Sovereign of the Ashes

After being forced into serving the Spider Queen, Sein had no choice but to accept his new role as a private investigator.

The silver spider ring clinging to his finger was a constant reminder that every move he made was being monitored.

He wondered if Grandmaster Feylis had the power to remove the tiny silver spider.

Then again, even if she could, Sein had a feeling that the spider would finish him off long before it sensed any threat from Feylis.

Upon receiving the Spider Queen’s divine decree, Baras City mobilized all its underground creatures.

Though most of these creatures were weak, their familiarity with the underground terrain and their keen senses far outmatched those of full-fledged mages and ranked knights.

The only greatest obstacle, however, was the sheer size of the northern region of the Ylli Knight Alliance.

Its vastness surpassed that of many low-level planes, and the complexity of the underground labyrinth only compounded this investigation’s challenges.

Three months into the fruitless search, the Spider Queen finally withdrew her divine power from the innate spider.

Sein surmised that her decision was not only due to the significant energy cost of maintaining a Rank Four clone, but also to avoid unnecessary encounters with the knights and mages in the area.

If she could, the Spider Queen preferred to stay clear of them entirely.

Despite her withdrawal of power, the small silver spider on Sein’s finger remained. Its sharp claws clung tightly to him, serving as a persistent reminder to tread carefully.

By the seventh month of the search, a much-needed lead finally emerged.

Through the Order of Steel Heart in the northern Ylli Knight Alliance, Sein received intelligence about an area exhibiting weak spatial fluctuations.

This discovery immediately narrowed the scope of the search.

After relaying the information to the Spider Queen, the forces of Baras City began converging on a location known as the Shadow Stream.

The Shadow Stream was a sprawling underground mountain range riddled with countless caves and grottoes.

Additionally, hundreds of dark rivers flowed through this special area.

In terms of terrain complexity, the Shadow Stream ranked among the top five most challenging regions in the Ylli Knight Alliance’s northern territory.

Even with the search area narrowed to this location, finding the fluctuation node remained an incredibly daunting task.

The countless caves and grottoes, with their unknown connections and pathways, left the investigators feeling utterly overwhelmed.

Over the past six months, in addition to the creatures from Baras City, hundreds of ranked dark creatures and demihumans from various regions had converged here.

Among them, two had reached the Rank Three life level.

Together with the Black-bellied Spider leader and the old demihuman from Baras City, the Spider Queen had gathered four Rank Three servants under her command.

Sein’s reputation as a mage known for his wisdom and keen observational skills, combined with his role in providing the crucial information that led them to the Shadow Stream, along with the Spider Queen’s orders, solidified his position as a leader among these dark creatures and demihumans.

Upon arriving at the Shadow Stream, the Spider Queen distributed four special orbs of light to her servants.

To Sein’s trained eyes, these orbs radiated intense spatial fluctuations.

It did not take much for him to deduce her plan: the Spider Queen intended to sow confusion in the region.

The orbs were interference that could easily mislead the mages from the divine towers and knights from the knightly orders who had also gathered nearby.

Yet, the Spider Queen had been careful not to overdo it.

Producing too many orbs could raise suspicion or create a disturbance so unnatural it would backfire.

Even with the four orbs as distractions and the underground forces working covertly, Sein estimated only a fifty-fifty chance of the Spider Queen finding the fluctuation node first.

For his own survival, he hoped she would succeed; failure might result in her turning her frustration on him and ultimately slaughtering him.

As luck—or perhaps his prayers—would have it, the Spider Queen was indeed one step ahead of the divine towers and knightly orders of the Ylli Knight Alliance.

She found the abnormal spatial fluctuation node.

The news was brought back by a Rank Two demihuman—a small creature standing just over 1.5 meters tall but with eyes as large as light bulbs.

While rushing to deliver the report to Sein and the others, the demihuman ensured to leave subordinates stationed at the fluctuation node to secure the area.

“What exactly is there? Is there really a huge space-time rift?” Sein asked, raising an eyebrow.

The Rank Two demihuman, whose intelligence and ability to communicate far exceeded that of the spider-type dark creatures, seemed uncertain.

Faced with Sein’s question, it stammered, struggling to find the right words.

Or perhaps it did not even know the answer.

On top of that, the goddess’ aura emanating from the spider on his finger gradually intensified, further unsettling the demihuman.

Finally, in a somewhat frantic manner, the demihuman blurted out, “It’s a square, white stone slab... but it’s broken!”

“There are white patterns on it, but we can’t figure out what they mean. Peat touched the slab, and... it disappeared!” it added, waving its arms as if trying to convey the scene more vividly.

Yet, his explanation only left Sein more confused.

Not only was Sein unable to make sense of what it meant, but the Black-bellied Spider leader, the old demihuman, and the others who had gathered around also exchanged puzzled glances, clearly as lost as he was.

“A... stone slab?”

***

When Sein and the others arrived at the target location, they quickly realized that the Rank Two demihuman had been right.

It was indeed a broken square stone slab.

Roughly one square meter in size, the slab was white and embedded into a solid stone wall.

A ripple of milky-white energy emanated outward from the slab, creating a faint distortion in the surrounding space.

The abnormal spatial fluctuations detected by the Ylli Knight Alliance were indeed caused by this stone slab.

The moment Sein laid eyes on it, he froze slightly.

What caught his attention was not the intricate patterns etched into the slab’s surface but the faint trace of a familiar aura emanating from it.

It reminded him of Tourmaline’s green ribbons, which he had studied in detail during his time in the Sandstorm World.

Though Sein lacked the means to unravel the mysteries of such treasures, the distinct aura shared by the slab and the ribbons was unmistakable.

In fact, to Sein’s limited experience as an alchemist, the profound aura radiating from this broken stone slab seemed even more intense than that of Tourmaline’s ribbons.

As Sein and the others stood examining the slab, a golden beam of light emanated from the silver spider ring on Sein’s finger.

The light quickly coalesced into the Spider Queen’s clone.

Her presence, both in power and aura, was as imposing as it had been more than six months ago.

Sein inwardly sighed with relief at his earlier caution—his restraint over the past few months had proven wise.

The mere fact that the Spider Queen could manifest her divine clone and appear before him at any moment was enough to quash any thoughts of scheming.

With the Spider Queen’s arrival, the true nature of the stone slab was finally revealed.

“Huh, a fragment of a world-class secret treasure?” the Spider Queen remarked, her tone tinged with surprise.