Badge in Azure

Chapter 1531: A Mage's Deception (Part 2)

The Heretic God would not ever have dreamed that a level 15 mage would have had such an eerie piece of equipment at his disposal. Even back in the First Dynasty, such equipment would have only been available to the likes of kings.

Kings of the First Dynasty had all definitely been level 18 professionals, and they would have had over ten level 18 professionals serving them. Despite being the pinnacle of level 18, there were also differentiations between the professionals.

A king would have definitely been at the pinnacle of level 18, and they served to support and protect the emperor of the empire, making Myers Mainland an impregnable continental nation. The nation eventually declined and fell with the passing of the level 18 professionals.

"You have finally surpassed me, Saleen," Jason looked at his student and felt very gratified and relieved.

Saleen was exasperated instead. "Sir, it was just an accident this time, and I had no time to take the others with me."

His advancement was indeed an accident, but he did not know that if he had taken everyone with him into the Hall of Gods, the most mysterious of its functions may not have been fully displayed, and there was no way he could have seen that many rules lying about.

What he lacked at the moment was only mastery, as he had gotten to the point of being extremely familiar with all the rules on that plane. Level 18 professionals had been like insurmountable mountains to Saleen once upon a time, and now, he had finally gotten the power to stand against them.

He would never end up being taken down by the goddess with just a single hit. At the very least, he would have enough left to run away.

Rules were indeed mystical things, as even though one might have been very familiar with every single detail pertaining to a rule, it was not certain that one could have even used a single bit of said rule's power. Saleen knew that his lack of mastery was due to his lack of stability in his current level, preventing him from truly mastering the Source.

However, the greatest benefit of getting to level 17 was that he was already capable of controlling the magic array in the Hall of Gods.

When he embedded power source in the magic array of the Hall of Gods in the past, he had no control of anything, be it the rate of passage of time and the displays on the walls, it was all dependent on what kind of power source one would have embedded it with. At present, Saleen had become capable of communicating with that magic array, enabling him to manipulate the changes through his power of the soul. He would be able to use the Hall of Gods as a tool for teaching.

Being able to manipulate time, space, and even fate was a mystical feeling.

Spending time inside the Hall of Gods seemed like a long tempering process.

Jason went on to take a good look at Saleen and said slowly, "An accident indeed, but never mind. Advancement to level 18 isn't what you have imagined it to be. Stay at this level for some time. Don't think of getting to level 18 within the next 100 thousand years."

Saleen had no idea how his teacher came to know that many secrets regarding training, but he knew that Jason would not have uttered such words without purpose. Those words were definitely meant for him alone, and it would be all that Jason had confirmed.

Furthermore, what his teacher said matched what he felt very much.

Saleen felt that his advancement to level 17 had something missing, and whatever that was, it was crucial to his future. If he were to lack it when he tried to advance, he might have ended up walking the path of the goddess.

Saleen never wanted to become a god. If becoming a god had been his wish, he would have had many opportunities to do so. Absorbing the power of the Heretic God would have allowed him to ignite divine fires within. Furthermore, there was some left over of the Heretic God's divine persona, and the piece had only been reduced by two levels, making it a level 16 divine persona.

Saleen would have only needed to ignite divine fires and swallow the divine persona to become a level 16 god. Furthermore, he would have become the highest of level 16 gods, with a lifespan spanning over tens of billions of years.

At the moment, despite being at level 17, he remained a human, and his lifespan was hundreds of thousands of years.

Hundreds of thousands might have seemed to be a very long time, but one training session might have easily cost him thousands of years. If he were to not be able to acquire perfect power of rules, Saleen's lifespan might not be able to get to a million years.

Jason wanted Saleen to stay at his current level for 100 thousand years due to fear of him walking down the wrong path. The way Saleen achieved his latest advancement was simply too out-of-the-ordinary. Consuming a part of a level 18 god's power was something that not even ancient humans had done. The heroic spirits in the Imperial City, however, would have liked doing that a lot.

The heroic spirits had a great flaw to them, and Saleen knew that well.

"Sir, I've already gotten enough power to destroy the divine kingdom. The Lord of Glory will be reduced to history. Please look after the mainland for me, as I'll be going out to war," Saleen said as he bowed to Jason.

Jason nodded and added, "may your expedition be swift. You'll still have a lot of troubles to deal with back on this plane after all."

"Indeed, sir," Saleen said and called the frost dragon. He then brought the Winged Skull and Nailisi to the gates of the divine kingdom.

Saleen had never felt so at ease in his life before, even though he would be taking on an enemy with absolute power.

He ordered the mages to take Baldur's Gate apart and bring it before the divine kingdom's gates. He then ordered the demon army to clean up the place right outside the gates, before setting Baldur's Gate up right in front of the gates of the divine kingdom.

Baldur's Gate held an attack force that Saleen prepared for the expedition. There were six godly items in it that he became able to use. Saleen was able to ensure that not a single god creature would ever make it into Myers Mainland by tapping into the powers of Baldur's Gate.

After he sealed the gates of the divine kingdom off, Saleen had Guffen, Rafel, the Winged Skull ride the Star Shuttle and charge inside the divine kingdom.

Saleen went on to target and massacre the legions of angels. Being at level 17 meant that he no longer had any reservations. Regardless of how powerful the Lord of Glory would be, there was no way he could have exceeded level 17, even if he were inside his own divine kingdom.

If the Lord of Glory were to surpass that level, his own divine kingdom would have collapsed due to not being able to withstand his power.

As Saleen advanced, both Nailisi and the Winged Skull were no longer restricted by their soul bonds, and both of them had advanced to level 16. However, they were unable to get any further. In their case, their difficulty of getting further would be way greater than what Saleen had experienced.

However, Saleen had no need for Nailisi and the Winged Skull to grow too powerful. Their lifespan would be longer than his after all. By the time Nailisi got all eight abilities, she would have advanced to level 18. As for the Winged Skull, they had already possessed a plane's worth of power. All 12 jade skeletons that served the Winged Skull would have eventually become gods of spirits.

The Winged Skull had ways of extracting power from the gods, so there was no need for them to worry about advancing at all, as it was only a matter of time.

The Star Shuttle zipped about the divine kingdom just like a god of death. The Lord of Glory had become aware of the thing from the Divine Mountain of Light. He knew that a very powerful enemy had entered his divine kingdom.

The Lord of Glory sighed and wondered if the Goddess of Myers had decided to lead the charge personally.

But, that was impossible. Even if she were to find her divine persona in the past, there is still no way she could have restored her power that quickly. With two of his weaker doubles already dead, the Lord of Glory had to take the threat seriously.

While he had a huge number of doubles, there were only five that he had personally split using his own power of Source. All the others were crafted out of gods that he killed.

The Lord of Glory summoned Abyrus to the hall and said, "Gather the oracles and form a divine rune charm array. Hide the mountain for the time being. I need to head out for a bit."

"Acknowledged, Lord Father," Abyrus answered respectfully with its head hung low, so that the Lord of Glory was unable to see that it was a pair of grey eyes behind its red pupils.

The Lord of Glory was about the leave! Abyrus was overjoyed. The Lord of Glory hardly left the mountain for anything other than to invade other divine kingdoms. The divine mountain was the hub of the divine kingdom, with all power of faith being first gathered there, before the Lord of Glory consumed it. Of course, the Lord of Glory could have absorbed the powers at his own will, but there were simply too many believers in the divine kingdom. The Lord of Glory was unable to advance, so he simply stockpiled all that power of faith.

All that power would be his as soon as the Lord of Glory left, making it easy for it to advance to level 15 or even 16. There was none of the restrictions suffered by the gods on it. It thought that the demon was dumb enough to think that she was able to control it, but it would have never lit up divine fires at such a juncture just yet.

Igniting divine fires after level 16 would have been the way to go, as that would have allowed it to avoid the greatest threshold the gods have to face while advancing.

The gap between level 15 and 16 was the hardest obstacle that the gods had to face.

Even in ancient times, the number of gods above level 15 was not many. Even in present day, gods below level 15 were still the ones that were found everywhere.

"Abyrus, look after the mountain. When I've advanced to level 16, you shall become the archangel captain and stand above all of the angels," the Lord of Glory said nonchalantly.

An almost sarcastic look flashed in Abyrus' eyes at that.

What's the use of becoming an archangel captain anyway? That's still not a god. The Lord of Glory is stingy enough to never even bestow the title of a lieutenant god on anyone, and a lieutenant was still a servant god.

A servant god was a god who followed the orders of their master god completely, but they had a certain degree of freedom. When a god perished, their servant god would still survive.

However, things were different with angels. Without the Lord of Glory, the power of the angels would fall into decline, eventually withering and dying.

If the Lord of Glory had been generous enough to make Abyrus a servant god, it wondered if it would have still chosen to fall.

The Lord of Glory did not look at that favorite angel of his again before turning around and leaving. A beam of holy light shot from the mountain. 64 slightly faint beams of holy light shot all around the mountain afterwards.

He brought 64 doubles with him. The Lord of Glory was going to crush the invader personally.

The invader was simply too powerful, and his angels were unable to do anything about it.

Saleen had Nailisi search for the divine mountain. He was unclear of the Lord of Glory's divine kingdom, but he read a great many magic notes illustrating a great many divine kingdoms. It was stated that the Lord of Glory was a god who liked living in high places, according to his attributes. There were no hovering buildings in the divine kingdom, which meant that the Lord of Glory would behave like many other gods sharing the same attributes—constructing the tallest divine mountain and letting his light shine all over the divine kingdom.

"This is strange. I can't find Abyrus !" Nailisi used a secret art unique to the Luoluokaluo, and discovered that she had lost track of Abyrus.

"Forget about Abyrus then. Just fly in that direction."

Saleen pointed at the center of the divine kingdom. The Lord of Glory could have been even more peculiar than he already was, and he still would not have chosen to set up a residence in some dank corner. Flying to the center would definitely be the right thing to do.