Badge in Azure

12 purgatories…

Abyrus fell into the trap laid by Nailisi’s double. Its judgment was obviously clouded, seeing as it had walked right into the trap without noticing it at all. The curses on the dark grey wing on its right gradually subsided as they were absorbed by the wing.

The Wing of the Fallen developed, and the other red wing’s color gradually washed off, becoming white.

“Congratulations on learning the meaning of light. Behind the light, there will always be darkness.” The voice of Nailisi’s double was unable to be stopped, penetrating its body and working directly on its Source.

Abyrus was unusually elated. It discovered, all of a sudden, that everything that the Lord of Glory once said had all been lies.

The light was not the only thing that was eternal in the world. Darkness was part of the light.

If it were to have divine fires ignited in it, it would surpass the Lord of Glory and become a more powerful god.

“Believe in me, and I shall lead you to great achievements in the future.” Nailisi’s double continued to entice the angel.

“But…”

“I did say that I’ll let you back to the Lord of Glory’s side,” Nailisi’s double continued, casting Ultimate Shapeshifting onto the seraph.

Nailisi was level 15, and so was the Lord of Glory. The guise of Ultimate Shapeshifting would never be seen through by someone of the same level as the caster. With the success of the spell, all blasphemous light on Abyrus’ body disappeared. The dark grey and pure white wings returned to their original fiery colors.

Abyrus looked at its wings, feeling very surprised and then said, “the god wouldn’t be able to sense that I’ve fallen, no, that I’ve evolved!”

“No. You shall become an eternal being, existing between life and death, a perfect, flawless god,” Nailisi’s double continued and cast yet another Ultimate Shapeshifting on it. That gentle holy light appeared above Abyrus, forming into a perfect halo.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Abyrus asked, feeling rather confused. It sensed that there was holy power raging within its body, seemingly enabling it to advance to level 15 at any given moment and become the most powerful angel in the divine kingdom.

“That is because I am a demon. Believe in me, and you shall be granted eternal life,” Nailisi’s double answered with extreme pride.

Abyrus hung its head low, just like it did with the Lord of Glory, and it began to sing praises to its heart’s content to Nailisi’s double. The double never expected things would come to that and felt goosebumps all over her. She was unable to fathom just how the gods were capable of tolerating such blatant flattery.

Nailisi sensed what was going on in the 12 Notes of First Purgatory. What her double had done was not very different from what she would have done. The double was her and not her at the same time since they stemmed from the same soul after all.

Nailisi returned to her devil form and called the Winged Skull over from afar. The Winged Skull swiped the Reaper Scythe through the air and felled tens of angels. They carved their way through the angels and asked, “What’s the matter now?”

Nailisi said using the demon language, “I’ve taken care of that red angel!”

“What do you mean?” the Winged Skull asked in spirit tongue.

“Gosh, you’re so dumb!” Nailisi berated.

The Winged Skull remained dumbfounded as they eyed Nailisi. The demon went up to the spirit and murmured, “Ultimate Shapeshifting. A fallen angel.”

The soul flames in those pitch-black pupils of the Winged Skull’s eyes seemed to dance for a bit. They thought that Nailisi had finally done something correctly. If the fallen angel had been returned to the divine kingdom, it would have probably been a matter of time before he was ambushed.

The Winged Skull asked, “What do you propose then?”

“Hand me Fycro and let the angel take him back.”

The Winged Skull was baffled, before casting spirit mist to shut out the angels’ line of sight. They pulled Fycro out of the weapon promptly.

Fycro looked completely disheveled. The weapon’s chains sucked the power of his body away. All the power of the Source and power of faith that he had been accumulating were no more. The eye of the weapon seemed to be connected to the reaper plane. It felt like there was a god capable of controlling life preventing him from restoring his powers.

After the man was cast out, Nailisi took hold of Fycro’s waist and chucked him into her collection of purgatories. She chose to dump him into the Purgatory of Purification at that time.

All the curses that Fycro was bound by were wiped clean in the Purgatory of Purification. The bit of damage from the eye of the weapon could be healed by the Purgatory of Purification in a matter of seconds. If he spent too much time there, however, Fycro could eventually have his body completely purified, which meant it would be broken down until there was nothing left of him.

Fycro was yanked out again, and he looked like he was about to kick the bucket. Nailisi threw him into the Purgatory of the Fallen. Abyrus took one look at Fycro and was elated.

If the one it was tasked to take had remained at large, then there would have been no way for it to dupe the Lord of Glory.

When a god found that their underlings had failed a task given, they would calculate the reasons using divine spells. Nailisi had taken care of all the matters regarding concealment, and Abyrus felt very confident.

It would be able to break through level 15 when it returned, due to all the favoritism the Lord of Glory showered it with. It would have greater confidence at taking out the Lord of Glory by then.

Nailisi and the Winged Skull talked for a couple of seconds before splitting up quickly. Not even their underlings knew what happened between the two.

Nailisi had an idea. She pulled a supreme demon aside and disguised it to look like a devil. She then disguised herself as an angel and charged into enemy lines.

The fighting on the ground was more intense than the one in the air, looking utterly chaotic. The demons were still able to keep their formations more or less intact, while there were simply too many in the divine army below, so their formations completely wrecked. Nailisi had an easy time sneaking into enemy lines and finding a spot with no one around, leaving Abyrus behind.

Before the seraph left, it looked at Nailisi with an anxious look.

“Go now. No one will be able to see through your disguise. There is no need to worry.”

“When should I make a move?”

“When you feel that you’ve gained the ability to become a supreme god.” Nailisi’s answer was ambiguous. Abyrus was in glee. It was worried that Nailisi would set a time frame for it. There was no certainty that it would have been able to accomplish what it set out to do if that had been the case.

Abyrus was very clear on what the Lord of Glory was capable of. There was no way its current level of powers would have been able to take on the lesser god.

Abyrus took Fycro and snuck back into the divine kingdom. The seraph was completely oblivious to the fact that Nailisi had set up a secret art unique to the Luoluokaluo within its Source. That secret art did not grant her complete control of Abyrus, but it would enable her to return the seraph to its original form, at will.

There was no way Nailisi would just let Abyrus become a fallen god. She was no longer the mischievous imp that only thought of currying favor from Saleen. She knew very well what would work in Saleen’s favor.

“Believe in me and you shall be granted eternal life.” Those were the words of the Lord of Glory. A demon would have only used those words to dupe others.

Nailisi laughed maniacally after Abyrus disappeared from sight. She used Ultimate Shapeshifting to turn into the seraph’s fallen form, before charging into the midst of the angels.

The weapon in its hand was the Sword of Rules that had taken the form of the Sword of Glory. There was no way Abyrus could have been able to weasel out of that setup.

Nailisi was able to immediately create a fallen angel to put at the Lord of Glory’s side if she were to see the need. Abyrus would have never sat by and done nothing. The seraph would have resisted one way or another.

Nailisi wondered if a level 14 fallen angel would have been able to harm the Lord of Glory.

Saleen did not know of anything going on at the frontlines. He had been fighting for three consecutive days and nights in that space of the goddess. There was no way he could have taken out every single enemy quickly, after all.

Rafel had been gulping down divine crystals continuously. While she was no longer an angel, her ability to regain strength by consuming divine crystals was retained, and it was one of the few useful skills she retained at her disposal.

She killed over a dozen powerful magic beasts in a row and was thoroughly exhausted. Consumption of divine crystals was no longer enough to calm her down. Saleen had already burned through most of his magic chords.

However, up until recently, Saleen had yet to use any scroll-like weapons. 24 powerful magic beasts. That was what the goddess had said. But from Saleen’s perspective, the underlings serving the magic beasts were getting increasingly ferocious and were always showing up in large numbers.

Saleen had zipped around the space 12 times and had cast untold numbers of area-of-effect magic spells.

It was fortunate that he had the Eye of Souls, which did not consume any magic chords, allowing him to detect levels of enemies at any given moment, which in turn enabled him to take care of enemies using the most energy-efficient methods.

The fighting was getting more and more intense, so much so that Saleen was unable to even find time to meditate.

He was at wit’s end and was forced to rely on the power of equipment. Saleen realized what the goddess had meant. The Lord of Glory had 126 doubles. If all of those doubles were comparable to the magic beasts, he would have been done for if all of them had ganged up on him.

But he was not alone. There were still Nailisi, the Winged Skull, and the others. There were also his teacher, Sika, and Lex. Lex was the only one whose powers remained comparatively weak. She was only at level 13.

If Lex were allowed to sit on the throne of the Fifth Dynasty for several more years, she would definitely surpass him.

The flaw with secret arts relying on the use of powers resembling power of faith, however, was that it would not be of much use in the Hall of Gods. One couldn’t absorb powers from outside when within the hall. If the connection between her and her subjects were to be severed, she would not have been able to advance further.

That was why Saleen did not let Lex train in the Hall of Gods. In the future, Lex’s progress at advancement would be far quicker than his. She would become the most powerful mage on the mainland in 100 years.

The place before him was a world covered in ice. Saleen was unable to see any signs of life in the space.

It was probably the work of Black Ice Barrier. The magic beasts in that space had yet to awaken, and beasts in a frozen world would probably be easier to deal with. Saleen was versed in water magic. He took the chance to sit down and rest, beginning to meditate. Rafel stood behind him in high alert.

“Rafel, take a break,” Saleen said and threw his Thunder Dragon Bangle out, which unleashed the 24 thunder dragons. The thunder dragons circled around them. Rafel was finally able to unwind seeing that the thunder dragons were there for protection. She sat down back to back with Saleen, the Inferno Spear still in her hand.

It had been a while since she last fought such battles. Rafel felt as if she had returned to the past, where she spent her days fighting alongside her god. However, back then, it was her god who provided her with powers. At the moment, she was just fighting at Saleen’s side.