Badge in Azure Chapter 1356

Chapter 1356: Level 11 (Part 1)

Saleen went about cleaning up the outer fringes. The magic door was no longer able to sustain any more attacks, because the abominations had drained it of all of its energies, making it little more than a common, huge door.
The most powerful abominations charging through the door were greeted by the large-scale puppet on the other side, waiting to attack.
Death Ray was fired almost continuously. That abomination was an evil attribute and had terrible luck. The success rate of the spell was up 20 percent.
The large-scale puppet relied on more than just the Death Ray for attacks. It also used many other elemental magic spells.
The lethality of those magic spells was comparable to that of the Death Ray. The difference was that the Death Ray was capable of frequent use. It could also kill powerful abominations very accurately and deal almost one kill among the powerful abominations in five attacks.
Those abominations confidently charging into the magic door didn’t bother to retreat despite being hit with powerful attacks.
A mountain of corpses piled up within the magic door.
Safilos begrudgingly acknowledged the frightening power of magic. If those large-scale puppets hadn’t been so hard to maintain, he would have equipped his army with them and sent them to the frontlines.
The large-scale puppet fought continuously for over four hours. The mountain of corpses grew so high it plugged the magic door, preventing more abominations behind from charging inside, forcing them to begin devouring the corpses of their own kind.
Some corpses were edible, like those killed by elemental magic. Those that were killed by Death Ray, however, were stripped entirely of the energies in their bodies and tainted with curses.
If the abominations had eaten them, their powers would have been reduced even if they survived eating them in the first place. Advancing into higher levels was entirely out of the question for them.
When the components of the large-scale magic puppet began showing signs of damage, the mages began sending in warriors to defend against any incoming threats while the abominations were unable to get in. The mages then repaired the large-scale puppet at the rear.
Safilos led his troops and formed a line of defense consisting of over 1000 people at the front.
With him at the helm and aided by sorcerers, that line of defense served him for quite a while.
Saleen continued his clean-up efforts at the upper level and never bothered going back to the lower level. He never gave a second thought to whether the magic cube could be taken down by the abominations.
Now that the oracle of the Heretic God was dead, there was no one left to take charge of the abominations. Those brutal creatures knew nothing other than killing, and they were utterly incapable of seeing the bigger picture. Thus, the underground city was entirely safe.
If the Evil Oracle were allowed to command the abominations and the magic cube was still not ready, there would have been no way for them to hold the fort at the underground city.
With the Evil Oracle dead, Saleen had nothing to worry about.
A gray-whitish deathly aura filled the faraway abomination plane. There were few signs of life in the rivers, lakes and woods in that plane. All living beings were gathered in a massive city at the center of a huge continent.
The city was more vast than the Imperial City of the abyss, measuring over 10,000 kilometers from end to end. Moreover, there were actually walls surrounding the entire city.
Every single inch of the walls had barriers laid out. A gray-whitish deathly aura hovered outside, utterly incapable of seeping into the city. Abominations clad in silver armor were patrolling on the walls. Some evil beings lived in the city, lacking the nerve to leave.
In addition, countless fortresses were built within the city. All types of peculiar creatures were seen attacking each outside the fortresses.
That continent was in chaos, and little order was found within the abominations’ city. Atrocities were being carried out far from the soldiers’ eyes.
Neither the songs of birds nor the scent of flowers was found within the city, only the stench of blood.
A huge bone palace was situated in the center of the city. That palace was different from the ones in the spirit plane. The size of that palace made it look as if it was a small country, measuring up to 1000 kilometers from end to end.
A tower constructed of bones at the center of the palace was so massive it eclipsed all other buildings on Myers Mainland.
The bone tower’s material was the same as the walls at the outer fringes of the palace—they still had flesh attached to them. Those bones were not actually derived from dead abominations. Their souls were still intact and their hearts were still beating. Their eyeballs in their eye sockets twisted about in blood, and they continued to wail.
The tower was surrounded by a gray-whitish deathly aura. There was a wide platform at the very top of the tower. Hundreds of Evil Oracles knelt around the platform, praying at the house in the middle of the platform.
A young Evil Oracle was seen shivering while kneeling at the front door of that huge house.
“My lord, my clone did not leave any word behind. It was killed in an instant!”
An old, raspy voice was heard from that house. It didn’t sound like something emitted by a living being. It seemed more like the sounds mountains and oceans would have made if they had developed a will of their own. The words spoken had no hint of an evil aura about them.
“Myers Mainland…had a power cap of level-12 and no more. I wasted so much energy sending you there. You were allowed to retain pinnacle level-13 powers, reaching even that of level-14. And now you’re telling me that you were killed in an instant? Are you trying to develop your own believers in that plane!?”
Those words had severe accusatory tones in them. That being was doubting the loyalty of the young oracle.
Oracles were already gods in themselves: heir divine fire was already ignited and they had developed divine personas. A fixed number of divine personas was capable of developing in every crystal wall system; however, a cataclysmic great war had been raging in that system.
Once upon a time, humans crushed countless divine kingdoms. An astronomical number of gods had perished.
That’s why it had been easier for new gods to emerge after the great war.
If the new gods were able to find divine personas of those who had perished, they could have achieved higher levels as gods right there and then. Gods and humans differed in that gods were capable of raising their levels before taking their time to fulfill the required comprehension of rules befitting those levels.
If that young oracle had been able to gather believers on Myers Mainland, it could have immediately sparked a divine fire. No doubt some divine personas also remained in Myers Mainland.
If that oracle were able to find a divine persona, it could have become a true god instead of a false one.
The doubt posed by the Heretic God meant he was probably getting ready to kill that oracle.
Sensing this, the oracle panicked and kowtowed continuously, saying, “My lord, I was only able to feel a hint of something. When my clone was using plane-summoning skills, it was suddenly killed, and I seemed to recall seeing lightning…”
“Lightning?”
The Heretic God’s voice bellowed outside the tower and was heard throughout the entire palace. All creatures on the abomination plane outside the palace began to panic as well. They put what they were doing aside; even those that were fighting ceased doing so. All of them looked at the bone palace with terrified expressions on their faces.
“You’re telling me that someone from such a weak plane killed your clone using lightning skills? Hahaha…”
The Heretic God began laughing in extreme anger. Suddenly a gust of wind blowing from the house pierced the young oracle’s body tossed it in the air and reduced it to dust before it could hit the ground.
The Heretic God’s anger seemed to have subsided after killing that oracle. His voice was calmer, too.
“Who among you would be willing to make another trip to Myers Mainland to kill the clone of this traitor for me?”
The oracles answered in unison, “O’ great god. I shall be willing to embark on the journey to kill the traitor.”
Even though they didn’t really want to go, those oracles didn’t dare fall behind in making the pledge, for that would surely have pissed off their god—and no god would have tolerated an oracle’s betrayal.
“Come forth, Menes,” the Heretic God called a name right there and then.
That oracle named Menes looked overjoyed. It stood up and walked to the door. A silver claw hammer flew from within.
“That is a godly item I acquired from killing the God of Abominations. I now bestow it to you, but there is no need for you to return it.”
Menes laid prostrate on the ground, kissing the claw hammer it clutched in its hand while singing praises to the Heretic God, who didn’t seem to be displeased at all. Despite lacking any novelty in such praises, the power of faith brought forth by such actions was considerable.
Menes was a level-14 oracle. If it hadn’t been for the Heretic God suppressing it, Menes would have long ago sparked the divine fire.
The praises went on for over six hours, and Menes had no intention of stopping. This was commonly seen in divine kingdoms. Gods lived long lives; some were able to live indefinitely if their believers were around. Such praises were of little actual help to the Heretic God, but it was pleasing nonetheless. No gods would have been able to refuse to have level-14 beings singing their praises.
The power of faith brought forth by one level-14 creature would have been greater than having hundreds of thousands of common beings praying at the same time.
“Alright, Menes; don’t let me down.” The Heretic God finally spoke to put an end to that cheesy scene. Menes breathed a sigh of relief yet dared not stand up just yet.
“Make your journey indiscretion. If you meet any enemies you are incapable of besting, then you shall return. Seal your powers at level-12 before you depart.”
The Heretic God actually came to believe the young oracle’s words somewhat, but if he were to truly accept those words at face value, he would have plunged all his believers into mass panic.
There was little value to becoming more powerful, as he was unable to advent on Myers Mainland after all, so much so that he couldn’t even send a clone of himself. All he could do was send a batch of angels of fear for the past 10,000 years or so. The information gathered was of little help.
The plane rules on Myers Mainland were too strict. All those angels of fear ended up being trapped there.
Some of the more clever ones among the oracles would have been able to guess that much, but hardly anyone dared to take the lead. Anyone who had even so much as attempted to beg for mercy on behalf of that young oracle, let alone speak the truth, might have ended up getting killed too.
A god’s wrath was not so easily pacified.
Although Menes was one of the dumber oracles, it had a comparatively higher level of powers. That’s why the Heretic God had chosen it. If the Heretic God had picked the cleverest of the lot instead, it might have actually betrayed him after setting foot on Myers Mainland for fear of having to face the power of lightning.
On Myers Mainland at that very moment, the abominations filling the underground city had all been cleaned up. The magic cube ended up not being used at all. Sika felt restless at the Floating City, resulting in her leading the bug angels to charge at the underground city.
She ended up speeding up the killing of the abominations when she met up with Saleen.
Saleen was totally unscathed, but Lex felt very bad about herself for watching all that.
Jola’s words pushed her buttons, and Sika actually proved his points with her actions. Sika would have followed him anywhere for his sake, regardless of time and place, and regardless of how dangerous it would have been.
What Sika wanted was not the future but the present.
It was something Lex was incapable of doing, especially when she was about to become empress. The entire Qin Empire was about to be hers, and she simply was unable to act like Sika.