Badge in Azure

Chapter 1495: Magic Soldier (Part 2)

The goddess took Saleen on a detour around a vast compound, heading straight for the Hall of Gods.

Saleen then asked cautiously, "Are you the one who designed the Hall of Gods?"

"No. His majesty was the one who designed it," she said. Despite the First Dynasty being gone for tens of thousands of years, the goddess addressed him as 'his majesty' nonetheless. He had been the one and only mage in the entire empire who was more powerful than her in every way.

Saleen did not ask any further. He followed the goddess to the back of the Hall of Gods. She pushed opened a secret door and entered.

Seeing Saleen's puzzled look, she then explained, "His majesty left a backdoor as well, back then…"

"I get it." Saleen made it clear that he understood. The goddess might have been very, very close with the emperor all those years ago.

The goddess stepped up to the outside of the magic array as soon as she entered the hall. She then took out a level 18 magic nucleus. The size of that magic nucleus was almost comparable to a table. Under the goddess' divine powers, she compressed the magic nucleus to standard size before embedding it into the magic array.

"I will be staying here for a month, so don't do anything to that fellow just yet. When I'm done working on those magic soldiers, I'll need that thing as a bargaining chip to use with those at the cemetery," she said.

Saleen nodded in agreement and walked away to sit down and train.

The goddess found his attitude satisfactory. Mages who trained diligently regardless of time and place would be able to achieve a lot, even though they might be lacking in talent.

Saleen worked on things methodically. He needed time to digest all of the lightning skills, as well as the manipulation of territorial and rule powers, that the goddess had shown him. The goddess did not give him any pointers regarding any of those. Saleen had simply watched from the sidelines and memorized everything the goddess cast, relying solely on his own memory.

The goddess began to take out some magic soldiers that she had sealed away and started working on them. Saleen's power of the soul was powerful enough to recall all the abilities that the goddess had cast while still observing how she worked on the magic soldiers.

Magic soldiers were crafted using the bodies of god creatures, meaning that they had almost zero affinity for elements. They were then crafted into weapons capable of containing the six elements by humans using magic. Saleen knew little about the processes involved, but he had purified believers of the Heretic God before. Those believers had become attribute-less materials after being purified.

Saleen watched from the side. The goddess stripped every single magic pattern from the magic soldiers' bodies before laying down eight new magic patterns on every single one of them. The new magic patterns were that of the six major elements, as well as those of death magic and lightning magic.

The lightning patterns that she laid down were apparently copied from those on the Lightning Moon. She had little use for them; they were made for Saleen instead.

The goddess threw all 300 of them to Saleen when she was finished working on them. She became even more familiar and quick with her work the longer she did so. Those 300 were experimental units meant only for her to get familiar with how to work with them.

The goddess only truly began working on the rest after Saleen put away his 300 magic soldiers.

The goddess spun her red bangle lightly, and the entire Hall of Gods became filled with her territory. The appearances of the gods on the walls of the place became blurred. The whole hall turned jade-green, and countless petals danced in the air, looking just like the miniaturized Water Shield that Saleen cast. The lines on the petals were all magic patterns without a single divine script found on them.

The Goddess of Myers was actually able to manipulate magic using the power of gods.

Saleen became very excited. He had never heard of something like that before. If the Goddess of Myers was able to manipulate magic right away without requiring power of faith, there would have been no need for Saleen to kill her.

The entire Hall of Gods became connected to the ground of the Imperial City of the Abyss. The power of earth element was continuously extracted, making the place extremely stable. However, under the goddess' manipulation, that brilliant-looking territory continued to extract the power of the earth, then severing the connection between the hall and the ground.

Saleen was unable to work with that kind of precision with such a level of rule powers. He was only able to manipulate a bit of lightning rules, after all. The goddess did not intend to guide Saleen in anything. How much he would be able to pick up was entirely up to him.

The goddess then threw the remaining 1500 magic soldiers into her territory. The mass crafting made every single one of them look life-like. The weapons in their hands came to have tens of thousands of magic arrays all over them.

The goddess then selected 1200 magic soldiers and had them guarding her. A natural huge magic array was formed with her as the core. The goddess served like a magic nucleus embedded at the center of a magic array. She stood at the center, unleashing extremely powerful energies. The magic array had wholly severed the connection between the Hall of Gods with that of the ground, with her serving as the center.

Saleen then saw bits of divine power being infused within, and the entire Hall of Gods levitated.

"What are you waiting for, Saleen?" The goddess shouted, and it was only then that Saleen came to. He unleashed all of his power of the soul and took the whole place inside his magic amplifier.

The Hall of Gods began to fuse with the magic cube. The goddess controlled her power and pulled her divine power out of Saleen's magic amplifier bit by bit.

Divine power was pulled out, and Water Flames entered. He knew that the goddess intended to tear down the foundations of the imperial city altogether.

What could I do? If I let this slip past my fingers, I won't get another opportunity like this ever again.

The general was stingy, requiring Saleen to seek his permission every time the mage wanted to enter the Hall of Gods. If the general had just given the badge to Saleen, he might not have ended up doing what he did on that day.

"The Hall of Gods had a great many functions, but they were of little use to level 18 beings. That place served as a symbol of the royal palace. If you ever advance to level 18, Saleen, don't use this thing anymore," the goddess reminded him.

Saleen nodded. He had taken the Hall of Gods for himself, and there was no reason for him to feel unsatisfied. No one knew how long it would take him to advance to level 18. Even if he were able to speed up time in the Hall of Gods, all of the requirements for advancing further still needed to be fulfilled.

He looked as if he had been advancing to level 14 at breakneck speed, despite actually having spent over 2200 years doing so. He spent every single second of that time doing what he should have done and did not waste any of it. That meant that he was actually well over 2200 years old.

The passage of time in the Hall of Gods did more than just allow one's magic to advance; it also wore on one's lifespan. If he were to slack off while still inside the Hall of Gods, he would have simply died faster than most people.

Saleen calmed considerably after putting the Hall of Gods away. Those 1800 magic soldiers were the last of the royal palace's defenses. If the Goddess of Myers had not been there, it would have been the Lord of Glory coming instead, and he would have ended up being killed by those magic soldiers without any chance of escape.

The goddess's mood lightened up considerably. She then said to Saleen, "I was just doing a friend a favor out of goodwill. I never expected that I would have a use for the magic soldiers today."

Saleen was wondering if leaving a backdoor on the magic soldiers could have been considered an act of goodwill.

The goddess seemed to have known what Saleen was thinking and continued, saying, "Do you know just how strenuous it had been to design something that powerful? I had to even fork out some of the materials on my own. Back then… I never thought I would have wanted to tear this place apart. I gave a lot to this place."

Saleen had no words, so he stayed silent instead.

"Alright, let's check out the Cemetery of Heroes," she said.

Saleen then pointed at the palace behind and asked, "You're not going there?"

"No. I'll show the old friends some decency. I'm afraid that is where their bones were laid to rest. What is inside the Cemetery of Heroes are but…"

She did not continue. The fates of the general and the rest of the heroes had been bad. It was not their will to end up as such.

All 1200 magic soldiers disappeared from the water. That was their way of concealing themselves. Saleen was impressed with the goddess' powers. Dante, who was inside the Lightning Moon, was capable of turning invisible. He had no idea how the goddess managed to learn that trick.

Furthermore, the goddess had become increasingly familiar with the way of lightning manipulation. While it was impossible for her to reach the highest of levels, the Lightning Moon would have allowed her to beat down anyone below level 17.

The lightning raven was a level 17 lightning creature, which was just one level below the thunder dragon.

Saleen followed right behind the goddess and felt it to be quite a pity. What he had been able to learn within a single month was mediocre. Her level was too high, and the rules she mastered were not things he could have picked up easily.

Saleen only realized by then that, even if the goddess were on the same level as him, she still would have been able to kill him in the blink of an eye.

The Figure of Fate would not have been able to save him. Her control powers were such that the Lord of Glory was not even worth mentioning when compared to her.

After the Imperial City was ransacked by the goddess, there was hardly anything of value left behind. According to Saleen's thoughts, there was no way the general would have forgiven what she did.

However, when he saw the goddess walking into the Cemetery of Heroes, the heroic spirits went up to welcome her. The general laughed heartily, and the grandmaster flashed a friendly smile.

Saleen came to realize that when someone became powerful enough, those heroic spirits would show their most amicable side to them no matter what.

But then, what if all of this was all just a ruse?

"Saleen…"

The goddess called, and he went up, throwing the youth that the goddess had sealed on the ground.

"Myers, what is this?" the general asked, pretended as if he knew nothing.

"Something like an oracle of the Heretic God. It's been many years since I last saw you, general. You are as pretentious as always!" The goddess's words were as sharp as blades, yet the general's face was as thick as steel. He did not mind at all, saying instead, "None of us are able to leave the Cemetery of Heroes, Myers. We couldn't do much to stop the Heretic God even if we wanted to."

"What if I tear your graves apart then?" the goddess asked in a pointed tone.

"Oh, that won't be good, Myers. You're a god, after all. If I knew I was going to die, I'd definitely take the god nearest to me with me," the general answered.

"You said it then!" The goddess then lashed out with a palm strike. The attack was a pure martial art move, and it sent Saleen outside the cemetery. Saleen was shocked to find out that the goddess was going to do it right there and then.

He knew that his Lightning Moon was probably done for. D*mn it. That Lightning Moon might have only been a piece of equipment of enormous value to others, but to him, that thing held the key to his advancement.

Saleen had no idea that the goddess had been polite to him because he was nothing in her eyes, and he was far below the goddess's notice. The likes of the general, however, were people that the goddess would have wasted no time negotiating with. She intended to subjugate those people the hard way.