Badge in Azure

Chapter 239: A Second Contract (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Go!” Daniel made a complicated magic gesture with his hands, and countless black rays shot out from the magic array, hitting the winged skeleton. The body of the winged skeleton started smoking and it banged its head repeatedly against the walls, but it just would not fly out the window.

Did the winged skeleton possess intelligence now? All of a sudden, Daniel felt remorseful. The winged skeleton seemed to be very different from a normal death creature. How had Daniel not noticed it before? However, the contract had been signed, so it was too late for regrets now.

“Soldier, in the name of the contract, go!” Daniel changed his hand gesture, and this time around, the winged skeleton could no longer control its own actions and flew out of the window in a stumbling manner.

Upon witnessing this scene, Nailisi whispered to Saleen, “Master, I abhor Daniel.”

Even Lex could not bear watching this scene. She did not know what had transpired between Saleen and Daniel that had caused Daniel to treat his contract creature in this manner. It was widely known that mages would exhaust all means to try and recruit followers, as long as they had the capability to support their followers, but none of the followers would be as effective and loyal as contract creatures.

Saleen’s expression did not change. So the winged skeleton’s name is Soldier. Haha, it’s so simple. After all, it’s a skeleton soldier, and Daniel did not even bother to give it a better name. Seems like I was right to take the winged skeleton.

In the realm of the death dimension, it was difficult for skeletons to grow into powerful creatures, but skeletons with bone wings stood a much higher chance of doing so. Intelligent skeletons were even rarer. Soldier was bound to a contract, so it was forced to fly out of the magic tower and start absorbing the ghost fog against its will. Cracks had appeared on the bone wings of the winged skeleton after the repeated impacts against the ceiling, and now, there was no longer any red glow in its eyes. The red glow had been replaced by a pitch black darkness similar to the night sky.

Thousands of magic runes had appeared on the bones of the winged skeleton. These magic runes levitated atop the bones and spun around furiously, thus forming a vortex, and absorbing the ghost fog across the island.

The ghost fog was extremely dense. After the fog was absorbed by the vortex formed by the runes on the body of the winged skeleton, it seeped into the bones of winged skeleton and was then assimilated into the bones. Originally, the bones of the winged skeleton had been white, but after absorbing the ghost fog, the color of the bones became increasingly darker. From white to light grey to dark grey, before becoming pitch black like ink made from dragon’s blood.

The bones of the winged skeleton were reinforced. Its wings had originally been about three meters wide, but after the absorption process, they were now six meters wide. Furthermore, a second pair of wings had begun to grow out of its back. This was not a natural evolution. It was an evolution that had taken place by forcefully absorbing the power of the ghost fog made from the death dimension. This evolution would potentially be the last time the winged skeleton advanced.

The instincts of the winged skeleton were to resist such progress, but it could not stop the evolution because it was bound to the contract.

As the ghost fog became thinner, the howls from the winged skeleton grew increasingly louder. The stars and the moon had begun appearing across the sky. As most of the ghost fog was absorbed by the winged skeleton, those tiny monsters within the fog also howled as they rolled on the ground in excruciating pain, then began to die off.

Once the ghost fog monsters had died, the dispersal of the ghost fog became even faster. To the north of the magic tower, a colossal rock started trembling. This square rock was about forty meters tall, and there were no signs which signaled that it had been carved by humans. As the ghost fog disappeared, cracking sounds came from the interior of this rock.

Daniel pointed and said, “It’s right there!”

Before Daniel’s voice had died down, an earth shattering sound came from that gigantic rock. An explosion occurred in the middle of the rock, causing rock fragments to fly in all directions. A rock fragment about one meter in diameter flew towards the magic tower and struck the window of the tower. A boom followed and the magic tower began wavering.

At this point in time, a red glow suddenly appeared in the eyes of the winged skeleton which was flying in midair. Out of the blue, the winged skeleton charged towards the broken rock.

A flash appeared in Daniel’s eyes. The winged skeleton’s mission to expose the seal had been accomplished. Now, the winged skeleton had voluntarily attacked the death creature which was about to emerge, and this would relieve a great deal of pressure for Saleen and the others.

Daniel grew worried. The winged skeleton was basically heading to its own doom by doing that. Daniel turned to look at Saleen, but Saleen looked insipid and had no intention of stopping the winged skeleton at all.

Daniel then relaxed. Either way, he had not been the one who had commanded the winged skeleton to risk its life. Once he obtained the death creature, it would be Saleen’s concern no matter how the winged skeleton ended up. Since Saleen had not bothered stopping the winged skeleton, he would not be responsible either.

“Lex, I will have to trouble you regarding this matter.” Saleen took a deep breath. After the gigantic rock had broken, a sealed magic array had been exposed, and the lines on the magic array were in extreme disorder. The black lines and the intangible white light rays were entangled around each other like a net. It was just that this net was extremely fragile, and the death creature inside this net had already exposed its head.

Lex nodded. The death creature was unexpectedly strong, and even though its power was diminished, it still possessed level-7 abilities. The three white heads of this death creature were twice the size of a tire, and there were dense rows of razor sharp teeth in its protruding mouth, like those found in the mouth of a shark.

There were countless three-headed creatures in the death dimension. However, there were a pair of slender horns on the heads of this death creature which grew backwards and were about two meters long. These horns were not for combat. They were the storage hubs for death magic in this death creature. Spirits of the dead did not have magic nuclei, so there were very few death creatures who could release magic unless they were extremely powerful. This death creature had three heads and six horns, so it could cast at least six spells at the same time.

Luckily, it was trying to escape and break free from the seal. It also wanted to release magic in order to obliterate the sealing magic array.

Lex soared into the sky. This time around, she had cast the Fire Washing spell, causing her body to be enveloped by orange flames, and flew out of the magic tower like a shooting star.

What a genius! Saleen commended her in his heart.

Saleen had spent several years researching the Flying spell, which had been created from water elements before finally having a prototype. However, Lex had only seen him do it once and had already grasped the skill. She had utilized the ferocious fire elements to produce the same flying effect.

Saleen had created such a spell out of desperation. Lex was a mage who had the strongest comprehension ability Saleen had ever seen, as she could produce many variations of her Fire Washing spell. As long as Lex was given a theory to work on, she would be able to make further roads into that particular theory.

Faerun’s specialty skill was the Fireball spell while Lex’s was the Fire Washing spell, so which skill should Saleen have focused on developing?

The Icicle spell? This spell was fairly effective against low-grade enemies, but it was practically useless against a sorcerer. The Ice Bomb spell? This was also used against warriors, but it consumed too much energy. The Current Cutter spell? It was fairly strong for a single target attack, but it could not inflict area damage.

Saleen thought of using the lightning power which was stored within his badge. If he could control such a power, then he would be able to plan his training in that direction already. The death creature inside the seal was very powerful. Saleen could even sense that the creature was observing the happenings inside of the magic tower from a very far distance away. Such perception was even stronger than Saleen’s own. If Saleen could control the power within his badge, then this death creature would be killed in a single blow.

No matter how fast magic was, it would still not be quicker than lightning. Of the six elements, the power of lighting was the most ferocious of all, and it could also be released the fastest. The reason why Fire Magic was so powerful was because the speed of its release was extremely fast. Earth Magic possessed satisfactory defensive abilities, but its speed of release was too slow.

However, compared to lightning, the speed of release of the fire elements was similar to a crawling snail. The faster an element could be released, the stronger the power it contained.

Saleen was not worried about Lex at all. The winged skeleton had already flown above the sealed death creature, and the creature was looking upwards using its three heads as it roared at the sky. The ground was trembling because the death creature was struggling to break the binds from the sealing magic array.

“I know what this is. This fellow is… a pikoosi.”

“Pikoosi?” Saleen was unfamiliar with death magic, so he was clueless about what a pikoosi was.

“In death language, it means ‘to trample’. Such a creature…”

“Don’t worry, Lex only needs three minutes at most and it will be subdued.” As Saleen looked at the battle taking place in the far distance, he felt bored. Lex had level-7 scrolls in her possession, so a battle against a trapped death creature who only possessed level-7 abilities would not be exciting at all.

Saleen felt a little bored, so he left the sixth story without a word and came to the fifth story where he took a seat. Sika and Nailisi followed suit.

“Nailisi, did I go overboard?” Saleen rubbed his eyebrows. The winged skeleton had launched an offensive even before Lex had done anything. It seemed like it had a death wish.

“Yes, but the winged skeleton chose Daniel, so it’s not Master’s fault either.” Nailisi’s tone was a little hypocritical.

Saleen laughed and patted Nailisi’s shoulder before saying, “Don’t worry. No matter what happens, I will never give you away.”

Nailisi lowered her eyelids. She was filled with hatred after seeing the way Daniel treated the winged skeleton, but Daniel was Saleen’s follower now, so it would not be convenient for her to kill him either. That was, unless Daniel did something wrong.

Such a mage would be better off dead, Nailisi thought ruthlessly to herself.

Outside the magic tower, a noise louder than an eruption from a forbidden curse was heard. All of a sudden, Saleen felt a throbbing in the depths of his soul. This was the same feeling he had felt when he had signed the contract with Nailisi.

“Master…”

A foreign voice sounded in Saleen’s mind, causing Saleen to be alarmed.

“Who is that?”

“Soldier!”

“You… come over.”

Saleen did not know what spells Lex had employed to be able to subdue that death creature in just a single hit. This caused Saleen to be a bit disappointed, but it was always a good thing to be able to conserve scrolls. The fact that the winged skeleton could communicate with him on a spiritual level made him excited, because even Nailisi did not have the capability to do so.

“I, can’t go over anymore.” Extreme fatigue accompanied the winged skeleton’s voice. Saleen felt that his connection with the winged skeleton was going to be broken at anytime now, so he quickly descended the magic tower and rushed out the door.

In the distance, white moonlight shone across the deserted island ground which was filled with rocks. It was like one of those ancient wastelands that were depicted in storybooks. Daniel stood in front of the massive death creature with one hand pressed against its center head, and a three-dimensional magic array had enveloped him and the pikoosi.

In the farther distance, Lex stood with her hands dropped to her side as the winged skeleton crawled at her feet. The black bones of the winged skeleton had been smashed and were strewn across the ground, and its two pairs of bone wings were completely broken. Its dying voice sounded in Saleen’s mind, “Master, I am dying, and will disappear forever…”

Saleen could not understand why, but in Soldier’s voice, he detected a tinge of happiness. It seemed to be kind of a relief for Soldier that it was disappearing forever.