Sovereign of the Ashes

With a scalpel in hand, Sein carefully dissected a two-centimeter sandworm.

“It’s temperature,” he mumbled to himself while standing in front of a crude experiment table.

On the table before him lay several other meticulously prepared tiny sandworm specimens.

The experiment table itself was a makeshift structure constructed from a blend of soil and sand.

Nearly twenty days had passed since Sein’s awakening and his discovery of the sandworms.

The shabby condition of his laboratory only allowed his experiments and research on the sandworms to progress at a snail’s pace.

To date, Sein’s understanding of the sandworms barely scratched the surface.

He knew that they likely relied on temperature to identify their prey, and he had also discovered that sandworms had an aversion to water.

Sein carefully opened a test tube filled with regular water and poured it over the small, but still energetic, sandworm on the table.

The creature began to writhe and hiss, emitting peculiar sounds from its sharp-fanged mouths.

After nearly two minutes, the sandworm stopped writhing, and its once tough body began to dissolve, eventually turning into a puddle of yellow slime with a distinct acidic odor.

Sein dropped a small piece of wood into the slime, and instantly heard sizzling sounds.

In just the blink of an eye, the wood was charred.

The corrosiveness of the yellow slime was comparable to the acid released by Sein’s Acid Wand.

“This is quite the creature,” Sein marveled.

With such a formidable digestive ability, it was no wonder they could consume yellow sand and much more.

On Sein’s experiment table, a few living sandworms remained.

Their ability to bore through anything made it impossible for Sein to store them for an extended period.

They could quickly escape even a typical test tube.

After losing two test tubes in failed attempts to contain them, Sein gave up on the idea.

The sandworms he was currently working on were all freshly captured today.

Sighing at the sandworms’ resilience and corrosiveness, Sein began to kill the remaining sandworms and prepare them as specimens.

Apart from their aversion to water, their other weakness lay in both ends of their bodies.

A simple needle prick in the area behind their mouths was enough to weaken them, eventually rendering them lifeless.

After preparing several more specimens, Sein contemplated his next steps.

Over the past twenty days, Sein had not only studied the sandworms but also meticulously documented the features of the sand valley and the behavior of the sandworms within its depths.

All of this was in pursuit of obtaining those elemental beads, which were his ultimate goal.

Unfortunately, strength remained a significant obstacle.

Sein’s ability to handle tiny sandworms did not translate to managing swarms of them, let alone the larger, more powerful variants that could stretch several meters in length or the massive ones reaching ten meters.

Aside from their huge mouths and menacing fangs, just the massive size of the giant sandworm was enough to make Sein consider them a high-level magic beast, possibly even more formidable.

After careful consideration, Sein concluded that he had but one way to fend off the sandworm swarm and recover the elemental beads.

“It looks like I’ll have to resort to this magic artifact Master Morsidor gave me.”

Sein took out a dark gray iron canister from his space ring. His key to retrieving the elemental beads was this simple magic cannon containing three rounds.

As he gazed at the canister in his hand and reviewed the information at his disposal, Sein began to formulate his plan.

***

BOOM!

A deafening explosion reverberated throughout the depths of the sand valley.

As a ranked magic artifact, the simple magic cannon exceeded Sein’s expectations with its devastating power.

Not only did a single shot obliterate two-thirds of the sandworms that Sein had lured in, but also triggered a partial collapse at the heart of the valley.

However, the valley’s collapse was not solely caused by the simple magic cannon.

The extensive burrowing by the sandworms in the lower part of the valley had contributed significantly to the collapse.

These sandworms displayed limited intelligence, at least when compared to the intermediate-level magic beasts of the Magus World.

The ten-meter-long giant sandworm, which had previously posed a formidable challenge to Sein, was torn in two by the magic cannon’s blast.

While it did not die instantly, it emitted a wretched cry and ceased its pursuit of Sein.

Sein had initially intended to use two cannonballs, but since he had successfully recovered the elemental beads, he decided to save one for future use.

He swiftly exited the heart of the valley and stored the portable magic cannon in his space ring.

Despite the simple magic cannon’s immense power, its cumbersome activation and single trajectory posed limitations.

It proved effective against low-level, unintelligent creatures like sandworms but would reveal its inflexibility in a battle between mages of the same level.

This kind of magic artifact is better suited for large-scale use. If I were to have a hundred of these aimed at the same area...

His imagination ran wild, and the mere thought of it made him physically shiver.

If a simplified version of the magic cannon possessed such overwhelming might, several real magic cannons fired simultaneously could lead to devastating consequences, even for formidable individuals like the academy’s dean.

He shook his head and tightly clutched the elemental beads in his hand.

Pushing his musings to the back of his mind, he quickly left the sand valley, which was now a site of destruction.

Simultaneously, a resounding roar thundered in the deeper underground at the heart of the valley.

Evidently, the ten-meter-long sandworm was not the king of this valley. A mightier presence lurked below.

The incessant rustling of sandworms signified their relentless advance and wriggling..

Their origin remained a mystery, as did the question of whether they were native to the Sand World.

For now, Sein could not unravel these mysteries. His sole focus was returning to Gloomhaven.

***

Outside the sand valley, the scorching sunlight relentlessly pierced Sein’s eyes, and the scalding yellow sand blistered his skin.

Clutching the black key he received from Master Morsidor in one hand and tightly holding the elemental beads in the other, Sein maintained this position for nearly half an hour.

The familiar magic pulling force never manifested. Instead, he found himself assaulted by a wave of dizziness.

He could not discern whether it was due to dehydration or the sudden realization that he might be trapped in this world.

His gaze remained fixed on the cloudless sky, where the three blazing suns seemed to be burning a hole into his heart.

“It can’t be... Master Morsidor couldn’t have lied to me...” he muttered.