Badge in Azure

Chapter 1204: Nature City (Part 2)

Don never mentioned how the establishment of the faith came about, and the effect was actually better than if he talked about it prior.

Saleen entered the temple with a crowd around him. The simple temple was built out of common green stones, but the nature holy prose carved on them was exquisite.

Saleen sat at a long table and had Isabella take out materials, assembling a magic array on the table before putting a memory crystal on it, activating the schematics within.

“Don, you have enough Heaven Knight Armor to arm your knight corps. I’ll provide a sturdy city for the Nature Faith, which would allow the faith to be well protected.”

“This place doesn’t seem to be the right spot for building a faith’s sacred ground,” Don refuted.

Saleen smirked. “I signed a hundred-year-treaty with Grand Duke Iron Blood. While this place may be close to the canal, there is no risk of getting attacked by the Grand Duke’s army. Just keep a close eye on the Holy See. Unless you’re telling me that 100 years are not enough for you to build an invincible army.”

Don shut up. He never understood why Saleen wanted to build a city there, as the terrain was too flat and devoid of any natural protections. The only relief was that there was a lone hill not far away from the city, which could be used to construct a fortress that would be closely linked to the city.

Saleen expanded the magic projections and revealed a huge magic map, suspended within the temple. Saleen pointed at the outline of Nature City and activated the magic array, saying, “The city is to be expanded by ten times what it is now, taking in the fortress as well.”

The magic projection displayed the city Saleen designed as he spoke. The green city was incredibly beautiful and a creature that the Goddess of Nature had created—a kaplon—was flying in the sky.

Magic veins hung from the city’s walls, and the buildings within the city were all made of magic wood materials. A huge temple that was hundreds of meters tall sat at the center of the city, overseeing the surroundings.

A river was designed as well, which was excavated and from over 600 miles away from the city, which could be guided to flow into the canal. The river was branched 600 miles away and a huge reservoir needed to be built to irrigate the fields near Nature City.

The holy masters were in awe. The city was beautiful. The layered buildings all looked like artwork. It captured the hearts of everyone who saw it, and even the ones who knew nothing about art were captivated at a spiritual level.

“How much…is all of this going to cost?” Some holy masters could not help but ask.

“Can faith be weighed in gold?” Saleen uttered a line that sounded like the pretentious sham than any priest said. If a mage heard Saleen utter such a line, they would throw Fireballs at him. However, the holy masters were moved.

Even if His Highness Saleen was not a believer, he seemed to be very close to god.

The hundred or so holy masters around them were the earliest batch of adherents of the Nature Faith, with the exception of the ones who had betrayed the Lord of Glory.

Saleen addressed the minor holy masters, the elders of the faith in the future. “I’m only building Nature City for the goddess as an individual. I implore every one of you to bear witness that I’m going to make it so that the goddess will advent on the mainland again, and cast the Lord of Glory, the fiend of a god, out of Myers Mainland!”

The words that Saleen spoke contradicted Nature Faith’s teachings. However, none of the holy masters caught on, as the Lord of Glory’s presence had been around on the mainland for generations.

Everyone had an impression that so long as the Lord of Glory was present, no other gods were allowed to propagate their faiths.

As such, it was not actually the Goddess of Nature’s problem for wanting to cast the Lord of Glory out, as it had been the Lord of Glory who refused to tolerate the Goddess of Nature’s existence in the first place.

Saleen’s words were extremely seditious. “If I begin building the city now, Nature City will be built within the next three days.”

“Three days?” Even Don found that unbelievable.

“From this day onward, the goddess’ teachings shall shine on this land,” Saleen said as he cast Puppet Constellation.

Saleen played his hand well, as he was not actually duping the believers entirely. He was fated to help Myers resurrect, and he would pour his heart and soul into it. The contract between them would only be fulfilled when the goddess was resurrected.

The huge Puppet Constellation hovered in the air and shrouded the entire Nature City. The sparse population of the city all saw the sun disappear and stars rise. The sky was flawlessly pure. It was a blue color that neared black.

The rate of the stars at work had not originally been observable with the naked eye, but at that moment, everyone saw how the stars worked and they felt rather insignificant.

That was fate—the fate of people. It was just like how they were able to see the stars, and that even if they were able to see how the stars ran, there was simply nothing they could do to alter them.

Powerful people fought against fate, but they were destined to perish sooner or later. Such was the fragility of humans, and gods were no exemption as well!

The adherents of Nature Faith all knew that the goddess had perished, but she would once again rise on Myers Mainland. It was a message that the goddess had left, and one that every adherent believed with all their heart.

The stars shrouded the land and countless puppets emerged. All manners of construction materials piled into mountains before the temple, and more still emerged from Saleen’s space equipment.

The puppets began building Nature City per Saleen’s instructions. Saleen’s Puppet Constellation had an area of effect of 12 miles, which was the diameter of Nature City. Saleen had no intention of building a bigger city. Expanding it any further would cost him too much mental power and life force.

No way I’m going to go that far for the goddess!

Saleen lost over 60,000 puppets researching lightning in the clouds. Half of the lost puppets were restored and he still had 470 thousand puppets in standby in the equipment. None of the 470,000 were lower than level four. All of them were frighteningly strong constructs, and they came in very handy for building a city.

The reason why ancient humans created puppets was to use them for construction, not combat.

Even fully constructed puppets, the kind able to carry out very complex tasks, were just tools that ancient humans used to manipulate other tools.

Don was shocked at what Saleen was doing. He is trying to build an exquisite city all on his own. Just how powerful Saleen are mental powers?

Among the puppets, over 99% of them had no sense of aesthetics. It came down to Saleen to watch the details of bringing the exquisite design of the city to life.

The newly built city expanded outwards, Saleen at the center. Multiple underground passages were dug by the puppets. Some were meant for transporting, some were for water, and some others were tools for combat.

Furthermore, transportation of goods, food storage, and all the functions that were standard to Qin cities were in Nature City.

Underground construction was incredibly complex, but the constructions needed no comprehension or appreciation for art. All buildings above ground were built with a combination of the goddess’ style, Qin’s sense of aesthetics, as well as the holy prose carvings, making every single building look complex and exquisite.

More and more puppets arrived. The reason Saleen was confident enough to say that they would finish constructing Nature City was because the puppets were all conditioned prior.

Furthermore, all construction materials were crafted in the alchemy factories. Even common wood materials could be made into precious materials.

The mages crafted the materials according to schematics. What the puppets were doing was simply assembling and installing the material, which was an easy job. With the construction of every building completed, Saleen controlled Puppet Constellation, raining power of the stars from above and activating the magic array, reinforcing all the buildings. There were no cracks found at assembly points.

The holy masters were right to ask just how much is this going to cost?

Saleen paid no heed to cost, as many of the materials used were acquired from taking the temples apart. There were few that had valuable attributes left on them due to weathering.

He had brought the materials out when he was taking the temples precisely to build a city that belonged to the goddess.

He chose the north instead of the south, as it was closer to his own kingdom, making it easy for him to destroy the city if he needed to.

Saleen was not actually the only one who was doing all of it. 3,600 demonic spirits from the Magical Element Tower helped Saleen with assembly of the modular construction pieces using a magic net.

Many of the materials looked old as they were derived from temple materials that had been sitting around for 10,000 years.

Don was speechless. Saleen was playing god. It would not be weird for ancient humans to pull off such a feat, but Saleen was able to build the Nature City in just three days, using a special equipment like the Puppet Constellation.

Nailisi summoned huge amounts of demonic spirits, demons, and imps from the purgatory of the devil to fill the city up. Some revived fallen believers gushed out from the purgatory to help with adding new holy prose to the city.

The Kaplon appeared as well. It was a beautiful creature, and had vibrant feathers growing all over its body. It was lithe and winding, devoid of any sharp fangs.

The creature was effective in repelling harmful magic beasts and pests. With such a creature guarding a place, crops would grow in abundance.

Menace from pests such as rats and locusts would never happen in a place where a Kaplon lived.

A Kaplon was a type of puppet. Saleen did not originally possess the schematics, but acquired it from the Big Guy. As a result, there were few Kaplons in the Puppet Constellation.

The demons began planting flora in the city. The seeds of the plants were all provided by Eleanor. Saleen created growth pharmaceuticals which, when mixed with restorative water and pure rainwater, enabled plants to grow after being watered for three minutes.

From the standpoint of construction cost, Nature City was more expensive to build than Metatrin City.