Sovereign of the Ashes

After leaving Lorthisra’s laboratory, Sein had no idea where to go next.

The Spider Queen was obviously a busy woman. As a Rank Six being, she had plenty on her plate—from training to managing her followers.

On top of that, she still had the Moonlit Cat Goddess’s soul to digest, the Goddess of Wealth to deal with, and more importantly, spreading her faith back in Faeloria.

With so many things piling up, she was bound to be swamped for the next few centuries. There was no way she was going to waste too much time on Sein.

After Sein handed over the Tablet of Fate fragment from the Silver Spider Ring, the Spider Queen gave him a wave—basically telling him he was free to go.

Still, she had been pretty generous. Even if she had used Sein a few times and risked his life, she let him keep the Silver Spider Ring.

If anything came up in the future, Sein could use the ring to contact her directly. That also made it pretty clear that he was now her divine messenger.

In truth, their whole working relationship made perfect sense, considering the difference in their strength.

When Sein used Bousse to help recruit initiates for the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, he barely cared about the risks Bousse was taking.

Sein glanced around and awkwardly asked, “So, uh... how do I get out of this tower?”

“You are someone valued by the guardian. Maybe you didn’t know, but while you were in Faeloria, even the Spring Guardian came to ask me about you,” Lorthisra said.

“With that planar light inside you and everything you gained in Faeloria, reaching Rank Four is only a matter of time. I expect you to keep growing and reach even greater heights. That way, you can actually be of use to me.”

With that, a massive hand formed from pure divine energy shoved Sein straight out of the tower.

Lorthisra was indeed an efficient woman; she picked the most direct way to send him off.

The thick walls of the tower unraveled under her divine power, and Sein shot out like a meteor, plummeting from the heights above.

As he fell, the Spider Queen’s divine power wrapped around him quickly dissolved.

By the time he finally spread his demonic wings in his Flame Demon form and landed safely at the base of the black tower, her voice had already faded from his ears.

He looked up at the massive tower that stretched endlessly into the clouds, its sheer grandeur far surpassing even Grandmaster Feylis’ Divine Tower of Verdant Flame.

“This is not... a soul tower, is it?” Sein murmured, his mouth agape in disbelief.

A sudden gust of cold wind swept past him as a massive black undead dragon, likely Rank Six, swooped overhead.

Its dark scales reminded him a little of Black Oblivion, Tourmaline’s fourth brother... but this one was bigger and more sinister-looking.

It seemed to be one of the guardians of this magnificent black tower.

The moment it spotted Sein at the base, its blank, soulless eyes locked onto him.

Just as the tension peaked, the undead dragon’s pale eyes locked onto the Silver Spider Ring on Sein’s finger, as if it had sensed something.

For two long seconds, it stared at the ring. Then, with a low snort, the dragon flapped its wings and vanished back into the sky.

Thanks to his demigod-level perception, Sein could clearly feel there was more danger in this place, and the undead dragon was just one of them.

Like the undead chimera beasts he had seen in the upper levels of the tower, plenty of equally terrifying creatures lurked in the shadows of this place.

Any one of them could easily wipe him out.

What Sein did not know was that the spot he was standing in now was perhaps the most dangerous location in all of Blackhaven!

Even Rank Six black mages would not dare enter without permission from the tower master.

Taking a deep breath, Sein decided this was not the time or place to start collecting specimens.

After getting his bearings, he turned and flew south.

Blackhaven was situated at the northernmost part of the Western Archipelago. If he kept heading south, he would eventually make it out.

***

The Black Tower of Stephen...

This was the nearest black tower to the south of Blackhaven’s infamous soul tower.

Its location had nothing to do with the strength of its tower master. In fact, the man in charge was only a Rank Five black mage.

Even so, he was something of a legend throughout Blackhaven.

Rumor had it his name was Andy Dufren. No one knew if that was his real name or just an alias.

He was not famous for slaying powerful enemies or unraveling the profound mysteries of truth. His fame came from something far more outrageous.

A hundred thousand years ago, back when he was just a Rank Four black mage, he escaped from the Magus Alliance’s most heavily guarded interstellar prison.

On top of that, he did not escape alone. He broke out with an entire group of fellow inmates—other black mages, high-profile members from the star pirate syndicates, devils, and demons!

Logically, he should have gone into hiding or fled as far from the alliance as possible.

But Master Andy was dead set on returning to the Magus World. Even the others who escaped with him could not wrap their heads around it.

All he told them was, “I’ll live as a Magus World mage and die as a Magus World’s soul.”

Despite being a black mage, his loyalty to the Magus World was absolute!

His conviction ended up moving other black mages, too. Quite a few of those who broke out alongside him actually chose to return with him.

Breaking out of a highly secure interstellar prison was, of course, a major crime in the eyes of the alliance.

Due to his unwavering loyalty to the Magus World, the Magus Civilization ended up reducing his sentence.

Nergal, the Rank Eight black soul overmage of Blackhaven, had heard about Andy in passing during one of his rare breaks from experimenting.

Something about the story must have struck a chord. Whatever the reason, Nergal personally used his authority to bring Andy back to Blackhaven.

Andy later built the Black Tower of Stephen. No one really knew why he gave it such a strange name—most assumed it was in honor of someone important to him.

On this particular day, just as he was finishing up an experiment, the noise of a fierce battle outside drew his attention.

When this black mage, who had reached Rank Five more than twenty thousand years ago, turned his gaze outward...

He saw two demigod-level mages locked in combat.