The evil spirits that were all skin and bones did not seem to have any vision, and the evil spirit that had turned its head over started twitching its ears quickly. Its nose did not stop sniffing as it noticed the unusual smell within the fire.
Boom!
Nailisi lifted her leg, and with a kick, an evil spirit that was lurking within the purple flames was blown away, broken at its waist. Nailisi pouted and said, "Master, these things aren’t much. I hardly used any strength."
The evil spirit fell into the purple flames and more than a dozen evil spirits surrounded it. Saleen realized that his icy sight was still active but his senses had been reduced to an incredibly narrow range.
The evil spirits that surrounded Saleen and the others were not quick to attack. Daniel, who had been flying low, could hold on any longer and fell from the winged skeleton. He was only a grade-3 mage and it had not been easy for the winged skeleton to have dragged him for such a far distance.
"Why aren’t you escaping?" Saleen saw that the green death flames behind Daniel had shrunk and the winged skeleton inside was in low spirits.
"There are purple flames overhead too. I can’t fly out." Daniel gave a bitter smile. The winged skeleton had advanced, but he had not. If he flew about recklessly, the death flames would be used up in no time. He might as well stay safely beside Saleen.
"This will be tough." Saleen did not think that the evil spirits would be easy to deal with. A skill released by the black deacon would at least be at the standards of a grade-5 mage, or perhaps even a grade-6 one. Now that Daniel had said that he could not fly out, it would be impossible to leave from the sky.
Aooo…
One of the evil spirits leapt up like a toad and stretched as far it could. Its speed was shockingly fast and Saleen released an ice bomb at once. The ice bomb, which was over a meter long, landed accurately on the head of the evil spirit.
The evil spirit’s skull broke with a loud crack and black fluid spurted everywhere, freezing into ice as it landed in the purple flames. The surrounding evil spirits seemed to grow afraid upon seeing this, but they still pounced forward. Saleen had already ascertained that even a level-1 spell could hurt them and as he continuously released level-1 Icicle spells, over a dozen evil spirits had their skulls blown open.
"Master, wait." Nailisi helped Saleen kick away two evil spirits and pointed towards the body of the evil spirit that was within the purple flames.
The evil spirit that had been broken from its waist down after being kicked by Nailisi struggled and straightened its body again, panting within the flames. After more than ten seconds, it crawled back up and walked closer to Saleen.
Saleen was flabbergasted. Could these things not be killed? Or rather, were they able to be revived in the purple flames? Certainly, soon enough, the evil spirits whose heads had been blasted apart started crawling back up. Their skulls seemed to be in perfect condition.
"Sika." Saleen called her over and asked, "If I take away the water shield, will you be able to withstand the temperature here?"
The purple flames were incredibly cold and even though Saleen was already used to such harsh conditions, he was still shivering. However, he could not afford to use his magic carelessly to stay warm. His magic chords were precious now, and releasing a scroll seemed pointless at this point. He needed to find a way to destroy the evil spirits completely.
"Yes." Sika nodded and said, "It is colder than the winter back at home, but at least I’m wearing more now."
Saleen thought back to the first time he met Sika. It had been mid-autumn and she had been wearing clothes which exposed her belly. She had even dared to enter the water for a bath. Her body was not as simple as that of a warrior with the sword aura.
Saleen dissipated the water shield around Sika and gave her ice plate armor. Sika was not a mage and she would not be able to fight with the water shield, as her weapon could not pass through it.
"The two of you try to hold them off. I will experiment with Daniel and see what spells can destroy them completely," Saleen said seriously.
He still had more than half of his magic chords left and could release more than a hundred level-1 spells. However, these evil spirits could be revived, and it did not matter how many magic chords he had. Sika and Nailisi’s abilities were strong enough to hold them off for a while. The fully constructed puppet would not be too useful, as it drained his magic chords far too quickly and Saleen planned to use it to secretly ambush the black deacon.
So long as the black deacon dared to show his face, Saleen would not mind destroying the puppet in order to mince him up.
Sika was already wearing magic armor, and with an additional ice plate armor and a pair of gloves, she was not afraid of the low temperatures of the purple flames at all. She swung her cudgel and blew away dozens over evil spirits before saying in surprise, "There seem to be more and more of them!"
"Yes. Almost four, five hundred," Nailisi replied.
"How do you know?" Sika did not believe her.
"Feeling."
Nailisi answered as she kicked away the evil spirits near Saleen. She had spent a considerable time in the demonic realm, and because she had lost her parents when she was born, she had grown accustomed to combat long ago. These evil spirits were like magic insects, and no matter how far away they hid, they would eventually be discovered by the demons.
Saleen gave Daniel a bag filled with low-grade magic nuclei and said, "Go rest for now and restore your death flames. Later, when I’m resting, don’t try to save them. Just use them all up."
When Daniel had been in Tanggulasi, he had been considered rich. Otherwise, he would not have been able to rise to grade-3 so quickly even after buying the death flames. All of this had been possible because of the help of low-grade magic nuclei. Even so, Saleen’s generosity warmed his heart. It seemed that he was truly a mage and not a petty merchant, for this bag must have contained three hundred to five hundred magic nuclei.
Saleen began experimenting with level-0 spells and attacked the evil spirits with different forms of magic, hoping to find one that could kill them permanently. After testing out more than ten spells, Saleen realized regretfully that not a single type of magic could completely wipe them out.
The only positive thing he had discovered was that these evil spirits had low defenses and an Acid Sputtering spell was enough to dissolve them. However, they would quickly revive within the purple flames.
"Daniel, your turn." Saleen held a grade-4 magic nucleus in his hand and began restoring his magic chords.
Daniel threw out a small ball of death flames and started experimenting with various types of death magic. Saleen used his icy sight to observe these evil spirits. They possessed blood and flesh and did not seem to be corpses that had died a long time ago. Their speed was incredibly fast and they were unusually sensitive to temperature. Daniel’s death magic was incredibly varied, but just like Saleen, he was unable to prevent them from reviving.
"Lex, are you still there?" Saleen shouted loudly.
"Yes." Lex’s voice came from all around and Saleen was slightly relieved. Lex continued speaking. "Saleen, these things are afraid of restorative magic. Using restorative water to kill them will be easiest."
The black deacon’s voice sounded eerie and dreamy. "Hehe, you can all stop wasting your energy. I don’t believe your magic chords are unlimited. Surrender and return to Tanggulasi with me. So long as you all help me capture the death mage alive, I will ask the cardinal to pardon your sins."
Daniel’s face instantly turned pale. Saleen wagged his finger at him to beckon him to stay silent. This simple provocation was useless on him and Lex. Besides the fact that they were unwilling to agree, even if they surrendered and reached Tanggulasi, things would not turn out well for them anyways.
"He is lying," Saleen said softly to Daniel, pointing to an evil spirit which was chewing on something within the flames up ahead. The evil spirits were not dealing any damage to them and had instead begun eating the corpses of the dark warriors and holy masters who Saleen had killed.
After eating those corpses, their bodies began to expand and another head quickly emerged from their shoulders. Their bodies would not stop growing until they finally split into two, forming two evil spirits.
"If you are caught, you will be burned at the Glorious Square. If I am caught, I will become like them." Saleen looked at the disgusting scene in front of him and silently cursed the Holy See.
Only then did Daniel heave a sigh of relief, continuing his experiment.
Saleen had Nailisi take out her fully constructed puppet and placed them behind him side by side. Their incredibly large sizes blocked his back and the evil spirits had no choice but to attack from the front. Their claws could not hurt the puppets’ bodies at all.
Boom!
Daniel released a will-o-wisp and blasted five evil spirits away, struggling. Saleen was already satisfied. Daniel’s bone spears were able to last for an incredibly long time, and after piercing through an evil spirit, the spear would disappear and only then would the evil spirit begin to be revived. With the rate at which they were restoring their magic chords and death flames, they would be able to last for a long time even without using any scrolls.
However, he was not sure if Lex would be able to hold on. Saleen was a little worried, but he did not call for her aloud again. It was possible that the black deacon would be able to hear anything they said.
Any place that seemed the safest was in fact the most dangerous. This was the same as the story with the fish and frog. Saleen and Daniel would tire out sooner or later and they could not keep this up forever. The speed at which a person’s magic chords were restored would gradually become slower, and once they could not be restored anymore, they would need to fight the evil spirits physically. That would be when death was imminent.
Daniel thought about this as well and was feeling hopeless when he said to Saleen, "I have burdened you all."
"Don’t panic. I just need some time for calculations. Sika, the two of you keep watch. Nailisi, protect me," Saleen said as he sat on the floor, allowing the cold flames to burn his water shield as his focus entered the Goddess Necklace.
He wanted to calculate the weak points of the evil spirits. However, they were not elemental creatures and within the twenty-four spaces in the necklace, Saleen had only managed to study the one which included the space of the Figaro formula. The rest he was still familiarizing and could not grasp at all.
Saleen went through more than ten spaces in the necklace and stopped at the thirteenth one. The energy revolving within this space was extremely similar to that of the evil spirits. Saleen calmed himself down and began to study it through observation.
It was easy defeating the evil spirits, and even a beginner swordsman would have been able to do it. However, if a person wanted to kill them, there were only two ways. The first was to kill the black deacon so that the spirits would gain their freedom. The second was to analyze the way in which these evil spirits were assembled and use the most complete method to erase them from this space.
One hundred and twenty thousand tadpole-like words appeared within the space, and Saleen was shocked. The laws within this space were extremely simple, even simpler than those of the Figaro formula. Even though there were ten times the number of letters, in reality, the part he needed was only approximately three hundred words. An arrangement as orderly as this would greatly reduce the results that he would need to calculate.
Inside of these words, Saleen found the description that was closest to the evil spirits.