Badge in Azure

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

Saleen was dumbfounded hearing his teacher's words and began to sweat. He did not know how to answer his teacher's question that came out of the blue.

"Saleen, I knew what kind of situation you were in when I first met you. This particular impasse is something you have to deal with on your own sooner or later. If I were you, I would never enter the Six Element Space. I would choose instead to stay in Raphael's ten-floored magic tower, and devote myself to training there. For the period of one year, you would do nothing else but open the path to the rank of a grade-8 sorcerer."

"During this period, you would need to have nothing else in your mind, no concern for anything but your own practice. If you are unable to do so, I'm afraid my lineage would die alongside you," Jason elaborated.

Saleen looked at Sika. She frowned and said, "Master, I want to enter the Hell of God's Punishment too."

"Oh? Why would you want to do so?", Jason was hardly surprised, and merely smiled at Sika.

"Master, What the Northern Caucasus people from the south of the city want is but a farce. It isn't something Caucasus people should want. I just want to be with Saleen. If I'm not going with him, Saleen will be concerned for my safety. The reason why you can want such a thing of him is because you have no children of your own," Sika said while touching her belly, and then smiled, "The two children in me will prove to be Saleen's greatest courage. If he were to fail, they will possibly not have a future."

Jason was stunned. This was the first time he realized how strong Sika actually was. Her words were brief, yet they rendered him speechless. He had no children, and so would have never understood Saleen's feelings. Sika was right.

"I may be pregnant, but if anyone wants to get to him, they will have to go through me," Sika said while brandishing her weapon and thumped it heavily on the floor. Saleen shuddered for a moment, as he felt pity for the steel rock flooring beneath her. That thump made quite a dent in it.

Jason's brow twitched. While Saleen might have had the Elemental Eye, his ability to appraise equipment was still somewhat below his teacher's. Sika's weapon had actually struck a bit of fear in Jason.

The higher the expectations Jason had for Saleen, the more he feared his student dying at a low level or getting killed. Even worse; never being able progress further.

"Letting his lover and unborn children go keep him company while he trains?" Jason gave the thought some serious pondering, to see if that was something feasible. To mages, children were akin to spawn of hell, capable to disrupting your thought by simply crying. Worse still, the crying of children carried some sort of mental penetration power with it. It was so potent that even common mute enchantments proved incapable of shutting it out completely.

That was one of the gifts of humanity, which unfortunately, was also one that mages hated the most. That was the reason why mages shunned crowds, to keep themselves out of earshot of children crying.

Mages were, of course, free from the concerns for such cries during battle, as that was when they were on guard all the time. When a mage proceed with their practice and conducted magical experiments they did not confined their senses into tight spaces that could be detrimental. Instead, they were required to expand their senses to their limits, so as to acquire more experience and details of their practice. They would not have required magic towers if it was not so.

"Fine. When Lex gets here, we will have six grade-9 mages. You will leave the matters of the city to Lex for the moment. Your Metatrin City will also need refurbishing, or else it will be like I wasted my efforts all these years," Jason eventually granted Sika's request.

Jason was a mage, but he was not a magic beast devoid of emotions. He felt a need to test Sika's words. If Sika's children proved to be so important to Saleen, separating them would have proven detrimental to Saleen's advancement. Pressing forward with an indomitable did not make one immune to thoughts of family. Jason himself had chosen to relent when he ran into trouble at that time.

Mages never endeavored in anything that was absolutely impossible to accomplish. If they were to fight for anything, a one percent chance of success would be the lowest requirement.

The way Jason looked at it, if Sika were to be by Saleen's side when he trained, the possibility of him succeeding would at least be more than one percent. If Saleen succeeded, passing on his lineage would not prove so difficult.

Jason knew of the pain his practice entailed. There was little else but magic in his life, ever since he was born on Sregl Island. His teacher had taken more than a dozen students, but he was the one who made it. His seniors were just as hardworking as he was, and have given as much as he had, but all of them gradually lost sight of their initial dreams. It was due to the overwhelming loneliness that such practice brought about.

Mages of his lineage were not permitted to give up their beliefs at any cost. Any backsliding would end their way forward right there and then.

That was the very reason why Jason never had any faith on the matter of taking students of his own. He had never thought of taking in another after taking in Saleen.

"Thank you, master," Sika said seriously, but was still half-lying down, with her staff in her hands.

On November eleventh, Sika gave birth. It was midnight, and both children came to the world one after another. That was the first time all the Caucasus people stayed awake during the night, as they lit thousands of bonfires and organized their own celebrations of the event.

The temple guards turned a blind eye to the Caucasus people's unusual behavior and let them have their fun. There were Caucasus people among the temple guards too, but those Caucasus people stood guard according to military regulations, instead of joining in the celebrations.

Saleen's training proved fruitful. Some Caucasus people had assimilated as part of the Kingdom of Metatrin, and gradually forgot their past.

A boy and a girl were born, and Saleen was barely able to contain his joy, smiling like an idiot. He and Sika took one child in their arms. Sika's body was far from being rendered frail from the ordeal, as she was capable of self-healing. She was, after all, a priestess. No one in the city was better at the healing arts than she was except Nicholas.

Nobles in the city sent gifts, as dictated by common custom. Saleen took all of them with a smile. He had spent quite some time training during that period. While he felt the growth of his magic chords slowed, his perceptions and understanding of the elements had deepened instead.

The Kingdom of Metatrin and Bitterwater prefectureat were no longer the central focus of people's attentions. That was due to the Holy See having launched an assault at the Qin Empire: a joint war effort between the Tanggulasi Empire, Cloudflow, and Sikenqinyas.

The Cloudflow warships closed in on Alchemy City, and had even attempted to take a detour around the city to attack Porter City.

No place north of Alchemy City, with the exception of Metatrin City, stood a chance of withstanding the onslaught of the Cloudflow navy. That included Porter City and some other small ports. Alchemy City had no choice but to send their ships to even further reaches. They sent them near the edge of the Storm Ocean to defend against any Cloudflow assault at the north side of the Qin Empire.

While it was not the Alchemy City's duty to protect the north side of the Qin Empire, Alchemy City's current status would have been no more if the Cloudflow invaders were to have it their way.

Sikenqinyas even went the despicable route of sending hundreds of thousand of mercenaries to invade the Kroraina territory, attacking the Qin people with the army of the Holy See.

The move was described to be despicable due to the fact that the emperor of Sikenqinya had declared, loud and proud, that the nation would never embroil themselves in the war that the Holy See had started.

An emperor's words were thought to be worth their weight in gold, which in this case and in the eyes of Emperor Danny himself, his words would have weighed nothing.

Lex's Bitterwater prefecture was no longer the main battlefield due to being a target of lowered priority. Saleen's Kingdom of Metatrin at the time had a large castle built by Aini and more than one-hundred-thousand troops garrisoned near the borders of Kroraina and Laiyin Duchy. The most convenient route to send their armies, was completely blocked off.

There were three ways the Holy See was able to attack Saleen's territories. The first one being venturing into the Chaotic Swamp, passing through the secret passage, and then entering the old Phoenix territory. The second would have been the route taken by the Cloudflow people. It was to take a detour around Alchemy City. The third was to send in navies, via the oceans north of the mainland, and assault Metatrin City.

The secret passage of Chaotic Swamp was known only to oracles. Fycro had his own ideas, and as such withheld such information from the pivotal council. While Alchemy City was at a disadvantage at the battle in the southern oceans, but they were nonetheless able to stop the Cloudflow navy from advancing due to having a superior numbers of mages. They were able to hold the line at Alchemy City, and as such, the north remained safe for the time being.

The third way was rendered unfeasible as the time was November, and the seas have frozen over. If the Holy See had wanted to take the even further route, they would have needed to wait until April.

Despite having ensured the safety of his city, Saleen was still unable to leave. If he were to teleport through the interdimensional space, he would have required Lex's God's ring. While he had his own devil's armor and Sika had her own armor crafted from divine trees, their children were still defenseless. They would have required protection from Lex to make it through the interdimensional space.

Eleanor had recovered from her injuries and would soon returned to Metatrin City. Nailisi had yet to return. There were ten-thousand demons going out from Demon City, under the leadership of Singiles, to take Nailisi's place in Sanlian City.

Nailisi had things her way in Sanlian City. She had first attracted the attention of the enemy with the demon army, then planted magic bugs behind enemy lines without anyone noticing. The bugs numbered initially around seven-hundred, and as such had not aroused suspicion from anyone. Then the bugs quickly multiplied to tens of millions, and that forced the Holy See's army to pull out from Sanlian City.

Magic bugs in small numbers were something that common human farmers were easily able to deal with using only their hoes. When their numbers came to tens of millions, they would become a force capable of taking out armies.

While the line at Sanlian City was safe and steady, Nailisi missed Saleen, so she had Singiles take her place. The reinforcements that time were ten-thousand soldiers, but they did not come as quickly as they had last time. Singiles acquired the power to command demons and had advanced into the rank of a Silver Grand Swordmaster. Singiles still felt his advancement to be something that should have happened in dreams.

Singiles' had his original magic beast stead replaced with that of a mountain magic beast with low intelligence. While such beasts were a branch of supreme demons, their combat capacity was equal only to that of a demon. Their bodies were the size of walking dragons; that made them very capable of feats of brute strength.

Saleen was, at that moment, only waiting for Lex to show up. He knew well that if he did not advance, he would not be capable of keeping up with the times. That was something that most people on their plane had yet to understand. The nobles of the Kingdom of Metatrin still had their attentions in developing their own armies, hoping to achieve great endeavors on the mainland.

Those people had little idea that in the days to come, families without a powerful one as a cornerstone would not be able to make it as a true noble.