Sovereign of the Ashes

Reina accepted Sein’s invitation to assist with his experiments, primarily because he was engaged to Natalya, her best friend.

Reina did not want to turn him down and risk jeopardizing their friendship.

Moreover, Sein had made a positive first impression on her.

Since Sein acknowledged their mutual friendship, he became Reina’s second friend after Natalya.

Reina only wished Sein would stop using odd laboratory devices on her and stop her from eating during the experiment!

“The body tempering experiment we’re conducting requires extremely precise data. You can’t eat during the experiment as it’ll severely affect the results,” Sein explained sternly.

To Reina, Sein was like a different person once in his experimental mode.

Normally gentle and polite, he now became an unyielding, cold experiment machine, intolerant of even the slightest error.

When Sein noticed Reina sneakily retrieving a pastry from her spatial storage and nibbling on it, he lost his temper.

Despite her reputation as the “Female T-Rex” feared by many in the Order of the Steel Fist, Reina found herself oddly intimidated by Sein in his research mode.

Perhaps it was because Sein in research mode was even more intense than Reina usually was.

Or maybe it was the daunting array of sophisticated equipment surrounding her. Anyone would feel small in the presence of such foreign objects.

Sein explored every type of elemental energy available to him, from pyro, cryo, umbra, and lumen, to electro and venom endurance tests.

The scope of experimentation later expanded to include the power of verdant flame, thunder, and holy light, among others.

After gathering unprecedentedly detailed physiological data on Reina, Sein began examining her skin cells, muscles, bones, and organs.

His meticulous approach extended to understanding the battle qi techniques Reina had mastered and the powerful biological bloodline she acquired during her Rank Two advancement.

Reina, unable to disclose her family’s battle qi secrets, instead demonstrated the flow of her battle qi, allowing Sein to trace its pathways. This information was crucial for Sein’s research.

Reina’s bloodline originated from the giant Abyss Beast—a nearly extinct creature unknown even to her. Her powers were a direct inheritance from her parents, without the absorption of any other creature’s blood.

In contrast, Natalya’s maternal bloodline was not as pure, so her parents had to capture a live peak Rank Two Baator Devil for her to absorb its blood.

Reina spent a month in Sein’s laboratory.

It was not Sein who ended the experiments, but rather Reina, who, driven by extreme hunger, forced her way out.

During this time, she had lost a bit of weight, though it was barely noticeable to others—she remained an imposing figure.

However, according to Sein’s detailed records, there was indeed a measurable reduction in her mass.

Upon escaping, Reina abandoned all pretense of decorum. She bulldozed through the door of Sein’s laboratory and shattered the door to his quarters, charging toward the south-central area of the space fortress where the largest cafeteria was located.

Once free from the laboratory, Reina’s size visibly increased, stabilizing at a height of six or seven meters.

Sein, familiar with all of Reina’s physiological data, recognized that this height was her most natural and comfortable form—this was the real Reina.

The previous reduction of her height to three meters was merely Reina forcefully contracting her muscles to facilitate Sein’s experiments.

Based on the experimental data, Sein theorized that Reina might be able to shrink further.

However, it seemed unlikely that the female knight would cooperate with any of Sein’s experiments in the foreseeable future.

She had even probably developed a deep-seated fear of Sein’s laboratory.

The notion that Reina harbored any fear was certainly big news within the Order of the Steel Fist!

Yet, the truly sensational news was not merely her fear—it was the fact that Reina had come running out of Sein’s room in a disheveled state!

Was there any more shocking news than that?!

This story spread like wildfire among the knights of the order, though they dared not discuss it openly. Reina’s formidable reputation kept their whispers to hushed tones in private gatherings.

Most found it hard to believe that Sein, a mage, could be involved in such a scandal with a female knight of Reina’s immense stature.

Yet, the improbability only fueled further gossip among the bored knights.

In the wake of this incident, Natalya and House Ernst were also thrust into the spotlight.

Due to this incident, Sein and Natalya’s engagement spread even more widely within the order, making Sein something of a celebrity.

Was it an exaggeration to say that Reina ran out of Sein’s room disheveled?

After her escape from the laboratory, the only garments left on her were scraps of fabric barely covering her chest and rear.

She wore a pair of snug yellow leather underarmor, made of fine materials and gifted by her mother for her 200th birthday, and still worn to this day.

In the final stages of the experiment, weakened by starvation, Reina became delirious and shared these intimate details with Sein.

It turned out that Reina was overly confident. She believed she could break free from Sein’s experimental table using only thirty percent of her strength.

However, escaping the restraints of an erudite mage’s experimental table was no simple feat.

Sein had administered just a few injections and restrained specific parts of her body, yet it was enough to render her as helpless as a fish on a chopping block.

Then again, it was not quite right to say she was entirely at Sein’s mercy.

Ultimately, Reina managed to free herself and burst out of the laboratory.

Though she escaped in a disheveled state, she managed to avoid any embarrassing exposure.

In addition to her underarmor, a layer of yellow scale armor spontaneously formed over her skin—a likely manifestation of her bloodline transformation.

A month of hunger and frustration had nearly pushed Reina to a fallout with Sein.