Badge in Azure

Eleanor took over the white crystal ring. While she was not exactly moved, she did feel warmth in her heart. She knew Saleen did not do this with any ulterior motives, so she did not feel any pressure accepting the ring.

As a mage, it was somewhat depressing to relegate to becoming someone’s follower. She could even be considered as Saleen’s slave. During this period of time when they had been together, Saleen did make Eleanor feel better about her situation. She had also began to seriously consider how she would lead her life on the Myers Mainland.

Although she was bound by the bond with Saleen, there was actually no such need. Saleen was aware of her identity so he could easily reveal that she was an elf and countless people would be after her in no time. Therefore, there was no way she could betray Saleen. Instead, the bond with Saleen acted as a form of insurance for her. The bond was mutual and acted both ways, so Saleen was bounded to guarantee her safety as well.

What a thoughtful mage!

Eleanor’s gaze followed Saleen as he turned towards Nailisi for the umpteenth time and reminded her of the things to look out for when they broke out of the encirclement. There was a tinge of disappointment in her heart.

“Too bad he is not an elf, or I could have taught him real Elvish magic.”

Prior to this, the equipment of Saleen’s followers and those that were bonded to him were all refined individually by him. As his water flame alchemy skills advanced, it became more and more obvious that the equipment that he had refined in the beginning was very poor.

After they had been together all this while and now that there was an opportunity to refine the equipment again, Saleen knew exactly what kind of equipment everyone in the team needed.

The attacks at night seemed like only a formality. The ape-shaped beasts stayed outside of the walls and cast some spells occasionally before the beasts that had turned berserk jumped into the camp. Lex’s warriors would engage them while the crossbows from the arrow tower kept the other beasts from advancing.

Both sides were not giving their maximum effort so there were no casualties at all.

This went on for six days before Lex finally healed her injured mages and more or less finished repairing the swordmasters’ armors.

Both teams worked as one as Nailisi led the demons from the rear. Bain, Lex, Saleen, and the others were in the middle, while the front was headed by the two black metal grand swordmasters. Both sides of the team was flanked by a total of ten swordmasters. These ten swordmasters were clad in spirit snake armor and held an additional shield each. These shields were rectangular in shape and were very thick. They were made from wood laced with wrought brass and the surfaces were plated with a layer of black sand crystals from the desert.

The shields were also refined by Lex. When Saleen showed her the specimens of the parasites, she did not have any solutions. The parasites were physically weak, but were able to attack a human’s soul. Lose focus for a moment and a mage would be in trouble.

On the other hand, the warriors clad in spirit snake armor were much safer. Even if they lost focus for a while, the parasites would still be unable to penetrate the armor since it was completely sealed. The warriors were also better able to detect these parasites via their senses compared to the mages. Within these shields were magic arrays that were interlinked. Since the swordmasters were flanking the team on both sides, the entire area would be sensitive towards the presence of parasites and they would not be able to creep up on them.

This type of defence was better than nothing. Luckily, the parasites seemed to gather towards the top of the mountain so there were very few of them at the foot of it.

The best way to avoid the parasites was to travel with speed. Parasites only displayed tremendous speed when they wanted to attack. This explained why Lex and the others did not encounter any attacks when they flew up the mountain.

To a normal human, climbing a mountain was easy, but getting down was difficult. For grand mages and warriors that were above the level of swordmasters, it was the other way around. The entire company was travelling as fast as thirty miles an hour and there was no different from sprinting on flat ground.

If not for the very steep slopes on the mountain, Saleen would have traveled on skeletal warhorses instead.

Bringing up the rear were six people; Nailisi, the four demons and the unlucky demonic spirit. The demons were happy. Not only had Saleen helped them refine powerful armors, he also allowed Nailisi to give them the freedom to switch between human-form and their original bodies.

Without Nailisi’s permission, there was no way they could change forms. Cuisi was the only one stronger than Nailisi, he had a pair of wings in his original form. Now that the four demons could use their original forms for battle, their armors were also redesigned accordingly.

No more sinister-looking appearances. The four armors now looked magnificent and were designed like an elf’s armor.

In the areas where the armor was hollow, crystals were mounted. The inner surfaces of these crystals have been inscribed with Holy Prose using alchemy. Saleen had emulated some of the secrets of this dimension. The true colors of these armors would be revealed only when the demons changed back into their original forms.

Within the demon dimensions, such armors were called devil armors.

When supreme demons trained and advanced into devils, they would be able to transform into many different shapes and sizes. Their armors would also have to be able to adjust according to their transformations. The four demons were pleasantly surprised to receive these armors. Saleen had gained their full respect and loyalties now. Even if they came up with some minor tricks once in a while, it would be due to the nature of demons in general and not out of any other motives.

The four demons were different from Nailisi. When they were in human-form, their fighting abilities were greatly reduced. Aside from Cuisi, the fighting abilities of the remaining three demons were reduced to the level of swordmasters. Even if the superior lifespan of demons were taken into account, they were at most at the level of zun grand swordmasters.

When they were able to return to their original forms, their fighting abilities increased immediately.

Saleen did what he did in order to gain their loyalties and also to give himself another level of insurance. These armors could actually act as traps as well. The crystals on the armors had the ability to manipulate space. Once Saleen triggered an activation in the Holy Prose on the crystals, he could change the shapes of the armors anytime. He had the ultimate control over these armors.

Saleen had the ability to change the spatial structure of the devil armor anytime and crush the demons who were clad in them into minced meat.

Saleen did trust these demons, but it was also a fact that they were totally under the control of Nailisi. These armors were extremely precious, even more so than spirit snake armor, so they must never fall into the hands of others. If the demons were to be captured, Saleen would destroy the armors immediately. If someone decided to wear this armor to fight Saleen, it would be suicidal.

The demonic spirit was not given such privileges, but at least he was also given a set of armor that was completely sealed. Demonic spirits had no need for transformations so his set of armor did not have the same abilities as that of the devil armor.

Nailisi still looked the same. She had long hair that reached her shoulders and wore a fur coat with a long dress underneath. Saleen only helped her to refine a new pair of boots. Although her attire might seem defenceless, Nailisi’s lightning guardian was much more effective than devil armor. Spells that were grade-7 and below were totally ineffective towards her.

If mages wanted to kill Nailisi, aside from using high-level spells, the best solution was to gather a large number of mages and cast spells at her continuously. Nailisi could run away from the spells, which the mages would then need to give chase using their flying spells. Mages in mid-flight would not be able to cast spells easily.

Perhaps it was because Nailisi was holding the fort at the rear, but the front that was led by the black metal grand swordmasters encountered quite a few beast attacks while the rear was always peaceful and safe.

Lex’s men methodically taught Saleen and the mages how to add spells onto the spirit snake armors so that they could automatically retaliate against beasts that could cast spells. As such, the team did not meet with much resistance and did not slow down their speed by too much even after various encounters with the beasts either.

About ten miles behind the company, a team of beasts tailed Saleen and the rest. This team was different from the others that had tried to attack them. This team had a leader. The leader was also in ape-form but was very tall. From a distance, it looked like a very strong and muscular human.

Its face was gloomy. The team of ape-form beasts were clustered together and pressed forward until Lex and the rest had reached the foot of the mountain. After Lex and the rest had set up camp there, the leader of the beasts let out a loud howl before leading his own team to retreat.

Within a team of beasts of not more than a few hundred, a leader with intelligence had already emerged. With the vastness of the Mountain Without End, it was entirely possible that there might be one-hundred-thousand beasts with such intelligence in this area.

Once they reached the foot of the mountain, Aiwa kicked the demonic spirit from behind and scolded, “Can’t you see that the adults are setting up camp? Go help them!”

The demonic spirit rushed over frantically. The four demons looked from afar, the thought of helping out never crossed their minds. Nailisi was very easygoing this time and did not force the four demons to help out.

“Hehe, Master Nailisi, it looks like Master Saleen is really thinking of summoning a group of demons,” Tolesi was caressing his devil armor while trying to trick some information out of Nailisi.

“Even if that is the case, so what?” Nailisi’s mouth twitched.

“You see, we were the first group of demons summoned by you. If too many demons appeared…”

Nailisi looked at Tolesi and asked, “So you are hoping that I will summon more demonic spirits in future? What good are those? Now you are worried about where you stand? In the beginning, all of you didn’t seem too willing to come along.”

Nailisi began to laugh coldly, so Cuisi quickly said, “Master Nailisi, I know there is a limit to the number of demons you can summon. If you summon too many and you are not able to control them…”

“So what are you trying to say?” Nailisi’s glance swept across the demons with a glint in her eye.

Even Cuisi was taken aback and quickly explained, “Although the few of them only have average fighting abilities, they have very strong mental strength. If you are willing to teach us the ability to summon demons, we can help you to share the load too.”

“Hoho, the bonds between us are not soul bonds,” Nailisi laughed. She had been wondering how to broach this topic but luckily Cuisi gave her the perfect opportunity.

“Soul bond…”

Cuisi hesitated. He did not care much about master-slave bonds, but soul bonds were a whole different matter. In essence, all kinds of bonds utilized the soul. Soul bonds were linked to the mark of life. The soul bond could not be erased even if one were to reincarnate or enter the kingdom of God.

“Are you afraid that I will live for too long?” Nailisi’s tone was impatient.

“Hahaha!”

The four demons laughed forcefully. Of course they would not dare to agree. Even without a soul bond, there was no way the four of them could escape from Nailisi’s clutches easily. Once the soul bond had been made, even if they were to become devils one day, they would still be under Nailisi’s control. The lifespan of a Luoluokaluo was just too long. There was no way they could outlive her if she were to die of natural causes.