Sovereign of the Ashes

In addition to wielding formidable elemental power to strike down enemies, the mages of Magus World commonly mastered shield magic with strong defensive capabilities.

With a balance of offensive and defensive skills, they distinguished themselves as one of the rare versatile forces in the Astral Realm.

These truth-seeking mages were true jack-of-all-trades.

Despite focusing on personal evolution, they had also pioneered advanced magitech.

Though physically frail, they compensated for this inherent weakness by wielding an arsenal of protective magic shields and by developing a specialized profession—knights, who excelled in close-quarters combat to defend their homeplane.

Of course, there were also mages like Sein, who tempered their bodies to further reduce their vulnerabilities!

There was no such thing as a “perfect creature” in the Astral Realm, and the mages of Magus World were no exception.

However, their creativity and relentless pursuit of knowledge allowed them to edge closer to the ideal of perfection.

There existed another group of spellcasters in Magus World who excelled in melee combat and boasted formidable constitutions—the Bloodline Warlocks.

The Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan might not be the strongest among Dragon Bloodline Warlocks, but as a medium-sized warlock clan, they commanded significant respect.

This time, the assault corps was fortunate to have a demigod-level Kermoine Serpent Warlock in their ranks.

Sein watched in awe as the warlock chanted a weird incantation, then transformed into a massive mottled serpent over a hundred meters long.

The demigod-level warlock was even more formidable than the two demigod-level magic beasts leading the charge.

In addition to its robust physique and terrifying fangs, the warlock displayed mastery over a suite of powerful and strange spells.

A reddish-purple poisonous mist shrouded the warlock’s form, spreading out to envelop the thousands of magic beasts leading the charge.

For some reason, this poisonous mist had no effect on the Magus World Army.

In stark contrast, the Wild Gorillas who ventured into the mist in their desperate attempts to halt the advancing forces began to tremble uncontrollably, their strength visibly draining away.

Aside from the poionous mist, neither the demigod-level Kermoine Serpent Warlock, the ordinary Serpent Warlocks, nor mages like Sein unleashed their full magic potential in this battle.

Instead, they concentrated on conjuring thick, impenetrable magic shields to protect the twenty-thousand-strong magic beast army.

Seasoned by numerous interplanar wars, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s mages had matured into an elite force comparable to mage legions from well-established divine towers.

In the Magus World, the strength of a mage legion was not just measured by the number of full-fledged or demigod-level mages.

It was the coordination of the entire unit and the strength of their group spells that determined its true power.

“Group spell” was a long-established concept the Magus World.

While the power of a single mage was limited, the collective mana of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of mages could create a concentrated elemental force of such magnitude that it could threaten even a Rank Four powerhouse.

The combined mana of hundreds of mages from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring formed a shield massive enough to blanket the charging magic beast army.

As long as the army maintained its arrowhead formation and refrained from scattering, the shield would hold, allowing the troops to reach their destination with minimal casualties.

This strategy worked initially, but the emergence of the first demigod-level Wild Gorilla soldier shifted the battle’s dynamics.

While ordinary Wild Gorilla soldiers were powerless to halt the charging magic beasts, a vanguard unit composed of demigod-level Wild Gorilla soldiers could cause great trouble to this assault corps.

The demigod-level Kermoine Serpent Warlock, leading the charge, quickly became a target.

Perhaps driven by concern for the fallen space fortress and the thousands of warlocks aboard, he charged ahead with unmatched ferocity.

Three demigod-level Wild Gorillas closed in from different directions, aiming to intercept him.

Simultaneously, more Wild Gorilla legions, led by several demigod-level soldiers, repositioned to block the assault corps’ path.

Before Sein and his group left the fortress base, the Wild Gorilla Army had undoubtedly redirected a significant portion of their forces to besiege the fallen space fortress.

The elite troops now blocking the assault corps were most likely drawn directly from that besieging force. Otherwise, such a rapid mobilization of elite units would have been impossible.

The clash between the two forces was inevitable.

Leading the charge, two massive demigod-level magic beasts with horns on their foreheads crashed headlong into the Wild Gorilla opposition force.

With such poweful creatures carving a path through the opposition, the rest of the magic beasts and mages pressed on relentlessly in their assault.

From a vantage point in the sky, however, it was clear that the assault corp’s momentum was beginning to slow significantly.

Despite this, they continued to advance, and the hastily gathered Wild Gorilla forces were not yet strong enough to completely halt their progress.

The magic shields provided by hundreds of mages played a critical role in this advance.

Without them, the thick scales and tough bodies of the magic beasts alone would have been inadequate for defense.

Even if all twenty thousand of them had been forged from steel, the relentless onslaught of the Wild Gorilla soldiers—driven by their unyielding fighting spirit—would have eventually ground them down into nothing more than twisted scraps of metal.

From the onset of the conflict in Sandstorm World, the Wild Gorilla Clan had left a deep impression on Sein and the other Magus World mages.

These Wild Gorilla soldiers were fighting with the determination of those who had resigned themselves to death.

They had returned to the Wild Star Domain with the call of their Rank Four and higher Gorilla Gods, fully aware that their mission was a one-way march to the grave.

As Sein and his assault troops pressed forward, the Wild Gorilla forces exemplified this suicidal resolve.

Four Rank Three Wild Gorilla soldiers had already flung themselves into the path of the two demigod-level magic beasts leading the charge, effectively launching themselves as sacrificial pawns.

When the fifth Rank Three Wild Gorilla roared and charged forward, its cry turnedd into a precursor to its self-destruction.

The resulting explosion was a devastating blow, powerful enough to bring down one of the demigod-level magic beasts—a key pillar in the assault corps’ vanguard.

The fall of the demigod-level magic beast slowed the Magus World Army’s advance yet again.

However, after enduring the chaos and carnage of the battlefield, Sein and the mages, positioned amidst the charging magic beasts, finally caught sight of their target—the space fortress that was partially buried in the yellow sands.

The winds howled even louder, whipping up grains of yellow sand that lashed against the exposed skin of lower-level creatures.

The air was also thick with overpowering stench of blood.