Badge in Azure

Chapter 1370: Oath of Godhood (Part 1)

Jason’s sharp eyes detected the changes to Saleen’s magic amplifier right away. A ten-meter-tall weapon spirit emerged from the center and stood right behind Saleen. It then asked Jason for a shield puppet.

This type of weapon was used in battle formations to provide a defensive backup to soldiers.

Generally speaking, a platoon consisted of 50 troops. If a shield puppet was placed on each end respectively, the platoon would have been able to block charges from heavy cavalry.

Shield puppets, which were expensive, served only one function. Because they were so sturdy, it was nearly impossible for them to be damaged in battle formations.

Mages sacrificed a puppet’s offensive capacities to create mobile defense equipment.

The puppet carried a pitch-black shield on its hands. Layers of magic patterns and magic arrays were a testament to the metalized shield’s formidable defensive capabilities.

Its surface was crystallized, each layer the thickness of the top section of a finger. Created purely for experimentation, that shield was a waste to bring to battlefields.

The shield puppet was placed before Saleen. Suddenly, a hole was seen on that thick, heavy shield. The golden dagger was shown, and the mechanical core of that shield puppet behind the shield was shredded.

Jason was much impressed with that dagger. He was way better at alchemy than Saleen was, but when it came to crafting weapons, Saleen was the one with better ideas and better materials.

The dagger’s ability to become invisible had nothing to do with magic arrays, though. Had it not been crafted from extremely rare materials, it would have been impossible for it to become invisible.

More important, that dagger was unnervingly sharp, even sharper than Nailisi’s Gray Memory.

The shield of the puppet was a product of one of Jason’s experiments. It had not been crafted using methods for equipping armies. Jason stacked hundreds of defensive magic spells on top of each other instead, enabling the shield to automatically react to a defensive attack.

The magic nuclei embedded in the shield were above level-10 as well, and there were 36 of them. Even if bombarded by level-10 magic spells, the shield would be left unscathed.

The shield even had Dark Space, a magic array Saleen learned earlier. The magic array was fused with Jason’s special skills and formed a new type of magic defense array.

Jason would have found it reliable. Despite being pierced by the dagger, the weapon still had enough power left to tear the puppet’s mechanical core apart. Jason deemed it sufficiently strong to kill Fycro.

Refusing to give up just yet, Jason took out a metal cylinder, which was really a broken godly item. The rules within had all been scrubbed clean, exposing a hard surface.

All of a sudden, the golden dagger appeared. Clang! It cut the cylinder down.

Jason was thoroughly frightened by then: A level-15 fragment of a godly item was easily cut down by Saleen’s dagger? Even if that godly item turned out to be a complete one, Saleen’s dagger would have probably destroyed it that very moment.

The Lord of Glory might have possessed godly items of higher levels, but the same could not be said for Fycro.

Jason was reluctant to use higher-level materials for Saleen’s tests. The cut cylinder had already had its quality reduced by then. Some considered it a harder metal even without a whiff of its former status as a godly item.

Apart from its sharpness, the dagger’s attribute was a very evil one. It would have been lethal to enemies.

“Okay, you now have 60 percent certainty of being able to kill Fycro. I’d keep having my people look for him. Once he’s found, we’ll take him on together and kill him once and for all.” Jason gave Saleen a definite answer and then went back to researching the magic array.

Saleen had little interest in that magic array. The reason is, he had decided to walk another path, and that was to train lightning magic.

Eventually, his Floating City would have to be fused with Lightning Constellation. In doing so it would have become one huge, unstoppable traveling weapon.

Saleen walked up to Sika by then. He spoke before she could apologize. “Sika, I’m so sorry I’m not with you. I know I’ve caused you a lot of grief.”

Daddy! His two children ran to him without a hint of unfamiliarity despite his constant absence.

Saleen took the two of them in his arms. Sika said, “I was here at the interdimensional space to find a soul of the earth. The ground would definitely give birth to a soul as it grows. A nature priest would then acquire great power after communicating with it. Only by doing so, would I be able to advance as soon...”

Saleen intended to say that he was very satisfied with Sika’s current state until he remembered that she might have wanted to advance to gain a longer lifespan. Both he and Sika had given a good portion of their lives for the sake of their children.

“Any luck finding it then?” Saleen changed his tone and asked in a concerned way.

“Yeah, I found it, but unfortunately the soul of the earth hadn’t awakened yet and looked weak.”

“Well, no need to hurry. If the millions of believers of gods died here and their soul fragments were absorbed by the land, there’d be a good chance that the soul of the earth would awaken.”

Sika frowned and was silent. She didn’t enjoy killing, but if the ones to die were the believers of the Lord of Glory, she was okay with that. The Lord of Glory had done a lot of damage to Myers Mainland.

During the war between the four nations over a thousand years ago, an incalculable number of humans had lost their lives. Around 100 million were accounted for.

From the stories she heard from the village elders, the Holy See had always been told to be an evil entity. That’s how Sika learned to resent the Holy See from a very young age. If she hadn’t been at her wit’s end back then, she would never have bought holy water from them.

While Saleen was busy figuring out how to annihilate the Oracle Corps, Fycro floated by silently in a huge sphere of light at the edge of the volcano on the interdimensional space.

Black smoke billowed from the ground below the ball of light. The volcano of the interdimensional space was still erupting. Despite having ceased momentarily, its temperature remained frighteningly high.

Twelve black-robed holy masters hovered around the ball of light and hung their heads low as if waiting to be summoned by Fycro.

The ball of light that housed Fycro had a diameter of about 40 meters and kept expanding and contracting. The power infused within was already greater than that of level-12 oracles. The bodies of two level-12 oracles were dissolving right below it.

Fycro killed them, but the Pivotal Council still knew nothing of this. They were advancing into Qin under the pope’s command. The oracles’ bodies dissolved and transformed into white light which Fycro then absorbed.

He was, however, unable to absorb too much energy in one go. Any light he absorbed through his mouth would have immediately entered his body. The light he was unable to absorb would have shot out through his nostrils and melded with the ball of light.

That huge ball of light was like a living being, expanding and contracting in synch with Fycro’s heartbeat.

The 12 black-robed holy masters finally lifted their heads. They looked pleased seeing the bodies of the two oracles dissolve.

Their lord was about to make a breakthrough and become a level-13 god!

But that was just the beginning: Lord Fycro’s acquisition of the interdimensional space would have been tantamount to possessing a divine kingdom. In that interdimensional space, all would have become his believers.

Lord Fycro’s powers would have grown exponentially, reaching level-15, and he would have fought against the Lord of Glory.

It was hard to advance beyond level -15. For the other gods, the quickest way to advance was by killing another god and devouring its divine persona.

When Fycro became a god, all those black-robed oracles would have acquired great power. Further, as a god, Fycro would have been totally different from the Lord of Glory. He would have been generous and wise, not hogging all benefits for himself.

His black-robed oracles would have stood a chance of becoming vassal gods.

Although such gods had limited freedom, they were nonetheless relatively safe. They would have all grown within Fycro’s divine kingdom. Those believers would have sung his praises.

The 12 black-robed holy masters became so excited they started breathing faster.

“My believers, I shall create an eternal kingdom when I ascend to godhood. It would be a kingdom of light, devoid of darkness, illnesses, catastrophes, and death. When I ascend to godhood, you shall all gain eternal life together with me. When I ascend to godhood, the light shall not be that of the sun–I shall be your only glory...”

Fycro’s thundering voice was heard everywhere, and the ball of light around his body shuddered, spreading the sound waves. Every single unit in the invading Holy See forces around the jungle heard Fycro’s oath when he became a god.

“When I ascend to godhood, the light of magic shall cease to be. Your god shall lead your way forward...”

One such line appeared all of a sudden in Fycro’s oath of godhood. Saleen could sense it from Raphael’s magic tower. He gazed at the magic tower where the sun rose, his heart racing.

Something is happening to Fycro.

Saleen was reluctant to trust his feelings. He also felt this way when his weapon spirit was about to become a god. The aura of level-13 was intensely thick.

Saleen knew that feeling. No one in Myers Mainland was better acquainted with it than he was or more adept at sensing energy changes in space when a divine fire was about to spark.

The initially balanced elements seemed drawn eastward in an instant—as if he were to take the direction where the sun rose to be east.

The huge ball of light rose and absorbed all powers below it. Saleen saw the blinding light of divine fire even though it was thousands of kilometers away.

All adherents of the Holy See became unsettled. Not even the ascetics could sit still.

Their leader, a human, was about to ascend to godhood!

As long as one was willing to put in the effort, anyone could become a god. It was a promise that Fycro had given them. They only bought his words because of past circumstances. But the reality was laid bare before their eyes: everyone went into a frenzy.

A human could become a god? The frenzied vigor of believers stemmed from the fact that in the doctrines of the Lord of Glory, humans were beings created by god.

They would have been laughed at and scoffed if they revealed those thoughts to mages. What good would it do becoming a god? Mages could freely traverse the planes as they wished even if they hadn’t become gods. But that was in the past...