Badge in Azure

Chapter 1246: Aerial Assault (Part 1)

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

Theisio was at no point able to pass through the energy barrier. The cemetery of the giant struck fear into his heart. As the pope, he knew that the Lord of Glory was but a level 15 god, whereas there were beings above level 15 found within the cemetery.

If those things were to awaken and leave the cemetery, they would wipe out almost all traces of the Lord of Glory’s powers on that plane.

Theisio believed without a doubt that the Lord of Glory would eventually become the highest god. As the pope, it was his duty to spread his teachings, and he would give everything he had to see that accomplished.

But, of course, doing so had its perks. The pope of any god would without a doubt be granted the right to enter a divine kingdom after death, and a fine position would await them there.

Theisio did not fear death in the least. What he feared was being unable to see through his responsibilities as pope before he died. That would anger his god immensely.

Saleen knew this very well, which was why he was hunting all those who were serving the pope.

Theisio brought only some of the strongest knights and holy masters in the Holy See to the cemetery with him. He had apparently miscalculated. He had never thought the inside of the cemetery would be like this. However, if he had not entered the cemetery, he would never have known what it was like inside.

Saleen blocked up the exit, intending to fight Theisio in a place where there was no way for him to receive aid from his god.

Theisio has 49 red-robed bishops serving him.

Seven of them were level-ten holy masters; among the remaining 1,280 knights, one was a level-ten true might, 12 were golden grand swordmasters, 40 were silver grand swordmasters, and the rest were at least one step away from becoming grand swordmasters.

Saleen elaborated Theisio’s powers to his men. Nailisi and the others showed no fear. Theisio had left a sizable reserve force back in Holy City instead of bringing them all to the cemetery of the giant. Even so, the forces that Theisio commanded at the moment were, nonetheless, powerful enough.

Some of the forces of the great head inquisitor were left—there had been some survivors from the Tribunal at the Separation Sea, after all.

None of them would be able to prevent Baudelaire from leaving, but Saleen was not worried in the least. What he needed to do, at the moment, was simply to clip Theisio’s wings off in the place where the powers of his god could not reach.

Once all of the 49 red-robed bishops were dead, the Holy See would lose all offensive capabilities for the time being.

Saleen had only brought seven people along, but, in actuality, he had 500,000 demons, over 1,000 ancient figures, and tens of thousands of star figures at his disposal.

Saleen had trouble commanding both the ancient figures and the star figures. While he had ample mental powers, he had no intention of wasting them on something like that.

Imposa was capable of commanding thousands of Iron Blood warriors, but those powers were not actually his. Saleen’s only thought at the moment was to develop his lightning skills and to create a territory with them.

That was what he wanted the most, and nothing else mattered.

Nailisi and Sul formed a team and led the demons. Jola and Isabella also teamed up, while Isabella took command of the ancient figures. Eleanor, Nicholas, and Daniel formed a unit, with star figures serving as their troops.

Saleen himself took to the sky, getting ready to take on Theisio at any moment.

The Thunder Dragon Blaster needed just an hour to recharge, which was the greatest advantage that weapon possessed. Based on that perk alone, the Thunder Dragon Blaster could be held to have surpassed level 12, and was definitely a piece of equipment above level 13. Equipment was not only graded by its current offensive capacity, but also on how its abilities could be sustained in combat.

Saleen’s family badge was powerful—so much so that not even godly items were able to endure even one hit from the badge. However, it required half a year to recharge after launching just one attack. Such equipment was destined to have a love-hate relationship with its owners.

Sul followed Nailisi and she took her devil form, commanding about 800 demons, and tailed the pope’s knights. Each of her arms was decked out with her beloved weapons. Her devil form was about 10 meters tall, which made her difficult to hide. The height of the demons was about five meters.

Nailisi had not brought too many demons with her. Sheer numbers were pointless against Theisio. The 800 demons wore Heaven Knight armor. The defensive capacity of this armor, made specifically for demons, was unmistakable, as it was all crafted using fossilized god fragments.

The suits of armor that Saleen’s side had crafted were all more intricate than those made by the Holy See. There were ample number of mages in Metatrin City and the alchemy factories were in full swing; as such, they were capable of producing huge amounts of high-level equipment.

The mages were able to raise their magic level by participating in alchemical work, and they did not need not purchase their own materials to work with. It was a win-win arrangement.

Nailisi knew all about hunting. Other than the devils’ cities, all places in the demon plane were governed by a kill-or-be-kill lifestyle every single day.

Theisio saw the three teams pursuing him and frowned, finding it surprising that Saleen wanted to duke it out with him here.

If they were to simply evade Saleen’s forces, Theisio believed that his men’s speed would leave Saleen’s teams behind in the dust. But, then again, the cemetery was littered with alchemical materials which would serve the divine smiths well.

Furthermore, if Saleen were allowed to take everything, it would eventually pose an immense threat to the Holy See.

If he stopped here, he would have to fight Saleen’s people. If he left as soon as possible, everything lying around would be Saleen’s for the taking.

Theisio came to realize that, although the events so far had not all been things calculated by Saleen, the final result was what his opponent wanted nonetheless.

The fighting outside had never held any importance, which was why Saleen had let the two sides fight each other without bothering to back Daliang City up. He had only brought the Magical Element Tower into the cemetery after the fossilized gods had been decimated down to a handful.

He had then blocked off the exit, making all fighting outside utterly pointless.

The Holy See had been putting too much effort in all of that, which had delayed their offense into Qin and lost them further cooperation with Cloudflow as well. Furthermore, even Sikeqinya now had little to no interest to the Holy See; Danny had lost all trust in them.

Saleen had used only one city and one ruin to attract all of the Holy See’s attention, altering every single plan that they had had.

Theisio had initially thought that it was all him imagining things; but now, with hindsight, it looked as if everything had been an elaborate trap laid by Saleen.

Of course, Saleen had never expected Daliang City to turn out this way. However, what had subsequently occurred had allowed Saleen to orchestrate the events, leading to the current situation.

All those joint effort attempts and negotiations with the mages of Alchemy City and Holy Rock City had been but tricks and smokescreens, making Theisio think that the city was of great importance and that he had to take it.

While the cemetery of the giant was indeed important, the place had never been valuable enough to send armies of millions to take it.

The two previous battles had ended with the Holy See losing over half of their elites, robbing them of the ability to launch an all-out assault on Qin.

What frustrated Theisio most was that Saleen and Grand Duke Iron Blood had signed a treaty. According to Theisio’s speculations, Saleen was planning to quickly take control of northern Qin by sacrificing Daliang City’s interests.

It was a losing deal, as there was no way Saleen would move against Holy Rock City immediately; Lex was in the way. Controlling the north would not be of any help in expelling the Holy See’s forces.

Thinking through it all, Theisio realize that all of that had been simply a means of fooling him.

Saleen had rushed there as soon as the fighting outside Daliang City was over. Did he plan the flood out in the first place?

Theisio had lost some of his confidence and began to make erroneous judgments. There was no way Saleen could have known that the flood would happen. He had been heading to the ocean plane for nothing but the water-type element spirit. That creature held the key to his teacher’s advancement. When Jason advanced, Saleen would have had little to worry about. There was utterly no need for him to return to Metatrin City. The Sreeger Island mages would make that city a fortress as impregnable as Holy Rock City.

“Do not spread out.” Theisio had the red-robed bishops keep the knights in check. There were golden grand swordmasters and a level-ten true might among the knights, making them difficult to deal with. Baudelaire had targeted knights below golden grand swordmaster, as well.

Saleen had the Puppet Constellation above him, but he had not unleashed any of the puppets. Theisio’s voice reached Saleen clearly.

Do not spread out? Saleen smirked. The space in the cemetery was of almost infinite height. He invoked the Puppet Constellation and flew up to an altitude of 30,000 meters. Saleen then took some junk from the Starline Ring and began dropping it.

Useless pieces of rocks proved more devastating than magic cannons when dropped from a height of 30,000 meters.

Saleen simply used the power of the stars to guide the trajectories of the rocks, which then came down on the heads of the knights with great kinetic energy.

It was entirely possible to evade the rocks, especially for knights of silver grand swordmaster level and above. While the rocks were traveling at great speed, their trajectories were obvious, and Saleen did not bother targeting anyone specifically. It was not a difficult feat for grand swordmasters to predict where they would fall and evade them.

However, there were simply too many of them falling from above, and the knights were getting tired dodging them.

“Keep your formations tight, indeed, Theisio. Otherwise, it’d be quite a heartache to see them die.” Saleen laughed out loud high up in the air.

Theisio’s expression was ice-cold. He wanted to take to the skies and duke it out with Saleen. However, Saleen’s three teams were right behind him. If he were to leave, there would be no way for the three godly items to protect all of his people. Casualties would occur soon after he left.

Saleen’s people had no concern for casualties. After all, they had demons, figures and puppets at their command.

“Theisio, I had the demons dig out several mountains and bring them along just for this very day. Enjoy them to your heart’s content!” Saleen said as he continued dropping rocks. The rocks were also coated with poison, puppets and some magic bugs.

The intense assault had the knights tightly wound. All of a sudden, one of them was unable to dodge in time, and the falling rock grazed them and their horse. The corners of the rock warped that knight’s armor.

While it had not ended up tearing up the armor apart, the human body within the armor was warped beyond repair as well; there was no way for them to survive.

“Theisio, are you afraid to accept my challenge in front of your men?” Saleen said, continuing to provoke the pope.

“We shall have a showdown, Saleen!” Theisio answered. “The one who loses shall never enter this cemetery again!”

“No, Theisio. Here’s how it’ll go. We’ll fight up in the air, and let the ones below duke it out among themselves. My men will think of ways to kill all of your knights when you’re gone.” Saleen’s laugh was imbued with thunder, descending from the sky and making Theisio’s knights shudder.