Badge in Azure

The three-faced bone demon ordered the soldier husks under her command to charge at the remaining warriors and low level mages. The power room was huge, with a length of over one-hundred yards. A tall metal furnace was installed at the central part of the room. Elemental fires were burning in the hexagonal furnace.

The Mechanical Soul had the two spears stabbed into its neck broken. Then it seemingly had hundreds of teeth chewing on the broken spear, rendering the parts into tiny pieces to be absorbed into its body.

Nailisi took out her Twelve Notes of Purgatory as she did not want to drag the fight out further, throwing two ancient warriors into the purgatory of ice. Nailisi went into said purgatory to see for herself, and saw the two warriors becoming gradually slow and lumbering as soon as they went into the purgatory. The warriors soon began to be encased in ice, freezing them solid within.

To grade-9 creatures, the yet-to-be restored purgatory of ice’s offensive capabilities were not even worth mentioning. Yet the two warriors thrown in did not bother resisting. Rather, they looked rather pleased with the temperature within, and stopped resisting altogether to rest within their blocks of ice.

The holes on the Mechanical Soul’s neck warped and began to gradually close. The other two ancient warriors were dumbfounded to find their companions gone, before charging at Nailisi in the hold again.

Nailisi had no way to escape. While she might have stood a chance at winning if she were to fight the two ancient warriors, it was not known how many other enemies were on the warship. She deemed it unwise to give it her all at that moment.

The Mechanical Soul stood before Nailisi faithfully, shooting hundreds of arrows from its mouth. The two ancient warriors shook their spears and charged at them in the midst of the volley of arrows. One of them stabbed their spear into the Mechanical Soul’s mouth. Metal grinding sounds were soon heard from its mouth, as the Mechanical Soul began biting down on the spear.

Another warrior aimed their spear at Nailisi’s torso. The chest area where her heart laid was covered with a plate of thick bone armor. While the actual weakness of a spirits was their brain, Nailisi did not dare to simply take one such hit. A hit from a grade-9 warrior was enough to tear her body apart.

Nailisi backed down in a hurry. She lifted her bone hammer and smashed it hard downwards. The hit connected with the ancient warrior’s spear. Her spirit form was of king level nonetheless. The hit from her hammer lodged the warrior’s spear into the ground with a heavy boom.

Nicholas’ Scepter of the Fallen cast Soul Interrogation, which was considered to be the brilliance of divine arts, in a split second. The skill mixed with Nailisi’s Death Ripple and spread outwards, permeating the entire room.

Casualties of beings below grade-7 were heavy, yet the two ancient warriors remained unscathed.

A black-robed mage watched everything unfolding before them, hiding behind the metal furnace in terror. They had no idea why assailants were able to come in from the deck. There were loads of alchemy weapons installed on the Ancient warship. Even grade-9 professionals should have been unable to make it aboard easily.

“Who is this enemy? A horrifying spirit, and a holy master! Someone from the Holy See then? But, isn’t the target this time the fleet of Metatrin City? Why is such a powerful holy master here?”

The metal furnace was the core power source of the entire warship, which was noted on magic notes often to be the magic power furnace: an item that mages dreamed of getting their hands on. The power generated by the magic power furnace exceeded any known magic arrays by several orders of magnitude. The proof of which laid in the fact that such a huge warship was powered solely by one twenty-four yard tall magic power furnace that was six yards in diameter.

If the magic power furnace could have been able to be taken apart and installed in a city, it would have been able to provide absolute magical defense for said city. The furnace might have even been able to conjure a gigantic magic shield powerful enough to withstand multiple grade-9 target spells.

The furnace itself was also as durable as it was able to be, or else it would have blown up under previous attacks, rendering the entire ship to ashes. As the grade-9 death magic spell and grade-9 fallen divine spell were casted, the two ancient warriors got violent all of a sudden. The warrior attacking the Mechanical Soul had their tainted blood armor purged and their muscles grew exponentially. The being simply whacked the Mechanical Soul with their broken spear, and the brain of their victim was no more.

The Mechanical Soul’s grievance was not one that could have been easily described in words. Its combat capacity dropped sharply after giving Bain a powerful double, and the winged skeleton did not give it any chance to replenish its energies. Being under Saleen’s control, it was only able to eat to half-full before coming there, and ended up being pummeled by grade-9 warriors.

If it was a common spirit, it would have simply dissipated. It was fortunate that its soul flame laid deep within its body, without staying in one spot for long. Its brain was not a vital area. The attack had only made it lose its sight for the time being.

A pair of eyes grew from its back as soon as its head hit the floor, staring at the ancient warrior. Its tail went for the ancient warrior, coiling their body up.

The water puppet made its move, having detected the ancient warrior’s weak spot.

A magic staff appeared in the water puppet’s hand. It chanted the words silent and cast a very slow magic: Absolute Zero.

The Mechanical Soul’s body was turned into a piece of ice crystal in a flash. The warrior attacking it gradually had their blood frozen in their muscles, which then burst through their vessels and sprayed the place with tiny pieces of frozen blood under the effect of the Absolute Zero spell.

The remaining two ancient warriors were hardly nimble. While they had the strength of a grade-9 professional, they were not able to perform as grade-9 beings. The other ancient warrior had their weapon destroyed by Nailisi’s hammering. They charged at Nailisi with their bare hands, which were then thrown into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory’s purgatory of ice shortly after.

Nailisi came to realize that the ancient warriors would stop attacking in a cold environment, just like how some magic beasts would hibernate because of the temperature around them.

The ancient warriors had no souls. They would have shown some sort of reaction to Nailisi’s Death Ripple and Nicholas’ Soul Interrogation otherwise. The ancient warriors were no puppets, yet they had nothing to do with living beings either.

“You, come here,” Nailisi pointed at the black-robed mage hiding behind the furnace. The black-robed mage had one streak of magic marking on their robe, making them a grade-7 sorcerer.

The sorcerer hesitated for a moment, thinking that if the people were able to make short of four ancient warriors so easily, then they, as a grade-7 sorcerer, stood no chance against them. There had been more than a dozen sorcerers on the ship, and yet no magic alert was heard at all, which meant…

The thought had the sorcerer raised both their hands up. They threw their staff aside and walked out from behind the furnace.

Nailisi was not able to resist laughing. The sorcerer simply threw away their staff when surrendering like a warrior throwing their weapon away. “A mage from Cloudflow then?”

Nailisi’s three faces all had their jawbones chattering, which frightened the sorcerer for a moment. The water puppet spoke, “You all continue to sweep the second and third floor. I will stay here with the Mechanical Soul.”

The water puppet added, noting Nailisi’s intention to retort, “This is his highness’ will.”

Nailisi went quiet. While she did not recognize the furnace installed in the middle of the room, she nonetheless knew that it was a valuable piece. Knowing that her master had his ideas, she noted that there was no need for her to think on it. What the water puppet saw, Saleen would have seen as well.

“Let’s go. Our business here is done,” Nailisi said to Nicholas. The old man said nothing. He had been spending quite a lot of the soul bead’s power, so he did not want to stay down there for too long. The enemies above had been mostly cleared by the water puppet, which meant that anyone left would be easy pickings.

Nailisi cast one ice carvings of death after another. She then conjured one large skull of ice after another on the wall of the metal corridor. The bone beings all breathed cold air, and would attack anything that were not spirits. The spirits who made it where they stood were not many. Since the water puppet said it needed no help, the spirits all left with Nailisi and Nicholas, returning to the deck of the Ancient.

The water puppet waved at the sorcerer under Saleen’s instruction, signaling for them to come forward.

“What is your name?”, the water puppet asked while allowing the Mechanical Soul to devour the dead bodies in the room. Other than truly dead people, there were also those who had simply passed out; none were spared by the Mechanical Soul. It was very happy, as it was finally allowed to enjoy something decent. It had forgotten about being deceived by Saleen, and it ate anything it was able to eat with half of the head it just grew.

“My name is Tam’enm, sir,” the sorcerer answered respectfully. There were only the two of them left in the room, three if the metallic monster were to be considered among them. The sorcerer knew well that they were no match for the sorcerer controlling these beings. The smile on their face was a forced one, which quickly turned sincere ten seconds later.

“Bad name you have there,” the water puppet said.

“Yes, yes, even I myself find my name to be a bad one. If you are in the mood, sir, you are welcomed to give me a new name,” Tam’enm’s answer almost had Saleen, who was watching the conversation, spewing whatever was in his mouth.

The water puppet frowned, “I don’t have that kind of time. Answer me this. How much do you know about the Ancient warship?”

“Sir, I’m only in charge of the power room. I know very well about propulsion of the ship, but the matters on the deck, really not so much,” Tam’enm answered in a frightened manner.

“I don’t need to know about propulsion,” the water puppet’s words made the sorcerer’s face pale. If they were not able to be of any use to the sorcerer before their eyes, would they end up being killed and fed to that metallic monster as well?

“Ho-hold on. I know! I know who the warship belongs to! We came from Dragon Island, from Cloudflow!”

“Dragon Island? What kind of place is that?” those words just uttered came directly from Saleen, who took direct control of the puppet.

Tam’enm’s speed at speech went into overdrive, exceeding the limits of when they practiced the words to activate spells, speaking at a breakneck speed, “There are three grand dukes in Cloudflow whose positions are likened to the prince’s. Grand Duke Iron Blood controls nearly one-hundred islands in the south, which are like his private kingdom, and we serve under Grand Duke Iron Blood!”