Sovereign of the Ashes

In the Magus World, mages highly valued contracts, and their reputation for honoring signed agreements was renowned even in the neighboring star domains.

The stability of the Magus Alliance was largely due to the reliability of the Magus World’s powerhouses in keeping their promises.

With a law contract in place, the basic interests of the member planes and the foreign gods within the Magus Alliance were secured.

The Magus World had consistently honored its agreements without publicly reneging on any contract.

As a Rank Four mage, Lorianne was naturally committed to honoring contracts.

However, she had yet to sign the contract with Thunder.

Initially, the Order of the Thunder Knights had offered her an employment reward of 1.5 million magicoins. Believing there was room for negotiation, Lorianne delayed the signing.

Upon arriving at Thunderfall World and carefully assessing the war conditions, Lorianne demanded an increase to 2.2 million magicoins.

It was a rather high amount, so Lorianne had not anticipated Thunder’s swift acceptance.

After some negotiation, they agreed on a final fee of two million magicoins, which Lorianne was happy with.

It was a fair price for hiring a newly-promoted Rank Four dendro mage to fight.

Yet, Lorianne had not expected Thunder, the late-stage Rank Five knight, to pursue a world-class secret treasure.

Capturing a Rank Four creature alive posed significantly greater challenges than merely killing one.

Fortunately, the native deity of Thunderfall World—the King of Garths—vowed to hold its ground, bravely facing the siege of multiple powerhouses from the Magus World deep within the Thunder Domain.

Otherwise, a Rank Four entity empowered by the plane would have likely escaped the homeplane.

The vastness of the Astral Realm made any attempt to encircle and contain a target there much more daunting.

Thunder and the other two knights had suffered great losses, unlike Lorianne, who had just entered the fray and at her full strength.

Without a signed law contract with the Thunder Knights, Lorianne had not technically broken any promises by demanding an increase in payment.

Moreover, in Magus World, mages often prioritized the principle of equivalent exchange over the mere sanctity of contracts.

The philosophy was simple—the effort you invested determined the compensation you would receive.

For this reason alone, Lorianne could justify demanding more magicoins for her efforts.

Negotiating with a Rank Four mage was not among Thunder’s strengths.

As a formidable Rank Five knight wielding the power of electro elemental laws, his battle qi’s attribute revealed much about his personality.

A knight characterized by a gloomy, cunning mind and fickle nature would find it difficult to discern the true essence of an electro elemental knight’s path.

On the battlefield, Thunder showed no mercy, effortlessly slaying Rank Four creatures.

However, capturing an opponent alive without allowing them to self-destruct required Lorianne’s expertise.

Furthermore, Thunder was tens of thousands of years older than Lorianne. It would be beneath his dignity, given his age and status, to haggle with a “young lady” like Lorianne.

Thus, as Lorianne anticipated, Thunder took the initiative to ask, ”Then, what amount of magicoin would you consider fair, Lady Lorianne?”

Lorianne pondered for a moment.

After a pause, Thunder added, ”Regardless, the Order of the Thunder Knights will do our best to meet your terms.”

Since Thunder had made his stance clear, Lorianne knew she should reconsider her usual approach of starting high before lowering.

After a moment of reflection, she proposed a price she believed to be most appropriate.

“How about 2.8 million magicoins?” she suggested.

Thunder lapsed into silence, weighing the financial implications and his ability to take out such funds on short notice.

The 2.8 million magicoins was merely a personal payment to Lorianne. Including the cost of hiring the thousands of mages from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, Thunder would need to fork out at least four million magicoins for the entire operation.

Though the costs were nominally split among the three orders of knights, the bulk of the financial burden fell on Thunder, who was responsible for more than ninety percent of it.

Although the Order of the Thunder Knights was wealthy, owned one of the Magus Civilization’s most advanced space fortresses, and had recently embarked on constructing a “world-class secret treasure”, Thunder was financially overstretched.

Creating a world-class secret treasure involved more than just capturing two Rank Four creatures and harvesting their energy cores.

Thunder had already expended considerable resources to procure many premium electro elemental materials from various sources, draining his coffers.

While Thunder might excel at blacksmithing... crafting a piece of word-class equipment imbued with the power of the laws required the expertise of a specialist.

In Magus World’s Sky City, several alchemy laboratories were equipped to undertake such high-level projects.

These facilities, however, only handled the crafting—they did not supply the raw materials.

Moreover, their fees were substantial, and clients often had to schedule their projects well in advance; at peak times, the wait could extend up to ten thousand years.

Beyond Sky City, other major powers like the Magic Empire, Marmett Union Alliance, Pyro Secret Society, Byrne Empire, and Northern Witches—all renowned entities within the Magus World—possessed the capability to create world-class secret treasures.

However, these factions typically prioritized internal needs over external commissions, and their reputation in craftsmanship was inferior to Sky City’s.

Although Thunder had significant connections within the Magus World, for this particular project, he opted to collaborate with an external expert—a Titan God from the Titan World.

Thunder and the Titan God, a master blacksmith, were old friends from their days on the interplanar battlefield. They knew each other well and trusted each other.

The primary reason for their collaboration was economic—the cost of employing the Titan God to craft a world-class secret treasure was significantly less than the rates in the Magus World.

Thunder had no concerns about the Titan God’s competence either.

Although not yet famous in the Magus World, this Titan God was a celebrated god of smithing in the Titan World, where his reputation had been growing steadily over the last hundred thousand years.

More importantly, his father was the most revered god of smithing in the Titan World, holding most of the world-class secret treasures there.

Eager to outshine his father, the young god of smithing jumped at the chance to assist Thunder in creating a world-class longsword at a reduced fee, seeing it as an opportunity to hone his skills.

In the Titan World, the formidable gods who could afford such treasures typically sought his father’s services.

For the younger god of smithing like him, most of his clients were other Titan Gods seeking his expertise for the creation and repair of ordinary artifacts.

However, Thunder, a late-stage Rank Five knight from the Magus World, represented a more prestigious and noteworthy client.

Thunder did not hesitate long over Lorianne’s request for a price increase before agreeing.

After the substantial investments he had already made, what was a few hundred thousand magicoins to him?

“2.8 million it is. But I’ll need about fifty years to gather that amount in magicoins,” Thunder said.

“That’s fine. I can accept payment in installments,” Lorianne replied, smiling brightly.

Inwardly, Thunder resolved fiercely, “Worst case, I’ll sell my space fortress!”

Between a world-class secret treasure and a space fortress, Thunder clearly understood which held more value.