Badge in Azure Chapter 983 - Eye of the Storm (Part 1)

Chapter 983: Eye of the Storm (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Nailisi changed her spirit form into a skeleton, and even placed a thread of divine fire into the eye sockets, gradually converting it into soul flame.
She did not need any soul flame for herself. Luoluokaluos were capable of taking different forms, but not taking different souls. She might have taken a spirit form, but she was still a demon. Doing so only enabled her to control attributes of spirits and fight using the methods of the spirits. The very reason Nailisi was converting soul flame was to craft a new Scepter of the Fallen for Nicholas.
She had never tried something like using divine fire before and was doing it completely through her bloodline’s instincts. While her soul was capable of absorbing divine fire bereft of a core, it was not the same with the Scepter of the Fallen. Nailisi had to find a stable way to get it done, in order to prevent the old holy master from suffering the recoil brought by the divine fire.
Divine fire without a core would have never lashed out on its own, but it nonetheless still possessed the instinct to devour. What Nailisi was doing was erasing all those instincts, converting it into a pure power source.
She had no problem taking a different spirit form, and Nailisi eventually became a Skeleton King. Golden soul flame danced in her eyes, before she returned to her own imp form.
Her golden giant dragon form did not need crafting using divine fire. The dragon that Nailisi had devoured was still unable to be completely digested even to that day. It was of a level even higher than the divine fire lit up by the divine baby. The rules of power of the dragons would never be lower than that of a pseudogod.
Nailisi took up a bottle after returning to her imp form and took out some of the angel of fear’s bone marrow to begin crafting a blood soul tower. There was nothing difficult about crafting a blood soul tower; it was adding the divine fire into it that proved difficult.
Nailisi was a patient person. She threw the other broken eyeball of the divine baby into the blood soul tower that just began to take form. She began crafting a broken orb around the outside of the blood soul tower, allowing it to be encased within, before putting the divine fire that was about the size of a fingernail in.
It was fortunate that the angel of fear was a grade-12 creature as well, which meant her bone marrow would have survived burning by the divine fire. The most powerful part of the divine fire was taken away by Nailisi. The remaining half of the divine flame did not even have one-tenth of the power Nailisi absorbed.
The divine fire was controlled around the tower, and Nailisi dropped all the remaining materials into it: the angel of fear’s bones, muscles, and some of her keratin. The newly crafted blood soul tower was no longer something that could be easily identified. It looked little more than just a broken eyeball on the outside, it was one that was filled with cracks.
Nailisi carefully added the eyeball-shaped blood soul tower to the scepter and felt a bit of reluctance about it. “Such precious equipment, and I have to give all that to Nicholas?”
Seeing Nicholas’ current gray-haired form and a face covered with wrinkles, she had no choice but to swallow up her reluctance and went on with it, handing the newly crafted Scepter of the Fallen to him.
“Nicholas, I have only put about a dozen souls into it. Everything outside was thoroughly dead, I had no way to…” Her face was one filled with regret. In actual fact however, she hid souls in the hundreds. The way she saw it, the eighteen within would serve adequately to keep Nicholas alive for the time being.
To Nailisi, her act of crafting a Scepter of the Fallen for him was all done because he saved Saleen. The eighteen powerful souls were bonuses of sorts—bonuses that made her heart ache.
Nicholas took the scepter with a bitter smile. His body trembled as he picked up the scepter. There was no need for spells or prayers. There seemed to be countless passages on it, connecting the blood soul tower within.
Pale red flames continued to be outside the eighteen floored blood soul tower. Within the thirteenth floor of the tower, there were eighteen powerful souls housed within, looking confused about their environment.
Nicholas did not hesitate to place his soul brand on the blood soul tower. A tall phantasm emerged at the upper part of the blood soul tower. That gave the eighteen souls within the thirteenth floor an illusion that one such tall figure would definitely be their god, their salvation.
The eighteen powerful souls went on to worship Nicholas’ soul brand immediately. Nicholas felt his injuries begin healing. He let out a long sigh and was feeling strange about the origins of those eighteen souls.
Nailisi was simply feeling a sense of glee. The eighteen souls were the human believers that the divine baby had devoured. The souls of the believers had never been truly powerful, but they advanced while being assimilated by the divine baby. While the divine child was no more, the souls remained within her dead body, they were all captured soon after.
All other souls would advance slowly when sent into the blood soul tower. Those eighteen however, advanced tens of times faster than common souls, being able to even reach grade-13 at the highest.
Saleen and Nailisi noted that Nicholas’ change was a frighteningly quick one. He first became able to sit on his own without having to lie against the wall. His eyes regained his old luster quickly, and his hips allowed him to sit straight.
The wrinkles on Nicholas’ face quickly disappeared. Within half an hour, his skin became as smooth and supple as a baby’s. Other than having a full head of gray hair, Nicholas’ body was considered completely restored.
“Master, the old man earned quite a bit in this. Too bad that his hair was unable to turn black, a reminder to you I’d say!” Nailisi yapped away in frustration. The full head of gray hair served little more than something to remind Saleen that Nicholas had once saved him.
“No, that’s not it, Nailisi…” Saleen wanted to elaborate further on the subject but chose to just smile after looking at her expressions. Nailisi went on to sit beside Saleen and lean on him, watching Nicholas’ restoration together.
The full head of gray hair was anything but intentional. Being hit by the recoil of a divine spell curse carried dire consequences, and it was not something that could have been completely wiped by absorbing divine fire. The divine arts had their way with things, which in that case, transferred all the negative effects to his hair. It would never grow to be black again, unless he was able to comprehend even higher rules, surpassing the divine baby’s power.
While Nicholas reaped ample rewards out of the ordeal, it was nothing much compared to Nailisi. His half of the divine fire had almost all its essence absorbed by Nailisi. Nailisi was indeed being generous, seen from how she gave him eighteen powerful souls and crafted the divine baby’s eyeball on the external parts of the blood soul tower, allowing it to acquire many diverse abilities.
Nailisi was not dumb. She realized Nicholas’ lesser prophecy spells were something to be reckoned with. The spells could not be blocked, as they were able phase through most obstacles and take effect on the enemy.
Anyone who cast lesser prophecy spells like how Nicholas did would have died doing it once or twice. Nicholas had been lucky enough to get his soul completely repaired every time.
That was of course, not Nicholas’ own luck. He owed it to the fact of being a follower of Saleen, allowing him to be affected partially by Saleen’s luck. Saleen, however, was the unlucky one, for signing one such contract with the Goddess of Myers, then with the heroic spirits in the cemetery as well as Gaine. He even earned himself a future enemy in the form of Fycro.
Having signed so many unfair contracts with people, Saleen was practically covered in debts. It was precisely due to the contracts that his luck changed for the better. His fate had undergone life-changing changes even when his contracts had yet to be fulfilled. There were many who acquired the Ring of Gifts from the goddess, as she crafted more than one-hundred of those, but only Saleen had managed to rise from being a common man to become a wizened grade-9 sorcerer, in the shortest amount of time.
From the perspective of astrologers, Saleen’s good luck was simply indescribable. He survived two encounters with grade-12 creatures, and even made those creatures into materials for crafting. Such things would only happen in ancient times. Sorcerers who possessed powerful equipment were few and far between anymore.
“Nicholas, how do you feel?” Saleen asked as he saw Nicholas’ eyes were open.
“I’m fine, my liege. Just next time…try not to do something so frightening again. That divine child’s powers were at least of grade-10 or above. Her comprehension of rules was at grade-13!” Nicholas tried to ease himself as he spoke.
“I know, but I had to, there was nothing else I could have done. I couldn’t bear to just watch Nailisi get killed.”
“Then Nailisi, try not to ever get into situations where he has to do so,” Nicholas told Nailisi in a serious tone.
Nailisi opened her mouth intending to shoot back at Nicholas, but she swallowed her prideful and words, simply answering, “I understand. I won’t do it next time.”
Saleen looked at Nailisi in a rather surprised manner. Nailisi was simply keeping her head down and looking meek. What was going on in her mind however, was, “You are right, old man, but I’ll keep in mind the way you lectured me!
The Magical Element Tower did not take to the sky and had simply floated on water. Doing so saved a lot of energy, but it also slowed them to a drag. There was coincidentally a small island up front, which seemed to be of a size of only two square miles. Saleen took the tower to the air and landed on the island, before putting it away in his dimension stone. Moving the Magical Element Tower around proved to be a chore. Due to its size, it could not be easily summoned and put away with the snap of a finger, even if Saleen was to advance to grade-10.
The dragon skeleton combat vessel was anchored near the island. Saleen flew up and took a look around. The surrounding waters looked serene, and there did not seem to be any ferocious magic beasts about. If it was not for the fact that it was just too far away from shore, the place would make for a good fishing spot. Nailisi and Nicholas followed closely behind. Their sights were nowhere near Saleen’s and were able to see what was going on within the several miles nearby.
Saleen suddenly caught sight of a huge cloud gathering above the southern waters, when he was just about to head back to the ship. There was no need for calculations. As someone who had been living near the sea all his life, he knew that a storm was brewing, and it was one that would last for quite some time.
The dark clouds approached where they were quickly, and Saleen saw a ship was making its way north at full speed at about one-hundred miles away. It did not seem that the ship would be able to evade the storm coming fast behind.
Ships would have gone to each other’s aid unless one was a pirate ship. Seeing something like that happening, he called for the other two beside him and headed back to the dragon skeleton combat vessel. He then ordered the captain to drive the ship at full speed, while engaging all of the ship’s defenses, as they made their way to the storm.