Sovereign of the Ashes

Six years later, Sein led the Divine Tower of Ashes combat legion to a remote demiplane outside Magus World to await deployment.

His space fortress was there too.

The Divine Tower of Ashes had brought half a million troops this time. Aside from nearly seven hundred full-fledged mages, most of the forces consisted of centaurs, minotaurlings, lesser sea races, a few demihumans, underground dark creatures, and some winged and insectoid slaves from White Sand World.

The legion was still a mixed bag, reflecting Sein’s lack of a solid foundation.

The lesser sea races came from Ashenreach’s waters, while the demihumans and dark creatures were natives of that region.

Originally, Sein had not planned to bring these creatures to war, but the Goddess of Wealth had recommended it.

It cost him almost nothing to deploy these cannon fodder.

On top of that, whatever spoils were taken from the enemy world, a portion of the profits would still flow back to the Divine Tower of Ashes.

Thanks to Sein’s speech supporting demihuman rights during the Magus Alliance Conference, recruiting these underground demihumans had been smoother than expected.

Although Ashenreach had no kingdoms ruled by Rank Four demihuman kings, their behavior suggested that demihuman races across Magus World still kept some form of contact network.

As for the dark creatures of Ashenreach, they were loyal to the Spider Queen.

In this war, the demigod-level Dark Elf Queen herself would be participating. The elite elven troops under her command were set to be the sharp edge of Sein’s bottom-tier legions.

The sea races were also old partners of Sein.

He had not yet decided whether to bring Tourmaline to the Pyreling World battlefield, but if the fighting there proved too intense or if enemy strength exceeded expectations, he would call for her support.

When Sein arrived at the target demiplane, three space fortresses were already hovering in its gray-white sky—one his own, the other two belonging to the Order of Murg and the Order of Cercis Shield.

Grimm and Vlad had also arrived early, but unlike Sein, they did not have a space fortress to rely on.

All of them were Rank Four mages, but their circumstances were very different.

Sein had the backing of the Verdant Flame Faction and had enjoyed a smooth path before and after his promotion to Rank Four.

Vlad and Grimm, however, had only a Rank Three grand mage as their mentor.

Archimedes had offered Vlad considerable support in the early stages of building his divine tower, but that support did not extend to providing a space fortress.

For mages who had been promoted to Rank Four for less than a thousand years, not owning a space fortress was normal.

Still, with the riches of Pyreling World, if they succeeded in taking this plane, Vlad, who had been running his divine tower longer, would likely have enough funds to pursue whatever goals he had set.

The last to arrive at the demiplane was Angreas, who brought with him a space fortress, thousands of bloodline warlocks, and nearly three hundred thousand cannon fodder troops.

The Rank Four Kermoine Serpent Emperor Warlock’s space fortress was battered and scarred, bearing the marks of countless battles.

Even so, it could still fly and make basic spatial jumps, thanks to the durability of Magus World’s magitech engineering.

To Sein, the fortress looked suspiciously like the one that the Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan had crashed in Sandstorm World during the Wild Gorilla Star Domain War.

It seemed like that fortress had not been damaged beyond repair, and the Kermoine Warlock Clan had brought it back to Magus World, repaired it, and eventually passed it on to Angreas after his promotion to Rank Four.

Judging by this, life for Angreas within his clan had probably not been easy, which explained his eagerness to seize his first big fortune after reaching Rank Four.

Several massive space gates opened on the ground beneath them.

Sein noted that Grimm’s mastery over spatial laws was clearly more advanced than his own, just from the complexity of these gates alone.

Even so, what impressed Sein and the others more was Grimm’s connection to the Winter Guardian.

This interplanar war had been officially reported to the Magus Alliance beforehand.

Given that the Magus Alliance Conference had recently passed policies restricting foreign expansion, they were surprised that their declaration was approved without any issue.

“Brother Marcus, I didn’t expect Vlad’s junior to be acquainted with two Rank Four mages of this caliber. With their space fortresses joining us, conquering Pyreling World will be much easier.”

Inside the space fortress, a Rank Four knight named Murg spoke to Marcus, the Rank Five knight standing before him in purple armor.

Most Magus World knights maintained their bodies at peak condition, often appearing young or middle-aged despite their true age.

But Marcus was different. He looked like an old man, with a thick white beard and short gray-white hair.

Yet anyone who underestimated him would quickly learn otherwise. Marcus’ broad chest and heavy shield had already proven many times that an “old warhorse” could still run strong.

Among the Rank Five knights, he was certainly one of the older ones, but he compensated with unmatched skill and hard-earned experience.

In countless battles, he had shown through action that he was far more reliable than many younger Rank Five knights!

His slightly jaundiced eyes looked toward the two massive space fortresses descending into the demiplane.

Sein’s newly modified Ashen Fortress was easily the most luxurious, imposing, and eye‑catching of the four stationed there.

A fortress like that did not even need to fire a shot. Its very presence hanging over the battlefield was enough to shatter enemy morale and inspire confidence in its allies.

Grimm, who had pretty much finished forming the space gates, glanced up at Sein’s fortress with envy.

This demiplane, serving as the staging area for the campaign, now held nearly ten million combat troops—mostly supplied by the two knightly orders.

The Order of Cercis Shield alone had contributed nearly six million cannon fodder troops and more than one hundred and fifty thousand knights.

If not for Sein and his allies joining, this knightly order would have been the undisputed main force of this war.

Once Sein and the other Rank Four and above powerhouses had assembled, their first task was to decide who would lead the initial charge into Pyreling World.