Sovereign of the Ashes

The Voskelians had certainly reached impressive heights in technology; Sein had once observed one of their space stations from afar. It was a fascinating piece of work.

Recognized by neighboring planes as a medium-sized world civilization, the Voskelians had undoubtedly developed and manufactured space battleships and technological weapons capable of rivaling Rank Six beings.

Sein was here alone on a covert mission, so it was best for him to maintain a low profile for as long as possible.

He had no intention of showing his true strength. Aside from the occasional curious glance at this world up close, he was just passing through.

Beneath that hard, complex shell, it’s just a fragile body of flesh and blood, huh? So that’s what marks a technological civilization?”

As he fueled his spacecraft on a demiplane within the Voskel Star Domain, Sein could not help but marvel at the creatures moving about inside the ecological barrier.

This massive shield kept the city safe from harmful cosmic rays and exotic particles, letting the inhabitants walk around without their protective suits.

But if they had to fight without that high-tech armor, relying only on their natural strength... an ordinary human civilian from Magus World could probably take on ten of them.

Sein had never before realized how strong the Magus World humans were, but compared to these creatures, their advantage was glaringly obvious.

“Alright, your plutonium is fully charged. I’ve also modified your spacecraft’s energy converter and other equipment according to your requests. That’ll be 127 Rank Two crystals!” a round-bellied Voskelian said, holding out his hand to Sein.

He wore a blue work uniform and gave off a pungent, unpleasant odor.

Plutonium was the primary energy source of the Voskel Civilization. It was highly radioactive and could power short to medium-range travel through the Astral Realm.

That price, however, was absurd. Converted to magicoins, it was over twelve thousand. Even Magus World did not treat extraplanar creatures this harshly.

But Sein paid up without protest; he had no interest in starting trouble here.

When traveling, anything that could be solved with money was not really a problem.

The primary currencies in the Astral Realm were energy crystals, biological cores, special metals, and souls.

The Voskel Star Domain was a technologically advanced civilization that did not deal in souls—at least, not much—so trade here mostly used the first three.

The blue-skinned Voskelian engineer clearly took Sein for either a refugee or someone involved in shady business.

Rubbing his plump hands together, he smiled ingratiatingly and added. “Of course, you can also pay with biological cores, but that’ll bump the price up by thirteen percent.”

Sein’s magicoins were worthless here, so he tossed the blue-skinned Voskelian a pouch of biological heart cores. Most were Rank Two, with one Rank Three mixed in, all still slightly bloodstained.

“I bet you’re a smart one. You have not seen me today, and I was never here. If I ever hear anything about this out there...” Sein warned.

“Of course, of course, I understand!” The blue-skinned man nodded and bowed quickly, his eyes narrowing in a sly smile.

He clearly pegged Sein as some sort of underworld operative. His workshop was also shady to begin with, and Sein had gone to considerable effort to locate it.

After leaving the blue-skinned man behind, Sein resumed his journey, now disguised as a fellow Voskelian.

To his credit, the blue-skinned man had some professional ethics. A thorough scan from the Faceless Mask found nothing suspicious in the modified spacecraft.

Anyone who could travel alone through the Astral Realm was no pushover.

The blue-skinned man might not have been able to gauge Sein’s life level or exact strength, but he had the sense and experience to know better than to mess with someone like him.

***

After leaving the Voskel Star Domain, Sein flew through a vast, silent expanse of stars.

In the Astral Realm, the distance between civilizations could vary wildly—some were practically neighbors, while others were unimaginably far apart.

On top of that, his piloting equipment was nothing special, so for about ninety-five percent of the trip, Sein spent his time drifting through an empty, star-filled void.

Fortunately, his vessel had been properly fueled up in the Voskel Star Domain, so he was not particularly bored.

He had already set up a small workbench inside the spacecraft, and would sometimes let Yuri take the pilot’s seat while he conducted a few simple experiments.

Eighty-six years after leaving the Voskel Star Domain, Sein had crossed seven star domains, visited thirteen civilizations, and come across more alien races than he could possibly count.

Most of these worlds and species leaned toward technology, which made him wonder if the Gallant Federation’s influence had shaped their development paths.

Though his route curved across the void, in terms of pure distance, each passing day brought him closer to the Gallant Federation.

One day, while passing through a belt of small asteroids, Sein was fiddling with a hexagonal treasure box he had picked up at his last interstellar port.

It was something he had traded for from the Huusians, a nomadic interstellar demihuman race.

The box was studded with thirty-six sharp, rotating spikes. Its surface was etched with countless intricate patterns, and as the spikes turned, each one would eventually align with a specific design.

When all the designs connected, they formed a diagram that the Huusians used as a guide and reference in their lives.

For generations, they had relied on their high priest’s hexagonal treasure box to chart their path, and it had brought them no small amount of fortune.

Sein had paid a modest price to get his hands on a spare one from their tribe.

Of course, this version was nowhere near the high priest’s in quality, and to anyone outside the tribe, it looked more like a puzzle toy.

Neighboring races in nearby star domains even mocked the tradition of the Huusians.

In truth, these demihumans owed their foothold in the surrounding star domains far more to their fierce, competitive nature than to that dubious hexagonal treasure box.

Still, from what Sein had observed and studied, the box did seem to hold a trace of occult and divination powers. So, its guidance was not entirely without value.

Having more or less figured out how to use it and with nothing better to do, Sein decided to try a divination for himself.

“Will I be running into a bit of trouble soon?” he murmured, raising his brows at the final pattern as it clicked into place. Its meaning was easy enough to read.

Sein had been away from Magus World for over a hundred years, yet his journey to the Gallant Federation was still only halfway done.

This worried him as he was not sure he could reach Nexon within the timeframe he had been given.

But there was nothing much he could do. The route had been set by the Magus Civilization’s higher-ups, and even this lousy spacecraft he was flying had been provided by the alliance.

If he wanted to speed up his travel, he would need to modify his ship again at the next interstellar port.

Sein was still mulling over the problem when he heard a loud explosion.

He was under attack!