Sovereign of the Ashes

“Please wait a little longer, I’ll be done soon,” Sein said, not pausing his work even after noticing the arrival of the two Magus Civilization powerhouses.

Seeing familiar beings from Magus World again genuinely lifted his spirits.

No matter how obedient alien creatures might be toward him, only fellow natives of his homeplane could give him that quiet comfort that came from being around his own kind.

“No rush, Master. Need help? I can chop off that disobedient arm for you,” Azaria offered, lifting his massive steel sword.

Right now, the aura Sein released was stronger than the Rank Five knight’s.

Knights respected strength above all, and when that strength came with a mage’s depth of knowledge, their respect only grew.

Among peers, knights naturally held mages in high regard.

Sein took one look at Azaria’s rust-flecked, blood-stained sword and shook his head.

“Cutting off his arm would ruin my specimen. You try to contain the black smoke instead. I’ll reward you for the help,” Sein suggested.

“You’re being too formal, Master. How could I possibly ask for payment?” Azaria blurted out, eyes wide.

Back when Sein was still Rank Four, he had already been able to take on Rank Five beings head-on thanks to the Faceless Mask and his core skills.

Now that he had stepped into Rank Five, his combat strength had only climbed higher.

Capturing the Rank Four Sanok was almost trivial.

By the time Sein completely subdued his specimen, the battles across the rest of Zax were already nearing their end.

The Klytheran fighters were really aggressive.

Their sheer presence was intimidating, and each one of them fought with remarkable strength.

During this period, countless federation warships were shot out of the sky.

Determined not to let the Gallant Federation troops escape, the Klytherans even chased fleeing ships into outer space.

Aside from a few vessels that managed to flee, the vast majority of the federal forces were wiped out in this sudden ambush.

By contrast, most of the native legions on this planet remained mostly unharmed because the Klytherans had no interest in the Sanokians.

After Sein finished the final steps of specimen collection, Gargawell—who had been quiet for a long while—finally spoke.

“Master... I find it truly astonishing that you command such a massive legion of plant giants despite being a pyromancer.”

He squinted at the towering creatures, studying their forms. “And they look familiar. Are you, by any chance, related to Master Lorianne?”

“She’s my mentor,” Sein replied.

“Ah?!” Gargawell stared at him, utterly stunned.

Azaria, the Rank Five knight, silently glanced between the two men. He had never met Lorianne.

“I’ve crossed paths with Master Lorianne several times back in Magus World, and even behind the frontlines of the Netherworld Star Domain battlefield. I never expected a Rank Four dendromancer like her to end up raising a Rank Five pyromancer as her apprentice!”

“Whoa!” This time, Azaria was the one who gasped.

“I’m from the Verdant Flame Faction. Although my mentor is a dendromancer, most of us are pyromancers,” Sein explained with a smile.

“You met my mentor on the Netherworld battlefield, Master? How is she doing now?” he asked.

Gargawell and Azaria already owed Sein their lives.

Now that they also shared a connection through Lorianne, the atmosphere between them warmed quickly.

***

Gargawell and Lorianne were not besties, but they were definitely friends.

Truth be told, Gargawell’s eccentric nature meant he had very few friends in Magus World.

Lorianne was one of the rare mages who could converse with him normally.

Years ago, he had hired her to brew a special potion, and they had kept in contact ever since.

Sein had long noticed that his mentor enjoyed remarkable popularity in Magus World—she seemed to have friends everywhere.

That was the privilege of being an expert apothecary.

When one could brew advanced or rare potions, people would always come knocking on their door.

Although Sein was a pretty decent alchemist himself, he rarely crafted magic artifacts for strangers. He only took on such work when he needed a favor back.

Beyond that, Sein was mostly self-sufficient. His alchemy was almost always for his own use.

The acquisition of a Rank Four living specimen marked Sein’s first real step after returning to the battlefields within the Magus Civilization’s star domain.

But before he could spend much time catching up with Gargawell and Azaria, the Klytheran legion fighting in outer space sent back bad news—several federal war fleets had arrived as reinforcements.

Worse, the Klytherans had detected weapons they had never encountered before.

Looking around at the smoke-choked Planet Zax, Sein said, “The native lifeforms here are not a real threat. Our focus needs to stay on the interstellar battlefield outside and on the Gallant Federation’s forces.”

Gargawell and Azaria agreed.

“Across the dozens of planes and hundreds of resource planets in the Sanok Star Domain, more than eighty percent have already been conquered and brought under the Magus Civilization,” Gargawell reported.

“Right now, only ten or so planets, including Zax, are still locked in battle. The only reason their native lifeforms can keep resisting is that they are borrowing the Gallant Federation’s strength,” he continued. “We do not need to launch any major assaults. If we hold our ground, the Magus Civilization’s main forces will reach us eventually.”

Sein, newly arrived in the Sanok Star Domain, had not yet fully understood the situation here.

Gargawell’s explanation was sound, and Sein agreed with part of it.

But he had no intention of sitting around waiting. The Klytheran Legion he commanded was strong; he also had hidden aces like Darian Wraith and the others.

If they took the initiative and coordinated with the Magus Civilization frontlines, the impact would be far greater.

More importantly, Sein hoped that real military achievements would help sway the Shadowbat Civilization, Marvelous Plane, and Planet Aquaria toward joining the Magus Alliance.

“Holding our current positions is important, but I believe we should try reinforcing the nearby planets that are still struggling,” Sein said.

“Zax is stable for the moment, but as you said, Master Gargawell, more than a dozen planets in this star domain are still locked in desperate battles, and our Magus Civilization is currently on the losing side on several of them.”

Azaria raised no objections.

After thinking it over, Gargawell nodded in agreement with Sein’s proposal.