Badge in Azure

Each of the four empires of the Myers Mainland had an analogy to them. The Cloudflow people were known unanimously as porcelain.

Porcelain was hard, sometimes even harder than metals, but porcelain was at the same time, fragile. If a child were to throw a porcelain ware on the ground, it would have been reduced to pieces, despite the promise of never getting scratches for more than a millennium.

Such was the fortitude of the Cloudflow people. It was wise to not be misled by the illusions shown on the outside. So long as one were to have strength equivalent to a child’s, one would have been able to easily defeat them.

It was not known how much time it would take to kill all the remaining six-hundred-thousand troops, but none of them had any intention of staying. Lex even sent scouts into the new city by the shore to get information on them.

The bulk of the Cloudflow army consisted of new recruits, so things were rendered completely chaotic.

Lex, being careful as always, had only heard about the sorcerer’s departure on the third day. At the time, there were still about three-hundred-thousand soldiers from Cloudflow around. The big ships had all left, what remained was high speed warships that were not able to carry many. The warships had narrow designs, capable of great speed. They were fitted with all manners of heavy weapons. As such, there was not much space left for carrying personnel.

Some Cloudflow people resorted to chopping down trees to make raft-like boats.

Lex was afraid that all of it was only a trap set by the invaders, or that the grade-9 sorcerer never left in the first place, only hiding somewhere instead. As such, Lex put off any thought of assaulting the remaining forces.

The winged skeleton shared the same thought, but had instead chose to keep sending low level spirits to harass them. Opportunities like that were hard to come by. The Mechanical Soul was among those who went to harass them.

The Mechanical Soul was almost done with self repair and had stopped using body doubles. Ever since it followed the Soldier, serious restrictions were put on its consumption. It was forbidden from consuming spirits without expressed permission from the winged skeleton. Even the remains of said spirits were rendered off-limits. During every deployment, so long as there were enemies that were turned into spirits of the dead, it was allowed by the winged skeleton to consume half of them.

Saleen trained for another three days in the magic tower before leaving.

Eleanor’s body remained within the mage’s crystal coffin on the seventh floor. Said floor was made a restricted area, with no one else allowed inside but Stephanie.

Stephanie had not had any sleep for three days and nights straight, and gave no thought to Saleen occupying the topmost floor of her tower. The topmost floor of a magic tower served as the living space of a mage and held great significance. To Stephanie in that moment, what was most important was to research the differences between elves and humans.

A mage’s crystal coffin required little maintenance. Periodic change of magic nuclei and magic pharmaceuticals would suffice.

Stephanie devoted most of her time to study Eleanor. Across from the crystal coffin, was a three-dimensional alchemy table she had just reconstructed. All manner of biological samples taken from Eleanor were stored within the hundreds of crystal bottles.

Eleanor suffered too many injuries, and thus a small puppet was required to enter the crystal coffin to perform surgery on her. All that was performed with her submerged in restorative water. The crystal coffin was filled with liquids: grade-7 magic liquid mixed with restorative water. It was done to maintain Eleanor’s life force.

The smallest of small puppets was only as large as half of a person’s palm. Their limbs consisted of sharp scalpels, for cutting necrotic flesh or any places needed mending. They were useful for carving out lines as well, to enable regeneration of muscles.

There was a type of mage called a magic pharmacist, who derived joy in curing people’s ailments.

Stephanie was no magic pharmacist, but her small puppet was itself a piece of equipment above the rank of holy equipment. All of it was initially prepared for the sake of Emperor Chanake. Stephanie had once dreamed of a day where the most powerful of man in Qin would have one day lie within the crystal coffin, with her attending to his treatment.

That man was dead. No matter how powerful one was, there was no way one could have withstood so many attacks from so many powerful ones. The one lying in the coffin was instead, an elf.

Conducting research in the name of healing was a common occurrence among mages, which Saleen turned a blind eye to. No less than three to five months was required to heal the extent of injuries Eleanor suffered. Mages were no gods. Even holy masters would probably have been able to do little with such grave injuries.

Su was the one healing the quickest. The heavenly angel’s attack had only glanced him, and he was protected by armor. That extent of injury was not something a silver swordmaster was unable to handle.

Cuisi suffered injuries that were more severe. His horns were broken, and his powers reduced from a supreme demon to that of a demon, a level which was even lower than when he first met Saleen.

Cuisi lied there glumly, as Stephanie did not allow him to leave. Demons were after all, great research materials as well.

If he was a summoned being belonging to Saleen, the outcome would have been different. Cuisi was not allowed to take a human form. As such, his massive body was forced to curl pitifully instead.

Saleen came to the sixth floor of the tower and Su had already left. He felt pity for Cuisi looking like that. Reduction of power was a huge shock to a supreme demon.

“Cuisi, do you mind telling me your true name?”, Saleen went to the demon and sat by his side.

Vibrancy came to Cuisi’s original gloomy expression. He felt some form of hope from Saleen’s question.

His real name was only known to Nailisi. A demon’s true name was not something to be shared with others. Nailisi knew so, because she was his master.

Cuisi’s head drooped again. He knew that Saleen would not let him follow him, for he was Nailisi’s slave.

“You have helped Eleanor, and for that, you have my thanks. Cuisi, tell me your true name. While I’m unable to have Nailisi sever her contract with you, I can still offer you some degree of freedom. You can address me as your liege from here on out.”

“But…I’m no longer a supreme demon.”

“A lot who followed me in the temple started out as white-robes or common swordsman when they first met me. Cuisi, restoration of power on the Myers Mainland is faster than it is in the demon plane. If you want to become a supreme demon again, I will give you that chance.”

Cuisi turned around and laid prostrate on the ground, his head reaching Saleen’s waist.

“My true name is…”, Cuisi said as his eyes searched around for the magic array. If his true name was to be heard by other mages, things would turn for the worst. While demons had great mental powers, their souls were inferior to humans’. If their names were to be known by others, they could be cursed easily with great results. If any powerful ones were to even speak his name, he would have no choice but to submit.

Saleen knew that within the sixth floor, there was indeed magic arrays set up for the purpose of eavesdropping. Not wanting to cast any isolation magic, he had moved his ear near Cuisi’s mouth. The demon whispered it into Saleen’s ear.

Saleen kept with the pose for half a minute, before Cuisi’s name was completely told to him.

“Alright then, Cuisi,” Saleen said as he took out a scroll and laid it in front of the demon. That was not a follower’s contract, but a simple submission contract. The binding power of this contract was small. Cuisi would be able to defy Saleen’s order as soon as he moved out of sight, without suffering any reprisals from the contract.

“My liege. Can you I address you as such?”

“Yes, you may, Cuisi. I will request Stephanie to patch you up as soon as possible,” Saleen got out of the tower as soon as he finished and went looking for Lex.

Lex did not continue staying within the magic tower despite her palace being destroyed. That was because she had political matters to address. If reporting officials and nobles were to enter the ruins all the time, their moods would have been greatly affected.

Lex’s temporary residence was chosen to be among a group of buildings near the northern magic tower of the city. This was originally a small castle outside of the ancient city of Daliang. Lex converted the place into her temporary palace.

The Dragonslayer army garrisoned outside the palace. Two-hundred of Saleen’s personal guards resided within the palace. These two-hundred were very fortunate; no one suffered any injuries or ended up dead.

Saleen did not bring many with him, only mages numbering to about a dozen, and their guards. Saleen came to Lex’s temporary residence and walked right in. The guards consisted of familiar faces, and the ones guarding Lex’s residence were swordmasters armed with elvish alchemy crossbows.

“Lex, I’m coming in.”

“Oh, Saleen, it’s you…”, all signs of exhaustion were wiped off her face as soon as she saw him.

“I did great!”, Saleen pointed at his own devil’s armor as he told Lex the news; he had been able to undo all the seals on it. The seals placed on it by Joey were difficult ones, but as soon as Saleen had reached the upper tier of grade-7, he was able to gradually undo them. If he was to be a grade-8 mage, he would have been able to undo the first layer of the suit within hours.

“It was a pity that, according to intel, that darned fellow fled. You don’t know that yet, do you?”

“So I have heard,” Saleen gave a bitter smile. He had been rushing to undo the seals just so that he would have been prepared to fight the grade-9 sorcerer. A grade-8 Endless Night would have been able to keep the sorcerer caged for a brief moment, a period of which he could have killed him with the power of his badge.

“So, it’s a ceasefire for now then?”

“The war between us and Cloudflow ceased for the moment. Our war with the Holy See has just begun. Saleen, the Holy See tried to kill you and me both; I have given the order to use Bloody Impact against them.”

Saleen was not a true noble, and as such, he was dumbfounded for a brief moment before he grasped the meaning of the term.

“Lex, If you have decided to do so, then you have my support,” Saleen answered firmly despite having reservations on the decision.

“There is no need for that this time. We are no match for the Holy See if we were to clash head-on. The ones I sent were all assassins. Since they sent someone to assassinate me, then they shall suffer their fates with the same means.”

“So…”

“Saleen, just go back to Metatrin City for now.”

“What?”, Saleen looked at her, puzzled by what she meant by that.

“Leave Eleanor to me, or Master Stephanie will just keep ripping you off. Have Nicholas and Soldier go back with you. It’s mid-April now. If you don’t make it to the Oceanic Ice Block, we will have to starve for the whole year,” Lex smiled as she spoke to Saleen. She knew well that the most important thing to Saleen on this return, was Sika.

Lex felt weak as she thought so, and was about to cry.