Sovereign of the Ashes

After leaving Feymous Canyon, Sein continued traveling west.

In truth, there was no longer any reason for him to head in that direction—he could go anywhere in this world.

As soon as the Spider Queen had recovered and the amplification array was ready, Sein would be pulled back to the Magus World.

Beyond Purgatory in the far west, Faeloria was home to many other mysterious and unique regions.

To the far north lay a land of snow-capped mountains and vast, untamed wilderness.

Rumors spoke of ancient tribes dwelling in those frozen expanses, with some even claiming that long-forgotten deities lay in slumber in that region.

Beyond the north, both the far east and the far south of Faeloria had their own distinct characteristics.

The easternmost reaches of Faeloria were dotted with countless islands, where true dragons and their lesser kin roamed freely.

It seemed that dragons, regardless of the world they inhabited, were inherently driven by their primal nature.

Here in Faeloria, their numbers had also flourished to the point of producing a staggering variety of sub-dragon species.

Despite the sheer number of dragons, tales of dragon slayers on the main continent were rare.

This was not due to a lack of Legendary Beings, but rather because most dragons and their kin resided within the remote archipelagos of the East Sea.

The Dragon Gods formed yet another of Faeloria’s divine factions.

Their collective strength was said to rival even that of the demons within the three-layered Purgatory.

The dragons themselves had their own greater deity—a being known as the Iridescent Dragon.

It possessed both the sheer physical might of a Bronze Dragon and the elemental mastery of a Five-Color Dragon.

Though classified merely as a greater deity, whispers among the divine suggested that the Iridescent Dragon’s power could rival that of their supreme deity.

If true, it meant that it was yet another formidable Rank Six entity.

All information regarding the dragon gods, as well as the possible existence of ancient deities in the far north, had been extracted from the God of Brute Force’s mind by the Spider Queen.

Naturally, the knowledge possessed by a god far surpassed anything Sein had managed to glean from storming a mere church.

Beyond the dragon gods, Faeloria’s southern outer seas were home to yet another powerful faction—the sea gods.

Unlike the dominant divine forces of the main continent, the oceanic pantheon was more complex and diverse.

The vast ocean teemed with countless species, so it was only natural that a myriad of gods had emerged from its depths.

Yet, unlike the structured hierarchies of the Dark Alliance, Justice League, or Wings of Nature, the sea gods were too fragmented.

No singular deity had ever risen to unify and rule over them all.

As a result, Faeloria’s oceanic pantheon remained in a perpetual state of disarray, with each sea god reigning over their own isolated dominion.

The sea gods did not spread their faith among the diverse intelligent races of the main continent.

Instead, their followers were the countless creatures that inhabited the vast ocean depths.

Although the oceanic pantheon did not possess an entity as powerful as the Iridescent Dragon, whose strength was said to rival that of a supreme deity, it still boasted several greater deities of considerable renown.

Greater deities were Rank Six beings in the power system of the Astral Realm.

In other words, according to the knowledge extracted from the God of Brute Force, this world was home to likely at least twenty Rank Six beings!

The Justice League, Dark Alliance, Wings of Nature, demons, dragon gods, and sea gods—each of these six factions was a force to be reckoned with.

And that was not even accounting for independent deities like Eluvira, the Goddess of Magic, or the slumbering ancient gods in this world.

According to the information extracted from the God of Brute Force, Eluvira herself was also a greater deity.

With so many Rank Six beings, this world was far beyond what could be classified as an ordinary large-sized plane.

Power always followed a pyramidal hierarchy.

By assessing the number of Rank Four beings, one could already estimate the potential number of Rank Six entities within a given plane.

Similarly, by determining the number of Rank Six beings, one could roughly predict how many overlords a world might produce.

Based on the number of Rank Six deities in Faeloria, the Spider Queen estimated that this world could give rise to at least three overlords!

Three! A world of this caliber was far from an easy conquest.

The Neisse Star Domain, which was conquered by the Magus Civilization not long ago, had only two overlord-class mechas—yet the battle for control still lasted nearly thirty thousand years.

If Faeloria was even stronger than the Neisse Civilization, how long would it take for the Magus Civilization to fully conquer this world?[1]

The Spider Queen was well aware of the Magus Civilization’s next major strategic move.

As the conflict with the Gallant Federation escalated, the Magus Civilization could not afford to divide its forces and wage another war against a powerful large-sized plane like Faeloria.

If Faeloria had only one overlord, Spider Queen might have been able to persuade her adoptive father and the Magus World to launch an invasion.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

How could she, driven by her own selfish desires, single-handedly alter the course of the Magus Civilization?

Even her adoptive father did not have that kind of influence.

The only recent development that brought her even a sliver of relief was the revelation that, according to Knox’s memories, Faeloria seemed to have only one overlord—Dio, the so-called “God of Gods”.

The existence of just one such entity aligned with Spider Queen’s initial assumptions about the Faelorian pantheon.

However, the sheer number of Rank Four to Rank Six entities in this world was beyond her imagination.

Her previous estimate of a thousand deities in Faeloria had not even included the dragon gods or the diverse sea gods.

If those two forces were accounted for—along with the possible existence of slumbering ancient deities—the total number of gods in this world could easily approach two thousand...

What an absurdly high number!

Even if many of these so-called deities were merely weakened versions of deities like Knox, the God of Brute Force, it was still an overwhelming and terrifying reality.

How could this one plane sustain so many deities?

Why were Rank Four lesser deities further categorized into wielders of “weak power” and wielders of “lesser power”?

These hidden truths were mysteries that Sein and the Spider Queen would need to unravel in the next phase of their exploration.

What was certain, though, was that the Spider Queen was looking increasingly worn down with each passing day since she had taken down Knox.

The phrase “running at a loss” was practically written all over her face.

Though Spider Queen had been accompanying Sein in the form of a divine clone during this period, he had deliberately avoided asking her anything about umbra elemental magic, necromancy, or array arts.

He kept his silence, knowing that even the slightest misstep could set off the Spider Queen—who was no different than a ticking time bomb.

1. Author’s Note: In reality, the Magus Civilization could have ended the conflict in just a few thousand years had they launched a full-scale assault from the start.

However, their initial goal was not total destruction but rather the assimilation of the Neisse Civilization into the Magus Alliance.

When Neisse’s resistance proved too strong, the Magus Civilization was eventually forced to abandon that plan.

Still, the war dragged on for so long because they needed to preserve and absorb Neisse’s knowledge and technologies rather than simply annihilate them.

It was never meant to be a typical war between a top-tier civilization and a large-sized civilization. ☜