Badge in Azure

Saleen’s proficiency at astrology was at the pinnacle of level nine. Due to using constellation power frequently, it was seemingly inevitable that he would advance, so when he saw the huge statue of the goddess, he saw a sliver of fate’s signs in it.

It seemed that the goddess had predicted that he would build a city there that would serve as the holy city. As such, the temple there served only one purpose—a place for believers to worship.

The goddess’ temple fitted the psychology of people of the current era perfect, 10,000 years after the temple was built—extravagant, elegant and exuding an aura of mystery. It had little to no similarities to the practical and simple designs used back when the goddess was alive.

Worse still, the statue was living and was filled with divine crystals!

That meant that even if the Goddess of Myers perished, believers would receive some blessings from worshipping the statue. It was a statue that the goddess created personally.

If she had no idea what was to happen in present time, she wouldn’t have crafted such a thing to begin with!

Saleen felt set up. Regardless of how he struggled, there was nothing he could do to change the course of fate. Fate is inevitable. It was a line uttered by holy masters often. However, mages existed because they wanted to take their own fate into their own hands.

The dreaded feeling made Saleen curse again. The tall statue could be manipulated easily. While it was alive, there were no signs of souls or consciousness within it.

It was divine equipment left behind by the goddess for the ones who would come after she perished. With that piece of equipment, believers were provided power even after the goddess perished.

Saleen knew that if he erected the statue in the temple, the holy masters in the entire Nature City would be able to receive divine power by praying to it. The bestowing of power was reciprocal.

Prayers from the believers in times of peace allowed the divine crystals within to coalesce. When there was a need to fight, the divine crystals would then be broken down to powers needed by the believers.

In short, the statue would only grow bigger, unless the number of believers was so small that they were incapable of providing required power of faith to sustain the statue.

Saleen even felt an impulse to just throw the statue into the purgatory of the fallen, but he worried about that too, wondering if the Shackles of the Fallen left behind by the goddess would react in unforeseen ways.

He was concerned that if he threw the statue in, he would have to lose both the 12 Notes of First Purgatory as well as Nailisi.

“All gods are indeed up to no good!” Saleen cursed again before lifting his left hand, trying to summon the statue with the Ring of Gifts on his finger. The statue actually walked towards Saleen with dazed eyes.

Saleen dripped a bit of divine power within the ring and imbued it inside an Eternal Control Shard, before throwing it at the statue, shooting for the statue’s forehead.

The statue absorbed the power of the goddess in a frenzy immediately, which naturally resulted in the shard between left within the head of the statue. Saleen only felt somewhat relieved then.

If a soul manifested within the statue, it would immediately be absorbed by the shard. With that, the statue would never be able to pose a threat to him.

The statue quieted down after absorbing divine power. The dazed expression in its eyes was gone and turned completely into an unmoving statue.

Saleen stored the statue inside a dimension stone, thinking that if he destroyed the statue, none of his mages would have to ever worry about insufficient mental powers.

Divine crystals were best for replenishing mental powers. Holding just a standard-sized piece of crystal would double a mage’s mental powers.

Wouldn’t destroying the statue invoke a punishment from the goddess though? While Saleen had to decide, it was not the time to do so. When his proficiency of astrology reached level 15, it would nullify all curses from the gods. If his proficiency in magic reached level 15, it would block curses from the gods as well.

Other than slowing down his progress in magic training, there were little trouble practicing astrology. At the very least, it would not cost him his magic chords like if he took up faith in the gods.

Saleen knew that his talents were not like Jason and paled in comparison to Truman. However, luck was on his side, which was why his speed at advancement far surpassed mages whose talents were superior to his. He deemed it inconvenient to break the statue, as it might cost him his luck.

The Goddess of Myers sure knows her way in calculations!

It reminded Saleen of how the grandmaster treated him. The super powerful beings saw common people the same way—things that they could manipulate as they fancied.

How about Gaine then? Wouldn’t he be hiding something from me too? Saleen shut the thought down immediately. Other than his teacher, no one else had been as helpful in furthering his training than Gaine. The astrologer could be said to be his teacher of sorts as well.

“Your Highness?” Don sensed something out of place and called Saleen with an inquiring tone.

“I’m alright. Yeah, does your spear need recrafting?”

“No need for that, Your Highness. I only need my weapon to be resilient and sharp. Any other attributes would simply get in the way of my fights.” Don was filled with confidence when it came to his profession.

“That wouldn’t be the case, Don. You need to placate your subordinates. Be it to reward or to punish them, there is a need for a standard, especially in the case of reward. I’ll give you divine equipment and warrior equipment. Don’t go around giving them like they cost nothing. I’m putting everything in your hands. Reward and punish your people in accordance to a strict standard.” Saleen did not bother concealing such methods from Don.

Don listened and figured it was probably how Saleen manipulated his people as well.

However, Saleen did provide abundant supplies. He did not even bother hiding anything to Don. He gave anything that he deemed necessary and no expenses were spared in that regard. At the very least, Don did not feel that he deserved that spear in the first place.

There were two of Saleen’s followers who needed the God-hunting Spear: Jola and Sul.

Since Saleen put it that way, Don began picking from the supplies that Saleen offered. All of it took place in the temple, so no outsider would know anything.

That was why Don never resented Saleen, since he provided Don with favors as he would his own people. The knights corps would be Don’s personal power sooner or later.

Saleen did not see the knights corps to be worth spending his focus in, as his final goal was not to control the Nature Faith. As for Don, he did not do it to be a leader of the knights. He would not have any use for the power after he crushed the Holy See.

There would be a day when both Saleen and Don would not bother with the temple knights’ future, so Saleen told Don to refrain from recruiting believers into the knights corps as best as he could.

The knights corps were made into a specialized mercenary group that served no other but the Nature Faith. That had always been Saleen’s intention. He wanted the knights corps attached to a religious organization to only consist of false or fallen believers.

It was even more far-fetched than the Tribunal, as the Tribunal still had large numbers of true believers and zealots. The Nature Faith’s temple knights, on the other hand, had no need for faith.

The temple was quickly taken apart and stored in Saleen’s space equipment. Every single material was marked using magic to ensure that nothing would go wrong during assembly.

Saleen sealed the portal when he left. Such a stable space, despite lacking in size, could be used as a secret warehouse. No other people could gain access to it, either, unless they possessed a Ring of Gifts like Saleen.

Saleen began to order his puppets to build a temple when he emerged from the portal. Construction was relatively slow, as the temple was divine construct instead of magical. The types shared many similarities, but divine parts required divine power to restore them.

The empty space that Saleen had reserved was enough for constructing 24 halls.

The temple was identical to the one that had been taken apart. The main hall was meant for the goddess’ statue. The layout of the temple differed from the ones in ancient times. There was no altar at the center of the temple, a base for the statue in its place.

The statue was placed at the end of the hall. There was a huge dome before it, which was carved with holy prose and runes, capable of directing power of faith from the believers into the statue.

The statue was able to bestow some blessings to the believers using the structure of the temple as well.

The Lord of Glory made the relationship between god and believers very clear. Believers were sheep and to them, the shepherd provided everything. However, the shepherd needed the sheep’s meat, milk, and wool. When the shepherd had needs, the sheep were expected to give everything.

There was actually a downtrodden bard who had illustrated the relationship between god and believers in a deeper manner.

There was no love without reason in this world.

The saying ‘god loves the people’ was a complete lie.

It was the lie of rulers to laud the nobility of love. It was an excuse of the fallen to condemn love to be selfish. Love should originate from the heart and have no attachments to it.

There was another reason why Saleen was unable to destroy that statue. His plan could be sped up with that statue, as many of the Nature Faith’s holy masters would be able to advance smoothly.

The Nature Faith would never be able to stand against the Holy See otherwise, let alone throwing out the Holy See from Myers Mainland.

After Saleen was done with the main hall, the holy masters who were in charge of the nearby areas of the city returned. The holy masters started to think of Saleen as a god after seeing the temple that he ‘built’.

Don did not bother bursting the bubble, so he did not reveal that temple was actually built by the goddess and that Saleen had just moved it from somewhere else.

Saleen’s plan went smoothly, as the Nature Faith’s teachings in the codex and other documents stated that there was more than one god in the world.

The Goddess of Nature also sang praises to some other gods, making her different from the Lord of Glory, so there were even some believers of the Goddess of Nature who worshipped in two gods at the same time.

Saleen’s actions was meant to make it as if he was the second god of the Nature Faith. It would make it easier to lure the believers into falling.

It was not uncommon for a religion to splinter into factions, as even the Holy See had signs of splintering: the oracle, the Tribunal, the Pivotal Council; all three institutions stood independently.

Like the astrologers say, ‘one’s fate is in one’s hands’.

Saleen would rather die in Ceylon City if he were told to accept fate’s arrangements. There would be no need to learn magic I would just submit to fate. You think it’s easy to train my mental powers using the family badge? Using the family badge felt worse than death in the beginning.

Saleen’s persistence, as with that of all mages, originated from the desire to take their fate into their own hands.