Sovereign of the Ashes

The Amethyst Emperor had just descended upon Verdant Wilderness World when Sein and other Magus World mages received their mobilization orders.

He barely had a moment to greet the Tourmaline before he was thrust to the front, leading legions of undead and plant creatures amidst the biting cold.

Commanding over a hundred thousand troops as a Rank Two mage was an exceptional duty in this medium-sized interplanar war.

Though caught up in preparations, Master Lorianne offered Sein swift guidance.

“Your grandmaster and others have launched a full-scale attack on Wild Gorilla World. We won’t be in the initial breach. The first wave will be led by the Amethyst Emperor, accompanied by several Rank Four or above geo elemental emperors and seven knights of Rank Four or above, along with their legions,” Lorianne briefed.

“Apart from that, we’ve also amassed nearly a legion of twenty million enslaved creatures as initial cannon fodder,” Lorianne added.

Meanwhile, the space fortresses previously hovering over Verdant Wilderness World began advancing northward.

These fortresses were poised to release a vast swarm of enslaved creatures into Wild Gorilla World.

Despite Lorianne’s modest resources, even the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring committed a hundred thousand plant creatures and two hundred thousand centaurs to the assault.

After all, these investments were expected to yield returns when the spoils of Wild Gorilla World were tallied, with the Rank Four and above mages of Magus World overseeing a fair distribution.

This was Sein’s first experience participating in a war involving tens of millions—a staggering figure for a mage of his rank.

With his lower life level, he could not survey the entire planar battlefield as a Rank Four creature might, rendering the vast legions nearly indistinguishable from a million-strong force.

To him, all that was visible was a sea of heads.

The massive war platforms like space fortresses, prism forts, and war airships crowded the skies, offering some reassurance to Rank One and Rank Two mages like Sein.

Beyond Verdant Wilderness World, numerous space fortresses yet to enter this low-level plane hovered ominously.

How Grandmaster Feylis and the others intended to deploy these legions into Wild Gorilla World remained to be seen.

Sein was uncertain if the Verdant Wilderness World could withstand the onslaught of so many foreign legions.

Yet, his immediate concerns lay elsewhere.

As a member of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, he was slated to join the war effort against Wild Gorilla World.

This conflict would take longer than any previous interplanar wars Sein had participated in, considering that the Wild Gorilla World had control over more than a hundred planes.

Sein’s return to Verdant Wilderness World might be decades away, if not longer.

Of course, Sein intended to bring the legion of native plants along with him.

Lorianne’s resources were limited, and she needed the support of these readily available legions to gain from the war.

The future of Verdant Wilderness World was a heavy thought for Sein. He had done his best and could only hope it would not succumb to the ongoing calamity.

Should Verdant Wilderness World survive until the end of the conflict with Wild Gorilla World and its enslaved planes, even a small part of the war spoils could significantly rejuvenate it.

Sein handed a clump of soil from the northern icefields to the Kingfisher perched on his shoulder.

“You should cherish this. It might be a long time before we can return,” Sein said to the tiny bird that was now only the size of his palm.

The Kingfisher, once having a wingspan of nearly two meters, had forged an unusual friendship with Sein over the years, mainly thanks to White Spirit and Sein’s contributions to Verdant Wilderness World.

At his feet, the Green Spikefur King showed little sentiment.

This large green hedgehog had never been particularly attached to Verdant Wilderness World. Even without the war, it would have likely left to join Lorianne’s world laboratory.

Now that Sein thought about it, Master Lorianne should have quite a number of trump cards up her sleeve.

Aside from the demigod-level Viridescent Seeds she had refined, she had also acquired a demigod-level Blazing Sunflower during the last Verdant Leaf World War.

Back then, she even wore the demigod-level sunflower as a hair ornament.

In terms of command and control, Lorianne’s influence over the Blazing Sunflower far surpassed Sein’s over the Kingfisher.

***

The battle raging in the northern icefield and the foreign plane was beyond the reach of a Rank Two mage like Sein.

His insider information about the war was limited to the snippets of details shared by Master Lorianne.

Like many lower-ranking mages in the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, Sein could only await further instructions.

This was the norm of interplanar wars.

In such grand conflicts, even Rank Four creatures could not find an opportunity to play heroes, let alone low-ranking mages like them.

Keeping a distance from battlefields dominated by superior entities was the wisest action any mage could take.

This was common sense in interplanar warfare. Any creatures that had survived an interplanar war understood this fundamental principle.

Yet, Sein’s situation was unique.

Commanding three demigod-level beings including a skeletal dragon brought by Leena, and a legion of over a hundred thousand strong, his perspective was elevated to that of a demigod-level mage.

Survival to the end of this war could potentially secure him an unimaginable amount of resources; perhaps enough for him to achieve demigod level in the future.

Reflecting on his earlier days, Sein recalled how he once thought securing tens of thousands of magicoins and earning the rights to take the Knight Continent’s trial would sufficiently prepare him for his future ascension.

Experience soon taught him that he had been naive.

Money dwindled at an exponential rate, and once accustomed to a life of luxury, it was nearly impossible to revert to a more humble lifestyle.

All the experiments Sein conducted in recent years had been extraordinarily costly.

The resources and wealth he had expended on body tempering experiments alone over these years amount to a staggering figure, enough to astonish any Rank Three grand mage.

Alchemy and apothecary experiments were also notoriously expensive pursuits, and these were the fields to which Sein had dedicated all his energy.

Even on the rare occasions when he did work any “overtime”, the creations were solely for his own use or those around him.

He never considered mass-producing valuable equipment or potions for profit.

His time was precious; he hardly had enough for his experiments, let alone crafting items he would not use himself just to make money!

Even his women had to schedule a time in advance just to meet him.

Sein had been spending lavishly in recent years, thanks to the wealth he accumulated as an initiate that turned him into a big spender.

However, this rapid expenditure also propelled his rapid advancement.

The Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army did not stay that long in the northern icefields.

Perhaps being one of the first to invade Wild Gorilla World would allow them to reap a larger share of the war’s spoils.

After nearly two months of relentless elemental energy storms in the north, Sein’s legion advanced through the ranks of the Magus Civilization Army and approached the elemental gate that loomed five hundred meters tall and over two hundred meters wide.

The air reeked with the scent of blood and beneath their feet, the ground was crimson.

The first to charge through the gate was the centaur legion under the command of the demigod-level centaur, Maya.

As the centaurs and minotaurlings galloped through the blood-soaked ground toward the elemental gate, Lorianne’s plant legion followed closely.

Sein’s mixed legions came next, with the lesser aquatic races from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring trailing as the third wave, while thousands of fully-fledged mages from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring brought up the rear.

In this place dominated by the scent of blood and decay, Sein did not see Master Feylis and the others.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, they should have already entered Wild Gorilla World, leading the initial charge.

Sein had communicated with Selphy beforehand and learned that among the Verdant Flame Faction, Divine Tower of Verdant Spring was the second last to pass through the elemental gate.

Ahead of them were the legions from Divine Tower of Verdant Flame and Divine Tower of Whispering Flame.

The last one to enter the Wild Gorilla World was Bernice’s Divine Tower of Floating Flame.

Sein speculated whether the delay of the Divine Tower of Floating Flame was due to strategic reasons or if it was a decision made by Bernice to let the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring enter first.

Riding on the formidable Green Spikefur King, Sein passed through the glowing gateway, venturing into the unknown.