Badge in Azure

The pests rolled around on the ground as the black dust that made up their bodies began to wriggle like water. The soul flames in Nailisi’s six eye sockets began to conceal themselves behind eyes that looked like a human’s.

Spirit Vision was a grade-7 spell. Once all six eyes appeared, Nailisi could immediately see the locations of the soul shards within the pests. The monsters were only grade-7 creatures!

The pests lost their abilities to attack for the time-being as they wriggled around on the ground due to the effects of the Wail of the Spirit spell. Nailisi stepped forward calmly and inserted her skeletal hands into the bodies of the pests and pulled out their soul shards. Then, she casually threw the soul shards into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory.

No matter what form Nailisi was in, her demon attributes would not vanish completely. Luoluokaluo were like the elves of all demons as they possessed mysterious powers. Of all the various types of demon bloodlines, Luoluokaluo would rank amongst the top three if not the first. The only reason they might not be ranked as the most powerful was because they were very fragile after birth and it was difficult for them to grow.

Many of the bloodlines of demons were as such, whereby they would not be able to fully utilize their powers until they were mature. That might sound cruel, but it was precisely because of that unique attribute that the powers of the demon dimension had maintained a consistent level. Many unique demons had managed to survive and were only waiting for the powers of the dimension to increase once again.

Luoluokaluos were born with the gift of controlling souls. Although Nailisi was in the form of a three-faced bone demon, even spirits of the dead were able to see the location of the pests’ soul shards. Once the soul shards had been pulled out of their bodies, the pests turned into a pile of dust and could no longer merge together again.

Nailisi was killing the pests at a much faster rate than the elemental stone statue soldiers, but without the latter who wielded magic war hammers, the former would have had to use up a significant amount of energy in order to kill the pests one by one. Eventually, she decided to forego death magic spells entirely and allowed the elemental stone statue soldiers to hammer the pests.

No matter how fast the pests could merge together, they could not beat the speed at which Nailisi was snatching the soul shards out of them. In that environment, there was no limit to the powers of the elemental stone statue soldiers as the ground elements were extremely rich. The faces of the soldiers were clearly defined, and their noses were constantly absorbing the ground elements as much as they could in order to heal the wounds on their bodies sustained from the pests’ bites.

Saleen was on the third level and was protected by twelve elemental stone statue soldiers. He could clearly hear Nailisi’s Wail of the Spirit. He felt more relieved knowing that grade-6 death magic spells were capable of killing the pests. Even if they were only controlled by death magic spells, Saleen’s grade-7 element spells would definitely be able to kill them.

Finally, he could save up on his magic chords. In the tower, the pests would not be able to surround him and could only enter in limited numbers. Each level was occupied by twelve elemental stone statue soldiers who occupied a significant amount of space. There was no way the pests would be able to force their way through.

Saleen gazed out of the tower once again. The number of pests were still increasing. With one sweep of Saleen’s elemental eyes, he estimated that there were about eighty-six-thousand of them in total.

It would be extremely tiring trying to kill so many pests. Even the water puppet was feeling a little nervous. He was most proficient in water-element spells and while he possessed a certain level of ability to convert elements, he was still not at the same level as Saleen. Dealing with the monsters would not play to his strengths.

The windows on the third level were closed tightly without any gaps. Saleen saw hundreds of pests flying up, flapping their wings in the water and circling the windows of the tower.

If Saleen could find a way to give Nicholas all eighty-six-thousand pests, her soul beads would definitely become stronger. After all, the pests were at grade-7.

Bang!

One of the pests smashed its horns violently against the window of the crystal tower. The window trembled for a while. The six yard long body of the pest that struck the window dissipated. Saleen could clearly see tens of blue-colored bodies of energy floating in the sea. Were those the soul shards?

The blue body of energy gathered together quickly, and the dirt and dust merged together again. That time around, the six yard long body has shrunken to four yards. Striking the window proved to be ineffective. Subsequently, seven pests tried to smash the window as well. All of their bodies dissipated instantly, only to merge together again a few seconds later, with bodies that had shrunken by one-third.

The water puppet laughed. He looked calmer now. Saleen said to him, “Go down and help Nailisi. I will be fine here.”

“Yes, my Lord.” The water puppet was assured that the pests would not be able to break through the windows. He turned around and jumped to the second level.

On the second level, Nailisi followed the twelve elemental stone statue soldiers calmly. Both of her skeletal hands kept snatching the soul shards of the pests and throwing them into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory.

The water puppet frowned. That action of his was very similar to Saleen, but he had no idea. Nailisi was clean and efficient with every action. She did not use any techniques, and only followed the elemental stone statue soldiers. At the rate at which the elemental stone statue soldiers were smashing the pests with their war hammers, at least one pest would be struck. Even if the pests possessed the ability to merge together again, they would still be paralyzed for a few seconds and would not be able to attack during that time.

Nailisi would make use of the few seconds to dig out their soul shards. The water puppet felt extremely useless when he saw all that.

“Rossen, get ready to use grade-6 Vortex to block off any gaps. If this thing goes up, Master will still be able to handle if there are only eight to ten of them,” Nailisi spoke to the water puppet without turning back.

“Alright.” The water puppet stepped back and got ready to cast magic attacks. At the moment, the twelve elemental stone statue soldiers were standing very closely together, so no pests have been able to reach the staircase yet.

The pests looked extremely ferocious and their attacking motions were also very strange. They would make use of their claws, fangs, the curved thorns on their bodies, tails, and some of them could even spit out rocks that had been formed by the merging of ground elements.

All the attacks would only leave faint marks on the bodies of the elemental stone statue soldiers. The stone statue soldiers were more than twenty yards tall and their elemental core was probably less than two yards. Not only were their exterior elemental armors extremely thick, they could also be repaired anytime.

The pests managed to sniff out Saleen’s aura, hence they had all gathered there. They were not interested in the elemental stone statue soldiers at all. When humans cleansed the pests, they also made use of elemental creatures. The pests only targeted creatures of flesh and blood.

The pests that were trying to break through the windows on the third level had finally backed off. Saleen turned around to retrieve magic materials and began to set up a magic array on the floor. He was not sure how many pests had managed to enter the tower nor how long Nailisi would be able to hold them off. In the worst-case scenario, he would seek refuge in the Twelve Notes of Purgatory.

With a back-up plan in place, Saleen no longer felt so pressured, but that also made him feel less excited. His understanding of magic was hundreds and thousands of times faster when he was under pressure. Conversely, once he was no longer under any pressure, the only advantage he had over ordinary mages was just a stronger foundation.

Without his lineage, he was just like any other ordinary mage!

No wonder teacher did not allow him to train in the Six Elements’ Space. Even if he had become a grade-9 sorcerer, his knowledge and combat abilities would not surpass his current state. That was because as a grade-9 sorcerer, he would not be able to cast grade-10 spells recklessly anymore.

There would be no improvement without any pressure. This lineage of his was a tough and difficult path that he would have to walk.

At that thought, Saleen led the twelve elemental stone statue soldiers down the staircase to the second level.

“Master?” One of Nailisi’s faced saw Saleen and was confused.

“Let me command the stone statue soldiers. You just need to focus on killing the pests. Rossen, watch and learn.” With that, Saleen cast an Ice Bomb spell, then allowed the surface of the ice bomb to evaporate before it began to burn.

That was element conversion, where water elements were used to create a fire ball of extremely high temperature. In order to speed up the water puppet’s learning, Saleen only created one fireball. In addition, this fire ball’s surface was yellow in color, which meant that the temperature was not too high.

The ice bomb that Saleen created was more than ten times bigger than ordinary ice bombs and was close to half a yard in diameter. The fireball, which was more than a yard in diameter, had the ice bomb as its core. The color on the surface of the fire ball slowly changed into orange-red color, which was a sign that temperature was increasing. Water puppet followed Saleen in creating an ice bomb and successfully made its surface evaporate. He was just unable to make the ice bomb burn.

On Saleen’s giant fireball, the image of a lightning dragon gradually formed.

When Saleen was learning the fireball technique in the beginning, he was extremely envious of Faerun. After he became a grade-8 sorcerer himself, the fireball that he was able to create also possessed their own unique attributes.

Eventually, on the surface of the fireball was a lightning dragon circling while some strange magic patterns shone on its orange-red body. Although Saleen was able to create the image of a lightning dragon, he was unable to create a fire ball that carried lightning. Nevertheless, that was definitely achievable, just not at his current level of ability.

Fire element was berserk by nature but could be considered docile when compared to lightning. Saleen fully understood the terrifying powers of lightning. If a mage was struck by a flash of lightning in the sky, it would be equivalent to being attacked by tens of Forbidden Curses.

The lightning dragon’s body had the rule of energy conservation that Saleen had gained enlightenment on its body. If the fireball failed to strike any enemy, it would continue to burn until the ice bomb in its core melted completely. Once that half yard long ice bomb completely evaporated, it would be able to keep the fire ball burning for a few hours.

That grade-7 fireball technique was originally a single-target spell. Under special circumstances, a fireball that had continuously burned for a few hours could be turned into a multiple-target spell.

“My Lord, I can’t…” The water puppet was a little depressed as he looked at Saleen throw out his fireball slowly, causing a cluster of pests to start burning. The lightning dragon pattern on the surface of the fireball was abnormal. It could even leave the fire ball a little just so that it could automatically coil itself around its target to continue burning. Such control of the spell would put most sorcerers to shame.

Back then, when Faerun created the fireball technique, he could use his mental strength to exert complete control over the spell. Therefore, Faerun was the real genius while Saleen was merely following in his footsteps.