Badge in Azure

The warrior was surprised by Carlo’s aggressive attitude. He had already brought out the head inquisitor, and lord inquisitor himself arrived at Black Dungeon. “Does that old fellow think he is the pope? Even the pope yielded to the head inquisitor!”

A gray shadow leapt from the shadow, hitting the warrior right in the chest. The gray shadow seeped into the heavy armor, and blood shot out from within shortly after. All high priests present were shocked.

The head inquisitor told them to be cautious with the actions in Black Dungeon, yet they were unable to comprehend the intentions of the head inquisitor. It was a little late for them to comprehend what the head inquisitor meant. No one would know what would become of the high priests with their leader dead.

“Go home and tell the head inquisitor what happened in detail. Now get out.” Carlo said nothing further. The high priests dared not say anything any further. They quickly took flight and left the compound in a panic.

Van Gogh left the metal furnace within the stone house. He felt limp all over as he slumped on the floor. His body had undergone modifications through Divine Crafting. Carlo was feeling rather anxious, resulting in his abnormally brutal methods. It was fortunate that the silver armor that Van Gogh wore was something he had created personally. Either the armor would be destroyed, the Divine Crafting would end up failing, or Van Gogh himself would end up dead otherwise.

What Carlo did was basically modify the silver armor into some godly item that had been blessed multiple times by the gods. Van Gogh was but an accessory in this case.

“Good. Now you get out of my sight too. Come look for me the day the Holy See is no more, but…”

“Teacher, I will keep a record of my status. If I’m able to survive, I’ll hand all of that to you.” Van Gogh knelt and picked up the cape on the floor to cover his body.

“You are a clever one, and I don’t need you to swear or anything, not even a contract. You are my only student. It is a pity that you can’t perform Divine Crafting, or…we would no longer need to fear that senile fellow,” Carlo spoke as he took out a piece of equipment, putting it before Van Gogh.

“Get to Alchemy City. The Holy See’s army will still take quite a while to get there.”

Van Gogh dared not stay any longer. He did not know what else would happen if he stayed for too long. After picking up the equipment he had dreamed of, he placed it into his necklace. The space badge could no longer be used, as it was destroyed. That badge would also allow the tribunal to locate him any time.

Due to fearing that he got Carlo into too much trouble, Van Gogh bowed to his teacher before walking out of the stone house. The dirt at the compound opened up again and Van Gogh jumped into it.

It was a chute that Carlo used for garbage disposal, and it was also a powerful magic beast. The beast recognized Van Gogh and did not bite. It simply let him slide through his huge throat, reaching the underground through his body.

Seeing his student left, Carlo touched his furnace and smirked. “So, the head inquisitor made it to Black Dungeon Island then? A bunch of reckless fools who go about causing trouble and they really think they can judge everything in this world…”

He had no fear of letting Van Gogh go. He was different from other adherents. While he had not fallen, he had long devoted himself to his researches.

The tribunal, Black Dungeon, and the pivotal council joined forces and excavated First Dynasty ruins all those years ago. What happened there was shocking to everyone present. Hundreds of holy masters went rogue right there and then, betraying their god.

The pivotal council was utterly terrified and wanted to sink that island. They went so far as to clash with the tribunal. The tribunal and Black Dungeon ended up bagging most of the equipment and materials, and the island was sunk by the pivotal council, killing quite a number of members of the tribunal. The fissure between the two factions widened because of it, and it nearly led to an official split.

The tribunal had even begun to elect a new pope, forming a new Holy See of Glory.

“There is no god but me? Ridiculous. If it wasn’t for the fact that so many gods have fallen, the Lord of Glory would not try to spread his faith here.”

Carlo saw the gods that the First Dynasty army had captured in the ruins of the First Dynasty, and many more remains of the gods were found. He had lost all loyalty to the Lord of Glory that day. The very reason he kept his faith was solely due to being able to acquire power under the faith of the Lord of Glory.

“A false adherent. I’m indeed a false adherent! If the Lord of Glory was indeed as powerful as he claimed, why would he tolerate the existence of false adherents?”

To false adherents, faith was but a trade.

On Black Dungeon Island, the head inquisitor was in a rage having lost two important subordinates. Saleen also recalled his Stone Statue Soldiers in the undersea cave, taking Van Gogh’s Lance of Order with him. Van Gogh lost all control of the weapon, or he would have taken it even if it meant putting his life on the line.

Saleen stowed the Lance of Order away. Everything about the weapon was wiped clean by his lightning attack. The sturdy material, however, remained useful for future tasks.

The double-headed great fire snake pounced. Smoke filled the great cave. Saleen realized that the back of the cave was so huge, and it must have been the work of said snake.

Van Gogh feared the great fire snake due to Saleen’s presence. Saleen had faced powerful creatures before, and it hardly mattered to him if the great fire snake before him had one head or two heads.

Saleen retreated and turned the corner. The place got very narrow. Even if the snake had only one head, it would not be able to make its way through. While such elemental creatures did not necessarily have to feed on people, it was nonetheless its territory. When intruders appeared, the elemental creatures solely killed for no other reason than to enforce their claim.

It was not easy acquiring an underground fire spring. The snake would eventually leave the place, and it needed to find a way out. There were countless fire elemental creatures at the mantle of the planet. Most were like those smaller snakes, which would end up dead as soon as they left the lava.

Saleen retreated, letting the Vermillion Knights block the corner altogether. The double-headed great fire snake spat fire in rage but was blocked by the Vermillion Knight. While both grade-9 Vermillion Knights and their grade-10 leader were no match for the double-headed great fire snake, such fire attacks were little more than what hot water baths would have been for humans.

Most of the great fire snake’s body was still in the lake of lava. The head reached the end of the tunnel and was unable to turn. It was simply too tight there. The furious great snake stabbed around with its tongue. The end of its tongue was forked, with two crystallized fire elements on its respective ends. The crystallized body was abnormally sharp, and it ended up piercing the elemental core of one of the Vermillion Knights.

Saleen retreated 100 yards further, and he was finally out of the tongue’s reach. Seeing its enemy had retreated even further, it emitted eerie hissing sounds. The stomach-turning noises ended up summoning tens of thick fire snakes crawling out of the lake of lava, making their way quickly to the corner of the cave.

Nicholas was unable to do anything to such elemental creatures. The fallen divine spell proved more powerful against creatures with souls. Going against elemental creatures would have proven rather strenuous, or rather, he would have had no way of conserving his power of faith. Under such circumstances, his offensive capacity would be lower than a grade-8 elemental mage.

Nicholas had no other options but to buff Saleen with divine spells, enhancing Saleen’s defense and luck.

Saleen unleashed six Blue Ice Maidens. The six water elemental creatures combined their might and cast Absolute Zero, stopping the one yard thick fire snakes at the corner.

The fire snakes summoned were not of high levels, and a spell such as Absolute Zero quickly turned the fire snakes into rocks.

The spell cast by the Blue Ice Maidens covered the walls of the cave with icicles. The super cold temperature made the double-headed great fire snake furious. It dared not ram the walls, as it feared it would cause the place to collapse on them. A perfect lake of lava, the passage it painstakingly opened, would have been ruined.

It had only recently developed an intellect, and the structure of its soul began to appear. As such, it was only natural for it know some of the ways to advance, which was why it did not go on rampage. A common great fire snake would have simply burned the place down when provoked by Saleen, which would have brought rocks of thousands of yards thick down on their heads.

Seeing the snake getting furious, yet being reluctant to go on a rampage, he felt a sense of glee in him. He decided to stay where he was and went directing his elemental creatures to cast water magic spells in a nonchalant manner. The great fire snake was able to do nothing. It could not bring itself to ruin its home for the intruder. All there was left to be done was just to keep spitting fire to melt the ice within.

Saleen wracked his brain as he directed the Blue Ice Maidens’ actions. The Crystal Finger would have proved inadequate to kill the snake, as the snake’s elemental core would probably be bigger than a house. Stabbing it with the Crystal Finger would have only hurt it and little else.

The spears of the ancient warriors would have fared somewhat better. They would had been somewhat effect at damaging the elemental core when thrown. It would have also simply hurt the snake though. Saleen came to realize the advantage of having such a huge size. One might throw the best one had at such beings, and one would possibly not even be able to scratch such beings.

While Saleen was feeling troubled, Nailisi had sneaked out of the Twelve Notes of Purgatory. She found the snake’s body and it was spitting fire on the other end of the cave as soon as she got out. The act of spitting fire was as natural as breathing to the snake, and it was effortless. That was all because the other half of its body was still submerged in lava, enabling to keep siphoning energy to itself.

Nailisi weighed her options and found herself to be far inferior to the snake in terms of combat powers. If she used Gray Memory to ambush it, she would be able to hurt one of the two heads, but there was no certainty that she would be able to pierce through the elemental core. The other remaining head would simply kill her for what she would do.

The Sword of Rules proved too small to hurt it. She could have dealt hundreds of slashes on it, and it would not be able to reach the vital points of the snake still. “If I’m able to master at least one rule, whatever kind of rule, I would fare better than this!” Nailisi regretted not being more diligent. She was then at wits’ end about what to do with such a massive creature before her.

“So, how do I go about tricking that thing into my purgatory of elements then?” Nailisi thought for a bit, and her skirt was filled with golden electricity. She dived into the lake of lava. The boiling molten rock within was unable to harm her due to being protected by the electricity about her. Nailisi dived further staying close to the snake’s body, and soon reached a wider spot.

The lava there was transparent, tens of times hotter than the lava on top. If she did not have the electricity about her for protection, she would have been fried to a crisp.

Green golden light flowed within her eyes and she was shocked to find that the floor of the giant cave was filled with red crystals.