Badge in Azure

Chapter 227: Devil's Magic (Part 2)

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

Daniel looked at Saleen with an odd expression as he swam towards the mage. Fellett's body trailed behind him, completely under his control now. He could not help but think, All of them are too hurt to fight. If I strike now… Daniel knew that Lex and Saleen were a wealthy duo, and both had brought a huge sum of money with them on this trip. Robbing and killing them would automatically make him filthy rich. His accidental reunion with the winged skeleton had allowed him to establish an even stronger connection with the death dimension. He did not need anyone's help anymore. As long as he had the money, he would be able to work his way up to the rank of a sorcerer.

The temptation was just too hard to ignore. Daniel licked his lips as he felt his throat dry up. He was not too affected by the loss of his bone puppets. In fact, the return of the winged skeleton had boosted his power to a far greater extent than the bone puppets would have. He was now much stronger than before. If he wanted to finish off Lex and Saleen, now would be the best time.

As Saleen lay on top of the broken ship wreckage, he turned to Daniel and said, "Daniel, the pan's turtle's shell could not have gone too far. Your winged skeleton should make it convenient for you to travel. Take it and help me find the shell."

"Yes," Daniel responded almost instantaneously. With that, he turned around and carried out Saleen's orders. As he did so, he felt very conflicted. Why am I feeling so afraid? Saleen can't even fire a level-0 spell. He's practically powerless! Daniel thought.

Even though Daniel kept trying to boost his own confidence, he felt himself being carried further and further away from Saleen by the winged skeleton. Not once did he stop to turn or even look back. As Saleen watched Daniel fly further and further away from them, he breathed a sigh of relief. Saleen knew from the start that Tanggulasis were unreliable. Although the mages of Alchemy City were a little bit more ill-tempered, they would never give into the temptation of greed. Not under these circumstances, at least.

Yes, Daniel was a mage. However, he had been brought up the Tanggulasi way. What the Qins were unwilling to do, he might have been more than happy to carry out. To a typical mage, faith preceeded morals by a longshot. This was because beliefs were something that solely belonged to them. Morals, to them, were social constructs that had been imposed onto them since they were young. Who cared about being all-holy and upright when no one was around? Saleen believed that mages needed to be more firmly anchored in their beliefs and not morals so that they could stay true to themselves.

Right now, Saleen highly doubted that Daniel would factor in morality when deciding whether to kill them. Then again, Saleen doubted that Daniel had any righteous beliefs to begin with. Saleen strongly believed that a person needed to work hard to get what they wanted. Daniel was not prepared to sacrifice anything to become successful. He had looked at them with such hungry eyes as soon as he had realized that Lex, Saleen, and the others were too weak to fight him. At that point, Saleen had felt like he was prey being watched closely by a predator.

Meanwhile, Lex brought out a bottle of magical liquid and took a sip before passing it to Saleen, who took a bigger sip - more like a huge gulp. He then passed on the remaining contents to Sika, who then gave it to Nailisi after she was done drinking some of the fluid. The bottle was emptied within minutes. The nourishment that the magical liquid had provided them with meant that their injuries would no longer worsen. Gripping his family badge tightly, Saleen used all his strength to cast one level-0 spell.

As he did so, he made the decision to never turn his back on Lex ever again. The two of them had been through too many life and death situations together. He knew that Lex would do the same for him. Although the family badge continued draining Saleen of his energy, he felt his mental power stabilize after a while. In fact, his mental power was slowly being restored to its peak state. In just half an hour's time, the dragonshard would be able to make him nearly as good as new.

On the other hand, most of Lex's injuries were physical. Her mental power was still intact, allowing her to cast a Chunlin spell on herself before blessing it onto the rest of the people present. No sooner had she done that did she collapse onto the ship wreckage that she was sitting on, too worn out to move.

"Lex, get up," Saleen said bluntly, as he hoisted himself up into a sitting position. "What?" Lex replied lazily. "That Daniel wanted to kill us. I've sent him away for now. If he sees you lying like that looking like the undead, he might be tempted to do something again. With the winged skeleton, his powers easily rival those of a grade-4 mage." Saleen whispered harshly.

"He…" Lex wanted to continue, but decided not to. She had faced her back towards Daniel the entire time he was there. She was not the one who had witnessed Daniel's strange facial expressions. Saleen, on the other hand, had. Lex trusted Saleen, especially under these circumstances. Saleen had no incentive to lie to Lex about something like this.

Meanwhile, Sika's body was littered with lacerations, cuts, puncture holes… any injuries a person could think of were present on her frame. If it had not been for the armor that had been specially refined by Lex for her, she would have died a long time ago. Nailisi, on the other hand, was not hovering between life and death, though that wound on her stomach was probably going to give her a hard time for the next few weeks.

Lex grit her teeth as she forced herself into a sitting position. Within ten minutes, Daniel returned.

"Did you leave any magical imprints?" Saleen asked calmly. Daniel cautiously nodded his head, confused by Saleen's sudden change in attitude.

Saleen spoke again, "I'm too injured to do anything right now. If you can control Fellett's body, could you please have him pull us to the rock turtle shell?"

Saleen's words were enough to make Daniel rethink his original plan. Daniel knew that he could not act hastily. Both Saleen and Lex were archmages. Even in their weakened states, the odds of attacking both of them by surprise and actually winning were very slim, regardless of whether or not the death flames were employed.

Unfortunately, the temptation just was not going away. Daniel could hear a faint voice calling out to him from the armor. "Wear this armor and kill your enemies! You'll be invincible!"

Attempting to block out the sounds of the voice, Daniel squeezed his knuckles so tightly that his nails sliced open his palms. Saleen asked curtly, "Daniel, what's on your mind?"

"Noth… nothing…" Daniel stuttered, feeling a shiver run down his spine as he observed Saleen's subsequent actions. Apparently, the grade-4 mage had decided to pull off his gloves, exposing his shrivelled left hand. Daniel noticed a dark green ring perched prettily on Saleen's finger. Although Daniel was unable to tell just how strong the magical object was, he sensed that the magic within this ring was anti-death magic.

As Daniel was reminded of the painful memory of losing his winged skeleton after Saleen had unleashed his divine powers, the temptation slipped away almost instantly. Daniel coughed heavily as he used his magic to direct Fellett's body to push the wreckage that Saleen was on. After ensuring that Saleen's instructions were fulfilled, he turned and flew towards the direction of the rock turtle shell.

However, he was not using his magic to fly. The winged skeleton made another appearance and lifted Daniel's body up into the sky as they skimmed past the ocean waters. The magical patterns on Fellett's armor had not disappeared. Even the golden light that had faded away earlier made another appearance. This time, however, the armor was not able to do whatever it wanted. Its host had been controlled by another magical presence. Thus, Fellett's body could do nothing but push the board that Saleen was on towards the south as the gang trailed behind Daniel.

Saleen lay on the wreckage as he pondered: Daniel had been improving by leaps and bounds, and even though he had not been promoted to a higher grade, his abilities would easily rival that of a grade-4 mage. If he displayed any signs of weakness, Daniel would only be more tempted to harm him.

Fortunately for Saleen, Daniel did not seem to understand the source of his divine powers. Saleen guessed that the reason why Daniel had not attacked him yet was because of the latter's huge misconception regarding the source of his new powers. He probably thought that releasing a spell of that magnitude had required a physical sacrifice, be it a body part or even his own life. Daniel had probably come up with this false conclusion after seeing how Saleen's hand had shrivelled up upon casting the divine spell.

Saleen was not wrong. The part where Saleen unleashed his divine powers would forever be etched in Daniel's memory. After seeing how Saleen's hand had not even showed the slightest bit of recovery, Daniel had hastily jumped to the very same conclusion that Saleen had predicted he would come up with. Because of this, he had also thought that divine powers did not necessarily come at the expense of the magic chords. As long as Saleen was able to chant some short prayers, he would be able to release even more powerful divine spells.

This is probably theoretically true, Daniel thought to himself.

Daniel tried to reassure himself that he would be courting death if he had acted on impulse. It was possible that the grade-4 mage would sacrifice another body part to preserve his life. If Saleen unleashed another divine spell, who knew whether his winged skeleton could survive another attack like that? Losing a maturing winged skeleton would be like losing an arm and a leg. All the money in the world would mean nothing if he did not have his beloved magical pet.

Even though Saleen had managed to scare Daniel into not harming him, he still proceeded with caution. At the moment, Fellett was completely under Daniel's control. Even if Daniel was not as adept in manipulating corpses like the black mages, as long as Fellett was still alive, Daniel could still use the death flames to torture his body and soul.

The only way for Fellett's soul to be completely overwhelmed by the death flames would be if Fellett kicked the bucket. What would happen right after that was that his soul would be sent straight to the death dimension. Right now, Fellett was still a danger to Saleen, Lex, and the others. Daniel had refused to end Fellett's life, for reasons unknown to Saleen. Saleen did not know if Daniel was preserving Fellett's life because of the value of the armor he had on, or because it was his way of guarding himself against Saleen.

The armor… the armor was a demonic tool. If it controlled Daniel instead of Fellett, Saleen knew everyone would be in deep trouble. No sooner had he been reminded of the fact that the armor was a demonic tool did he turn towards Nailisi, who was still in the water, and ask, "Are you able to identify the magical presence inside the armor?"

"Unfortunately… I can't," Nailisi replied cleverly. Saleen understood what she meant. The magical presence inside the armor had not come from the demon dimension. Back in the olden days, humans had captured so many creatures from so many dimensions that they could not remember the origins of some of them.

To the humans then, demonic tools had been but toys to play with. Now, demonic tools were regarded as double-edged swords. Not only could they harm a person, but they could also hurt others around them too. Saleen did not want the people dearest to him to wield those magical objects. Just one slip and they would end up like Fellett.

Nailisi tilted her head to the side as she studied the armor that Fellett had worn. This demonic tool doesn't seem too impressive to me. Demons should be able to wear this armor. Fellett was never strong enough to begin with, so being controlled by the armor was a given. Even with the help of the contract magic array, he shouldn't have been so ambitious, Nailisi thought.

Fellett had been hurt so badly in the battle against the group of five that he had lost his sense of consciousness, allowing the spirits inside the armor to take control of his entire body. If Daniel had not caught Fellett by surprise by directly having the death flames wrap themselves around Fellett's soul, who knew how much scarier the armor could have become?

"Master, I can try on this armor if you'd like," Nailisi said in ancient Myers language. Her expression was oddly gentle and seductive. If Saleen had not understood ancient Myers language, he would have thought that Nailisi was flirting with him.

"That's a no-go Nailisi. This thing is dangerous. With your current strength, you wouldn't be able to control it," Saleen replied as he smiled gently as though he were the best master in the world and Nailisi was his dearest maidservant.

Gripping her hands firmly onto the wreckage, Nailisi hoisted herself up before lowering her head and resting it in Saleen's hands. "Master, what are you so scared of? I still have you to save me if I do end up being unable to control the spirit. Don't forget, we are connected via a soul bond. No magical being has mental power that exceeds the two of ours combined."

"No means no. I can hold onto the armor for now. Daniel would not dare defy me. I'm sure Lex doesn't want 'spiritual armor' anyway. All she wants is something that soldiers can wear to the battlefield. I'll let you try on the armor once I feel that you're strong enough to deal with the spirit on your own, okay?" Saleen said in a sincere tone.

Not only did they have a special connection between them through the soul bond, but Nailisi had also saved Saleen countless times. Over the years, she seemed to have become even more attached to him. Even though many magic books had made claims about the questionable behavior of demons, Saleen did not want to torture Nailisi by making her wear the armor. After all, Nailisi was not only his bonded creature, but also his partner and friend.

"Master, don't treat me too nicely. See, Lex looks unhappy," Nailisi giggled sweetly as her eyes darted over to Lex. Lex's ears instantly perked up. She might not have understood what the two of them were talking about, but she swore that she heard her name mentioned.

"Hmph!" Lex grunted, deciding that she was not going to try and understand anything that they were saying. Instead, she chose to close her eyes and meditate.