Badge in Azure

The winged skeleton was insistent on remaining a skeleton. Although his soul flames had already evolved into the level of a Spirit King and were capable of remodeling his own body into any type of powerful spirit, he was still very resistant to such an idea.

He did not wish to forget the years he spent as a skeleton, which were tough and full of life-threatening dangers every day. Back then, he was only a low-level skeleton. Even though he had a pair of wings, it was not much of a factor. Many spirits of the dead also possessed the ability to fly, so his wings did not give him much advantage.

It was only when he met Saleen that he understood that he could be useful in his own way.

Saleen could not understand what the winged skeleton was thinking. Neither was he aware that the winged skeleton was actually capable of transforming into any spirit of the dead, including the rare Fleshy Death Creature. He asked Nailisi to bring over the skeletal structure of Angel of Fear and placed it on the ground. Then he placed the broken Meteor Hammer and double-sided war hammer on the ground as well, before finally putting the golden heart alongside those items.

Everything would have to depend on the winged skeleton. No magic arrays would be able to help.

The winged skeleton was not worried at all. Although his bones had been badly damaged, his soul flames had become stronger. A physical body could be trained over time, but once the soul flames had dissipated, there would be nothing left.

Self-explosions might be powerful, but the price was losing the power of soul flames. Without the special bone marrow of the Angel of Fear, the winged skeleton would have to remain in deep sleep for another 30 to 50 years before the golden heart would have sufficient power to revive him.

The winged skeleton knew that Saleen would encounter more and more challenges, how could he possibly continue to remain in deep sleep?

The winged skeleton’s soul flames regained their powers and their control over the golden heart. The golden heart began to absorb the Angel of Fear’s body, but it was also rejecting plenty of bone marrow. Saleen collected the leftover bone marrow in a jade bottle so that he could give it to Nicholas in the future.

He would be able to use it as well if he advanced to grade-10. Although elemental mages were unable to create death puppets, the bone marrow would still be useful in increasing the stability of Eternal Control shards.

“Master, we have trouble!” Nailisi pointed to a distance away. From the magic tower, one could see a red fire-element creature heading towards them on the street more than 10 miles away.

The fire-element creature was riding on an even bigger fire-element creature. The height of the two creatures combined together was more than 20 yards. The rider was holding a shield that was burning with flame while his right hand was holding an extravagant-looking halberd.

Halberds were extremely difficult to master, so many warriors had stopped using them. Their full potential could only be seen when the warrior wielding it was powerful enough to control the weapon. The long halberd was also burning with flame and there were two fire serpents coiled around it.

The elemental creature was wearing vermillion flaming armor and its face was constantly contorting, as if its expression was changing every second.

A Vermillion knight!

No, it was the leader of the vermillion knights. Behind it was more than a hundred vermillion knights of lower grades. All of them were riding flaming warhorses and wielding huge knives with long shafts. Flames were dancing on the huge knives and one could almost see the jagged edges on the knife blades. The jagged edges were arranged neatly in rows and could cause some serious damage if they were pulled away after hacking on an enemy.

Saleen deemed these elemental creatures to be more powerful than the elemental stone statue soldiers because the ground and dark and water elements there were very rich, while there were very few fire elements, yet, the vermillion knight leader seemed to be as powerful as the leader of the blue ice maidens. In such an environment, his weapon was still able to sustain fire serpents. The fire serpents were also two powerful elemental creatures in their own rights. Under the control of the vermillion knight, they could be used to attack enemies suddenly.

“Ignore them, Nailisi. Take out all the horns of the single-horned white whales and give them to the winged skeleton.” Although Saleen admired the powers of the vermillion knights, he also knew that his chances of victory were slim if he was to face them alone.

The internal organs of the Angel of Fear were being absorbed by the golden heart, eventually revealing Saleen’s clan badge. Saleen quickly retrieved it back. If the golden heart accidentally devoured the clan badge, the winged skeleton would be finished. The badge would not be able to recognize whose soul flames they belonged to. Saleen was still unable to control such a powerful equipment and had yet to fully explore even one percent of the badge’s power. The more Saleen advanced, the more realized how powerful the badge actually was.

Even a grade 12 Angel of Fear could be shot down cleanly with a single hit.

The winged skeleton gave up a portion of bone marrow in order to absorb more of the Angel of Fear’s blood and bones. When Nailisi threw in the horns of the single-horned white whale, the winged skeleton gladly took them all. The skeleton that he had put together hastily was made of materials of good quality, but it was still no match for the winged skeleton’s original body. After all, those bones were refined by the golden heart.

The winged skeleton decided not to use the golden heart to refine the bones anymore. The bones would only be used temporarily. Once he obtained even better materials, he would refine them with the golden heart again. On a side note, the bones could be used to create a skeleton with intelligence.

The winged skeleton created his own body patiently. It was not difficult creating the structure of a skeleton, but the winged skeleton’s soul flames were so powerful that even an ordinary jade skeleton would not be able to endure it. Now that he wanted to regain his body, he could only refine it with his own soul flames instead of summoning spirits of the dead from the death dimension as a substitute.

Two soul towers were floating within the winged skeleton’s black and white soul flames. An empty soul tower could contain more than a million souls. The quality of a soul tower like that way surpassed Nicholas’ soul beads.

The winged skeleton’s soul flames no longer relied on the soul towers, but he had absorbed the essence of the soul towers, so once they were apart from his soul flames, the towers would break apart.

In death magic, there were many ways to deal with souls. Since the winged skeleton had risen to the grade of a Spirit King, he was finally able to make sense of many mysteries. The two soul towers would be imprisoning many souls in the future.

In the death dimension, the strong preyed on the weak. There were no restrictions of all sorts of rules like those found on main dimensions, but this was also the reason why the death dimension was never able to become a powerful dimension. Even when the Myers Mainland weakened, the human death mages were still able to summon spirits of the dead to carry out their bidding.

In that era, mages no longer dared to summon demons anymore. This further proved how seriously weakened the death dimension had become.

The secrets that the winged skeleton was gradually getting in touch with were all ancient lineages passed down from spirits of the dead that were of the level of Spirit Kings. He began to plan carefully for his future.

The Angel of Fear’s entire body was full of treasures, but the winged skeleton was only interested in the bone marrow. Other than the things that were rejected by the golden heart, which he would leave behind for Saleen, he used most of the bone marrow to strengthen his soul flames. With the addition of the bone marrow, the winged skeleton’s soul flames could exist outside of his body. That meant that his soul flames would be unharmed the next time he decided to self-explode.

That was the advantage that only spirits had. For humans, they must reach at least grade-14 in order for their souls to be unharmed despite their physical bodies being damaged.

Saleen calmly watched the vermillion knight lead his men over from afar. Even the grade-12 Angel of Fear was unable to break through the divine tree magic tower immediately, so the grade-10 vermillion knights should fare even worse. Besides, Saleen still had his blue ice maidens. In that environment, blue ice maidens were definitely more powerful than vermillion knights.

Saleen realized that his close brushes with danger had made him more confident and fearless when facing grade-10 creatures. He was able to make quick judgements that would secure him victory.

The human mind was truly terrifying. Once it became powerful, even Gods had to find ways to suppress them.

As Saleen observed the vermillion knights, he suddenly noticed something amiss. He realized that the vermillion knights were not moving at a constant speed. In battles, powerful warriors tended to change their speeds very often, sometimes even multiple times in one second. The vermillion knights were only heading towards the magic tree divine tower. There was no need to change their speeds in that case.

The vermillion knights were clearly not as fast as blue ice maidens and elemental stone statue soldiers. Saleen had never noticed that issue before. He only noticed it because his attention was focused on the vermillion knights making their way over.

Saleen suddenly realized that he was in the Imperial City of the Abyss, where the gravitational force varied over different places. That was not obvious to him, as he was a mage. The gravitational force there was massive, yet it did not cause any physical damage. Although Saleen was a mage with a water-elemental body, it should still not be so effortless!

What would be affected by such a powerful gravitational force?

Time! It was time! Time passed at a different rate in the Imperial City of the Abyss compared to the outside world. As long as the gravitational forces were different, time would pass at a different speed between two places, even if they were very close together in terms of distance.

Saleen took out the magic clock and saw the hands of the clock spinning wildly. The magic nucleus had already been used up long ago.

Saleen had no idea if time passed more slowly or quickly compared to the outside world. If it was slower, then by the time he left the place, the Metatrin City might be gone. He might have already lost his kingdom, his wife, and his children…

At that thought, Saleen began to sweat all over.

He could give up anything except for Sika, Lex, and his two children. Besides, he had a thousand-year bond with the Goddess of Myers. If the time there passed so slowly that a thousand years had already passed in the outside world, he would be punished the moment he left.

By then, even if his wife and children were fine, he would still be doomed.

The Imperial City of the Abyss was horrid!

Saleen decided that he would head out to meet the vermillion knights head-on. He would have to postpone his plans for the Imperial City of the Abyss. If the time there passed more quickly relative to the outside world, then he could still afford to stay for a while more. If it was the other way around, then he must return home immediately.