Badge in Azure

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

Saleen's six shards of Eternal Control had been completely refined. Saleen was gaining a deeper understanding and awareness towards such things. Not only was Eternal Control manipulated by mental strength, it was also connected to the soul. The rule of Eternal Control was very powerful, but if his soul was weak, he would not be able to control many lives.

His mental strength would determine how many creatures he could command in battle at one go while his soul would determine how many souls he could control in total.

Saleen was unable to determine how strong his soul was but based on what Jason had hinted to him, his determination, mental strength, and spirit would all determined how strong his soul was.

Saleen knew that his spirit was not strong because through his adventure, he realized that in his body, there was a part of him that was still weak and would be in considerable pain once triggered slightly.

That part of him was his past. His childhood.

After his clash with the Angel of Fear, Saleen discovered that loophole in his spirit. Fortunately, he was able to overcome the Angel of Fear's attack, which decreased his fear towards his childhood's memory. Such a loophole in the spirit could be trained.

"Flare, take us to the Midnight Fang." Saleen put away his shards of Eternal Control and some weapons that he had also refined. Then, he distributed those weapons to the ancient warriors.

The long lances wielded by the 24 ancient warriors were all refined from the whale horns of single-horned white whales. They would be hard to break even in the midst of battles. The long lances made from the whale horns could definitely handle the massive strength of even grade-9 opponents.

Saleen could tell that the souls of the ancient warriors had already become stronger after being nurtured by the shards of Eternal Control. Even the level of intelligence of the ancient warriors had increased slightly and they were no longer like the shrunken version of elemental creatures. Not only were the shards of Eternal Control capable of controlling souls, they could also repair and protect them.

Over the past few days, Flare has also sensed that his soul was being protected by that mysterious shard, and as a result, he dared to unleash certain techniques that he would have been hesitant to use in the past.

As he led Saleen towards the corner of the Imperial City, Flare explained why he decided to pledge his loyalty to Saleen.

"Master, as elemental creatures, there is no way we can leave Imperial City of Abyss, unless we are led out by a Master, otherwise we will stay here forever until we die. Elemental creatures are different from humans. To us, the passing of time is… if time passed too quickly, our elemental core would become mature very quickly and if so, we would be able to live longer. Here, it is difficult for elemental creatures to evolve. Basically, our grades remain unchanged from birth to death."

"I see!"

"This is why most elemental creatures are willing to leave this place with their Masters. There is only an endless wait here, waiting for the return of the humans from the very beginning. Except for the Midnight Fangs!"

"Why are the Midnight Fangs unwilling to leave?" Nailisi asked.

"This is a world of dark-element creatures. If it left, where can it find an even better environment?" Flare asked in response.

"Hehe, it's meaningless to be stuck here forever."

"The Imperial City of Abyss is as large as a kingdom and there are more than enough dark-element creatures roaming around. The Midnight Fangs rules over them. If not for the fact that they don't have many desires, they would have replaced the creatures of the other five types of elements and controlled the exterior of the Imperial City."

"Desires? Flare, do you desire anything?" Saleen asked.

"Yes. I hope to obtain a fire-element elf so that I can advance beyond grade-12."

"Haha, what grade is a fire-element elf?" Saleen laughed. He recalled that there was once a time when the Sregl Island mages wanted to capture a fire-element elf, they had to activate all the sorcerers they had and the grand magic arrays that they have been preparing for the previous tens of thousands of years. The fire-element elf was weakened by hundreds of times before finally being barely captured. It was close to impossible for Flare to devour a fire-element elf.

"At least grade-12, and that's why I want it." There was a clear desire in Flare's purple eyes.

"Is it just up ahead?" Saleen pointed to a towering military depot that was a distance away. It was a tower that was built with black crystals. The ancient humans were extremely extravagant, so no matter how low the quality of these black crystals might be, a huge tower like this was still going to be priceless.

"It's over there. There are plenty of dark-element creatures and all the subordinates are gathered at the ground floor. In order to defeat their leader, we will have to face 144 grade-9 Midnight Fangs."

"Very well." Saleen summoned all the elemental stone statue soldiers and blue ice maidens. Under Saleen's command, a total of more than 200 grade-9 elemental creatures surrounded the black crystal tower. Both water-element and ground-element creatures would receive boosts in power in the Imperial City of Abyss, so it would not be so easy for the Midnight Fangs to kill them.

Flare did not understand what was happening. Saleen took out the divine tree magic tower and set it up facing the main door of the black crystal tower before leading Nailisi and the rest into the magic tower.

"We can let Soldier recover his strength here first. I don't believe that the leader of the Midnight Fangs is willing to put up with all this and continue hiding in there." Saleen had only just finished his sentence when the main gate of the black crystal tower opened and a two yard tall elemental creature walked out.

"Master, that is the Midnight Fang," Flare introduced.

Saleen looked carefully and realized that Midnight Fang was also in human-form. It was wearing a soft armor made of dark elements and was covered with magic patterns that Saleen had never seen before. There was a gentle-looking mask over the leader's face. Very few elemental creatures possessed equipment like a mask.

"You are a human?" Both of the Midnight Fang's hands were wrapped in gloves. Similarly, the gloves and masks were made of dark elements. An elemental creature like that, who was able to create equipment made up of elements, must possess a soul.

"You are Midnight Fang?" Saleen's voice rang out from the divine tree magic tower, not answering the leader's question.

"Humph, why are you using equipment of the Gods?"

"How does that concern you?" Saleen replied.

The leader of the Midnight Fangs remained calm. He looked at the 200 grade-9 elemental creatures that surrounded the black crystal tower and said, "For someone like you to come all the way here, your goal must be to subdue me. Although I am unwilling, it is not impossible either. If you are a lackey of the Gods, then please scram. I may not be able to defeat you, but I can definitely escape from you. If you cannot defeat me, then be prepared to stay here forever."

"The Gods? There have been no Gods on the Myers Mainland for a very long time. You have been trapped here for so long that you are not aware of anything."

The leader of the Midnight Fangs nodded and said, "My name is Jinn. May I have your name?"

"Saleen. Saleen Metatrin."

"Mr. Saleen, please take a look at my skills." With that, Jinn waved his hands and the black crystal tower suddenly disintegrated into more than 120 grade-9 Midnight Fangs that were more than 20 yards tall. The Midnight Fangs were wielding a half-sword made of dark elements.

The half-swords were curved like a live serpent. When the Midnight Fangs stabbed the elemental stone statue soldiers and the blue ice maidens with the weapons, their elemental cores were all crushed.

All of them were grade-9 creatures of the Imperial City of Abyss, yet the difference in power was so huge! The elemental creatures that had been defeated turned into elemental shards that flew back to the divine tree magic tower. With only slightly more than 100 elemental creatures remaining, the Midnight Fangs stopped attacking. Saleen's elemental eye was able to figure out why. He could see that the elements that made up the Midnight Fangs' half-swords were already extremely thin and were close to falling apart.

He would not have been able to figure that out without his elemental eyes.

He was also able to analyze their attacks very clearly. He realized that the Midnight Fangs used up about 30 frames of time to attack Saleen's stone statue soldiers and blue ice maidens. Such speed was still slightly slower compared to magic attacks. Saleen could easily control the stone statue soldiers and blue ice maidens so that they could avoid the attacks. By doing so, he would be exposing the limit of his mental strength.

If it were the ancient warriors, they would definitely be able to dodge on their own and avoid being struck by the Midnight Fangs. On the other hand, the stone statue soldiers and blue ice maidens were over-confident in their defenses and were also not used to dodging. They were used to facing their enemies head-on. Such a tactic might still be effective against humans, but against the Midnight Fangs and their serpent-shaped half-sword, the Midnight fangs were able to pierce through their elemental cores easily.

Once the elemental cores had been shattered, the elemental creatures would have to return to the elemental badges to recuperate. As long as their leaders was still alive, they would never die.

The Midnight Fangs' ability to move around in the darkness was what made them difficult to guard against, as if they were high-level assassins. When Midnight Fangs were in the shadows, only techniques like elemental eyes would be able to see them.

Saleen quickly analyzed the Midnight Fangs' abilities and immediately established Sensory Sharing with Nailisi and the winged skeleton. Darkness was not an obstacle to Nailisi and the winged skeleton, but if they wished to capture the movements of dark-element creatures in the darkness, they would have to possess a technique like elemental eyes.

"Jinn, your subordinates are no longer able to carry out a second wave of attacks. Is there anything else you wish to show me?" Saleen did not order the remaining elemental creatures to counter-attack. He could control a maximum of 36 elemental creatures. He did not need all of the remaining 114 elemental creatures to stay behind.

Jinn did not expect Saleen to be able to see through his subordinates' secrets. The first attack of dark-element creatures was usually powerful, but after that, they would find it hard to continue battling, unless their enemies were creatures that were grade-8 and below. In that case, the Midnight Fangs could still make use of their grades to suppress their enemies.

The weapons wielded by the Midnight Fangs were called Fangs. When attacked with full force, 90 percent of the Midnight Fangs' powers would be used up. Elemental creatures aside, assassins were the only group of humans that were able to unleash about 80 percent of their powers in one go.

"Mr. Saleen, you are correct, my subordinates do not have much power left. As for me…" With that, a half-sword appeared in Jinn's hands. The half-sword was not made up of dark elements. The sword blade was misty blue in color and both sides of the narrow body of the sword were carved with 24 ancient symbols.