Sovereign of the Ashes

The Goddess of Magic’s reaction said everything about how she felt regarding Sein’s words.

Exploring a single field was already quite a challenge, let alone every mystery in the entire Astral Realm.

Still, a lot of what Sein said had genuinely broadened Eluvira’s perspective, especially when he brought up other fields of study like alchemy and body tempering techniques.

Until now, her focus had been entirely on elemental theory; she had never seriously considered branching out.

Body tempering techniques held no appeal for Eluvira as she had no interest in boosting her physical strength like the God of Brute Force.

Alchemy, though... That was a different story.

During her stay at Sein’s castle, she came across the low-level magical constructs created by Flynn and the others.

To her, they barely qualified as toys—but even so, she had to admit they represented a valid alternative path for developing elemental powers.

Eluvira had her own divine artifacts—more than one, in fact.

If one considered the Weave a divine artifact, it would easily qualify as a “world-class secret treasure”.

The artifacts she had forged so far were all created by merging divine power with the power of laws.

Up to this point, she had never crafted anything that truly combined elemental power with the pursuit of knowledge and truth.

The “floating city” concept Flynn had mentioned once to her genuinely piqued her interest.

With Flynn’s current level of alchemy, it was unlikely he could build even a prototype within a thousand years.

But with the help of Eluvira, the Goddess of Magic... things might turn out very differently.

The more time she spent talking with Sein, the more inspired she became.

She had not uncovered any groundbreaking truths from him, but what she had gained was just as valuable: a fresh perspective, an expanded sense of possibilities.

It had been tens of thousands of years since she had felt this kind of joy.

Just like Sein, who often lost himself in his experiments, Eluvira understood now that the pursuit of truths was indeed addictive.

The satisfaction that came from uncovering, understanding, and mastering a piece of truth... that rush could easily eclipse most worldly desires.

No wonder so many mages from the Magus World were still single.

***

Eluvira, the Goddess of Magic, had gained a lot from her time with Sein—and the same was true for him.

He had also picked up plenty of insights from her, especially when it came to more complex elemental knowledge.

Sein had been stuck at a bottleneck in certain elemental fields for what felt like forever.

He had recorded all his questions and problem areas into a crystal ball, planning to take them back to the Magus World one day and seek guidance from Master Lorianne.

But some aspects—like the laws of the pyro element or those tied to the Ashen Flame—were not things he could brute-force his way through with effort alone.

Blind study would only get him so far.

To make real progress, he would probably need the guidance of someone with deeper insight.

Since he could not return to the Magus World anytime soon, Eluvira was the perfect stand-in. She was right here in Purgatory and more than qualified to mentor him.

Besides, her grasp of the pyro element was even deeper than Lorianne’s.

Aside from casually answering his questions, she also taught him several spell models whenever the mood struck her.

“That Penetrating Eye spell you used in battle back then was interesting,” she told him once. “Give me that spell model, and I will share a few demigod-level ones I have mastered.”

“It is a fair trade,” she added with a smile. “An equivalent exchange—just like you always say.”

“In that case, I will take three pyro-elemental spell models. I want ones with heavy destructive power and wide area coverage. I am designing a forbidden-level spell that fits my style,” Sein replied without hesitation.

“No problem,” the Goddess of Magic said without missing a beat.

Unlike the Magus World mages, Eluvira did not place similar importance on the value of knowledge.

If it was just demigod-level spell models, she could hand out three, or even ten, without batting an eye.

***

Eluvira, the Goddess of Magic, had stayed at Sein’s castle for a total of 137 years.

The Avatar Crisis had stretched on for more than seven centuries, and even now, Sein could still feel the shifts in planar laws and environmental balance taking place.

The most obvious sign was the slow but steady decline in elemental concentration throughout the surrounding space.

“Forty-seven years ago, Faeloria’s average elemental concentration peaked, but it has dropped drastically over the last thirty years,” Sein remarked.

“At this rate, it probably won’t take another hundred years for it to drop back to the same level it was at when I first arrived in Faeloria.” He looked down at the elemental concentration reader in his hand and let out a quiet sigh.

The decline of elemental concentration and the lifting of law restrictions had brought about a semblance of order to Faeloria—or at least signs that the world was beginning to stabilize again.

One major development was that deities who had been walking the continent in avatars were now regaining their strength. Some had even returned to their divine nations.

Eluvira, too, had departed, returning to her own divine nation.

Unlike the Dark Lady or others who roamed the world out of curiosity or desire, Eluvira had never been one for travel.

She might not hold knowledge in the same sacred regard as the mages of the Magus World, but at heart, she was also a recluse just like them.

If not for the sheer scale of the Avatar Crisis and the fact that it had affected her directly, Eluvira would have likely remained unseen in the Prime Materia Plane for a total of sixty or seventy thousand years.

Not just the Faelorian deities, but some of the demon kings had also regained enough strength to return to the deeper levels of Purgatory.

Yet at this point in time, very few demons were actually leaving the Purgatory borders.

It was not because they were attached to the bleak landscape of the borderlands—they were waiting for the great war that was almost certain to break out.

The restoration of divine power might have marked the end of the Avatar Crisis, but it did not mean peace was on the horizon.

In this cycle alone, over fifty deities had fallen, and that was just the official count.

Very few of them had been unaffiliated. Most were tied to factions, with their own allies and followers.

The hatred left behind by their deaths would not simply fade.

Now that the gods were getting their strength back, there was no guarantee that these simmering grudges would not flare into open conflict once more.

In fact, in every past Avatar Crisis, the period immediately after its end was often just as bloody—if not bloodier—than the crisis itself.

Once the gods got their power back, they all wanted revenge.

This time, however, the battlefield would not be the main continent.

Instead, the fighting would take place in a special region beneath Faeloria’s crystal barrier—a space strong enough to support battles between Rank Four beings and above.

It was known by two names: the “Battlefield of Gods” or the “Graveyard of Gods”.