Badge in Azure

Chapter 1527: Lair (Part 2)

The Goddess of Myers had captured the Heretic God and robbed it of its body, with only its head escaping. Saleen never thought he would see the Heretic God at the edge of a chaotic void. Furthermore, the Heretic God’s powers would have definitely been plunged to rock bottom. It would have never simply attached its head to just any monster it was able to find.

The Heretic God only noticed the thing falling from the sky when the Star Shuttle was less than 10 kilometers away from it.

The Star Shuttle was flying at such frightening speeds that even when the method of flying was changed, the crash would have caused it severe injuries. It had already lost its body, with only its head remaining. As such, it was unable to use many of its powerful movement skills.

The Heretic God had no idea that the Star Shuttle was a piece of equipment, as anyone who dared to crash into anything at such speeds would have been reduced to dust.

It moved its limbs slowly—all eight of them at present. It was resting on a spider type magic beast at the moment. The magic beast was also at the highest in the plane—level 15.

In the past, the Heretic God would not have even taken notice of something like that. Any of its oracles below level 15 were treated as little more than consumables and cannon fodder. Only those above 16 were deemed worthy of serving it up close.

The Heretic God should have escaped back to its own divine kingdom, but it knew just how unreliable the underlings were. If it had returned with just a head intact, the resulting commotion would have been massive.

By then, even powerful believers would have probably begun to harbor thoughts of disobedience, wanting to devour their god.

The Heretic God knew all too well about its believers. Someone without such ambition and brutality would not even have become its believer in the first place. That was the requirements it placed onto them. So long as it remained mighty, those believers would obey it unquestioningly. But if it became weak, one of those people would have risen to take its place eventually.

The Heretic God dared not return to its divine kingdom. The very reason why its power was capable of growing at such frightening rates was due to the unique rules there. At present, the rules would ironically become something that would kill it instead.

The Heretic God had once been one of the highest gods at level 18. It had even been possible for it to break through the crystal wall system and enter spaces of higher levels. It was later continuously harmed by humans and the other gods, causing its level to drop. After a painstaking recovery, it was injured by a trap set by the Goddess of Myers, leaving it with only a head intact.

That was a result of it being decisive and brutal enough to itself at the nick of time. If it had been any other god, their momentary hesitance would have caused them to lose their heads.

The Heretic God had once been to the edge of the crystal wall system when it was at the pinnacle of its powers, but it dared not venture deep into the region. It simply spread seeds of life on a star, causing magic beasts to appear on it. It had also left many materials enabling it to restore its powers, and the place was considered its lair.

Its head cut through space as it escaped. Whatever power that was left in its divine persona allowed it to make one jump, and not even the Goddess of Myers was able to catch up to it. The goddess did not have a level 18 divine persona after all.

That region was the most harmful to the gods. The goddess absolutely would not have ventured into such a place if there was no need for it. Even if she found out that the Heretic God was hiding in such a place, the goddess would have thought something else instead.

That had been the Heretic God’s plan all along. As such, it found the most powerful magic beast there was on the star and merged its head with it. It had only been doing one thing the whole time it was there, and it finally found a way to have its head merge well with the body. It was only then that it went on to look for the treasures that it put there all those years ago.

However, a meteor dropped from the sky at that moment.

The Heretic God evaded quickly. It felt that it was truly down on its luck. A meteor would have burned up almost entirely in the atmosphere. Less than one in a hundred would even get close to hitting the ground. A meteor capable of harming a being like him in such a place would be one in a million indeed.

However, the meteor was about to drop right onto its head. If it were unable to get far enough away, it would end up getting injured even if only the edge of the meteor touched it.

The Heretic God was severely injured and there was no way it could have evaded a lock-on set by a level 17 frost dragon. The Star Shuttle simply adjusted its flight path slightly and it crashed hard into the Heretic God’s head.

Saleen took both the dragon and Rafel to hide within his magic amplifier the very instant the crash happened.

The spaces of the magic amplifier, which was formed by the 24 pieces of the goddess’ necklace, turned into eyes and hovered in the air. The crash did not end up harming the magic amplifier at all.

The space within the magic amplifier was not shaken at all. The sturdy Star Shuttle on the other hand, was unable to take the intense impact from the crash. The dragon scales on the exterior shot away, and the internal structure made of dragon bone cracked.

While the two magic power furnaces did not explode, the connections between their internal magic arrays were all cut off, reducing them little more than scrap metal. They would require complete overhauls if they were to be of use ever again.

Saleen emerged from his magic amplifier, a process which took him less than half a second. The Star Shuttle was lodged deep—way over 30 meters deep—into the ground.

Saleen returned back inside and came out with both the frost dragon and Rafel. The crystallized ground cracked. The Star Shuttle that Saleen had painstakingly crafted for half a month finally cracked open. A hideous, ferocious head emerged, pouncing at Saleen.

The crash destroyed the newfound body of the Heretic God right away, and its head was severely injured as well. Dirty liquid dripped from its eyes, emitting a stench that overturned the stomachs of anyone smelling it.

“Kill that thing!” Saleen said to the frost dragon.

The frost dragon held both of its spears and thrust at the Heretic God’s ear. The sharp dragon spear stabbed into the Heretic God’s ear, resulting in three gashes.

The Heretic God roared in anger and sorrow, yet it was unable to harm the three beings before it. It had a powerful divine persona, but it was unable to bring its strongest powers to bear in a region like that, as the power of rules had been drastically weakened.

That area was considered a restricted area to the gods.

The means with which it laid to counter the goddess’ machinations had become something that prevented it from doing anything instead.

Guffen was strong enough. When the Heretic God, which only had a head remaining, turned around, it thrust the other spear into the Heretic God’s other ear. The Heretic God howled from the intense pain, shaking the ground nearby. The dirt trembled and the power of earth element was messed up, creating a small elemental whirlpool.

The elemental whirlpool lasted less than a second before dissipating. That was a miracle given that the place was at the edge of the chaotic void.

The frost dragon, however, paid no heed to miracles. Saleen told it to kill that disgusting head, and it would see to it thoroughly. It unleashed dragon breath at the head of the Heretic God, freezing it. Guffen brought his strongest power to bear, and the head of the Heretic God was already breaking up in terms of elemental structure.

The Heretic God knew that it was facing the greatest crisis it had ever faced. The only thing it was able to fall back onto was the fact that he had a level 18 divine persona, which meant that it was able to use some level 18 rules.

However, the place they were in—the edge of the chaotic void—meant that success would depend on luck.

If Saleen was in its shoes, he would have thought differently. The Heretic God was already left with just a head by then, meaning that its luck had apparently hit rock bottom. Betting on luck under such a situation was tantamount to suicide.

“You’ve forced my hand!” The Heretic God’s skull began to shatter while it was in a frozen state, but it was still able to use its power of the Source. What it did was utterly stupid from Saleen’s perspective, as he deemed it was just wasting its power of the Source to vent its frustration on him.

“Your soul shall suffer eternal fall in my divine kingdom, your skulls shall become my wine glass, your flesh shall be the main dish for my feast…”

The Heretic God’s voice sounded like thunder, but Saleen retorted instead, “Enough. Curses this long are utterly stupid!”

Saleen used Thundering Sound, cutting the Heretic God’s curse off. However, the Heretic God was just as formidable. Despite being cut off, it was still able to surprisingly continue the curse, linking the next lines with those said previously.

There was no way Saleen would let a level 18 god finish its curse. While he had no fear of such curses himself, he was unable to say the same for both Rafel and Guffen. Saleen imitated the Heretic God’s tone and chanted the curse as well, using his Thundering Sound.

“Your soul shall suffer eternal fall in your own divine kingdom, your skull shall become my toy, your flesh shall make my lands fertile…”

Due to the rhythm of both chants being exactly the same, the Heretic God was no longer able to continue chanting its curse. Even if it did, every line would have been chopped off. Doing so would have meant that the curse would not have been successful, even if it were to chant until its skull completely disintegrated.

The Heretic God howled in frustration. It truly behaved like a real monkey that time.

The frost dragon saw that the frozen enemy was still behaving in a wicked manner and thought that it was rather embarrassing. It then saw how Saleen managed to stop a level 18 god from cursing, which was new. It seemed that it had signed a contract with someone worth its while. It had been the most powerful of water type dragons, but there were definitely beings more powerful than it was back on the dragon plane.

Saleen the mage apparently possessed lightning powers, and he looked astonishing. It seemed that he was definitely someone rather powerful back in the main plane, which meant that Guffen had nothing to lose signing a contract with him.

That thought lightened Guffen’s mood considerably. It brought about Dragon Language magic to bear. The frozen head burst in an instant, reduced to frozen dust.

Saleen was baffled. While his Water Flame would have been able to do the same, it would not have achieved such an effect so quickly and so furiously.

“Mage, hurry up and take its divine persona!” Guffen unleashed another dragon breath, preventing the shattered skull from bringing about new changes. A pitch black divine persona flew out. Lightning coiled around Saleen’s hand as he reached out and forcefully grabbed onto the divine persona. He sensed that the Heretic God still lived, hiding its source in the divine persona, making it hard to find and kill.

Saleen threw the divine persona in the Ring of Cosmos, which was filled with Aqua Fulgur, just to let the boundless liquid suppress the divine persona. While a divine persona was indeed mighty, there was no way it could easily handle being exposed to raging lightning power at such magnitude. The Heretic God was completely suppressed by Saleen. It would have only been able to resurrect if Saleen were to show mercy.

The fight was brief yet exhilarating. If they had not sacrificed the Star Shuttle and robbed the Heretic God of its ability to move around, there still would have been no telling which side would have come out on top. Rafel was unable to even interfere with such battles.

Guffen felt a heartache as it looked at its short spears. Both spears managed to harm the Heretic God, yet both were corroded by the Heretic God’s powers. The tips of the spears were practically mush.

Saleen chuckled and unleashed Water Flame and Electric Snakes, purifying Guffen’s spears and saying, “The Heretic God definitely had a reason for picking such a place as a base. How about we search and see if there are any secrets hiding. Meanwhile, we can clear a place up to lay down a teleportation portal, then we could all return to the main plane.”