Badge in Azure

That meant that the two yard tall body of the stone statue soldier leader was also its core.

A hole slowly closed up at the center of the brow of the elemental core. Nailisi’s thrust had all six devilish eyes lock the blue ice maiden down. The resulting attack landed right onto the elemental core itself.

Saleen had only begun to appreciate the true value of the six eyes, regretting the fact that he had all six eyes crafted without studying them further. Even if he was to study them it would have been impossible to analyze the very principle allowing them to lock down their target, thus making it near-impossible to replicate the phenomenon or use the eyes to create a new magic spell.

The elemental core was the blue ice maiden’s true body. The water element congealed into hard ice, emanating cold air about it, yet the core did not freeze the seawater at its surface. The cold was instead dispersed far and wide, having the seawater around it take in the coldness. As a result, the area within more than a dozen miles from the blue ice maiden’s core was rendered below freezing point.

“What…are you…?!”, the blue ice maiden was lying almost flat on the ground, struggling to keep its head up. It dared not lift a hand against Saleen, after enduring excruciating pain in its soul from the electrical shock.

“I am your master, Saleen Metatrin.”

“I…yes, master,” the blue ice maiden’s soul had just formed, and the being had been waiting for its master’s summon for tens of thousands of years. Humans in the imperial city had ceased to exist, so its waiting had been destined to be fruitless.

Elemental creatures were not known for their resistance. Upon hearing that the blue ice maiden acknowledged him to be its master, Saleen wasted no time and had her summon her underlings. Grade-9 blue ice maidens filled the areas nearby the walls around those parts. One-hundred and forty-four grade-9 blue ice maidens returned to the military depot after hearing their leader summoned for them, and stood in two lines in front of Saleen.

The one-hundred and forty-four blue ice maidens standing before him had him feeling rather regretful, as the number of the creatures he would have been able to control was still no more than thirty-six. There would be no improvement in that particular area even if he was to advance to grade-9. Such difference in levels would have only been improved after advancing to grade-19. He might even remain stuck with being able to control only thirty-six elemental creatures at most.

“You need a name. You will henceforth be known as Julia,” Saleen named his new servant without giving much thought on the name, yet the creature replied in a surprising manner, “Master, I already have a name.”

“You do?”

“It was a name I gave myself, Gloria.”

“Well then Gloria, I won’t need you to come out to do battle much in the future. Just focus on advancing then,” Saleen said to the blue ice maiden.

“Yes, master,” Gloria had not wanted to keep a human form, and Saleen’s lack of need for her to fight for him personally was exactly what she had wished for. Gloria transformed into an elemental badge in an instant and dropped onto the floor. All one-hundred and forty-four of the blue ice maidens went inside the badge, and Saleen set the completed badge into his belt.

There were four elemental badges left to be collected. Saleen’s eyes looked east. Large fallen buildings were seen everywhere in front, seemingly without end.

Only with all six badges collected would Saleen’s combat methods be rich and diverse. To mages, who were all known for their acumen in calculations, one’s combat tactics would be far more versatile with all six major elemental creatures under their command. Saleen did not feel secure with only Nailisi following him into the heart of the imperial city.

The water puppet’s finger attack missed entirely. The resulting recoil was very small, as most of it was taken by the crystal ring though. It did not suffer any damage, but transforming into an ice mirror was nonetheless an act of putting its life on the line.

A grade-9 Icy Reflection would have still been shattered by the water element slash. The water hesitated when Saleen was in danger, but it nonetheless went on defending its master.

Nailisi squatted on the floor and panted as Saleen put away his water elemental badge.

Saleen put up a water shield and enveloped Nailisi within, asking with a concerned tone, “Nailisi, what happened?”

“Master, the mental power drain was immense. My mental powers looked like it was being sucked dry by those six eyes!”, Nailisi answered with a tinge of fear in her eyes.

“Don’t you have divine crystals with you?”, Saleen was taken aback as well, as he thought the mental powers consumed by using the spear’s technique would have been replenished using divine crystals.

“Master I had them, but I have used them all up,” Nailisi knew she would not have been able to weasel herself out, and thus chose to speak the truth.

Saleen’s expressions darkened and he spoke calmly, “Take this then, but be prudent with it.”

Saleen took out one of his divine crystals and shoved it towards Nailisi. He had a rather clear idea of what Nailisi used these crystals on. Repairs to the Twelve Notes of Purgatory required lots of materials, and divine crystals were one of such vital materials. Only by repairing the purgatories with divine crystals, would her control of them be able to reach its greatest.

The recent use of the Twelve Note of Purgatory all used very large portals. Such effects would not have been possible without the use of divine crystals. There was little else he could have done to stop Nailisi from wasting the divine crystals. Nailisi was an extremely greedy person. Having her be too wasteful with resources would have been even more impossible than having the Mechanical Soul become obedient, or the winged skeleton rebelling against him.

Nailisi’s expressions relaxed as she took the divine crystal in her hand. Divine crystals replenished mental powers faster than anything else. While it was not able to completely replenish her reserves, it was still able to make symptoms such as headaches and nausea go away. Having one’s mental powers completely drained was life-threatening, as such a predicament would probably end with one being unable to replenish them again, and thus turning them utterly useless as a living being.

Saleen also needed to replenish his own drained magic chords, and so simply lock himself in the crystal tower, letting the water puppet stand guard right outside. There was no seawater in the tower, yet there was fresh air. It was a fact which astonished Saleen. He knew how immense the water pressure was in such depths. As a grade-8 mage himself, he was able to do little, but erect a small magic shield to cut through the water. The gravity of the place they were in was also tens of times greater than usual, resulting in him needing to use earth magic to nullify its effects.

The crystal tower warded off the seawater around it simply by using invisible magic patterns, and some small magic arrays within the building’s structure.

These things were undetectable even with the use of his Elemental Eye. While ancient magic did have its crude and primitive parts, it nonetheless also had intricate parts about it as well, which were something contemporary mages were completely unable to understand or analyze.

The crystal tower was a complete three-floored building, with every floor being one-hundred yards tall. The buildings at the city center did not reach such heights. The edge of the city were after all, the dwellings of very tall creatures.

The first floor was the place to gather elemental troops, while the second floor was a residential areas for humans. Inside the spacious tower, Saleen saw beds, cupboards, as well as tables and chairs meant for humans. He did not rush into meditation, and instead chose to open a cupboard, which contained great amount of ash in it. Ancient humans still lacked the ability to craft things so durable that they lasted for tens of thousands of years. The clothes and equipment stored within had all perished.

A whiff of smoke flew out, which Saleen dispelled without a thought with a cleaning spell.

“Master,” Nailisi trailed behind him and looked concerned. She was afraid that there was yet another elemental creature lurking somewhere. If Saleen were to bump into the creature, it would be beyond her to save him.

“A military depot would only have one elemental creature leader, never another one. Nailisi, take a look at this…”

Saleen bent over and parted the ashes under the cupboard with his hands, picking up a half a yard long box as wide as his palm.

The box’s metal handle broke as soon as Saleen pulled at it, yet the box itself looked intact. Saleen looked at the complex magic patterns on the box and thought, “There should be something nice in it. right?”

A blue magic light flashed on Saleen’s hand and an elemental dagger appeared. Mages were hardly seen training in such magic, as no matter how sharp an elemental dagger was, they were a bad fit for mages. That was due to the fact that the best range of combat for mages was between fifty to one-hundred yards.

The elemental dagger gleamed transparently, and was stuck into the box’s side on the cover. He then cut open the lock with it. Nailisi’s tail went around Saleen’s back and lifted the cover of the box lightly. There was a pair of shoes in it.

The pair of shoes did not seem to have any magic patterns on them and were devoid of elemental vibrations. They were just a very, very common pair of shoes, which had Saleen feeling exasperated.

Nailisi laughed and said, “Master, those shoes are for girls. Just give them to big sis Sika then. See, it just sat there in the box for tens of thousands of years, and there is hardly damage on it. At the very least, they look well-made.”

Saleen laughed along. The pair of shoes did look rather fine. The room had a lot of rotten things. The bed was something Saleen was able to collapse by simply poking at it, yet the pair of shoes looked sturdy still. There were no signs of wear at the bottom, meaning that the shoes were entirely new ones. They looked simplistic and sported a dark red color, perfect for Sika.

Saleen’s feeling of disappointment disappeared. The Imperial City of the Abyss still had lots of daily necessities in it, and it was impossible for each and every article to be magic equipment. Even ancient humans would not have thought of filling every aspect of their everyday life with magic. The pair of shoes were a testament to that. Their sturdiness far surpassed any magical equipment than Saleen knew of, yet the shoes themselves were devoid of any magical properties.

“Nailisi, take them,” Saleen picked them up and gave them to Nailisi.

“Why?”

“Despite having followed me for so long, I have hardly given you anything. Nailisi, this pair look like good ones. Try them on.”

Nailisi took them without saying a word more, and put them on her feet. She had intended to play a prank on her master, sticking her nails out as soon as she was done putting them on. however, the shoes extended as far as her nails extended, displaying extreme flexibility like that of magic beast sinew.

Nailisi’s nails were clear and sharp, and the shoes conformed with them without any problems. Nailisi scratched at the floor, which yielded five deep scratches. The shoes however, did not show any signs of damage!

Saleen saw all that and summoned Gloria, pointing at Nailisi’s feet and asked, “Gloria, what is with this equipment?”

Gloria took a look at Nailisi’s feet and answered, “Master, that is a pair of shoes.”

“I know they are shoes…,” Saleen was exasperated at the answer. It seemed to him that intelligence was something requiring a long time to develop in such creatures.

“Master, shoes are definitely the most sturdy of all clothing on one’s body. The officers here…I cannot remember so well,” Gloria rubbed at her forehead and struggled to remember things taking place tens of thousands of years ago. The creature seemed to be a subordinate of a female human. Too many years had passed, and coupled with having developed a soul, caused her to lose much of her memories. Recollecting what had taken place all those years ago seemed utterly impossible.