Sovereign of the Ashes

Faye’s intense and insatiable gaze abruptly ceased when Master Morsidor and Zorro finally stepped into the laboratory.

Master Morsidor’s mood seemed to be worse than usual.

Although he appeared stern and distant as usual, Sein, who had been Morsidor’s apprentice for years, could discern the subtle shift in his mentor’s demeanor.

Faye had already picked up on Morsidor’s unusual mood even before Sein did.

As someone who frequently pestered Morsidor for magical artifacts and favors, this was the first time that Faye had observed her mentor in such a terrible mood throughout her years of apprenticeship.

Zorro, who followed Morsidor into the laboratory, seemed to share the same somber mood.

Fortunately, neither Sein nor Faye appeared to be the cause of their terrible mood.

Morsidor looked at his two apprentices who had diligently prepared all the experimental equipment and had been waiting in the laboratory.

After a deep sigh, Morsidor announced, “Sein, I’ve secured an additional six months of leave from your mandatory academy quests. During this period, you should fully commit yourself to your studies and focus on building up your focus through meditation.”

“Understood, master,” Sein replied respectfully.

After that, Morsidor turned his attention to Faye and said, “Faye, you’ve remained a senior initiate for more than fifteen years. While you’re not considered to be old among the senior initiates in the academy, the Underworld is on the brink of significant change. Only with ample strength can you navigate the impending crisis.”

Morsidor’s words left both Sein and Faye feeling alarmed.

“Crisis”?

“Change”?

What is going on?

While Sein was still trying to decrypt the hidden message behind his mentor’s words, Faye took a more direct approach and decided to question their mentor directly.

“Is something about to happen, master?”

Faye’s question and the puzzled look on Sein’s face further darkened Morsidor’s somber countenance.

After a lengthy pause, Morsidor began to explain, “This information is typically reserved for Rank One Mages only, but because you are my disciples, I will make an exception and share it with you.”

He began, “Three years ago, our airship that was dispatched to the surface for plundering missions became prime targets. Over the subsequent years, we faced strong resistance from full-fledged mages and knights every time our airship set sail. Last year, we faced as many as six assailants. As a result, Vice Dean Dedaelon suspended this year’s plundering plans in the surface world.”

“Early this morning, Vice Dean Dedaelon gathered all the remaining sixteen full-fledged black mages at the Black Magic Academy and announced the commencement of an interplanar exploration. Due to the suddenness of this decision and the unique nature of the space-time rift, the black magic initiates will be tasked with setting up the required coordinate generators in the space-time rift,” he added.

The wealth of information delivered by Master Morsidor left both Sein and Faye in astonishment.

The concepts of “interplanar exploration” and “space-time rift” were far beyond the comprehension of these young initiates.

Furthermore, the public library of the Black Magic Academy held scarce information on the subjects, likely because the full-fledged black mages intentionally kept this knowledge hidden.

The revelation that their mentor had been alluding to the attacks on the airships as well as covert forces observing the Underworld and the academy left Sein and Faye perplexed.

It left Sein wondering if these forces were mages or knights from the surface world.

As Sein contemplated the implications of his mentor’s words, Faye wasted no time in asking, “Did the vice dean expedite the exploration of this space-time rift due to the airship attacks?”

She continued without missing a beat, “If that’s the case, why hasn’t the academy taken action against those assailants? There are only six of them...”

Mystralora City was home to a considerable number of black mages. Morsidor had revealed that there were at least sixteen full-fledged black mages within the academy, not counting the powerful dean and the existence of undisclosed forces.

With only six enemy mages and knights on the surface world, Mystralora City should have ample strength to confront and even eliminate them.

Morsidor remained uneasy in response to Faye’s inquiry.

“The assailants may only be six full-fledged mages and knights on the surface world, but who knows how many more are lurking in the shadows? The Magus Continent isn’t a place where we, the black mages, can act recklessly. It’s riddled with divine towers and the orders of the knights...”

Morsidor shook his head, concluding, “Once this exploration mission is successfully completed, I will bring all of you back with me to the Western Archipelago.”

“Stay diligent. While I mentioned the initiates will be assisting in the mission, the initial team entering the space-time rift will be composed of initiates who are at least Quasi Mages.”

“We won’t be conducting any further experiments today, so return to your training. I need to speak with Zorro,” Morsidor said, dismissing Faye and Sein with a wave of his hand.

Sein had already put his earlier predicament out of his mind, and Faye, too, had lost her mood to do anything to Sein after leaving Master Morsidor’s laboratory.

After exchanging a few brief words, they went their separate ways.

Faye headed straight back to the dormitory, while Sein made his way to the public library.

With a substantial reserve of academy merit points, he hoped that diligent searching might unearth knowledge regarding “interplanar exploration”, despite never noticing it among the public library’s collections before.

***

Planes—standalone worlds within the Astral Realm.

The most common are demiplanes and broken realms. The rarer ones are complete planes governed by its own established set of laws, capable of sustaining intelligent communities and civilizations.

These complete planes are further categorized based on differences in energy levels and overall strength...

Sein sighed in frustration as the rest of the information was lost due to the torn pages.

He returned the ancient tome titled “Microelements” to the bookshelf and directed his attention to another book titled “The Travels of Marco Pauls”.

This book chronicled the adventures of a full-fledged mage who had journeyed to a plane known as the “Centaurworld”.

Although Sein could not determine the specific type of plane the Centaurworld was, he gathered from the book that it was firmly under the dominion of the Magus World.

As a mage from the Magus World, Marco Pauls enjoyed elevated status and privileges during his exploration in the Centaurworld.

The record also briefly mentioned the mage’s intimate encounters with female centaurs during his travels.

“Microelements” and “The Travels of Marco Pauls” were the only two books that Sein found containing substantial knowledge about the other planes in the public library.

While a few other books did touch on the topic of other planes, their coverage was often limited to a sentence or two.

They did not offer as much detailed information as the other two books.

“Centaurs? What kind of creatures are they, I wonder? The descriptions in the book seem to suggest similarities to minotaurs... But minotaurs have bull heads and human bodies, while centaurs seem to have human heads and horse bodies.”

As Sein lay in his bed at night, he delved into deep contemplation.

Leena was not home today, presumably involved in an important stage of Master Fareena’s experiments.

Sein regretted being unable to share the information he had recently acquired from his mentor with Leena. He believed that if he could, Leena’s sharp intellect and insight would have offered valuable guidance to him.