Badge in Azure

Saleen felt dejected. Even if he expanded his territory to the limit, it would not be able to match a single corner of the Sky City. If the Sky City could be broken so easily, it would not be considered one of the greatest achievements of ancient humans.

Even if he were a pseudogod and bombarded the Sky City with all he has gotten, it would not have any effect on the construct, and he was just a level ten mage.

Water Flame Alchemy might have had ways of dismantling the inner parts of the island, but doing so would be extremely time-consuming and would make assembly near-impossible.

All three of them lit their way with magic, walking towards the temple one step at a time. Saleen noticed that there was no holy prose written on the temple. The pillars were all etched with magic patterns.

Was this place is not built before the Goddess of Myers perished?

The inside of the temple looked even more different, so much so it made him feel as if the place was a palace instead of a temple.

Saleen grew more sure of the thought after venturing inside the temple. While the hall was identical to the others in size and layout, there were no altars or prayer rooms in the hall’s inner structure.

There were all kinds of houses, bridges, artificial lakes, rivers, fake mountains, gardens, and so on between the halls.

The place was probably built before the Goddess of Myers attained godhood. Saleen recalled the news that he had gotten from the Imperial City of the Abyss. Before she became a god, her level was the same as the First Dynasty’s emperor. She was a level 18 mage.

A level 18 mage was fully qualified to possess the Sky City.

There had been more than one Sky City in Myers Mainland. All the masters of the Sky Cities had been level 18 professionals. All of them fought in wars on other planes, invading kingdoms of gods and capturing them. The Sky Cities vanished with the powerful figures.

Myers remained behind on the mainland, which meant that the Sky City that belonged to her was not taken away.

There were no schematics of ancient palaces left behind, as their design was entirely up to masters of said palaces, devoid of all the rules that were commonplace in present day.

Mages participated in the construction of every single building back then, which enabled them look extremely lavish and elegant. Even some astrologers appreciated the designs.

It was fortunate that the palace had lost all power. The only thing that remained was the extremely durable wood of the construction. The magic patterns served as little more than decorations after it lost its power source.

Saleen walked inside a hall, which held a wide living space. There were tables and chairs and decorations on the walls.

It looked like a waiting room. All 18 chairs were placed beneath the window. A unique table was in front of every chair.

Myers had been an extremely important figure on the mainland before she became a god. There had been a Sky City belonging to Myers among all the others found in the sky of the mainland. The place that Saleen and his followers were in was probably a palace that belonged to Myers before she became a god.

Saleen continued to analyze as he walked past the halls. The layout looked like it belonged to someone serving as the core of a country. It was a pity that no documents were left. Humans had extremely long lifespan back then and hardly considered anything about after their passing.

Humans who were capable of fighting gods might not have lived as long as the gods, but their lives were not short.

Saleen’s only bounty from the search was knowing that the palace was built directly on the core of the land part of the Sky City. The core of the land, which had a beehive-like structure, was capable of clinging to dirt.

The group of palaces might have served as a control hub of the Sky City. Saleen saw a huge magic array in another plaza. The palaces looked different from the temples he had seen. There were some with two or three floors, the tallest being nine floors.

A nine-floored palace enabled even common folk to gaze on the palaces.

Saleen was unable to find any leads even after exploring the place for hours.

“Let’s head back,” Saleen said calmly.

“Head back? Aren’t we taking the palace apart?”

“We can’t do that. The palaces are different from temples. They would lose their value if we took them apart. We’ll head back and clean up the battlefield.” Saleen forcefully suppressed his greed. It would not do him any good even if he stayed.

He ran through all sorts of ideas and found that there was no way for him to bring the entire piece of land out of the interdimensional space, unless he broke up the structure of the Sky City.

He did not mind as the city connected to this place was not that important. Nobody would know the truth about him holding down the city. Not even Agares would figure that he had kept the whole temple intact instead of taking it apart.

Daniel and Isabella did not mind at all. Good stuff littered the ancient battlefield, but it would be quite troublesome to clean up. It was fortunate that their liege’s territory excelled in troublesome menial labor like that.

Over half of the puppets resembled humans in size, and there were also smaller puppets, enabling them to bag any equipment or material that was deemed worthy.

Saleen took the two with him and returned to the mainland of the interdimensional space. Saleen left a good number of marks behind to confirm the coordinates on the Sky City’s piece.

Regardless of where the island ended up, Saleen would be able to find it, so long as it remained in the interdimensional space.

Saleen’s way of dealing with the battlefield was simple. He expanded his territory to the limit and had the puppets take everything, including blood-stained dirt.

Saleen thoroughly searched the place, not letting even a single arrowhead be left behind. It was easier that way. It cost mental powers to control the entire territory. The simpler Saleen’s orders were, the smaller the cost on Saleen’s mental powers was.

Furthermore, bagging everything was the quickest. There was nothing of value left on the battlefield. Saleen found a broken blade that looked different from contemporary weapons, as it was made of hard materials and unnervingly sharp. Such metals were usually used on the edge of blades. The broken blade would contribute to making sharp weapons when taken home.Read more chapter on AllNovel

There were also arrowheads. Most of the arrowheads on the battlefield were crafted by mages. Saleen even managed to find some that were crafted by astrologers.

Saleen initially did not pay much heed to such materials, but when he thought about it, he would still need an army even if he was able to craft an entire Sky City.

The army could be deployed from the air to any place on the mainland. The temple guards could well serve as a model for the Sky City army.

The temple guards’ equipment was not powerful enough. Saleen needed to arm a demon army of over 200,000 humans and demons. The materials would be sourced on the broken equipment littering the ancient battlefield.

Saleen took half a day to clean up the entire battlefield. He took huge amounts of samples, dirt, and water. While there were no living beings there, it was a place suitable for housing people.

The only problem was that it required massive amounts of energy. Saleen had stayed there for almost a whole day, and there were still no signs of the sun rising.

If he intended to carry out agriculture, he would have to either rely on magic gardens or plant fauna from the subterranean plane. The subterranean plane’s above ground was inhospitable and all living beings were underground. Plants grew without need for a sun.

All the things were taken back to be analyzed by mages. The results would show the interdimensional space’s rate energy decay and passage of time, as well as the length of its existence. The results would eventually be able to tell them if that interdimensional space was at the brink of collapse or was growing.

Saleen built the framework of a teleportation portal once he felt that he left nothing left. There was no telling how long the teleportation portal could last and if it would eventually be destroyed by its surroundings.

Saleen would not dare use it for a second time and it served only as an alternative. If the portal they came through happened to collapse, he would have to resort to the alternative.

When Saleen returned to the metal tower through the portal, Nailisi, who had been waiting outside, gasped in surprise. “Master, you’re quick.”

“We’ll talk later,” Saleen left the area with his trusted ones, taking out the Magical Element Tower.

Saleen only told everything he saw to his followers when they arrived on the 17th floor of the Magical Element Tower and were in a completely sealed space.

The archer stood at the side. He faced Saleen and employed ancient customs without any hesitation, kneeling down. “Master, please allow me to become your follower. I am willing to pay the highest price asked of me to do so.”

Saleen looked at the archer. “Qin, you need to know that if you became my follower, you would be losing your freedom so long as I live.”

“I’m aware, but I’m at a loss about the future, and I hope I would receive guidance from you, master. If there is no future, then no amount of freedom matters.”

Saleen heard the mage’s idiom that the level nine archer had just blurted and smiled. “So this is to say that you’ve prepared everything?”

“Indeed, master.” Qin did not get up. He silently waited for Saleen’s answer.

“Your level and abilities were all displayed in the battle of the Royal Harbor. However, infighting is entirely forbidden between my followers. Can you rely on each other, swear to never betray us, fight with us, and never give up?”

“I can, master.” Qin answered resolutely.

“Would you give everything up when I need you, including your life?”

“Indeed, master.”

Qin knew that Saleen was about to hand him the follower’s contract, identical to the ones signed by Daniel and the others. He would be treated equally with Saleen’s other followers.

If Saleen was willing to have him as a follower, that meant that Saleen would be willing to invest in him. Even with the least of expectations, Saleen would think of ways to enable him to become a level ten archer.

Even if the day came where Saleen really needed his life, Saleen would not simply ask for him to die immediately. He would be tasked to carry out an extremely dangerous mission. It was a price that he deemed worth paying.

“Alright then, Qin, sign this contract with your blood.” Saleen he took out a starline scroll. It was prepared for Qin. Saleen had kept a close eye on the archer for a long time and deemed him a professional worthy.

He had deliberately talked about the secrets of Sky City’s piece in front of the archer to gauge the archer’s reactions.