Sovereign of the Ashes

At first, only a few monsters responded to Lorthisra’s call.

But within moments, that number surged—over a dozen had gathered!

Among them were several chimeras that radiated an aura as powerful as the Moonlit Cat Goddess, who was still struggling inside the spider web.

Lorthisra claimed she would not rely on her adoptive father, but in reality, she had borrowed more of his resources than she realized.

From the rare materials available in the black tower to the dozen or so chimeras rushing in to help her, all of them were Nergal’s.

With the assistance of these Rank Four and above chimeras, Lorthisra received an immediate boost in power.

In the blink of an eye, the speed at which she dragged the divine spider web across the altar accelerated dramatically.

The massive silver web, with the Moonlit Cat Goddess still writhing inside, was quickly yanked into place on the altar.

Lorthisra’s eyes gleamed with growing excitement.

While she and the chimeras wrestled with the struggling web, high above them on the black tower’s top floor, Nergal paused his work at the experimental table.

He glanced downward and let out a low, amused chuckle.

“That little girl’s got fire in her today.”

The specimen currently lying on Nergal’s table was his most recent acquisition—a peak Rank Six Graveborn[1].

Yet in Nergal’s presence, it was nothing more than a skeletal toy.

In truth, Nergal had been careful with how he raised Lorthisra. He never spoiled her, but he never neglected her either.

The peak Rank Six specimen strapped to Nergal’s experiment table was a master of necromantic law.

Its divine relic alone was worth far more than the Moonlit Cat Goddess.

However, Nergal would never just hand over a peak Rank Six divine relic to his adopted daughter without a good reason.

He believed that the young should earn their own fortunes instead of relying on an old man like him.

Most of the elders in the Magus World had already withdrawn from worldly affairs. Now, it was the younger generation that held the reins.

While Nergal was distracted by Lorthisra on the lower floor, the Graveborn on the experiment table trembled slightly.

The pale blue soul flames flickering in its hollow eye sockets were full of fear and silent pleading.

Nergal glanced at the skeleton and snorted.

“Too late to beg now. The Gallant Federation had paid a fortune to win your loyalty, even promised to push you to Overlord rank, just so they could use you to find a way to counter our necromantic spells like the Undead Plague.”

He tapped the Graveborn’s skull and sneered.

“If unraveling the mysteries of necromantic law were that easy, a deadweight like you would have ascended to Overlord long ago already.”

He tilted his head and continued murmuring to himself.

“Hmm... should I fuse you with that Flame Lizard Emperor I found seventy thousand years ago? Or should I take you apart and use your body parts for my Nether Bone Dragon? Decisions, decisions... hehehehe.”

His sinister chuckles echoed through the dim laboratory.

***

In Faeloria...

Sein remained in the Perplexing Forest for a full three months before the spider web cage finally settled into silence.

Just as the Spider Queen had promised, his only task had been to lure the Moonlit Cat Goddess out.

That was it.

It had been a low-risk job—and yet, it earned him the God of Brute Force’s divine relic.

Sein was almost tempted to tell the Spider Queen to call him up if she ever had more easy jobs like this.

Of course, the real credit belonged to her.

The success of this operation had made it clear just how terrifyingly powerful the Spider Queen truly was.

At first, the tug-of-war between her and the Moonlit Cat Goddess had seemed dead even to Sein—until, with a sudden surge of power, Lorthisra somehow managed to knock the goddess out!

The goddess did not die—at least not right away.

Her divine body still lay motionless before him, but there was no life left in it.

Sein, who was still in the early stages of studying soulology, could not tell that her soul had already been extracted.

The forest had gone eerily quiet.

After a long pause, Sein asked aloud, “So... what now?”

The confinement array at the heart of the forest was still intact.

It was the same one that had kept three months of chaotic divine power sealed away without letting a single ripple escape.

There was a huge black vortex in front of him.

Just a moment earlier, the Moonlit Cat Goddess’ golden soul and the silver spider cocoon had vanished into it.

He could not help but wonder—could he just walk through it too and return to the Magus World?

On the other end, the Spider Queen had just won the tug-of-war and was panting hard.

Her short gasps were oddly pleasant, and they stirred some very questionable thoughts in Sein’s mind.

The soul of the Moonlit Cat Goddess was still resisting in the distant Magus World, and the Spider Queen would need more time to break her down.

This meant Sein’s return had to be delayed once again.

Fortunately, it would not be long. Lorthisra had promised to bring him back to the Magus World in ten years.

Sein let out a sigh of relief when the Spider Queen finally gave him a clear answer.

With her instructions, he began taking apart the magic array and cleaning up the remains of the cat monsters.

Those monsters, once the Moonlit Cat Goddess’ most faithful followers, would soon become loyal to Lorthisra instead.

Her divine nation, along with all resources inside it, now belonged to the Spider Queen.

It seemed like deities fought on an entirely different level, and the rewards they reaped were just as vastly different.

From what he could see, just capturing the Moonlit Cat Goddess had earned Lorthisra more than he had managed to gather in centuries of roaming Faeloria.

Now that a foreign goddess with dangerous ambition had infiltrated this world, things were only going to get messier.

Worse yet, none of the other deities seemed to have noticed the Moonlit Cat Goddess was gone.

Who knew how long that secret would stay buried?

***

Once he had tidied up the last traces in the Perplexing Forest, Sein made his way back to Purgatory.

As it turned out, his battle with the God of Craft really had been his last in Faeloria.

Now that the deities had regained their full strength, they were no longer so easy to pick off.

Sein did not even feel like going after a weak deity anymore—he just wanted to go home.

As for what he and Lorthisra had done in the Perplexing Forest, it was likely only the Purgatory demons that had any clue something had gone down.

After all, it was from them that Lorthisra had gathered intel on the Moonlit Cat Goddess.

But with their limited imagination, it was doubtful any of them could have guessed that the Spider Queen had taken over another deity’s identity entirely—especially since the Moonlit Cat Goddess’ divine nation was still hanging up in the sky, and no new deity had fallen in the past three months.

Naturally, this left the Purgatory demons scratching their heads.

Back in his own castle, Sein did not bother explaining anything to them.

He simply packed up his things and began preparing to leave this world behind.

1. Recap: Nergal fought this creature in the Bone Graveyard Star Domain back in Chapter 1019! ☜