Sovereign of the Ashes

After Sein left the top floor of the divine tower, all mages, including Sein, received a message in their crystal ball.

It was an announcement that the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring would soon participate in the war against Thunderfall World.

Although joining the war was not mandatory, the excitement among the divine tower mages was palpable.

As Sein descended from the top floor, he observed numerous full-fledged mages exiting their laboratories, whispering excitedly about the impending Thunderfall World War.

The crystal ball update also clarified that all participating mages from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring would join the Thunderfall World battlefield as external individual support.

The three orders of the knights promised substantial employment fees to each mage. This, coupled with the allure of an unexplored foreign plane, drew considerable interest from the mages.

Soon after, some of the mages formed groups and flew toward the academy hall at the center of the tower.

There, the Rank Three Dean Archimedes was recording information for each participating mage as instructed by the tower master.

Information including detailed descriptions of Thunderfall World’s environment, native races, and the current war situation was shared to aid the mages in their preparations.

Most of this data was provided by Sein, who was a trusted source with ten years of war experience in that world.

Seeing the full-fledged mages flying toward the academy hall, Sein chose not to follow; instead, he headed to the outskirts of the divine tower.

Master Lorianne had informed him that Luna, the Rank Two centaur from Centaurworld, had visited the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring multiple times.

This was her fourth visit as the representative of her centaur tribe, signaling their strong interest in forging a partnership with the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

Her tribe was one of the mightiest in the Centaurworld, known for producing demigods.

Their persistent visits were enough to show their eagerness to collaborate with the divine tower.

During one of Luna’s previous visits, Lorianne even made time to meet with the Rank Two centaur, despite her busy schedule.

Sein’s introduction played a role in facilitating this meeting, but there was another compelling reason—the centaur tribe offered the best prices on enslaved creatures that Lorianne had encountered within the Magus Alliance.

Without leveraging the Feylis’ connections, it would have been impossible for Lorianne to find more competitive rates.

The Divine Tower of Verdant Spring had to amass hundreds of thousands of enslaved creatures in preparation for an impending interplanar war.

Lorianne had expressed intentions to purchase at least two hundred thousand of these creatures, which was a significant order for Luna’s tribe.

Yet, beyond the transactional nature of their dealings, what truly mattered to Luna and her tribe was the relationship they could establish with the Divine Tower.

Despite their limited channels for gathering information, the centaurs displayed astuteness and sound judgment.

They were intent on maintaining a strong connection with the divine tower, even at a financial loss—a strategy already employed by House Jobbs of the East Coast.

As a prominent business family in the Magus World, House Jobbs was well aware of the Verdant Wave Canal’s strategic importance.

They had also learned that the Tower Master of Verdant Spring was an apprentice to a Rank Six mage, and a Rank Four mage who had just established her divine tower.

The opportunity to invest in a rising power in the Magus World was rare and promising!

House Jobbs was fully prepared to lose over a hundred thousand magicoins just to secure a favorable standing within the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

They understood that short-term financial losses were an investment in future gains.

There were many other families like House Jobbs in the Magus World, and many, introduced by the influential Feylis of the Jewel Sea, were exploring opportunities to invest in the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, recognizing the potential for substantial returns.

The centaur tribe to which Luna belonged also recognized the potential benefits and endorsed her four visits to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

With her mother’s significant authority as the tribe’s chief, Luna was empowered to negotiate terms of cooperation on their behalf.

In Centaurworld, where patriarchy dominates, her tribe was a rare exception as a matrilineal group.

Perhaps due to their meticulous nature, they adeptly seized opportunities that others, even those stronger than themselves, had overlooked.

In the commercial area on the outskirts of the divine tower, Sein easily spotted Luna, a strikingly pure white centaur whose appearance had remained unchanged over the years.

If one could look past her equine lower half, she was undoubtedly a rare beauty.

It was no surprise that at the top of the tower earlier, Lorianne had shown an expression of mistrust toward Sein.

Luna, holding a silver totem adorned with a bell, wore a white veil that obscured her features.

Yet, her unique allure as a female centaur still drew the attention of many, including knights in the area who could not help but whistle appreciatively as she passed.

The two brown female centaurs following Luna seemed to be extremely interested in everything the Magus World had to offer.

As they explored the commercial area, Luna and her companions occasionally stopped to make purchases, though they were merely trinkets of little value.

Everything was expensive in the Magus World. Despite her status as the daughter of a tribal chief, Luna had limited funds to spare.

Even an unassuming Rank One mage here might be wealthier than her.

Her funds were primarily allocated to purchasing essential supplies—food, energy crystals, unique metals, and occasionally, valuable magic potions and alchemy items.

Surprisingly, the majority of her tribe’s magicoins were spent on food to sustain low-level creatures.

This was a necessity, given Centaurworld’s predominantly barren lands, which were unsuitable for agriculture.

Since joining the Magus Alliance, the high-ranking centaurs had discovered a lucrative new industry—trading enslaved creatures.

This was a far more profitable venture than the less rewarding food trade!

The species of Centaurworld were notably fertile.

Whether minotaurlings or centaurs, all possessed the resilience to thrive in harsh environments.

The minotaurlings, in particular, demonstrated an extraordinary ability to digest even soil when food was scarce.

Within the Magus Alliance, only a few enslaved beings could match this level of resilience.

Consequently, Centaurworld could sustain itself by breeding a vast number of these slaves, trading them for magicoins, and then using these earnings to purchase substantial food supplies from the Magus Alliance.

This approach was not unusual within the alliance.

Over the past hundreds of thousands of years, the Magus Alliance had brought profound transformations to every allied plane.

These changes were not entirely detrimental; at least, the foreign gods and benefiting parties at the upper echelons of these planes often expressed their satisfaction.

However, this subtle infiltration led to almost all the member planes of the Magus Alliance being tightly controlled by the Magus Civilization.

Consequently, even a minor disturbance within the Magus Civilization could trigger significant upheaval throughout the entire Magus Alliance.

More and more allied planes began to find themselves unable to function without the governance and oversight of the Magus world.

At times, the allied foreign gods would even desperately beg the Magus World to tighten the noose around their necks.

It was undeniably a horrifying phenomenon. Such was the mark of a truly powerful civilization!

In Centaurworld, even a minotaurling slave could be traded for cheap food like calla lilies.

Despite the seemingly low prices that Luna and her fellow centaurs offered to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, they still managed to eke out a profit.

Luna, who was walking through the trading area on the outskirts of the Divine Tower, showed a look of surprise under her veil as she noticed Sein descending from the sky.

“Master Sein?”