1415 Coercion Part 2 (1/2)

Safilos never expected the battle to have ended like that. He was ready to die in battle when he came, but Saleen actually managed to raid the headquarters and destroyed the Elemental Hand's core. Without a core to rally around, the mages below were all scattered and all of them surrendered.

”Saleen, mages like that are difficult to control instead!” Safilos quipped exasperatedly.

”You're right, and that's why I intend to reset the rules of the Elemental Hand.”

”So you're not going to disband the Elemental Hand then?”

”Of course. I'd keep the Elemental Hand around to manage Alchemy City, while setting up the All-seeing Eye in Metatrin City. Mages of both sides have their own distinct ways to live.”

”The art of kings and emperors!”

”I'm unable to come up with better ways of going about things.”

Safilos was in no mood to be concerned about Saleen's affairs. However, the empire had always held the mages in high regard. After Alchemy City attacked his territory, Safilos came to understand that if mages were not managed effectively, things would have gotten messed up quickly.

The collection of all equipment would have taken some time to deal with. Saleen took his time to transport the mages. They were first sent to the Floating City and be watched over by the three elders of the Elemental Hand.

The mages of Alchemy City were quickly envious of the magic net as soon as they got to the Floating City. But, most mages came to feel that the magic net was not the future of mages. Magic nets could encourage dependence, robbing the mages of their creativity.

Only a handful of mages expressed the intention to stay behind in the Floating City, which was of course not allowed. However, Saleen stated that there was such a magic net in Daliang City as well, enabling mages to easily cast all manner of skills.

Magic nets were not exclusive to the enchanters. In truth, mages were capable of acquiring power from the magic net as well, but the mages were not exempted from having to provide feedback to the God of Magic Net, in the form of mental powers and power of faith.

The God of Magic Net acquired power every time the magic net was used. Furthermore, the power was incredibly pure. That was because one had to be reverent to the magic net sincerely, without any room for concealment, if one were to acquire magic from the magic net.

There might have been false believers among the believers of other gods, but not the God of Magic Net. Every use of magic within its vicinity was a trade.

Saleen was relieved and happy to find that most mages from Alchemy City were unmoved. The magic net's harm to mages far outweighed the benefits. If the magic net were to truly be made widespread among the mages, magic, as a field of learning, would have stagnated. Despite the weak powers across Myers Mainland at the moment, there were nonetheless creative magic seen, even if there were just those among level four or five ones.

Saleen gradually cleared out the Baldur's Gate and let the Floating City take the prisoners to the other lair of Alchemy City, to take the remaining 30000 or so mages into their fold. There were over 100 thousand enchanters on the Floating City and they possessed absolute advantage at the moment. As such, Saleen did not see to it personally. He left behind in the Baldur's Gate with some of his trusted people, and began to work on the godly item.

It was not difficult to work on godly items with spirits in them. The most important thing however, was that Saleen possessed one advantage that the nine elders of the Elemental Hand lacked—he possessed the power of the soul.

Only one possessing the power of the soul would have been able to subjugate the weapon spirit named Juno. Otherwise, the weapon spirit would have been able to escape from being punished by the rules even if a contract with signed, taking the Baldur's Gate with it.

If he were to not sign a contract with the weapon spirit, opting to kill it instead, things would have been safe for the moment, but it would have been near-impossible to completely revamp the Baldur's Gate.

It was not until mid January of the following year that Saleen had been able to completely finish working on the Baldur's Gate. The army of the Holy See had yet to make it past Kroraina borders at that moment.

Prince Safilos returned to Holy Rock City instead of staying behind in his territory. He was feeling rather vexed about it nonetheless, as Saleen had almost took over his territory. There were two fleets setting up base there, and there was a Nature Temple built in the imperial city.

The good thing was that Saleen had indeed made good on his word, building two fleets for him at half of what it would have cost. He had even sent men to help train Safilos' naval forces.

Qin naval forces had always been mediocre. While Saleen's navy was still unable to compare to that of Cloudflow, but it was at least on par with them in terms of equipment. What Saleen's navy lacked was but combat experience at sea.

The equipment that Saleen had promised Safilos were all delivered. The armors and weapons that Saleen had deemed obsolete had all been given to Safilos like they cost nothing.

Safilos did not keep a private army, but he was nonetheless able to tell how things were in the mainland at the moment. He would not have been able to effectively ensure the stability of Qin, without building an army of his own. Qin forces had been spread out and difficult to gather at the moment. The affairs at Holy Rock City was simply a tug of war.

The mages of the Golden Plains never truly intended to gain control over the empire through Holy Rock City. What the Golden Plains was after was to take control of elite troops of all four military towns behind the scenes.

While the elites troops were forces that Safilos could have easily mobilized when he was a supreme commander. Yet, when he stepped down, cohesion would have been lacking if he were to assume command again. Safilos finally made up his mind by then, that his current status would have allowed him to gather as many elite legions as he fancied.

The only problem was where to get the finances to do so. Buying equipment, food, paying the units and developing training programs. All of that cost a lot and Safilos had never been some corrupt official. He was never able to get that much money on his own. As such, Saleen had been a lifesaver to him indeed.

Saleen's financial prowess was actually inferior to that of the Qin Empire. His wealth came mostly from the hunt at the Oceanic Ice Block at the northern mines. Saleen had only been able to maintain the consumable materials of mages and warriors by seeing to the hunts and mining himself.

He had to rely on the nobles and merchants that joined him to keep maintenance of the Kingdom of Metatrin. Those people were the ones keeping the country running. There was no way Saleen could have become a king in the demon plane. If he were to forge his path in Myers Mainland, Saleen had to rely on those people.

The Baldur's Gate was 66 meters tall and there were 730 parts used to construct it. There were four spaces within, and the one that Saleen took was the smallest of the four.