Badge in Azure

Chapter 188: Goddess' Redemption (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Saleen's wounds were not looking so good. Unfortunately, he would have no control over the powers that the demon suit possessed until he was promoted to a sorcerer. Hence, his outfit could not fight for him. The badge had managed to prevent Saleen from being stabbed directly in the chest, but it had been unable to mitigate the blunt impact of the attack. On a more positive note, the demon suit had managed to disperse the force of the assailant's attack, protecting Saleen from potentially adding a crushed chest to his list of injuries. Saleen knew that the strength of the assassin far surpassed that of Sika.

Daniel, having been pushed far beyond his physical limits a long time ago, was extremely exhausted. All he wanted to do was rest. His death flames were expending his energy at such an unprecedented rate that he needed to utilize magic nuclei in order to recharge the flames.

Saleen was able to speak normally by now. He was able to take pain better than most people. Hence, the agony that he suffered disappeared in the blink of an eye. Sure, the impact of the blade making contact with his body had made Saleen felt as if his bones had been snapped over a million times. However, he had gotten over it. His chest wound had receded down to bearable levels of pain.

This degree of pain was nothing compared to the amount of pain he could have received had he not put on his family badge. However, he did not experience any mental effects of the pain. In fact, the pain was mostly physical. That would explain why Saleen had been unable to control his body for a brief moment, and that had scared him, putting him on high alert.

Saleen had always thought that even if he sustained extremely devastating injuries, he would still be able to cast his spells without any trouble. After all, the mind was the most important thing of all, right? Now he knew better than to view mental strength and physical prowess as two separate entities. After all, what was a mind without a body? Wearing out the latter would mean that the mind would not be able to function at its full potential.

The assassin must have done something to his weapon. Saleen had gotten a lot stronger thanks to Master Joey. His bone density rivalled that of the most powerful magic beasts. There was no way a simple attack like that could have nearly snapped all of the bones in his body.

After stretching and rotating his neck, Saleen concluded that his neck bones were intact before releasing an Chunlin spell.

Daniel was scared out of his wits. He had sensed a strong magical presence lurking in the vicinity of the death flames, which meant that the magic could likely bypass his magic and get to him. Preparing to defend himself, he turned around, only to see Saleen casting a spell instead of some other vicious opponent. Daniel heaved a sigh of relief before stuttering, "Don't… don't scare me!"

Saleen stared at him expressionlessly before continuing his spell. The moisture gathered from the air converged to form a green mist which entered Sika's body. Saleen spoke to Daniel as calmly as he could, "How long can your defense magic last?"

Daniel did not bother telling Saleen that the bone cage he had consructed was a form of control magic and not defense magic. Instead, he sat on the floor and replied glumly, "It'll last. I don't know exactly how long, but it'll last. If there's nothing attacking my magic, it should disappear after one to two hours?"

"So long?" Saleen gasped, not believing his ears.

"It's just an estimation, don't take it too seriously," Daniel said curtly, not willing to argue with Saleen. Saleen was able to cast spells without damaging his death flames. This meant that Saleen was not only a more powerful mage than he was, but he was also much better at controlling his strength. In the mage world, that was important. Sure, intelligence would get a person far, but capabilities were what made a mage.

"In that case, one to two hours is more than enough. Don't worry. Lex will kill the black deacon," Saleen said, trying to reassure the nervous male in front of him.

Daniel forced a smile. He did not want to tell Saleen that even if the black deacon was no match for Lex, he still had a large army of evil spirits. Lex would have lost before things even started. There was just too many of them for even a powerful mage like Lex to handle.

Bang!

A loud crashing sound outside the bone cage rang the air. The evil spirit that had managed to get past Nailisi had rammed himself against the bone cage. He carried a squarish shield to protect himself against the black mist. No sooner had the shield made contact with the black mist was it corroded to the point where patterns of rust started appearing on it. The shield, after making violent contact with the wall, shattered. The walls of the bone cage remained intact, angering the evil spirit. He used the hatchet he had in his right hand and brought it down hard against the walls, chipping off a small part of it.

Daniel was right when he had said that defensive magic would not help much in their case. The offensive abilities of the bone walls were not strong enough to eat away at any low-level defense spells. The only aspect of the wall they needed to overcome was its durability against any attack spells. The hatchet might have been bulky and heavy, but the evil spirit was able to use it effortlessly without needing to worry about hurting himself. That one strike might have used up all his strength, but it only chipped off one small piece of the wall. If the evil spirit wanted to completely destroy the wall, he would have to continuously strike the wall for one to two hours.

The two skulls located on the walls started moving until they located the evil spirit, spitting out a more concentrated version of the black mist at him. Before the evil spirit knew it, his body had been doused with the black mist.

His body instantly melted away. With nothing holding onto the hatchet anymore, it dropped onto the floor with a thud. This, however, did not deter the evil spirits that were behind him. All of them closed in on the bone cage and started chopping away with whatever weapons they had on hand.

If the evil spirits had been smart enough, they would have taken precautionary measures to ensure that the black mist did not corrode their flesh. Alas, they were just a bunch of mindless creatures. Within seconds, dozens of evil spirits melted into mush at the merciless hands of the black fog.

However, their efforts had not been in vain. Huge, deep cracks had appeared on the walls of the bone cage, thanks to their relentless attacks. If the evil spirits had possessed intelligence, they would not have had that much physical strength. It was very rare to find evil spirits that excelled in both attributes.

An evil spirit, whose body was glowing from the purple flames that surrounded him, gripped his weapons tightly and rammed himself against the wall. Instantly, a gigantic crack appeared on the walls of the bone cage. At what cost, you might ask? The answer was simple - his hands. His hand muscles, bones, nerves… all of them shattered beyond repair. The evil spirit collapsed as the black mist ate away at his legs. With his limbs now practically useless, the evil spirit had no choice but to crawl towards the area where the purple flames were burning in order to have the flames heal his injuries.

Meanwhile, Nailisi was having a hard time dealing with so many evil spirits. She had no weapons on hand, only her claws and tail. Even so, they were lethal enough. Sometimes, she even made use of her jaws to bite off the head of an evil spirit.

The fully constructed puppet holding onto the hatchet, having lost its mobility, was no longer a threat to the evil spirits. Thus, they decided not to waste anymore energy trying to defeat it. From the looks of things, the magic nuclei that were powering up the other puppet were not going to last much longereither. By now, Nailisi had become very fatigued. She climbed onto the fully constructed puppet's shoulders and scanned her surroundings. There were more than six hundred evil spirits waiting for her, crowding around the bone cage.

Having absorbed the essence of blood in the dragon's heart, Nailisi's stamina had improved by leaps and bounds. She was able to fight the evil spirits for at least a day without being worn out, even if she was outnumbered six hundred to one. Alas, she was only one person. She could defend herself, but she would not be able to stop all the evil spirits from attacking the bone cage. Nearly all the evil spirits had galloped towards the bone cage, barely sparing a glance in Nailisi's direction.

Nailisi thought for a moment, before retrieving a small bottle from her bracelet. The bracelet contained the dragon's blood that she had painstakingly collected. She dipped her finger into the bottle before smearing the liquid all over her face.

As soon as she popped the lid open, at least half of the evil spirits stopped attacking the bone cage. She had not smeared the fluid on her face for nothing. Dragon's blood contained a life force too strong for any evil spirit to resist. In fact, to an evil spirit, dragon's blood was fatally irresistible. They had long since stopped caring about their fallen comrades. Nearly all of them shifted their focus away from the bone cage and started leaping towards Nailisi instead.

Upon seeing their trance-like states, Nailisi could not help but let out a hearty laugh as she jumped from the puppet's shoulders and ran for her life. The evil spirits did not just stand there, of course. They started to give chase as well.

However, after dashing for about a hundred meters, Nailisi suddenly felt like something was amiss. It was not that she lacked faith in her agility. She was far faster than those evil spirits. She could not see any paths for miles as the purple flames had blocked her line of sight. Even if she could vaguely make out a pathway, it was hugely distorted. The evil spirits, who had been left in the dust a while ago, starting rushing towards her from the sides.

What the… Nailisi thought miserably upon realizing that her plan was not as well thought out as she had thought. Now, not only was the dreaded thought of the evil spirits surrounding her becoming a reality, but they had also picked this time to become more coordinated and cooperative. Without hesitation, all the evil spirits began their various waves of attack.

Crack! Crack!

The bone cage started to crumble as the black mist coagulated into blocks of pitch black ice and dropped onto the ground. The purple flames had frozen the black mist, neutralizing the spell that Daniel had put in place. Daniel became pale in shock. He had not expected the bone cage to shatter so soon.

Saleen, while not completely springing into action just yet, sat up and began observing the situation outside the bone cage.

He did not see a single evil spirit. All he saw were the two puppets standing outside of the cage like wooden blocks. Where is Nailisi? Saleen thought.

"Master!" Nailisi's voice rang in the distance. Saleen squinted his eyes and saw Nailisi running towards him from afar. She was frantically running in zig-zag motions, barely dodging the claws of one evil spirit who had decided to launch a sneak attack on her from the side. The same evil spirit, seeing that he had failed, simply discarded his weapons and decided to catch Nailisi with his bare hands. From Nailisi's dishevelled appearance and the lacerations on her skin, Saleen could tell that Nailisi was not too badly hurt.

"Ah!" Nailisi screamed, leaping a height that likely surpassed her personal record as she tried to keep the evil spirits at bay. At least seven evil spirits mimicked her actions and jumped towards Nailisi, the purple flames trailing behind them.

Daniel, upon seeing Nailisi's tail and elongated body, was extremely unnerved. Her true form looked so different from her drop-dead gorgeous human form that if he had not known any better, he would have sworn that they were two completely different people.

Upon seeing Saleen's protective barrier come apart, the temptation to run towards her master and protect him crossed Nailisi's mind. Even so, she resisted. How would she defend her master when she could not even protect herself? With a spine-chilling howl, Nailisi brought her tail down hard onto an evil spirit's body before doing a somersault in the air and landing in the opposite direction.

However, before she reached the ground, Nailisi took out a piece of dragon meat from her bracelet and tossed it in the direction of the evil spirits. The dragon meat was part of her food stash. She had intended to save it for later, when she would have time to slowly enjoy it. For now, she had found another use for it - bait.

Dozens of evil spirits pounced onto the dragon meat and started munching on it greedily. Alas, the size of the dragon meat was not big enough to satisfy them. The evil spirits had realized this as well, and had started fighting viciously over it. However, Nailisi knew that it would not hold them back for very long. Even if she had given them all the dragon meat she could find, the more than six hundred evil spirits would still not be satisfied. There were simply too many of them.

She did not even want to think about the fact that once the evil spirits had consumed the dragon meat, they would become even more famished. That was god's punishment for the sins they had committed.

Out of the dozens of evil spirits competing for a share of the dragon meat, less than half of them actually got to taste it. Most of the time had been spent fighting each other. In less than a few minutes, the meat was gone. If the dragon meat had been served on a plate, Nailisi bet that they would have been eating the plate as well. Initially, Nailisi had intended to give herself some time to rest by tossing more dragon meat their way. However, she decided against it after she saw the evil spirits who had consumed the meat convulsing on the ground. In an instant, their bodies expanded and produced a duplicatation of themselves.

If Nailisi had been able to cry right now, she would have. Today just isn't my day! she thought in exasperation.

Like an anaconda suffocating its prey, Nailisi used her tail to choke an evil spirit to death. She attempted to move her arms, but discovered that two other evil spirits had decided to sink their teeth into them. However, it was not a big deal. Her muscles were too strong for them to do any real damage. If anything, all the evil spirits had done was leave two separate bite marks. Even so, it was enough for Nailisi to yelp in pain. Being bitten was no joke. Wincing in pain, she stuck out her arms and used her legs to kick the two evil spirits in the knees with so much force that she could hear their bones crack.

"Ah!" Lex screamed, startling Saleen. He immediately tensed up and looked around frantically, not wanting to believe that Lex was in danger.

A grade-6 mage should have been enough to defeat the black deacon. Had he overestimated Lex's capabilities all along? Or had he underestimated the power of the black deacon? In that moment, Saleen felt as if the surrounding temperature had started to drop rapidly. The purple flames had started to converge and were coming his way. Having neutralized the bone cage spell, the purple flames were burning even more powerfully than before.

Good grief… He sighed inwardly. Sometimes, a person simply needed to be their own hero!

Saleen grit his teeth and told Daniel to call for Nailisi.

"Call for her?" Daniel asked, unable to believe what his ears were hearing. Nailisi had done a good job distracting all of the evil spirits so far. If Nailisi responded to Saleen's call, Daniel knew that he would be gobbled up by the evil spirits before he could even say "necromancer".

Seeing Daniel's confused face, Saleen tried to explain, but wheezed as a jolt of pain hit his chest. He felt as if all the air had been knocked out of him. He did not bother explaining any further. The two water shields that hovered in the air flew to the level of Saleen's shoulders and hoisted him up.

As Saleen locked his hands together and caressed the Ring of Gifts resting prettily on his left hand, he thought, When I get out of here, I'm gonna ask Lex about the other gifts left behind by the Myers Goddess.

He lifted his arms slowly and begun to telepathically communicate with Nailisi.

Nailisi, come to me. Come to me…

Nailisi, upon hearing her master's command, thought that something was wrong with the soul bond. She circulated the area a few times, before finally locating Saleen. From afar, he looked pretty silly talking to his raised hand. The fact that his hand was glowing bright green was not exactly making him look any more normal.

"Nailisi, listen to me. Come to me…" Saleen was patiently whispering to the soul bond.

Snap! The sounds of tearing fabric filled the air as Nailisi felt a sharp pain on her back. Five deep cuts occupied the area where her clothes had once been. The evil spirits' nails were incredibly sharp. Even if her skin had been as sturdy as possible, it would pale in comparison to that of a gigantic dragon.