Badge in Azure

As Jola brought Nicholas to the Magical Element Tower’s 24th floor, Saleen was still feeling anxious. As Saleen took a look at everyone around him, including the Winged Skull, Jola, Sul, Eleanor, Nicholas, Sika and his children, he regretted bringing his children out for adventures.

But, at least the children had no idea of the danger that they were in. At that moment, both of them left Sika’s and Eleanor’s side and went to hide in a corner, while talking to each other in a language that Saleen was unable to comprehend.

The children stopped bullying the divine beast after obtaining the figures, but the divine beast’s neck still had a chain on it. However, it was left on the ground and no one bothered to mess with it.

“Alright, everyone, let’s talk about how you’re being affected by the environment we find ourselves in now…” Saleen inquired.

He was still capable of using all manners of elemental magic, but this was limited to only the energies in his magic chords. The magic chords of level nine sorcerers were clean, and the energy that they contained was massive. But, the problem was that, without being able to use the elements in the surroundings, many skills became too difficult to use.

The only few skills that were unaffected by this were the Eye of Lightning, Crystal Finger, the Thunder Dragon Blaster and his family badge. Of course, Saleen had the advantage of being equipped with elemental creatures, which he could release whenever things went south, thus providing him with elemental powers.

The ancient figures were hardly affected either, but Saleen could tell that the endurance of the figures’ combat capacites had been reduced somewhat. The only one that had stayed completely intact was the Figure of Fate that was hidden inside his body.

At that moment, the Winged Skull said, “Master, it is difficult for me to summon creatures from the spirit plane now. But, the spirit plane and my weapons remain unaffected.”

“Good! What about you, Jola?” Saleen asked.

Jola held Tears in his hand and sensed it for a bit before saying, “The rules are unaffected, but my rate of recovery has been cut in half.”

“Sul?” Saleen inquired.

Sul snapped his fingers and said, “My power is not affected, and neither is my rate of recovery. But, my defenses are somewhat weakened.”

“Nicholas?” Saleen turned his eyes toward the old holy master, who had looked rather haggard when he had come here earlier.

He had apparently expending quite a large amount of energy ridding himself of the mark that his previous god had left on him. As a result, even the Blood Soul Tower in his Scepter of the Fallen did not seem to be emanating much energy at present.

“My liege, the gods were unable to know what was happening here. Even if level nine holy masters were to appear before me right now and my power was less than one-tenth of what it used to be, I’d still be able to take on ten of them at one time. The scepter still works, and the fallen divine arts remain unaffected,” Nicholas replied.

Saleen was pleased to hear that. After all, things would have taken a turn for the worse if mages were the only ones who were limited. Saleen thought… So, even if the Tribunal’s head inquisitors were to show up, they would still be in an area where their god couldn’t do anything to help them. Nice!

Eleanor then said, “Archery is also unaffected. As for magic, it is not greatly affected either. However, at the moment, I can only use simple spells that I’m not all that familiar with. Both my power and rate of recovery remain unaffected as well.”

Everyone then turned to look Sika, who was had two children with her. This made her an important person to take care of and protect. If she lost her combat capacity, none of them would be able to leave the tower and would be stuck there having to think of ways to get out of their predicament!

Sika took out her weapon, which was a huge staff. She placed her ear on the staff and listened for a moment, then said, “No effect. The beast soul in it feels at home. As for me, my strength remains.”

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief as they turned to look at Saleen.

Saleen then said, “There is no need to carve a way out of the mountains. Let’s think of ways to protect Daliang City instead. There’re still about a million people there, so we can’t just give up on them.”

Saleen was feeling a mix of worry and joy at the moment. The army outside Daliang City was decimated and had been reduced to less than one-tenth of what it had been, but everyone had seen the ruins appear.

As he considered this, Saleen worried… I assume that the Holy See isn’t just going to sit by and let the people of the city dig. After all, the holy masters and mages all had their powers reduced to their lowest points, but the power of the warriors was hardly affected!

At that point, the lava outside the tower had solidified. Saleen called for Eleanor and went to the lowest floor of the tower, while casting water magic to cool the solidified lava as he went.

Steam rose, and the gradually solidifying lava became solid rock. This also left quite a gap between the cooled rocks and the tower.

Saleen then cast more mist to lower the surrounding temperature. Because of this, space cracks no longer appeared, and the entire the chasm became an environment that was completely devoid of elements. Saleen did not want to waste his magic chords here.

Saleen only left the tower after the surrounding temperature had been brought down exponentially. Since the tower was still incapable of flight at the moment, Saleen put it away in the dimension stone before storing it in his Starline Ring.

Elemental creatures were also affected in this environment, which prompted Saleen to summon two dozens ancient figures to serve as guards as they headed for Daliang City. The charred ground was still steaming, and the temperature had almost reached a boiling point.

So, Saleen had no choice but to summon a Blue Ice Maiden, then let the creature take the lead. Everywhere the Blue Ice Maiden tread, the temperatures dropped sharply. The rocks on the ground became solid, and they no longer felt like they were scorching to the touch.

Still, none of them were able to relax. Everyone was thinking exactly what Saleen was thinking… Although the Holy See’s holy masters were no longer effective, the mages in Daliang City would have lost their combat capacities as well. This meant that both sides had to rely upon common troops in order to fight one another.

It was fortunate that Daliang City was elevated very high above the ground at the moment, at a height of about 500 meters. As such, many common troops would think twice about scaling such a great height.

The sentries at the walls had already found Saleen’s party using alchemy binoculars when they were about two miles away. At that time, some of them made a dash to report this sighting to Lex.

Although this was not great news and it vexed Lex, there was one thing that Lex was pleased about, which was the fact that they had metal flyers. Luckily, these metal flyers were still capable of flight.

While their fuel cost was now twice what it had been, the metal flyers’ performance had stayed completely the same. It was difficult to fly around Daliang City by then, so the metal flyers were used as very powerful weapons instead. Even sorcerers would hesitate to take flight and attack them.

Saleen walked very slowly, while observing his surroundings with his Elemental Eye. With Daliang City as the center, all of the elemental powers had been placed under the control of some rules that Saleen had no comprehension of, as the level of the rules in action was even higher than the Divine Baby’s.

Everyone around Saleen began to study the environment as well, trying to think of ways to survive within the area. Their current surroundings were different from any other place on Myers Mainland.

The power of warriors were hardly affected, but the power of all types of divine and magic spells had been brought to their lowest levels. To golden grand swordmasters, this situation proved advantageous.

As Saleen thought to himself, he wondered if demons would have found such an environment pleasing. If it was indeed so, he would have simply let Nailisi set up shop here.

The troops at the walls cheered as Saleen’s party reached just below the city. These troops had been following Lex for a long period of time, so they were naturally just as happy as Lex to see Saleen returning alive.

It was a given that Saleen could not simply climb a height of 500 meters with only a rope. So, he unleashed Tempest Dragonmights and sent everyone to the walls.

The Tempest Dragonmights were wind elemental creatures, so flying up to a height of 500 meters was an easy feat for them. But, Saleen was perceptive enough to see that it was difficult for the Tempest Dragonmights to recover their spent elemental power in such an environment.

He was frustrated as he thought of this… This place is really worse than an anti-magic territory!

Saleen headed straight for the palace after entering the city. There were many soldiers who had been stationed along the sides of the road as a gesture of welcome. They were also doing this to see for themselves that His Highness Saleen had not perished, which put them at ease somewhat.

Saleen took out the Magical Element Tower as soon as he was back in the palace, then said to Jalin, “Bring the sorcerers inside.”

Jalin pouted, but followed his orders nonetheless. She knew that she was unable to do anything to change things now, as in such an environment, sorcerers were far less valuable than warriors. Seeing how Saleen was capable of summoning elemental creatures and had ancient figures with him, Jalin knew that she could only submit for the time being.

Once all of the sorcerers were there, after having them all take a seat, Saleen asked, “Lex, do you know how long we have before the ones from the Tribunal reach Daliang City?”

“According to my intel, we have two days at most,” Lex replied.

“Two days…” Saleen took a look at all of the sorcerers, some of whom looked rather dejected.

They had been the most important beings in Daliang City, but at the moment, they were reduced to people who the city could easy do without. It was also worth noting that Saleen had two golden grand swordmasters by his side, who were almost the strongest beings within the tower at the moment.

“I assume that the Holy See’s Blood Knights were unaffected by the environment we found ourselves in now, so we’re not actually safe. As for the 500 meter height, it would be easy to overcome with large scale puppets. Furthermore, we can’t just let them stay below the city, as there are ancient ruins sitting right beneath the city,” Saleen explained briskly.

Upon hearing him, the eyes of the sorcerers sparkled for a moment before dulling once more. Judging from the current level of powers of everyone present, Saleen was the most powerful person. Also, since he had ancient figures by his side, he was able to easily grab all of the loot down there.

All of the sorcerers in the room were unable to beat the two golden grand swordmasters, even if they worked together. This was not helped by the fact that there were three level nine sorcerers at Saleen’s side.

“I’ll need a day’s time to search the ruins. If you people want loot, then you must sign a contract with me,” Saleen said with a smile. He then thought… It’s been quite a while since I have signed a contract with anyone. Man, this feels good!

The 12 sorcerers immediately turned to look at Jalin. Despite her face being concealed by a paper mask, Saleen was able to tell from her rapid breathing that she was not in a good mood.

In theory, all 12 of the sorcerers were people that Arbola had sent to serve her. Her teacher would not have had anything to say, even if all of them had ended up dead. Furthermore, all Saleen asked was for them to sign a contract with him.

However, if the contract was signed, Jalin would no longer be able to control those sorcerers, which meant that she would be on her own. So, basically, Jalin would be reduced to someone who had no influence upon Saleen either! While her teacher had only tasked her to keep an eye on Saleen, Jalin was simply too proud of a person to just sit around and watch!

If Lex had not been around, she would have been able to settle everything with just a few words. But, she did not anticipate that Lex was more versed than she was in manipulation techniques, which had enabled Lex to quickly regain command of the city.

“It’s totally fine if you’re unwilling to sign. I won’t need help from mages in the excavation work anyway.” Saleen went cold upon seeing her reluctance.

If he had known that there were such huge ruins sitting right under Daliang City, he would have gone to Golden Plains to ask for help. He would have even given up Ceylon City if it meant that he would be able to take everything right beneath the city for himself!

But, then again, everything seemed to be ordained by fate. If he had run into those troubles, he would not have been able to engineer such a magical catastrophe or discover the ruins in the first place!