Chapter 1406: Book of Gaia (Part 2)The skill that Saleen was using was something researched by mages, yet few would have been willing to use it in battle, as the research itself would have turned out to be nothing after all. However, Saleen had already researched just about all that was to be researched in that regard.

 Those stemmed the ideas he had when his level was still low. Saleen, at that time, never thought that he would have been able to achieve what he had achieved on that day.

 However, he refused to just resign himself to the masses, so he and Lex attacked each other using magic and looked for breakthroughs, finding a path in their magic studies to become stronger.

 Saleen then shrunk his territory all of a sudden. Despite having his territory expanded all the time before, he still failed to protect the soldiers of Qin. Safilos, in his hurry to exact revenge, had most of the troops attack the magic towers on the outside.

 That move prevented greater casualties from being resulted. That one spell would have wiped out 90 percent of the Qin forces otherwise.

 The fossilized Qin troops stood where they were and became sculptures, including the magic armors that they were wearing.

 Those magic armors were crafted in Saleen’s alchemy factories and they were as solid and functional as they could have been made. In ancient times, those armors were distributed to troops above level six.

troops died in an instant and the tens of generals did not survive as well. Most of those who made it out alive were people near Saleen.

 Saleen’s face turned. The magic spell was not something targeted at the soldiers; it was targeted at him. If it had not been for the lightning magic patterns on his Water Shield, he would have been fossilized as well.

 That was a forbidden cure, a multiple target spell above level ten.

 How is it possible for a magic spell to be this powerful? Even if it was something cast by mages of Alchemy City joining hands, it shouldn’t have been able to kill over 30000 people!

 It was worth noting that the number of troops that Saleen brought from two towns numbered at about 400 thousand or so. Any general would have felt sick from losing about one-tenth in just a single moment.

 Saleen was not Safilos. What went through his mind was not heartache, but the urge to first protect himself.

 The lightning territory was reeled back and maintained at a radius of about 100 meters, covering all of Saleen’s followers in it. The dark brown magic patterns on the wall of the metal tower glimmered again.

  A ring of light of earth element appeared again. This time, tens of thousands of earth elemental creatures burst from the ring of light, which continued to expand outwards.

 The third ring of light appeared next.

 Saleen’s pupils contracted. The frequency of the three spells were getting increasingly high, which meant that the Elemental Hand had resorted to using godly items. No power of mages would have been able to withstand the cost of such use of magic spells.

 Said mage’s body would have crumbled from the strain of casting spells like that.

 The second wave of magic attack expanded to an even greater area, with a radius of over 2000 meters. All buildings nearby were destroyed by those earth elemental creatures.

 The third ring of light emanated an aura that felt like it was about to destroy the world.

 Earth’s Wrath!

 That is a level 13 forbidden curse!

 The difference between forbidden curses and common magic spells lied with the former’s hefty cost, while the power of using them in multi-target or single-target versions hardly differed.

 The most important point was that forbidden curses were capable of covering a wide area, making evasion impossible and one had to resist them head on.

 The elemental creatures were immediately disintegrated after charging into the lightning territory and disappeared. They were constructs created by magic instead of true summoned creatures after all.

 Saleen did not fear the third round of attack as well. Despite being only a level 11 mage, his lightning territory was nonetheless the best defensive measure to be had around. When shrunk by over 100 times, not even forbidden curses would have been able to get near Saleen.

 That was even more so given that Saleen had retaliatory measures.

 Truman took out a badge, which looked like the badge of the Stone Statue Soldiers. Hundred of Stone Statue Soldiers emerged. Those Stone Statue Soldiers were different from the usual variant, in that they were covered with golden patterns.

 The impact from the earth elemental forbidden curses caused the bodies of the Stone Statue Soldiers around them to crack, yet the golden patterns actually absorbed the thick earth elemental powers emanating from the forbidden curses, repairing the bodies of the Stone Statue Soldiers at the same time.

 Earth’s Wrath destroyed all buildings around the metal tower. The previously surviving military officers and soldiers were not spared this time. Over 10000 dead were added to the list of casualties.

 “Saleen!” Safilos was furious at the moment. He recalled Saleen splitting up his troops. Did you just get the Qin troops here to die?

 “Your highness, these are forbidden curses cast using godly items. I couldn’t have predicted them,” Saleen answered calmly.

 Over 40000 people died and they were all elite troops. Even if he were to be surrounded by that many soldiers, he would have been occupied trying to fight his way through and it was impossible for him to annihilate them all. There were huge number of grand swordmasters among the officers of the army.

 Not even mages below nine would have been able to made it out if they were to be surrounded by those soldiers.

 Saleen would have definitely pained to the point of breaking down in tears, if those were actually his own troops.

 However, there were bound to be dead people in wars and enemies were living beings as well. All was fair in war. Those were all professional soldiers and they would have been fortunate if there were to be no wars around. But then, if wars were to be fought, then it was simply their fate if they happened to die in the battlefield.

 The only difference was that some would have took others with them right before they die.

 Even the ancient warriors would not have survived in every war they fought. Saleen had tens of thousands of ancient warriors with him, and every war would have at least resulted in several to several hundreds of them dying.

 If that were to happen to even level nine ones, it was not surprisingly that the soldiers, who were only of level four in average, to die in battle.

 Saleen’s lightning territory was destroyed by Earth’s Wrath, but was quickly recovered to its usual state. Territories were not skills; they were instincts. The power of territories surpassed many magic spells, yet they cost less than magic to use.

 Territories are the highest ability that could have been mastered by mages at those levels. No, other than mages, there may also be other professionals above level ten who come to master territories.

 It was just that mages had an easier time mastering territories. That was the advantage of being mages. Furthermore, mages could have mastered many territories and it would not have affected their progress in advancement.

 Saleen cast Quickcloud in his territory, shrouding everyone within the thick mist of water element. Saleen looked around him. Jola and Sul were both not around due to having been out to command armies. Nailisi and the Winged Skull awaited their orders quietly.

 Nicholas was outside the Baldur’s Gate, casting lesser prophecy spells to prevent anyone from sneaking onto the Floating City.

 Truman stood calmly with the Elemental Envoy behind him.

 Isabella looked rather tense, but her expression said that she was determined, as she held onto her long sword.

 Rafel and the metal angels all sustained injuries. However, there were no casualties resulted under Rafel’s care.

 Things were doing quite fine. Safilos had only two level ten mage trainers with him and they were shaken to the core. They both feared the power of the forbidden curses. Even if the curses were to be only level ten ones, they could have easily killed level ten mages like them all the same.

 The dark brown magic patterns appeared on the wall of the metal tower. Saleen was tired of waiting. He took out his family badge and fired a lightning bolt at it.

 The electrical stream did not expand due to being too close to its target. A bolt of three meter-thick stream of electricity blasted onto the metal tower. The magic patterns sparkled for a bit, before being melted off by the powerful bolt.

 The indescribably high temperatures melted a huge hole on the tower, yet it was not a hole that said that the tower had been punched through, and Saleen was very irked about it.

 The hole with a three meter diameter had completely broke the rhythm of the forbidden curses’ attacks. While the Book of Gaia was indeed a godly item, it mattered a lot who was the one using it. That thing had originally been reserved for powerful ones above level 16 to kill people of similar levels.

 Level 16 beings would have been able to clap Saleen down like a mosquito, even if they were to not use godly items.

 “Return,” Saleen opened his magic amplifier. The metal angels dared not retreat at that moment, they would have died even faster if they were to leave Saleen’s protection.

 All of the metal angels leapt into the magic amplifier and Saleen had only pointed at the huge hole on the metal tower after that.

 The true enemies had yet to show and they were already able to force him to use the energy within the badge. If it had not been for Saleen having learned how the badge should have been used, he would have became very frustrated about it.

 Rafel turned into a beam of golden light and flew into the hole. Saleen took the people around him and went inside after her. Safilos gritted his teeth and followed right behind Saleen.

 He noticed that the level ten metal angels were all injured and knew that he stood no chance, in resisting the power of the forbidden curses on his own.

 Even if he were to survive, his weapon would have been destroyed.

 Only mages stood a chance in taking on forbidden curses. A warrior like him would have met his end soon, unless he was able to get near the mages casting the forbidden curses. However, given that the enemy was casting the forbidden curses from inside that tower, he did not so much even have a chance of attacking them.

 Saleen went inside and Safilos had no choice but to follow.

 The two mages stayed close to Safilos to protect him. It was only when the forbidden curses appeared, that they truly experienced the difference between them and Saleen firsthand. Saleen was able to protect Safilos using only a mid-level spell, but then again, he relied on the power of his territory nonetheless.

Rafel charged inside the tower. The tower looked to have the same length and width from the outside—both measuring about 24 meters. However, the inside space was extremely huge instead. Rafel’s spear punched through three mages right away after bursting inside.

 The mages who showed up intended to lay out defenses and they were moving faster than the warriors. All of them were killed on the spot when Rafel showed up.

 Golden glitter was seen in Rafel’s eyes. She gestured after seeing the mages showing up, before recalling that all of her metal angels had sustained injuries and was recalled by Saleen.

 “My lord, follow me.”

 Saleen was able to see signs of mages coming and he knew that they were at least a part of the defense setup within the metal tower.

 We’d take care of this part first. The metal tower was very tall, yet Rafel took everyone downwards instead.

 The levels of the mages at the space of the first floor were not high. Rafel encountered tens of mages along the way, and none of them were able to avoid the lethal thrusts from her spear.

 Rafel seemed to have found what it felt like all those years ago—invading kingdoms of others and crushing all opposing forces.

 The fighting between the gods were left to the gods themselves. She was only in charge of fighting beings of the same level as her. Combat angels were unnerving powerful beings in fights between beings of the same levels.

 Saleen sensed crisis looming ahead all of a sudden when they were getting good at breaking into enemy territory. His feet left the ground and hovered. The space within the metal tower was not a plane, but folding space created by mages, which remained to be buildings appearing in layers.

 The space within was less than 100 meters tall. Saleen took the people around him and flew midair. Dirt-yellow teeth emerged from the ground all of a sudden and chomped at the party above.