Sovereign of the Ashes

The reform of the many academies within Purgatory was now Ronaldo and the others’ responsibility.

Ever since resolving the confusion clouding Ronaldo’s mind, Sein had paid them little attention.

He had reaped significant gains from slaying the God of First Light—and had dealt fairly with Ronaldo and the others in turn.

After the peak Rank Two white dragon was finally skinned, deboned, and drained of its blood, Sein kept only a small portion as specimen materials. The rest was handed over to them.

At the very least, when the younger generation produced individuals with the potential to ascend to the Legendary Realm, they would not lack the dragon resources needed to inherit its bloodline.

In addition, the dragon’s blood, meat, tendons, and other remains could serve as rewards within the academies’ incentive systems.

Flynn’s new magic rod was topped with a large dragon crystal.

Though Sein had never formally taught him alchemy, Flynn managed to craft the rod by piecing together knowledge from the foundational alchemy texts in the academy’s library.

Sein had praised him more than once for his eagerness to learn and his unwavering tenacity.

For Flynn, that praise was the greatest encouragement and the most powerful catalyst.

***

About fifty years after the god hunt, Sein finally finished sorting through and processing the gains from that battle.

His most significant achievement during those decades was the creation of the next-generation Demon Mask.

Perhaps as an homage to the Solar Eye spell he had mastered in his initiate days, Sein chose to upgrade the mask’s magic array with a powerful lumen elemental spell capable of threatening even demigods: Penetrating Eye.

It was yet another of Sein’s original inventions.

He had always believed that simply copying existing spell models—no matter how advanced one’s elemental knowledge—was a mark of mediocrity.

True geniuses always forged their own paths. Only the spells they created themselves were the most attuned to their abilities, offering limitless potential for refinement.

Ready-made spells, at best, served as references and tools to broaden one’s magical understanding.

That said, if Sein came across a truly sophisticated and advanced spell model, he would not hesitate to learn it and make it his trump card.

However, spells of that caliber often came at a steep cost and were typically redeemable only through Arcane points.

The Penetrating Eye was a hybrid spell built upon the foundation of lumen elemental theory and supplemented with a measure of pyro elemental knowledge.

By now, Sein had begun to grasp the mysteries of the laws, and his offensive spells were gradually becoming infused with law factors.

After rigorous testing, the Penetrating Eye spell was confirmed to possess destructive power on par with a mid-stage demigod at full strength.

This result was verified with the help of a demigod-level demon lord, sent by the Succubus Queen to serve as a test subject.

Despite the spell’s immense power, Sein’s mana, focus, and other core stats still fell just short of reaching the demigod threshold.

The upgraded Demon Mask could now unleash the Penetrating Eye spell up to three times per full charge.

Sein was already considering the possibility of embedding the God of First Light’s divine relic into the mask as its central power core.

It would be his first attempt at fusing the heart core of a being of such caliber into a piece of equipment through alchemy.

If successful, the Demon Mask would turn into a divine artifact, capable of far greater offensive force and a significantly increased number of Penetrating Eye uses.

That was not the only progress Sein had made over the decades.

He had also succeeded in breaking the seal on the platinum compass recovered from the God of First Light’s remains.

Within it was the god’s fortune, accumulated over twenty thousand years of his existence.

The sheer volume of lumen elemental resources stored inside was enough to make even Sein’s eyes gleam with awe, despite his already considerable wealth.

If he managed to slay just two more gods of similar stature, he would have enough resources to begin constructing his own divine tower.

***

After resting in Purgatory, Sein began scouting for his next target.

With something as unique as the Avatar Crisis happening in Faeloria, it made little sense for him to remain uninvolved now that he was stranded here.

The God of First Light had only been the beginning. Now that he had had a taste of slaying a god, Sein found himself setting his sights on other deities.

Greed, as they said, was the oldest sin!

Sein was well aware of the immense danger involved, but he simply could not resist.

The divine relic he had claimed from the God of First Light contained a high concentration of lumen elemental law factors, which had greatly benefited him.

Unfortunately, the laws that the God of First Light had mastered lacked the pyro elemental aspects Sein so desperately needed.

His gaze drifted toward the list of other potential targets, and he sank into a long, silent contemplation.

***

The God of Fire Crickets became his second target.

Originally, Sein had considered going after the God of Craft, but the Prime Materia Plane had yielded little information on that deity in recent decades.

The Justice League, too, had grown more conservative and guarded over the years. Making a move within their territory would now be incredibly risky.

The God of Fire Crickets, however, belonged to the Wings of Nature—Sein could not spend all his time staring at Order-aligned deities, hoping for a stroke of luck.

The Wings of Nature had always been the faction with the highest number of fallen deities in every Avatar Crisis.

Their loosely organized system, as well as the sheer complexity of the species and deities that composed it, made them more vulnerable.

In this current iteration of the Avatar Crisis, twelve deities from the Wings of Nature had already perished.

Within the past fifty years, two more of their divine nations had plummeted from the sky.

The frequency of their deities falling was so high that even Sein was stunned despite his experience in countless interplanar wars.

In Faeloria, it seemed this had become an expected occurrence every ten thousand years.

***

Moltendeep Vale.

This was where the altar of the God of Fire Crickets was located.

The entire valley sat atop a sea of molten magma, and most of its inhabitants were pyro elemental creatures.

As the name suggested, the God of Fire Crickets had emerged from among the Fire Cricket Clan.

In addition to its kin, this lesser deity’s followers included a variety of insectoid species and low-ranking pyro elemental creatures.

As Sein prepared to depart for Moltendeep Vale, he once again received assistance from the Purgatory demons.

However, it was not he who requested their aid.

Instead, the Succubus Queen had quietly ordered her demon legions to launch a targeted onslaught against the Wings of Nature, positioned along the southern edge of the Purgatory.

Their intention was not a full-scale war, but rather the appearance of aggression.

As expected, those above the level of intermediate deities in the Wings of Nature quickly turned their focus to the periphery of the Purgatory in response.

In recent years, the Justice League and the Wings of Nature had forged an alliance to suppress the Purgatory demons.

So, the Succubus Queen’s maneuver could not be considered solely for Sein’s benefit—the Purgatory demons also had their own reasons for doing so.