Badge in Azure

They finally reached the edge of the palace after getting over the palace walls. Saleen dared not let his guard down. He had no idea yet where the demons were locked up. Other than the four demons, there were others from the demon army imprisoned as well, and he intended to save as many of them as he could.

He looked at Nicholas, and the old holy master returned the look.

“Nicholas, can you…”

“Lesser prophecy magic can locate the demons, so long as you don’t mind getting your cover blow,” Nicholas answered in a straightforward manner. The island was only fifty miles wide, locating the demons using lesser prophecy magic would be a piece of cake. Grade-9 lesser prophecy magic definitely would emanate a Fallen Divine Glow, which was something any mage would have been able to see on the island.

“There’s no other way to go about it?” Saleen asked, looking at Nicholas.

“A very slow one…” Nicholas sighed and took out the body of a dead rat, and then drew a blood soul tower with the blood on his hand. A ray of gray light entered the body of the rat. The animated rat rolled about on the floor, before bowing to Nicholas.

The rat was a specialty of Metatrin City. It was known as an ironbone rat from the cold, barren lands of the north. Most rats lived only for a few years, but the ironbone rats were grade-1 magic beasts. They were capable of living for more than fifteen years. Saleen had formed exterminator task forces consisted of mages specifically for eliminating them, so as to open up lands for farming. That was why he was able to recognize the animal.

It was totally unexpected that Nicholas was capable of having souls possess dead bodies. To mages, such an ability was a skill acquired after advancing to grade-10, but Nicholas seemed to be very familiar with it, suggesting that he had been practicing the skill for a very long time.

Sensing Saleen’s heated stare, Nicholas elaborated, “Descension spell. Something used only when there is no other way around it. The skill damages souls. If it were to be me, I could even possess a living person.”

Saleen did not continue asking, as it did not seem like something Nicholas would be willing to use in most cases. It probably had something to do with the Holy See. “Descension spell? I know something about the gods being able to possess the bodies of adherents by crossing through planes. I should take note of this then. If grade-12 professionals appear on the Myers Mainland, that would mean grade-12 greater oracles could be here as well. The powers of the Holy See would be terrifying by then.”

Nicholas spoke to the ironbone rat in some unknown tongue. The rat turned and left. Nicholas then said, “My liege, we best find somewhere to hide.”

“Where is that thing?”

“That thing can smell me. It will be able to find its way back to me so long as I stay on the island,” Nicholas answered.

Saleen developed a new understanding regarding the Descension spell. The spell not only retained the descended one’s own ability, but also allowed use of the possessed one’s. Ironbone rats had an impressive sense of smell, yet their eyesight was terrible.

The spell was a troublesome thing, as it was unknown what kind of skills would be able to counter it. Saleen did not feel alright inside, but he did not let that hinder his movements. His senses were the best in the team. The two dozen of them could not have been able to keep hiding within the mist at the wall. The mist would disperse sooner or later.

The island’s terrain was uneven, and the palace meandered with the mountains, spreading the area throughout the curves. They passed through tens of alleys under the cover of the mist and stopped at a warehouse. Saleen’s senses told him that there was no one around, and he immediately went about cutting the warehouse’s walls with current cutter, taking the group inside.

The warehouse was a big one, yet stored only consumable equipment, weapons, armor, and food for normal soldiers. The inventory of the Cloudflow warehouse differed from that of the Qin people, as a lot of different things were put inside one place. While it facilitated ease of distribution, storage would be very troublesome.

Saleen looked around before bringing the group deep inside the warehouse. Maintenance of all those things put under one place would have been difficult. As such, it seemed that the grand duke had no plans to stay there for long, all the materials stored here were things that needed to be used soon.

“Attacking Lianyun City? Heh, I will see what Alchemy City is going to go about it!”

Saleen became rather reluctant to kill Grand Duke Iron Blood after the thought came to him. While the grand duke had indeed taken the four demons as his prisoners, as well as sacking the merchant ships under the protection of Metatrin City, his target was Lianyun City. Saleen was then forced to reconsider things.

Lianyun City was, at the moment, easy to defend and difficult to take down. With the armies of Holy Rock City garrisoning the place, just what enabled the grand duke to have so much confidence that he can take the place down?

Saleen had spies planted in Lianyun City, so he knew that Lianyun City had erected six magic towers, bolstering their defenses by more than ten times. Great amounts of supplies were also stored within Lianyun City, ensuring that the city would never again fall from being surrounded.

Shelves in the warehouse were erected all the way up to the ceiling, with puppets sitting idly on the corridors. Saleen found the place where food was stored and stopped. He put up an illusionary magic array and hid the two dozen strong group. The space was tight, and it was fortunate that the ancient warriors had no preference for the environment they were in and did not mind squeezing with each other.

Saleen dispelled his Quickcloud spell. Nicholas had been looking rather nervous throughout. He was still linked to the ironbone rat under his control, but the link was too weak. He was only capable of knowing if the rat had found their target and confirming the coordinates.

About two hours passed, and Saleen had only meditated once. Nicholas let out a grumble all of a sudden and his body shook. Saleen opened his eyes and asked worriedly, “What happened?”

“My liege. The rat was killed!”

“Did it manage to locate the target?”, Saleen did not mind a soul dispersing. In a mage’s perspective, souls were something that would disperse sooner or later, returning to the elements. Doing so would be a better option than staying in blood soul towers.

“No, my liege!” Nicholas raised his voice without realizing it, before reminding himself that they were not in a safe place, and lowered his voice, “My liege, the Descension spell was completely destroyed. That ironbone rat was killed by an elemental mage skilled in soul techniques!”

“An elemental mage?”

“It felt familiar. This mage is powerful, even somewhat more powerful than you are, my liege, but not yet a grade-10 sorcerer.” Nicholas did not know how to describe it. He forcibly opened the Descended Eye in hopes of getting what the enemy looked like, but the rat was killed on the ground. He was only able to feel a familiar aura from it.

The familiarity was simply someone he had kept an eye on before. It was difficult to recall who that was.

“Nicholas, have you been to Cloudflow?”

“Never.”

“Then this wouldn’t have been someone from Cloudflow. You are familiar with them, but you can’t recall who. It is probably someone you have seen once or twice, but someone who would have attracted your attention. Try to think for a bit. Who fits that kind of description?” Saleen knew that Grand Duke Iron Blood was a powerful warrior. If he were to have a powerful mage at his side, his combat capacity would soar.

Nicholas’ Descension spell was one of the Holy See’s most mysterious skills. Outsiders would not be aware of such holy spells, nor any of its secrets at all. The ironbone rat under his control was killed in an instant and its soul was not even able to escape. Nicholas’ surprise at this was stronger than Saleen’s.

Elemental mages hardly had any soul skills before grade-9. That elemental mage was not a grade-10 one, yet they were able to completely eliminate his ironbone rat. Nicholas did not want anything else at that moment than to see personally who that mage was. Saleen’s reminder had Nicholas thinking. Someone who had caught his attention yet was not from Cloudflow. People who fit such a description were few indeed.

He had been in the Holy See for most of his life. Places where he spent most time at when he began to follow Saleen were Metatrin City and Daliang City. Holy masters possessed powerful mental powers, and Nicholas was able to narrow down the targets to two people when he put his mind to it, and he was able to determine who it was just a split second later.

“My liege, we are in big trouble!”

“What trouble?” Saleen was puzzled.

“I remembered who that was!”

“Who then?” Saleen was feeling frustrated at the pace Nicholas was talking at. “Why did he have to split a sentence up like that?”

“You have seen him before. A sorcerer from Alchemy City, Imposa!”

Imposa…

Saleen went silent and was shocked. It was not due to Imposa’s strength. With the six elemental badges at his disposal, there would be no problem winning fights against mages of the same level as him.

He knew that Imposa was a master alchemist who was skilled at human body alchemy. Bone alchemy was but child’s play to someone like Imposa. When Imposa went through Daliang City, he said he was heading to Cloudflow. It was however, unexpected that he would end up being under the grand duke’s employ.

“This is bad. Imposa’s human body alchemy is something that can definitely control a huge number of ancient warriors!”

How many grade-9 warriors were on the Ancient again? Around sixty-thousand perhaps? If they all ended up being put under Imposa’s control, Metatrin City would not be able to put up much of a fight!

“No, that can’t be! Regardless of how powerful a grade-9 sorcerer is at alchemy, controlling all ancient warriors would be impossible still. The strength of my soul is frightening, so they can’t be anyone who can beat me at the same level. Even someone like me wouldn’t be able to control more than one-hundred of those warriors. If controlling at the same time, maybe less than fifty. I can now control forty-eight ancient warriors, and that is already the limit. No matter how strong Imposa gets, he can never be able to have control of a number higher than mine. The only possibility is that these ancient warriors are not being put under his control, but just reawakened and made to follow simple instructions. In that case…in that case, Alchemy City would still be in danger. The longer this drags out, the more dangerous things will get. I have no idea how rich Grand Duke Iron Blood is, but someone who is able support Imposa’s human body alchemy must be very, very rich.”

Murderous intent boiled within Saleen’s mind. “Grand Duke Iron Blood must die! There is no way I will let things like that continue to happen… but Imposa, should I kill him too?”

Saleen was reminded of Hogina, that female mage who did not seem to have much in the department of brains.

He had to admit, however, that that student of Imposa was a naive one who posed little threat. She treated Saleen quite well too. If Imposa ended up controlling a large number of ancient warriors, he would be a threat to him as well as to anyone else, unless he was willing to submit to Saleen himself!

Saleen felt really bad inside. He seemed to be trapped in some strange circle. Anyone who went against him, must die!