1422 Fighting Ones Own Battles Part 1 (1/2)

The Violet Angel gobbled up the skeletal dragon's giant ax and began the arduous process of disintegrating the weapon.

Meanwhile, the Winged Skull's underlings roamed through the dragon graveyard. Both the jade skeletons and the golden skeletons were of superb quality. They would have only needed to absorb the thick, deathly aura around the dragon's remains to advance.

Saleen did some calculations and concluded that there wasn't much trouble back on the mainland, so he stayed several days there and processed the experiences gained from fighting the skeletal dragon.

Everyone who served Saleen knew how hardworking he was. He was one of the few top-notch powerful professionals to be found on Myers Mainland. He was also fortunate to have a respected and influential teacher to back him up. If things ever got really bad, he could always escape to the interdimensional space to hide. His equipment was as good as the godly items and despite the bitter strife, he ended up slaying an insanely powerful skeletal dragon. He was at the top of his game.

His achievements notwithstanding, Saleen still behaved as if someone was pursuing him from behind. He was always alert, refusing to slack off even for brief moments. He never let his guard down.

The Winged Skull had already begun setting up everything during the several days that Saleen spent on the mainland. They had not yet thoroughly explored the plane and understandably so: it would have taken years to grasp every fathomable detail about the place.

Saleen left the Violet Angel behind to help out the jade skeletons. The combat capacity of the Violet Angel was far stronger than the jade skeleton's. He let Rafel take care of the War Drum of Fear.

Daniel took six sets of dragon bones before he left—all of which were things that the Winged Skull allowed to be taken away.

Immediately after returning to Myers Mainland, Saleen found out that something bad had happened in Alchemy City.

The three mages he had selected were ambushed.

The three level-11 mages disappeared from their rooms after meeting the fallen holy master.

Even after personally searching and scouring the rooms for clues, Saleen found no useful leads. The only thing he knew was that the three mages had been sent to other realms where it was probably impossible for them to leave.

All the other matters were still manageable. The Holy See army had been repelled by Kroraina after suffering heavy losses. The knights of the Nature Faith, led personally by Don, had pulverized four enemy legions. The Holy See army attacked in a forceful manner and ended up retreating.

Saleen knew this had nothing to do with his army being valiant and powerful. The victory was solely due to the Holy See's lack of leadership.

The Pivotal Council had originally been put under the control of two powerful oracles, and yet, at the moment, there was only a pope who hadn't matured and taken the helm. With the pope's chief of affairs missing and the Ring of Many Gods nowhere to be found, the Oracle Corps was literally in shambles. The red-robed bishops began fighting among themselves and none of them was willing to send their forces to reinforce the army.

Under such circumstances, even logistics had become a problem for the Holy See army. It was, therefore, no surprise that they were so quickly crushed.

Alchemy City, at present, was starting to feel like the Holy See. Saleen was thinking that he had returned at the right time; otherwise, the city might soon fall into chaos. While it was entirely possible for him to take control things if started going south, the mages would have ended up becoming collateral damage.

Saleen unleashed the Floating City and let it hover above Alchemy City. He then got in touch with Lex and expressed his intention to attack the Holy City.

That was the headquarters of the Holy See. In Saleen's opinion, the Black Dungeon was a far more terrifying place.

He didn't dare go to Black Dungeon Island. Instead, he decided to take a chance and wipe out the headquarters while the bishops were busy fighting among themselves. He did not care one whit if his efforts crushed the Holy See.

The adherents' faith would falter if he succeeded in destroying the Holy City.

The time for the Goddess of Nature to be resurrected was drawing nigh.

Large numbers of Alchemy City mages were brought to the Floating City that time. Over 100,000 from Alchemy City participated in the expedition, but one mage had something to say about Saleen's decision. Destroying the lair of the holy masters from the air was a dream-come-true for the mages.

Even those mages were fed up with the Holy See. The frequent attacks on the Qin Empire had fueled their resentment toward the holy masters. Now things had reached a critical mass. Most mages were from Qin, and quite a few hailed from the north. If they had been of higher levels and capable of affecting the outcome of battles, they might have killed the holy masters on the frontlines.

Saleen did not put the Floating City back in his magic amplifier. Every time he took out or put away the Floating City he had to clear out some common warriors while requiring the God of Magic Net to expend a considerable amount of power to make this happen.

With the Baldur's Gate in his possession, Saleen no longer concerned himself with things like that anymore.

The Floating City brought the mages around while the Baldur's Gate was made to carry warriors. Saleen manned the huge city personally and took off for the Tanggulasi Empire.

The alchemy factories on the Floating City remained in operation throughout the journey.

All the mages were asked about their strengths and abilities as well as the equipment they were proficient in and in need of. Saleen went so far as to personalize equipment for every single one of 100,000 mages.

Personalization notwithstanding, many pieces of equipment were still interchangeable. The process was first to finish crafting the common, interchangeable pieces before designing new schematics to accommodate different needs

The thing being crafted the most were scrolls.

It took a month's flying for the Floating City to reach the Holy City. On the way, it needed to take a detour around the Qin border to recall the Bug Angel Warriors that Saleen had laid in ambush.

Van Gogh showed up at Alchemy City again the moment Saleen left. He looked at the empty Alchemy City and let out a bitter smirk.

He had practically kidnapped the leaders of the Elemental Hand just to see how Saleen would react. But Saleen didn't bother with him. He had taken a large number of the mages to attack the Holy See's headquarters instead: This was his primary goal.

Van Gogh never expected such a reaction from him.

Precious few mages were left in the city; hardly any of them were really powerful. Van Gogh's powers were such that it would have been easy to turn the place upside down as it currently was.

That would have been pointless: He had designed a series of traps that Saleen had been able to evade effortlessly.