Badge in Azure Chapter 1401 - Taking the Town (Part 1)

Chapter 1401: Taking the Town (Part 1)

“My lord, something happened to the Violet Angel.” Saleen’s trail of thought was interrupted. It was Rafel who just flew back and she was flapping her wings lightly, awaiting Saleen’s reaction quietly before him.
“So you have made that thing a bait then?” Saleen asked without a care.
Rafel said with an astonished expression, “Indeed. I have had it turn into a dragon to lure the mages of the Elemental Hand to capture it. I then followed them and found a huge portal.”
Rafel said and threw up a projection, letting Saleen have a look at a copy of what she saw.
“Baldur’ Gate?” Safilos, who was by Saleen’s side throughout the whole time, called out at that moment.
“What’s a Baldur’s Gate?” Despite being a mage, Saleen had never heard of the term.
“Baldur was a powerful mage during the Second Dynasty, who practiced swordsmanship as well. Of course, his legend was not recorded in the notes of the mages. He was too obnoxious for the mages to bother remembering him, but all who trained in swordsmanship would have learned of his stories somehow,” Safilos explained.
“Ruins of the Second Dynasty huh…” Saleen was relieved somewhat. The Second Dynasty was also known as the Unholy Dynasty, and the age’s powers were slightly lower than that of the first.
So long as the ruins is not one that belongs to the goddess. Saleen was afraid of the Elemental Hand getting their hands on the luck he came to possess.
“Saleen, the Second Dynasty is not one to be underestimated,” Safilos reminded Saleen, seeing how he was rather dazed at the moment.
“I know, your highness. I understand that. Do you have any powerful people around you at the moment?”
Safilos frowned. Is Saleen really asking me for something right now? I’ve just lost a number of people.
Saleen was able to tell from Safilos’ expression that the prince was getting the wrong idea about things. “Your highness, I’m a mage. If you want to get something, you’d need to pay the equivalent price for it. My forces might be scattered, but there are 100 thousand enchanters on board the Floating City, making it enough for them to do battle. I’m hoping that you could deploy troops as well, so that when it comes to loot distribution, I’d be able give you something and still answer to my status of being a mage.”
Saleen explained Safilos in the most straightforward manner that he was able to think of. He was not going to do everything for free in attacking Alchemy City’s lair. That was different from helping Safilos build his cities. Saleen was able to build temples and ports while he was working on the cities.
There were also the navy to be stationed around, which made it possible for him to reap all manner of benefits.
In Saleen’s plan, when the Cloudflow Empire eventually made it all the way to where they were with their invasion, Safilos’ territory would have served as a giant entrepot. The benefits to be gained would have been a long term one.
Other than regular armies, common merchant ships wanting to go on long voyages would have needed to resupply along the way. The location of Safilos’ territory was just right for serving a hub separating Cloudflow and Alchemy City.
As for the seas, that was Saleen’s territory. One day, he was to take control of the entire eastern seas in his hands.
However, attacking Alchemy City’s lair would have had casualties, and said casualties would have been huge. If Safilos were to refuse deploying men, Saleen would definitely not give him any more loot or benefits.
It was also a good way to shave off some of Safilos’ powers.
Since Safilos hated Alchemy City to the bone, he would have definitely not cared about any losses incurred. His own men would have gladly thrown their lives away to avenge their brethren. Even without Saleen around, Safilos would have thought of ways to take his revenge all the same.
It was just that the timing proved to be convenient, given that Saleen was there. The border of the empire had yet to be breached just yet, so there was no need for reinforcements.
Safilos was a smart man. He quickly agreed to Saleen’s opinion after thinking about it for a bit.
“I’d need some time to mobilize my forces.”
“Where are they? I’d build a teleportation portal right away and have the Floating City bring them over. It’d take a day at most to gather them all.” Saleen seemed to be more in a hurry than Safilos was.
The Violet Angel being taken would not have been a matter to be concerned about. Even if the mages were to discover that it was not actually a dragon, they would not have been anxious to take it apart. To mages, things in one piece did have research value after all.
The more peculiar the Violet Angel was, the safer it would have been. Saleen was concerned that the Violet Angel would have ran amok and went about killing people while it ran. It would not have been able to escape if that were to be the case.
Even at its strongest, the Violet Angel was but a level 12 puppet nonetheless. There would have been someone among the Elemental Hand of Alchemy City who had reached level 13.
Baldur’s Gate was actually a portal linked to a different plane.
Powerful mages had built that thing back then to conceal troops and hide food. When they went about attacking enemy nations, opening the Baldur’s Gate would have caused their armies to overwhelm their enemies like a flood.
During the conquest of planes, such things were called space warehouses.
If Saleen were to own a Baldur’s Gate, he would have definitely been able to get it connected with the interdimensional space. As such, he had to get that thing in his hands.
That thing would have cost to run than the teleportation portal, but it would have been ridiculous for Saleen to just keep relying on teleportation portals to travel between the interdimensional space and Myers Mainland.
Setting up one such portal would have ensured that even if Saleen were to not be around, his armies could have been mobilized between the two planes nonetheless.
While the importance of powerful professionals would have been increasingly apparent, that was not to say that armies had outlived their usefulness.
Saleen had Tainted Blood Armors, which would have allowed his troops to reach level nine combat capacity. Elite troops were but level nine people when ancient humans went about conquering the planes.
Safilos gave Saleen the coordinates of a city. Saleen chuckled. It was apparent that Safilos’ mages had long thought of it, knowing that they would have needed Saleen’s help to mobilize armies. If the army were to march the old fashioned way, by the time they got there, Safilos’ kingdom was no more.
Everyone acknowledged the Floating City’s power. Any allies of his would have wanted to go into battle using that equipment of his.
Saleen was unable to use the teleportation portal of the Floating City. He let the enchanters on the Floating City construct a teleportation portal right away and took Rafel to the location Safilos told him to get to.
That was a city of his clan. Safilos ruled over the House of Commons and had a sizeable army there. The true elites were unable to get to Holy Rock City before it was breached. That was how it was with Safilos at the moment as well.
If his imperial city were to run without Saleen’s help, the several hundred sorcerers would have razed the entire place.
Razing a city did not require hundreds of sorcerers, as ten would have sufficed. The thing was that Safilos was a powerful warrior, so even the mages of Alchemy City needed to go the extra mile to deal with him.
In truth however, Safilos was trapped with his residence by the sorcerers. They were only able to shoot some arrows to attack the invaders, while Safilos was being protected by a magic tower.
While there was no doubt that Safilos was powerful, but there were many level ten mages in the enemy’s ranks. There was no way he would have been able to get out if he were to be surrounded.
There were simply too many sorcerers in the enemy’s midst. If they were to attack him all at once, there was no way he would have been able to shake off their targeting.
The Floating City had already proven that when high level spells were to be used in certain numbers, not even level ten professionals would have been able to withstand them.
Despite being less 10000 kilometers away, the distance between two places had nonetheless exceeded over 8000 kilometers. The Qin Empire was simply too large. Saleen would have needed to fly over a dozen hours to cover such distances.
As such, Saleen chose a border city that had a teleportation portal, which was less than 1000 kilometers away from Safilos’ territory. At such places that were directly connected to Cloudflow territory, teleportation portals were used for delivering intel.
Saleen came to that city and built a magic array out of the teleportation portal that was capable of transporting one person. He then left Rafel to guard the place while he took the Floating City to the military town that Safilos provided him with.
Saleen brought Safilos’ letter, documents, official seal, badge and magic images that were impossible to fake with him.
Of course, he himself was a guarantee in a manner of speaking. Things went well and he arrived at a military town that was only about 800 kilometers away from Holy Rock City, about three hours later.
He saw true powerful troops of Qin there.
The military town was huge and the army stationed there was only over 200 thousand-strong. The ironclad cavalry that Saleen saw on the outside was actually a ragtag band of warriors who were joining in the training. The true elite troops were stationed on a small plains.
Saleen brought the items proving Safilos’ authenticity and waited for over an hour, before meeting the general of the nameless military town.
The general read the letter written by Safilos and a magic image recorded by Saleen, saying, “Your Highness Saleen, it’s inappropriate for us to deploy just because his highness’ kingdom was attacked. I’d request that you return instead.”
Saleen’s face turned gloomy and looked at the general that was being clustered around by his troops, saying, “Are you disobeying an order from Safilos then?”
“I dare not. However, the procedures are incomplete and there is nothing I can do. He is no longer the supreme commander of the army. The House of Commons saw to that, and I assumed that you have yet to know this, your highness,” that general replied coldly.
“What the hell is ‘procedures are incomplete’!?”
“If the prince were to return to Holy Rock City and speak with her majesty the empress, I think that he would be able to regain his position as the supreme commander. Without the authorization from the empress, I would never spare even one soldier from my army.”
“Your army?”
That general only realized that he tongue slid by then. Saleen then cast a magic projection at that moment, which showed the words that the general had just said. Saleen had recorded everything using magic.
“The army belongs to the nation, not you. The prince’s territory is under attack and you are to be mobilized to do battle, if you refuse…”
That general was slight irked and said, “And I refuse. What are you going to do about it?”
Saleen realized all of a sudden that he too, was a prince of the empire and Lex’s husband.
There was no way the general would not have been aware of that. If he dared to be so rude despite having knowledge of Saleen’s relationship with the empress, then it would not have been due to the general being at the pinnacle of level ten true might.
The Golden Plains had taken control of this military town then?
There were four military towns like that, and all of them were not recorded on the map. Those towns were also the most professional troops that the empire kept around. All military personnel were trained from a young age, and it was even guaranteed that none of them suffered permanent damages before the age of 16.
The soldiers’ diet were all taken care of by mages, providing them with formulas to ensure that the soldiers were strong enough, and yet would not have crippled their fundamental constitution in any way.
Saleen calmed down and asked, “What is your name?”
That general answered plainly, “Mofeesto. You don’t need to know my surname.”
“Alright, Mofeesto, I shall tell Lex that you have died in the line of duty,” Saleen said and cast his territorial powers. The entire room was shrouded by electrical discharges.
Saleen then shot lightning icicles at him. Mofeesto looked at Saleen feeling baffled. He was unable to believe that a prince of the empire dared to kill him. What made it more unacceptable was that, when Saleen unleashed his territory, his entire soul shook and was unable to resist.
That was Saleen’s newly developed skill—Soul Shock.
Unlike Thundering Shock, that skill would have only worked on people who were of lower level than he was, but the effects were very, very apparent.
A large wound froze over at Mofeesto’s chest. He did not die right away. Saleen then unleashed a fire dragon and killed all of the soldiers within the room, but spared everything else that was not his target, so much so that even the armors of those soldiers remained unscathed.