Badge in Azure

Saleen was not the slowest one to advance. The slowest one had been Dante, as it was still stuck at level 15 even after spending over 2,000 years in the Hall of Gods. Even Rafel had gotten to the pinnacle of level 14, and the angel seemed to have achieved an epiphany of sorts, mastering ways of enhancing her powers without relying on the power of faith.

Eleanor was at level 14 and Qin was already a level 15 archer. Nicholas became a level 14 fallen holy master, while both Jola and Sul had advanced to level 15, becoming forcemasters.

The supreme demons who served as training assistants to the two had also been fortunate enough to become devils, with their levels reaching level 14.

Saleen eventually discovered that among the ones in the Hall of Gods, his rate at advancement had only been quicker than a handful of other people. Everyone else had been blitzing through advancement progress.

Saleen finally realized that even without activating the time-acceleration magic array in the Hall of Gods, the place would have become very suitable for training. One would hardly run into any obstacles training in such an environment, regardless of the kind of skills of any profession being trained.

“Rafel.”

“My lord, a month has passed and Lion City should be at its limit now.” Rafel was used to Saleen asking her about the time, and she was able to answer quickly.

“Impossible,” Nailisi quipped, expressing her opinion.

“How so?”

“Because we still have an insane assassin called Agares on our side. It will still be impossible for the god creatures to break through the line of defense at Lion City, unless the Lord of Glory decides to advent himself.”

“A month has passed and the Lord of Glory still refuses to show?” Rafel looked at Saleen with a rather doubtful look. She was distrustful of Nailisi’s judgment.

“The Lord of Glory huh…well, that god looks down on his opponents. The double that Nailisi cut down before was not even one that was split from himself, but one created from other gods. He has a lot of fighters doing his dirty work. You people have been too excited from what you did before, and the Lord of Glory has gotten rather afraid.”

“The Lord of Glory is afraid?” Rafel found that to be rather unbelievable. The way she saw it, gods were fearless beings.

“The Lord of Glory is a god who is very afraid of death. The amount of doubles he had was terrifying. We need to be prepared for only one thing that he might do—send waves of armies and doubles to harass the line of defense. He has a staggering amount of doubles, even though all of us only have one life each,” Saleen elaborated to his people solemnly.

Jason turned around to look at his student and found that Saleen had indeed matured. That would allow him to one day leave without any lingering concerns. His magical heritage would not have been broken, as even Truman had gotten to level 15. It was possible that Saleen’s student may have gotten to level 16 earlier than Saleen himself.

“Alright, enough chit chat. We’ve spent a month here to enhance our powers. The price for that was a level 17 divine persona. If everything proceeds without problems, we probably won’t have another chance to train like this, so make the most of it.”

Everyone replied only with silence. The price of bringing about such a training session was a piece of level 17 divine persona, something that only the few at the core knew. When everyone learned the price that Saleen paid to let them train like that, no one else harbored any hopes of going to that place to train again.

If the only thing that the Hall of Gods was able to do was to hasten the rate of passage of time, then the place would have been nearly worthless. However, its ability to boost one’s rate of training and advancement was priceless.

“Everyone take your positions. I will attack the divine kingdom a month later.” Saleen only let everyone out of his magic amplifier after giving the order.

It was Jason’s idea to make Saleen’s magic amplifier capable of sustaining life, and Saleen decided later that it was a wonderful idea. If it had not been for the environment in his magic amplifier, it would have been difficult arranging for a place outside to lay down the Hall of Gods.

The one who was waiting for Saleen after he returned to the line of defense was an emissary from Lion City. The emissary was there to seek aid as expected, as his previous aid had only been like a drop in a bucket.

If they did not take the bodies of dead god creatures away to be worked on further, the creatures would have been able to resurrect in the divine kingdom. One would have been able to fathom why the Lord of Glory would have simply sent his people to their deaths like that. It was because his soldiers were practically endless.

On the other hand, there would be nothing left for the ones from Myers Mainland after they were dead.

In truth, the Lord of Glory did not need to be smart. Stupidity alone would allow him to collapse the entire mainland. Myers Mainland had a population of less than a billion, and the ones capable of fighting numbered less than 300 million. The other hundreds of millions were practically negligible in terms of combat capacity, as even the god creature vanguards were more capable than they would have been.

There was no way an untrained peasant could fight even the worst of mercenaries after all.

The Lord of Glory seemed to have shared the same thoughts, so he sent waves after waves of incompetent vanguards to attack the mainland. God creatures who truly had their power of the Source robbed were only those who fought with Nailisi before, and there had only been little more than two million of them.

The frontlines had expanded to a width of 300 kilometers by the time tens of millions died in combat. That swath of land was reduced entirely to flatlands after being repeatedly bombarded by magic and divine arts. There was not even a single hill was found in the frontlines.

The fortresses at the line of defense had been repeatedly repaired. Lion City seemed to be about to fall, and the Cloudflow people were rather scared.

It seemed to be about time to launch an all-out assault. If things were dragged out any longer, the Cloudflow Empire would be the first to fall. Many warriors would be lost and if the city were to rely on its own forces, the cost would be too high.

Saleen read the intel sent by several emissaries, which more or less matched what his scouts found. He knew that Grand Duke Platinum was still being calm and as such, he summoned Rafel, and they headed out to Lion City together.

Lion City was already in shambles. There was a small magic net and under its protection, the Cloudflow people were somehow able to repair the walls and the fortresses. Most of the god creatures were units incapable of flight. The angels hit them repeatedly and yielded few results, so they did not press on with assault on Lion City. The incompetent, cannon fodder god creatures were sent to overwhelm them in sheer numbers instead.

There was no way Saleen would have only brought Rafel with him. She was only there as a show of status. There were at least 10000 ancient warriors right behind him.

Ancient warriors were level nine soldiers whose life force had been drained almost completely. Even if they were to survive the battlefield, Saleen could do nothing to save them.

Someone reported to Grand Duke Platinum after seeing 10,000 warriors flying through the air.

Saleen flew straight to the Grand Duke’s residence from the air, wasting no time to wait for the Grand Duke to receive him. He landed right outside the war room.

The Grand Duke felt rather awkward. Lion City was his city, but Saleen was able to come and go as he pleased without anything getting in his way. But it was Saleen who had built the magic net, and over half of the defense forces were provided by Saleen. The Grand Duke eventually calmed after recalling those facts.

“Your Highness Saleen!” The Grand Duke received him enthusiastically, with none of the usual haughtiness and troublesome rites of the Cloudflow people.

“Well met, Grand Duke. Let’s talk inside.” Saleen extended his hand, gesturing for them to go inside. The Grand Duke was rather frustrated as Saleen had been too natural. He acted as if the palace was his own, instead of the Grand Duke’s residence.

The 10,000 ancient warriors landed outside of the residence, guarding the place. The external fringes, as expected, did not have a plaza capable of housing 10,000 ancient warriors, and as such, they packed the whole area.

Saleen walked into the war room and took his seat at the side of the guests, while the Grand Duke returned to his master seat. Saleen did not go to the hall of the war room, but chose a small meeting room to the side. That meant that he had no need for others in Lion City to be part of what he was about to do. He was simply there to talk to the Grand Duke.

“As you can see, duke, the advent of the divine kingdom changed everything on Myers Mainland. Cloudflow Empire would soon cease to be, and the history of the four empires shall come to an end completely. I shall move out to destroy the royal family of the Tanggulasi Empire and the Sikeqinya Empire within the month. As for the royal family of the Cloudflow Empire, the god creatures would get rid of them even if I were to do nothing.”

“What about the Qin Empire then?” The Grand Duke asked along the way, before finding that he had asked a rather dumb question.

“The Qin Empire won’t be staying around for long either. I’m about to establish the Fifth Dynasty, and then, I’ll select a suitable candidate to become the emperor.”

Saleen’s words baffled the Grand Duke.

What Saleen said was totally unexpected. His strength had been such that, if he were out to unite the mainland, it would have been entirely possible. If it had not been for the divine kingdom’s advent, Saleen would have definitely been able to unite the entire Myers Mainland within 100 years. Everyone knew just how useful the Floating City was after all.

Regardless of how robust a city’s defense might have been, none would have been of any use to take on the Floating City.

Saleen said that the Qin Empire would not have been around for long, and the meaning of that was obvious. It was to say that the Grukos would be rendered little more than pages in history books soon.

Lex was Saleen’s wife and everyone knew just how close those were. Their marriage was not a political alliance. When Lex married Saleen, she was but a viscount and Saleen was a king of a small nation. But, the interests of both parties had long been tied together, and there was hardly any trade to be had between the two.

What was even more shocking was that Saleen had intended to establish the Fifth Dynasty.

Furthermore, he also said that he would select a suitable candidate to become the emperor of the Fifth Dynasty. That was to say that despite his powers, he had no intentions of participating in the fight to rule the Fifth Dynasty, and Lex would not be part of the fight either.

“Duke, I know that there are four of you in Cloudflow, and all of you are very formidable. I’m sure your clan has more than what you could spare at the moment. Work on it and invest more, it’ll be worth your while. The benefits that will be granted to your clan when the Fifth Dynasty gets established will depend entirely on the war with the divine kingdom.”

“Master Saleen, is this your will?”

“Indeed, and my mind is set. I won’t be changing anything,” Saleen answered in a composed manner.

“Well then, Master Saleen, who do you think would be the suitable candidate to sit on the throne of the Fifth Dynasty?”

“Lex.”

Saleen’s words almost choked the Grand duke. But Saleen quickly continued, “if she were to become the empress, her reign would last only 100 years at most. I’d have her give up the throne after that, and my children would not become an emperor of this dynasty. The coming 100 years shall be the key period for determining who shall be the next emperor.”

Seeing that the Grand Duke looked dazed, Saleen smiled and continued, “I take it that you have over 800 years of life, right?”

The Grand Duke realized that Lex would not have changed anything within the century she was in power. Saleen’s idea was still to have her pull herself out of the competition. With that, the Grand Duke was probably the first to know of such a news, and that would be a huge advantage to him. Although Saleen was closer to Grand Duke Iron Blood, he believed that Saleen was not friends with Grand Duke Iron Blood.

Grand Duke Iron Blood’s family background was too formidable. It was a clan that was related to the dragon plane after all.