Heretic God would not be so easy to deal with.

Level 18 thunder dragons, huh? Saleen had been doing research in the clouds before and had found that when lightning reached a certain level of power, it exceeded what godly items were able to defend, making evasion using skills the only option to deal with lightning attacks.

But then again, no one had any doubt about the frightening speed of lightning. Evading lightning attacks once or twice was feasible, but prolonged evasion would have been like dancing at the edge of a cliff.

Saleen finally calmed down. Despite having borrowed his Lightning Moon, she still nonetheless had given him pointers on how to use it. That proved a lot more useful to Saleen than when she had been chucking a good number of items to him earlier.

There was no material that would have truly been out of his reach, so long as he became powerful enough. But of course, he still had to take the Hall of Gods away. That was a piece of equipment like no other, after all. Its function of serving as a training ground was just one of the many features that the Hall of Gods had. So long as he kept advancing, it would have only been a matter of time before finding out the other functions the Hall of God offered.

"Wealth is always enticing. But you're a mage, Saleen. Fix that shortcoming of yours, and your future will always be bright." The goddess broke down the gates of the palace, all while still giving pointers to Saleen.

"Wealth is what drives people to advance," Saleen added. That was a well-known saying of the Sikeqinyans.

The goddess shook her head and stepped into the palace. Hundreds of magic attacks rained down from above. The goddess shouted, and the attacks were immediately dispelled.

The power of rules!

That was the first time Saleen had seen someone using the power of rules in battle. The goddess was capable of nullifying elemental magic attacks altogether. That meant that if he were to fight the goddess, the only magic he would have been able to use against her was that of lightning.

Saleen recalled Lex's skill, which was capable of nullifying the sword aura of warriors. That somewhat resembled the ability shown by the goddess just then.

That was but a stray thought, yet an idea then struck his mind out of nowhere, which caused him to shudder.

Wait, does that mean that such powers could be acquired without mastering rules?

Saleen remembered that Lex was not even at level nine when she had come to master such powers. If there were to be someone wielding secret arts capable of collapsing sword aura, then it was only a matter of fact that abilities used specifically against elements existed.

Be it Elemental Lockdown or the anti-magic territory, none had been wielded with the extent of finesse displayed by the Goddess of Myers, and nowhere as straightforward as Lex's secret arts as well.

Saleen had been searching within the many secret arts that his teacher had imparted upon him, and he still was unable to find something resembling such abilities in them. However, he was far from being frustrated. Instead, he went on to record what the goddess did in detail in the crudest of ways.

High-level magic was incapable of being retained using memory magic, yet human memory would have still worked.

Saleen forced himself to memorize the way the goddess had been disrupting the spells and made it a point to look into it at a later date. The ability did not expend magic chords, and if he were to be able to lower the level requirement, it would have truly become something surpassing anti-magic territory.

Anti-magic territories were incapable of distinguishing friend from foe, rendering all elements within its vicinity out of use.

What the goddess did, however, was fully able to tell spells fired by friendlies from those fired by foes. It would have been a lot more useful than anti-magic territory.

Saleen followed right behind the goddess, observing how she tore down thousands of spells as she walked, before arriving at a magic array. The goddess pointed her finger, and a thunder hawk shot out of the Lightning Moon, charging inside the magic array. The magic array shook alongside the ground and was then reduced to dust.

The results of the attack were superb, and yet Myers sighed instead, mumbling to herself, "The passage of time is too quick here. Who knows just how many years have flown by in this place? So many that the defenses have been reduced to such levels, being torn down by a level 16 thunder hawk and all."

Saleen took the opportunity to look into the way the goddess manipulated the thunder hawk in detail.

He had mastered the electric snake. The thunder hawk, lightning raven, and finally, the thunder dragon, were the most powerful beings capable of being conjured by lightning magic. As for the others, Saleen had no intention of learning them for the time being. Lightning powers were ferocious and difficult to control. It would have done him little good learning too much. While the thunder hawk disappeared shortly after, he was nonetheless able to grasp all of the internal structure of that conjured being.

That was the perks of having formidable power of the soul. The Eye of Souls alone would not have been able to get the job done.

The goddess tore that magic array apart, but she was able to extract its diagram. She took out a massive piece of crystal instead. The crystal looked structurally damaged.

The goddess sighed and threw that huge broken piece of crystal to Saleen. She then continued forward. Saleen pointed to his left and said, "Myers…"

"I know. The Hall of Gods is over there. I was able to craft something like that back when I was alive. It was nothing. I'd be able to do it again so long as I've killed enough high-level gods. I intend to take out the palace's defenses altogether, and there are still over 1800 magic soldiers to take care of. You really need to be on guard afterward, Saleen."

Be on guard? What was that supposed to mean?

Saleen was still puzzled when the gates before him opened. Hundreds of soldiers charged down the stairs at the center of the gates.

Saleen felt as though the men were made up of hundreds of generals. His own generals were not as well-equipped as those soldiers. Saleen's elite soldiers were all wearing Tainted Blood Armor now, and his generals were all wearing armors that would have lasted until level 13.

Saleen was unable to see what level the armor worn by the soldiers were. He felt that only the one Sika wore would have been able to compare.

Sika's armor was only superior in terms of the materials that were used. As far as craftsmanship was concerned, the quality of hers was far below that of the soldiers.

The soldiers' feet did not touch the ground at all. They tore a white line in the water as they charged at the goddess. The weapons they held looked old and unassuming. They carried halberds, lances, huge maces, and even serrated broadswords.

Those weapons all came with very high strength requirements to wield. Those weapons, which were made of wrought gold, were something that professionals below level nine were unable even to lift.

The goddess smirked and said, "Saleen, these are mine."

She then cast one sealing magic spell after another, encasing the magic soldiers who rushed at her in something resembling cocoons. Saleen was dazzled by sealing methods that were capable of being witnessed by the naked eye.

So that kid had been sealed by Myers, then.

The magic soldiers' power came from elements, and the goddess' seals placed a lockdown on those elemental powers. The powerful magic soldiers were utterly helpless against her.

She was actually relaxed enough to be able to spare some time to talk. "This might look easy," she said, "but that is only because I was the one who designed them."

Saleen had calmed down by then. The magic soldiers looked to be powerful beings at least around level 15 or 16, yet they were easily sealed by the goddess without her having to use the power of the Lightning Moon. Everything just looked too surreal.

It was worth noting that the goddess herself was only able to wield powers at such levels herself. Her personal combat prowess did not even reach level 18.

However, every mage had their tricks when crafting magical items, leaving backdoors in the equipment that they crafted. But then again, unless the user of that equipment was an enemy of the crafter, said mage would not have made use of those backdoors.

Those magic soldiers had been designed by the goddess, and she alone knew how to exploit the weaknesses within them.

Saleen was confident that he was able to subjugate puppets he created without breaking a sweat as well, regardless of their level.

The general in the Cemetery of Heroes watched what was occurring in the palace with a furious expression. He did not say a word. He, too, knew that it was her who had designed those magic soldiers and that she would have been able to take them on. Furthermore, he knew that it would have been a piece of cake for her.

By possessing over 1800 magic soldiers, the power of the goddess would have almost rivaled his.

She had once been a level 18 mage and was capable of manipulating elements. She was also a god, as well…

The general was only hoping that that one piece of equipment of hers had already been broken or lost altogether. He would not be able to kill the goddess otherwise. The grandmaster also stood at the general's side, firm and unshakable, for the first time. He then asked, "Do you think that Myers would've destroyed the great hall in the palace as well?"

"She would!" the general said.

"Then, we…"

"We still have a shot. Myers came to the Imperial City of the Abyss instead of heading straight for the palace. She is definitely up to something, and her goal may not be us," the general explained.

"May not be us?" the grandmaster asked.

"Hmph, grandmaster, are you telling me that you don't know that the imperial city is being invaded by something else?"

The grandmaster lowered his head. He knew that there were gods of foreign planes attempting to enter, but they did not seem to be all that powerful. If he were able to leave the cemetery, he would have been able to crush that thing with his hands easily. He was puzzled as to why the general would have taken notice.

"You haven't gotten to level 18, so you wouldn't understand just how difficult it is to deal with gods at those levels. It is especially so with ancient gods. We are quite a distance away from our king, and the gap is just as wide, between those gods and us," the general said.

"That couldn't be possible," the grandmaster retorted.

"Heh, why do you think Myers wanted to become a god, then? She was doing it to look into that secret. Her talents would have made her the most powerful mage in the First Dynasty otherwise, and it would have been possible for her to traverse the crystal wall system and become something even more powerful," the general said.

The grandmaster was speechless. He was haughty, but regardless of how insolent he had been, he never thought he would have been able to surpass her.

"Yeah, it's been many, many years. She perished once, and her powers would have been limited after her resurrection. She wouldn't have gone to gather the magic soldiers otherwise. She is afraid that we might just end up killing her. That Myers, who had no fear, would have come to see a day like this." The general then laughed. The heroic spirits only felt somewhat relieved after that.

The goddess took over an hour to seal all of the magic soldiers before chucking them into her bangle.

Seeing how Saleen eyed the soldiers, she then said, "I need 1200 of them and 300 more on standby. You could have 300 of them. Come with me. I'll work on all of them and then lay down a large magic array. This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance for you to see me work on living magic arrays. So, don't get greedy on me."