Badge in Azure

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

The atmosphere within Lonestar City was one of singing and dancing and seemed disconnected from their current situation of being surrounded. There were only 200,000 soldiers in the city and more than 500,000 spirits of the dead. The strange design of the city had allowed the spirits to take up more responsibility for the city's defense.

Plenty of huge equipment was lined up along the top of the three towering castles, without any defensive loopholes in sight. The city was built into the mountains with only one side with a wall. It would not be possible to take the city down by attacking from the front and rear.

There were more than 200 death mages in the city, but in actual fact, they would not be able to control all the spirits of the dead. In the middle of the city and in front of an eight story magic tower was a 100 yard tall tree. There was a death aura about the tree, and instead of growing leaves, it grew thin gray threads that swayed in the wind.

Amongst the gray threads, spirits of the dead that were a gory mass of flesh and blood would appear once in a while. It was a powerful creature that Aini had summoned.

Death mages were different from elemental mages. When the former had reached the level of a sorcerer, his own combat abilities would not improve quickly, but his ability to summon creatures would improve by leaps and bounds. Aini combined his flesh spirits and plant spirits into a gigantic spirit space that could summon spirits continuously. It was just like a gigantic summoning array that was connected to the spirit space and within this summoning array were plenty of coordinates of the death dimension.

Plant spirits were extremely rare, and on the death dimension, even the spirit kings might not be able to get their hands on them. The crown of the 100 yard tall plant spirit blocked out the entire magic tower and there was a gigantic face on its thick branches.

On the terrifying-looking face, the plant spirit's mouth spat out items one after another. Some of them were materials from the death dimension and others were simply low-grade spirits. Simultaneously, the plant spirit was also spitting out spirit power. With the magic tower as the core, these spirit power dissipated into the sky, so that it could be absorbed by the spirits on the top of the city wall.

The tens of thousands of spirits of the dead depended on the spirit power to keep going.

Aini was not in the death magic tower. Instead, he was at the rear of the city, deep in the valleys of the mountains, where he was touching up a magic tower for elemental mages. The magic tower was built by Lex on short notice. It was nine stories tall and was able to monitor the surrounding areas of the mountains. As a result, it was impossible for the Sikeqinyans to try and enter the city from the sky.

Aini was in Lex's magic tower. She handed him the letter that Nailisi had sent over.

Aini took a glance at the letter and said, "Metatrin City will not be sending an army?"

"Hmm, only a battalion." Lex looked at Aini and said, "Officially, I know that you are Saleen's subordinate, but I also know that you are his friend."

Aini laughed drily and did not reply. He knew the reason behind what Saleen had asked of him.

Aini agreed with Saleen's decision. Going along with Holy Rock City all the time was not a long-term solution. The situation on the Mainland had changed and Qin had suddenly found itself isolated from the others, just like Saleen had predicted.

The Qins were an arrogant and egoistic group of people and the Cloudflows and Sikeqinyans had been unhappy for a long time. It took them a few years to turn on the Qins because of the powerful Qin armies and the power of Alchemy City. Since Alchemy City had chosen not to interfere with the Cloudflows' attacks, that had encouraged the Sikeqinyans greatly.

"Aini, prepare to receive Nailisi into the city." Lex laughed deeply and Aini did not know what to make of it.

"Your Highness, you…"

"If Saleen sent Nailisi, then we are definitely receiving more than a battalion's worth of power. Bring her in first. Don't let the enemy sense that we are receiving a powerful group of people, do you understand?"

"At what cost?"

"At all cost," Lex replied. Saleen had included some secret codes in Nailisi's letter that only Lex would understand. Lex knew that the battalion that Saleen had sent over included 24 grade-9 warriors amongst them. The warriors might not be as powerful as Jola, but the difference in grades was huge.

If Lex led the 24 grade-9 warriors herself, they could easily break through the siege. They might even be able to kill many of their enemies, even the most powerful amongst them.

Saleen was asking Lex what decision she was going to make. If Holy Rock City still meant something to her, then she should make use of the 24 warriors to defeat the Sikeqinyans. In that case, the Tanggulasi Empire would be forced to withdraw its troops immediately.

Aini shook his head helplessly and replied to Nailisi's letter. There might be quite a number of powerful enemies outside the city, but they were not powerful enough to stop a teleportation portal like that.

Nailisi's response was simple and only contained one word, 'Okay'.

Aini left Lex's magic tower to prepare to receive Nailisi. Nailisi was currently in a castle that was more than 200 yards away from the north of Lonestar City.

Nailisi looked at Aini's letter and smiled.

It was a full-fledged battalion with 10,000 soldiers and more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers. They had also brought with them wagons of various sizes containing items that would help the castle defend itself. There was also a grade-7 sorcerer in the group. With her own spatial equipment, they barely needed any wagons to carry their logistics.

The 8,000 demons amongst the 10,000 soldiers were the real force to be reckoned with.

"Oh Aini, did you really think I was only here to fill up the numbers?" Although Saleen had forbidden her from revealing the abilities of the 24 ancient warriors, there was no way she was going to let go of such a great opportunity. 8,000 demons were more than sufficient to break through the enemy's camps.

"Prepare to set off!" Nailisi gave the order to the battalion commander of the temple army. The battalion commander looked at Aini's reply and was about to make preparations when Nailisi called out to him. She whispered in his ear and the battalion commander was soon nodding his head fervently in agreement.

Nailisi was indeed the most terrifying and cruel demon around his Highness.

When night fell, more than 10 death mages summoned 200 death knights and 1,000 skeletal soldiers outside of the castle before releasing spirit fog. Spirit fog was a very low-level spell and could be easily dissipated, even by slightly stronger wind.

The one-million strong Sikeqinyan army was slightly fewer in numbers in actual fact, and there was less than a million of them even if the auxiliary soldiers were included. The army was split into three segments. They had set up a strong campsite to guard against the castle that was 200 miles away in the north.

Nailisi's army of 20,000 shrunk their formation as they were led by more than 1,000 spirits of the dead at the forefront. They approached the campsite carefully while being shrouded by the fog.

The Sikeqinyans were not considered weak by any means and were actually more powerful than the Cloudflows forces. The quality of their armies might not be as good as Qin armies, but they were still reasonably formidable. By the time this spirit fog reached 10 miles away from the campsite, some mages had already set up two defensive lines on the border.

The Sikeqinyans had no idea how many soldiers were shrouded in the fog, so they only activated a small-scale mercenary group to scout.

There were about 100 men in the mercenary group. When the fog was still hundreds of yards away, they had already begun to place some vines on the ground and were setting up their crossbows.

Nailisi saw all the preparations that they were making, but she did not care too much about them. They were being led by spirits of the dead, but such weapons, that were not infused with magic, would have no effects on the death knights.

Nailisi casually waved her hand. When the battalion commander saw Nailisi's gesture, he immediately ordered a soldier to blow the war horn. The entire army suddenly moved at twice its original speed as they sprinted towards the enemy's campsite.

The mercenary group was three miles away from the campsite. It was not possible to see what was within the fog and the campsite was unwilling to risk their mages, so the mercenaries were basically meant to be sacrificed. In the blink of an eye, the mercenaries were swallowed by the fog. The crossbow arrows that they shot only managed to kill some skeletons. Then, they were immediately hacked to death by the death knights and trampled into masses of flesh.

The catapult in the campsite had not been assembled, as it was meant to be used for attacking the city. The only thing they could rely on was the towering wall of the campsite and countless crossbows.

When Nailisi's army was three miles away, countless crossbow arrows were shot, but more than half of them were blocked off by the spirits. Behind the spirits were the demons. The demons were all clad in magic armor. All of them were five yards tall and were carrying heavy shields. When the crossbow arrows ricocheted off the shields, they injured several demons by accident.

When the army appeared out of the fog in less than 500 yards away, the mages in the campsite finally unleashed a Wild Wind spell.

Tens of mages unleashed the spell at the same time. Powerful wind blew the fog away instantly, revealing hundreds of spirits leading the way.

A white-robed Holy Master suddenly appeared in the campsite. He unleashed a scroll and a powerful light lit up the night sky. Before the skeletal soldiers in the front could even approach the campsite, they had already disintegrated. Their soul flames were lit up by the Light of Glory before evaporating completely.

Smoke began to appear on the surface of the death knights as they began to fall off their warhorses. The commander in the campsite laughed with glee. Their alliance with the Holy See had given them a Holy Master, so they were no longer afraid of spirit armies. There were so many spirits in the city and none of them dared to attack them, yet the army only consisted of about 20,000 spirits, and they dared to charge into their camp so recklessly?

As the Wild Wind spell persisted, the demons at the rear finally appeared. Nailisi had transformed into her devil-form and was charging ahead with her 30 yard long lance.

The soldiers in the campsite were stunned. A 20 yard tall demon was leading a group of monsters charging towards them. The arrows shot at them were never going to pierce through their thick armor.

They were too close. The Sikeqinyans', unwillingness to risk their mages, had allowed the demons to get too close. The defense in the campsite was useless now. With one leap, Nailisi crossed over the campsite wall and swept down the three arrow towers with her long lance.

"Sorcerer! Summon the sorcerer!" The commander that was in charge of the rear of the battalion began to shout. It was too late. 8,000 demons were led by Nailisi in pushing down the campsite wall, while the arrow towers at the back were crushed easily by Nailisi. The 24 ancient warriors were still hidden amongst the human soldiers as there was no need for them to make a move yet. The 8,000 demons had pierced through the enemy's core like a swift and sharp knife.