Badge in Azure

As Saleen’s magic chords continued to grow, the amount of lightning magic patterns that he could recall in his brain increased and also became clearer. It was as if his eyeballs had been split apart. In his blue eyes were plenty of lightning magic patterns clustered together and as they appeared, more golden runes flew out of Saleen’s eyes and floated in front of him.

There were too many of these golden runes. The dragonshard that Saleen was holding onto quickly provided him with the energy he needed, while the divine crystal in his other hand also replenished the mental strength that he had lost.

Outside of the magic tower, the bombardment of fire balls finally stopped. The number of magic nuclei that had been expended in the magic tower was not high, but the grade-9 sorcerer in the sky was launching another attack, the second wave of grade-9 fire rain spell.

This time, the target was the huge building of the palace. Some halls had even been destroyed directly.

There was nothing that the mages in the magic tower could do. The grade-9 sorcerer was not afraid to cast his spell from a very high position. To cast a grade-9 spell downwards, even a distance of eighteen-hundred yards would not be a problem.

The army in the palace retreated. The target of the Fire Rain spell was singular and accurate, which gave the army sufficient time to escape. The equipment would have to be left behind. The palace itself was valuable as well. If not for the fact that it was a grade-9 attack, the palace would have served as powerful defensive structures.

The main hall was made of iron and bronze and could stand up against catapult attacks.

Only the magic tower was safe under such attacks. Lex sat in the corner and ignored the sorcerer’s attack. The palace was no longer safe and it was clear that Cloudflows’ revenge was insane.

If possible, she would personally go to Misty City and set it on fire so that Agares would feel the same helplessness. This was entirely possible because after advancing to a grade-9 sorcerer, not only would God’s Ring provide defense, it could also enable fast flying ability and even teleportation over a short distance.

He would never be able to catch up if she was to fly over and burn Agares’ palace.

There were casualties in the palace. When the grade-9 fire balls exploded, they also carried melted tiles, stones and metallic fluid. The power of these broken shards was as powerful as the magic stone shells thrown out by catapults.

The dragon-slaughtering corp was still safe as they were all wearing armor that was completely sealed up. On the other hand, some servants and officials in the palace were not so lucky. Once they were hit by the after effects of the spell, they were at least severely injured or even killed. Fortunately, the sorcerer’s attack was very focused, so those that managed to escape quickly would be able to survive.

Lex could sense that Saleen, who was completely enclosed within his devil suit, was very peaceful and was advancing very steadily. She was surprised by this. Advancing into a sorcerer was a rather dangerous thing. Until then Saleen had still been very quiet. What Lex did not know was that Saleen was actually making a lot of noises, but it was just that she could not hear him.

Thirty-six-thousand golden runes flew out of Saleen’s eyes and at the same time, there were thunderous sounds in his brain.

Saleen felt as if he had fallen into thick clouds and was surrounded by streaks of lightning. The thunder was so loud that he was almost about to faint. If not for the fact that he had used his clan badge so often, Saleen would not have been able to hold on.

He was already used to debuffs. Any debuff spells or divine spells would not be able to affect him from adjusting his mental strength.

The magic chords continued to grow freely and Saleen’s body continued to filter the impure elements. Thirty-six-thousand golden magic runes began to spin around Saleen’s head.

The sound of thunder in Saleen’s head was persistent. Only Saleen could hear it. Despite almost fainting, he bore with it and tried to push away the pain in his brain, focusing only on distinguishing the rhythm of the thunder.

Saleen already knew about the rule of energy balance and although it was only a small side, he also understood that the loss during conversion of energy could be minimized. As long as this rule permitted, even a magic array could continue to function for tens of thousands of years.

The thunder contained rules as well and went hand in hand with those thirty-six-thousand golden magic runes.

Thunder and lightning were the same thing presented in two different forms. Lightning seemed more powerful and almost indestructible, but the energy harnessed within thunder was destructive in nature. Saleen could sense that the sound of thunder in his brain was triggered by the appearance of the rule. If it was really due to thunder in the sky, his brain would have exploded long ago.

When thunder could be unleashed completely, it could destroy everything. On the other hand, the speed of lightning could achieve the ultimate damage of a spell.

No matter how fast light-element spells looked, there would be a delay before it actually occurred. For an energy like lightning, it was so fast there would be no time to escape.

Thunder represented the ultimate power.

Lightning represented the ultimate speed.

At least at that stage, the light-element power that Saleen could grasp had yet to surpass the speed of lightning.

As Saleen gained a better understanding of the power of thunder and lightning, the sound of thunder in his brain became more orderly. Saleen tried to gradually control this rule. This was a technique that only he possessed. Even if the humans in the past used to possess it, the legacy of lightning had already been lost.

Now, it was as if this technique was created by Saleen alone, which could bring about real benefits for his advancement.

If one was unable to create some magic techniques when advancing into a sorcerer and could only enhance one’s magic chords, then it would be difficult to break through the barriers when advancing into a grade-10 mage.

There were quite a number of grade-9 mages on the Myers Mainland. Alchemy City alone already had more than ten. As humans’ powers gradually grew, the number of grade-9 mages would also increase. The number of grade-10 mages were few and far between. Each country probably had less than three of them.

Saleen sensed that his mental strength was becoming focused and was surrounding his entire body. The sound in his brain had gradually subsided. Under the effect of the mental strength, Saleen tried to trigger a sound of thunder.

Roar…

Amongst the thirty-six-thousand golden magic runes appeared a large amount of electricity immediately that was tightly interwoven together. Saleen was pleased. According to the rule of energy conversion, he would be able to trigger thunder if he could also trigger lightning. Lightning and thunder belonged to the same type of energy and they could be triggered at the same time as well.

Lightning attacks possessed a longer range while the power of thunder was greater.

Saleen had no idea that no mage had ever attempted this way of advancement. Most people would be so preoccupied with controlling the magic chords that they would never think of coming up with high-level techniques during this time.

Saleen opened his eyes suddenly. Thirty-six-thousand golden magic runes flooded into his eyes. Now, there was a faint golden color in his azure blue eyes. These golden runes were about vanish completely, but Saleen could sense that they were appearing in his brain.

Oh?

Saleen tried to bring out these runes once again, but instead, thin golden images flew out of his eyes one by one instead. Those runes in his brain formed a gigantic magic array that kept spinning.

Saleen’s heart skipped a beat. Amidst the images of golden runes, the six major elements were compressed together. Electricity suddenly flashed across his brain and a destructive power was unleashed between the rune images.

Saleen was so scared that he quickly stopped this spell and his mental strength was drained all of a sudden. If not for the fact that he had been holding onto the divine crystal all that while, he would have been severely injured.

Saleen had actually managed to activate the power of lightning. If he had not stopped it in time, the elements in the entire eighth story of the magic tower would have been thrown into chaos. He would be lucky to escape the wrath of Stephanie, much less advancing.

Stephanie’s wrath was still manageable as she would not go overboard for Lex’s sake. If the elements in the magic tower were to be thrown into chaos, the defense of the magic tower would be in jeopardy and the aerial attacks would hit the tower directly.

The magic tower, which was made from steel rocks, would not be able to withstand more than a few waves of grade-9 fire ball attacks.

Lightning-element spells did not use up magic chords, but required a lot of mental strength instead. Not only had Saleen accidentally unleashed the power of lightning, he had also stopped it forcefully and this drained his mental strength completely for the first time.

This could be the most dangerous thing Saleen had done in the past few years, much more dangerous than killing the grade-8 sorcerer.

Forcefully stopping a spell that required the adjustment of magic chords would induce elemental chaos and collapse of dimension amongst other serious consequences. Although it was not powerful enough to destroy the things nearby, it could definitely cause damage to the mage that could be fatal. As for forcefully stopping a spell that required the adjustment of mental strength, the mage could have become mentally unsound.

Saleen had no choice. If the magic tower was destroyed, Lex would be in danger. Below them was Stephanie, who was trying to heal Eleanor. On the sixth story Su and Cuisi were receiving treatment. Many of Lex’s mages occupied the lower storys. There were too many people in the magic tower for Saleen to give up on.

All of a sudden, the divine crystal in Saleen’s hand broke. Just then, the divine crystal had been replenishing his mental strength when the latter was being drained. By stopping the spell forcefully, the divine crystal was broken.

Saleen regained his composure and quickly took out another divine crystal. He no longer dared to try and use the power of lightning any longer. The power that he wielded could possibly destroy the balance of elements within the magic tower.

More than half of his mental strength was quickly replenished by the divine crystal. That was when Saleen tried to trigger the sound of thunder using his mental strength once again. That time, blue streaks of lightning reappeared amidst the golden runes.

Saleen was overjoyed. The rule of balance of energy was not created by him. There was too little that he could grasp, but this lightning rule was completed by him alone. The full effects of this technique could only be seen after he advanced beyond grade-9. Now, although the attacking distance was still short, which was probably less than ten yards, it was much more powerful. It could even destroy the internal defense of the magic tower.

Saleen genuinely felt that the rule of lightning could be achieved at an ultimate level.