Badge in Azure

Sika was hardly bothered. She did not like doing brainwork much, unless it was something that concerned Saleen.

In many instances, petty shrewdness had no effect on people with laid-back, casual personalities like Sika. Jalin’s provocation was entirely useless. The only way to truly go against Sika was through the fist. But Jalin’s fist was hardly the size of Sika’s.

Energy degeneration concerned magic arrays. Any magic array, however perfect, inevitably suffered energy degeneration problems, even those imbued with energy balancing rules. Most of the time, it was not the problem of the magic arrays themselves, but the surroundings they found themselves in, where the flow of elemental energy was not permissible.

After being around for tens of thousands of years, it was inevitable for the internal puppets to suffer energy degeneration.

Principle of Crystal Coffin was a theory concerning powers of planes.

The ruins of giants had maintained the highest power within that plane. The ruins possessed power which far exceeded the limit of power of Myers Mainland.

It seemed that a large cover of the crystal coffin had affected the ruins. The cover controlled the power of the ruins. If the power of Myers Mainland increased, the ruins would increase in power as well. As such, it would maintain a limit without violating the rules of the plane.

The ancient humans discovered it when they conquered planes. There were cases where powers exceeding those allowed by their respective plane rules existed, but said powers were immutable and incapable of being unleashed. The formless cover of a crystal coffin limited such existences.

The ruins was one place limited by the cover of the crystal coffin.

Gods did not possess such powers, yet divine personas had such attributes.

Under the workings of Principle of Crystal Coffin, the ruins would maintain the strongest power allowed by Myers Mainland, but the puppets within the ruins ran according to energy degeneration principle, and would continue to lose power.

But then again, it meant that the puppets were not constructed for defensive purposes, or the ancient humans would have merged the power of the puppets with the ruins. In that case, Saleen would be going against level 12 puppets instead of something with power comparable to only level eight or nine.

“There are probably tens of thousands of those parasitic puppets within the stomach of the giant then?” Saleen sighed, thinking that he had painstakingly found a ruin of such value, yet it seemed to be near impossible to enter. Even if the power of the puppets was to degrade even further, they were not something he could contend with. They would easily overwhelmed him with sheer numbers.

“How about we just turn around?” Saleen asked Jalin. Since Daliang City was under his control again, he could enter the ruins any time he fancied, so long as the people of the Holy See do not end up taking the city.

There was no way Jalin would agree to that. There was no telling where she would be next time.

“We’ll either make it or die trying or we don’t get to call ourselves mages?” Jalin smiled. Saleen was able to feel her insistence despite the mask covering her face. She took out a magic fire shell; Saleen never expected her to be carrying equipment of such low levels.

Jalin wrapped the shell quickly with a layer of air currents using air element, before throwing the shell down the hole.

“Wait, no…”

Saleen did not say it in time. The magic fire shell fell deep into the hole in no time, making it untraceable. Saleen heard a loud rumble about a minute later. Flickers of fire and light were seen from beneath.

Cracking noises were heard. There was nothing special about it but Jalin smirked. She turned around and said to Saleen smugly, “how about that? There aren’t all that many puppets down there. The one back there was probably the last.”

Saleen nodded. Sometimes, luck went hand in hand with courage.

“Look out!” Sika yelled. Saleen heard heavy breathing sounds and deafening screeches. The space was suddenly filled with wind element. It was so thick that Saleen felt himself unable to breath.

Roarrr!

A peculiar roar was heard from the hole. Everyone, including Sika, was sucked into the hole by the huge force generated from the hole. Saleen was somehow able to summon Tempest Dragonmights in a hurry and wrapped everyone in wind element.

There were more than 200 people in the expedition, but Saleen was unable to afford to ignore the 12 sorcerers and Jalin. Some soldiers were not so lucky. Unable to get used to being wrapped in wind element, they felt so bad that their eyes became bloodshot.

Saleen had no time to deal with petty matters like that. Even the Tempest Dragonmights were unable to control the raging wind element. They had already given all they had just to keep the people alive. Everyone banged on the walls every now then as they fell.

Tens of soldiers were sucked into other branches of the hole, never to be sensed again. Saleen knew that there was no way they could come out alive.

They fell at a frightening speed. Saleen put up a large Water Shield in a hurry, which covered all 12 sorcerers. Saleen upgraded that spell back in the Imperial City of the Abyss, turning the Water Shield into a level ten spell.

Boom!

More than a hundred of them landed hard on the ground. The ones protected by the Water Shield bounced immediately after hitting the ground. Saleen was no longer the minor mage he used to be. The large ball formed by the Water Shield clung to the ground, and Saleen fixed it to the ground before it was able to bounce for more than half a meter up.

Saleen thought he had been sucked into the stomach of the giant, but when he looked at his surroundings, he found himself somewhere rather eerie instead.

The puppets brought by the sorcerers were all smashed, but the Water Puppet was unscathed. Gusion felt a heartache looking at the five mercenaries by his side, as some of his men who were sucked into the branch.

Gusion knew that the reason Saleen wanted them there was so that the mercenaries could get something out of it. As a golden grand swordmaster, it would increase his power exponentially if he were able to get some good equipment from the ruins. Saleen had even changed the gear of the mercenaries, giving all of them purple gold sacks.

The expedition had been for their benefit, yet now they suffered for it. The risk of venturing into the ruins was far higher than anticipated. About a dozen elite troops died for nothing, which saddened Gusion.

Jalin, however, bounced from the ground like a swordsman. Her eyes glittered as she looked far away.

It was a very large hole. There was no telling how tall the hole was. Saleen’s Elemental Eye was severely limited, allowing him to see only about three miles ahead. It was the limit of a level nine sorcerer. He did not know how others fared, but the senses acquired from Water Puppet told him that Rossen was hardly any different from a blind person, capable of seeing only about a dozen miles away.

“Leave this place!” A loud, booming voice reverberated within the cave. Saleen’s Water Shield had not dispelled yet. Outside the Water Shield, the surviving warriors all looked ill and blood trickled from their eyes, ears, and noses. The surface of Saleen’s Water Shield flickered with lightning sparks, resisting the attack of the sound.

Jalin charged outside the protection of the Water Shield, blinking a few hundred meters away in an instant. Saleen took notice that there was a large hexagonal magic array in front of Jalin with a stone tablet on top of it.

The stone tablet was about a hundred meters tall and entirely black. Saleen had failed to notice it at first due to lacking elements and having no light around.

Saleen lifted his arm and spun the star chart on his bangle for a bit, summoning the Thunder Dragon Blaster. He gritted his teeth, wanting to shoot Jalin, but was unable to get through with it. Arbola was not something he could mess with, and he was filled with regret seeing her using the mark of Six-Winged Flying Snake.

If she had not been armed with that mark, he would not need to fear her despite being at level nine. He could just call for his teacher if things didn’t go his way.

Sika felt something was off as well. No one knew that she was hardly affected by the environment, and her sight was somewhat better than Saleen’s. The reason Jalin rushed at the magic array was because she wanted to enter the ruins by herself.

However, Sika also took notice of the hundred meter stone tablet, as well as the words etched on it.

Grave of brothers. Trespassers will be forever doomed. It was signed with a signet with nothing else etched on it.

Saleen recognized the signet. Back when he wanted to disguise himself as royalty, Lex taught him the ways of the badge of nobles. The noble badges shared similarities with the signet, and that signet was the first one Saleen had learned about.

The signet of King of Glory, emperor of the First Dynasty.

The First Dynasty was established by a level 18 professional, who had slaughtered 18 gods of the same level. There was no way Saleen would ignore words left by someone like that.

That place was not some ruins; it was a cemetery, a cemetery for the giants.

There was no weaklings among true giants. Furthermore, this giant was someone who the first emperor of the First Dynasty called his brother. Dragons did not call ants their brothers. As such, it stood to reason that the dead giant was just about as powerful as the King of Glory himself.

Jalin is literally insane. She actually wants to just charge into the cemetery, ignoring the curse of the King of Glory?

Crazy b**ch! Saleen put his blaster away. There were 12 other sorcerers looking, not knowing what was happening. If he had shot Jalin dead, they would definitely tell Arbola.

Jalin was faster than grand swordmasters when she ran. Saleen had no idea where she had acquired use of earth element in a place like this. She circled around the large gravestone and reached the hexagonal magic array in just three seconds.

It was the entrance to the cemetery and there was no one to stop her. Jalin turned around and smirked at Saleen, before stepping into the magic array.

“Leave this place! Leave…” The booming voice kept howling, but Saleen felt numb about it all. Jalin had actually went in. Is she thinking that she can actually handle the curse of the King of Glory?

Saleen possessed a Figure of Fate, yet he had no certainty that he would be able to overcome such a powerful curse. The signet of a level 18 professional who crushed hundreds of divine kingdoms stared at everyone in that huge space from that cold gravestone.

Boom!

Boom, boom…

Something dropped from above. Saleen put up his Water Shield and called to all surviving troops. What fell from above were thousands of parasitic puppets in the giant’s body. Saleen was able to tell from their claws.

The puppets dropped without any protection and were quickly smashed to pieces when they reached the ground. The place quickly filled with scraps, sending shivers down Saleen’s spine. He was able to tell using his Elemental Eye that the smashed puppets were picking their broken bodies and piecing themselves back together. The puppets stood up when they were done doing so, then surrounded Saleen.

Saleen regretted not killing Jalin. He thought that it would not have mattered who he offended.