Chapter 927
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Nicholas knocked on the door to Saleen's quarters . On the ship, only the quarters of mages were sealed off . Other than the ones who followed Saleen to the oceanic ice block, there were also more than four-hundred demons added to the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel on that expedition . The Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel was finally fully-staffed .
"Nicholas, come in . " Saleen's door opened on its own . Nicholas walked in and saw a huge ball of water flame floating in the air in front of Saleen . Fear struck Nicholas' mind somewhat every time he saw the water flame . Getting touched by something like that would have dire consequences . Any warrior of lower levels would not be able to do him any harm with something like that being about .
There were two Caucasus warriors in the room; his personal guards were not with him . The Caucasus warriors saw themselves off as they saw Nicholas coming in .
"My Liege . . . "
"Nicholas, you are here to ask about Lonestar City, no?" Saleen continued crafting his Eternal Control shard . He was only crafting one at the moment, meaning that he had enough mental power to chat with Nicholas .
"Indeed, my liege . Do you really not worry about Her Highness, Lex?" Nicholas tried to ease his tone as much as he was capable as he asked .
"What is there to worry about? Aini is a level grade-8 sorcerer . Heh, as far as defense goes, Lonestar City won't fall unless the Holy See is ready deploy quite a bit of holy masters at them . Tell me, what has Holy See been busy with as of late?"
"The breaking of the frontal assault of the Qin forces, of course . Qin has war puppets, and the puppets are what they need to avoid facing . They would be suffering great losses otherwise . "
"So, it would be hard for the Sikenqinyans to acquire support from the Holy See . They may be allied, but things will hardly be any different . The location of the war puppets is the northernmost highway in Qin . If the Holy See wanted to hit the central part of Qin, they would have needed to go south . All that talk about fighting at three fronts and all, it was pure crap indeed . "
"But my liege, the Sikenqinyans have a one-million strong army, and Lonestar City is no Metatrin City . "
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"Well, Nicholas, tell me how to go about it best then?"
"Deploy all forces to Lonestar City, of course . With the power you now have in your hands, the Sikenqinyan army would be nothing . Metatrin City needs only to hold out . With sir Jason in charge of the garrisoned sorcerers, the city won't fall even if the Cloudflow fleet was to launch a massive assault . You will then have Her Highness Lex call out to Daliang City, crushing the Tanggulasi forces with a pincer attack from the north and the south," Nicholas elaborated without stopping for breath .
"Strategically-speaking, there was nothing wrong with that, but my initial plan laid out with Aini right from the start was to hold Lonestar City out . " Saleen cast a glance at Nicholas with gleaming eyes .
Nicholas' mind froze . Saleen's words were akin to a bolt of lightning flashing through his mind, shining brightly at every dark corner there was .
Saleen nodded slowly . "Nicholas, strategically-speaking, we shouldn't be helping Qin . "
Nicholas had only been overpowered by Saleen's brutality at that moment . "So, Saleen had decided to cast the Qin Empire aside right from the beginning . Indeed, if there was no Holy See, what excuse would he have to attack Qin then? The Qin is Lex's familial land though!"
"Holy Rock City recently refused to help us out . Alchemy City also created trouble for us too . Nicholas, we can't just keep giving and giving . If Holy Rock City wants something, they need to pay the price for it," Saleen said calmly, yet every word seemed like a hammer knocking down hard on Nicholas' mind .
"Even if Saleen got rid of Grand Duke Iron Blood, he wouldn't have launched an assault on Kroraina like he said before . It wasn't due to Saleen not having such powers; it was now due to him having enough power to affect how things play out on the mainland instead . He's using the Holy See's power to crush Qin, and then he will take Qin's land in a perfectly justifiable manner, which would be then put under Lex's name; this has all been part of Saleen's plan . So long as the northern side of Qin is taken, at least half of the nobles on Qin's south end will respond to Lex's calling and became part of Bitterwater Prefecture . No, that would be no prefecture by then . An empire would be taking its place . What Holy Rock would be able to control, is no more than a great, yet old city . It will no longer pose a threat to Saleen's kingdom . With the Six-winged Flying Snake mark in his hand, the power of the Grukos family will have to acknowledge Lex's way of doing things . All that was probably decided when Saleen acquired the Six-winged Flying Snake mark . "
"Nicholas, Lonestar City is like a nail, and one that the Sikenqinyans won't be able to pull out . The twenty-four warriors under Nailisi's command were more than enough to keep the city safe . With Lonestar City there, it would be able to hold an army of one-million strong back . Anyone who intends to attack the Kingdom of Metatrin will have to walk through Phoenix . I will keep fortifying the line at Huoxing City, no, I will annex Phoenix, and have it become a part of the Kingdom of Metatrin!"
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Saleen's ambitions were laid out for all to see, and Nicholas had no further questions . He simply spoke lightly . "But, my liege, her highness Lex . . . "
"She is smarter than I am . She just didn't want to move against her own little brother . " Saleen's answer was not a direct one, yet Nicholas was able to get what he meant . Saleen did not hold anything back from him . It was just that Saleen did not like talking about things like that .
The hammer on Qin would be brought down sooner or later . Saleen had already showed immense patience for not taking the most direct route to it .
"Nicholas, you don't understand . The problem is actually with Alchemy City . Don't you think that Alchemy City has been a little too passive?", Saleen elaborated on the critical points of things, seeing how the old man did not seem to catch on .
"No, my liege . The critical point lies with Lonestar City . That place controls the roads leading to Qin, Kroraina, Lianyun, and Sikenqinya . Alchemy City will fall sooner or later . What they are doing is like digging their own grave . " once Nicholas became clear of what was going on inside Saleen's head, a lot of questions got answered and his mind became as clear as a sunny day .
Saleen looked at Nicholas with a smile . "That old man finally decided to truly follow me now . All those attempts at trying to carve out his own faction back then, I guess I will just let all that slide then . "
"Nicholas, I think I will need you to do something for me . " Saleen finally felt like opening himself to the old man, after seeing that Nicholas had become truly loyal to him . "I need you to make more holy masters fall and become my people . No, not my people, your people!"
"Make them my people?" Nicholas was shocked to his core .
"Nicholas, will fallen holy masters become gods?" Saleen asked .
"Of course not . Gods require true faith . We are simply stealing . While we use the power of faith, the principle of the fallen holy masters' way of advancement was no different from mages . "
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"So, no matter how great of a force you have made for yourself, I will not go after them . My enemies are the gods . "
Nicholas felt a great burden being lifted off his shoulders . With Saleen telling him about something like that plainly, he became free to go build his own force . That was how Saleen showed him trust, and that meant he would no longer need to do things behind Saleen's back, and that felt great to him .
"Nicholas, do you know why I need you to do something like that?" Saleen asked .
"I don't know, my liege . "
"Fycro," Saleen spouted the name in a nonchalant manner . Even though he had gotten six grade-10 leaders of elemental creatures literally under his belt, he still felt immense pressure around that name . He would never be able to win against such a powerful oracle without advancing into grade-10 .
Nicholas' relieved mood tensed once again . Fycro, the powerful oracle, a thorn in Nicholas' side . When he was forced by Fycro to fall, Fycro left means to subdue him in the soul bead, and there was nothing he could have done about it .
If it was not for Saleen breaking the lurking peril within his soul bead, he would have never been able to shake off Fycro's control . That was also why he had been unable to follow Saleen in a dedicated manner .
"Nicholas, Fycro wants to become a god, and for that, he needs to die . I may be able to fight him and win one day, but I will never be able to destroy the faith built around him . The reason I need you to make more people fall is to destroy that faith . How is the blood soul tower?"
"It is amazing . "
"What does it mean for holy masters to have something like that with a lurking peril within?"
"It is ego and the ambition to become a god!"
"If I just let you go back to Fycro's side, would you have liked to do so?"
"Definitely not!"
"Right, then make more holy masters fall . I want Fycro to be unable to find even one qualified believer!" Saleen said with a smirk . He initially had no choice but to keep Nicholas around . Fycro had forced his hand back then . In time Saleen wanted Nicholas to become Fycro's nightmare .
Nicholas recalled Saleen's resolve when entering the oceanic ice block, and the pressure in his mind was greatly reduced . Fycro had been the greatest obstacle in his life . He would not be able to advance, even with Saleen's protection, as long as Fycro was still around .
Saleen's fleet made its way south . Nailisi led a battalion of temple guards heading west on the highway of the Kingdom of Metatrin . In the days Saleen spent within the oceanic ice block, Metatrin City sent great number of death and elemental mages to open a straight path, with the help of the mechanical puppets . Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www . webnovel . com for visiting .
The highway mimicked the ones in the Qin Empire, with the narrowest part being nine yards wide . The highway was a straight one and led west, stretching near five-thousand miles before turning north . At that point it was truly was all towering mountains . No number of skeletons and bloodstones would have been enough to make roads .
When observed from above, Metatrin's highway was sickle-shaped, drawing a curve around the mountains . Caves were even needed to be made in the mountains when necessary before the road could be built further .
Such caves had cost countless skeletons, with some even being mid and high-level spirits . When Saleen departed at sea, Nailisi's reinforcement had already made their way to the north of Lonestar City .
It was a fortress belonging to the Kingdom of Metatrin, locking down the tunnel path leading into Metatrin City . The garrison was only five-thousand strong, yet the Sikenqinyans did not choose to launch an attack regardless . That was due to the fact that the fortress was one built on the side of the mountain . When things went dire, the mages within the castle would simply destroy the cave and block the way thoroughly .
Without that road, entering the Kingdom of Metatrin would have required going further north to look for openings in the mountains . The detour would have taken them further away . The Sikenqinyans simply chose not to bother about the place, as the garrison within the fortress would not have dared to come out and face them . Five-thousand against one-million would have been like throwing eggs at stone walls .
Nailisi's arrival did not alert the Sikenqinyans . Her temple guards snuck into the fortress and delivered a letter meant for Lonestar City .