Sovereign of the Ashes

The stalemate instantly erupted into a full-blown bloodbath.

Not even the Dark Alliance deities on the field had expected things to escalate this far, let alone Sein.

And come to think of it, they were the ones who had arrived here first.

The Purgatory demons descended with overwhelming force, and the sight of more than ten demon kings diving into battle was enough to make even the formidable God of Storms pause.

After a brief moment of consideration, he took half a step back.

No one could say for sure whether the Purgatory demons might turn on the Dark Alliance next.

Being labeled “chaotic” meant the demons did not have true allies. To them, anyone outside their own kind was fair game.

That said, a few Dark Alliance deities had grown closer to the demons in recent years.

Still, with Ysor, the God of Storms, stepping back, the other two intermediate deities of the Dark Alliance followed suit.

Fenrion, the God of the Hunt, shot one last vicious glare at the Goddess of Joy down below.

It had not let go of the idea of taking her down, but under the crushing pressure radiating from the demons, it had no choice but to shelve that plan for now.

Halvren, the God of Suffering, had the clearest sense of the situation.

While Ysor and Fenrion clung to their ambitions, Halvren simply turned and flew toward the southwestern edge of the sky.

Apparently, he and Eluvira were thinking the same thing—neither of them wished to get caught up in this quagmire.

Sein did not want to stick around either, but with the Purgatory demons and Justice League deities clashing right in front of him, he could not make a move.

After all, in a way, he was the reason the demons had gone to war with the Justice League deities in the first place.

His body was weak, and the violent waves of energy shaking the battlefield left him frozen in place.

Fortunately, Sein’s moment of fear did not last long. Anastasia swooped down beside him in her true Succubus form.

“Looks like you’ve stirred up quite a bit of trouble this time,” the Succubus Queen teased.

“It was an accident. I didn’t mean to get dragged into this mess,” Sein muttered, slightly embarrassed.

Sein had not expected things to spiral like this far—from chasing down the God of Craft, to getting caught in a chaotic melee between the Justice League and Dark Alliance deities, and now watching the Purgatory demons join the fray.

Still, he had walked away with more than he ever expected.

He had secured the God of Craft’s corpse, his divine relic, and a handful of other spoils.

As a bonus, he had also unexpectedly ended up with the corpse of the Goddess of Waters and her divine relic—both of which the God of Storms had clearly been after.

Ysor was still on the battlefield, and Sein could feel a lingering thread of the deity’s attention fixed on him.

Being on the radar of a powerful intermediate god was never a good thing, especially not one like Ysor, whose strength was clearly among the top of his rank.

Fortunately, the appearance of the Succubus Queen by Sein’s side eased some of that pressure.

In a straight-up duel, she probably would not stand a chance against the God of Storms—combat simply was not her forte.

But as the Purgatory Princess, she was always protected by at least three demon kings, not to mention the demon lords and lower-ranking demons in her retinue.

During the Avatar Crisis, even mortals could slay gods.

When facing a legion of Purgatory demons, even greater deities think twice, let alone an intermediate god like Ysor.

Of course, another major reason for Ysor’s hesitation was the Bloodwar Monarch himself.

Seated on the Blood Throne, Thorstein had not even risen when he intercepted the God of Radiance’s earlier attack with just his Blood Sword.

On top of that, it was not even a fair battle.

This cycle of the Avatar Crisis was bigger than any before, and even the greater deities were affected by the suppression of planar laws.

From the looks of it, the Bloodwar Monarch, with the strength of a supreme deity, seemed barely affected.

He remained calm the entire time.

In fact, instead of intercepting the God of Radiance’s attack, he looked more like he was just toying with him earlier.

This was the true pinnacle of power in Faeloria.

The only way to completely break free from the suppression imposed by the world’s laws, enforced by the Tablets of Fate, was to ascend to the level of a supreme deity.

Although the Bloodwar Monarch had clearly demonstrated his power to the God of Radiance, it was just as clear from his actions that he had no intention of delivering a fatal blow.

Despite having his strength suppressed, the God of Radiance was still a greater deity.

While the world’s laws restricted him, he still had ways to unleash his full strength if the situation became dire.

And more importantly, killing the God of Radiance would mean directly provoking the God of Justice.

The Purgatory demons were not prepared for an all-out war with the Justice League, and Thorstein understood the gravity of the situation.

The rest of the demons on the battlefield, including most of the demon kings, however, were clearly thrilled by the sudden outbreak of violence.

Demons, by nature, were chaotic and bloodthirsty.

If the high-ranking demons under Thorstein had not worked so hard to rein them in over the years, the lower ranks would have long since broken out of Purgatory and gone on a rampage across the Prime Materia Plane.

Among the demon kings, none looked more fired up than Adby, the Razorclaw King.

His strength might not have surpassed Ysor’s, but in terms of pure aggression and combat style, he was far more ferocious.

Countless razor-sharp blades shot out of Adby’s body as he unfurled his wings and dove headfirst into the densest cluster of Justice League deities.

From a battlefield perspective, the Razorclaw King was undeniably an elite warrior. He embodied everything one would expect from a brute.

But as a demon king who should be leading his kind, Adby was a disaster.

If all of Faeloria’s demons were like him—or worse, under his reign—the demon race would have gone extinct within tens of thousands of years.

Adby’s reckless charge instantly escalated the fight between the Purgatory demons and the Justice League deities, pushing the conflict into an even fiercer stage.

Since this battlefield was deep in Justice League’s territory, reinforcements continued to pour in from every direction.

Believers surged onto the scene in wave after wave, especially following the descent of the God of Radiance.

The demons might have had the upper hand at first, but as time dragged on, the balance was inevitably beginning to tilt in the Justice League’s favor.