227 Devil’s Magic Part 2 (1/2)

Daniel looked at Saleen with an odd expression as he swam towards the mage. Fellett’s body trailed behind him, completely under his control now. He could not help but think, All of them are too hurt to fight. If I strike now… Daniel knew that Lex and Saleen were a wealthy duo, and both had brought a huge sum of money with them on this trip. Robbing and killing them would automatically make him filthy rich. His accidental reunion with the winged skeleton had allowed him to establish an even stronger connection with the death dimension. He did not need anyone’s help anymore. As long as he had the money, he would be able to work his way up to the rank of a sorcerer.

The temptation was just too hard to ignore. Daniel licked his lips as he felt his throat dry up. He was not too affected by the loss of his bone puppets. In fact, the return of the winged skeleton had boosted his power to a far greater extent than the bone puppets would have. He was now much stronger than before. If he wanted to finish off Lex and Saleen, now would be the best time.

As Saleen lay on top of the broken ship wreckage, he turned to Daniel and said, ”Daniel, the pan’s turtle’s shell could not have gone too far. Your winged skeleton should make it convenient for you to travel. Take it and help me find the shell.”

”Yes,” Daniel responded almost instantaneously. With that, he turned around and carried out Saleen’s orders. As he did so, he felt very conflicted. Why am I feeling so afraid? Saleen can’t even fire a level-0 spell. He’s practically powerless! Daniel thought.

Even though Daniel kept trying to boost his own confidence, he felt himself being carried further and further away from Saleen by the winged skeleton. Not once did he stop to turn or even look back. As Saleen watched Daniel fly further and further away from them, he breathed a sigh of relief. Saleen knew from the start that Tanggulasis were unreliable. Although the mages of Alchemy City were a little bit more ill-tempered, they would never give into the temptation of greed. Not under these circumstances, at least.

Yes, Daniel was a mage. However, he had been brought up the Tanggulasi way. What the Qins were unwilling to do, he might have been more than happy to carry out. To a typical mage, faith preceeded morals by a longshot. This was because beliefs were something that solely belonged to them. Morals, to them, were social constructs that had been imposed onto them since they were young. Who cared about being all-holy and upright when no one was around? Saleen believed that mages needed to be more firmly anchored in their beliefs and not morals so that they could stay true to themselves.

Right now, Saleen highly doubted that Daniel would factor in morality when deciding whether to kill them. Then again, Saleen doubted that Daniel had any righteous beliefs to begin with. Saleen strongly believed that a person needed to work hard to get what they wanted. Daniel was not prepared to sacrifice anything to become successful. He had looked at them with such hungry eyes as soon as he had realized that Lex, Saleen, and the others were too weak to fight him. At that point, Saleen had felt like he was prey being watched closely by a predator.

Meanwhile, Lex brought out a bottle of magical liquid and took a sip before passing it to Saleen, who took a bigger sip – more like a huge gulp. He then passed on the remaining contents to Sika, who then gave it to Nailisi after she was done drinking some of the fluid. The bottle was emptied within minutes. The nourishment that the magical liquid had provided them with meant that their injuries would no longer worsen. Gripping his family badge tightly, Saleen used all his strength to cast one level-0 spell.

As he did so, he made the decision to never turn his back on Lex ever again. The two of them had been through too many life and death situations together. He knew that Lex would do the same for him. Although the family badge continued draining Saleen of his energy, he felt his mental power stabilize after a while. In fact, his mental power was slowly being restored to its peak state. In just half an hour’s time, the dragonshard would be able to make him nearly as good as new.

On the other hand, most of Lex’s injuries were physical. Her mental power was still intact, allowing her to cast a Chunlin spell on herself before blessing it onto the rest of the people present. No sooner had she done that did she collapse onto the ship wreckage that she was sitting on, too worn out to move.

”Lex, get up,” Saleen said bluntly, as he hoisted himself up into a sitting position. ”What?” Lex replied lazily. ”That Daniel wanted to kill us. I’ve sent him away for now. If he sees you lying like that looking like the undead, he might be tempted to do something again. With the winged skeleton, his powers easily rival those of a grade-4 mage.” Saleen whispered harshly.

”He…” Lex wanted to continue, but decided not to. She had faced her back towards Daniel the entire time he was there. She was not the one who had witnessed Daniel’s strange facial expressions. Saleen, on the other hand, had. Lex trusted Saleen, especially under these circumstances. Saleen had no incentive to lie to Lex about something like this.

Meanwhile, Sika’s body was littered with lacerations, cuts, puncture holes… any injuries a person could think of were present on her frame. If it had not been for the armor that had been specially refined by Lex for her, she would have died a long time ago. Nailisi, on the other hand, was not hovering between life and death, though that wound on her stomach was probably going to give her a hard time for the next few weeks.

Lex grit her teeth as she forced herself into a sitting position. Within ten minutes, Daniel returned.

”Did you leave any magical imprints?” Saleen asked calmly. Daniel cautiously nodded his head, confused by Saleen’s sudden change in attitude.

Saleen spoke again, ”I’m too injured to do anything right now. If you can control Fellett’s body, could you please have him pull us to the rock turtle shell?”

Saleen’s words were enough to make Daniel rethink his original plan. Daniel knew that he could not act hastily. Both Saleen and Lex were archmages. Even in their weakened states, the odds of attacking both of them by surprise and actually winning were very slim, regardless of whether or not the death flames were employed.

Unfortunately, the temptation just was not going away. Daniel could hear a faint voice calling out to him from the armor. ”Wear this armor and kill your enemies! You’ll be invincible!”

Attempting to block out the sounds of the voice, Daniel squeezed his knuckles so tightly that his nails sliced open his palms. Saleen asked curtly, ”Daniel, what’s on your mind?”

”Noth… nothing…” Daniel stuttered, feeling a shiver run down his spine as he observed Saleen’s subsequent actions. Apparently, the grade-4 mage had decided to pull off his gloves, exposing his shrivelled left hand. Daniel noticed a dark green ring perched prettily on Saleen’s finger. Although Daniel was unable to tell just how strong the magical object was, he sensed that the magic within this ring was anti-death magic.

As Daniel was reminded of the painful memory of losing his winged skeleton after Saleen had unleashed his divine powers, the temptation slipped away almost instantly. Daniel coughed heavily as he used his magic to direct Fellett’s body to push the wreckage that Saleen was on. After ensuring that Saleen’s instructions were fulfilled, he turned and flew towards the direction of the rock turtle shell.