Sovereign of the Ashes

After enduring a fierce battle, Sein and his group barely managed a two-hour respite upon reaching the space fortress before diving back into action.

The Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan’s visibly worn-out space fortress lacked both robust defenses and significant combat capabilities.

An overwhelming onslaught from the Wild Gorilla Army, including a Gorilla God of Rank Four or higher had caused its prior crash landing.

If not for the timely intervention of Black Oblivion to protect the fortress, it was uncertain whether it could have landed safely.

At the top of the fortress, a gash more than two thousand meters long and over fifty meters deep marred its structure.

The outer alloy armor of the fortress was penetrated, exposing the intricate network of magic and energy circuits within.

The gash was an unmistakable mark left by the Rank Four or higher Gorilla God’s destructive power.

While the main cannon of a Magus World space fortress boasted destructive power and a rate of fire theoretically comparable to a Rank Four or higher entity, it remained, at its core, a “lifeless object”—just a massive war platform unable to rival the adaptability of a living Rank Four powerhouse.

The fortress’ swift fall could be attributed to several factors—the limited number of warlocks stationed aboard, the unexpected assault by a Gorilla God, and the relentless onslaught of countless Wild Gorilla soldiers.

Even Lorianne and the others were caught off guard by their ambush, let alone this older fortress model.

“With the fortress in its current state, there’s no way to repair it or transport it back to the main base for now. Even if it could barely manage flight, the Wild Gorilla Army outside wouldn’t stand idly by and let it leave,” remarked Lonas, a young Rank Three grand mage of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring. [1]

Lonas had been a part of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring longer than those who joined later from Viridescent Land.

He was also among the Rank Three grand mages not serving concurrently as the dean of the divine tower academy.

At this point, there were over fourteen hundred mages in this space fortress—more than four hundred from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring and roughly a thousand Kermoine Serpent Warlocks.

The Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan was a Bloodline Warlock lineage of notable renown.

Among the thousand or so Giant Serpent Warlocks, seven had reached Rank Three, and two had ascended to the demigod level.

The strength of this force was even greater than the elite assault corps sent by the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

Moreover, the space fortress housed over four million Yaja slaves.

The Yaja, the gray-skinned horned extraplanar creatures wielding steel forks that had charged out earlier to meet Sein and his companions, were enslaved beings originally prepared by the Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan for sale in distant star domains through Black Oblivion’s connections.

However, the sudden arrival of the Wild Gorilla Army altered their fate.

Instead of being sold off to foreign star domains, they were now forced to arm themselves and prove their worth on the battlefield.

Originally numbering five million, the Yaja had already suffered heavy losses.

In less than ten days, the space fortress’ fall and the unrelenting assaults of the Wild Gorilla Army had killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of these weak enslaved creatures.

If not for the space fortresses’ armor of guaranteed quality and intermittent energy shields providing some defensive aid, these cannon fodder slaves would have perished in far greater numbers.

“The Kermoine Serpent Warlocks don’t seem willing to give up this space fortress. And frankly, they shouldn’t. These thousand warlocks combined are probably worth less than this fortress,” Lonas joked.

While the young Rank Three grand mage’s words carried humor, there was an undeniable truth in his remark.

A space fortress could fetch a market price of ten million magicoins. By comparison, the one thousand warlocks aboard would not collectively reach that value.

An average Rank One mage participating in an interplanar war might amass total earnings of two hundred magicoins. Even if they saved rigorously, their lifetime wealth would barely scrape a thousand magicoins, and that was assuming they resisted the infamous spending habits of Magus World mages, known for pouring fortunes into their experiments.

Though this space fortress was a worn-out model, far inferior to the pristine new fortress recently purchased by Lorianne, it remained highly valuable.

Not only was it holding millions of enslaved creatures, but it also carried other goods belonging to the Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan—these were all assets!

The thousand Giant Serpent Warlocks aboard were sent by their clan to maintain and transport the slaves.

The Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan, a medium-sized Bloodline Warlock Clan from the West Coast, boasted at least fifty to sixty thousand ranked members.

This figure did not include the smaller clans under their banner, many of which carried mixed Kermoine Serpent bloodlines.

Considering their numbers, the one thousand warlocks aboard the fortress were an insignificant fraction of their overall strength.

However, in the current situation, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s main fortress base desperately needed these warlocks and also the millions of enslaved creatures to bolster its defenses.

“Wealth can never be compared to lives. I doubt the Kermoine Serpent Warlocks will make the foolish choice of throwing their lives away,” Sein remarked with a sneer.

He paused, glancing at Lonas, before continuing, “Even if the Kermoine Clan Head himself were here, faced with the choice between saving a space fortress or a thousand clan members, I’m certain he’d choose the latter.”

“I agree. But every minute wasted here is a minute spent courting death,” Master Lonas replied with a casual shrug.

***

Sein and Lonas’ predictions proved accurate.

After several grueling hours and after the space fortress’ outer shield had been breached twice more, the Rank Three warlocks of the Kermoine Serpent Clan finally decided to break out.

Those hours, however, were not entirely wasted.

The space fortress was massive, and organizing the millions of Yaja slaves within it was no easy feat.

In addition, the Bloodline Warlocks busied themselves, collecting and securing large quantities of goods. Every vital material that could be salvaged was packed into spatial storage equipment.

The efficiency with which the Kermoine Serpent Warlocks executed these tasks impressed Sein and the other Divine Tower of Verdant Spring mages.

It became evident that the warlocks had already prepared for the breakout well before they agreed to it.

Their earlier resistance to the plan had merely been petty complaints and whining.

1. Translator’s Note: I just realized that Lonas had briefly appeared once in Chapter 262! That was so long ago! ☜