Badge in Azure

Chapter 1469: Before the Breakup (Part 1)

Saleen destroyed all three weapon spirits without a second thought so he could use the Lightning Moon to recreate a weapon spirit without memories or enmity against him.

The Lightning Moon was so powerful that not even he, as its master, would have been able to endure more than a few attacks.

The Goddess of Myers never expected Saleen to be greedy enough to destroy those weapon spirits once they became demigods. If he had kept them around, they would have been traps the goddess put at his side.

The more Saleen interacted with ancient humans, the more he understood their reasoning and principles. Even though he shared similar ideals with them, they would have had no qualms about using him as cannon fodder.

It wouldn’t have mattered how careful he was with everything around him. Myers made the three weapon spirits side with her, and the general put 24 contracts out on him. If he mishandled any of them, he could have gotten himself killed.

Saleen wanted to take care of everything in the cemetery of the giant in one go: If Myers suddenly showed up, she wouldn’t have been able to see what was going on inside. As for the 24 heroic spirits, Saleen used lightning patterns to protect them. If they died, the contracts on his soul would have remained intact.

The most important thing was being able to wipe out the memories of those souls and then make them re-sign their contracts with him.

Although this would have been an impossible feat for others, Saleen had high-level star figures with him, enabling the souls of those heroic spirits to stay intact.

The 24 heroic spirits were a huge investment that the general put on him. It would have been a shame to let them go to waste.

He willingly stepped into the two-fold traps, all because his power of the soul was high enough to overwhelm all 24 spirts and prevent them from relaying information back home.

By the time the heroic spirits realized what he was up to, he would have been deep enough into an independent space that was even safer than the Imperial City of the Abyss.

Saleen was brutal enough to make such a decision. No other mage would have acted so decisively even if he were strong enough to destroy three demigod servants. That was what Saleen learned from his teacher: Demigods were good stuff; it didn’t matter if they were insubordinate.

Those three had faked three distinct personalities and never fought one another. That was very cunning on their part. They didn’t even use the power of the soul to communicate. When they needed to talk to each other, they resorted to the crudest of methods—writing in the void.

Saleen wouldn’t have known what they were up to had it not been for the soul vibrations triggered by the writing.

Countless lightning-magic patterns shifted gently in the Lightning Moon. The three weapon spirits were ashen as they put up all their defenses, which were eroded by the lightning magic patterns. They had no choice but to get close to each other, defending one side each, hoping to brave the attacks.

After all, they were still outside the moon and pinned down by the lightning attacks. If they were able to break free of their chains, they would have had a chance of escaping. They were still demigods. If they were willing to cast the fragments of divine personas aside, it would have been impossible to escape.

The three jade fragments inside their heads saw mystical changes when they were thinking so. The three pieces pulled at each other within the vibration frequencies of the lightning around them.

Saleen was startled when he heard a voice from the moon bellow, “Not bad. Someone finally managed to master lightning magic!”

As Saleen backed away quickly, over a dozen layers of Water Shield etched with lightning magic patterns were conjured.

“Too bad your level is too low or I would have given you pointers. No matter, this thing can only be used once. You can have it. When you have time, you... could come to see me again!” The voice gave a complex set of coordinates. Saleen’s calmed down. The set of coordinates seemed to be a crystal wall system.

That meant the voice was not coming from a person inside in the Lightning Moon. All that was in it was a bit of something in the power of the soul within it...but what was that something? Saleen couldn’t tell. If it been just a voice, that thing would not have been able to evaluate Saleen’s powers and say those words.

That technique of controlling powers was far above that of the gods.

Gods could create life, and humans could not? Says who? In truth, that voice had indeed come from a living being.

Nothing more was heard from that voice. It seemed to have vanished. The three weapon spirits in the Lightning Moon were terrified to discover that the three jade fragments were being forcefully pulled together. That’s not all—they were being merged into a single being.

The matter within the Lightning Moon seemed to be transparent energy. It was of a large enough space, and the beams of lightning-magic patterns seemed to be crystallized pillars when seen from within.

The so-called pillars looked like magic pattern sculptures.

The crystalline magic patterns were extremely thick, so think that not even the divine trees Saleen had seen could compare. All of a sudden, lightning raged in that space. The three weapon spirits were shattered by the sudden attack. The jade fragments within merged. The bodily pieces of the three weapon spirits then coalesced and were subjected to the raging lightning attacks.

The lightning attacks grew increasingly intense. A small metal sphere at the core of the Lightning Moon had simple magic patterns etched on it. There were also two images of eyes on it; they seemed to be two sides of a coin.

The energy of the Lightning Moon was being expended considerably. The god creatures on the ground were about to regain vitality before being sucked in by the moon. Most dropped limply, with a handful rising and joining the ranks of those attacking the 24 heroic spirits.

The Ring of Cosmos in Saleen’s hand turned and burst with intense power, which Saleen found uncontrollable. The two layers on the ring turned and the symbols on them aligned. One of the spaces of the combinations opened, the space containing the Aqua Fulgur.

The powerful suction of the ring sucked both the Lightning Moon and the Lightning Constellation into it along with Saleen’s family badge.

Saleen was scared out of his wits; however, there was nothing he could have done to retrieve those three objects.

Yet another combination clicked, and the space opened. The god creatures fighting the heroic spirits, as well as those who had yet to awaken, were thrown into the air and sucked into that space.

Then another space opened. The bone crystals of the giant left behind, plus the giant’s head had all flown inside.

Saleen was baffled: What was that ring?

Within the space enveloped by the Lightning Moon, something appeared under the hills of the bone crystals of the giant that Saleen found surprising—elemental lakes.

If it had not been for the ring’s powerful suction and storage powers, those elemental lakes would have never appeared.

Saleen only came to comprehend the King of Glory’s designs by then. The size of the elemental lakes suggested that they were laid artificially. Among the six major elements, only that of the earth was not found, as those hills were like earth elemental lakes themselves.

Saleen broke out in a cold sweat. If the Ring of Cosmos hadn’t run amok to the extent that it even sucked out the elemental lakes, the balance of the space would have been broken once he had finished taking the Lightning Moon. The elemental lakes would have exploded and the entire space would have been shredded and turned into massive space turbulence. Saleen would have died there, even if he were armed with the God’s Ring.

The cemetery of the giant no longer looked like something meant for resurrecting a friend but rather a trap meant for some enemy!

Saleen recalled the Lightning Moon in the sky. He never heard of the King of Glory being able to use lightning skills. The Lightning Moon looked out of place from the setup of the cemetery of the giant.

He was baffled, while the 24 heroic spirits were all enraged. They were all brought into that space forcefully by Saleen and were quickly attacked by god creatures. While Saleen was attacked too; they knew what Saleen was trying to pull off.

The targeted killing was common in ancient times.

Saleen cast Dance of Electric Snakes without saying a word, startling the heroic spirits as they were enveloped inside. All weapons held by the spirits were either shattered or wiped clean of their attributes by the lightning attack.

Saleen chuckled and said, “The general is indeed generous, insisting that I sign the contracts. If it had not been for the contracts, I wouldn’t have been a match for you people, would I?”

If those heroic spirits were living beings, they would have been puking blood by then. They were bound by soul bonds. Even if Saleen succeeded in killing them, they were still doomed.

“I’ll give you people a way out.” Saleen took out 24 figures. Those figures were only level-14, but that didn’t matter. Saleen had other uses for figures above level-15. He didn’t care how high the levels of the heroic spirits were.

Since he had no intention of subjugating them, he offered minimum conditions instead. If the heroic spirits refused, Saleen would have had no problem killing them all.

“I’m sorry.” A leader among the 24 appeared then. He was also there per the general’s arrangement. That person was also a skilled martial artist.

“What a shame.” Saleen pointed at the martial artist’s head. He was affected by the contract and his speed slowed considerably. Regardless of how quick he was, he would not have been quicker than Comet Flash.

His head was blown, his brains splattering as if he were a living being.

All the other 23 heroic spirits freaked out. None expected Saleen to be able to kill their leader outright, so much so that there was no chance to resurrect him. The martial artist’s soul was destroyed by some unknown force, and the destruction was thorough.

Saleen retrieved his star figures and said, “I’m sorry too. I have changed my mind. You are all no longer the warriors I need.” The Thunder Dragon Blaster emerged from the center of the magic amplifier as he spoke, shooting lightning icicles at them.

All 23 heroic spirits died in vain. None understood what had made Saleen change his mind.

They gave up their chance at resurrection because of the general. They couldn’t even become heroic spirits—and didn’t understand why.

The reasoning was simple: Saleen didn’t need them anymore. What he needed was powerful subordinates, not people who would have turned on him at any given moment. He had long wanted to get rid of them, but he was concerned about alerting the general. That’s the only reason he attempted to spare them.

The gods that were sucked into the Ring of Cosmos all had their memories wiped clean after entering a space by some unknown force. All became like puppets, yet the ring did not break down their bodies. Saleen could have made puppets of even greater power using their bodies.

Level-15 puppets were the best that Saleen was able to craft at the moment. But what happens if I advance further? The bodies of those gods could be made into level-18 puppets.

So what the hell would I need the heroic spirits for? Saleen recalled what the general pulled on him. He was concerned there were some kind of tricks in their bodies enabling them to kill him in a suicide run, so he decided to take out the leader right away.

With all the contracts gone from his soul, Saleen was invigorated. Those powerful beings might have gotten used to setting him up, making them think he was someone they could push around with impunity. How wrong they were.