Sovereign of the Ashes

During this deployment, Feylis remained stationed at the center of the Chaos Sea Star Domain.

Since the Magus Civilization had not yet entered a major clash with the Gallant Federation in the Golden Rock Worlds, Feylis saw no need to rush there.

Gregory jumped straight into getting ready to deal with the unruly wandering races scattered all over the Chaos Sea.

He seemed to enjoy this kind of work.

No, more like, Gregory loved fighting. He reveled in the raw, bone-crunching impact of close combats.

The more Sein interacted with Gregory, the more baffled he became by his elder’s unusual preferences.

For someone who was technically a mage who commanded elemental powers, his interests were practically identical to those of knights.

Sein could not decide whether this was a good or bad thing.

As someone devoted to the pursuit of truth, he firmly believed that knowledge was a mage’s greatest source of power.

As for Sein himself, he naturally joined the third contingent heading toward Blue Star to help the Magus Civilization survey deposits of inert crystals.

Along with Sein, his Divine Tower of Ashes Army, as well as the Klytheran and Huusian legions from the Magus Alliance, would establish defenses around Blue Star.

Compared to the massive forces Feylis had dispatched across the Chaos Sea, this force was relatively small.

But since no hostilities had broken out around Blue Star yet, a force of this size was more than enough.

After a short rest and resupply, an amusing situation unfolded just as Sein led his legions toward the Blue Star region.

Unable to sit still, Gregory had already begun a purge operation across the Chaos Sea.

This purge, however, did not mean wiping out all the wandering races. The Magus Civilization had only just arrived; it did not wish to leave a terrible impression on the native lifeforms.

These races were given two choices: join the Magus Alliance or leave.

Under no circumstances would the Magus Civilization allow the Chaos Sea to remain in disorder.

During this time, a powerful nomadic tribe, led by a Rank Four creature, approached the Magus Civilization’s base of operations on their own and declared their willingness to submit before Gregory even arrived.

It seemed like there were all kinds of birds in a vast forest.

Previously, backed by the Gallant Federation’s deep pockets, the wealthy Arid Expanse World had lured away most of the capable nomadic clans and interstellar mercenaries in the Chaos Sea with generous rewards.

The interstellar races still lingering in the Chaos Sea were, overall, not particularly strong.

Even so, a few of them had placed their bets on the Magus Civilization.

Whether that made them far-sighted or simply opportunistic was hard to say, but they had likely watched the Magus Civilization’s campaigns in other star domains before picking a side.

In the end, their decision did pay off.

With this reasonably capable nomadic group voluntarily defecting, Gregory’s efforts to clear out the Chaos Sea went far more smoothly.

Of course, since these newcomers’ backgrounds were unclear, Feylis and the other Magus Civilization powerhouses would not entrust them with anything important.

Aside from a few small perks offered at the start to keep these foolish alien creatures satisfied, their fate was already decided.

When war broke out, they would be pushed to the frontlines as cannon fodder.

Neither the Magus Civilization nor the Magus Alliance felt the slightest pity for them.

Only if they survived the brutal war and lived long after might they eventually rise to become “elders” of the Magus Alliance.

***

“Master Gilbert, do you see any Gray Quartz deposits nearby?” Sein asked the stooped, white-robed elder outside the space fortress.

Although the mage before him was only a Rank Four, Sein treated him with respect.

The Magus Civilization had sent Gilbert here precisely because he was a scholar with deep expertise in inert crystal research.

His academic accomplishments were far beyond Sein’s reach, especially considering that Sein had only studied Gray Quartz for a few centuries.

For this Magus Civilization expedition team, Master Gilbert was the primary identification expert.

The elder was tapping a grayish-white meteoroid fragment with a specially crafted crystal-tipped chisel.

Master Gilbert had carefully measured and selected this fragment using specialized instruments.

Frankly, with Sein’s current knowledge, he could not understand what was going on. And that was exactly why he respected Master Gilbert so much.

It was respect for a predecessor in a field he himself had barely begun to explore.

Before long, Master Gilbert finally excavated a grayish-white raw stone roughly the size of a tabletop from deep within the meteoroid fragment.

Most of the ore was made up of the common, completely worthless elemental materials found in the meteoroid. But a smaller portion contained mineral components that Sein immediately recognized as Gray Quartz.

However, the Gray Quartz embedded within the ore lacked sufficient purity. From such a large slab, the amount of refined, usable Gray Quartz that could be extracted would probably be no more than the size of a thumb.

Both the reserves and the purity here fell far short of the Gray Quartz veins around Blue Star.

On Blue Star itself, some deposits were even exposed directly on the surface.

Their reserves and purity were astounding.

It was no wonder a hydro-attribute plane like Blue Star had managed to develop surprisingly advanced technology powered by Gray Quartz.

After studying the ore for a long moment, Master Gilbert finally answered Sein’s earlier question.

“There should be inert crystal deposits nearby, but the reserves are likely meager. I’m more interested in Blue Star itself, and that empty small star domain you mentioned in your report—the one you ended up in right after exiting the portal.”

The elderly mage tossed the piece of gray ore into his spatial storage, dusted off his hands, and said, “Let us head there next. We’ll leave this area to the other exploration teams.”

Sein looked around, then nodded in agreement.

They were still within the Chaos Sea, though now at its border region that was in Blue Star’s direction.

He did not expect that faint traces of inert crystal ore could be found even within the Chaos Sea.

“Perhaps the reason the Klytheran survivors fled here—and managed to survive and even reproduce in such a harsh star domain—has to do with the presence of certain inert elemental factors in this region,” Sein mused.

His remark was overheard by the Rank Four mage Gilbert. The old man glanced up and said, “I reviewed the full research report you submitted to the Magus Civilization on the Klytherans and Gray Quartz.”

“Your general research direction is solid. Some of your hypotheses and applications regarding Gray Quartz are still a bit rough, but having this level of intuition and sense for the truth at your stage is already commendable.

“I am more intrigued by your anatomical work on the Klytherans. It seems you have begun exploring the life-force connection between Klytherite and Klytherans, but you haven’t submitted that part of your findings to the Magus Civilization.

“How about this... I’ll share with you the principles behind inert crystal applications that I have mastered. In exchange, you give me the portion of truth you have uncovered. What do you say?” he proposed.