Badge in Azure

“Shackles of the Fallen are one of the highest rules mastered by the gods. The level of the Goddess of Myers back then determined the level of rules of the shackles.” Nicholas knew well of the secrets of divine arts, and he elaborated them to Saleen.

Saleen was still feeling uncomfortable with it. The woman was chained with twenty-four chains, and the necklace around Saleen’s neck also possessed twenty-four spaces.

The Goddess of Myers rearranged the calendar of the mainland, doubling the twelve months of a year, making a total of twenty-for months.

Grade-24 was also the highest level of rules in existence.

Saleen touched his neck and was afraid that the chains around his neck would also turn into Shackles of the Fallen. He grew increasingly wary of anything that had to do with the gods. The heroic spirits in the Imperial City of the Abyss cemetery seemed to love divine equipment, as well as divine crystals though.

“Master, we can’t let her powers to continue to grow like this, if…”

“How about you go fight her then?” Saleen ignored Nailisi’s suggestion altogether. Nailisi retreated. The power of the woman was great enough that even if Nailisi were to go against her, the imp would have ended up dead all the same. Gray Memory would have possibly been able to do some damage to the woman, but there was no telling if it was enough to kill her. Strictly speaking, Gray Memory was a close combat weapon. The cold light that woman was able to shoot from her eyes enabled her to easily cut up grade-9 elemental life. Nailisi did not want to engage something like that up close.

The setup of a teleportation portal required at least half a day to complete. It was a limit that Lex would not have been able to break through, regardless of how many sorcerers she had with her. If Joey was there, he would have been able to shorten the time required to about one-third of it, but even then, four hours were still needed to do so.

If the woman got loose, not even the leader of the dark element creatures would be able to kill her off. All it would have been able to do was to hold her back for a bit. Saleen analyzed the scenarios. If the woman was actually able to break free, would he be able to subdue her? He did not believe that the Shackles of the Fallen would have been able to keep her under control for good.

With the Goddess of Myers gone, the power of the Shackles of the Fallen would definitely be diminished. If the heroic spirits in the cemetery were thinking of ways to free themselves, there was simply no reason that the woman would not have done the same. The Goddess of Myers had been gone for more than ten millennia. It was unthinkable to Saleen, that the woman would not have thought of anything to break free.

If the goddess had actually wanted to kill her, she would have done so. The goddess was definitely up to something by keeping her alive. Saleen grew less and less fond of ancient humans, and more and more wary of the goddess herself.

There was a ready teleportation portal in the Magical Element Tower. Saleen needed only to watch the woman on the altar. If he found anything wrong with her, he would have still had a chance to kill her off with his family badge.

The woman at the altar continued to absorb the grade-9 creatures, yet the number of creatures did not seem to have gotten fewer. The humanoid creatures emerging from the chasm were not of high intelligence, and they went up to the altar one by one, being seduced by the woman.

The woman continued gobbling down the grade-9 creatures who walked up to the altar, and it was filled with eerie noises. The sound did not seem to be a language of the gods, but ancient Myers language where the syllables were complicated and varied. Something like a veil began to form around the surface of her smooth skin, coalescing into a piece of clothing.

It was not something she had deliberately done, but simply matter materializing from her overly abundant energy that was accumulated too quickly.

The woman was quick with her absorption of the grade-9 creatures. When more than six-hundred of those creatures were absorbed, her stomach was seen to bulge a bit. Of the three who watched closely at the development in the tower, Nicholas frowned.

He was the expert in divine arts, yet he was unable to tell of her motives of absorbing the grade-9 creatures.

Saleen was calculating slowly in another way. There was a clear pattern as to how she absorbed the grade-9 creatures, and even her absorption of the energies had a certain frequency to it. The one that was absorbed at the very beginning happened almost instantly, eight more, four more, two more…

The speed at which the grade-9 creatures were being absorbed by the woman was slowing down. Saleen would not have been able to tell if it was not for the power of his Elemental Eye. Seeing how the woman’s stomach was bulging, Saleen asked Nicholas, “Nicholas, look. Do you think she is trying to give birth?”

Nicholas was unable to see well beyond one mile. Saleen did not share his senses with him, as it was too taxing in terms of mental powers for him. Nicholas had only peered closely at her stomach after being reminded by Saleen.

Seeing the bulging of her stomach, Nicholas jumped like he was being hit by Saleen’s Eye of Lightning.

“My liege, bad news!”

“Nicholas, calm down. Elaborate.” Saleen kept Nicholas down.

“That’s Reincarnation!”

“Elaborate!”

“Gods are usually unable to reach other planes outside the heavens under normal circumstances, but gods are able possess their believers. Doing so has its demerits, like having their powers severely restricted. In general, if a god advents, the possessed body will be like a double and little else. If said god wants to have their powers break through the rules set by the planes and reach the world of their believers, they will need to use Reincarnation. Said god would parasitize a chosen believers’ fetus and be directly born into the world of their believers. When done in such a way, said god will be able to grow rapidly, reaching the pinnacle of the plane’s power.

Saleen frowned. “So, the power of the rules of the plane would be roughly the same as the power of the Shackles of the Fallen then?”

“Somewhat stronger. That woman intends to parasitize on her own child. When her child is born, she will be able to break free of her chains and leave the altar!”

“How long does she need before she could leave the altar and recover her powers?”

A bitter smile was seen on Nicholas’ face, “My liege, she is now absorbing grade-8 creatures, and is doing so to build up power for rebirth. I’m afraid when she breaks free of her chains, she will immediately attain the strongest power.”

“What happens to her original shell then?”

“It will be rendered incredibly weak, fall into hibernation, and no longer a threat to anyone.”

“Well then, the altar is mine!” Saleen’s eyes sparkled. He cared not if the woman was able to reincarnate. He came for the altar and the twenty-four chains on it. Once the purgatory of the fallen absorbed those items, it would give birth to the highest rules.

“Master, that is dangerous…” Nailisi could not help but remind Saleen. If that thing really made it out, it would be anyone’s guess if the Magical Element Tower would be able to withstand her powers. The angel of fear had ways to slowly wear out the Divine Tree Magic Tower after all. The reborn woman would probably be a grade-12 being, and that meant she would be capable of breaking the tower all the same.

“If it wasn’t dangerous, I wouldn’t be here,” Saleen clenched his badge, if the woman successfully reincarnated and the miniaturized magic cannon had yet to be transported, he would opt to simply kill the reincarnated woman instead, then chucking both her former shell and the remaining altar inside the purgatory of the fallen.

Time slowly passed, and it was eerily quiet inside the Magical Element Tower. Both Nailisi and Nicholas were unable to stop Saleen, and both knew how powerful the badge in Saleen’s hand was. As such, they opted to patiently wait with him instead.

The woman at the altar looked rather pale. The clothing on her body had gotten thick and solid. Too much energy was being absorbed, and she ceased trying to break free of the chains. Like Saleen’s party, she had instead opted to patiently wait for her energies to build up, forming a fetus inside her.

A true fetus of the gods required tens of thousands of years to be born. She only wanted to be reincarnated, and as such, did not bother with all the extra hassle. The fetus inside her grew increasingly large, and the woman wailed in pain. She however, did not forget to keep seducing the grade-9 creatures to walk up to the altar, and continued absorbing their energies. It was just that her rate of absorption grew increasingly slow and seemed to have reached a limit.

The belly of the woman bulged to the size of half a foot, and her wailing grew increasingly loud, surpassing the eerie chanting on the altar. Under her privates, the head of a baby made its way out. The fallen one punished by the goddess of nature began to give birth to her double.

The air of the altar turned unspeakably evil. The entire space twisted under the chanting.

Uncountable numbers of eyes in the void watched as the sickening scene took place. No living being would have attempted to give birth to themselves. The voyeurs watched in hatred, yet they were unable to do anything to prevent the birth.

“Haahhhh…” The baby was born. The being did not cry; she laughed instead.

She was finally free of her shackles. She had regained her freedom after enduring ten thousand years of imprisonment. There was simply nothing to cry about.

The energies within the body of the baby burst about violently as soon as she was born. Countless energies seemed to be coursing under her skin. Her face, body, arms, lower legs and even her belly, all seemed to be bulging and contracting continuously.

Saleen held back his feeling of disgust at the scene and watched closely. There was no sign of confusion found in the eyes of the baby. Nicholas noticed the details himself, and said to Saleen, “My liege, she will not be able to break through the power limit of the Myers Mainland, but she will grow incredibly quick.”

“I know,” Saleen’s answer sounded rather bitter. He did not want to use his family badge. It would have been easy to get rid of the baby, but anything that bolt of lightning touched would be turned to ashes. He would be left with nothing to salvage.

The baby’s body slowly grew. Saleen took a look at the magic clock. Ten hours had passed. To ensure stability, Lex would have built the portal in a particularly meticulous manner. The miniaturized cannon might have developed problems in the transportation process otherwise and be disintegrated between dimensions. It would have never reached Saleen’s hands.

“Hehehe…” The baby laughed as she turned around, facing Saleen’s Magical Element Tower. The energy within her body exploded, and yet, was slowly absorbed at the same time. The woman in chains closed her eyes, funneling all her absorbed energies into the baby, energies accumulated by absorbing more than two-thousand grade-9 creatures.

The overly hasty birthing process drained her original body of all its stamina. It was unable to even keep its eyes open, let alone lift a hand. It fell into hibernation soon after. Put accurately, the remaining thread of her soul left inside her original body no longer possessed the strength to keep the body functioning. It would take her body tens of thousands of years to wake again.