Sovereign of the Ashes

The Colorful Pelican God was not a minor deity without backing.

It belonged to the Wings of Nature, and behind it stood a lesser god of respectable strength.

Unfortunately, the scale of this Avatar Crisis was far greater than any before.

In such turmoil, perhaps even its so-called backing was likely struggling to survive.

Curiously, most of the deities who had perished in previous Avatar Crises either belonged to the Wings of Nature or were entirely unaffiliated with any forces.

Compared to these fragmented groups in the Wings of Nature, factions like the Justice League and the Dark Alliance were far more unified, especially the former.

With the Godslayers’ current strength, even breaching the defensive line of a deity’s believers and exarchs was a formidable challenge, let alone confronting a god itself.

However, the Colorful Pelican God had only one Epic-level follower protecting it.

The Godslayers had assembled five Epic-level powerhouses, supported by a contingent of Rank One and Rank Two members.

Against such overwhelming numbers, the god and its follower stood no chance.

The Pelican Valley, once the god’s territory, was painted in blood—its lands littered with the corpses of countless bird-like creatures.

In the face of the temptation to become a god, even the most rational beings could lose their sanity.

However, the Godslayers’ victory came at a cost.

Of the five Epic-level powerhouses who had gathered from the far north, three fell in battle. As for the Rank One and Rank Two members, many were either dead or gravely wounded.

Even for a deity as weak as the Colorful Pelican God, its avatar was still a demigod upon descending into the Prime Materia Plane.

Sein could not help but wonder... how had a poorly equipped group of Godslayers, with such inadequate cultivation techniques, managed to slay this god?

The two surviving Epic-level powerhouses vanished without a trace after the battle, along with the Colorful Pelican God’s corpse.

The only evidence left behind was the god’s blood that had seeped into the valley floor.

No one knew where the two Epic-level Godslayers had gone.

If history was any indication, they would not reappear until the end of the Avatar Crisis because when that moment arrived... it would be their time to ascend.

The fall of the Colorful Pelican God marked the beginning of a truly chaotic era in Faeloria.

In the span of just six months, at least three god-hunting attempts had been made.

Though each ended in failure, and the “mortals” who participated were reduced to dust by the wrathful gods they dared to challenge, the sheer frequency of these hunts still sent ripples of unease through Faelorian deities.

More alarmingly, not all of these hunts were instigated by the Godslayers.

One such attempt involved an Epic Being who sought to slay the Swamp Lizard God from the Wings of Nature.

Surprisingly, this attacker was later revealed to be a follower of Ravokh, the God of Murder, a greater deity of the Dark Alliance.

With the Dark Lady long absent from the world, the Dark Alliance was now overseen by three greater deities: Ravokh the God of Murder, Zorvax the God of Tyranny, and Morveth the God of Death.

Each stood among the most powerful beings in existence.

Interestingly, Femurs, the Bone Lord, whom Sein had once crossed paths with, was actually a direct subordinate of Morveth.

For a devout follower of Ravokh to openly participate in a god hunt against a deity from the Wings of Nature...

The God of Murder himself, along with his temples, remained silent on the matter.

On the contrary, it was the Dark Alliance that issued an official statement, strongly condemning the incident.

They insisted that the Dark Alliance’s gods would never threaten the deities of other factions without cause.

According to their claims, the Epic-level attacker who attempted to slay the Swamp Lizard God was an apostate who had turned his back on Ravokh.

Whether or not anyone actually believed this was another matter entirely.

Regardless, in just six months, tensions across Faeloria had grown more volatile than ever.

The suspicion, hostility, and paranoia between factions had deepened to new extremes, so much so that it had even affected the battlefront at the edge of Purgatory.

Many of the Justice League’s combat legions had begun to withdraw.

Their priority was no longer the eradication of demons but the protection of their own deities.

The idea that mortal believers might one day have to defend their gods was absurd—laughable, even.

Gods needing protection?

This meant that the deities were not omnipotent—among them, some were weak and feared death.

With such a profound shift in perception, it was no wonder that every Avatar Crisis plunged the world into chaos and upheaval.

Perhaps it was not just the Godslayers who had begun questioning their faith.

Even those who had once firmly believed in their gods would begin to waver when they saw them bleed, suffer, and die before their eyes...

At the top of the stone castle on the second floor of Purgatory, Sein gazed into the scarlet sky and sighed.

“The creatures of this world ascend to Rank Four by hunting gods and absorbing the power within divine relics... I can’t tell if this is a good or bad thing. But with the Avatar Crisis unfolding, the elemental concentration of this world continues to rise. Even the power of laws is becoming easier to perceive.”

He stretched out his right hand, as if reaching for something unseen, and murmured, “Perhaps... I can truly ascend to demigodhood in this world.”

***

While Faeloria gradually spiraled into turmoil, Sein’s experiments progressed steadily.

His early analysis of law power was proving to be his greatest reward since arriving in this world.

In the depths of his stone castle, three objects lay on the experimental table.

The first was an irregular emerald-green heart core—a divine relic fragment from the Verdant Wilderness God of the Verdant Leaf World.

The second was the lifeless body of Knox, the God of Brute Force. Since the Spider Queen had rarely communicated with Sein as of late, the corpse had now become a specimen for his casual research.

The third was a burning scarlet flame—a naturally occurring manifestation of law power. It was a gift from the Succubus Queen, retrieved from the deepest depths of Purgatory.

Sein’s gaze lingered on the three artifacts before finally stepping toward the scarlet flame.

He named it “Purgatory Flame”.

His next task was to fuse it with his own Ashen Flame.

“Purgatory Flame...” Sein murmured, deep in thought.

Without realizing it, his Flame Demon form had already begun to manifest.