Badge in Azure

Chapter 304: Allowing the Enemy to Escape (Part 1)

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

Am I dying too? Saleen felt that breakthrough in his abilities, and it even affected his surroundings. The elemental disorder was toning down while Saleen's magic chords grew rapidly. At the same time, he felt that something had entered his brain, and with a boom, he fainted.

The black bishop observed Saleen from afar, but did not go near Saleen. The vigorous elemental vibrations on Saleen's body struck fear in him. The black bishop found Saleen quite terrifying. Having been in the inquisition for so many years, the black bishop had witnessed his fair share of strange occurrences, but Saleen still astounded him very much.

The magic of a grade-4 mage had posed a threat to a grade-7 professional. If not for the partial divine weapon that had been in his hand, that mage and his female warrior would have injured him. Seeing that Saleen had fainted, the black bishop retreated even farther.

Who knows if this isn't an ambush? Those elemental vibrations from the mage have even stabilized the elemental disorder. There must be something wrong! If his subordinates were not here, the black bishop would have definitely taken the risk to try and kill Saleen. However, the oncoming footsteps could already be heard clearly. A grand total of two hundred and forty swordsmen were going to arrive anytime now.

The black bishop would not want to take any more risks now that he was going to have so many people under his command. His early arrival had resulted in the deaths of two bronze grand swordmasters and damage to the partial divine weapon. The black bishop did not want any more accidents to happen.

As the elemental disorder stabilized, the water flow which encircled Saleen rose up and moved about gently, just like a snake. If someone tried to attack Saleen at this point in time, the water flow would retaliate autonomously.

Bam, bam!

Saleen could feel that his mental power had evolved and was now existing independently from his physical body. Was this his soul? However, Saleen's soul was definitely not made of up of his mental power. This was a condition which would occasionally occur in a grade-7 mage - mental dissimilation.

Dissimilated minds did not have similar attributes. There were thousands of variations in their details. However, there was a common feature, that dissimilation would cause the mage's mental power to grow by several times.

Saleen felt that he had entered the goddess' necklace, as though his mental power was travelling through the twenty-four segments of the necklace. With every space his mental power passed through, one magic symbol would be imprinted upon it. Saleen's mental power was becoming increasingly solidified. In the end, his mental power had transformed into a clot of blue liquid which was the size of a human adult.

This clot of liquid was continuously transformed by the magic symbols within the goddess' necklace, and then it underwent a strange transformation once more.

This blue liquid had solidified into Saleen's own appearance. It looked exactly like Saleen.

Soul incarnation? This skill could not be learned. It was an ability that would only occur occasionally when one advanced to the next grade. Saleen had not expected his advancement to have the appearance of such a skill. However, he was not jumping for joy. Nailisi might have already been dead. There was nothing which could make him happy.

So what if the black bishop was killed? Some things, when lost, could never be retrieved ever again.

In Saleen's eyes, a bundle of three-dimensional magic patterns were growing within his blue pupils. These magic patterns had come so suddenly, and Saleen did not even know why. If he could observe the magic patterns in his eyes right now, he would realize that the structure of these magic patterns were identical to that of his clan badge. It was just that the size was proportionately much smaller.

It was an extremely rare event for magic patterns to appear on a mage's body. However, some mages would use dragon's blood medicine to draw magic patterns on themselves, as it could bring about special effects as well. Saleen's magic patterns had grown in his pupils, and that was an event which had never been mentioned in any magic book before. Furthermore, he himself did not even know why something like this would happen.

As the magic symbols were assimilated into the soul incarnation, the goddess' necklace became empty. In the future, Saleen would no longer need to enter the necklace in order to learn those magic formulae. This meant that he would be able to calculate the implications of a certain spell under normal conditions, spending the same amount of time as when he was inside the necklace.

For example, the Figaro Formula could be used to dissect a spell in order to discover its weakness. At this moment, Saleen could do the same thing as Lex's teacher. He could now dissect a spell which was at the same level or a lower level than his own grade. In the past, Saleen and Lex had practiced such an ability for a long time, but they had only managed to do it to a few low level spells in the end.

Prior to this event, the spells which Saleen could dissect had all been lower than level-3, and the quantity was less than ten. Now that his mental power had transformed into a soul incarnation, Saleen would be able to dissect most spells under level-5 as long as he continued practicing.

If Saleen possessed such an ability, his offensive power would be increased by a large magnitude, because the dissection of a spell would consume less magic chords than the usage of a magic shield. How long a mage could battle was decided by the amount of their magic chords. If they used more defense spells, then they would have less magic chords for offensive spells. This was a fact which could not be altered.

However, Saleen was devoid of happiness at the moment. Once all of the magic symbols from the goddess' necklace had assimilated into the soul incarnation, Saleen made the soul incarnation enter Nailisi's body.

Saleen felt a kind of attractive force which sucked the soul incarnation into a space. This space was surrounded by green barriers, as though it were a gigantic green crystal box. Saleen saw Nailisi laying in that space. Outside this space, a gigantic black sickle was hacking her, as though it were destroying this space and trying to tear her into shreds.

On the barriers inside this green space, there were fine magic patterns. This time around, Saleen understood these patterns. These patterns represented the soul contract between Nailisi and himself. If the sickle managed to destroy the space, it would mean that the connection between Saleen and Nailisi would be detached completely. If the sickle managed to chop Nailisi into shreds, then Nailisi would really die.

All of a sudden, Saleen became very excited. Nailisi had not died yet. Was this her soul? A demon's soul typically resembled a demon. However, within this space, Nailisi had the appearance of a human.

Saleen did not delve into this matter. Since Nailisi had not died, he was more energetic now. Instinctively, Saleen walked towards that massive black sickle. Two rays of light shot out from his eyes. They were blue in color, and they looked extremely transparent. Shining onto the green barriers, the blue light projected two phantoms which were intertwined with one another.

As those two phantoms overlapped one another, a burst of blue electric current suddenly appeared. As the black sickle was being sent downwards, it struck the electric current instead.

Zi…

The black sickle then shrunk to half its original size, and looked like it was retreating. Saleen still did not know how to control the electric current. However, the two phantoms projected from his eyes were currently expanding. A burst of blue electric current emerged before charging towards the sickle and lunging at it.

The speed of the electric currents surpassed that of all the other attacks. Before Saleen could react, dozens of electric currents had already been launched. If he had not been in this strange space, Saleen would never have the power to sustain such an attack. Furthermore, that sickle was only the phantom of the partial divine weapon, so it was relatively weak compared to the original. Dozens of electric currents lined up before striking the black sickle. Eventually, the black sickle disappeared.

The blue light in Saleen's eyes died down slowly, while the phantom images of the magic patterns on the green barriers disappeared.

Nailisi's body twitched, and Saleen was overwhelmed with joy. Out of the blue, the soul incarnation had crashed through the barriers in that green space, and Saleen had returned to his physical body. Those barriers were extremely sturdy. If it was not for those magic patterns from the soul contract, Saleen would not have been able to enter and exit so freely.

"Nailisi!" Saleen woke up and stood upright. Then, he saw a dense formation of swordsmen behind the black bishop. These swordsmen were clad in black cotton armor, but they wielded uniformly colored cavalry swords.

Such cavalry swords were fairly heavy, and if the user was not skilled, they would not be able to use it.

Nailisi twisted her body, opened her eyes, and said, "Master, I did not die?"

"Mm, you did not die."

"Were you crying just now?"

"I did not cry."

"Master…"

"Stop talking. Think of a way to escape right now." Saleen pointed to the black bishop and his swordsmen in the far distance in front of them.

"Why should we escape? Isn't Banchajanna here already?" Nailisi pointed to the sky, and a colossal black shadow had appeared in the sky above the forest. This shadow had a bone tail which was dozens of meters long, three pairs of arms, and six different weapons.

There a lingering fear in Saleen's heart. He knew that when the six weapons were knocked against each other, a horrifying attack would be released. At this moment, Saleen still did not know how to defend himself against such an attack.

Noticing that Saleen did not look too good, Nailisi said, "Master, when Banchajanna does that attack later on, I will knock you unconscious and then I will carry you. That old man in the black clothes will not be able to catch up to me even if he flies in the air."

Saleen agreed very uncomfortably. He knew that if Banchajanna targeted that attack at him, he would not be able to faint even if he wanted to.

Up in the sky, Banchajanna was surveying the situation on the ground. That group of humans, more than two hundred of them who looked like ants, were confronting Saleen. Saleen was fairly skilled. He had actually been able to hold out until Banchajanna arrived! Daniel was seated on the back of Banchajanna. When he saw that Saleen was alive, he had a bout of odd feelings. Daniel was a little disappointed, yet a little glad at the same time.

Because of Saleen's affairs, Daniel was at odds with the three spirit kings. Even if Saleen had really died, Daniel would not have felt any burden in his heart. Since Saleen was not dead, Daniel would have to fulfill his follower's contract. Of course, this was not a bad thing either. At least Saleen would provide the magic nuclei that he needed for training in the future.

Daniel relaxed. He tapped on Banchajanna's body, and while in the sky, he bellowed, "Honorable King, go and kill those ants. Crush them!"

Banchajanna was very unwilling, but in front of a bunch of believers, he needed to pretend that he was Daniel's contract creature. Hence, Banchajanna hollered in response.

"I will obey your command, Mage."

Banchajanna was now flying directly above the forest, and his voice boomed at least ten miles into the distance. On the ground below, the black bishop and his swordsmen were dumbfounded, as though they had been cast with a Fossilization spell.

Their enemy had reinforcements. Furthermore, the reinforcement was a death mage. What was worse was that this death mage had summoned a very powerful creature. This creature was so powerful that none of the swordsmen wanted to go against it.

Banchajanna opened his mouth and spit out a cloud of grey fog. This grey fog fell directly into the group of swordsmen. Everything in the fog's path became grey in color before decaying. Those swordsmen who came into contact with that grey fog simply died. There was no noise at all, as though that grey fog had stopped time.

"Banchajanna, kill that man!" Saleen pointed at the black bishop. Banchajanna glanced at Saleen, as though he did not hear him. Then, he spit out another ball of grey fog, directing it at the swordsmen.