Badge in Azure

“Stay behind!” The followers on the goddess’s side split up, and she stayed together with Saleen, charging at the general and the grandmaster.

The general and the grandmaster retreated. However, they were both getting into a single grave.

They knew that if they were to split up, they would have definitely ended up dead. The space within a grave was very stable, as it would not have enabled the heroic spirits to survive otherwise. However, a stable space did not mean it packed powerful defense. Both the Grandmaster or the General would have died horrible deaths if they were to take on attacks from either Saleen or the goddess. They were utterly incapable of gaining any advantage from the powers of the space within their graves.

Saleen followed closely behind the goddess. He saw the Withering Dance on her hand emanating power of rules. In that instant, the weakness of the Withering Dance appeared right before Saleen.

However, he knew that it was little more than a trick that the goddess played. If he were to truly exploit such a weakness, he would have died a horrible death. Even though the goddess was oblivious to the fact that Saleen was observing, she knew that Saleen would not have given up the chance to look deeper into it.

The only problem, however, was that if the Withering Dance had no weaknesses, then she would not have needed to deliberately reveal an opening at all. Furthermore, the opening was one that not even the likes of the grandmaster would have been able to tell. Only beings with the power of the soul at Saleen’s level would have probably made anything out of it.

A trap made specifically for him? Or just playing weak deliberately?

The space within the general’s grave shrunk further. After suffering serious damage in their previous battle, both the general and the grandmaster shrunk the space within their graves, as they were no longer able to maintain the spaces at their original sizes.

There were two skeletons in the center of the space. Both the general and the grandmaster pounced on the skeletons, and the piles of bones came alive immediately.

The general’s skeleton was covered by a layer of armor, while the grandmaster was clothed a magic robe, making him look like a death mage.

Saleen and the goddess’s subordinates did not get into the grave. The advantage of level superiority was glaringly apparent within the grave, and they would not have been of any help. They were tasked to take on the remaining heroic spirits, not letting a single one of them survive.

It was very difficult to destroy every single grave, as every single one of them had a fixed space, which would take a huge amount of power to completely destroy. If it had not been for both Saleen and the goddess taking a huge number of subordinates with them, it would have been an impossible task. There was no way they could have circumvented the process. Destruction of every single grave required an equivalent amount or an even greater amount of power.

Both the general and the grandmaster were forced to return to their skeletons, giving up all plans of resurrection and becoming half-dead beings instead. One could have only imagined just how angry the two of them were. Both of them suffered considerable losses by becoming half-deads.

Saleen and the goddess smiled at each other. They had finally able to get rid of the threat that was the Cemetery of Heroes once and for all. If they had been willing to become half-deads a long time ago, the goddess would not have gone far as to wanting to kill every single one of them.

Half-deads did not stay alive by sucking up power of the Source of the mainland, which meant that they would be of no harm to the mainland. Their existence would absorb powers from all kinds of spirit planes, strengthening Myers Mainland instead.

However, given how the goddess and Saleen had cornered them so badly that they had to take such a form, there was no way the general and the grandmaster would have agreed to a truce.

If one of those two were allowed to leave, they would have gone on to massacre everything on the mainland, destroying everything that both Saleen and the goddess held dear.

“Take your pick, Saleen,” The goddess said.

“I’ll take the grandmaster then. I’ve always wanted to open up that as**ole’s brain and see what’s inside.”

“Heh heh, no offense but, everyone with decent brains from the First Dynasty has practically left this crystal wall system. As for those who were left behind, well, you know how they are,” the goddess continued with a condescending tone.

“Heh, aren’t you one of the ones who were left behind?” A long, thin sword appeared on the general’s hand, glaring at the goddess coldly. The soul flames in his eye sockets were solid, just like that of a living being’s eyes.

“I elected to stay behind. I love this place after all.” The goddess saw no reason to get riled up. She and Saleen had the absolute advantage, after all. The enemy could trash-talk all they wanted, and it would not do a single thing to change the outcome.

The grandmaster and the general reluctantly split up. While combining their attacks would have boosted their combat prowess, their enemies were not against each other, so they would have still been at a disadvantage. Their enemies could also combine their powers. Both of them were able to see how Saleen worked with the goddess. The explosion of that black ball of light was controlled by the goddess. The shards from the ball would not have hit every single heroic spirit otherwise.

Saleen slowly walked to a distance just 50 meters away from the grandmaster and said, “Grandmaster, did you ever foresee this day would come when you were doing what you did against me all those years ago?”

“I did.” The grandmaster was not in a hurry to attack. He needed time to fuse his power with his skeleton after all. Since Saleen was willing to chat, he saw no reason to not do so. The longer the fighting was dragged out, the higher his combat capacity would become.

“One has to pay the equivalent price of what they desire. I paid my price back then. It’s time you pay yours now.”

“Hehe, but you’ll need to pay a new price for killing me. Your powers might be greater than mine, Saleen. But I, too, am a level 17 mage. Do you think you could really make short work of me?”

“I’d have no problem with that at all, but I like to drag things out a little bit. I’ve never had a chance to fight a mage at your level after all.”

Saleen’s words infuriated the grandmaster a great deal. The way Saleen put it, he was treating the grandmaster like a magic beast, fit only as something to test his magic out.

“I say that precisely because you’re a mage. Mages hardly ever surrender. They fight to the bitter end, instead.” Saleen took his time to chat, wearing down the grandmaster’s mind bit by bit.

The grandmaster was silent. Saleen had gone too far, and he had no way of continuing the conversation. Furthermore, he saw 13 Saleens appearing before him before he realized what it meant.

Thundering Phantasm was a skill created by Saleen. At level 17, every single phantasm packed frightening combat capacity. The terrifying thing about Thundering Phantasm was that one was unable to lock onto them using power of the soul, as doing so would trigger the thundering sound to resonate, dealing huge damage to one’s power of the soul.

Anyone fighting Saleen would have a hard time when he cast Thundering Phantasm. In usual circumstances, a formidable combatant would have had more than one way of locking onto one’s target. However, only Soul Targeting had a negligible drain. All other methods either had specific limits or were hindered by a huge drain.

For instance, Saleen could have used his third eye to lock onto enemies, but he hardly used the ability anymore, as the drain on the power of the soul was considerable, and it would have brought about a disadvantage in a prolonged fight.

“Grandmaster, are you really not concerned with us taking our time talking? If the general is killed by Myers, we’ll be ganging up on you, after all.”

“I’m in no hurry. If the general were so easy to kill, he wouldn’t have been able to command troops in hundreds of thousands. I’m all up for a war of attrition. Let me tell you this, Saleen. Now that I’ve merged with my dead body and became a half-dead, my powers will rise all the way to the peak I was at when I was alive. Dragging things out won’t do you any good.”

That was the first sensible thing Saleen had heard from the grandmaster since the beginning of the fight, and he wondered if he should have believed it.

What if the grandmaster was tricking him into attacking earlier than he should?

Saleen shook his head and attacked. He had six godly items under his command, and he did not want the goddess to get a glimpse of how he used them. Individuals at the goddess’ level would have learned all about a piece of equipment they were able to use just once, after all.

But then again, he never had any intention of killing the goddess using the six godly items. It would suffice to keep her suppressed. He definitely needed the power of lightning to eventually defeat the goddess. There was no other way to make up for the difference in level otherwise.

The grandmaster felt his bones getting increasingly nimble. While he was devoid of any magic chords, intense power spun within his eyes—the power of soul flame. Furthermore, many half-deads were capable of using skills they had when they were alive, which was what made them so terrifying in the first place.

The shortcoming to half-deads was that they would disappear for good after death.

However, things were somewhat different when dealing with half-deads like the Grandmaster. His bones were stored in the grave of heroes, which meant that the attributes had changed a long time ago. The hollow parts of the bones were filled with elemental power, enabling him to have an easy time manipulating elements.

When the seals of the elements were completely undone, the grandmaster would have returned to the peak of his power when he was alive—that of a true level 17 mage.

While Saleen was also a level 17 mage, he probably would not have been a match for the grandmaster if his equipment were to be taken out of the equation. The grandmaster was a seasoned veteran like no other, while Saleen had usually only needed to fight enemies weaker than he was.

Saleen was done waiting. The battle between the general and the goddess had not ended as quickly as he anticipated. Any damage that the general would have sustained in such a space would have been suppressed for the moment. Becoming a half-dead also meant that his powers became greatly enhanced. The fighting on the other side was unusually intense. The general had carved up multiple gashes in the space using his blade.

Saleen only knew just how powerful ancient warriors had been. No magic defenses would have been able to withstand one slash of that blade. One needed to rely on magic equipment, as magic shields of any kind would have ended up broken when hit by the weapon of one such warrior, sending the defending person into a parallel dimension.

But of course, the goddess had no fear of being sent into parallel dimensions, as she could easily return. She could have survived in spatial turbulences, armed with nothing but her bare hands.

Since Saleen learned of the goddess’s weakness, he thought it was only fair that she got a glimpse of his godly items’ powers.

Saleen cast the Well of Stars without hesitation. Beams of dazzling light lit up in space, forming passages that led straight to the end of space. The surrounding space glittered with starlight, but the power that emanated was that of water element instead of earth element.

The grandmaster was shocked. His surroundings were completely torn apart before he was able to recover. The battle between the goddess and the general could no longer be seen. The only thing before his eyes was a mage whose appearance was obscured. Saleen activated the function of the Deathly Night Robe, making his entire being look like a shadow, which could not be made out easily. His 12 Thunder Phantasms saw the same changes.

Thick clouds gathered above, and the Lightning Moon began to unleash power lightning bolts from the clouds.

Saleen watched the grandmaster and sighed. He eventually resorted to using the power of his equipment instead of fighting the grandmaster to death. But then again, he could not have done anything else. He still had to have a showdown with the goddess after taking care of the heroic spirits, after all.