Badge in Azure

“That is Ironwall City, known to be the most impregnable city in Sikeqinya. It is even more protected than the Sikeqinya Imperial City itself,” Lex said as she enlarged the magic map’s image, giving her and Saleen an excellent view of Ironwall City.

Saleen had no idea how Lex was able to acquire such a detailed image of the city. As he gazed at the city’s framework and elaborate image on the map, he had to admit that it was the most lavish and over-the-top thing that he had ever laid eyes upon!

This was indeed an irregular city! It had twisted walls of bronze that towered all around it, which were very tall and dazzlingly majestic.

Forts, instead of mere battlements and the like, had all been lavishly designed, and flamboyant and ornate decorations covered every other section of the bronze walls. Moreover, every single fort had been constructed according to a completely different design. The only common thing between them all was how extravagant they looked!

These forts had steel bases, which were filled with magic patterns. For a literal desert of magic, like the Sikeqinya Empire, such decorations really made the place stand out from the rest.

As Saleen looked around, he could easily see where the city got its namesake, as a large amount of metal was apparent everywhere. The forts themselves were basically made completely out of steel.

There were also metal struts, which were serving as support beams beneath the walls. Otherwise, they would have been easily decimated targets for catapult attacks.

And, as Lex was somehow able to get such a detailed map, which even depicted the internal defense images of the city, Saleen could even see that the walls were lined with something rarely seen… They were large metal puppets, each manned by multiple personnel!

At the moment, these puppets were having ballista installed on them. The Qin Empire had spent such a great amount on creating the puppets, but it had never really considered using them in actual battle.

This was not to say that the puppets were no good. After all, such puppets were capable of firing ballista bolts while moving, and they also had far greater accuracy than magic catapults.

Even magic stone cannons would have paled in comparison in that regard. It was even said that well-trained troops were capable of aiming at enemy generals while piloting such puppets, eliminating them easily.

These huge metal puppets were slightly taller than the city walls, but they were capable of moving and defending their territories quickly, making it hundreds of times more difficult for them to be taken out by the enemy.

Also to the city’s credit, almost every single building within the city had been installed with large assault weapons. As such, the entire city looked quite similar to a monster baring its fangs and claws.

The wall that was facing the plains had four bridle paths that had been laid out at in different angles. These four paths had been carved out and installed with magic arrays. As such, any enemy forces who tried to barge their ways in by using these paths would end up paying a great price.

Furthermore, the bridle paths clear had been laid at a steep angle of 40 degrees. Hence, scaling them would not be easy for enemy forces.

There were also nine magic towers within the city, three of which had nine floors. The remaining six towers had seven floors.

The distribution of these towers was highly logical. Unfortunately, Saleen had learned it the hard way that six of these nine magic towers could be linked together to cast a super-large spell. At the moment, the nine magic towers almost covered the entire Ironwall City.

“Lex, do you really want to attack a place like this?” Saleen found even the idea of such a thing to be unbelievable.

After all, it was said that Ironwall City impossible to conquer. While it was true that most of that statement was simply the Sikeqinyans bragging about their beloved city, it was still undeniable that the city was extremely fortified and quite powerful.

Plus, it was only 500 miles away from the Sikeqinya Imperial City. With both cities working in tandem, they could gather an army of more than a million strong in not time.

While Saleen no longer feared the attacks of regular armies, if the three level nine sorcerers within Ironwall City joined forces and aligned their powers, Saleen would have had no choice but to use all of his elemental badges, which would deplete them all completely.

Moreover, the Sikeqinya Imperial City was filled with powerful beings. So, if they ended up being occupied with dealing with Ironwall City and were caught in a surprise attack, Saleen was uncertain if his troops would be able to make a clean escape, let alone conquer the city!

“We are not taking the city in order to possess it for ourselves. The city is too near to the Sikeqinya Imperial City, so even if we were to take control of it, we wouldn’t be able to keep control of it for long. Even an attempt at accomplishing such a thing would utterly exhaust our forces. My intention is to simply light the place up, then assault their cities along the coast. This place would be our final target…” Lex explained.

She then pointed at a small city near the sea on the map and said, “We can use this place as a base, while we take the surrounding cities and set up our own turf, using the sea itself as a barrier. The Ancient warship will patrol here. Once the Sikeqinyan army make it to this spot, the ship will then serve as our backup weapon, raining down magic stone shells on the targets onshore. This will also ensure that the enemy forces suffer huge losses.”

As Saleen saw where Lex was pointing her finger, he was at loss of what to say or feel about it. This was because Lex was pointing at Ceylon City, where he was born!

As he thought of his birthplace, memories of days past flooded Saleen’s mind. The struggles of his childhood years, the troubles of his youth, the anxiety that plagued him after meeting his teacher… All of these things swirled in Saleen mind.

He then asked, “I heard that the hometown of the four empires’ sovereigns was considered by them to be equal to their own territory. Is that true?”

“Indeed!” Lex answered the question smiling.

“Well then… It seems that I finally get to return to my birthplace in glory and rebuild my family’s grave.” Saleen let out a long sigh.

Lex thought things through much better than he did. He would have attempted to take Ceylon City, without any regard for what the Sikeqinyan emperor thought about it.

After all, that place was supposed to be his turf. Also, seeing how he now had the might to take the city, all he lacked was little more than a simple reason to do so.

“The act of taking down Ironwall City was a show of force to the Sikeqinyan emperor, revealing to him that you now possess the power to crush any of his cities,” Lex said.

“Crush his cities?” Saleen asked with a puzzled expression.

“When you headed to the Oceanic Ice Block… Jason… He found a fire oil mine under the frozen lands of the north. The mages of Sreeger Island have now stockpiled tons of fire oil, which they then made magic fire shells out of. I would expect they would have stockpiled even more by now,” Lex replied.

“Wow! So much?” Saleen exclaimed.

The very reason that fire oil was such a precious commodity was because it was difficult to mine and difficult to store. Also, any fires that started with them would be catastrophic. As such, they were basically only used for defending cities, as ample amounts would first be required before weapons could be made with them.

“Gobbling up Laiyin Duchy was nothing. Sikeqinya was a mess internally. We will go take Ceylon City, crush Ironwall City, and start a civil war among them!” Lex’s tone was confident and decisive, as she knew that this plan would render countless people homeless and maybe even cost them their lives.

Saleen was rendered speechless for a bit. He knew of a way to crush Ironwall City, but it was too brutal for his taste.

After all, he had only been killing combatants out in the battlefield, only dealing with the fates of soldiers. So, the thought of slaughtering a city full of civilians was something else altogether. It was simply not something that a mage should do.

“If Danny can’t protect his subjects, his nobles will turn their backs on him. Saleen, we are required to split our attentions to deal with two empires here. Do you think that is possible?” Lex asked.

Saleen shook his head. The Holy See alone had proven too difficult for him to handle on his own. While his prowess at war had risen exponentially, the pope alone was already a figure Saleen was unsure that he could take out on his own.

At the moment, he had little idea of what had happened inside the Holy See. What he did know was that the strongest power that the plane was able to hold was level 12, and even that could change at any time. All of this made him wonder…

What does level 12 mean exactly? In the realm of the gods, level 12 is equal to the greater oracles. Any level higher would move into the territory of pseudogods!

If a greater oracle was to advent, will I be able to kill a level 12 oracle? The angel of fear was easy to deal, but even such creatures that have been easy to deal with, I have relied more on luck than anything else to take them down. If a level 12 oracle was to advent, will I even be able to think of succeeding in my endeavors?

“Saleen, do you dare attempt it?” Lex’s eyes narrowed to slits as she asked.

“I do!” Saleen gritted his teeth as he answered.

The holy war this time around would probably result in the deaths of hundreds of millions. In comparison,there were only a few million people within the walls of Ironwall City.

Even Saleen’s subjects would suffer great losses. All he was capable of doing was to build more large cities, stockpile food, and have his subjects live in safer places. Even if there was no harvest, they would have at least be able to survive.

“Many would berate you for what you and I will do next,” Lex continued explaining the consequences to Saleen.

“Not Emperor Danny. He will fear us instead,” Saleen answered with a cold smirk.

He figured that the one who should scold them the most was Theisio, and the one that should be wiped out from the face of the planet was the Holy See! After all, the four empires would not have gone for each other’s throats if it were not for the Holy See.

They would have instead settled with testing each other out using the duchies. Such a stable turn of events was broken by the Holy See in the first place.

“Well, I better let the guys working down below draw up an attack plan. The attack of Ironwall City can only be done after we have taken out the army of the tribunal. I think the Sikeqinyan forces lost one-third of their might thanks to your successful efforts at wrecking their camps,” Lex said.

“That should be about right, as quite a lot of the elites ran away,” Saleen replied.

“Hmm… An army of 500,000 strong is left then. The camp down south didn’t participate in the fight, right?” Lex then asked.

Saleen nodded. Despite having wrecked two camps, which resulted in huge losses to the enemy, Sikeqinya’s main force remained intact. That, coupled with the fact that they had troops from the tribunal, gave them a force that was nearly a million strong.

If the tribunal troops made it to where they were, Saleen would have a harder time dealing with them, as the losses of elemental creatures had gradually increased.

Thus, if Saleen were to lose the Blue Ice Maidens at this point, he would have had no means of replenishing their numbers. After all, restoration of the Midnight Fang took too long, and without the help of the elemental creatures, his Lonestar City would be a sitting duck in the face of the army of the tribunal!

“Saleen,” Lex took his arm and said, “It is better that you not fret about this right now. You did tell me that the Magical Element Tower was capable of flight, right?”

“Yes.” Saleen nodded.

“We will talk about the matter with Ironwall City when your tower can finally fly. When that time comes, we will gather more sorcerers and overwhelm the magic towers within the city from above, then have the metal flyers dump the bombs on the city, burning the entire Ironwall City to the ground! By then, no Sikeqinyan noble would dare to move against us. Also, Danny’s decree would have been unable to move by local nobles, so we will then take Ceylon City, making it our base to attack the Tanggulasi Empire in the future,” Lex logically presented her analysis to Saleen.

Saleen thought for a bit before nodding, “Alright, but the overwhelming of the towers should be done slower, and the bangs and flashes accompanying the attacks must be made louder. We will give opportunities for people to escape the city, and those who wouldn’t…”

Lex smiled lightly. While this analytical and cautious side of Saleen annoyed her at times, it was the part of him that she valued the most nonetheless.

As she looked at him, Lex thought… He is thinking of dragging the fight out to enable civilians to escape. But, war has never had anything to do with the common people before. It has always been a game between the powerful existences and the nobles. To let the civilians enter the realm of war is akin to having Ironwall City burnt to the ground!