Sovereign of the Ashes

After a day of rest, Sein arrived punctually at the designated rendezvous point for the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s assault corps.

As expected, Natalya, Reina, Leena, and his loyal assistant Yuri accompanied him.

Sanchez, the skeletal dragon, also rejoined them at Leena’s call, bringing with it thousands of undead creatures.

This time, the demigod-level Kingfisher did not accompany Sein; its strength was still crucial for the defense of the western side of the fortress, along with the plant legions.

Before departing, Sein entrusted half of his stock of Viridescent Seeds to Selina, Faye, and the others.

The unforgiving natural environment of Sandstorm World made plant life scarce, with the only exception being the large oasis where the divine tower master’s fortress base was situated.

Sein was not sure if the seeds he brought with him could grow into plant giants at critical moments during his mission, so he chose to leave half of them behind as a safeguard for Selina and the other women.

“The space fortress of the Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan isn’t far from our main base. If all goes well, we’ll be back within a day. With nearly twenty thousand high-level magic beasts as our escorts, we should be fine,” Sein reassured Selina and the others before leaving.

Once again, Selina and the others were frustrated by their limited power and their inability to offer direct assistance to Sein.

Even Faye, Sein’s senior, whose demeanor had increasingly taken on the traits of a black mage, gripped her black skull magic rod with determination.

She had resolved to pursue a breakthrough to Rank Two at Blackhaven once the war concluded.

The advancement of life level was not something that could be achieved overnight.

Sein himself had been stuck at Rank Two for nearly a century.

Sometimes, impatience could lead to poor decisions.

Even if one managed to reach the required focus level and meet the minimum threshold for advancement, Sein believed that without a solid foundation, the promotion was meaningless—like building a tower on unstable ground, one misstep and it could collapse entirely.

With the war still raging, Sein could not spare the time to share all these insights with Faye and the others.

Those conversations would have to wait until the conflict ended.

Ironically, although Faye was his senior, the dynamic between them had shifted in recent decades.

It was now Sein who stood as the more experienced and knowledgeable guide.

This change made him feel as if he had taken on the role of a senior.

Faye’s increasingly evident black mage tendencies were also unsettling for Sein, who had grown accustomed to the more serene atmosphere of the divine tower.

Sein also had a keen interest in dissecting or vivisecting foreign creatures and valued the unique knowledge he could glean from rare specimens.

Yet, despite his intense curiosity, Sein approached his work with detached professionalism. He never abused a corpse or found pleasure in the suffering of his test subjects.

Watching the fearful reactions of these low-level test subjects on his experimental table held no appeal for him; to Sein, they were merely “tools”—instruments to further his quest for understanding and unraveling the mysteries of truth.

However, this was not the case for Faye and other black mages.

Their bloody and brutal experiments served as an outlet for releasing pent-up emotions and satisfying twisted desires; the truths they uncovered in the process became secondary.

Sein could not help but frown whenever he observed this behavior.

Thankfully, Leena did not share these tendencies; she remained a pure mage, focused solely on her work.

Faye, for her part, had not gone so far that she could not change.

Though she was initially irritated by her junior’s constant nagging, she began to show some restraint and came to acknowledge her missteps.

Unfortunately, controlling her impulses was another matter.

In reality, whether it was black mages like Faye or standard divine tower mages like Sein, they were all regarded as “lunatics” by other creatures of the Astral Realm!

After all, who in their right mind would treat living creatures as mere “tools” for deciphering the mysteries of truth?

Sein thought Faye’s behavior was somewhat twisted when she tormented and mocked her subjects during experiments.

What he failed to realize was that when he meticulously dissected Wild Gorilla specimens with fervent enthusiasm and uncovered intricate truths about their bloodline, blood qi, and muscle composition, the terrified onlookers in the laboratory viewed him through the same lens.

To those shivering captives, Sein was just as twisted!

In reality, all Magus World beings—whether knights or mages—were perceived as eccentrics.

They were just so accustomed to their own nature that they failed to notice it.

Now, this group of so-called “eccentrics” were about to set out on an exceptionally dangerous mission outside the fortress base.

***

Unlike the main fortress base, which featured green spaces and lakes, the scenery outside was nothing but endless yellow sand and fierce storms.

The war around the fortress raged on, with the sky above churning with thick, multicolored clouds.

These clouds marked the potential presence of Rank Four or higher beings locked in combat.

The intensity of the yellow sandstorms near the fortress was now dozens of times stronger than when Sein first arrived in this low-level plane.

Sein and his group planned their raid from the southeast corner of the fortress.

Taking advantage of the fifteen sandglasses of time when the protective magic shield was down, over twenty thousand magic beasts, accompanied by hundreds of mages and various cannon fodder units, surged forward in unison.

Combat Command had given Sein and the others strict orders—they had to hold their ground and carve a path through the approaching Wild Gorilla Army within those fifteen sandglasses.

Fortunately, the part of the battlefield where Sein’s group aimed to break through was not too crowded by the enemy forces yet.

The sudden charge of the Magus Civilization Army, particularly with two massive three-hundred-meter-long demigod-level magic beasts leading the way, made it difficult for the Wild Gorilla Army to muster enough troops to resist quickly.

Even if reinforcements came from other fronts, by the time the Wild Gorilla soldiers gathered sufficient strength to surround and decimate the twenty-thousand-strong Magus World legion, Sein and his group would have already broken through.

After all, this legion was composed entirely of elites, and the command center would never have sanctioned this move without at least a fifty percent chance of success.

As they charged, Sein noted with surprise a significant number of centaurs assisting in the defense of the main fortress base.

It was only at this moment he recalled that Hephaes, the centaur god, and his two million-strong centaur legion were also stationed in Sandstorm World.

However, he had assumed the centaur god would be positioned at one of the two other bases rather than at the main base.

Unaware of Hephaes’ current situation, Sein could only wish it luck.

He had not seen the Maya Tribe or Luna the Rank Two centaur in quite some time.

He had no idea of their current whereabouts but amidst the chaotic battlefield, Sein had little capacity to worry about others.