Badge in Azure

Chapter 345: Toiling Secretly (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Black mages thought that gods had been created by humans. This point alone exemplified that black mages were the most presumptuous people in the world. Even the ancient humans had not had such thoughts.

However, even though black mages were arrogant, they had the right to be. Back in the early days when the black mages were going through a period of chaos, they had managed to deal severe damage to the mainland. And the reason they could do that was because they really had created a god, and more than one at that.

All of these gods were derived from the negative emotions found in all humans. Each god possessed the ability to cause immense destruction.

Abominable devil, terrifying devil, soaring devil, dark sky devil…

Normal humans would never be able to put up a fight against these devils. No human had a perfect heart. In the face of the gods created by the black mages, the weaknesses in their hearts would begin appearing and their offensive abilities would be reduced drastically. More often than not, the devils would not kill the humans themselves. They would let their underlings deploy puppets to kill those distracted people.

Back then, only two groups of people had been able to resist the devil army. The first had been the army of mages from the Grukos family. These mages had been blessed by the secret magic of the Grukos family, making them impermeable to any kind of external influence. The second group had been the army from the Holy See. Back then, the Holy See had the holy cavalry regiment, the thorned monk regiment, and the oracle regiment. Out of the three regiments, only the thorned monk regiment enjoyed protection from the god. Furthermore, this regiment was formed by the fanatic believers, who were even crazier than the black mages.

Before the black mages could create all seventy-two devils, they had already been exterminated. Since most of the devils’ bodies could not be destroyed, they were simply buried in the middle of the mainland, in the Purgatory Desert.

The Purgatory Desert, an area where life was forbidden. Ever since the bodies of the devils were buried there, no one entered that place anymore. That incident was the inflection point in the mainland’s history. After obliterating the devils created by the black mages, the Holy See and the other three empires began to be increasingly estranged from one another. Eventually, an intense conflict erupted.

After that, the black mages managed to make a comeback at some point in time. However, they were swiftly snuffed out by the four empires again. And that was when the poly spirit beast emerged for the first time ever.

Because the black mages could no longer acquire enough souls, they had created such a thing. It allowed a soul to be repaired repeatedly. Through continuous torture, other types of negative powers would be stimulated, thus creating opportunities for the devils to be resurrected.

If the black puppets were the source of magic nuclei for the devils, then the poly spirit beast would be analogous to a dragonshard, which could be used many times over. The poly spirit beast possessed massive offensive power and also had some intelligence.

In the past, the poly spirit beast had managed to revive the dark sky devil. However, before the dark sky devil could even escape from the Purgatory Desert, it had already been mysteriously defeated and banished back into silence once again. However, no one would be able to forget that mad slogan of revenge bellowed by the last batch of black mages.

As long as humans exist, the devils will never be dead. Be ready to go to hell!

Saleen’s team continued advancing west. A few more injured men died, bringing the total number to seventy-three. The pirates achieved victory. They managed to kill the enemy, who outnumbered them disproportionately, but they also lost a quarter of their manpower. If this had been a soldier’s first time fighting on the battlefield, they would have collapsed by now.

At this point in time, Saleen then realized that the pirates were very useful. After winning a tough battle, these pirates were actually very relaxed despite being exhausted. They were only afraid of unknown enemies. But once they learned that their enemies on land were similar to those found at sea, their fears vanished. Because they realized that, as long as they were willing to fight, the enemy would surely be killed.

To the pirates, there was no difference whether or not their enemy was a god. They were people without religion.

Within a hill situated in the depths of the Chaotic Swamp was a piece of flat land spanning about four square miles. This land was so level and smooth that it seemed as though it had been modified by magic before. There was not even a single protrusion from the ground. If a bucket of water was poured onto this ground, the water would quickly diffuse, but it would not flow in any direction. Strangely, on this four square miles of open space, not even a single piece of snowflake could be found. The surrounding hills were snowcapped and there was a strong and frigid wind blowing from the north, but not even a single snowflake was blown to this place.

At the center of this flat land was a partial magic tower.

This magic tower was black in color, with only five stories left. Its upper portion seemed like it had been struck by some gigantic weapon, causing it to be fractured away. Beside this magic tower was another ruined magic tower with only four stories. On the clean ground in front of these two destroyed magic towers, hundreds of headless riders did their patrols.

On the fifth story of the magic tower was a prayer room. Inside the prayer room was an enshrined idol. A holy master clad in a long white robe sat under this idol quietly.

A holy master from the Tanggulasi Empire was actually inside a magic tower which was being patrolled by headless riders. Furthermore, he had even constructed a prayer room. If this piece of news was publicized, no one would ever believe it.

Two mages clad in long black robes knelt respectfully in front of this holy master. The holy master’s golden pupils turned into slits, then he turned to look at the two mages.

“Sir Guise, the enemy is approaching, you should go into hiding,” the mages begged.

“Are you not confident of killing them all? Why are you afraid? Even if they manage to get away, I should be the one worried, right?” the holy master replied nonchalantly.

“Sir, our…”

“Our agreement still stands. We are just colluding with the devil, right? The Lord of Glory will forgive me. As for the two of you, the devil is going to be resurrected soon. Why are you all still afraid?”

“Sir, the devil will really be revived!” The two black mages began trembling in fear. They might have been clad in robes belonging to elemental mages, but they were in fact black mages who had been cast aside by the mainland.

“That means you two are afraid that the dark sky devil is being revived? Look, I will never be afraid of my own god. How about you all come and worship the Lord of Glory too,” the holy master teased. He was not afraid of this matter being exposed. Who would believe that a white bishop was in cahoots with black mages? The feud between these two parties was not any less than that between the black mages and the Grukos family.

One of the black mages began kowtowing furiously, then said, “Sir Guise, I can feel that the poly spirit beast has begun emerging. Furthermore, there are hundreds of thousands of black puppets in the Chaotic Swamp. They will allow the poly spirit beast to be revived at least a hundred times. Previously, the dark sky devil was already on the verge of resurrection. Now that the poly spirit beast is around, the dark sky devil will surely escape from the Purgatory Desert!”

“Wouldn’t that be better? Once the dark sky devil walks out from the desert, it will obliterate all of the surrounding empires. By then, all you black mages will have your own territory already, and you won’t have to hide in the Chaotic Swamp anymore.” This holy master was actually a white bishop, the strongest fighting force second only to the oracles.

The black bishop was attached to the inquisition, the red bishop was attached to the pivotal council, and the white bishop was attached to the oracles. In these three major powers, the bishops were always the mainstay. After all, the pope and the inquisitors rarely went out of town, and given a bishop’s abilities, he could already wield a partial divine weapon, which meant that he was already as strong as a sorcerer.

Despite Saleen and Nailisi’s offensive power, they had also been defeated by the black bishop. It was a testament to just powerful bishops were.

“Sir Guise, we have decided that we want to follow Lord Fycro and never turn back again. But the dark sky devil…”

“Besides my god, there is no other god,” Guise replied with a laugh. Then, he said, “Okay, I permit the two of you to use all your power to kill those intruders. If the dark sky devil ever discovers that you all have betrayed him, my god will bear the consequences on your behalf.”

The two mages looked at each other with immense frustration. The enemy was simply too powerful. Five hundred headless riders had been slaughtered, and even the poly spirit beast had emerged. If these people managed to discover Guise, then their betrayal would definitely come to light. Whether or not the Lord of Glory would interfere in this matter was entirely dependent on Fycro.

Even though he was the first oracle in the Holy See, Fycro had dared to collude with black mages, which showed how fractured the interior of the Holy See was. Furthermore, this matter involved the inquisition. These two black mages only had the abilities of a grade-4 mage. One simple misstep could prove fatal to them.

Both of them were mages who studied theology, so they knew that the Lord of Glory would never descend on the Myers Mainland due to the planar rules. However, the dark sky devil was physically present on the mainland. As long as the dark sky devil was resurrected and left the Purgatory Desert, then the two of them could die at anytime.

They were not afraid of death. However, death was not the end. After being killed by the dark sky devil, the devil would torture their souls repeatedly until it was satisfied.

Guise stared at these two hesitating mages, then said, “Do you feel that the dark sky devil is scarier than Lord Fycro?”

After hearing Guise say that, the two mages stood up decisively and walked out of the door without even turning their heads.

The dark sky devil could torture their souls, but so could Fycro. This first oracle from the Holy See did not wield any less power than Pope Theisio.

Pope Theisio had three divine weapons while Fycro only had one, but it was already enough for Fycro to defy the pope, because every single oracle from the Holy See was rumored to carry the bloodline of the god on the Myers Mainland. With the bloodline of the god, the oracle would be able to unleash the maximum power of a divine weapon. The divine weapon would be able to create a place on the mainland which would be similar to the interdimensional space. And in this space, the oracle’s powers would already be close to that of the god.

Fycro possessed the strongest powers. He was different from the other six oracles.

Fycro was called the Son of God, the star of the Glorious Plains, and was already almost a god. With his support, the inquisition had managed to expand, and had consequently gotten into a huge conflict with the pivotal council. The preaching of the Holy See was also affected. The preaching had lost the peacefulness it had retained for the past one thousand years, and was now filled with frequent violence.

In the face of a person who dared to stand up against the pope, the two black mages did not dare to rebel. They had no choice but to side with Fycro, because Fycro admired their abilities and felt that black magic would be of use to the Lord of Glory.

“I want your faith.” Fycro had said this sentence in the past, and hence those two black mages had become the Lord of Glory’s believers. This man, who looked like god, was indeed scarier than the dark sky devil.

More black puppets and headless riders had gathered outside the magic tower. From the distant hills, the furious roars of the evil dragon could be heard.

When Guise observed all these happenings, he furrowed his eyebrows.

Lord Fycro had indeed gone overboard this time around, but what could he say? As long as the opinions within the Holy See’s interior were not uniform, the glory of god would never be able to spread throughout the mainland. Will Lord Fycro’s dream come true only when all the empires on the mainland are destroyed? By then, the pivotal council’s opinions will no longer matter. Anyway, there will be no more secular empires on the mainland. The Holy See will only need to wait and receive believers.

The number of deaths will not matter. Anyway, the believers will be reborn in heaven while the blasphemers will suffer in hell. The god has already said that life is only a temporary phase. It does not matter.