Chapter 296: Mage’s Anger (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
With a smack, the black deacon opened the book in his hands. The book was twice the size of a normal book. It had a red cover and there was not a single word on the cover. As the book opened the dozens of phoenixes that were flying towards him disappeared from the sky. He kicked the tree, leaving a deep hole in it.
Saleen felt the branch shaking violently beneath him. He knew by then that if he did not leave, the black deacon would reach him soon. The Mist Concealment spell could block the other party’s vision, but it could not disable his other senses.
If one did not consider the fact that a black metal grand swordmaster could not fly, his combat skill on the ground was close to a grade-7 mage. A grade-5 mage would not let a black metal grand swordmaster lose his judgement.
With a shake of his body, the grand swordmaster was only ten meters away from him. Saleen had no choice but to fly towards the sky.
“Eh?”
Seeing Saleen fly with his body surrounded by a cloud of mist, the black deacon was stunned. He was sure that Saleen was at best a grade-4 mage and he had not expected Saleen to be able to fly.
Divine skills had the ability to fly too, but it was not something that he was good at. While flying he was not be able to use his sword aura. The black deacon twisted his body and landed on the ground. He raised his head to look at Saleen in the air and said, “Mage, if you fly away now, I will kill the rest.”
His voice was calm but Saleen could hear the contempt for life in his voice.
In all of Saleen’s training he had not gotten used to killing anyone innocent. He would only kill those who were looking to attack him in self defense and would not even think of killing for anything else.
Saleen was fuming, he rarely hated anyone. When Earl Sufonso had put out a bounty for his life he had not hated the earl because he had killed the earl’s son. After that, Walnut the mage had used a paper puppet to plot against him, but he did not hate Walnut and pitied him instead. He did not even hate the white deacon; Baron Cook.
Everyone had their own perspective and Saleen knew that not everyone would stand on his side. It was inevitable that he would make enemies. The problem was that the black deacon showed no regard for life. It was as if he was talking about killing a sheep or slaughtering a few pigs.
Once one believed in a god, one was no longer human.
The black deacon was not a human. He wanted to kill people just because Saleen wanted to escape. No matter who else was in the forest, he would kill all of them so long as Saleen dared to leave.
The black deacon knew that not everyone was like him and unlike Seleen, he had nothing holding him back.
Saleen did not care about the life of the barbarian Conan at first. Conan had once attacked him and if he gave up on Conan this time it would be the same as letting Conan return his life. This was fair, but a bud of anger had sprouted from his heart towards the black deacon. This anger had a few streaks of sadness to it.
Saleen lowered himself and raised his voice from within the cloud of mist, “Very well, go kill them. For every one that you kill I will kill ten from the Holy See, how about that?”
“How dare you!” The black deacon’s voice became incredibly shrill. He had a child-like voice to him at the start and almost sounded innocent. With his next shout it became incredibly cold. “Mage who insults the gods, I will tie you to the Glorious Square and burn you in public,” the black deacon said as he flipped through the pages of the book. The red book gave off an intense red light, enveloping the entire body of the black deacon as he flew into the sky. He had been angered by a single sentence from Saleen, making him give up his powers as a grand swordmaster and open his divinity spells, intending to fight in the air with Saleen.
“The Goddess of Nature ruled for tens of thousands of years and I have never heard of her capturing a slave before. I insult the gods? What even is the use of the God of Light?” Saleen did not hold back. He had already started heckling and was bent on infuriating the black deacon completely. He had given up his grand swordmaster’s powers to use his divine spells to fly, and this was easier for Saleen to handle.
If they really fought on the ground like what the black deacon wanted, the two puppets would be destroyed in an instant.
Without the puppets, Nailisi and Conan would have trouble defending against the hundred hunters.
“Whatever it is, it is the will of God.” The black deacon was enveloped in a red light. He flew to the same height as Saleen, yet he did not dare enter the cloud of mist that was surrounding him. This mage was incredibly eerie, he had not heard of a mage that could sustain a spell like the Fog of Confusion while flying before.
The black deacon was a master in swordsmanship and divine spells, and was incredibly well-versed in magic. If a mage wanted to fly he would need to maintain the purity of the element around him. If a mage was only floating in the air he could release spells as he wished, but if he wanted to fly quickly, he would not be able to ensure his safety when releasing magic.
The clash between the elements could have two different results. The first would be the mage’s flying abilities losing their effect and he would fall from the sky. The second result was that the elements would be disrupted and the mage’s attacking spell would reflect and hit him instead. Most sorcerers focused on wind element magic. Only such magic could ensure that he would be able to fly freely.
Saleen definitely knew the limits of flying, but his Quickcloud spell was water type magic, so he could only release water type magic. He would not face the problem of being unable to release a spell while flying.
Saleen was not in a rush to attack the black deacon while Nailisi was controlling the battle on the ground. If the hunting team from the tribunal wanted to hurt the two puppets they would need to pay a huge price. Once those two puppets lost their ability to fight those people would not be a match for Nailisi.
The longer the battle dragged on, the better it was for Saleen. Unless the other party had a large number of men waiting nearby, that was. He had already released his alarm scroll. The three death kings that were three-hundred miles away must have realized that the situation there was dangerous. They would take less than an hour to rush there.
Saleen was not afraid of whether the other party had support or not, his own support was arriving soon.
In the city base three-hundred miles away, the mages from Sregl Island had felt the magic vibrations that were coming from afar. The level-5 scroll could release a magic alarm that could propagate over five-hundred miles, however, it did not carry a message with it. Only Saleen had this scroll with him and it went without saying that Saleen must have been in danger if he used it.
Daniel quickly heard of the news. He wanted to get rid of Saleen still, but he was hesitant. After all, Saleen had given him too many opportunities to train. Without Saleen he would not even have the ability to buy magic nuclei unless some faction was willing to keep him.
Even if Daniel did not know how to repay this debt, as a mage he did not want to take advantage of Saleen’s kindness any longer. Every time he did the results were disastrous. He had started believing in that saying that if one wanted something he would need to pay an equivalent price.
With Saleen in trouble, Daniel immediately went to look for the death kings.
“Danger? Saleen isn’t any weakling, he is a grand mage.” Judikaka did not think too much of it. He shook his head, not wanting to listen to Daniel. He was not ready to go save Saleen.
“Saleen released a level-5 magic alarm!” Daniel was anxious. If Saleen were to die, the mages from Sregl Island would not treat him the same as before. He would not be able to use anything for free and when Lex came back she might even have thoughts of killing him. He was Saleen’s follower. If something happened to Saleen, he was responsible for it.
“You have a lot of men with you, go save him Daniel. We will not be helping much if we go.” Diyabannersa pushed Daniel away roughly, Daniel finally realized that these death kings were not creatures that he summoned and he could not command them to do anything.
“Are you all scared?” Daniel was furious. The three kings seemed to be able to do anything, yet now they were trying their best to shrink away from all responsibilities. He could not figure out why.
Judikaka and the rest were definitely afraid. They were the first to know when Saleen released the level-5 magic alarm. Their senses might not have been the most acute, but at this distance, they were able to tell where those hunting teams from the Holy See had come from.
They had the aura of the gods with them and were disciples of a god.
If it were the death dimension, they would not be afraid of any god’s disciples, but in another dimension they had to consider the wrath of the gods. That was a huge difference. The disciples of the gods did not necessarily represent the gods, but the problem was that they were from another dimension and attacking any disciples of the gods was as good as invading the dimension.
Just like the people from the abyssal plane that invaded the death dimension. Once any god from the death dimension was angered the invader would surely pay for it. If he could escape back to the abyssal plane he might have a chance of surviving, but the others would be burned to nothing by the gods.
The three kings had just arrived on the Myers Mainland and they were not entirely sure of the rules here. If the gods in this dimension could descend directly they had to be obedient. When it came to the disciples of the gods they had to be cautious.
Seeing the three kings pushing him away, Daniel could take a hint no matter how dense he was. He got even angrier as he said, “Okay, I don’t care anymore, I will go. If I die, you will be truly free in this world.”
He was saying the exact opposite of the truth. If he were to really die, the three kings would not be able to return to the death dimension. This was something anyone could guess since the the kings had come here of their own accord.
They wanted to hide that fact, but they did not dare offend the disciples of the gods. They did not want to be under Daniel’s command and had tried to get away from it. They believed that since Saleen could now fly and it was merely a distance of three-hundred miles, he should be able to escape. If the other party was too strong, they would be too late by now.
They were a little surprised at Daniel losing his temper at them. Banchajanna still remembered how he almost died at Saleen’s hands. He thought to himself, “If Saleen were to really die, it would be hard for us to make a deal with the other mages.” They all understood that even though Saleen was not strong, he represented a powerful force. Even in the death dimension, someone that could be in charge of building a city like this must be of a certain status.
“Why don’t I take a look?” Banchajanna and Judikaka started discussing. Their decisions were made by Judikaka. Diyabannersa also looked towards Judikaka. He had a good impression of Saleen and he did not want to lose this partner too.