Badge in Azure

The soul beast flew further and further away. Saleen told everyone around him what he had seen. As a result, the hearts of everyone there turned rather heavy.

The never-before-seen weapons of war were actually capable of resurrecting after being shot by Saleen’s Thunder Dragon Blaster. It could even be said that it was the most difficult thing to deal with that they had ever seen.

Jola lowered his voice and said, “My liege, the three of us would definitely be able to kill one of those monsters.”

The three he meant were he himself, Sul, and Gusion. Without a doubt, the three golden grand swordmasters would have been able to kill one of those monsters.

The problem, however, was that if there were to be a huge number of powerful holy masters showing up to mess with them, the outcome would have been very difficult to predict.

Saleen grew increasingly determined of getting Nailisi to the city. Her Grey Memory would have been able to penetrate the monster’s body easily, destroying its heart. Furthermore, the lock-on ability of the Grey Memory would have rendered the monster’s heart incapable of escaping.

But, then again, they had no idea how many of those monsters the Tribunal had in their possession. If the numbers turned out to be big, even Nailisi would not have been able to do much.

“I can definitely take one on myself.” Sika had higher a number of contacts with the punishers than everyone else. She simply went about swinging her staff at them, not feeling how difficult it actually was to bring one down.

“I saw that thing was capable of casting divine spells,” she said. “If it had not been for them being in such an environment, it would have been even harder to kill them.”

The Winged Skull attacked continuously with their Reaper Scythe, but they were still incapable of killing the punisher. Despite so, they were able to clearly make out some of the monster’s attributes.

“In any other environment, my Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers wouldn’t have been brought down at all,” Saleen said rather glumly.

One of the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers he had left behind did not even have a bit of energy flying back to the badge after its elemental core was crushed. That meant that the particular unit was completely destroyed. There was no way to bring it back to life.

The soul beast was able to fly faster than sorcerers. The Tribunal forces had no plans of pursuing them. They all saw the golden grand swordmasters at Saleen’s side. Chasing after him without a sound plan would have simply added to their casualties.

Saleen went to look at how the magic cannons were laid out after returning to Daliang City, which made him feel somewhat assured. While the monster was powerful, it was still incapable of going as high as 1,640 feet with a single leap. It would have had no way of attacking Daliang City without being able to fly.

What was causing him headache was still the fortress beneath. Just how were things inside the giant cemetery? Was Jalin dead or not?

Saleen returned to the Magical Element Tower and gathered the sorcerers. They discussed other ways of fortifying the place. Ceylon City was unable to function without a garrison.

There was no way of summoning demons if Nailisi was called to the city. Losses in Ceylon City would have been difficult to replenish. Things in Ceylon City were messy. Troops from both sides were fighting right outside the city, and blood was being spilled every second.

Nailisi was the only one capable of holding the fort in Ceylon City. If she were to be called to Daliang City, all 12 sorcerers and the Winged Skull had to go to Ceylon City as well. That was because the Winged Skull’s spirit army would have been able to gain an advantage in sheer numbers.

Regardless of how large the Sikeqinyan population was, there was simply no way they could have been able to fight a drawn-out war with the spirit army.

Saleen instructed the Winged Skull to simply keep Ceylon City defended and wait for reinforcements from Metatrin. As for the outskirts of that city, the Winged Skull were to never put everything on the line.

If worse came to worst, giving up territory was an option. The walls of the new city in Ceylon City had been finished. The circle of defense had gotten very huge, and they were able to build all types of metal towers. The magic net was almost complete.

The teleportation portal worked only once an hour. The sorcerers were to be sent to Ceylon City one by one. It was taxing to teleport living people. Additionally, the portal in Ceylon City required constant maintenance.

The number of sorcerers over there were too few. If it had not been for Nailisi having ample high-level materials, it would have been a huge headache to even transport the 12 sorcerers to the city on the other end.

The Winged Skull was the last to leave. Nailisi came from Ceylon City right after they left.

“Master, you missed me after all!” Nailisi jumped from the other side of the magic array and chuckled as she pulled at Saleen’s sleeves. She had been fighting a boring war in Ceylon City.

The Sikeqinyan’s attacks were dull, but they could not be ignored. The enemy had massive numbers, and they came from all sides to attack Ceylon City to earn the status of a noble. From Nailisi’s perspective, what they were doing was incredibly stupid.

So what if you people take Ceylon City? It’s only a matter of time before Saleen takes it back anyway. Anyone who takes the city will be the one down on their luck. Hell, they might even end up having entire clans destroyed, and that noble status is nothing more than poison.

Lex said nothing, but Sika glared at Nailisi, which prompted her to let go.

Nailisi knew about things in Daliang City. At the moment, cavalry from the Tribunal was circling the city, observing how the defenses were laid out.

In actual fact, there was little to look at. Daliang City was 1,640 feet high. Almost none of the equipment the Tribunal brought with them proved capable of attacking the city.

The punishers were capable of shooting metal spikes. In such an environment, restoration of the spikes was far slower than restoration of magic chords of mages. It was also difficult to shoot any soldiers on the walls dead with the huge horns.

Saleen had no means of attacking the cavalry peering from outside other than the magic cannons, and the cannons at the walls were not installed on fixed bases.

They needed the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers to adjust the direction of barrels. But, it was difficult for the cannons to shoot the scattered cavalry units. Even if the shots were to be hits, it was still not worth the cost in magic nuclei.

“Nailisi, I called you here to kill a head inquisitor,” Saleen said.

“Master, isn’t it rather difficult to have me do that?” Nailisi took a look around and saw three golden grand swordmasters around Saleen. There was also Nicholas, the fallen holy master, and Sika around. It would have been easy for them to take out one head inquisitor.

“It won’t be as easy as you thought it to be,” Saleen said. “Someone at the rank of head inquisitor will definitely be equipped with very hard-to-handle equipment.”

Saleen played the recorded magic images of the previous battle. Nailisi looked at how the punishers fought with Jola and the others. She began to take she was told seriously.

She took out her Sword of Rules and sensed it for a bit. She smiled and said to Saleen, “Master, the weapon is still as it is. Lucky indeed.”

Nailisi took out the Grey Memory. The hairs of everyone in the Magical Element Tower stood up as she took out the spear. The smell of blood emanating from the tip of the spear was akin to poison.

Nailisi had been killing untold numbers of officers and generals in the battles in Ceylon City. Otherwise, her demons would not have been able to hold off the allied forces over there.

What was even more eerie was the six eyes right behind the tip. The closed eyes emanated an evil aura filled with all manner of negative emotions and powers. All three of the golden grand swordmasters seemed to have felt their lives in serious threat.

If Nailisi were to attack them right there, there was simply no way they would have been able to evade it.

“No restrictions as well!” Nailisi was very happy. It was a given that she wanted to help Saleen resolve his current predicament. The Grey Memory was her strongest means of offense. It was, after all, difficult to throw powerful targets into her collection of purgatories. The power within hardly mattered when battles were involved.

Lex frowned and said, “Saleen, if we were able to kill a head inquisitor, wouldn’t we have gathered all powers of the Holy See here?”

Her worries were sound. While the head inquisitors were not the ones in charge of the Holy See, they were just a tad lower than the pope in terms of status.

The power of the Tribunal had even exceeded that of the Pivotal Council led by the pope once in the past. Even at the moment, when the pope had acquired help from three oracles, it was still not certain that he would have been able to keep the Tribunal in check.

Killing a head inquisitor would have definitely raised morale, but it would have brought them more problems in the future.

Saleen replied with a single simple line, “Even if I were to not kill them, they would come to kill me all the same.”

Such was the underlying nature of things. Saleen had the War Drum of Fear, the Ring of Gifts from the Goddess of Myers, and huge amounts of power of faith stored in his ring.

If the Lord of Glory decreed that he must be killed, the Holy See would have thought of ways to bring Saleen down one way or another regardless of the lengths he would have gone to avoid it. They were simply determined to see him burned at the stake.

There was no other way out for Saleen. If the Holy See were to gather all of their forces there because one of the head inquisitors was killed, Saleen still had nothing to worry about. He would have let the fossilized gods out and taken everyone with him in death.

“Alright, whatever you choose. So long as you’ve made up your mind, you’ll have my support.” Lex stopped advising him against it. She touched the God’s Ring on her finger.

Its power was suppressed. However, it was fortunate that its space abilities were unaffected. It held enough food and equipment to feed and arm a million-strong army.

While he made it sound rather easy, Saleen did not actually have much certainty in the killing of the head inquisitor. The only equipment he was able to rely on was the Thunder Dragon Blaster.

He had summoned Nailisi so that in the event that the Thunder Dragon Blaster failed, there was at least a backup nearby.

Nailisi was assigned to the walls. She laid out her demon army. Her demon army from Ceylon City had all been summoned in short notice. As such, they were a messy bunch. The 100,000-strong demon army within her purgatory of the devils were still unused.

The Tribunal army outside the city had found the small groups of forts at the east of the city, as well as the temporary magic towers laid within. The constructs looked out of place beneath Daliang City.

The ones from the Tribunal would have been able to tell that there was something around, even if they were idiots. Furthermore, the Tribunal had actually gathered such a huge force to take the ruins in the first place.

The holy masters in the Tribunal army tried to fly, but found it incredibly exhausting to do so. All holy masters who were capable of doing so were level seven and above. Flying around Daliang City had them recall the days when they were at level six and had first learned flying divine spells.

The cost in divine power was 10 times higher, and they were unable to feel the blessing of their god. They were also 10 times slower at recovery. It was really one hell of a sh**hole.

The Tribunal’s army began to gather east of the city. The camp was brought 10 miles away to the rear. The cannons were rendered ineffective at such a range. A cannon would have hit its limit attacking something five miles away when powered solely by magic nuclei.

Offensive powers of the beams dropped by tens at a time outside that range, making attacks completely pointless.

Morning quickly arrived. More and more from the Holy See army began to close in east of the city. Huge numbers of Blood Knights and warden infantries appeared.

The 38 punishers were put at the very front of the camp, facing the small group of forts that Saleen had erected. The four punishers that Saleen killed had their hearts replaced, and they were put into battle again.

The other two, which had suffered damages beyond repair, could have only been taken apart and recycled. The three head inquisitors looked at the extent of their injuries and felt themselves trembling within.

The sun rose higher and higher. The three head inquisitors were done arranging their offensive formations, gathering 10 square formations east of Daliang City and putting all 38 punishers in the middle.

The charge was meant to destroy the small group of forts.