Badge in Azure

Chapter 1456: Black Dungeon City (Part 2)

The army advanced 100 kilometers. When it was about 300 kilometers away from the Black Dungeon City, an alarm was sounded on the island.

Saleen’s army moved slowly. The puppet army at the front was busy breaking traps while Saleen monitored from above. Any traps deemed too difficult to deal with were eliminated by a powerful magic scroll.

Most of the divine-rune charm arrays on the island were above level-10, with the highest ones reaching level-13. Disaster would have ensued if the army had walked through such large-scale divine-rune charm arrays.

Saleen wondered why none of the powerful beings had come to face him. And why hadn’t he run into any powerful wardens? Only small teams were left to guard their stations.

The things laid at the beach meant that the island rulers had anticipated his arrival. Saleen didn’t bother concealing anything and had flown all the way there. There were even wardens who had not been cleaned up after catching sight of the golden dragon.

The Violet Angel was an imposing, dashing figure. The price it paid was that it attracted too much attention.

Saleen knew an attack of this scale would stay under wraps for an hour at most. One hour wasn’t enough time for his armies to do anything significant, at least not tactically.

He realized that those in charge probably wanted him to fight them at the Black Dungeon City. It was built on flatlands, which were rare on the island, and the terrain was ill-suited for defense. Plus, the city was designed to prevent prisoners from escaping instead of preventing others from getting inside.

There were 12 prisons in the city. The buildings were designed according to the terrain; each was sturdier than most magic towers in the world. The magic towers were never built to imprison that many powerful beings.

The construction of the Black Dungeon was longer than the establishment of the Tanggulasi Empire. Prisoners had been locked up from the time of the first head warden’s appointment. The prison population grew from one to 12 over the years. Some inmates had been incarcerated for more than 1,000 years.

A few of those powerful beings had even reached level-13 a long time ago, but they still couldn’t escape the Black Dungeon. Generations of head wardens extracted countless secrets from them and in so doing acquired a great many secret arts.

The closer the Black Dungeon was to the central area, the less affected it became by the rules of Myers Mainland. That was not the case with the city, however. Some who intended to escape would have immediately been penalized by the rules of the mainland and suffered severe injuries, resulting in their being locked up again.

The divine-rune charm arrays in the entire Black Dungeon City were laid down according to the power of rules of Myers Mainland.

Saleen knew the key to it. He had no intention of letting those inmates out, but at present, the heads of the 12 prisons were talking to the inmates.

“The Black Dungeon Island will cease to exist and all of you will regain your freedom.” The heads told this to the inmates, which caused quite a commotion. Although those people had scores to settle with the Tribunal, they yearned for freedom more than anything.

“We don’t need your repentance or submission. The only thing you need to do is survive armed solely with your abilities.” The heads then had the wardens leave the Black Dungeon City after giving the same speech to the inmates they were in charge of.

One divine-rune charm array after another around the 12 huge prisons disappeared. If Saleen’s army were to advance at conventional speeds, the gates of the prisons would be opened by the time his forces got to the city.

He couldn’t check on the plane map yet though because he had to be in top fighting form and on guard against ambushes.

But then again, his Eye of Souls was capable of seeing over 100 kilometers away while he was flying. Suddenly, he spotted an empty Black Dungeon City; only a few divine puppets were left in those tall fortresses.

The spare crystals on those puppets had even been uninstalled. This meant that their only use was to maintain the divine-rune charm arrays built into the place, allowing them to disappear naturally without triggering any changes.

Saleen’s army would be able to make short work of those puppets without any cost.

So the enemy has retreated? Are they just abandoning the prisons? Faint yellow light emanated from Saleen’s leg. He stood in midair and looked far away, puzzled.

The Violet Angel flew up to him in an eager-to-please manner. Rafel then asked, “What happened, my lord?”

Saleen thought for a second. His power of the soul was so strong at the moment that he was unafraid of Rafel looking into his secrets. Saleen shared his senses with her in an instant, letting her sense what he had seen.

“They’ve retreated?” Dumbfounded, Rafel quickly added, “My lord, those divine-rune charm arrays were rare soul-sealing arrays in divine arts. They’re quickly disappearing. By the time they are no more, the prisons will be as good as open. Those locked inside will regain their freedom.”

Saleen snickered. Even if he didn’t calculate the time of the divine-rune charm arrays’ disappearance, he would still be able to figure out what the enemy was up to.

The enemy intended to use the prisoners to hold him back. Were it not for the Eye of Souls, he would have probably fallen into the trap. Those insane prisoners were not people his army would have been able to take on.

What’s more, he had no enmity against and no scores to settle with those prisoners. They too were enemies of the Holy See. If he simply took charge inside and began slaughtering them, he would have been the one who was sick.

“Rafel, switch to the second route,” Saleen said. Rafel tapped her feet and the Violet Angel returned to the ground obediently. Rafel then called Gusion over and spoke to him.

Gusion waved his flag. The puppet army, consisting of tens of thousands of units, turned around and headed south of the Black Dungeon Island.

They took a detour around the Black Dungeon City before redirecting to the Black Dungeon Volcano.

Black Dungeon Island was surrounded by several smaller islands. Saleen speculated that the volcano was where the head warden resided. It was the only place that was rather blurred, the only place where his current level of power of the soul was unable to see any details.

Although the Black Dungeon Volcano was extinct, it was still dangerous to stay inside: All it would have taken is a single forbidden curse to reactivate it.

But still, the head warden had taken up residence there. Saleen checked his Figure of Fate carefully again. So long as the figure was intact, not even the Lord of Glory would be able to make short work of him.

All his equipment was in top shape. Saleen checked the three green scrolls as well as a black one. The black scroll was a trophy he had gained in battle, a scroll that could be used at any level.

Saleen was at level-13, and that scroll was a level-15 dark magic.

That scroll was also the last resort he would have relied upon to keep himself alive. He kept the four scrolls carefully tucked inside the Thunder Dragon Bangle. He took out the Lightning Magic Book and checked it. He only accelerated while heading to the volcano after finding no problems with it.

Jola and Sul were Saleen’s close bodyguards at the moment. Without Nailisi and the Winged Skull around, they had a bigger role to play. Jola had gotten used to teaching sword techniques to powerful ones in the army, while Sul had gotten used to enhancing his combat prowess through actual combat. Both of them were not accustomed to following Saleen around this way.

It was fortunate that their equipment was tailored to them. The two of them were satisfied with what they carried. It was indeed the right decision to become Saleen’s follower. Were it not for him, they would not have achieved what they had.

Sul might have returned to the subcontinent plane and inherited his family business, living the next several hundred years in bliss, while Jola might have simply continued to wander and be in a constant dejected state.

Rafel stayed behind to command the army; however, she was unable to just leave Saleen be, so she sent over 100 metal angels to support him.

Now Saleen then had two level-12 true mights and over 100 metal angels with him. The Goddess of Myers had promised to help his three weapon spirits to advance, but that promise remained unfulfilled. Saleen was frustrated about that.

Truth to tell, the goddess did whatever she was able to help. She gave powers of rules and divine persona fragments to the three weapon spirits. There was nothing Saleen could do if the three were incapable of advancing further. If they became demigods, Saleen wouldn’t have left them behind at the Floating City. Instead, he would have taken them on the expedition to clean up the Black Dungeon Island.

After taking a detour around Black Dungeon City, Saleen’s army increased their speed twofold. All prisons were set free about two hours later. The time was just right, not a second late.

Meanwhile, the interior of Black Dungeon City became boisterous and rowdy. All inmates, who had been cooped up for so long they were about to go insane, broke free of their chains and shackles. But where was the enemy? They could not find a single one.

Everyone they met was a fellow inmate. None had been good people, however. Those incarcerated in Black Dungeon Island were the most violent and most dangerous. All the good people were dead. Only the bad ones would have been of use to the Holy See.

With so many concentrated in one place, things couldn’t remain peaceful. Fights broke out everywhere; over 100 lives were lost. Those who died emitted a terrible stench, which ironically didn’t smell like rotting corpses.

“Stop it!”

Twelve people bellowed at the same time—like a huge thunder blast reverberating throughout the prisons. Everyone stopped fighting. The 12 were the leaders among the inmates of the 12 prisons.

All 12 of them looked clean and even had servants attending to them. Anyone who had been able to achieve a certain status as an inmate was a commanding, fearsome presence. The 12 even knew each other from the beginning. They quickly gathered at the city center when they heard each other’s voices.

The 12 leaders met each other before long. All of them looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time.

“Seems like the prophecy was true after all. We ended up being freed.”

“Definitely! But it seemed as if this day came earlier than what was prophesized.”

“No matter. We’re out of there and all the restrictions in our bodies are gone. Who would be able to lock us up again from here on out?”

“How about we look for trouble with the head warden, eh?”

The others quickly scoffed the leader who proposed that idea. He felt sheepish and didn’t bring that up again.

“Let’s pack it in and get outta here. We’ll bring whoever we’re able to bring. Leave the others alone.”

“Are we gonna leave together or split up?”

“We’ll go together, through the undersea route. Ha! By the time we get to shore, we still can’t afford to split up though, else we’d probably…”

Those people quickly discussed their plans for leaving the island without fighting anyone. None of them, however, knew that the route that they were about to take had been blocked off by the Baldur’s Gate.

The only way for them to leave was either to secure specially made warships or to take Baldur’s Gate for themselves.