Badge in Azure

Chapter 1544: The Goddess’ Weaknesses (Part 2)

The bangle was on Myers’ hand. Robbing her of it and subjugating it would be very, very difficult, but still definitely easier than killing Myers outright.

Saleen committed what he saw to memory. Myers was extremely on guard against him. If it had been someone else instead of him, she probably would not have been so prepared.

Lightning spells were only capable of grinding off powers of the Source, while the Crystal Finger was capable of destroying the powers outright, reducing them to pure energy, which was equal to killing a god thoroughly.

Furthermore, the Crystal Finger was extremely overbearing. Any god below level 16, even if they were to not get hit directly by the Crystal Finger, would not have been able to withstand being grazed by the spell. A level 18 goddess like Myers, on the other hand, would end up dead if she were to be hit where the power of her Source lay.

Saleen was equipped with a magic amplifier, so he knew that many pieces of equipment were almost capable of acting like a clone or a double on their own. While the Withering Dance could have been considered as a weakness, it was not one that could be easily exploited without meticulous calculations.

The sheet of ice over the Oceanic Ice Block was several kilometers thick. Furthermore, the ice was of hardness surpassing steel and was very heavy as well. At a place like the Oceanic Ice Block, it would be the best construction material available.

Myers saw Saleen constructing a city and was compelled to help, quickly opening a passage on the ice sheet leading to the Imperial City of the Abyss underneath.

A huge amount of manpower was left behind on the ice sheet to continue constructing the city, while Saleen dove into the water with the goddess. The location of the sheet of ice was coincidentally right above the imperial city, and a huge amount of magic beasts had taken over the place. With no magic arrays and elemental creatures guarding the place anymore, the magic beasts had no reason to be fearful, and they proceeded to move into the city, making it their home.

Elemental powers were rich within the Imperial City of the Abyss, which was of little use to humans other than boosting their powers during combat. To the magic beasts however, such a place was a paradise for evolution. Almost all powerful magic beasts throughout the Oceanic Ice Block used the city to be their home.

The magic beasts did not attack when both the goddess and Saleen appeared, scattering in fright instead. The ruins, which had previously been quiet and cold, became chaotic and rowdy within mere moments.

Both the goddess and Saleen emanated intense pressure, one from divine might and the other from elemental suppression. It was especially so in Saleen’s case after he came to have complete control of the six godly items, so much so that he had little problems using dark element. The Deathly Night Robe emanated power that was so intense that not even magic beasts of his level dared to get close.

Seeing how the magic beasts knew their place, neither of them bothered to go after any of them. Saleen considered the magic beasts his private properties anyway. He saw fit to let them grow for the moment. When the magic academy above was built, all the magic beasts would serve as ideal opponents to further their training.

As Myers Mainland advanced, the breeds of magic beasts grew increasingly diverse. Summoners, a profession which had once disappeared from the mainland, would possibly emerge once again. Only magic beasts of formidable power and special properties would be of value to those people after all.

Saleen refrained from killing the beasts, which scattered all over the place. Both of them brought their people and arrived right outside the cemetery.

The cemetery was even in a more disheveled state since the last time they left it. There were hardly any signs of order or repair. The general and the others seemed to have gone into hibernation.

“What now?” Saleen took a look at the goddess. The heroes had been old acquaintances of hers, and he saw fit to let the goddess call the shots at the moment.

“We proceed as planned.” The goddess was unusually cold. She waved and had her 12 followers get ready while she opened a portal right behind her. The warriors got into a triangular formation and emerged out of the portal.

All of them wore light leather armor, which was all a dark green color and filled with holy prose of nature all over them.

“How do you find my Nature Legion, Saleen?” The goddess asked with a smile.

Saleen nodded and summoned his lightning warriors and surrounded the cemetery from the other side. The cemetery had initially been a forbidden area. The heroic spirits within were free to move around so long as they stayed within the cemetery. However, with the walls of the cemetery destroyed at the moment, the protection provided to the heroic spirits shrunk. None of them dared to leave their graves.

The goddess looked at Saleen’s lightning warriors and felt impressed. While Saleen’s luck partially originated from him, he had nonetheless acquired over half of said luck elsewhere by himself.

The power was the lightning warriors had grown increasingly powerful, so much so that the power emanated was even greater than that of demons. Their bodily structures were capable of being optimized without limit, enabling them to bring about the greatest combat prowess to bear.

Furthermore, the power of the lightning warriors, boosted by the lightning patterns all over them, was three to four times greater and more damaging than it would have usually been. The lightning warriors were practically invincible if they fought beings of their own levels. The power of lightning did not only allow them to defend against mental attacks, it also had anti-magic properties, which made it even more lethal when used against gods.

It was indeed a huge mistake letting Saleen grow, but given how they were already where they were at present, there was little use regretting anything. If she were able to defeat the mage, she would possibly gain lightning powers. By then, she could probably even venture into a different crystal wall system, which meant that she no longer had to fear for Myers Mainland’s safety.

The voice of the general was heard from the cemetery, “Myers, Saleen, so you people really want to go that far then!”

Saleen laughed and replied, “General, yes, that is our intention, and we intend to come out on top.”

The goddess chuckled and said to the grave of the general from afar, “we’ll clear you up today and spare Myers Mainland any further troubles.”

“Myers, you are the biggest threat to the mainland! If it hadn’t been for you, the main plane wouldn’t have fallen so far throughout the years!”

“Oh general, you’ve served the king for so long, but do you know why you were never the greatest of the generals? That is because you’re too much of a hypocrite, lacking sincerity and bravery. It is indeed I who caused the plane to have fallen in the first place, but even without me around, you heroic spirits would have caused the plane to fall all the same. If it hadn’t been for me causing the entire plane’s level to drop, you people would’ve probably been resurrected by now instead of hiding out here. If that were to happen, you people would have opened up your own independent space and continued to slowly steal the power of the Source of the main plane.”

The general simply snorted when the goddess called him out, not even trying to speak for himself.

Saleen continued, “don’t blame me for helping Myers, General. I have clear reasons for doing it. I have been able to come this far thanks to helping Myers advance. You, on the other hand, gave me 24 heroic spirits to limit my level. When compared to the goddess, you are the lowliest of scum. The goddess at least gave me a chance to fight fair and square. But what about you?”

Seeing how the general stayed silent, Saleen dealt a crippling blow. “You don’t even have the guts to fly into blind rage from shame, you piece of sh**!”

The goddess chuckled. She saw such a tone of speech to be beneath her, but it nonetheless felt satisfying to hear Saleen say it. The general could have been a coward, but there was no way he could have stomached Saleen’s provocations. He roared as he burst out of his grave.

“Heroic spirits, charge!” The words of the general were seen as orders. Over 10,000 heroic spirits burst from their graves. Many of the heroic spirits were even so lacking in levels that there were tens of them stuffed into a single grave.

However, that was not to say that the heroic spirits were actually of low levels. They only were low levels because things did not go as planned, and they were unable to gain a huge amount of power from the Source of Myers Mainland. They suffered drastic level drops and only commanders like the General were barely capable of maintaining their own original levels.

The heroic spirits bursting out from the graves got into simple formations, taking up weapons of their profession—bows and crossbows—as they remained backed by their graves. Tens of thousands of glittering bolts and arrows were let loose, heading straight for Saleen and the goddess.

Under usual circumstances, having so many projectiles in flight would have caused them to clash in midair, and only a handful would have remained a real threat to their targets. However, the skills of the heroic spirits were different from living people. The projectiles were not solid matter. They clustered in midair, forming several huge bolts, as if they were tens of powerful magic runes, shrouding both Saleen and the goddess.

Saleen would have taken things more seriously if they were magical arrows fired by archers. However, Saleen simply unleashed hundreds of electric snakes, which danced in a frenzy around him. The light from every single bolt was ground off by the electric snakes and dropped to the ground.

As for the goddess, the bolts were unable to even penetrate into her world of rules.

“Arrows of Heroes, eh?” The goddess smirked coldly. If she did not have to cover for the followers at her side, she would have gone all out to slaughter the heroic spirits. However, the Arrow of Heroes was a skill capable of only being used once. The skill failed to do any damage to both her and Saleen, and there was no second casting of the skill. The crossbows on the heroic spirits’ hands crumbled one after another. They drew their own weapons and charged.

“Heh...” Saleen initially had no intention of fighting personally, but seeing how over 10,000 powerful heroes were charging at them, he would not have been able to pay the goddess’ debt for her help if he continued to sit on his hands. With the four seas quelled, the entire plane was practically his at the moment, so he had to do things according to plan.

Saleen threw a black ball of light, which rose to midair and exploded under the invisible Lightning Moon. Power emanated from the Lightning Moon formed a thin, glittering film, scattering the exploding black ball of light all over the cemetery.

The lower part of the general’s body was ethereal when he appeared that time. He had been keeping his hands to himself, but seeing how Saleen acted, he knew he had to do something.

“Grandmaster!” The general shouted. The Grandmaster appeared behind him. Half of his face was blurred, and the eye on the remaining half was burning in rage, glaring at Saleen.

Saleen smirked, thinking how mages with any decency would not have burned in rage like that.

Evil aura permeated the place after the black ball of light exploded, staining hundreds of the heroic spirits, turning them into the likeness of the Heretic God as they writhed in intense pain.

The Grandmaster cast a purifying light, but he was already too late. Nearly 1,000 more succumbed shortly after. The heroic spirits were in intense pain as they pounced on their comrades, biting them as they went.

“This is a gift from me, Grandmaster, as a token of appreciation for you playing tricks on my equipment.” Saleen did not forget to take jabs at the grandmaster. The evil aura was a product refined directly from the Heretic God’s divine persona.

The remaining half of the Grandmaster’s face looked on eerily as he opened a magic book in his hand. Twelve magic spells were cast at Saleen at the same time. All 12 spells were of the six major elements, and all of them were of contradicting attributes. When the 12 spells were combined, their power exceeded level 18, despite all of them being level 17 spells.

Saleen had prepared to counter such means a long time ago. A rainbow shone in the cemetery and the grandmaster lost his target all of a sudden. When Saleen reappeared, he was already outside the cemetery.

“Fall back!” The general knew that they were not Saleen’s match by then. Their powers suffered significant drops, at the moment, Saleen was at the pinnacle of level 17. Worse still, he was armed with movement skills capable of rendering all their attacks null and forcing them to miss their targets.