Sovereign of the Ashes

Battling a god-level entity had always proven immensely beneficial to Sein.

Even in his Flame Demon form, Sein still felt the overwhelming impact of the intense flame elemental law power wielded by the God of Fire Crickets.

Unlike the God of First Light, the God of Fire Crickets had only a few high-quality followers to support it and very few temples to manage.

Moltendeep Vale basically served as its stronghold.

To reach the god in its depths and bring it down, Sein had to first deal with a swarming defense of hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of Fire Crickets and other pyro elemental creatures.

An army of roughly two hundred thousand Purgatory demons took part in the operation alongside Sein.

These demons infiltrated the outskirts of Moltendeep Vale in silence, using the underground magma sea to mask their movement.

Nearly twenty demon lords accompanied Sein.

Meanwhile, five demon kings, in their avatar forms, led a massive force of over a million demons along the Purgatory border, staging a calculated display of power meant to intimidate and distract the Wings of Nature.

The demons who followed Sein into Moltendeep Vale were among the most savage and bloodthirsty beings in existence.

They craved slaughter, reveled in carnage, and delighted in blood feasts.

To say that the two hundred thousand Purgatory demons had come to assist Sein would be misleading.

In truth, they had come to indulge in a bloodbath.

Two hundred thousand against one million!

Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Purgatory demons still reduced Moltendeep Vale to a wasteland of death and ruin.

After all, an average Fire Cricket barely reached a demon’s calf. How could they hope to resist?

In the final battle against the God of Fire Crickets, Sein did not rely on the demon lords.

From beginning to end, only he and Yuri took part in the decisive confrontation.

It was a fair fight in terms of number, for Yuri herself was considered a living embodiment of Sein’s intellect.

The Burning Flame Unit, which had sustained heavy damage in the previous battle, had since been only roughly repaired by Sein.

His years of interning at Sky City’s heavy industry laboratory had not been in vain.

As for the standard mechas that had also been damaged, Sein left them aside for now.

In a battle of this magnitude, their support would have made little difference.

Still, while Yuri’s assistance was invaluable, it was Sein’s newly upgraded Demon Eye Mask that proved to be the most decisive force on the battlefield.

Now capable of unleashing the devastating lumen-elemental spell known as “Penetrating Eye”, the mask had been renamed, reflecting not only Sein’s personal growth but also the continuous evolution of his magic artifacts.

The Demon Eye Mask was a fusion of multiple forces: bewitchment, as well as sonido and lumen magic.

Due to the power of the Succubi, the mask had no fixed form.

The God of Fire Crickets, surrounded by countless lesser creatures, might have posed a far greater threat had Moltendeep Vale not already been trampled into ruin by the Purgatory demons.

Because of that, the god did not exert the same pressure as the God of First Light once had.

Yet, it still took three days for Sein to bring it down.

Having evolved from an insectoid species, the God of Fire Crickets possessed an almost absurd resilience.

Fortunately, with the support of the Purgatory demons and the option to retreat through the magma sea beneath Moltendeep Vale, Sein did not have to fight under the same pressure or urgency he had during the hunt for the God of First Light.

The moment he severed the god’s grotesque, compound-eyed head and raised it high, the Purgatory demons across Moltendeep Vale turned their eyes toward the pure-blooded demon lord in his Flame Demon Form. Their gazes were filled with reverence and awe.

Even the demon lords present looked upon Sein with both conflicted and deferential expressions.

Slaying a god was no ordinary feat, even for them.

Yet, Sein had done it.

With the help of Yuri and his arsenal of magic artifacts, he had attained the strength required to defeat a peak demigod.

The Demon Eye Mask, now embedded with the God of First Light’s divine relic, had provided unparalleled support throughout the battle.

As the Magus World mages’ knowledge deepened, they could unleash destructive power far beyond the limits of their life level.

This phenomenon remained incomprehensible to many outside their world.

At this stage of Sein’s journey, his focus, mana, and constitution had yet to reach the theoretical upper limits of his current life level.

So how was he able to unleash such devastating force?

What of the sonic blasts, the bewitching power, the piercing white beams of light—abilities that rivaled the attacks of demigod-level demon lords?

Where had that power come from?

These were the questions echoing in the minds of any demon present with intelligence enough to wonder.

Sein knew whom he had to thank.

If not for the Spider Queen, he would never have arrived in this strange world called Faeloria nor grown at a rate that far surpassed his progress in the Magus World.

He also had to thank the Succubus Queen. Without her full support within Purgatory, he would never have so easily obtained the high-grade materials and rare specimens for his research.

Now, clutching the God of Fire Crickets’ corpse and divine relic, Sein felt a deep stirring within—he had a feeling that an even greater mystery of truth was calling to him.

***

After returning to Purgatory, Sein once again retreated into seclusion and immersed himself in experimental research, just as he had following his previous battle.

Though he had astonished the two hundred thousand-strong demon army with his display of power, the cost of victory had been anything but light, though not immediately visible to outsiders.

His body had endured severe erosion from the pyro elemental laws, but thanks to his innate Flame Demon physique and high constitution, the injuries were not as bad as those he had sustained in the battle against the God of First Light.

Even so, the damage incurred elsewhere was far from negligible.

During the fight with the God of Fire Crickets, the Demon Eye Mask, which had performed brilliantly, was nearly destroyed by the end of the battle.

The root of the issue lay in the inherent instability of divine relics as high-level energy sources. Though partially suppressed by Faeloria’s unique power of law, the relic’s essence remained unchanged.

This was Sein’s first time working on a magic artifact of this caliber, and the fact that the mask had held together until the end of the battle was already a remarkable feat.

Meanwhile, the core propulsion and energy center of Yuri’s mecha took a direct hit during the god’s final, frenzied counterattack.

Had it not been for sheer luck—or the exceptional durability of the Burning Flame Unit, whose armor was crafted from the same cutting-edge alloys used in Sky City’s space fortresses—the cost of this mission could have been even more.

High risk, after all, always came with the promise of high reward.

Upon returning to Purgatory, Sein did not even stop to greet the Succubus Queen or the others. He just went straight to his laboratory.

The God of Fire Crickets’s corpse and divine relic held even greater allure to him than those of the God of First Light.

Eager to unravel their mysteries, Sein went so far as to indefinitely postpone repairs on his Demon Eye Mask.