Badge in Azure

Chapter 1462: Fruitless (Part 2)

The island ripped in half as two single-target, level-18 magic spells were cast during the volcanic eruption. The upheaval caused Saleen great trepidation. Though the catastrophe was mainly due to the island’s geographic location, he took no comfort from this. He wondered, was I the one who unraveled those two scrolls?

If the scrolls had gotten out of control, nothing would have been left of him after he died.

Saleen’s hand began trembling. He still had one level-18 scroll left in his personal space. If the Goddess of Myers were to cast some divine spells and unravel that scroll remotely, he would have been done for.

His thoughts racing, Saleen noticed several figures taking flight from the mouth of the volcano. All were panicking, which was most unbefitting given their levels.

They were all previous head wardens, the weakest among them being level-12. The stronger ones had even already reached level-16. The more powerful they were, the unluckier they got. After the battle, the rules of Myers Mainland were capped at level-12 again. Those people had suffered grave damage before they even emerged.

There were no sealing skills in existence potent enough to lock up their powers. Thanks to the mystical space at the volcano, everyone survived; however, those two level-18 scrolls had disrupted the independence of that space, destroying the very thing the Black Dungeon Island had relied on.

By the time they emerged, the green hole in the sky reappeared and came creeping down the mountain, sucking up everyone in its path attempting to flee.

Everything had to be returned to the prime point. Isn’t that what the Goddess of Nature said?

Regardless of how powerful those previous head wardens were, not a one survived the catastrophe.

The Goddess of Myers watched the mystical battle on her plane map from the comfort of the Purgatory Desert. She smiled, thinking that Saleen had been disobedient as expected by using the scrolls to conquer the island.

But then again, those people on the island had to be dealt with sooner or later. And there was no time like the present. Saleen still had one level-18 scroll with him. That meant the Lord of Glory’s double would not be able to kill him. Even if the Lord of Glory were to advent personally, Saleen would be able to escape

The goddess wondered, Why is this mage so cautious? She had never seen the skill Saleen used to escape on any mage she had encountered before, which meant that he probably created it on his own.

Mages able to create their own spells would eventually advance to levels beyond 16.

Although the crystal wall system they were in was capped at level-18, it was nearly impossible to rise to level-16 in the first place. Further, the lifespan granted by being at level-16 was not very different from level-18. As long as someone making it to level-16 managed to stay alive, there would be more growth opportunities.

The way the goddess judged a situation was based on how things were tens of thousands of years ago. If Myers Mainland kept advancing, there would have been nothing wrong with that.

Her confidence was rooted in her connections to the Source of the Myers Mainland plane. There was no way she could have been resurrected by having tens of millions of believers worshipping her.

The ones providing her with power, however, were more than mere believers.

After watching the battle, the goddess turned her attention to resurrecting her followers. They had stuck by her without regret as she achieved godhood all those years ago and perished with her. She wouldn’t have been so concerned with them to the point where she was willing to spend more time at the temple, instead of simply letting go.

After a momentary pause, Saleen halted. He was in the area controlled by the Baldur’s Gate. His flying forces came back one after another, entering the gate. Tens of thousands of prisoners on land were heading toward the sea; over 100 of them had already reached the shore.

“Rafel, clean ’em up,” Saleen barked. Those prisoners, who were not good people, would have threatened his rule if they made it to the mainland.

He found it distasteful to employ them. On the other hand, if they were employed by others, Saleen would have had to expend considerable effort to get rid of them. On second thought, maybe it was a good idea to get rid of them now while they were all in one place.

Rafel rode the Violet Angel and took Jola and Sul along to charge at those undesirables. The two level-12 true mights were still blaming themselves for their failures. They couldn’t do anything on that expedition with Saleen.

Now that Saleen had issued the order, both drew their weapons and aimed them at the unsuspecting prisoners.

A bloody battle ensued. as the Bug Angel Warriors in the sky came to their aid. The prisoner horde was above level-10 but couldn’t survive being ganged up on like that.

Being unarmed was their most glaring weakness. Their equipment had long been confiscated by the inhabitants of the Black Dungeon: Their only weapons were their fists and their strength.

Fighting the likes of Bug Angel Warriors, who were clad in armor from head to toe, was tough despite being a level or two higher. Wind Blades were unleashed continuously from their backs. The prisoners resisted the attacks by putting up energy shields. But it didn’t do any good: No skill was of much use against Wind Blades flying all over the place, so the prisoners were all put on the defensive.

In the meantime, those Bug Angel Warriors returned to the Baldur’s Gate as soon as the energy on their armors was spent. Rafel and both of Saleen’s followers then charged into the middle of the prisoners instead.

They had no fear of low-level Wind Blades: The armor could easily fend off those attacks.

The Violet Angel’s tail had already been lopped off in the altercation with the head warden. Luckily, it was swiftly reattached; otherwise, the beast would have been useless in battle. But It was still sulking over the damage while a bunch of naked people began charging full force in its direction. Whoa! Wait a minute The Violet Angel snapped to attention and charged at them with all four limbs, its mouth and its damaged tail.

Rafel’s spear, Sul’s longsword and Jola’s twin swords snuffed out the life of any prisoner who had the misfortune of crossing their path.

If the prisoners had been armed, they would have been evenly matched by the Violet Angel’s gang. But they didn’t even have a stick to wield: Small wonder they were being gruesomely slaughtered left, right and center.

Only a dozen ascetics put up a decent fight with their fists. As their fellow prisoners continued to drop like flies, those aesthetics saw how hopeless the situation was and got on their knees in surrender. They realized that the people they were fighting were the ones who had invaded Black Dungeon Island and caused the earthquake.

Those prisoners were pragmatic: Who was it who said, The enemy of my enemy is my friend? Saleen didn’t bother befriending them. All would have had at least dozens of lives lost by their hands. Only the depraved were imprisoned in the Black Dungeon City. The truly innocent ones and those who had been set up were all safely tucked away in prisons of the Tribunal back on the mainland.

Rafel was behaving as if she had no concept of good and evil. Jola and Sula struck without mercy. Despite being stunned by the head warden long ago, that was them being setup in the first place. In seconds, the two men and the three swords in their hands eliminated every single prisoner who surrendered.

Watching the scene play out from high above, Saleen diverted his gaze to the center of the island, where escapees were being sucked up by that green hole. Thank goodness he got away early. If he had been his old greedy self, he would have gone into the volcano to check for valuables. Greed, bad timing and the eruption of energies would have cost him his life.

A huge dragon lifted its head from the lava on the ground. The structure of its skull resembled the head warden. It seemed to consist of translucent crystals as well as burning purple flames on the outside.

Sh*t!

From the look of that thing, Saleen knew it was something borne in the fires. The head warden had probably been able to advance to level-14, thanks to that thing.

While Black Dungeon Island was a unique place, it was nearly impossible to get to level-14. The head warden’s extraordinary encounters would have probably been on par with Saleen’s. According to the rules of the island, the head warden hadn’t been in that position for many years and couldn’t have been more than 50 years old.

With the island split in the middle, lava oozed and a fire dragon suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was much bigger than the two-headed fire snake Saleen had confronted many years ago.

Saleen was still wondering if he should have attacked that snake. He still had level-14 scrolls with him; that would have been enough to kill the creature. Even though it was a level-14 dragon, it had no godly items or equipment on it. Aqua Fulgur gushed out of the Ring of Cosmos for no good reason a while ago, which his family badge absorbed and enabled the power of the badge to be used again.

Would a chance like this appear again? If not, should he let it slip through his fingers now?

The three weapon spirits were already urging Saleen while he stood there hesitating.

“Master, get rid of that thing. It’s a creature borne out of a divine persona!” Those weapon spirits were stoked! In reality, though, it was impossible for Saleen to just feed them the divine persona, but so what? All they were interested in was the fire dragon’s body.

Eating that dragon would give them the energy they needed to advance. The three of them had acquired divine persona fragments from the Goddess of Myers and would have been able to advance as soon as they accumulated an ample amount of energy.

“Alright. Let’s do it.”

When Saleen lifted his family badge, it suddenly occurred to him: How am I able to see that far now?

The image in his sight disappeared at that thought. Saleen’s eyes returned to their previous state of being able to see over 100 kilometers away. That, however, was due to the goddess no longer paying attention to him and the powers of the plane map being rescinded, causing the powers Saleen had acquired out of nowhere to disappear.

The Goddess of Myers had also made a mistake. She thought that since Saleen’s power of the soul had been so powerful, he would have had no problem seeing over 1,000 kilometers away.

Saleen realized the key to his question immediately and was alerted deep down. He was baffled about how the goddess was able to keep an eye on him from so far away.

He took the three weapon spirits back to the island without saying a word. The explosion earlier had caused more than just the deaths of the previous head wardens hiding in the mouth of the volcano. Anyone else who had not escaped in time and was caught within 180 kilometers radius had died, their souls dissipated.

Deep down, Saleen sensed that his luck was faltering. His forces would not have suffered over 2,000 casualties otherwise. More than 50,000 of his troops died on the island, all elites. And they never even had a chance to fight a battle properly. Saleen was crestfallen. He felt utterly bereft.

But then again, luck did not side with Black Dungeon Island either. The place was done for. The previous head wardens, who had escaped, would have been able to rebuild Black Dungeon if they remained alive. That was no longer the case. Without those top-notch beings in charge, Black Dungeon Island could be razed again, even if the place was rebuilt.

To add insult to injury, with even Holy City out of the picture, there was no one around to rebuild the island.

Saleen then recalled the compound of the island and wondered how that old geezer was doing. Judging by the distance seen on the map, his compound was far from the center of the island, so he was probably safe.

Many forces left on the island itself. Saleen decided to take them all out before leaving.

With the goddess no longer paying any attention to him, he could let his guard down. Saleen was perceptive enough to notice all those details. His decision was a prudent one.