Sovereign of the Ashes

The value of the Edelweiss Spirits left even Sein—an experienced Rank Three grand mage who had explored numerous foreign planes—deeply moved.

Although these spirits were only useful to Magus World mages proficient in cryo and hydro elemental magic, the boundless Astral Realm housed countless planes and civilizations.

Creatures similar to the Edelweiss Spirits could exist somewhere within its vast void.

Sein had yet to form a pact with a familiar.

His bond with Sev the owl remained strong, but as Sein’s power grew at an extraordinary rate, Sev could no longer keep up.

And it was not just Sev—only a handful of individuals around him could barely match his pace.

Azelia, the fox maiden, with her Rank One life level and thunder beast familiar, possessed respectable combat capabilities.

Yet, her primary role in Sein now was tending to his daily needs rather than assisting him in battle.

***

After the Edelweiss World War, Sein returned to the Magus World with the first batch of combatants.

In total, he had spent three years on the battlefield, and by the end of it, his final earnings amounted to 7,261 magicoins.

Compared to previous interplanar wars he had participated in, this sum was relatively modest.

However, that was to be expected.

Sein had not been present for the entire duration of the Edelweiss World War. The period he fought in was well after the Rank Four Edelweiss God had suffered severe injuries.

Additionally, he had not devoted himself entirely to combat missions during these three years. Instead, much of his time had been spent researching sorcery and collecting rare specimens.

With so many distractions, the fact that he still managed to amass over seven thousand magicoins was largely due to Yuri’s exceptional battlefield performance, which played a significant role in their overall gains.

Before departing Edelweiss World, Sein took the time to bid Veyle and the other witches farewell.

Three years was neither a long time nor a short one.

Since his interactions with the other witches had been limited, he only exchanged crystal ball contact with Veyle.

With this connection established, he would at least have a familiar face to turn to if he ever returned to the Northlands.

Sadly, despite multiple attempts to contact her through his crystal ball, he had been unable to reach Marylou during his time in the Northlands.

It was possible that the Rank Two witch was away from the Magus World, traveling through another allied plane.

Or perhaps she had never been in the Northlands to begin with and had been wandering across the Magus World like Sein.

Regardless of the reason, he was a little disappointed that he was unable to meet Marylou.

Nevertheless, Sein set his sights southward—toward Eastern Stargazing Heights.

***

Including his time in Edelweiss World, Sein had spent a total of seventy-three years traversing the Northlands.

Yet, in all those years, he had barely covered even a tenth of the vast northern region.

The xenophobic nature of the Northern Witches Council had made it difficult for him, an outsider, to blend in.

With little to gain from further lingering, he pressed forward, making a near-straight journey from the frozen mountain ranges of the north to the lands of Eastern Stargazing Heights.

Unlike most of Magus World’s top-tier powers, the mages of Eastern Stargazing Heights were not known for their prowess in battle.

Instead, most of them were specialized in astrology.

Whenever the Magus Civilization faced critical decisions, they sought counsel from Eastern Stargazing Heights.

This made them the guiding light of the Magus Civilization.

Even divine towers and knightly orders made conscious efforts to befriend a certain Rank Four astrologer residing there.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the Magus Civilization had expanded relentlessly, leaving fewer and fewer unexplored star domains and unclaimed foreign planes surrounding its borders.

Interplanar warfare was not as simple as gathering an army and charging headfirst into the unknown.

Without viable targets, how could one even think of plundering resources?

Astrologers, with their powerful prophecy and divination abilities, played a crucial role in this.

Every year, more than a third of the Magus Civilization’s interplanar wars were waged based on the plane coordinates provided by Eastern Stargazing Heights.

The Astral Realm was vast, yet worlds governed by a set of complete laws were exceedingly difficult to find.

Most of what lay beyond were broken planes and asteroids. Even resource-poor demiplanes were rare, let alone complete planes.

Although Sein had been bothered by the prophecy he received from Marylou over the years, he was extremely curious about this type of divination.

Even if he had no intention of learning divination himself, forging connections with a few skilled astrologers could be extremely beneficial.

At the very least, if he ever wished to purchase foreign plane coordinates for his own future conquests, he would have a way in.

***

Upon arriving in Eastern Stargazing Heights, Sein’s deliberate efforts to establish connections led him to befriend several Rank One and Rank Two astrologers.

Unlike the cold and xenophobic Northern Witches Council, the atmosphere in Eastern Stargazing Heights was friendly toward spellcasters, though it lacked the vibrancy of the Alveroth Empire.

As a Rank Three grand mage, Sein could easily acquire basic astrological knowledge that piqued his interest from the major divine towers.

At times, he even attended academic salons organized by low-ranking astrologers.

It seemed that the scholarly gatherings in the Alveroth Empire had also inspired similar practices among mages from other forces in the Magus World.

Back in his early years at the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, Sein had initially resisted social events, but eventually, he attended several masquerades and private gatherings.

In essence, those were variations of academic salons where mages would casually discuss their latest research and findings.

However, the spellcaster culture in places like Viridescent Land simply could not compare to the thriving intellectual environments fostered by Magus World’s top-tier powers.

This journey had truly broadened Sein’s understanding of the Magus World.

During his stay in the Eastern Stargazing Heights, Sein stumbled upon a fascinating contradiction.

Every year, Rank Four and above astrologers of Eastern Stargazing Heights provided other powerhouses of Rank Four and above across the Magus Civilization with precise foreign plane coordinates and critical information.

Yet, curiously, the astrologers themselves almost never initiated interplanar wars.

Sein lingered in Eastern Stargazing Heights for 134 years—nearly twice as long as his time in the Northern Witches Council.

In all that time, he never once encountered an interplanar war.

Astrology, as a powerful means of foreseeing the future, placed an immense burden on both the body and mind of those who practiced it.

As a result, the number of Rank Four and above beings in Eastern Stargazing Heights was the lowest among all the top-tier forces in Magus World.

Astrologers were even known as “spellcasters with the shortest lifespan”.

Given these limitations, it was no surprise that the high-ranking astrologers of Eastern Stargazing Heights never personally waged interplanar wars.

After all, they could simply exchange their divination abilities for resources they wanted from other forces within the Magus Civilization.

Sein’s thoughts drifted to the “slab” he had obtained earlier in the underground world.

“Spider Queen claimed this thing holds the power of fate... If I bring it to the soul tower here, will it be enough to gain the recognition of that Rank Seven astrologer?” Sein murmured, rubbing his chin.

Fate and divination were, in essence, closely intertwined.

This was one of the many revelations Sein had uncovered in Eastern Stargazing Heights.