Badge in Azure Chapter 519 - Maze (Part 1)

Chapter 519: Maze (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Many lines appeared across the sky. This scene was very peculiar. In the perception of a mage, the six elements were in extreme disorder. If the mages were to leave the magic war chariot under such conditions, they would not even be able to cast a level-0 spell.
Following that, the whole sky broke with a crack, just like a gigantic glass bottle. Blinding sunlight shone on the ground, causing the temperature to rise sharply.
The mages actually heaved a sigh of relief. When the chaotic space was formed, numerous spatial passageways were initiated. If a situation like this occurred during the disappearance of the chaotic space, it was possible that the people there might get sucked into others planes by accident. This was still a good outcome. Passing through a spatial passageway was unlike going through a teleportation portal, it would deplete one’s power.
While in the chaotic space, Lex’s team had hunted so many strange creatures, at least half of these creatures were mightier than Lex. They had however traveled through a spatial passageway, so their powers had hit rock bottom. That caused them to be slaughtered by Lex’s team.
Had Lex’s team been sucked into a spatial passageway, they could only depend on luck. When they reached another plane, they would lose all abilities, so they could only hope that there were no dangerous creatures on the other side.
The moment sunlight appeared, the magic compass in Lex’s hand also regained normalcy. Wild Bear led the way, leading the team into the direction Lex had pointed out. The team traveled north all the way without any rest in between.
While Saleen was in the chariot, he cleaned the skin of the Sindika, using the water flow to segment it. This skin was extremely tough. If the water flow was not used, there were almost no other blades which could cut through it.
The Sindika’s skin was naturally infused with level-8 fire attributes. In the abyssal plane, lava spewed everywhere. Even the fire resistance of a grade-1 creature would not be too low.
Saleen’s water flow did its work slowly. After several hours, a set of materials were cut out. Nailisi was very intrigued, so she asked, “Master, why are you cutting out so many fragments?”
“Su’s magic resistance is very low, I want to produce a set of soft armor for him.” As Saleen replied, he stored the segmented skin into the water flames for further refinement.
Nailisi snorted in her heart, but she did not display her displeasure. “Master is going to personally produce a set of magic armor for a newcomer?”
Of course, Saleen would have known Nailisi’s thoughts, however, Lex was beside him, so he was too embarrassed to say anything. Saleen just said, “Nailisi, I also want to practice the refinement of magic equipment. I have been wanting to craft a flying cape for you. It is too difficult though. I have failed a number of times, wasting a huge amount of materials.”
A flying cape was mage’s equipment. When a mage was at grade-5, they could not fly. If they had flying equipment, they would be able to transcend their grade restrictions and soar in the air like a grade-6 mage.
The moment Nailisi heard that, she was jubilant, “Master still cares about me!” The materials involved in such a production was at least at level-7. Since Saleen had failed a few times, it meant that he had already suffered significant losses.
From the sidelines, Sika said, “Nailisi, Su is all alone, and he is still young. It is possible that he will never return to his homeland for the rest of his life. You should show more concern for him…”
Sika snorted as a sign of her discontentment. Nailisi only wanted to vie with others and she did not care about how important these people were to Saleen.
The four demons stared daggers at Sika, but Nailisi berated, “The four of you, go and take care of Su. His injuries have not recovered, his powers must still be inadequate. If he gets into any danger and dies, I will make sure all of you…”
Before Nailisi could finish saying her peace, the four demons had exited through the window dejectedly. As they sat behind the magic war chariot observing Su who was following beside it, they very much wanted to crush him. That poor demonic spirit followed behind the team on foot. Fortunately, his running speed was not affected by the Purgatory Desert. Given the speed Lex’s team was traveling at, he would be greatly fatigued otherwise.
Saleen took out a Green Spirit, giving it to Nailisi, then said, “Let them ride on the warhorses.” As he spoke, he continued refining the materials, not bothering to explain to Nailisi what he was doing.
Indeed, the demons needed some restraints, but they could not be under constant supervision. Since Saleen wanted to use them for combat, he had to provide certain conditions. Saleen knew that the sprinting abilities of demons were very outstanding, however, it was not worthwhile to deplete their stamina on such tasks.
After Black William was killed, the four demons had expressed respect and concession to Saleen’s powers, so they should be given some privileges in the future.
The most challenging part of making a magic armor was on how to make it possess magic attributes, defensive power was actually secondary. Since the Sindika’s skin possessed fire resistance by nature, Saleen could easily produce this set of soft armor.
The team traveled for more than one-hundred miles before halting. Back in the chaotic space, everyone had been battling, they did not get to rest much. After the chaotic space disappeared, everyone began traveling again, so they were very exhausted. The mages were doing fine as they could swiftly recover in the magic war chariot. The magic armor worn by the swordmasters did not have such powerful capabilities.
A camp compound was built again. Saleen summoned Su to his barrack, and gave Su the newly produced soft armor to change into. This soft armor did not actually have a magic array, all its defensive power stemmed from the Sindika’s natural defensive ability. If it was not for the mighty attributes the Sindika possessed, Saleen would not even have taken its skin.
Su was dumbfounded. He knew that there were benefits being a mage’s follower, but he never expected Saleen to gift him a set of high level magic equipment in less than a day after becoming his follower.
In the subcontinent plane, such equipment was not rare. Despite the status Su had in his family, he could not get his hands on it either though. It was simply too expensive, each piece of such equipment was produced with blood and sweat. There were many powerful creatures on the subcontinent plane. If humans wanted to hunt them, they could only achieve victory in numbers. Swordmasters who had been groomed for dozens of years could simply lose their lives in one simple hunting mission. Such equipment was rarely sold on the market, most of it was kept by powerful clans and nations for their own use.
“Sir…” Su emulated Jola’s way of addressing Saleen, but he still was not used to it yet.
Saleen patted Su on the shoulder, but did not say anything. He left the barrack and returned to the magic war chariot. In the barrack, Su teared as he held onto the soft armor Saleen had given him. It was neither out of gratitude nor exhilaration, but because he discovered that he could not return to his home anymore.
He had overheard what Sika said on the chariot, but his reaction was slightly delayed. Now that he was feeling better and was more relaxed, a kind of sadness began overcoming his heart. This youth might not understand the grief of parting, but he was actually bidding farewell to the subcontinent plane.
Su was also muddleheaded. He did not realize why he could understand Sika’s words. Without Saleen’s permission, the words in the magic chariot would never have leaked out. Sika had spoken in the ancient Myers language. After a brief round of learning, Su had grasped a large vocabulary, there was almost no difference with the other language he knew.
Only Saleen knew this information. Even though Saleen did not make Sika say those things, Saleen intentionally allowed the noise to leave the chariot.
Lex’s team had avoided a catastrophe for the time being. On the other hand Delase’s and Fanyin’s team had sustained massive damage though. Dozens of wardens got unlucky. Their armor was penetrated, thus they died due to poisoning. The toxins from the sand scorpions took effect swiftly. By the time the holy masters undid their armor, the hearts of the wardens had already stopped beating.
Following that, a sandstorm came. Delase and Fanyin had no choice but to use a large area Divine spell, encompassing all those wardens. Some were then blown away by the sandstorm and entered a chaotic space.
At that point in time, Lex and Saleen were in the metal house, so they could not observe the happenings outside. They still did not know that all things movable standing in the path of a sandstorm would be sucked into a chaotic space.
The team from the Holy See had entered this space late. By the time they entered, there was already a huge downpour. Rainwater quickly filled a deep cavity to the brim, hatching an astronomical number of taklama fish beasts.
The remaining over four-hundred wardens battled against the fish beasts. By the time they broke out of the clutches of the fish beasts, they had lost half their people. At that moment, Delase and Fanyin regretted entering the Purgatory Desert. The status of these wardens was akin to that of the imperial swordsman’s camp in Holy Rock City. The wardens were the fundamental offensive power of the inquisition, their equipment was also much better than that of the imperial swordsman’s camp.
Even though the black armor contained the power gifted by the Lord of Glory, it was still torn into shreds by the fish beasts. The worst thing was that Divine spells were restrained in this weird space. As a result, it could not draw on the power of religion from the outside world. This meant that a mage could still use a magic nucleus to replenish their magic chords, but a holy master would not be able to pray and regain their divine power.
Delase and Fanyin possessed the essence of divine power, so they could refill whatever they had depleted. The remaining over two-hundred wardens were not so lucky. The wardens faced consecutive attacks by the fish beasts, causing their number to shrink dramatically. Finally, only about eighty men were left. These eighty men possessed the standard of a high grade swordmaster, one of them was already a beginner grand swordmaster. Due to their inadequate abilities, all of them became food for the fish beasts.
In order to protect the wardens in the sandstorm, Delase and Fanyin both lost a holy equipment. The loss of these two pieces of equipment could not salvage the destinies of the wardens.
When the chaotic space was destroyed, only a dozen wardens remained beside Delase and Fanyin. These wardens only survived because of the treatment provided by the Holy spell cast by Delase and Fanyin. If it was not for these two powerful holy masters, they would have died even if Saleen and company were around to feed them magic liquid.
Delase and Fanyin were extremely upset. Such a huge loss would cause an immeasurable impact on their status.
Of the three leaders of the inquisition, two had already died, so there were two temporary replacements at the moment. If the six of them did not commit any mistakes, they could quickly replace the positions of the two head inquisitors already. They had faced a chain of problems however, even the sole head inquisitor left would not be able to protect them anymore.
“What now?” Delase had lost his cool.
“We shall go to the center of the desert, that Lex must have entered the desert to seek the temple. We cannot confirm the location of the temple, but it would not be too far from the center of the desert. As long as we get to the center, we can find her tracks. If we do not catch up now, then…”
“Understood, I will try my best this time around.” Delase spoke through gritted teeth, he now harbored utmost hatred for Lex. If it was not for Lex’s father, the inquisition would not have been so powerless now. If it was not for Lex, he and Fanyin also would not have met with such serious trouble.
“The members of the Grukos family are damned jinxes, I will kill each one if I ever meet them.”