Badge in Azure

Whatever the God communicated with the Pope was considered God’s order. The Holy War that the Pope had started was in the name of the God. The Oracles, the Pope, and the Supreme Court were all on equal standing and the Oracles doubted the authenticity of the orders from God as claimed by the Pope.

As a result, the Oracles did not lend their strength according to the Pope’s plans in the Holy War. It was the Supreme Court that sent out many armies instead. That included blood knights and wardens. The Supreme Court did not deploy too many Black Deacons and Adjudicators. The black high priests that were part of the vanguard did not hold important positions in the Supreme Court.

The red Bishops were not surprised by the deaths of the black high priests, but were by the appearance of the demon army. It would not have been strange if it was just a few hundred demons because it was still possible that they might have been summoned by some daring mages.

The problem was that this was a demon army with a system, officers giving orders, knowing how to get into complicated formations, cooperating with each other in battle. This was a serious problem.

Within the demon army was a powerful demon that massacred the blood knights with its gigantic long lance. The two red Bishops looked at each other and nodded. The sacred knights that were protecting them gradually approached the giant demon.

This demon was created from Nailisi’s ultimate shapeshifting skill. Its power was not even equivalent to that of a supreme demon. The red Bishops could not tell that, so they decided that they must kill this leader of the demons. It had caused so much misery for the blood knights. Now, the blood knights had to go around the flanks of the demon in order to battle with the demon army behind.

Blood knights did not seem to possess any advantage over demons. In terms of strength and defense, demons were much better than blood knights. The armor that Saleen had prepared for this ten-thousand strong demon army was of the same grade as devil armor, except for an eighty percent reduced flying ability. He did not require a flying army at the time. The demon foot soldiers were already fast enough on foot.

The demon that had been transformed into a devil led the way while another one-hundred or so powerful demons followed behind him as if they were his bodyguards, repelling the attacks from both flanks. This allowed the gigantic demon to charge forward unobstructed, causing the blood knights’ formation to be in complete disarray. Without their speed, the blood knights stood no chance against the demons, even if it was three or five of them against one.

The red Bishops approached slowly. The range of divine spells was approximately the same as that of spells, but the rate of attenuation of them was much faster than for spells. Typically, a mage’s attacking range might be the same as that of a holy priest, but the damage was greater. The difference between the rates of attenuation was less obvious if the attacking range was within one-hundred yards. This only applied to middle-grade divine spells. Grade-8 holy priests could already use high-level divine spells and their attacking range was more than two-hundred yards. Only alchemy crossbows could threaten their safety; ordinary crossbows would be rendered useless.

The demon at the forefront was sensitive to danger. The demons might not be very intelligent, as their brains have been damaged by the summoning magic array, but their basic instincts had become much stronger. The movements of the two red Bishops did not escape the demons.

More than four-hundred death knights moved amongst the demons towards the two red Bishops. Nailisi held tight onto the magic staff in her hand. The effect that Saleen was having on her was decreasing. She could activate grade-8 death magic now. This was her advantage over other demons – she could use mental strength to cast the spells that had been stored. This was something that other demons would not be able to accomplish no matter how powerful their mental strength was.

One of the red Bishops opened a divine spell scroll. A blinding light appeared, pushing away the clouds in the sky. A gigantic holy prose spun in the sky and lit up the ground. There was fresh blood, corpses, broken weapons, and grasses that had been trampled on everywhere.

The distance of two-hundred yards had just been reached and the red Bishop had completed what he needed to set up – a holy zone that would greatly increase the powers of the God’s disciples and double the effects of divine spells.

The huge demon suddenly howled and turned to run towards the side. The demons around him followed suit. They would avoid entering the holy zone at all costs. The demon army behind them did the same thing. They divided themselves into two, bypassed the holy zone, and attacked the south.

The red Bishops were stunned. The holy zone was only a tool for preparation and not to cause damage. Demons were not considered evil creatures, so their powers would not be affected in the holy zone. Nevertheless, these demons still bypassed the holy zone that occupied more than four-hundred yards. This was simply…

At that point in time, something happened that stunned the red Bishops even more. Hundreds of death knights were charging in their direction.

These spirits should be affected by the holy zone! Usually, when spirits of the dead entered this zone, their attributes would decrease by at least half for ordinary spirits and more than twenty percent for powerful ones.

This madness was incomprehensible. Death knights usually possessed mild intelligence, which should be sufficient for them to avoid landing themselves in such a disadvantageous situation.

The red Bishop’s sight landed on a death mage amongst the death knights.

The red Bishops could barely breathe for this female death mage was an absolute beauty. She held a green magic staff and was approaching them amongst the death knights.

What a beautiful woman! If she could be influenced, cleansed, and subdued to become a disciple, that would be…

The two grade-8 red Bishops were seduced by Nailisi momentarily. That moment was all Nailisi needed to raise her magic staff and aim at one of the red Bishops.

Nailisi chanted in the spirit language that even she did not understand. Her mental strength did not require the compatibility of mantra, so she was merely putting on an act.

Gray magic light lit up and within the holy zone on the ground, thousands of tentacles shot out from the ground. Hundreds of wardens were tangled up and even more purple tentacles wrapped themselves around the two red Bishops.

The black armor on the wardens that had been tangled up clanked together. The death knights charged at them and used their gray bone spears to pierce through the gaps of the wardens’ armor.

Seduction was not a rare ability, in fact, some demons could even use spells that possessed attributes of seduction. The people that Nailisi managed to seduce were two grade-8 red Bishops, so it was something to be proud of, even if it was only momentarily.

Such a short pause allowed the grade-8 death magic spell, chaotic dance of death, to be successfully cast. The purple tentacles possessed a strong numbing ability and were also able to absorb the target’s life. Although the wardens’ armor was not broken, the death knights charged with so much force and forward momentum that their bone spears pierced through the wardens’ eye sockets without any obstruction.

“Damn it!”

The red Bishops were ashamed of themselves for falling for the seduction of a death mage, thereby allowing their enemies to attack their subordinates easily.

“Holy word!” A red Bishop read out a prayer for a short while before releasing a wave of holy light from his hands. Powerful Godly power was aimed at the death knights while a holy priest silently cast a bout of mental paralysis.

The target of mental paralysis was Nailisi. Nailisi had thrown out a piece of obsidian prior to the attack, which exploded in mid-air to release a gigantic spirit substitute. This spirit substitute did not possess any attacking abilities and its only purpose was to take the hit for Nailisi.

This spirit substitute would not be able to withstand physical attacks, but mental attacks would not be able to pass through it. The mental paralysis was used up entirely on the substitute. It became mad immediately and Nailisi lost the ability to control it. The spirit substitute screamed and sprinted ahead, attacking the wardens that had been tangled up by the tentacles.

Its attacking abilities were too pathetic. When the spirit substitute slapped the wardens with its palms, they broke into small pieces and the substitute screamed even louder. It was so loud that it affected the prayer that the holy priests were chanting.

Mental paralysis was a high-level divine spell. It was highly effective on mages, even more so than the Speech Prohibition spell. After all, mages did not need to chant mantras when they used scrolls and spells kept in magic staffs or other items. The main purpose of the Speech Prohibition spell was to disrupt mages from casting powerful spells as many high-level spells could not be cast immediately nor silently, even if the mage was very proficient in those spells.

Mental paralysis could cause a mage to lose control of their mental strength temporarily, so that he would have no way of casting any high-level spells. The problem was that prior to the attack, Nailisi had tossed out a spirit substitute instead of a spirit guardian.

Mental paralysis could penetrate through most magic shields, including something as tough as ice plate armor. Unfortunately, this divine spell was a single-hit attack and could not be cast continuously. After the spirit substitute absorbed the attack, Nailisi was safe and continued to charge ahead.

Using low-level magic to repel a high-level divine spell was a fighting technique that greatly resembled Saleen. This was not a gamble as Nailisi’s self-defense was so high that the enemy’s divine spell could not possibly kill her in an instant.

Nailisi’s magic staff could store two spells. This was the advantage of high-level equipment as ordinary magic staffs would only be able to store one spell and would not be able to store another for a short period of time after the original one had been used. Nailisi raised the magic staff, but did not cast any death magic spells. Instead, she used her other hand to take out a scroll from the leather skin bag and smashed it on the skeletal warhorse’s head.

The scroll broke into pieces and the skeletal warhorse was engulfed in green flames. Soul flame burned ferociously out of its eyes. Black flames appeared under the skeletal warhorse’s hooves and its speed increased by several times. The bones in its body could no longer bear such great power and cracks began to appear.

A low-level spirit instantaneously possessed the power of a middle-level spirit. The skeletal warhorse would not survive for more than ten minutes. The corner of Nailisi’s mouth raised into a grin that was just like Saleen’s. Her entire plan was to misdirect the enemy into thinking that she was a death mage and not just a pure imp, a Luoluokaluo.

Holy priests’ physiques were much poorer than mages so the outcome was obvious the moment a demon managed to get close to them. Nailisi was pleased. The skeletal warhorse reared itself up and brought down its gigantic hoof, that carried black flames, onto the red Bishop on the left.