Badge in Azure

Momentarily, Saleen did not what to ask Nicholas. There were too many things he wanted to know. Everything he knew about the Holy See was picked up from books.

Nicholas was calm now. Seeing Saleen’s hesitance, he decided to begin from the foundations of the Holy See and gradually moved onto the Holy City. It was the core of the Holy See on the Glorious Plains.

Nicholas was born into a poor family and his parents were normal citizens who did not have much and would work for the people in the city for a living. When he was three years old, a priest brought him to a church and from six years old onwards, he began to sing hymns. When he was twelve years old, he was sent to the villages to become a young pastor.

For the past over seventy years, he gradually climbed his way up the Holy See and became the red Grand Bishop.

Nicholas shared his journey thus far and the many significant events that took place at almost every stage of his priesthood. Saleen did not interrupt him and let him continue.

Finally, Nicholas described how the expedition came about and explained why he decided to betray the Holy See to follow Saleen.

“Isn’t it cruel of Theisio to do this?” Although Saleen already knew how the expedition eventually ended up, it was different coming from Nicholas. The majority of the soldiers that made up the expedition were commoners and disciples. They received limited training and were willing to take up arms only because of their own religion.

“Lord Saleen, indeed it is cruel, but we… no, within the Holy See, anything can be justified for the sake of our God.”

“Hmm, now that you are a fallen holy priest, how do your current abilities compare to your past abilities?”

Nicholas laughed bitterly and said, “I should be even stronger now. God will no longer look out for me now however. After I die, I will fall into purgatory.”

“And you are not afraid?”

“What is there to be afraid of? That will only take place in over one-thousand years. I am a grade-9 holy priest and should outlive most mages. Within a thousand years, if I can advance to grade ten, not only will I be able to survive in the purgatory, I might even live quite well there.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Lord Saleen, when a Professional reaches grade-9, he will start to come into contact with things on the soul level and will have a vague knowledge of grade-10. When he reaches grade-10, as long as his soul was not taken away and he had died a natural death, his soul will never vanish. Most likely, there will be other strong opponents in other worlds that will be able to preserve their memories.”

There were similar descriptions in the magic notes. After listening to what Nicholas said, he was more certain than ever that grade-10 was only the starting point of Professionals.

No wonder humans were so weak. It would be extremely difficult to try and find ten Professionals on Myers Mainland.

He only knew two, which were Joey and Fycro. By simple estimation, Alchemy City should have one at least and Holy Rock City should be concealing another one other than Joey.

Cloudflow, Tanggulasi, and Sikeqinya should all have at least one grade-10 Professional each. The mainland would not have maintained balance for the past thousand years otherwise. Now that the Holy See was starting a holy war, none of the grade-10 Professionals had been activated. That must be due to a fear of revenge from the other Professionals. Alternatively, all the Professionals might have agreed not to participate in such matters.

“Nicholas, I have always wanted to clarify something. The holy priests’ healing spell comes at the price of the lives of those being healed. When you heal yourself, do you also have to pay the same price?”

“Most of the time, no. We absorb the energies of other living things instead, which is a little complicated,” Nicholas answered honestly. The bond that he had signed with Saleen was only second to a soul bond so there was no need to hide anything. In any case, before Fycro said anything, he would just focus on serving Saleen to the best of his abilities.

“For this injury of mine, how should I treat it?” Saleen said and removed his glove, revealing his left hand.

When Nicholas saw Saleen’s green bones, he immediately understood why Theisio was so determined to exterminate Saleen.

“The Lord is revered, no wonder Theisio is so worried about you. My Lord, your injury is serious. I have a soul bead that can treat you immediately. If you are not willing to sacrifice a bit of life strength, it will still heal completely within three days.”

Saleen nodded and said, “Then do it.”

Saleen knew that there was no turning back for Nicholas after the latter had killed the twelve red Bishops under him. Fycro had asked him to help Saleen for the purpose of their agreement. Fycro was worried that if Saleen died too soon, the latter would not be able to help the former control the entire north.

Nicholas approached Saleen and observed Saleen’s bones in detail. He then put the black soul bead on Saleen’s hand. He pressed on it with his finger and said, “In the name of Nicholas, heal!”

Beams of gray light immediately shot out from the soul bead and covered Saleen’s hand entirely. A layer of fascia grew out rapidly on Saleen’s hand. Saleen could sense that some of the life strength in his hand was slightly depleted. The energy that shot out from the soul bead was the main power that was regenerating the muscles.

Black holy prose appeared and wrapped around Saleen’s left hand. Blood vessels and tendons began to regenerate followed by muscles. Finally, skin, nails, and hair all grew out as well.

Within ten minutes, Nicholas has completely healed Saleen’s left hand.

After keeping the soul bead, Nicholas said cautiously, “Lord Saleen, what I just used was a fallen divine spell and there are slight differences from a typical divine spell. In the next two to three days, please refrain from using this hand. Use restorative water to wash it and preferably keep it in magic liquid. After three days, it should make a full recovery.”

Saleen was using his elemental eye to observe the entire process. Although he did not understand it, it was a fact that his left hand had began to regenerate muscles and tendons that were no different from before he lost his hand. There was a gray aura surrounding the newly grown components. The aura was controlled by Nicholas. It did not penetrate into the bones and only washed over the skin.

When this gray aura seeped out from the skin, it gradually took the shape of small beads that were the size of the tip of a needle. These beads were poisonous, but due to their low quantity, they were not strong enough to kill even a pig. If the gray aura seeped into his bones, Saleen would be in big trouble. Mages knew that the bone marrow in bones was responsible for creating blood. His blood would be poisoned if the it seeped through and after some time his body would weaken.

Nicholas seemed to know what Saleen was thinking and said, “Lord Saleen, these beads have their uses too. If you dilute them with restorative water, they can cure cold damage. When soldiers suffer from frostbite during very cold weather, more often than not they will need to amputate the affected limb in order to survive. If we put the affected limb in this poison, it could be preserved. The person’s lifespan would be reduced a little though.”

“By how much?”

“It depends on the situation. At least one year, but not more than five years.”

Saleen began to calculate in his head. If given a choice, would a twenty year old who was suffering from frostbite choose to sacrifice his leg or reduce his lifespan by five years? The choice should be obvious. No one would be willing lose the ability to walk.

“Nicholas, I know now. In the future, I will allow you to use fallen divine spell to heal soldiers, but…”

“My Lord, if I were to heal your people, I will explain to you the pros and cons first,” Nicholas replied respectfully.

“Nicholas, do you intend to follow Fycro or me in the future? Fycro and I may not always maintain a peaceful relationship.” Saleen suddenly asked a straightforward question without warning.

Nicholas had already thought this through and replied honestly, “My Lord, I do not know. Fycro only instructed me to follow you without stating any other requests. If he asks me to carry out certain tasks, I will not hide it from you.”

“And if he asks you to kill me?”

“If Fycro wants to kill you, he will do it himself.”

Saleen stared at Nicholas and thought to himself, “If I keep this person by my side, I can use him, but at the same time I need to keep my guard up. This is a really good move by Fycro.” Fycro would never have guessed that Saleen could infuse lightning into the bond so if Nicholas tried to go against the bond, he would die immediately.

“In your opinion, what should I do in order to unify the entire north and take over Laiyin Duchy?” Saleen changed his train of thought very quickly and began to talk about expanding again.

At this point in time, a low-level mage entered and whispered to Saleen in his ear. Saleen nodded and the mage left. He then focused his blue eyes back onto Nicholas and waited for his answer.

“That will depend on how much money the Lord has.”

“Money… I still have slightly more than one-million gold coins now. I produce magic nuclei, metal ores, and many other materials which I won’t have to spend money on to obtain. Basically, I only need to spend money on the soldiers’ salaries. I have two grade-6 death mages and tens of thousands of slaves so I don’t need to hire workers for construction projects.”

“How many magic nuclei do you sell annually?”

Saleen thought for a while and said, “For grade-4 magic nuclei, this year alone was more than twenty-thousand. As for the rest, not more than two-thousand. Low-grade magic nuclei are sold as long as there is enough for my own use.”

Nicholas was taken aback and then felt a bit tempted. He could not believe that Saleen possessed such strong financial backing. Perhaps this young mage really could unify the north, or even…

“Forget it, since Fycro did not mention other special requests, I will just follow Saleen.” If Saleen was to go to war, Nicholas would be able to collect more souls and increase his chances of advancing into a grade-10 holy priest. The more land that Saleen conquered, the more it was to Nicholas’ advantage.

Although Fycro said that he had the Script of Redemption, who knew if he would give it to Nicholas. Even if Nicholas received redemption, he would not be able to return to the Holy See and could only follow Fycro. Would the oracles around Fycro allow Nicholas to make a name for himself?

Based on Fycro’s intelligence, surely he would understand all this.

With that, Nicholas became more cheerful as if he had thought something through. He stood before Saleen and bowed deeply. He then said, “Lord Saleen, I have a request that I hope you will agree to.”

Nicholas unknowingly used honorifics and his tone was totally different.