Chapter 1051
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"My liege!"
Those who came out to greet him were none other than Eleanor and Nicholas . Nicholas had come there earlier in fear that Saleen would run into Theisio .
Nicholas seemed rather weak when compared to the pope, as despite both of them being holy masters, Theisio was one blessed by a god .
Nicholas' face flushed as he felt rather embarrassed . While it was not his intention to get in Saleen's way, he was still Saleen's follower . For a follower to avoid fighting was rather unbecoming .
"Saleen!" Sika ran out and crushed Saleen with a hug .
Saleen practically started to suffocate . His grade-9 sorcerer's constitution was stronger than many swordmasters, yet Sika was the kind capable of hugs that even dragons would learn to fear .
Sika had intended to let go, but she went clenching her arms yet again after seeing Jalin behind him . She went on to whisper at his ear, "Who is that woman?"
Jalin was wearing a paper mask, yet her figure was still alluring enough to attract the attention of many, simply by standing around . Sika went on high alert . Saleen was no longer the poor kid he once was . Her lover was a grade-9 sorcerer and a king; that appealed to many women .
Jalin was irked by Sika's unbridled animosity . Instead of waiting for Saleen to open his mouth, she replied to Sika's question, "I'm Jalin, a good friend of Saleen's . "
The line would have sounded very different if someone else was to say it, as Jalin said it in such a way that it could easily be misunderstood . Her voice was as gentle as flowing water, with a tinge of intense sweetness in it .
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Sika let go of her husband and pulled him close, before saying to Jalin, "The name is Sika, the mother of Saleen's children . Feel free to get a place to rest yourself . I wouldn't mind if you'd just stood outside the door and eavesdropped on us though . "
Sika dragged Saleen away as soon as she was done talking, without caring about how others reacted to it . She returned to her room with Saleen and shut the door behind them hard .
Jalin chuckled and wanted to say something, but then Sika was laughing from within the room . She lowered her voice and said to Saleen, "That woman . . . "
Despite being a grade-9, Jalin failed to make out the lines that followed . All she was able to pick up from Sika's laugh was intense sarcasm .
Eleanor and Nicholas had no intentions of standing around feeling awkward . They returned to their rooms and the winged skeleton addressed Jalin with his rather attractive voice . "Master mage, should you not take a rest yourself? I'll have someone see to you . "
Jalin might have been one with immense intelligence who was capable of manipulative means, but she was still very much irked by Sika's demeanor . Sika did not leave any room for her to fight . She simply left her words hanging and left Jalin to imagine the rest of what was being said . Regardless of how short-fused she was, there was no way she could simply barge through that door . Doing so would have turned the simmering animosity into a full-blown cat fight .
"Me, having an interest in Saleen? Are you kidding me?! I'd be laughed at by everyone in the Golden Plains if that actually happened!"
Sika felt glee inside the room and went hug Saleen and rub against him .
"Alright, alright . Gosh, look at you . So, how are the kids doing, Sika?"
"They are doing fine . It seemed like I fell into a trap and was almost ambushed, but if they thought they could keep me contained, hehe . . . " Sika laughed sarcastically . The enemy was unable to keep her down despite having her surrounded by many professionals . Even a grade-10 professional would have a hard time capturing her .
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"Power is the only truth . When one possesses rules of power, no techniques are worth mentioning . One whack with my cudgel was all that it took to send the holy masters running back to their mommies . "
"So long as you and the kids are fine . . . Oh right, Jalin . She is the student of the chief of the Grukos . Don't ever go messing around with her . " Saleen reminded Sika .
"So, you mean that we can only go messing around with her when we become capable enough to mess around with that chief?" Sika asked in return .
"That is pretty much how it works . The old woman is a professional at the very top of grade-10 . From what I can tell, she is definitely more powerful than either Joey or Fycro . " Saleen was reminded of the power of the mark of the Six-Winged Flying Snake and felt rather regretful .
"Just how many days has it been since she got her hands on that mark? I can't believe she is already capable of overwhelming the pope armed with two godly items . If she were to have full mastery of that thing, the pope would probably be dead, even if he was armed with the Origin Stone of Darkness . "
"How did you get to have such a troublesome woman tagging along?"
"Arbola . . . that chief of the Grukos shoved her onto me . Probably as a way to test me or something, or maybe her way of having Lex become the empress . What good can come from someone like that, eh?" Saleen was finally able to speak his mind with Sika right before him . Arbola might have been alive for several hundred years, but the way she went about things was hardly different from those figures in history books .
Saleen liked Joey more, for he was a mage through and through instead of some scheming old fart who did it to keep their clans where they were .
Arbola's words to Saleen before she left felt rather enigmatic . Before she was able to meet Saleen again, Jalin would not lift a finger against him . That meant that Arbola was still considering if Saleen was one worth backing . She took the mark of the Six-Winged Flying Snake with her, and as such, Saleen lost any means of making any demands or requests .
That ring that he took with him seemed to be less of a good deal . Seeing Saleen in deep thought rubbing the new ring, Sika asked in a rather irritated tone, "What is bothering you again?"
"I'm just thinking, it's been quite a while since we last saw each other . " Saleen put his worries behind him and smiled at Sika . "Let's get something to eat . I'm beginning to miss the old days somewhat . Call the chef, I'll need him to get something for me . "
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The old days that Saleen meant were the days he spent running about in the mountains with Sika . Back then, Sika had been truly carefree . While she was still largely the same person as she was back then, her hands had become tied up in more ways than one . Things were not able to return to how they used to be .
She had been little more than a Caucasian warrior who developed admiration for Saleen .
The dishes that they had the chef make were sent to their room shortly . Saleen and Sika drank for a little bit . Saleen elaborated about the reasons behind the battles and their consequences with Sika as they ate . While the army outside the city remained, the threat it posed to Guderian City became greatly diminished .
Arbola went on tracking Theisio, as the pope would not stay to tangle with them there . He had probably returned directly to the Glorious Plains, to the Holy City, trying to keep the troubles within his body under control . Without Theisio taking charge of things, Guderian City became as solid as it could get . The city became one that the grade-9 holy masters were unable to take down .
The reason why the army was stationed there in the first place was none other than to get Saleen's attention . Saleen felt strange about all that had happened . If it had only been Theisio alone, Saleen would have indeed lost, but he would have been still capable of running away .
Theisio was no fool . He would not have been able to keep the Holy See under his thumb for as long as he did otherwise . He even went so far as to rebuild relations with the Tribunal . Theisio alone was incapable of killing Saleen and capturing Saleen was definitely out of the question . Saleen was such a hated infidel that even the Lord of Glory himself gave the order to terminate him . The best way to deal with the likes of Saleen was to take him back to the Holy City and burn him in the plaza .
Sika quipped as she heard Saleen's analysis, "There is one thing I feel peculiar about . The number of holy masters in the Holy See seem to have leaped . I wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses or had so many of the demons die otherwise . It was such a pity . "
Saleen felt pity about the whole ordeal as well . Both of them were unable to figure out why there were so many grade-9 professionals showing up in the ranks of their enemy all of a sudden, and even the numbers of grade-7 and grade-8 holy masters had grown by several fold . Power might have been raised throughout the entire plane, but there should have been no way that holy masters would advance quicker than mages .
There was simply no way for them to calculate or to know that the pope had summoned three oracles using the brief loosening of powers across the plane . While all three oracles had their respective agendas, they were nonetheless capable of raising the powers of the members of the Holy See . Doing so was not detrimental in any way to the oracles themselves, and since the levels of the holy masters were raised, the power of faith the oracles had gotten in return was increased as well .
The Holy See was more than capable of deploying their men in major cities throughout the Tanggulasi Empire to defend against attacks from metal flyers . The metal flyers had a glaring weakness, and that was their low survivability . They required backups from something like the Magical Element Tower to suppress any retaliation from the cities being attacked before the flyers were able to rain devastation as intended .
In terms of survivability alone, the metal flyers were far inferior when compared to Wings of an Elf .
"Sika, I don't think we need to play a part in the wars happening across the mainland . While the Holy See might have grown more powerful, there are also definitely more people like Grand Duke Iron-blood out there as well . "
"So, what do you intend to do, Saleen?"
"We will definitely keep what we have gotten so far, especially Metatrin City and the interdimensional space . Lands suitable for farming have become increasingly numerous and the forests kept expanding . The interdimensional space's sun will have turn normal sooner or later . The space that Raphael created is capable of housing tens of millions . We have our own kingdom here, so we can also build our own kingdom there . As for the Myers Mainland . . . "
Saleen hesitated for a moment and said, "I came to realize something watching Arbola fight Theisio . Future wars will look like how it was back in ancient times—they'll be decided in fights between professionals . I'm thinking about venturing around the mainland for a little bit and discovering all the hidden temples of the goddess . "
"Are you saying that you want to return to the Imperial City of the Abyss?"
Sika knew of Saleen's adventures in the Imperial City of the Abyss . She had thought, based on Saleen's personality, that he would have thought of ways to avoid going back .
"Yes, but not in the future . I'm making a trip there right away, and you'll be going back to Metatrin City . Hand over affairs of Guderian City to someone else, let Guya and the others do their work . We'll just let them have all the spoils . Nothing but the raising of our own powers matters . If we don't make it to 0grade-010 soon, we will end up being kicked out of the game by fate .
"Why do you want to go back there? It's so dangerous!" Sika needed to care for her children and was unable to risk going on adventures with Saleen . As such, she objected with all her might .
"Sika, the greatest thing I'm able to rely on is not the badge, but the tens of thousands of ancient warriors housed within the Ancient . Even if I end up advancing to grade-10 and have this . . . " Saleen waved the ring on his finger about and added, "How many of the ancient warriors will I be able to control? Whatever the numbers, definitely not as many as Imposa . You saw it yourself, I brought Hogina back with me, but her skills are definitely nowhere near that of Imposa . Those ancient warriors are practically a waste staying with me . Just what can I . . . "
Saleen went on to tell her about his ordeal with Van Gogh . Van Gogh had some unique ways of controlling his puppet .
Saleen said to Sika, "If the Holy See is capable of controlling the puppets using some other means, I think the astrologer back in the Imperial City of the Abyss would also have something similar with him . The true value of the ancient warriors lays within their memories and souls . If they were able to give up their physical bodies and become weapons of the astrologer, the Holy See would be no match for us, no matter how many professionals they have command over .