Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein, of course, had no idea of how to ask for his mentor’s help because he had not seen Lorianne for more than half a year.

Even as the war in Sandstorm World drew to a close, Lorianne had not appeared before the ordinary mages of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

This absence worried Sein, leading him to wonder about the possibility that she might have suffered a grave injury.

On the other hand, he reasoned that even in the worst-case scenario, her life likely was not in danger.

If the Rank Four tower master had fallen, the news would have reached every mage in the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring immediately after the war’s conclusion.

The Magus Alliance would have promptly stepped in to handle matters such as the tower’s dissolution and resource allocation.

Since no such news had been shared, it was a reassuring sign that Lorianne was alive.

It was not just Lorianne, Sein had not seen Tourmaline since the war either.

The same could be said for Tourmaline, as the last time Sein had seen her was during the war.

The area around the fortress base buzzed with activity—demons, devils, and sea races bustled alongside the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s enslaved creatures, the remaining magic beasts, and the recently subdued Wild Gorilla slaves.

Yet, Tourmaline was nowhere to be found.

No one in the main base had seen Black Oblivion and the other magic beast kings either.

The movements of Rank Four and higher creatures were often elusive to ordinary beings.

During this period, the only Rank Four creature Sein had encountered was Hephaes, the centaur god from Centaurworld.

Hephaes was pretty fortunate.

On the brutal battlefield in Sandstorm World, even formidable Rank Four magic beast kings like the white-feathered pelican had fallen. Yet Hephaes managed to survive the grueling war for more than half a year.

Like Hephaes, every Magus World legion in Sandstorm World owed their survival to timing.

Had the reinforcements from the Magus Civilization and the Arriba Chamber of Commerce arrived even slightly later, allowing the Rank Six Wild Gorilla God more time to rampage, Sandstorm World would have likely turned into a barren wasteland within a month.

The white-feathered pelican was not the only one who had fallen on Sandstorm World’s battlefield.

The Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, the magic beast army, the centaur tribe, and the Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan all bore devastating losses in this interplanar war.

In just the past six months, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring had lost nearly two thousand mages, with countless more wounded.

When considering the additional losses sustained during the battles in Wild Gorilla World, it was clear that the divine tower had paid an immense price, despite the significant profits gained from the war.

After all, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring had only a modest number of registered mages to begin with.

Perhaps after this series of interplanar wars, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring would finally slow its pace and take a much-needed respite.

Without centuries of rest and recovery, the current number of registered mages and their growing aversion to war would render the divine tower incapable of engaging in another conflict.

Mages were not like knights, who thrived on the chaos of battle and sought breakthroughs through war.

For the vast majority of mages, the pursuit of truth within the confines of their laboratories held far greater allure.

This war had already yielded sufficient gains, enough to even inspire Sein to consider dedicating himself to research for a period of time.

Of course, this conflicted with his burning desire to explore many more strange planes and species.

While the Wild Gorilla World War had been unimaginably brutal from Sein’s perspective, it had also unveiled a sprawling Astral Realm teeming with diversity and wonder.

The Wild Star Domain alone contained hundreds of complete planes.

Sein could not help but wonder how long would it take him to explore even a fraction of them.

So far, he had only spent time in Wild Gorilla World, Lavender Harmony Plane, and Sandstorm World.

Having already explored Verdant Wilderness World and Verdant Leaf World, Sein’s curiosity about the billions of planes within the Astral Realm had only deepened.

If the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring were to halt its expansions in the coming centuries, Sein would likely set out on his own.

He might revisit places he had missed during his journey through the Magus World as a Rank One mage or venture travel to the foreign planes he had long dreamed of exploring.

Even Hephaes, the centaur god, seemed eager to host him.

Just ten days ago, Hephaes had sent Luna to invite Sein to visit Centaurworld as a guest.

For a Rank Four allied god to extend kindness toward a Rank Two mage like Sein was undoubtedly intentional.

It was clear that Hephaes had a request or ulterior motive.

Sein, however, chose to feign ignorance and did not respond to his invitation.

Until he could consult Master Lorianne, he had no intention of engaging with this allied god, much less agreeing to any favors.

This centaur god had suffered great losses in the Sandstorm World War.

Not only had he been grievously injured and brought to the brink of death, but his once-mighty two-million-strong centaur army had been reduced to less than three hundred thousand survivors.

Among the casualties was Luna’s mother, the matriarch of her tribe.

Whether Luna, a Rank Two heiress, was prepared to step into the role of matriarch remained uncertain.

When Luna visited Sein, her demeanor was unmistakably somber.

Their conversation was brief and before she took her leave, Sein gifted her a vial of healing potion—on par with the rare Feather Flame Potion—as a token of friendship.

The only silver lining for Luna was that her grandmother, Maya, had survived the war.

Maya’s survival ensured that the centaur tribe would not collapse entirely.

Unfortunately, Sein had no demigod-level recovery items to offer, nor would he have given them away lightly even if he had.

Maya’s injuries were quite severe too but her fate was now in her own hands.

This was the grim reality for vassal legions caught in interplanar wars.

Maya’s tribe was not the only one to bear such devastation.

On Sein’s side, one of the four sea lizards under his command had fallen while protecting Selina.

The inherently weak constitutions of mages were truly their glaring vulnerabilities in interplanar wars.

These sea lizards had accompanied him for decades, since his days on the Knight Continent. They regarded him as their father and Leena as their mother.

This loss undoubtedly weighed heavily on Sein’s heart.

After the war, Sein threw himself into the study of devil bloodlines, channeling his focus on experiments as a way to distract himself.

With the loss of so many old friends from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring during the war, a lingering gloom weighed heavily on the survivors in Sandstorm World, overshadowing even the immense wealth gained from the conflict.

On this particular day, Sein was engrossed in his experiments when the sharp sound of knocking broke the stillness at the door of his magic tower.

With Yuri and the fox maiden trailing behind him, Sein descended the stairs to investigate, wondering who had managed to bypass the protective wards surrounding the magic tower.

As soon as Sein opened the door, he found himself face-to-face with a little girl, barely 1.4 meters tall.

Her hair was styled into two small buns atop her head, each tied with a verdant green ribbon.

“Sein, long time no see!” the little girl chirped, her tone brimming with familiarity, though Sein was certain he had never met her before.

Her eyes crinkled into crescent moons, and her rosy cheeks gave her an irresistibly cute and chubby appearance.