Sovereign of the Ashes

The main rival to the Divine Tower of Dark Flame was the Divine Tower of Astral Sun.

While several other divine towers participated in the ostracism of Dark Flame, none were as aggressive as Astral Sun.

Three years ago, Tower Master Dark Flame had gone into seclusion.

Even Sein and Keith, as deans, struggled to get in touch with him.

Whatever critical experiments the tower master was conducting remained a mystery.

As Sein reviewed the most recent reports, he noticed that the last conflict between the two divine towers had occurred just two days ago.

A Rank One mage from the Divine Tower of Dark Flame, named Pinno, had been injured by a Rank Two mage from the Divine Tower of Astral Sun while collecting magic ingredients in a nearby magic beast forest.

As Sein contemplated when to organize a counterattack, another magic transmission arrived.

It was a distress call sent directly to the divine tower.

It reported that three mages, including Harris, who had been out on a mission, were now surrounded by mages from the Divine Tower of Astral Sun.

Harris and his group’s mission was related to an initiate recruitment program Sein devised with Keith before he retreated into seclusion.

Although the Divine Tower of Dark Flame was situated in an unfavorable location, it presided over a vast jurisdiction with numerous human kingdoms.

While noble and prestigious magic families were reluctant to join the Divine Tower of Dark Flame in its current state, the territory still offered an enormous population of ordinary humans.

In fact, more than ninety percent of the initiates Sein and his group had previously smuggled from the Alveroth Empire came from commoner origins.

If they could such initiates existed in the Alveroth Empire, they could certainly search for similar commoner initiates within their own territory.

However, the effort required would be significant, and the overall quality of the initiates would likely fall short compared to those from the Alveroth Empire, which had long fostered the widespread cultivation of magic.

The “commoner initiate program” was not a new concept.

In the early days of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, Dean Archimedes had proposed a similar initiative to Lorianne.

The old dean had even invested considerable resources to bring the program to life.

Sein’s close friend, Grimm, who was also one of Dean Archimedes’ apprentices, had been a beneficiary of the “commoner initiates nurturing program.”

Unlike Archimedes, Tower Master of Dark Flame was not someone inclined toward acts of “charity”.

It was fortunate that Sein and Keith managed to secure a substantial sum of half a million magicoins from the tower master before he retreated into seclusion.

While not an extravagant amount, it was significant enough to cover the divine tower’s expenses for a reasonable period—provided it was spent carefully.

When the funds eventually ran low, they would simply have to approach Dark Flame again to request more.

Although Harris and his group’s initiate escort mission appeared to be the Divine Tower of Dark Flame’s recent efforts to identify and nurture qualified commoner initiates from the surrounding region, there was actually a second, more covert purpose.

Harris and the others were tasked with traveling to the northern part of the divine tower’s territory to retrieve the initiates smuggled from the Alveroth Empire.

While the smuggling of initiates was not explicitly forbidden by the divine tower or the knightly orders’ laws, it was still an act of stealing resources.

If such actions were exposed, they would bring more harm than good to the Divine Tower of Dark Flame and its tower master.

Of course, Dark Flame cared little for his reputation, given that it was already pretty poor in the first place.

Still, Sein and Keith understood the importance of discretion. The less attention drawn to such activities, the better.

Faced with the urgent message before him, Sein wasted no time. He immediately took off, flying toward the coordinates provided.

The distress call had likely not been meant for Sein specifically—it was more likely sent to Dean Keith, who had then forwarded it to Sein as a backup.

Keith was likely under the impression that Sein was still in seclusion.

After all, for a Rank Two mage attempting to break through to Rank Three, a ten-year seclusion in the laboratory was hardly unusual.

***

The Divine Tower of Dark Flame stood amidst a cluster of black volcanoes.

The coordinates from the distress call pointed northwest of the tower’s location.

The Divine Tower of Astral Sun, the primary rival that had been at odds with the Divine Tower of Dark Flame in recent years, was situated to the east.

The fact that the conflict had shifted westward, rather than remaining in the east, showed the Divine Tower of Dark Flame’s decline.

Though Tower Master of Dark Flame remained as formidable as ever, the tower’s overall strength had plummeted since the Gumo Plane War, leaving it vulnerable to bullying from rival towers.

Sein’s flying speed was pretty decent.

While his primary source of power was pyro elemental energy, his secondary powers—like lumen elemental energy—had strengthened significantly after his promotion to Rank Three.

At this moment, Sein streaked across the sky like a meteor, trailing a stream of grayish-white flames.

Swirling along the meteor’s surface, these flames radiated a suppressed yet potent energy.

What would take a Rank One mage half a month to traverse, Sein managed in just half a day.

At the end of his flight, he descended at the edge of a vast gray petrified forest.

This forest was likely home to Rank One and Two magic beasts.

However, those beasts had retreated into the deepest part of the forest.

On the outskirts of the forest, a confrontation between two divine towers was unfolding.

The older native magic beasts understood all too well the risks of getting caught in the crossfire between two such powerful forces.

After all, the true masters of this world were humans, not magic beasts.

When Sein arrived, he was greeted by an interesting scene.

The mages from the Divine Tower of Dark Flame and the Divine Tower of Astral Sun had clearly already clashed beyond this forest.

Harris, the Rank One mage, stood on the deck of an airship, clutching his chest, with traces of cryo elemental energy seeping from his wound.

Meanwhile, Jenny, a mage accompanying Harris on the mission, stood boldly at the bow of the airship, berating the mages of the Divine Tower of Astral Sun and loudly accusing them of bullying the weak with strength and numbers.

There were only three mages from the Divine Tower of Dark Flame present, while the opposing Divine Tower of Astral Sun had seven, led by a Rank Two mage.

Despite their numerical superiority, the Divine Tower of Astral Sun’s mages hesitated under Jenny’s fiery tirade, unable to take another step forward.

The situation was particularly humiliating for the seven male mages of the Divine Tower of Astral Sun, who found themselves at the mercy of Jenny’s sharp words.

Striking her was not an option; to do so would only validate her accusation of them bullying the weak with strength and numbers.

Jenny had previously left a deep impression on Sein.

She was a young Rank One mage, promoted just seventeen years ago. She was even younger than Harris, the team leader on this mission.

Of course, Sein’s impression of her was not due to her plump, juicy lips.

She had been one of the few less experienced mages in the Divine Tower of Dark Flame who had boldly requested better perks back then.

A few years ago, during the mass exodus of divine tower mages, Jenny had demanded a pay raise from Sein.

As he was trying his best to retain the younger generation of mages, he had no choice but to agree to her request.

That incident left a lasting impression on Sein of this young female mage with striking orange hair.