Badge in Azure Chapter 1349

Chapter 1349: Angering the Heretic God (Part 2)

“We’re rich!” Nailisi cheered.
“This is dangerous, my lord. You’ll risk angering the Heretic God,” Rafel said discouragingly.
Nailisi then said to Rafel in an I-don’t-care tone, “So are you saying that the Heretic God would make friends with master if he doesn’t do so? Or would the god just follow master around as he goes about fighting wars, becoming his lackey?”
Rafel knew Nailisi was spouting nonsense but was unable to retort. The Heretic God would have become a great enemy of Saleen sooner or later. The immediate problem was angering that god right there and then.
Rafel was afraid that the Heretic God would use unconventional means and unleash powerful beings onto Myers Mainland.
The Winged Skull didn’t utter a word while helping Nailisi clean up the abominations. The hall’s area had been small, to begin with, and the Winged Skull did not even need to use the meteor hammer to take control of the situation.
Saleen unleashed elemental beings to help collect the golden granules. Using wind magic, the Tempest Dragon collected the granules that were all about the size of a knuckle.
That black vortex had gotten increasingly small, shrinking half its size from over eight meters to four meters. With the four-meter-tall black vortex purified, Saleen was able to collect about one-cubic meter worth of golden granules from it.
Exasperated, Rafel used her spear to stab to death all the abominations near her, one by one.
That black vortex, which couldn’t hold on much longer, intended to retreat to the rune array but was trapped by Saleen’s Lightning Territory and in a frenzy.
The quicker the vortex spun, the greater the number of golden granules produced from purification. Saleen was comforted that the Winged Skull had the smallest of the black vortexes for him to work with, making purification a breeze.
Up to 100 black vortexes found in the underground city enabled him to collect hundreds of cubic meters’ worth of golden granules.
With such a large quantity, it would have been easy to craft large-scale lightning equipment without worrying about drawing the ire of the Heretic God.
Ojarvis and Lex watched Saleen’s actions from the magic cube. One smiled while the other shook her head.
“See, my sister? I told you Saleen would help solve our problems,” Ojarvis flashed a smug smile at her.
“Heh, so are you using him or using me now?”
“Neither. Lex, this magic cube is on par with the Floating City in terms of value. He needs to shoulder some responsibility given how I handed the cube to him just like that. Besides, look how happy he is. He definitely isn’t thinking that I might be using him.”
Lex groaned. Ojarvis had only told Saleen to bait those powerful abominations but not to purify the vortexes. Technically speaking, Ojarvis wasn’t using Saleen.
That being said, Ojarvis was capable of seeing visions of time, which meant that he would have expected Saleen to do this.
What he was doing was simply giving Saleen a chance to get close to those black vortexes. What is fate? What is the future? Ojarvis knows that better than I do. If he were to just have Saleen hold the line at the magic cube, those visions he saw wouldn’t come true.
Lex had nothing to say about it, though. Ojarvis handed her his life bead. His future was in her hands. If Saleen suddenly dropped dead, he could never have been resurrected.
Ojarvis rarely told others what he had seen. Lex was only hoping that his little brother didn’t take any risks and try to change fate or anything like that.
After purifying a small vortex, Saleen felt that the exercise proved useful in helping him master his Lightning Territory. He came to have a good idea of where that seemingly random electricity in the Lightning Territory went.
If he were to keep doing such purification exercises, he would have eventually gained control over the power of the Lightning Territory, enabling him to use the electricity in battle.
It was especially valid in the case of the eight Armoring Lightning Beads. While they moved slowly, they contained great amounts of power. The entire Lightning Constellation was providing power for the eight beads.
“Next one!” Saleen hurried his people.
Only Rafel was capable of knowing the precise location of every black vortex. That was her ability. Both the Winged Skull and Nailisi were of insufficient levels, preventing them from seeing through the layers of obstacles and get a clear picture of the underground city.
“My lord, please consider carefully!” Rafel hoped Saleen would stop doing all of that. The Heretic God’s power was far too powerful. If the god had randomly shown up on their plane one fine day, he would have hated Saleen the most.
“What’s there to consider? The Heretic God…I’m thinking of crafting something out of him. It was no wonder ancient mages loved waging wars with the gods. They were indeed a treasure trove…”
Rafel then said in a concerned tone, “My lord, aren’t you a little lost? Power isn’t everything!”
“No, this has nothing to do with power. You don’t understand, Rafel. I’m capable of seeing the future, and I see the path I should take. If the Heretic God likes getting angry at me so much, then let him. If he were to advent right in this plane, I’d be out of luck. If he can’t advent, hehe…”
Saleen paused. If he were able to craft a huge Thunder Dragon Blaster, he would not even need to worry about those heroes at the cemetery. He initially thought about not going back anymore, but he saw new hope for doing so.
The Imperial City of the Abyss was different from Myers Mainland in terms of plane rules. The weapon spirit of his Floating City could have advanced in the Imperial City of the Abyss and taken control of the large Thunder Dragon Blaster.
He could have returned only after becoming familiar with his new weapon and had nothing to fear.
“Alright, I hope you won’t regret this,” Rafel said as her golden pupils turned into a vertical slit again. She pivoted and brought the party to a passage at the left.
They arrived at yet another plaza after passing through several small living areas. A 12-meter-tall black vortex was at the center of the plaza. The Winged Skull found it hard to estimate the size and distribution of those vortexes, yet Rafel seemed to know that information like the back of her hand.
The abilities possessed by a level-13 combat angel was not something Saleen and the others could have compared to.
As he did with the previous one, Saleen simply showed up right beside the black vortex and covered the entire construct with his Lightning Territory. Then he sent in the Armoring Lightning Beads in. The black vortex responded by spewing golden granules.
Suddenly, an abomination’s dead body charged at Saleen. It was already completely dead, and its soul was gone as well. Its limbs were all rotten; its head was the only thing still intact.
Taken by surprise, Saleen dealt with the situation calmly by contracting the Lightning Territory inward, forming a lightning field and repelling the dead body.
Nailisi stuck out her tongue and then threw the dead body into her collection of purgatories.
A large number of level-10 abominations was in that plaza—more than 30, to be precise. The Winged Skull went about swinging tits meteor hammer again, preventing them from getting near Saleen. Rafel and Nailisi thrust at the abominations with their spears, deftly moving between the meteor hammer’s swing.
Saleen’s body was covered in a thin layer of Water Shield that kept him from taking in the stench of blood. Since Rafel was a metal angel, she was indifferent toward odors. The Winged Skull, being a spirit, relished the smell of death.
To Nailisi, there far grosser things in the demon plane than what they had witnessed there. She was even more indifferent than the others.
Blood splattered all over the place as the abominations charged without any concern for their lives. In seconds all were reduced to blood and guts, flesh and gore.
Still nothing!
Saleen carefully inspected how things were inside the vortex while purifying it. The Heretic God hadn’t yet launched any attacks; it was almost as if he had not noticed his existence.
How cool was that! If the god made a move sooner than he should have, Saleen might not have had a chance to continue purifying the vortexes.
They should have been filled with the power of the Heretic God. The matter found within was unique to the Heretic God. If all of the vortexes were to disappear, he would have had to resort to trying his luck at Highland City.
If he had known that the vortexes were composed primarily of a good bunch of golden granules earlier, he wouldn’t have left Highland City back then. Even if he ended up clashing with Fycro, he wouldn’t have given up.
I intended to create yet another Thunder Dragon Blaster, so what did Fycro want to do with the white ones he collected? The white granules had no special properties but were nonetheless very precious alchemical materials. Saleen did not think for one second that Fycro was collecting them purely for his enjoyment. No way.
Saleen swiftly cleaned up the hall and collected about four cubic meters of golden granules from that vortex. He gleefully stashed his loot and let Rafel lead the way to the next one.
She had decided to give up trying to persuade Saleen altogether. She saw that to him, the abominations were practically walking bags of money. She came to have a rough grasp of Saleen’s equipment. That Thunder Dragon Blaster could have posed a threat to her life.
Saleen’s capabilities meant that even if she were to fight up close, she might not have been able to really take him on.
That mage had all sorts of mysterious gear with rare attributes.
Saleen continued sweeping all the halls found on the first level of the underground city with his three subordinates. The black vortexes seemed to be things that could have only been created in vast spaces. But for some unknown reasons, the Heretic God’s believers did not carve the rune arrays on the ground.
After purifying over 60 black vortexes, Saleen finally managed to capture the the attention of the level-11 abominations, a consequence of Rafel deliberately evading the high-level abominations. She could have easily killed the level-11 ones, but Rafel determined that they were the ones the Heretic God paid close attention to.
If any of the level-11 abominations had been killed, the Heretic God would have taken stronger measures against them.
Tens of thousands of abominations assembled outside the magic door and began to attack. The number of black vortexes at large hovered at nearly 100, in contrast to the a staggering six million abominations found in the underground city.
The underground city, however, was just as big as Holy Rock City itself and had two levels. Accordingly, the six million abominations did not actually manage to fill all spaces within the underground city. Saleen was at the first level and was cleaning up things near the north. The abominations came from the south, congregating at the magic door.
Two level-11 abominations headed straight for Saleen with troops clad in golden armor. The reduction of the number of black vortexes finally attracted the powerful abominations’ attention. If they were unable to summon an ample number of troops, their own power and food would be limited.
In times of shortage, high-level abominations sometimes ate low-level ones.
“Damned human! Damned mage!” The first of the abomination leaders who reached the hall found Saleen purifying a black vortex. That leader lost his cool and began flashing gray light beneath his feet, which began rushing angrily toward Saleen.
Rafel was standing right next to him.