Sovereign of the Ashes

With the discovery of countless resource materials and rare specimens, it was no surprise that Sein was thoroughly indulging himself.

Initially, he had planned to spend only five years on the Gumo Plane battlefield, with his primary goal being the acquisition of pyro elemental resources produced by the Divine Tower of Dark Flame.

However, the allure and unique attributes of Gumo Plane far surpassed Sein’s expectations before participating in the war.

Of course, Sein’s extended absence from the main battle and his unauthorized “slacking off” underground could partially be attributed to a technical issue.

His temporary divine tower badge had lost contact with the command center after he descended ten thousand meters below the surface.

Sein surmised that the rich metallic deposits beneath Gumo Plane, particularly the highly magnetic metals, were interfering with the badge’s external communication frequencies.

This meant Sein was effectively on his own with Natalya and Reina, unable to reach the command center, and the command center was equally unaware of Sein’s current situation.

However, the recording function of the divine tower badge remained active.

All the battle results and kill counts accumulated by Sein and his group in the underground world would automatically sync with the operations command center once they returned to the surface or entered an area with less interference.

By then, Sein could claim the rewards he had rightfully earned.

And as for the long gap in his recorded combat activity... Sein, a seasoned alchemist who had taken apart and analyzed divine tower badges during his initiate days, knew exactly how to manipulate such data.

In truth, Sein was neither the first nor the last “cunning mage” to cheat by modifying their divine tower badge data during an interplanar war.

Good and bad individuals existed in any world, and the Magus World was no exception. There were also greedy, unscrupulous, and devious mages.

If a mage merely avoided combat, the divine towers would typically resolve the issue by deducting the corresponding rewards and expelling the individual from their ranks.

However, falsifying kills and fabricating non-existent battle records was an entirely different matter. The consequences of such fraud were severe and unforgiving.

Punishment ranged from decades—or even centuries—of imprisonment to exile from the Magus World, or, in the worst cases, execution.

The severity of these penalties stemmed from the potential consequences of falsified data. Fabricating kill counts and combat experience could skew the divine tower command center’s judgment, leading to disastrous strategic decisions and unnecessary casualties among knights and mages.

It was through such transgressions that many of Magus World’s outlaws and wanted black mages were born each year.

Sein’s behavior in his pursuit of the truth certainly did not fall into the category of black mage conduct.

He was simply taking advantage of a loophole in the rules in a reasonable way.

Moreover, Sein was not truly disengaged from the war.

Yuri was still battling with her mecha in the underground world. All her combat contributions would ultimately be credited to Sein.

Natalya and Reina, too, had gradually adapted to the underground environment and were actively eliminating threats, including injured Goul Groundworms that crossed their path.

In fact, just three days before Sein fully immersed himself in experimental research, the group had worked together to destroy a Goul Groundworm’s lair filled with their eggs.

After reproduction, the Goul Groundworms relied on geothermal heat to incubate their eggs.

At this particular site, over a hundred thousand eggs of varying sizes were piled up.

The largest eggs, some as wide as one meter in diameter, were likely laid by Rank Two Goul Groundworms.

Meanwhile, the majority of the eggs were smaller, laid by ordinary members of the species.

Sein hypothesized that the Goul Groundworms had intentionally laid these eggs here.

As low-intelligence creatures, Goul Groundworms had a short maturation period. On top of that, this process could be expedited by external forces like geothermal energy!

These young Goul Groundworms could quickly reach adulthood and serve as reinforcements for the Akre Plains battlefield!

While Sein and his group had eliminated one such lair, it was impossible to determine how many more remained hidden across the underground.

Leading two knights to obliterate such a major lair was no small feat, even for Rank Three mages.

With such contributions to the war effort, who cared if Sein slacked off a little to pursue his own research and magic?

Of course, the Goul Groundworm lairs were not the ultimate game-changer in this war.

If Gumo Plane’s native forces had relied solely on these hordes of groundworms, the war with the Magus Civilization would have ended long ago instead of dragging on for over twelve years.

Perhaps Sein did retain a touch of the black mage’s pragmatism in his bones; he felt no guilt about working on his research amidst the chaos of war.

Now, deep within the dark recesses of the underground world, Sein had fully immersed himself in experimentation.

His primary focus was the embers of the Dark Flame he had recently gathered, while his secondary studies revolved around the unique underground resources he had collected.

There was no such thing as day or night in the underground world, and Sein, fully absorbed in his experiments, had completely lost track of time.

All he knew was that with each session of studying the embers, his understanding of pyro elemental mysteries deepened further.

This uninterrupted research began to trigger inexplicable changes in Sein’s body.

At times, his body would involuntarily burst into flames—not due to a lack of control but because he was nearing Rank Three.

Experiencing such a phenomenon was common for grand mages on the verge of advancement.

These flames were no ordinary fire; they were the manifestation of pure elemental energy.

Every time this happened, Sein could not help but wonder if he might ascend to Rank Three before Reina, who had long been stuck at her bottleneck.

One day, while Sein was fully engrossed in his pursuit of knowledge and self-improvement, Reina and Natalya abruptly interrupted his experiment.

“What now?” Sein snapped irritably.

Natalya and Reina, having grown accustomed to Sein’s quirks, would never disturb him during his experiments without a good reason.

“Did you two find another Goul Groundworm lair?” he asked impatiently.

Two months ago, Sein had destroyed another lair with the help of the two female knights.

Almost half a year had passed since they first ventured into this underground space, though Sein’s intense focus on his research had left him indifferent to the passage of time.

The women could sense his irritation, but their grim expressions only deepened.

“No, we’ve found something far more significant and mysterious. You need to see it for yourself,” Natalya replied.

Her response quickly wiped the impatience from Sein’s face.

Taking a deep breath, Sein recomposed himself. Understanding the gravity of the situation, he carefully put away the experimental table made of Ice Soul in front of him.

“Where is it? Lead the way!”