Badge in Azure

“Sharjah, why are you so afraid of me?” Fycro asked amicably.

Sharjah made his voice sound as calm as possible as he asked, “Lord Fycro, why are you here?”

Fycro was not angry that Sharjah hadn’t answered his question. He smiled and said, “I’m here to save you.”

“Save me?”

“Indeed. Those two as**oles from the divine kingdom had probably betrayed god. What they want is the entire plane. Getting a kid to be pope and kicking you out, do you really think this is all over?”

Sharjah then said in a very angry tone, “What more do they want!?”

“Well, your Ring of Many Gods for one. Even I would want that, let alone those two oracles.” Fycro’s smile turned rather peculiar and Sharjah tensed up.

If Fycro wanted to go against him, he wouldn’t be a match for him, even when armed with the Ring of Many Gods.

It was due to Fycro’s powers alone that the Oracle Corps had been able to shake off the Pivotal Council’s control. No one other than Fycro would have been able to arrange the seats of the seven oracles.

“Why are you shaking again?” Fycro asked. Then he said to Sharjah with a chastising tone, “And I thought it would be a good idea asking you to be a part of the Oracle Corps.”

Sharjah did not know how to answer that. He still wasn’t ready to believe the news about Theisio’s demise came. He hadn’t dared to take up his power back then. By the time the oracles had returned and declared Theisio’s death, it had already been too late for Sharjah to do anything.

By the time he grasped what was going on, the two oracles had already kicked him out.

Sharjah had no idea if it was a fortune or a curse that Fycro wanted to recruit him. Fycro’s intentions were clear. If he joined the Oracle Corps, he would not have to hand over the Ring of Many Gods. Then again, that meant that he would have to become enemies with those level-12 oracles.

“Sharjah, you lost your chance when Theisio died. Do you really want to hand the godly item to those two? Do you want to be a bootlicking holy master all your whole life?”

“Absolutely not!” Sharjah mustered his courage all of a sudden. He definitely did not want to live such a life, not even for a single day.

“Come with me then. Forget about going to Glorious City, by the way,” Fycro said, waving his hand. Sharjah carriage suddenly shot into the sky.

The internal changes of the Holy See affected the war on the mainland. Over half of northern Qin had fallen. After the devastating blows dealt by the Nature Faith’s knights corps, over half of the invading armies of the Holy See had retreated to Kroraina.

The Laiyin Duchy had been invaded by the Nature Faith’s knights, most of which were demons. The Laiyin army would be lost if they attacked the demons.

Things would turn relentlessly messy once if tangled with the religious armies.

In general, religious armies had no intention of taking the cities of other nations. However, if the invaded nations attacked them, it would result in a war that would wipe the entire nation out.

As such, when the Holy See went about requesting permission for additional troops or to pass through a place, Laiyin Duchy did nothing to stop them. They even sent mercenaries to help with the war effort. As a result, there were many mercenaries from Laiyin Duchy in the Holy See’s expeditionary forces.

When the Holy See had been defeated and the Nature Faith had been engaged, the Laiyin Duchy had become confused. Mercenaries would remain loyal so long as they were paid. As soon as payment from the Holy See was cut off, some mercenaries had switched sides to fight at the frontlines for the Nature Faith instead.

It was easy to take on the scattered, losing armies. Mercenaries were most adept at fighting such battles.

There were nobles in northern Qin who chose to hold out, but they were in trouble due to the presence of Alchemy City. When Alchemy City had agreed to help the nobles defend their cities, they had not done so unconditionally.

With the emergence of the Nature Faith, the mages of Alchemy City requested for the nobles to refuse entry to the temple knights.

Conflict inevitably broke out. Holy Rock City did not release any statements saying that the Nature Faith was illegal. The nobles did not want war with yet another Holy See, but the mages of Alchemy City were forcing the local nobles’ hands. The nobles were unable to resist due to having signed contracts.

Casualties were low when they were pursuing the Holy See’s forces, but the battles with mages of Alchemy City caused the Nature Faith to lose many of their holy masters.

While a new religion is first being established, even low-level holy masters are incredibly precious.

Due to the delicacy of the situation, Saleen did not head straight to Pompeii City. Instead, he took the Floating City to northern Qin to join the fight.

The battle was spectacular. The Floating City dropped magic fire shells from above and thousands of enchanters cast magic attacks at the forces below. Countless puppets dropped rocks from tremendous heights. The rocks, dropped from a height of about 10,000 meters, ended up being more lethal than anything thrown by the catapults.

None of the northern nobles were able to resist such attacks.

The mages of Alchemy City were unable to fend off Saleen’s attacks either. Equipment like the Floating City had been considered extremely powerful even in ancient times.

Even though its size was several hundred times smaller than what it had once been, and its attacks were also considerably reduced, to conventional armies, the Floating City was nothing less than a flying nightmare.

The mages dispatched by Alchemy City were all sorcerers. There were thousands of demonic spirits in the Floating City that, with the help of the magic net, were all effectively sorcerers as well. Only exceptionally powerful beings would have been able to resist such forces.

Alchemy City had ample numbers of powerful professionals, but they had never expected to fight Saleen. Even if they’d intended to do so, they would not have been able to catch up to him.

People who were able to catch up to Saleen were in short supply. They were also afraid of not being able to take him on when they were at a disadvantage.

The Floating City was indeed such an abhorrent menace. The shock of seeing such a huge city flying overhead was something that even their enemies couldn’t suppress.

Furthermore, Saleen’s Floating City was 36 square miles. Being of such a humongous size, it could easily crush any city it landed on, let alone just throwing by rocks down from above.

Saleen had actually done so. A local noble had killed hundreds of adherents of the Nature Faith, so Saleen had immediately gone there with the Floating City. He’d landed right on top of the city belonging to said noble. The city was reduced to dust in mere moments.

No northern nobles had been able to put up a decent fight after that. The Alchemy City mages had contracts in their hands, yet all of them proved useless. No nobles were able to fight Saleen. Only Alchemy City would have been able to stand a chance against him if they were willing to mobilize their mages and armies.

Alchemy City’s army was small, numbering less than 100 thousand. They had more mages than soldiers. The problem, however, was that there had been a strict contract signed between Alchemy City and Holy Rock City. Mages of Alchemy City were allowed to deploy, but their armies were only allowed to defend within the city or on warships at sea.

The city’s mages had taken to the sky to attack the Floating City. However, the Floating City’s altitude was at a height that mages were very wary of. Few dared fight recklessly. They were all beaten to a pulp by the enchanters. Those who were not able to fly fast enough had been blown to bits by incoming magic attacks.

As soon as Saleen’s Floating City was deployed, it seemed as if the tables had turned. The entirety of northern Qin had seemingly being swept clean by a tidal wave.

Due to their relations with Lex, the resistance from the northern Qin nobles was not intense. If not for that, Saleen would have had to slaughter every single city he found.

Alchemy City had never suffered such a crushing defeat when the Holy See was at the height of their power. They were incapable of doing anything to reverse their defeat, as Saleen’s Floating City was able to trample over any conventional armies.

The mages from Alchemy City retreated. Saleen’s Floating City headed for the ruins where Pompeii City had once been.

There was no need to actually rebuild the place. Saleen simply instructed the lightning puppets to repair the walls of the ruins. The walls were treated like artwork. Many expensive stone materials were used for the repair.

The newly built city wall had an irregular square shape and a circumference of ten miles. The walls were carved with murals and elaborate writings, illustrating Pompeii City’s history.

A huge memorial was built on the eastern side of the city. Over a million names were carved on the memorial. It contained all of the information found in the household register of Pompeii City.

Alchemy City had destroyed Pompeii City, yet their magic records survived. Saleen did the best he could to illustrate the names and identities of all those people on the memorial.

The memorial was surrounded by a Qin-styled cemetery where all of the dead bodies that remained were buried. The entire cemetery was a huge magic array, including the gravestones.

With command over a Floating City, it became incredibly easy for the enchanters to cast spells from a height of about 100 meters overhead.

As Alchemy City had suffered a devastating blow at northern Qin, Alchemy City did not dare to send any mages to harass Saleen. There was no need to do so, as Saleen’s strength had grown to the point where they had to take him seriously.

However, Saleen did not simply let the matter slide. He sent an adherent of the Nature Faith to Alchemy City, asking to be refunded for the house he’d bought there. Alchemy City felt disgusted by Saleen’s antics.

They were selling real estate properties to earn money. Mages had to bear with the exorbitant cost if they intended to stay in Alchemy City.

However, with Metatrin City rising up to compete with Alchemy City, the mages had to go elsewhere. Real estate prices plummeted in Alchemy City as a result.

Saleen asked to be refunded at the highest price possible. Alchemy City was already enemies with Saleen, and he was provoking them for doing such a thing.

However, the contract was still in effect. If Alchemy City were to refuse, Saleen would have other reasons to look for trouble with Alchemy City.

While Alchemy City felt disgusted by what he’d pulled, there was no way for them to weasel out of the deal, so they refunded Saleen who took back the house. However, things took a turn for the worse when the Nature Faith adherent was unable to leave Alchemy City. The adherent was robbed and killed right in front of the Elemental Hand’s tower.

The killer was a powerful assassin. Alchemy City practically turned the place upside down, but no one was able to find the killer.

Saleen then asked Alchemy City about how they would settle the matter with him.

Alchemy City was naturally unwilling to stomach a loss like that, but Saleen was quick on his feet. He simply took the Floating City to territories under Alchemy City’s control and poisoned every single field that belonged to them.

The poison was not a strong one and was incapable of killing anyone, yet it would prevent the soil from producing crops for over ten years.

Saleen left feeling very pleased with himself. He took Sika to the Imperial City of the Abyss through the teleportation portal. The other end of the teleportation portal was a huge island outside of the Oceanic Ice Block.

That place had been converted into a spirit island by the Winged Skull. Their warship was patrolling nearby.

“Master, why didn’t you bring Nailisi with you?” The Winged Skull asked on the Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship.

“Nailisi need to man the Floating City, as only she is capable of commanding that many demonic spirits. I’m totally at odds with Alchemy City now. I never thought that, as a mage, I’d have come this far,” Saleen said, sighing deeply.