Badge in Azure

The two daggers hovered silently before Saleen. He could see them even though Dante couldn't even trace them.

Saleen looked at the magic clock, speculating that the battle with the Lord of Glory's divine kingdom should have begun. He had no time to waste anymore.

He went quickly to the teleportation array outside the Oceanic Ice Block and returned to Metatrin City first, where he saw the Floating City hovering above. The entire city below was bustling, and all the shops were open for business.

Saleen didn't stay around for long. After walking to the teleportation portal, he went to Daliang City. He then departed from there and headed to his teacher's line of defense, which proved impenetrable. That defense line had battled the divine kingdom more than 10 times, and all the battles had been fought at the scale of millions.

The human armies were no longer as unruly and boisterous as they had once been. The divine armies had grown increasingly strong, and Rafel had only been intercepting the angels. The fighting on the ground was handed mostly to the nobles from Cloudflow.

Material supply was the very reason why Lion City had been able to hold out for as long as it had.

The city that had been of little renown prior had become the most famous city found on Myers Mainland. Many professionals had come either alone or in small groups, wanting to contribute to the defense of the mainland.

Nailisi and the Winged Skull were the most excited to see Saleen showing up.

He went to first inquire about his teacher's opinion on the war. Jason then said to Saleen, "The power of the Lord of Glory should be at the pinnacle of level 15, making it so that even if there were to be several level 15 professionals taking him on, they still might not be able to fight him. You and I, however, would absolutely be able to kill him if we were to team up. But then again, the Lord of Glory was worried about that too, so he first sent a large number of angels to weaken the forces of Myers Mainland. If you have any ways of killing the angels en masse, that would have forced the Lord of Glory to show up personally."

Saleen thought for a bit and asked, "Sir, could we drag the war out for as long as possible?"

"You're thinking of advancement then?" Jason asked.

"Indeed. So long as I have a single divine persona, I'd be able to alter the flow of time, getting to level 15 within months."

"Nice. Then I shall train with you and get to level 16 myself," Jason answered calmly.

The threshold between levels 15 and 16 was an even greater one. Even in ancient times, there had been a great many who had remained stuck there. The heroic spirits whom Saleen had killed had been willing to sacrifice themselves because they had known that they would have never been able to get pass that threshold.

Saleen was shocked to hear that his teacher had the confidence of getting to level 16. If Saleen were to reevaluate Jason's talents in magic based on what Jason had just said, his teacher would have surpassed any mage that he had ever known.

Jason was someone who was capable of deep comprehension of many areas of knowledge just by reading magic notes about them once and then immediately apply them in myriad ways. During such implementations, Jason had never failed more than three times with his experiments, or even live battles, in his attempt to master the gist of the kind of magic he was picking up. It had only taken him days to develop high proficiency with them.

Mages like him were rare even in ancient times.

Saleen then said to his teacher at that thought, "If you intend to get to level 16, I'd suggest that you best get amply prepared. I'm going to collect all high-level magic nuclei that I can find."

"No need for that, Saleen. I too have a piece of high-level divine persona. I was thinking of absorbing the power of rules within after getting to level 16, but I don't think I need to anymore."

"Sir, I'm not taking your divine persona!"

"Saleen, I'm hoping to create rules that are uniquely mine, and I'm determined to never enhance my powers like that," Jason answered confidently.

Saleen didn't insist anymore. Jason wanted to create, or more specifically, comprehend rules that belonged only to him. That was not considered rare during ancient times.

Saleen did not assign more troops to the second line of defense after he was done talking with his teacher. He called Rafel, Nailisi, and the others to come over, and they began to discuss the tactics for the upcoming battles.

The last time Nailisi had fought, she had drawn the attention of a double of the Lord of Glory and had almost ended up dead in the divine kingdom, but she was no longer what she once was. While it had been dangerous, she had not been injured, and that double was already consumed by the 12 Notes of First Purgatory.

Nailisi, however, provided a detail to Saleen—Not all doubles of the Lord of Glory were made equal, and that was probably done by consuming others. The Lord of Glory would have probably assimilated other god creatures and extract their energies to create a double.

Such doubles would have performed weaker in battles, making them less capable than the first one that had been sent to the mainland a while ago.

That was not good news. If the Lord of Glory had conquered ample numbers of divine kingdoms, then he would have been able to create such doubles in a practically limitless manner. That was a method developed to circumvent his inability to consume more gods, due to having yet to be able to advance to the next level.

Nailisi had become far more cautious after that encounter. If the Lord of Glory were to create a double the conventional way, such a double would have been at the pinnacle of level 15 in the divine kingdom. The Lord of Glory himself would have probably possessed the power of a level 16 being.

The Lord of Glory was probably thinking of baiting powerful professionals from the mainland into his divine kingdom, giving him an edge as his forces were fighting at home.

That was not some kind of delusion. He had armies massive enough to do so, and if he were to simply drag the war out, Myers Mainland would have probably ended up collapsing from attrition. Even Saleen had had the thought of charging inside the divine kingdom and ending all those problems in one go.

If it had not been for him having acquired the Hall of Gods, Saleen would have not wanted to drag the war out.

Saleen had mastered the electric snake when he had been at level 14, which meant that if he were to get to level 15, he would possibly be able to master the thunder hawk, and that would boost his odds, as well as his confidence.

Furthermore, he had learned how to create lightning ravens when fighting alongside the goddess, and they had been capable of harming even the likes of the Heretic God.

Saleen did not want the fighting to end quickly, but the Cloudflow people did not share this thought. The gates of the divine kingdom were right above Cloudflow soil, after all. If the fighting were to be prolonged, the Cloudflow people would have been the ones at the greatest disadvantage.

Fighting wars was not just about money and people but also about morale.

The longer the fighting was prolonged, the more likely morale among the Cloudflow fighters would suffer.

Jason refused to see any of the emissaries sent by Lion City. When Saleen returned, Jason handed everything in that department to him, and an emissary from the city was finally received.

"Your highness, please, for the sake of humanity, send troops to attack the divine kingdom." The emissary who had come this time laid prostrate on the ground, performed the most respectful of gestures, and kowtowed to Saleen. He was a silver grand swordmaster himself and had never before been so humble.

The will in Saleen's eyes, however, was something that was born out of the power of the soul. Saleen had already become capable of taking on a silver grand swordmaster without even lifting a finger. That silver grand swordmaster was utterly terrified before Saleen, as Saleen's power far exceeded his imagination.

"Stand up and talk." Saleen's voice was plain as he said it. The pressure on the emissary disappeared altogether, and he rose without realizing it.

Saleen had someone get a chair for the emissary before telling him in a calm, composed manner, "The Lord of Glory is a level 15 god, and he is capable of bringing level 16 powers to bear in the divine kingdom, while I am only a puny level 14 mage."

The emissary's mind sank to the bottom right there and then. Even a golden grand swordmaster was already considered very powerful in the ranks of their armies, yet Saleen, as a level 14 mage, said that he was puny instead. He was wondering if someone with his level of powers would have been better off dead.

"But I'm looking for ways to take the god on. Stay here for the time being. I shall send an army to aid Grand Duke Platinum for the moment. Oh, right. I've brought 50,000 sets of flying armors with me. That should be enough for taking on angels below level 9."

Saleen's massive generosity made the emissary speechless.

Those Bug Angel Armors were no doubt expensive, but Saleen was already getting ready to discontinue them. Those of sufficient levels in his human army were all wearing Tainted Blood Armors by then, and his demon armies were all armed with the Devil Possession Armors.

Both sets of armor were capable of flight, and they had better defense, making them more suitable for soldiers of those two races.

The Bug Angel Armors were decent, but they were weapons of insectoids, making it difficult for even demons to wear them. Unless the ones wearing them had trained for quite some time, they were highly likely to hurt themselves using such armor.

The emissary was exasperated, but because Saleen was willing to send reinforcements and provide powerful equipment, it was more than enough for him to report to his superiors.

Furthermore, Saleen the Greedy had not asked for anything in return that time.

Saleen the Greedy was a nickname many had given Saleen behind his back, and it was as straightforward as a nickname could be, but the ones using the nickname needed to keep themselves in check, as none wanted to get on Saleen's bad side.

Saleen was known to take advantage of anything and anyone. The emissary was counting his blessings for being able to receive such aid unconditionally.

Saleen summoned his trusted ones after sending the emissary away, as well as mages holding important positions. Saleen intended to take all of them into the Hall of Gods to train alongside himself.

For the moment, he handed matters of the second line of defense to Rafel, who, along with the Violet Angel, was not capable of advancing simply by taking enough time to train. Rafel needed to kill gods and acquire the powers of gods to do so, whereas the Violet Angel was a puppet who needed to consume things to advance.

Saleen had never felt that the Lord of Glory was difficult to deal with thus far. The difficult one was the Goddess of Myers.

The goddess used Saleen, as well as his Crystal Finger and Lightning Moon; however, the goddess was also generous with rewards, giving him no reason to be angry with her.

Saleen was even required to let the Nature Faith continue to grow and not get on the goddess's bad side or she might have just left him to his devices and had him fight the Heretic God on his own.

It was extremely difficult for the Heretic God to regenerate its body, but that difficulty did not extend to creating doubles.

Saleen was unable to think of any way to deal with a double of a level 18 god. He, too, did not want to always pin his hopes on the goddess, so he had to strive to enhance his powers instead.

That feeling made him feel like how he had felt many years ago when he was still a level 1 mage.

A minor earl like Sufonso cornered him, forcing him to work hard to regain his honor and glory.

He was unable to do anything about the fact that the enemies he fought became increasingly powerful, but then again, without powerful foes, there was no way Saleen would have advanced so quickly, and he would have never been blessed with so many mystical encounters.

Taking in the Lightning Moon had been risky in and of itself, and killing the heroic spirits was even more so.

"Fate, huh?" he thought. "Most probably. If Myers ends up dead, then the heroic spirits would come looking for trouble with me. That's the price of taking in the Lightning Moon.