Chapter 1488: Agares’ Shadow (Part 2)
Saleen took Grand Duke Iron Blood’s promise with a pinch of salt. It was a very difficult feat. Mages usually only believed in contracts.
Lex took out a pile of gold and gave it to the four dragons standing guard over the teleportation portal when the three of them returned to Myers Mainland. The dragons were very powerful beings at the dragon plane, and the dragons in the palace were even more powerful. It was a pity however, that they were of the Dragon G.o.d’s bloodline, making them incapable of leaving the palace.
The dragon plane was very stable and entering the dragon plane was only possible through several fixed teleportation portals. The dragons watching over the teleportation portals were carefully selected elites.
The four dragons saw the amiability and goodwill in Lex’s eyes and accepted the gold. Despite being quite a hidden plane, quite a number of creatures still went through the teleportation portal. However, the four dragons did not simply take gifts from others.
Saleen was only relieved after returning to Myers Mainland. He asked the Grand Duke, “where did you acquire the dragon materials you had before?”
“Hunts and trades. You can buy just about anything at Dragon City.”
Saleen nodded. The ones on Dragon Island did not rely on violence to get to the dragon plane; they relied on wealth. There were many rare things all over Myers Mainland, which could be traded with the dragons.
Furthermore, under usual circ.u.mstances, trading with dragons was done very fairly, so long as one took care to not infuriate the dragons.
If only he could get there on my own…
The Grand Duke seemed to catch what Saleen was thinking. “Those coordinates do not change. You can get there on your own in the future if you so wish. Just be careful, that’s all. There are many magic beasts outside of Dragon City, and not even the dragons dare to clean them up. It is simply too costly.”
“Relax, I’ll bring you along if I go. Good things are meant to be shared,” Saleen replied. He valued the Grand Duke’s power as a Dragon Knight. He was far more powerful than Sul and Jola in terms of combat capacity.
He already had three dragons, and Saleen had promised to get him a spirit dragon.
There had never been a Dragon Knight who owned four dragons ever, even in ancient times. Saleen wondered if he had somehow fostered the most powerful warrior the world had ever seen.
Saleen did not waste much time in the Grand Duke’s territory, agreeing with the Grand Duke quickly. They agreed to combine their forces when the G.o.ds attacked, driving off the enemy together. As for Cloudflow, they held off attacking for the moment, letting Agares keep his throne.
If the other three dukes attacked Misty City, Saleen and the Grand Duke would provide a.s.sistance.
The Grand Duke did not keep on asking why Saleen did so, but he knew deep down that the luck Saleen mentioned was continuing to affect the entire mainland, so much so that it was affecting even people like them.
There was no way the Grand Duke would listen to every word that Saleen said. He was still getting ready to stabilize t.i.tan Duchy, making the place his own. Saleen knew that the Grand Duke still intended to reign supreme over the mainland. He was fine with it so long as the Grand Duke did not rush. By the time he and Lex were able to back out without problems, the Grand Duke was welcomed to do whatever he liked.
Saleen had no intention of keeping the Grand Duke under control. When he and Lex returned safely to Holy Rock City, there had been talk that was not in Lex’s favor all over the city.
Saleen did not do anything about that. He simply summoned the Floating City and had it hover above Holy Rock City. He had been the one behind the move to chase away mages from Golden Plains, so he did not allow anyone to get in the way of his plans.
Lex wanted to say something. One could not simply use violence to rule a nation. But Saleen stopped her and told her to follow his arrangements.
Saleen had no intention of continuing to manage nations. He already had many planes under his rule, with the most elite of forces of his being concentrated in Raphael’s interdimensional s.p.a.ce. Other than some elite forces on Myers Mainland, he stopped caring about the place.
Even if the Lord of Glory invaded the mainland, he did not have to worry about his subjects being hurt.
Saleen organized a ma.s.sive migration while his armies were out conquering planes. He no longer needed to hide anything from anyone, and there was no need to hide anything about the G.o.ddess of Myers either. As such, he moved all of the demons and humans who had followed him from the start to the interdimensional s.p.a.ce. Other than Metatrin City, he had little left on the mainland to care about anymore.
The north was almost completely conquered by the demons he summoned. He categorized the demons: those who liked to fight joined the army, while the weaker ones were told to farm.
While demons did not farm, one demon was equivalent to four to five human peasants. Furthermore, demons had an easier time controlling puppets to farm. Their powerful mental powers meant that they were able to work longer.
Saleen made the northern parts of the mainland a farming base, continuing to produce elvish pills. They could be consumed like food, which effectively did away with logistical problems in war.
Furthermore, there was no need to be concerned about the pills going bad in storage.
The pills were meant to be consumed by slaves back in the elf plane. Elves of higher status only ate fine food, which was cooked using complicated methods. They would eat fresh food without much preparation if that was unavailable. They saw the pills beneath them. No elf would make food out of them and only extremely starved elves would take some.
Saleen paid no heed to any of that. The pills posed no harm to human bodies, and no one was able to stop death regardless of status. Anything was better than starving to death. To someone like Saleen, who had been starving since young, having a full belly was equivalent to being happy.
Driving the mages of Golden Plains off by force had resulted in backlash. Hundreds of battles were fought.
However, casualties were abhorrently low. Saleen had no intention of cleaning up Golden Plains immediately. He still had planes to stabilize. With Nailisi’s absence, training demons slowed and his forces began to be stretched thin. If more connected planes popped up, Saleen would have to mobilize his human armies and the power of Nature Faith to rule them.
Saleen did not want to see that, so he did not have his forces kill off Golden Plains. He waited for the Grand Duke to settle things in t.i.tan Duchy, in order to use the Grand Duke’s powers to destroy Golden Plains instead.
It would reflect badly on Lex if he did it himself. The people in Golden Plains were considered his relatives.
Saleen was rather pleased with himself. Without the pesky mages from Golden Plains, he was able to look into repairing the Magic Clocks.
Furthermore, he intended to repair the Magic Clocks in order to increase its numbers.
Saleen broke down the materials of the Magic Clocks that had been destroyed with Water Flame. He added his own materials and re-forged 108 Magic Clocks of greater sizes. All of the Magic Clocks came with their own clock towers, which could be installed anywhere.
Saleen repaired the Magic Clocks and added lightning magic patterns on them. There was only one reason why he did so—to resist the effects of the War Drum of Fear.
The Lord of Glory was no longer the most powerful enemy he had to face. The most powerful one was the Heretic G.o.d.
Saleen recalled just how terrifying the Heretic G.o.d was. The angels of fear that appeared on Myers Mainland were probably planted by the Heretic G.o.d secretly. The power of the angels of fear rendered armies of ma.s.sive sizes utterly useless. He saw the need to counter such methods of attack to have enough strength to resist the Heretic G.o.d’s invasion.
While Saleen was busy with preparations, Arbola, who was the leader of Golden Plains, was caught in a pinch. She had once been very prideful and did not bother to heed the likes of Saleen. It was totally unexpected that Van Gogh was able to throw her into a plane she was unable to return from with just one single skill.
Arbola was infuriated and cast her skills, causing Van Gogh to lose his sense of direction in s.p.a.ce. They were thrown to different places. Luck did not side with her, as she was thrown to an abyssal plane that was extremely far away from Myers Mainland.
Arbola had the Mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake and was struggling to hold off the waves of attacks against her.
Abyssal creatures were ferocious and did not fear death. No stun skills worked on them.
There was a lord who was behind the attacks—the Flame Tyrant.
The Flame Tyrant’s power paled in comparison to Arbola, and the difference was more p.r.o.nounced with the mark in her hands. However, the abyssal plane was very unstable. In the valley that Arbola was hiding in, there were untold numbers of s.p.a.ce fissures. The abyssal creatures traversed the fissures proficiently, while Arbola did not dare to let the Six-winged Flying Snake be too far away from her.
If the creature were caught in a s.p.a.ce fissure, it would be severely injured.
d.a.m.n you, fallen holy master!
Arbola struggled to resist the attacks on her while being concerned for her student. Van Gogh had a piece of equipment that allowed him to travel between Myers Mainland and other planes. Her attacks would only daze Van Gogh for a while. With Jalin’s help, it would not take him long to return to Myers Mainland.
Arbola worried about her student because she knew Jalin’s temperament. If Jalin shook off her bonds and learned what she did, there was no way she could live with herself.
But she was utterly incapable of returning to Myers Mainland. She had ma.s.sive powers, but she was stuck in the cramped valley.
“Do you want to leave, human mage?” An abyssal creature walked up to her and spoke to Arbola in human tongue.
Arbola was dumbfounded. Only powerful abyssal creatures were able to inherit linguistic abilities through genetic memories alone. The abyssal creature was not even a level nine creature, and nothing could be left in its bloodline.
Arbola shuddered and the abyssal creature rescinded the flames on its body, revealing a pitch black coat of fur. It rose from its prostate stance and looked down at Arbola. It asked again, “You don’t want to go home?”
“I want to go home!”
“Sign this contract and let me be your summon creature. Bring me to your world.”
Arbola frowned at the weird request. The abyssal creature was not even at level nine. Under normal circ.u.mstances, she would not even consider signing a contract with such a creature, as it would only waste her power of the soul. She needed to sign contracts with creatures at least above level 12 before she deemed it worth her while.