Badge in Azure

Marquis Ferdinand was using his alchemy binocular to watch the battle on top of the city wall. His army was within five miles, but beyond that were the Tanggulasi soldiers deployed by the Holy See to cut off the demon army’s retreat.

There were pros and cons to the alchemy binocular. The one that Marquis Ferdinand was using allowed him to see seven to eight miles away and was definitely a high-grade equipment. To be more accurate, this was purely a piece of mage equipment. Without the help of a grade-3 mage by his side, all Marquis Ferdinand could see was just blurry images.

“Why are they… coming back?!” Marquis Ferdinand saw the demon army on the retreat and was shocked. The demon army was like a sharp knife that cut through the Tanggulasi army that was trying to stop them.

Nailisi was leading the way. She was ordering the death knights to attack the flanks in order to mess up the enemy’s formation, so that the demons could take over and butcher them. This type of battle was meaningless to her since there was nothing to be gained. She was looking for the enemy’s holy priests. If they were grade-7 or below, she would engage them in a battle for a while, but if they were above grade-7, it would be wiser to avoid them.

The demon army did not incur too many losses and a battle of such a short duration meant that there was minimal usage of their energy. The demons charged through the enemies and corpses and finally returned back to the city walls of the main part of Sanlian City.

That was when Nailisi finally ordered the demons to stop and guard the city gates, so that heavy-armored knights behind them could enter the city. It was not a common tactic for heavy-armored knights to bring up the rear. In fact, Marquis Ferdinand was already very upset that Nailisi did not seem to care about the fates of the heavy-armored knights. He had to suppress his anger when he saw the demons feasting.

Thousands of demons were devouring the disciples of the Holy See and the armies of the Holy War just outside of the city.

This scene was horrifying. The sounds of killing on the battlefield were drowned out by the chewing sounds of the demons. Each demon had dragged along at least two corpses. Their four yard tall physique allowed them to move with vigor, but that also meant that they used up a lot of energy at the same time. Consuming the enemy was a good option.

What the demons did was to remove the enemy’s head first by twisting it off before sucking the blood with their mouth. Then, they would peel off the enemy’s armor and clothes before chewing them up. The Tanggulasi soldiers that were pursuing the heavy-armored knights stopped. When they saw the thousands of demons beneath the city wall, there was only fear on their faces.

The people of Bitter Water Prefecture were scared out of their minds as well, but they felt more assured when they saw the demons dragging back a number of corpses of heavy-armored knights and piling them up by the side for the city to manage.

As the army slowly entered the city, the demons’ presence was able to stop the Tanggulasi soldiers from wanting to charge through the city gate. They had been scared stiff by the demons. All of them were afraid of becoming the demons’ next meal.

Back in Daliang City, Saleen was still unaware of the horrifying things that Nailisi had done as he was busy preparing for his wedding.

At noon on the ninth, the armies of Metatrin City entered Daliang City through the north gate once again. Saleen was seated on a golden chariot that was specially made for the wedding. Eight horses were pulling the chariot and behind them was a regiment in charge of rituals. Behind them was the dragon-slaughtering corp that belonged solely to Saleen.

When the golden chariot pulled into the city, the Bitter Water Prefecture soldiers of Daliang City stood by the sides to welcome them. Saleen was standing on the chariot as an old chariot like this one did not come with a carriage. Behind him were Su and Nicholas. The Bitter Water Prefecture soldiers were cheering and throwing fresh flowers in his direction.

Saleen stood tall in his devil suit with the mask over his face.

The people of Bitter Water Prefecture were genuine and sincere in welcoming Saleen. This marriage represented the union of two wealthy countries. In such times of chaos, the commoners would feel a sense of security only if their countries were powerful enough to protect them from trouble.

After all, the Kingdom of Metatrin was a country that had defeated an expedition of the Holy See.

Luolan had been at war for the past two years and the farmers found it tough to survive. Under Lex’s rule, the farmers in Bitter Water Prefecture were able to harvest vegetables and even if war should break out, there would be soldiers to escort them to castles for safety.

Food supplies were never an issue since they had the support of Qin. To the commoners, this was already a huge blessing.

When Saleen’s golden chariot passed through the city, naturally there were people of Bitter Water Prefecture amidst the crowd that were on the watch. This was to prevent Saleen from encountering another assassination attempt. The troops toured one round of the city before proceeding to the palace, where the honor guards of Bitter Water Prefecture were waiting to welcome them. The parents of both parties were not present, so the person representing Lex’s side was Grand Sorcerer Stephanie.

Saleen had no way of rejecting the ceremony entirely. This version was already a much simplified one. If they followed the Qin traditions, the entire ceremony would have lasted between three to six days. Since Lex was the first in line in her family, it would surely have been six days.

Fortunately, the ceremonies of the fourth dynasty were not too complicated, to the relief of Saleen and Lex.

The troop in charge of rituals on Saleen’s side had prepared a total of twenty-four wagons of items for rituals. As the wagons entered the palace, Saleen could only enter the palace that had newly built just for him as he could not meet with Lex yet. On the other hand, the dragon-slaughtering corp could now officially station themselves in the palace to ensure Saleen’s safety.

Lex also left her magic tower to prepare for the second day of the wedding ceremony. The ceremony had been simplified as much as possible. She would accept the twenty-four wagons of gifts from the Metatrin Kingdom and reward the officials responsible for delivering them.

It was almost dark. Fifty miles south of Daliang City, the armies of Cloudflow were already setting up camp. Lex flipped through the thick pile of scouting information before allowing the lifestyle mages to delegate the various tasks to the generals.

Nicholas and Su would be heading to the south for battle and would no longer be able to protect Saleen anymore.

The palace was now left with Cuisi, Eleanor, and Gusion to set up defense.

The two palaces were about six-hundred yards apart, one in the south and another in the north. This was the only day where the two of them would not be able to meet. Saleen was sitting in the palace with a hand propping up his head, dazed.

He had spent half a day seeing so many officials, noble families, and going through complicated rituals. It was as if the entire thing had nothing to do with him and he was just a pawn in the grand scheme of things.

Lex was so near, yet they could not meet. Even if Saleen used elemental eyes, he would not be able to see through the courtyard.

So this was what it was like for the marriages of members of noble and royal families. It was really too boring for a mage. Saleen really wanted to just fly up and go to Lex’s palace. Armies were gathered outside of the city and the Cloudflow people were prepared to launch an attack the next day, yet he could only hide in his own palace. It was a terrible feeling.

At tat thought, Saleen patted the calabash on his waist and summoned the water puppet. The transparent water puppet quickly transformed to Saleen’s appearance. The only difference was that the water puppet was wearing a gray mage robe and was holding a magic staff. Saleen was wearing his devil suit and on his waist was the wooden sword that Joey had made for him.

Saleen took out Rafael’s crystal ring. He handed it to the water puppet and said, “Go and find Eleanor. Protect her so that she can use her archery skills at full power.”

The water puppet put on the crystal ring and left after bowing. Saleen began to inspect his own devil suit. He had not used the spells that had been infused into the devil suit before, even when he encountered the powerful assassin.

When he sensed the elemental transformation during Lex’s advancement, he began to feel more confident about advancing. That was when he began to value this devil suit even more.

The ground-element stone statue army could produce a stone statue that was six yards tall every minute for three hours. Each stone statue was able to deal damage equivalent to a Professional that was grade-5 or above. That was not a common spell as very little mages were keen to learn it. This was because the stone statue army moved too slowly and their speed was only equivalent to that of a high-level human swordsman.

Frost and Snow Magic Pattern was the spell that most suited Saleen and could increase the damage of his water-element spells by three times. If it advanced into a grade-8 or grade-9 spell, it would be able to increase the damage by six or twelve times respectively. By then, the grade-9 spell would be like a forbidden curse.

The wind-element Vacuum Imprisonment spell was not as effective as elf space arrow, but it also used up less energy. If Saleen was to encounter an assassin again, he would not forget about this spell.

Roar of a Fire Spirit, which would summon a fire-element creature for an hour, was also a powerful spell. Unfortunately, Saleen was not as proficient with fire elements as he was with water elements.

Phantom Flurry was the best defense spell as it could produce three to six illusions. All of them possessed the ability to deal damage, so the enemy would not be able to distinguish them from the real mage.

Endless Night was the most powerful spell of all of them. It would trap the enemy within a zone of dark elements and was much more effective than Ice Attack. Even the Vacuum Imprisonment spell was not as effective. The only advantage that the Vacuum Imprisonment spell had over Endless Night was that the former could be cast in an instant at the location where the mage would point at.

These six grade-7 spells could only be cast once every six hours. Even if the devil suit was made of the highest quality, it would not be able to handle so many uncommon spells being cast.

After using the Figaro Magic Formula to calculate the attributes of these spells, it was already dawn and there were the sounds of insects outside the palace.

Cloudflow, Alchemy City, and Tanggulasi were all coming down hard on him at the same time. At this thought, Saleen smiled faintly. Perhaps he was too high-profile in conducting businesses with others so early on. It was no wonder that the other countries would be guarded against him.

Even so, surely Alchemy City had their principles? They would never send sorcerers over to kill a middle-grade sorcerer like him. He was only trying to guess if it would be Cloudflow or Tanggulasi that would send assassins on the night of his wedding.

Lex was unable to fall asleep as well. She stroked her God’s Ring and there was a surge of emotions. She was a sorcerer now, so God’s Ring had become more powerful. Even the most powerful equipment would not be enough for her to rule over the entire Mainland though. There would still be countless enemies that she and Saleen would have to face. These enemies included the Holy See, the four Empires, and Alchemy City.

Perhaps Grand Master Merlin was right. She would cause the downfall of Qin and bring about disaster for the Mainland, but so what? Would the Holy See not have waged the Holy War if she was out of the picture?

It was better not to be bound by too many moral issues as a mage, otherwise, only endless darkness would await.