Badge in Azure Chapter 189

Chapter 189: Goddess’ Redemption (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Master must be out of his mind! Nailisi thought. Instead of running towards Saleen, Nailisi grit her teeth and began running in the other direction. As she ran, more and more evil spirits emerged from the purple flames and pounced on her. Nailisi could feel the number of injuries on her body increasing by the minute.
Nailisi was not too bothered by her injuries. Her healing powers would make quick work of them. However, the main issue here was that she could not heal as fast as the evil spirits. As long as Nailisi did not bash the heads of the evil spirits in, they could use the purple flames to return to a combat-ready state. She knew that this was a losing battle.
“Give up. Stop resisting. I’m practically god in this dimension!” The voice of the black deacon came from all directions. Lex could sense a tinge of excitement in his voice that she simply could not share.
“The gods can die as well,” Lex replied with a cold voice.
“Oh? Hahaha! If you want me, come and get me!” The black deacon laughed maniacally. He had lost all his men and a sizeable number of evil spirits trying to get his hands on Lex. However, if he did manage to capture the viscountess of the Qin Empire, he would be pardoned. Ever since the Book of the Fallen had been activated, he had been unable to directly attack Lex. On the other hand, Lex was unable to break through the defenses of the holy prose, and could do nothing but try her best to outlast the black deacon.
If not for the protection provided by the four metal puppets, Lex would have used up the energy of her magic nuclei by now. The black deacon was immersed in his fantasy world, imagining the feeling of triumph he would get after capturing the viscountess of the Qin Empire, the emperor’s sister. This achievement alone would be enough to promote him to the rank of an archbishop. If everything went according to plan, he could even become an important figure in the supreme court. Perhaps he would even take on the role of a chamberlain, or even better, become the ruler of the supreme court.
Saleen could not just sit there and allow anything to happen to Lex. He did not know if his new spell would work. Heck, he did not even know if his spell would backfire and attack her instead. He only knew that if he did not do something, all of them would die at the hands of the black deacon. Lex had used her god’s ring far too soon. Now, the equipment was practically unusable.
Goddess, I do not know why you left these items behind, but if these are your wishes, I am willing to help you fulfill them.
Saleen said these words softly as he gently caressed the Ring of Gifts.
The sixteen runes lit up and floated in front of Saleen. Saleen did not stop there though. He continued chanting as his life force began seeping out of him through his left hand at a great speed. In an instant, Saleen’s left arm started to decay, almost as if someone had used death magic to suck away all of his flesh, leaving only skin and bone behind.
“In the name of the Myers Goddess, I present to the world the Gift of Life!” Saleen exclaimed.
With a surge of green light, the sixteen runes started spinning wildly in the air before combining together. As they spun, the green light continued to shrink until it reached the size of a small pin in less than two frames of time. All of a sudden, it exploded.
Daniel gasped. The green light was so blinding that it put the sun to shame. The green light started illuminating the entire landscape, almost as if it were a rain of fire. It moved rapidly and dispersed any obstacles standing in its way. No sooner had Daniel’s winged skeleton been struck by the green light did it start to decompose. Alarmed, Daniel immediately stored the winged skeleton back into his death flames.
However, although the winged skeleton was protected from the light rays, his death flames were not. They were rapidly shrinking as well. Left with no other choice, Daniel absorbed the death flames back into his body.
A severe burning sensation, as well as the feeling of being stripped of his soul, suddenly came over Daniel. He realized to his dismay that the winged skeleton had disappeared. It could no longer exist inside of Daniel’s body and had been forcibly returned to the death dimension.
Zing! In the blink of an eye, the purple flames were vaporized by the green light, and the surrounding temperatures slowly began returning to normal. The green light continued spreading its rays throughout the entire area until the purple flames had completely disappeared, returning everything to normal as well.
Saleen looked around. Yup, it’s still Guogan Village, he thought.
Similar to Mister Snowman meeting Mister Sun, the evil spirits that were hot on Nailisi’s heels immediately melted away upon contact with the green light rays.
With a buzzing sound, the green light started to expand rapidly again, covering the entire village for miles. All of a sudden, a violent explosion rang in the air. The black deacon had been found. The Book of the Fallen was long gone, and his lower body had been blasted into pieces.
As Nailisi basked in the light, she felt her injuries heal rapidly. Sika’s ghastly wounds had started improving as quickly as, if not faster than Nailisi’s. Aside from his wrinkly, shrivelled left arm, Saleen’s limbs and chest wounds were healing quickly as well.
The six puppets that had accompanied both Lex and Saleen in battle were also showing signs of coming to life after being enveloped in the blinding flash of light. The two water shields that were hovering around Saleen grew in size again, becoming more than one meter tall at minimum. This time, however, the water shields no longer had intricate magical patterns carved onto them. Instead, they were unusually clear and transparent.
Two gigantic water orbs came out of nowhere and started circling around Saleen. After hovering in the air for a bit, they were reabsorbed by Saleen’s left hand.
In that moment, Saleen started opening up his left hand. Instantly, he winced in pain. He felt like some rusty alchemical robot. He bet that if he listened closely enough, he would be able to hear the creaking sounds of his bones. Saleen did not freak out though. Instead, he relaxed slightly. His arm was still intact. Casting this divine spell had only taken away a huge portion of his life force and not the mobility of his arm. For that, he was thankful. He looked at his left arm and predicted that it would be as good as new in just a couple of weeks.
All of this power just from a leaf taken from the Tree of Life. If he had possessed the entire tree, even this side effect would not have happened.
The powers of god were not to be belittled or underestimated. Just one gift by itself contained more power than Saleen could ever imagine. The Book of the Fallen, as well as the evil spirits, both virtually indestructible, had melted away under the divine powers of Saleen’s gift.
Nailisi rolled onto the ground, turning back into her human form. Her tail retracted back into her body. Lex, not even sparing Nailisi a glance, turned and walked towards the black deacon.
The black deacon had a wood-like expression on his face, masking his confusion. He had felt the powers of the gods just now, but they had not been those of the Lord of Glory. How is this possible? There is only one god left in the Myers Mainland! He thought in despair.
Without hesitation, Lex unleashed a Fossilization spell.
The black deacon did not show any signs of resistance. He simply let the spell turn his entire body into stone. Both his legs had been blown to bits and his hands were permanently glued to the floor. It almost appeared as though he were worshipping Lex.
“Saleen!” Lex called out, waving her hands frantically. The four fully constructed puppets instantly followed suit. Lex suddenly turned her head around and stared into their faces, noticing human-like expressions forming on their metallic faces.
By this time, the green flash of light had completely dispersed. With a great deal of difficulty, Sika got up, feeling a little cold and dizzy. The divine spell had completely healed her injuries. She had bled out earlier, but that was nothing a quick blood transfusion would not fix.
By now, Saleen had noticed the profound changes in the fully constructed puppets as well. He waved his hands towards the two fully constructed puppets that were by his side. This time, he did not use any mental power to control them. The two puppets looked at each other for a while, before walking towards Saleen. Lex witnessed this as well, and was too shocked for words.
These puppets… they’re alive? Lex thought, bewildered.
She began to regret not having taken out the remaining five fully constructed puppets in order to do a before-and-after comparison. If all nine puppets had managed to come to life, she would have dismantled at least one of them in experimentation, without question. However, she could not bear to do so now. Plus, she had better things to do, like deal with the black deacon.
No matter what, the black deacon had needed to die. Even if the feud had not escalated to a level of full-blown hatred, Lex could not allow anyone to spread the news on Saleen’s new powers.
Divine spells, especially those not cast by the Lord of Glory, would immediately land the spellcaster in grave danger. If the Holy See knew about this, they would not even bother going to war. They would simply contact the holy masters and request them to declare a divine decree. No matter where Saleen went, the Holy See would be just a few steps behind him. They were merciless and would go to great lengths to kill Saleen, regardless of how many people they needed to hurt or even kill along the way. No one was going to stop them.
In the Myers Mainland, there was only one god. He was what made the Holy See so sacred and divine.
Lex walked towards Saleen but her eyes were trained on Daniel the entire time. Standing in front of Daniel, she smiled and asked, “Daniel, how much did you see?”
“I…” Daniel stuttered, utterly terrified of the woman standing in front of him. Saleen had cast what seemed like a divine spell. Even if it was not one, it was certainly no magic spell. No magic could drive his winged skeleton back to the death dimension. He did not know what to say. All he knew was that Saleen had divine powers that did not come from the Lord of Glory.
Even possessing this tiny bit of information was sufficient reasoning for Saleen to kill him. After all, dead people could not talk. However, even if he was a necromancer, if he managed to capture Saleen and send him to the Holy See, the pope would pardon all his crimes.
“Lex, I trust Daniel,” Saleen said, instantly putting Daniel’s mind at ease. He was going to live to see another day.
Lex shook her head in disapproval and said, “This is not something you can decide on your own. You may trust him, but I don’t. If he betrays you, I’ll be implicated. So Daniel, do you still want to live?”
Daniel nodded his head furiously. Of course he would not betray Saleen. Even if the pope pardoned him of his crimes, he would not be able to gain any redemption. When he died, he would have to go to heaven, and he knew what happened to necromancers once they were there.
Perhaps normal humans did not mind going to heaven. However, necromancers who studied souls and understood their secrets did not dare underestimate the problems that came even after death.
“Unless you would like to be a heretic. Otherwise…” Lex said, leaving Daniel hanging at the end of her sentence. She figured that it would be fun to let Daniel’s imagination run wild for a bit. Since Saleen was the good cop, she would have to play the bad cop. She knew that Daniel would become her loyal follower. If not, his days would be miserable.
“Alright, what should I do now?” Daniel sighed. Guess I don’t have much of a choice, do I? he thought gloomily.
“Follow me,” Lex instructed. She brought Daniel to the black deacon, who was still frozen, unable to escape the effects of Lex’s spell.
“This deacon is from the Holy See. His body still has a bit of divinity left. This divinity was a gift from the pope. As long as you use your magic to strip him of it, you’ll live to see another day,” Lex said simply.
Daniel replied, “I’ll do it.”
Lex nodded her head in approval. She was liking the young man more and more. The fact that Daniel had been able to survive this long even after the assassination attempts by the Holy See had not been due to luck alone. Being a heretic was not something to joke about. If Daniel did what Lex told her to do, any clergy would be able to recognize Daniel. To those that believed firmly in the Lord of Glory, Daniel would be their number one target.
The reason why they would go after Daniel was because killing him would mean gaining god’s approval.
Saleen silently slipped a magic glove onto his left hand, covering his shrivelled left arm. He helped Sika up, and together with Nailisi, the trio arrived in front of the black deacon. The two fully constructed puppets followed suit without needing to be controlled.
With a wave of her hand, Lex neutralized her spell. However, the black deacon’s limbs remained on the ground. He lifted his head and stared dully at Saleen, before saying,
“Myers?”
Saleen stayed silent. He did not know why he had divine powers. He did not even believe in the goddess. Even if he had made promises to the goddess before unleashing his powers, it was all so that he had been able to get the spell done and over with. He had always felt that the goddess was overrated. The power that she had over her loyal followers did not correspond to the promises that she fufilled for them. However, whether it was the goddess’s will or simply one of many tricks that the goddess had up her sleeve, he could not deny the fact that she existed now.
“So this is the goddess’ redemption,” the black deacon said. His expression looked as if someone had taken his breath away. The goddess’ redemption was something that he had been obsessed with for a while now.
Saleen furrowed his brows and asked, “Huh? What’s that?”
The black deacon let out a cold laugh. “Hahahaha… if you want to know so much, why don’t you ask the pope yourself, if you dare…”