Badge in Azure - Chapter 1553 - The Signet of Silence (Part 2)
The goddess was unable to resist. She knew what he wanted to do—take her prisoner.
Saleen had no certainty of being able to kill all of Nature Faith’s believers because there would be people among the believers who truly liked the goddess and would continue to pray to her. Even if there was even just one believer left behind, there would be a possibility of her resurrecting.
That was the peskiest thing about gods. Saleen was not the Heretic God. There was no way he could simply kill everyone on Myers Mainland to prevent such an outcome.
The best way to do it was to have the goddess resurrect again with her memories wiped and then brought to him.
She recalled Saleen’s mighty wish and suddenly realized why Saleen was still reluctant to kill her—she was too knowledgeable. When she was resurrected and advanced by Saleen’s side, that knowledge would gradually be made his.
Saleen’s ambition was different from any of the other powerful beings. He truly was a pure mage and had an insatiable desire for knowledge and fate.
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Saleen had Jason to thank for that. He had once been lost, and it was his teacher who had put him on the correct path again.
Saleen was hardly tense. He slowly sent the hundreds of balls of lightning into the goddess’s body, which was already completely wrecked. The burst of power from the hundreds of ball lightning became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
The goddess’s body crumbled to nothingness with a bang, finally finishing the goal that Saleen had set out to complete so long ago.
It was only then Saleen put the Signet of Silence away, smiling and saying, “Seems like it’s time to summon Baudelaire.”
The Winged Skull and Nailisi regained freedom of movement again. Both of them then looked at their master with a baffled expression. They had been unable to do anything against the power that had been put on them.
“No need to think too much about it. That was my power.” Saleen knew what they were worried about. If he had tapped into powers of other people or gods, it would leave unerasable complications in his body.
The Signet of Silence returned to Saleen’s brow. The godly item had no weapon spirit and only contained the lightning runes that Saleen had added to it. His level was so high that not even level 18 gods would have been able to do anything within it.
Saleen was very wary of any methods or tricks that the gods could pull, and he wouldn’t put something that dangerous in his own body.
The Ring of Cosmos was the only exception, as he still was unable to truly understand how to use it.
Nailisi sighed a breath of relief. The plants around them were still growing and countless magic beasts pounced into the space of the temple, intending to kill Saleen. However, without the goddess around, none of the magic beasts were able to do much of anything.
Dante took over the remaining battle. Saleen’s graves of heroes were still absorbing the power of the Source of the space, as all of it had been what supported the goddess.
If he did not absorb every bit of that power or destroy the space of the temple, Saleen would have wondered if the goddess would have other means of resurrecting herself.
The battle at the Purgatory Desert was over, and all 12 followers died in battle. The power of both Lex and Sika eclipsed the power of the followers, but no one knew about it, not even the goddess.
The Nature Legion had originally consisted of warriors capable of resurrecting indefinitely, but the death of the goddess caused tens of thousands of soldiers in the legion to crumble right away. They were reduced into pure green energy, which was infused into the Purgatory Desert.
Countless plants grew out of the Purgatory Desert, and a huge lake appeared in the center.
The oasis continued to expand, gradually becoming fertile soil spanning over 1000 kilometers in all directions. The soldiers of the Nature Legion all had serious expressions on their faces before they disintegrated. They knew their goddess had perished, but none of them sported fearful or disappointed expressions. They simply waited for their fates to hit them while they stood where they were.
The scene was fairly shocking. Both Lex and Sika held their armies back, instead of continuing to attack.
The conversion of the legion happened quickly. Lex sighed a breath of relief when no one else stood before her.
A shocking explosion was heard in the desert while they were heading towards the temple. They were able to see the flash of light from over 1,000 kilometers away, as well as the smoke and dust that were kicked up into the sky.
“Saleen!”
“My liege!”
Everyone panicked, as that was where the temple was. The earth trembled and a pillar of flames shot into the sky from the center of the desert, emanating intense heat and light, preventing anyone from looking at it straight on.
The tremble of the ground seemed like something that would never stop. Sika and Lex were unable to help but take flight, heading straight for the center of the desert.
The goddess’s temple had disappeared without a trace, and a huge crater had taken its place. The ground was still trembling and black sand gushed out from around the crater. The temperature around was frighteningly high.
Both Sika and Lex looked on from far away, an indescribable feeling deep in their hearts.
Saleen was dead? Impossible. How could someone like him die?
“Where’s the Winged Skull?”
“Nailisi!”
Both of the women shouted, but quickly realized that the two beings had gone into the temple with Saleen.
“Rossen, how is Saleen?”
The water puppet wore a grim expression and answered, “He severed all methods of controlling me, I…”
While he had indeed wanted freedom, at the moment, freedom did not seem to be all that important anymore. If they had lost Saleen, everyone would have lost their anchor.
They turned to look at the Violet Angel.
The Violet Angel shook its head, unable to sense any of Saleen’s aura.
Both Lex and Sika felt dejected, but they did not believe Saleen had died. Sika turned around and said to Agares, “Leave. Go to other planes and don’t ever let me see your face again.”
Lex turned around and said to Van Gogh, “You stay behind. You’re not going anywhere without my orders.”
Sika and Lex broke up Van Gogh and Agares. The threat posed by them using their skills together was too great. Even if something untoward had happened to Saleen, they still had the children to consider, and they could not simply let Saleen’s bloodline be severed.
Agares chuckled and nodded, not bothering to argue with Sika.
Sika was a priest, and priests were natural enemies of assassins, especially ones who were proficient at close-quarter combat and possessed self-destructive skills like Sika.
In the past, Agares did not care what Sika thought. But from the looks of things at the moment, if Saleen were dead and Sika lost all will to live, she would have been able to destroy him completely. He deemed it wise to leave and be as far as possible from the violent woman. He had no way of withstanding Sika’s wrath, even if he had done nothing wrong.
Van Gogh bore it as well. If it had not been for Agares helping him out, there would have been no way for him to take on that many powerful beings.
The reason Lex had demanded that he stay behind was because of Agares. Van Gogh somewhat feared Agares, as a sudden attack from the assassin was capable of destroying his target right away.
“It was fun working with you. If you can find Saleen, well, and when you have fun jobs like this in the future, do get in touch. I think Saleen will be out conquering the divine kingdoms, and he will have many strange targets to deal with.”
Agares then laughed and left. A long shadow trailed behind him, which, if one were to truly count, would have seemed as if over 20 shadows were being dragged along by one person.
They all watched Agares leave and felt heavy deep down. If Saleen was around, none of them would have to fear him.
They looked at the empty crater, and Lex and Sika eyed each other. Sika nodded and Lex said, “Let’s head back to Metatrin. Sika will be in charge of everything. I’ll head back to Holy Rock City and will sit on the throne for a while. Whatever happens, let’s keep in touch with the teleportation portals.
Everyone nodded, as they were unable to afford to just keep standing where they were. No one knew what happened to Saleen, as everyone who would have been able to sense if Saleen had truly died had been taken away by him.
The team was split into two. The demon army followed Sika back to Metatrin, while Lex took some of Saleen’s mages with her, getting ready to deal with some potential troublemakers. The Fifth Dynasty was in Safilos’ hands, and the order was not quite restored. The Golden Plains were planning something, and Lex was very eager to step down from the throne, bringing her people to wipe out the Golden Plains once and for all.
The seething hatred had gotten even more intense after Saleen disappeared. Lex looked at Gusion, who had been by her side, and said, “How come you’re here?”
Gusion was a military officer of Metatrin and a follower of Saleen.
“Lady Sika has all the help she needs, and Sir Jason is around as well.”
“Thanks.”
Gusion was silent. It was all thanks to Saleen that he had gotten where he was on that day and had eventually become a forcemaster. Even if Saleen ended up dead, he would hold on to his belief and follow the Metatrin family.
Sika did not need his help, while Lex would have had a lot of trouble to deal with.
The huge crater on the ground in the center of the desert stopped expanding after Sika and the others left. The black sands stopped flowing as well. The disappearance of the entire temple brought away more than just things on the surface. There were also energies stored deep underground, which was the key that kept the temple in operation for 10,000 years.
Everything seemed to have ended. However, at the very center of the crater, a ring sat quietly in the black sand. The two-layered ring shifted without making a sound. There was no longer any energy leaking between the inner and outer layers of the ring.
All 64 huge spaces within the ring had completely grown, becoming an interconnected world. Saleen, Nailisi, and the others stood on top of a huge mountain that was up to 10,000 kilometers tall, a height that was difficult to imagine.
“Master, if you knew this would have happened, why fight over the divine kingdom with Myers then?”
Saleen wore a bitter smile. There was no way he knew of that that could have happened. The world in the ring was so vast that even just one space could have housed a mountain that was tens of times larger than the total landmass of Myers Mainland.
Furthermore, the world was real. Every river and lake in it teemed with life.
Saleen observed the place using his Eye of the Soul, finding that the power of rules in the world was extremely powerful. The death of a living being would cause their soul to head straight for a mysterious space, which was beyond his ability to see. That space would then spill the purified power of the soul back into the world, which would give birth to powerful living beings in the world once again.
It was a perfect cycle, far more formidable than the rules found on Myers Mainland.
Furthermore, the pinnacle of power in the world did not seem to be at level 18. Saleen was unable to feel the invisible ceiling and wondered if he was in a new crystal wall system.
But that could not be true. If it was truly a new crystal wall system, there would have been chaotic powers at the edge. However, when Saleen entered, he felt the same as when he entered Baldur’s Gate.
