Badge in Azure

“Aiwa!” Nailisi called. Aiwa held up the shield helplessly and followed Ismail into another dimension. He walked in front and was closely followed by Luola, then Nailisi and finally Sika and Saleen.

Even though the two demons paved the way ahead, Saleen maintained his water shield. This was an all-rounded and comprehensive shield that was much more powerful than a normal mage’s. At the end of the day, he still did not trust Ismail. A grade-9 creature signing a contract without even bothering to take a look at it, how could Saleen be at ease?

Switching dimensions was supposed to be an extremely difficult thing to do. After the Goddess built Lorga many years ago every magic array was seamlessly tied to the city and supported by it. Such a grand feat had not been seen in the past thousands of years since.

Even Holy Rock City, which contained a powerful magic clock that could combine all the magic powers within the city into one was nothing compared to Lorga City. Saleen had just entered the new dimension when he saw Ismail chatting and laughing with a flying dragon in a language that he did not recognize.

Upon Saleen’s arrival, the flying dragon switched to the common human language and said, “Master Saleen, please accept me as your follower.”

The flying dragon’s tone was respectful compared to Ismail’s. After all, he was a grade-7 wurm that still held a tinge of fear towards humans. What was more, his life was almost at its end and his soul would have been destroyed if not for the Goddess’ Divine spell. If he did not sign a contract with a human to become a follower, the day that Lorga was destroyed would be his last living day.

Saleen felt troubled. In the past, he encountered so many difficulties trying to recruit followers. Now, all sorts of powerful creatures yearned to follow him but he had no idea what their true intentions were.

“Oh well, they are all half-dead and are the enemies of the Holy See anyway. I might as well take them in. When the Holy See starts finding trouble with me, they will have no choice but to fight too.” Now that he already had a purgatory dweller, Saleen did not mind having a four-, no, a six-legged flying dragon. “Six legs, that’s how impure its blood is.”

Saleen took out an empty scroll. This time, it was just a middle-grade scroll. It was much simpler dealing with a flying dragon compared to a purgatory dweller. Once the contract had been written, Saleen passed it to Nailisi, who then flew to the flying dragon. The flying dragon naturally bent down its two-yard long head and spit out a ball of bloody mist that sank into the scroll.

Saleen made sure that the scroll had burned and turned into ashes before asking Ismail, “How many more checkpoints are there and how many more of your companions?”

Ismail smiled. He knew he could not hide for long anyway, so he said, “All the creatures in this city cannot wait to follow you. Unfortunately, you cannot keep them all. You are only a grade-5 mage, how many contracts can you sign?”

Ismail heard Saleen snorting but he did not mind, and instead continued, “Once someone with godly items arrives at Lorga, the city will not be able to withstand it and will fall, destroying all of us along with it. I suggest for the subsequent checkpoints, you might as well turn them into creatures that you can summon instead of becoming your followers.”

“How did you know?!”

“Of course it was the Goddess who told me. The girl, that came here at the same time as you is almost about to reach the Temple of Grace. Without her godly item, she would have died long ago.”

“I thought the Goddess forbade you from killing humans?”

“The Goddess would not have allowed you to simply pass through either,” Ismail said nonchalantly. Saleen lost his smile. The Goddess had fallen and now this creature no longer had any entity to place his faith in. Indeed, it would be unrealistic to still expect him to follow the Goddess’ rules still.

With that, Ismail climbed onto the six-legged flying dragon and gave it a pat. The flying dragon gave Saleen a mysterious smile before bringing Ismail into another dimension.

Saleen’s facial expression changed, but still managed to suppress his anger and regret. Until Ismail gave Saleen his word, there was still a chance that he might start killing. A creature of such a high grade would never allow others to summon it unless the summoner was stronger than him. Saleen was only a grade-5 mage now that did not even dare to attack him with Crystal Finger. Without a certain level of abilities, it was better to resign to his fate.

In any case, he did manage to capture the stone statue soldiers, so that was better than nothing.

“Go.” Saleen summoned Sika and Nailisi before arriving at the next dimension behind Ismail.

Nailisi and Sika were both frustrated as well. They had been thinking long and hard about it, but had yet to discover Ismail’s weakness. Who knew if this purgatory dweller was a mage type or warrior type? From his body, not only could they detect elemental vibrations, but also power from the gods. His fighting skills seemed comparable to Sika’s too.

This was simply a monstrous creation by the Goddess. Whoever heard of purgatory creatures possessing godly powers?

“Wait until you meet the psychic from the Holy See. That’s when you shall suffer,” Nailisi thought cruelly.

In the next dimension, sixty Knights of Darkness were already standing in an orderly fashion. These Knights of Darkness were made of metal from top to bottom, and even their eyes were sealed by crystal. The warhorses that they rode were covered in scales with a single black horn protruding from their heads.

The number of contracts that a mage could sign was dependent on the amount of mental strength he possessed. Regardless of how much mental strength Saleen had, it was impossible to capture all the creatures of Lorga City. As for the sixty Knights of Darkness, Saleen was reasonably satisfied. They were grade-6 creatures with Dark attributes. If they were at full strength, they could be used as grade-7 warriors.

Saleen secretly peeked at the number of green spirits in his demonic ring. He knew that if he were to give up the skeletal warhorse that he had been keeping as backup, he would be able to capture another two-hundred creatures. That was a number that his mental strength could still keep up with.

To his surprise, all sixty Knights of Darkness did not even wait for the contracts to be signed before climbing down from their warhorses to kneel before Saleen, acknowledging him as their master.

A Knight of Darkness’ abilities were actually not anything to be sniffed at. Within the dimensions that they dwelt in, there were just too many stronger competitors, hence reducing them to mere soldiers. Ismail had already contacted them prior, with the intention of saving their souls. In fact, within the next few thousands of dimensions, there would be millions of creatures that would want to follow Saleen.

Chancing upon such a rare opportunity, the Knights of Darkness were not going to let it pass.

Saleen’s expression was stoic as he took out his scrolls and began to write the contracts. He was extremely familiar with this procedure by now and was doing so with calmness and composure.

Ismail was in a hurry to get to the Temple of Grace. Ismail quietly waited for Saleen to settle the contracts before climbing onto the flying dragon to head to the next dimension to look for the companions that he had gathered.

These companions were once his subordinates. He did not have the heart to abandon them, so the next best solution was for Saleen to capture them. That way they could at least still keep their souls. Purgatory dwellers were supposed to be heartless, but it seems that after spending long periods of time with the Goddess of Myers, he seemed to have developed some kindness after all.

Just based on this point alone, it seemed that the Goddess’ rehabilitative efforts were still somewhat successful. Even a creature from the purgatory was willing to convert to become her disciple.

Saleen did not want the Knights of Darkness to be following him everywhere, so he captured them as green spirits directly. Nailisi watched on with jealousy. She was not jealous of Saleen, but rather of the fact that these Knights of Darkness were eventually going to join the ranks of the Skeleton army at the end of the day. In comparison, she had only two demons by her side and could not help but wonder when she would ever lead her own army.

In contrast, Sika did not care to lead her own army. She knew that once she completed refining the bones of the monster, her power would increase by leaps and bounds and there would be no need to fear Ismail anymore by then.

After passing through several more dimensions and capturing more than a hundred different types of creatures, Ismail led Saleen back onto the road just as the sky suddenly turned gray and foggy.

By now, Saleen felt calmer and more at ease. Aside from Ismail, the creatures here were not that powerful. They had received protection from the Goddess of Myers because they had been abandoned by humans in the first place.

“Master, the Temple of Grace is just ahead.” Ismail stood on top of the flying dragon and pointed forward.

The streets were wide, and at the very end sat a huge and spacious-looking temple. In front of the temple were twenty-four enormous pillars with a very small open space for a plaza. The magnitude of the Temple of Grace was small, compared to the other Goddess temples that Saleen had seen in the past. Most temples consisted of a cluster of buildings, but this was only made up of one main building.

At the plaza, Lex waited with her companions.

aleen stole a glance at his mechanical watch and realized that nearly a day had passed. Why did they not feel hungry at all in Lorga City?

Upon seeing Saleen, both Jola and Su breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards him.

Saleen immediately told Ismail. “These two are my followers and the one in front is a mage like me. You will not hurt them.”

“Master, I am not insane,” Ismail replied with a smile. He thought to himself, “My powers have not fully recovered enough such that I can deal with these two swordsmen. As for the woman, she possesses a deadly godly item. I better not seek death.”

To lose one’s life over the hobby of collecting items, now that was stupidity.

Eleanor hesitated before walking over. There was a horrible smell on Saleen’s body. As an elf, she had no love for purgatory creatures. If not for the Ultimate Transformation that disguised Ismail’s original appearance, she would rather leave than stay by Saleen’s side.

The six-legged flying dragons came with a positive reputation. Seeing Ismail standing on top of a six-legged flying dragon made her doubt her initial judgment, which she kept to herself.

“Lex, this is Ismail”. Saleen observed that there were no new creatures in Lex’s team. He did not know if the new creatures had been captured and kept in the god’s ring or she just simply did not capture any new creatures.

After a single glance at Ismail, Lex nodded and said, “Let’s enter the temple.”

Ismail knew he was no match for this woman who possessed the godly item, so he turned away coldly without acknowledging Lex’s presence. He told Saleen, “Master, I will stand guard outside.”

“Alright, the rest of you will follow me.” Saleen could not help but worry about Ismail and thought to himself, “Even if you do not trigger the trap set in the contract, I will let Joey deal with you when we head to Holy Rock City.”

Ismail did not know how many more times Lex could still use her godly item, so he did not wish to enter the temple with her. He only wanted to be as far away from her as possible. His life was already at its end, but he was still left with his soul and physical body with the protection by the Goddess. If he was attacked by Lex’s godly item, he would be completely destroyed.

Sika tugged at Eleanor and followed Saleen into the Temple of Grace. Eleanor knew how to read the Holy Prose, so her help would be needed in the search for the Divine Crystal.