Badge in Azure

Saleen smiled very warmly, then said, “It’s been tough on you, go and tell Aini to come look for me.”

Saleen might be smiling, but he was feeling very frustrated, “I should have let Nailisi get ready. Damned Judikaka, disobeying my orders by giving an excuse. If I fall out with him now, I don’t think the contract will produce any backlash. This intelligence is of utmost importance though. Daniel and Aini have over twenty death mages and over one-hundred death magic disciples with them, these people will be very useful on the battlefield. The Undead Soldier Spell, especially the Berserk Undead Soldier, can destroy the enemy’s battle formation. It will be tremendously beneficial during the defensive efforts. Since the Holy See’s soldiers cannot be manipulated, I have to inform Daniel and Aini in advance. No wonder the Holy See’s army can advance so quickly, the soldiers have been infected with a fatal divine spell, it works as though they had eaten some magic medicine which caused them to be excited.”

In Qin, medicines like these were strictly prohibited from existing in a regular army, even the mercenaries did not dare consume them. Only some mercenaries in Sikeqinya would consume similar medicines to raise their offensive power in the short-term, but the price was the shortening of their lifespans. The quality of their bodies would be impaired.

Saleen never expected the Holy See to be so ruthless, the Holy See was willing to sacrifice the lives of one-hundred-thousand men in order to flatten his city. “If I didn’t build the walls first and give up on commercial development, it will be difficult for me to avert this disaster even with two grade-9 sorcerers in my team.”

A small portion of the magic nuclei and magic beast materials which Saleen hunted had gone into circulation, they were sold to businessmen. The largest share was put into the development of the city’s defenses. Many magic nuclei were exchanged for finished equipment and tools such as crossbows, feather arrows, magic stone cannons, and flying puppets.

Daniel and Aini arrived at the temple, then Saleen and Narnia recounted in detail the intelligence Judikaka had contributed. Aini immediately suggested that Saleen conceal this piece of information. If the nobles learned of such a situation, the people would definitely be shaken.

Saleen nodded, “Aini’s concerns are right. I have only one Metatrin City after all. The surrounding land is less than one-thousand miles and the people are not totally confident yet. The important nobles will be fine, but if those smaller nobles learn of this news, they might abandon the city and flee. Even though they cannot escape on land, they can still travel on ships.”

Saleen might be a mage, and mages were one of the smartest groups of people around, but he also did not know how to manage a bunch of nobles.

It was also good that the three kings had returned earlier, the installations atop the city walls could be made more stable. Saleen personally visited the magic trebuchets within the city and the temporary battlements to evaluate their defensive power. He led some soldiers and did an inspection of the city entrance.

The southern walls were almost developed out of a mountain, there was a part measuring about two miles which was entirely carved out of the mountain. The next location was the sealed region. Even though similar walls were installed there, there should be no issues with the defense at all. Judikaka had been stationed there for some time and the Caucasus people lived in the south. There were almost one-hundred-thousand people living in the mountains now.

Saleen had expanded the western walls by a few miles to completely seal the accommodation area of the Caucasus people. That way, the enemy would not be able to enter this area. Even if the enemy tried to leap over the mountain they would be exterminated by the Caucasus people.

As for the defense on sea, there was the dragon skeleton warship and dozens of skeletal warships. With Truman’s magic cannon positioned on the peak of the White Rock Mountain, no warships would get close. It was even more difficult for the enemy to get onshore from this location.

What made Saleen vexed was that most of his enemies would not survive until next year. These enemies could not care less about their lives. Facing such enemies, even a mage could not calculate what they would do next.

The Holy See’s expeditionary army was left with about ninety-thousand men. After resting for three days at the broken-edged barrier, these people had regained their offensive power. Archbishop Nicholas was secretly pondering the current situation.

The vanguards had suffered a setback and they delivered a piece of depressing news. The enemy’s city was constructed holistically and there was a town with a radius of two miles situated about fifty miles west of the city. The size of this town could contain one-hundred-thousand troops. The enemy had actually executed a field battle and attacked his vanguards.

Even though the three-thousand cavalrymen were not the main offensive force, there was an almost equivalent number of enemies present. The enemies were actually unharmed as they slaughtered their way through and they even left in haughtiness.

“In the past battles, the enemy would suffer quite a lot of casualties too, but this time around, the enemy didn’t even leave a single corpse behind. This is not good news. Scouts who went neared the town were killed, they didn’t manage to collect accurate information. When these scouts were two miles away, the image they observed through the alchemical binoculars depicted that this was a military town. It was totally unlike that destroyed town which I went past. The battlements in this town are made of metal! The copper battlements built by Qin people are very difficult to destroy. Even if I get personally involved, I am not too confident either. I am afraid that there might be powerful mages in the city.”

This morning, Archbishop Nicholas had summoned all the commanders of the army and legions to his tent. Using a crude map, he pointed to the newly marked western town and gave his orders.

“Besiege this town, take it down within three days.”

“Understood!”

All the generals acknowledged the mission while Archbishop Nicholas sat tiredly in his chair. He experienced an unexplainable discomfort in his heart, this was a kind of premonition. Anyone who had cultivated the divine arts to his standard would possess this premonition. Even though it was not as accurate as an astrologer’s predictions, it was more agile.

The Holy See’s army set off slowly, if it marched urgently, it could cover this over one-hundred miles by noon. In fact, more than ten-thousand of the Holy See’s vanguards had already reached a location fifteen miles west of western town. They could dismantle their camp anytime and launch an offensive.

“Our grain can still last for four days, this town must be seized within three days. This town will surely contain a large amount of food.” Archbishop Nicholas could not back out anymore. This time around the pope had given an order which must be executed. If he succeeded, he would stand a chance of becoming the archbishop of the cardinals, which was the position of the next pope. He had been waiting for dozens of years for this position.

As the army trudged forward, five-thousand wardens from the inquisition followed behind with black priests. These over five-thousand people took their own sweet time, but Nicholas was helpless.

The wardens were regarded as one of the main forces of the Holy See, but only the three head inquisitors had control over them. The offensive power of the wardens was akin to that of the sacred knight regiment, their lethality was stronger than the sacred knights.

Two hours after noon the Holy See’s army arrived at the vanguards’ camp, then the vanguards left. At this moment, the people from the inquisition went around western town, going to its rear. The soldiers in western town did not move, they simply protected the city’s perimeter. They used alchemical binoculars to observe the enemy.

At one glance, the people from the inquisition had spotted the ten story magical tower, the one which Saleen said he would build in a month. In actual fact, it was already prepared long ago. It had been awaiting the arrival of the two grade-9 sorcerers.

When the three mysterious killers from the inquisition saw that ten story magical tower, they exclaimed, “There are still people in this world who disrespect God! It is truly admirable. Quick, tell Nicholas that we have discovered heretical mages!”

The three men giggled, but were not willing to go forward to attack.

“What a joke, a person who dares build a ten story magical tower is at least a grade-9 mage. In a magical tower, a grade-9 mage can deal with ten times more enemies of the same grade as them. If there are disciples inside, the defensive power will be even mightier. A grade-9 mage can control an area spanning ten miles while inside a magical tower. Even that town will be under the protection of the magical tower. No matter how presumptuous the three of us are, we will not lead the wardens to attack this magical tower. The pope’s order was to invade the coastal city, this place is still fifty miles from the shore.”

The black priests displayed a self-centered attitude. Since the three leaders did not express anything, their hands were tied, so they did not dare say anything. For this trip, the head inquisitors had clearly stated that these three people would be in charge of all missions. These three people were horrifying characters who had emerged alive from the Black Dungeon.

When Archbishop Nicholas learned of this news, he was also utterly enraged, even though his upbringing was great.

“The people from the inquisition actually turned a blind eye to a ten story magical tower, wanting me to attack it! How should I bring it down? This time around, the army sent by the pope only consisted of twenty-five-thousand regular soldiers. The other armies were recruited by the holy masters, none of them are higher than grade-4. There are only about twenty high grade holy masters serving me and they are all my confidantes.” If the mage in the tower dared make any provocations, Nicholas was confident of killing the mage even if the target was a grade-9 sorcerer. Since the mage was hiding in the tower, Nicholas was not quite so confident.

The range of a spell and a divine spell at identical levels was about the same, but with the amplification provided by a magical tower, a mage’s attack range would be increased by more than half. A holy master would have to resist attacks from the magical tower in order to breach a certain area before retaliating against the magical tower.

This was identical to the function of a church, a mage would never initiate an offensive against a church. The more believers there were in a church, the higher its defensive power. It would also amplify the effect of a divine spell.

“Which scumbag gathered this intelligence? Isn’t that coastal city newly developed? Why is there a ten story magical tower? If the pope knows about this, he will send at least ten cardinals to raid this place. Since the situation is like this now, this war cannot be won. The ten story magical tower can defend three sides of the city walls and at these three sides all heavy equipment cannot be utilized. It will be destroyed by the mage in the magical tower otherwise. This means that there is only one side of western town which needs to be heavily guarded. Go around this town and travel east? Then what if this town deploys soldiers to assault my rear? The soldiers in this town are obviously different from the ones at Phoenix’s borders, they clearly want to defend this place until their last breaths. Even though the soldiers at Phoenix’s borders are very powerful, they don’t have a city like this to contain them. They could only fight and retreat at the same time.”

Archbishop Nicholas did not bother wasting time with the three fellows from the inquisition. He instead flew to an altitude of one-thousand yards using a pair of alchemical binoculars to observe the situation on the ground. At this height, the enemy’s heavy alchemical crossbows would not be able to harm him. That enabled him to escape anytime.