Badge in Azure

Chapter 1328: Struggle (Part 2)

Saleen and the others approached the city high up in the sky. There were few professionals willing to fly at altitudes above 3,280 feet. Any mistakes could have ended up with them falling to their deaths.

Saleen’s party flew at an altitude of 6,500 feet.

With Saleen around, along with the Elemental Eye being able to be shared between all three of them through Sensory Sharing, the Winged Skull and Nailisi were able to see minute objects on the ground below.

“Master, there.” Nailisi no longer bothered pointing.

With senses being shared between the three of them, it meant that each of them had six eyes. It enabled them to take care of different angles respectively, eliminating any blind spots. It was something Saleen recently developed. While it was a simple matter, he somehow overlooked it in the past.

There was a 10,000-strong army garrisoning at the north side of Highland City. Saleen was able to see everything clearly from high up. It was none other than Fycro’s bug angel army. A large number of holy masters were assigned to the army. They were absorbing the black mist with a device near places abundant with the substance, which were then sent back to their camp.

Saleen was curious and observed closely what they were doing with the black mist. He chuckled after finding out. The black mist was meant for purification after being carted back to the camp.

White powder-like substances were left behind after the black mist was purified. The holy masters carefully collected the white powder and handed it to holy masters of high levels, which were then put into space equipment. Seeing how those people handled the substance, one could tell that the white powder was precious.

Due to the black mist having reached over 32,000 feet high, there was a vortex appearing at the center, sucking the mist back within. As such, the black mist did not keep expanding. The density of the black mist was hardly affected despite having some at the external fringes sucked away.

Saleen was unable to tell what was in the black mist with his Elemental Eye. He looked at the two at his side and said, “Fycro is collecting the white powder. Let’s get down there and make sure he doesn’t get much out of it.”

“Get down there?” The Winged Skull felt rather dumbfounded.

“Of course,” Saleen said as he took out three pieces of clothing, which he had both the Winged Skull and Nailisi wear.

They were robes crafted using thunder dragon hide. Thunder dragons were immune to mist. The robes were crafted using thunder dragon hide enabled them to be isolated from the mist’s corrosion for prolonged periods.

After putting on the robes, Saleen took out his dragon boat, which was made using thunder dragons. Saleen modified it for quite a bit in the alchemy factories, allowing it limited flight. The three of them went into the boat and dived straight into Highland City’s black mist.

Saleen’s sight was limited to several hundred feet after entering the black mist. The dragon boat was slow in flight, equal to that of the most common birds. Saleen had no need for speed.

He manned the dragon boat and steered it away from the vortex at the center, landing somewhere comparatively flat, before letting Nailisi purify those mists. The dragon boat kept the mist outside. Saleen left one opening opened, which was connected to Nailisi’s purgatory of purification. It was made to absorb the evil black mist outside.

Things were chaotic inside the purgatory of purification. Nailisi tried purifying all manners of tainted items back in Nature City. Everything in purgatory of purification ended up being tainted by the evil aura before being purified.

Nailisi was not concerned. It did not result in her purgatory of purification losing its functions. On the contrary, the place became more capable at purifying things. For example, the mist before them at the moment. The amount of black mist gushing inside was tens of thousands of cubic meters. The mist liquefied into dirty water as it entered the purgatory of purification, which quickly cleared up. White residue was left on the ground after the mist was purified.

The white residue was like sand. There was no evil aura found in it.

Nailisi took a handful and handed it to Saleen. He held the white stuff in his hand and felt them for a bit. He found them peculiar since they had no attributes at all.

It was worth noting that even a pile of excrement had attributes. It was a special thing about the material world, yet the white residue was devoid of any attributes. The white granules were incredibly hard. Saleen pinched them, which hurt his fingers. One pinch with his fingers was equal to an attack from silver grand swordmasters, yet the white granule looked completely unscathed.

Nailisi’s purgatory of purification was 1,200 miles square. The space within was equal to a mid-sized nation. While the black mist’s evil aura was powerful, in terms of size, it was not able to match the power of the rules within. Furthermore, the rules of the purgatory of purification would need to be completed further, with every bit of black mist purified.

Those holy masters used special equipment to absorb the black mist bit by bit, being careful of not getting too close. Nailisi, on the other hand, threw the door wide open and let the black mist gush inside. Within 30 minutes, the ground was covered in a layer of fine, white sand.

Saleen was figuring out how he could purify some of the mist. He cast Lightning Territory and shrunk it to just a feet away from his body. He slowly sucked the mist in to purify it using lightning. Doing so yielded unexpected results. Black mist purified using lightning yielded translucent golden granules instead of white ones. Complex lightning magic patterns were seen on the golden granules, which resembled his family badge.

He was elated. Saleen wanted to craft more lightning equipment, but he struggled to find the right materials. The translucent substances, while fine, could have been refined using Water Flame and made into larger sizes containing lightning attributes. The black mist was very precious to him by then.

Since the black mist existed in practically inexhaustible amounts, Saleen did not need to stop Nailisi. The attribute-less granules would have been of great use.

He cast Lightning Constellation. As the equipment came to be inhabited by a weapon spirit, its speed at casting lightning was frightening. Saleen brought out the Lightning Cage, sending it straight into the black mist.

Lightning magic patterns sparkled on the Water Shield. Saleen stepped outside the dragon boat and expanded the area of the Lightning Territory. Countless streaks of lightning zapped about. Black mist touched by the electrical charges was purified on the spot.

The Lightning Cage was slow at absorbing black mist, but it came with a benefit of not needing Saleen spend any of his powers on it. He took control of the eight Armoring Lightning Beads and let them zip about in the black mist.

Golden granules purified by the beads were the most solid and were larger in size. The lightning magic patterns on them were also clearer.

With Saleen casting lightning skills, the amount of black mist around quickly became rather inadequate. The Winged Skull was out to purify the mist too. Blood soul towers spun in their eyes. Two powerful souls saw the evil mist outside from within the blood soul towers and screamed in surprise, casting green light. The green light shot out of the Winged Skull’s eyes in beams about 320 feet long. Black mist dissipated as soon as the beams touched them.

Mist that was cleaned by the Winged Skull yielded black, transparent granules. The granules held profound death magic patterns, but they were something with which not even the Winged Skull was familiar. They were simply doing it out to share Saleen’s burden. The power from their eyes shot without retrain, purifying the place at high speeds.

The lightning warriors charged. Many warriors were tainted and abominated when they went about picking up the bone fragments. They were healed by Saleen using divine powers when he returned to Nature City, regaining their original form.

The lightning warriors became considerably resistant to the mist. Compared to the taint from the fragments, the mist’s effects were insignificantly weak. The lightning warriors were able to resist the black mist with only the electricity coursing about their bodies, gradually purifying them.

While such purification process was rather slow, there were over 500,000 lightning warriors. Their massive numbers sped up the purification process. They picked up the golden granules as they went about purifying the black mist.

Saleen did not know what Fycro was up to by picking up the white granules. Since it was something that Fycro deemed necessary, Saleen needed to disrupt it. Fycro had taken Sharjah and wanted to get his hands on the Ring of Many Gods, so Saleen sent Bain to assassinate Sharjah and destroy the ring. With all those operations disrupted, Fycro’s plans would be affected.

Even if he had no idea what Fycro was actually up to, he was still able to cause Fycro’s plans to fail. Such was the thought patterns of astrologers. While Saleen did not like being an astrologer, it did not stop him from using powers of the astrologers.

Fycro’s holy masters were oblivious on the other side. They were still slowly absorbing the mist and sending it back to camp for purification. The holy masters did not have lightning equipment, so it was difficult for them to keep themselves safe if they were to be steeped in the mist. As such, they were only able to work at the external fringes, preventing them from seeing what Saleen’s party was doing.

That operation ended up with Saleen staying over three days in the black mist, which was shrunk to an area a little more than a mile wide. The vortex at the center was revealed, including the portal at its core. There were no longer any abominations that dared to charge from the other side.

Saleen stopped absorbing. He had acquired massive amounts of crystallized granules. The white ones were the most plentiful, followed by golden ones and black ones.

The holy masters at the north found that the area of the black mist had reduced. They were not concerned at first but soon found the phenomenon to be abnormal and alerted Fycro.

The size of the White City in the Chaotic Swamp did not expand. The abyss before the city became deeper. There were various creatures moving about in the abyss. Among them were the Bug Angel Warriors. Those abominated bug angels were resurrected in the abyss. Their evil aura was completely purified, yet they were unable to leave the Divine Abyss. They were forced to survive and deal with the harsh conditions within.

The Bug Angel Warriors spent their days praying to Fycro, when they were not busy fighting, in hopes of being able to leave the pesky abyss. The prayers of those Bug Angel Warriors within the abyss sped Fycro’s acquisition of power of faith by tens of times. After all, Saleen had killed many Bug Angel Warriors.

Fycro was training in the city and approaching key moments. He frowned when the holy masters told him about the matter. It was out of his area of control. He was compelled to put aside the training of an ability that he was about to complete and headed straight to Highland City to solve the problem.