Sovereign of the Ashes

After returning to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring warzone, the mentor and her apprentice temporarily parted ways—both of them had their own responsibilities to attend to.

The recent battle had yielded a large amount of loot that needed to be properly distributed and stored.

Although Lorianne did not need to oversee every detail personally, she was responsible for guiding the overall management.

The attrition faced by the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring was staggering, reaching four digits—an unprecedented loss since the divine tower’s establishment.

What concerned Lorianne even more was that this substantial loss was due to the strategic “oversight” on her part.

In reality, rather than an oversight, it should be classified as a serious accident.

Who could have anticipated that the Wild Gorilla Army would release such a powerful round of Dwarf Bombs?

Lorianne’s prompt decision to deploy the forbidden spell and mobilize her space fortress had demonstrated her commitment to her duty as a tower master.

Many of the mages who survived the blast from the Dwarf Bombs did not harbor any resentment toward Lorianne.

Heavy casualties were a common reality in interplanar wars.

Moreover, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring was not the only force that suffered significant losses.

The Wild Gorilla Army’s secret weapons had impacted most of the divine towers and knightly orders on this interplanar battlefield, resulting in widespread setbacks.

Having experienced the initial blow, it would be much harder for Wild Gorilla World to inflict such severe damage on the Magus Civilization Army a second time.

The destructive power of the Dwarf Bombs was immense, but there were ways to deal with it.

Implementing large-scale magic shields or deploying combat troops in a dispersed formation could significantly reduce the casualties caused by these powerful weapons.

The space fortresses of Magus World were also equipped to provide elemental shields to the combat legions below.

By the time this phase of the war ended, it was unlikely that the major divine towers and knightly orders of Magus World would hesitate to invest in this additional energy expenditure to protect their forces.

After parting ways with his mentor, Sein made his way to Leena’s quarters instead of heading straight to his laboratory.

Leena was currently staying next door to Sein. Initially, she had been recuperating at the space fortress’ medical center for the severely injured, but she had left that facility half a month ago.

Although she had recovered significantly, Sein had taken her into his care to ensure she was properly looked after.

A month of rest had done wonders for Leena, and she had regained a healthy rosiness in her cheeks.

When Sein entered the room, she was lying on a white bed with a tome in hand.

Sein had lent the tome to Leena, having obtained it from the Rank Four Tower Master of Cipher.

It focused on the occult arts, an often overlooked and obscure field of study within the Magus World.

To the neighboring star domains, the mages of Magus World were already synonymous with “mystery” and “eccentricity”.

However, few outsiders knew that even within Magus World, certain existences were considered “mysterious” even by the mages themselves.

The mystical power of the occult arts followed an unconventional logic, distinct from the broader laws of energy and matter conservation that most mages were familiar with.

For instance, in the tome Master Cipher had given Sein, there was an introductory yet practical curse known as the Spirit String Marionette.

This spell was straightforward enough for even magic initiates to potentially wield effectively in combat.

The ingredients needed for the casting were a strand of the target’s hair, two milligrams of silver mosquito blood, five liters of moon well water, three grams of red-eyed flea’s excrement, and other twenty-three ingredients with very specific requirements.

On top of that, this secret curse could only be cast during the final three sandglasses before sunset each evening.

If one were to miss that window, they would have to wait until the next day.

Sein could grasp the reasoning behind using materials like the target’s hair and moon well water—both contributed to linking the spell to the target and constructing the fundamental magical energy circuit.

However, ingredients like flea excrement and the limited casting time left him perplexed.

The field of occult arts was truly unconventional, veering into the realm of the bizarre.

“Is that tome interesting to you?” Sein asked with a smile as he walked over, simultaneously using his crystal ball to check on Leena’s condition.

At that moment, Sein’s actions mirrored those of Lorianne when she checked on Bernice earlier.

It seemed like as long as one was “human”, there would always be those they cared about, no matter how far their pursuit of the truth and magic had taken them.

“Yes, many black mages in Blackhaven study occult arts. Since the required experimental materials are often rare, they hold little practical value. As a result, the Magus Alliance doesn’t strictly control Blackhaven’s resources in this area,” Leena explained.

“This is far more advanced than any of the ones I came across at the Black Tower of Cinderbones. While some of the curses introduced in it are of lower rank, the underlying principles are fascinating,” she continued, waving the tome in her hand.

“Of course, it was a gift from a Rank Four tower master.” Sein nodded with a slight smile.

With tomes and books to occupy her time, Leena’s period of recuperation was both fulfilling and engaging.

After spending a while with Leena, Sein returned to his laboratory next door.

His experiments had reached a critical and demanding phase recently.

The inspiration he had gained from discovering the Azure Flame trait had given him a fresh perspective on how to harness the power of flame.

For mages, such insights were invaluable, and this period was the best opportunity for Sein to delve into experiments and conduct in-depth research.

He felt invigorated and was eager to get to work.

***

White Stella’s arrival at the Wild Gorilla World was sooner than anyone could have anticipated.

Just when most believed she was still mobilizing her legion of Sea Kings in the Boundless South Sea, this powerful peak Rank Five giant mermaid had already descended upon the Wild Gorilla World with millions of troops.

Of course, not all of them were Sea Kings.

Sea Kings were rare in the Magus World. They were scattered throughout the vast oceans, residing in the deepest, coldest regions of the sea, where the pressure was at its highest.

Even with White Stella’s natural ability to command and control these formidable creatures, gathering them swiftly was no easy feat.

This time, she brought a contingent of fifty thousand Sea Kings to the Wild Gorilla World, with thirteen among them being Rank Four or above!

This force represented only a fraction of the Sea Kings nurtured in Magus World’s Boundless Sea.

The larger, slower-moving giants from distant habitats were instructed by White Stella to return to their slumber after she learned that Black Oblivion was safe.

In addition to the Sea Kings, ninety-nine percent of White Stella’s legion comprised various sea races.

Unlike the lower-tiered aquatic forces recruited by the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, the millions brought by White Stella were a formidable, elite fighting force.

Over two hundred thousand of them were mermaids of Rank One or higher.

Combined with other high-ranking sea creatures, the number of ranked combatants reached several hundred thousand.

This immense power rivaled the combined might of several, if not a dozen, divine towers and knightly orders.

In response to this show of force, Grandmaster Feylis secretly grumbled, “The injury of that flood dragon has given the sea races the perfect excuse to join the fray and share the spoils of this medium-sized interplanar war.”