Sovereign of the Ashes

High in the sky, Sein swung his sleeves, dispersing the cascading pitch-black raindrops around him.

The environment of this broken plane was brutally harsh. Beyond the unrelenting downpour, violent lightning occasionally tore through the sky.

Sein deeply disliked the conditions here, but he had no choice. Moments earlier, that Rank Five walrus had charged headlong into this plane, dragging him along with all its strength.

When it came to brute force, a mage like Sein simply could not match this walrus.

His body-tempering experiments had strengthened his constitution and improved his resistance to damage, but that did not mean he could swing a giant ax like a Rank Five knight and clash head-on with such a beast.

The most rational approach was to rely on magic, harassing it from the flanks and steadily carving fresh wounds into its hide.

And by this stage of the battle, that strategy had paid off. Sein clearly held the upper hand.

Unless the creature chose to flee at the very last moment, Sein was absolutely confident that he could drain every last drop of its blood if it stayed and fought to the death.

Torrential rain, violent wind, and lightning intertwined overhead, while the black ocean beneath Sein roared with towering waves.

Beneath his Faceless Mask, Sein’s gaze remained calm and steady as he stared into the oceanic abyss before him.

This Rank Five walrus possessed a fair degree of intelligence.

It knew it stood no chance against Sein in the void.

By forcibly dragging him into this broken plane despite its injuries, it had indeed created a battlefield that favored itself.

Even the Faceless Mask’s scanning capabilities were significantly weakened in this hostile environment.

The chaotic laws governing this broken plane were the primary reason, while the torrential rain and the unfathomable ocean below further interfered with the mask’s surveillance.

As Sein silently observed the churning, pitch-black sea surface, he could not help but wonder where the walrus’ tusk he had snapped off earlier had ended up.

The battle had been too fierce, and the surrounding battlefield far too chaotic.

After breaking the walrus’ tusk, Sein had not even had time to collect his spoils before the enraged creature dragged him here.

That was the tusk of a Rank Five creature! It undoubtedly contained a significant portion of the walrus’ origin law power.

To a Magus World alchemist, it was an exceptionally rare and precious material.

Back when Thunder, the Rank Five knight, had poured his entire fortune into commissioning the world-class secret treasure known as the Thunder Sword, the materials he used were likely comparable to this.

The thought of the broken tusk had only just crossed Sein’s mind when an enormous maw silently opened beneath him in the pitch-black sea.

A torrent of seawater rushed into the gaping mouth.

Amidst the raging storm and rolling thunder, the appearance of this colossal maw produced no noticeable energy fluctuations at all.

“You’re quite the sly one!” Sein snorted coldly, pointing his magic rod straight downward.

The long-prepared Crimson Flame Pillar spell surged downward with fierce momentum.

This pyro elemental magic manifested as a grayish-white flame, standing out sharply against the oppressively dark oceanic depths.

Sein’s Ashen Flame was a mysterious fusion of countless flames, a power that even Rank Five creatures struggled to endure head-on.

As the pillar of fire crashed down, a deafening roar of agony echoed through the surrounding space.

Even so, Sein was not satisfied.

After the war on the Marvelous Plane ended, he had taken the opportunity to refine several magic bombs.

He hurled them one after another, setting off a chain of violent explosions in the ocean below.

Having a group of Klytherans under his command had its advantages—Sein was never short of inert crystals.

Including the starry battlefields surrounding Marvelous Plane, numerous Blue Star fleets had been drawn into this conflict.

Pulled into the war by the Magus Civilization, the otherwise peaceful Blue Star lifeforms were forced to take part.

When the storm of war descended, no harbor remained untouched by its fury.

Aligning with the Magus Civilization was still better than being reduced to cannon fodder by Arid Expanse World.

After understanding the surrounding star domain situation, the Blue Star natives chose to side with Marvelous Plane and the Shadowbat Civilization.

In fact, they had joined the Magus Alliance even earlier than those two worlds.

After the recent catastrophe on Marvelous Plane, the Blue Star natives offered substantial, unconditional support to their old friends.

The same was true for the Shadowbat Civilization, where Blue Star natives took on much of the burden of repairing damaged vessels and supplying resources.

If factions were to be defined within the Magus Alliance, the Shadowbat Civilization, Marvelous Plane, and Blue Star could be seen as forming a tightly knit cooperative group.

Within the alliance, they also worked to band together for mutual support, collectively advocating for the rights of their inhabitants.

The violent explosions sent towering waves surging upward.

Amidst the chaos, the Rank Five walrus’ gaping maw missed Sein, yet a storm of water vapor and crystallized shards of cryo elemental law still struck him.

The collision between Sein’s pyro lawful body and the combined forces of cryo and hydro elemental laws triggered a violent explosion, painting the sky of this broken plane with a dazzling, multicolored surge of elemental energy.

For lesser beings, it was a spectacle far beyond comprehension.

Besides, a battlefield where Rank Five creatures clashed was a forbidden zone that no lower lifeform should ever approach.

This broken plane currently hosted numerous legions from both warring sides.

Some creatures had ended up here in the midst of chaotic fighting elsewhere.

Of course, Sein and the Rank Five walrus were the highest-ranking beings present on this battlefield.

Fortunately, they were also the only two law-wielding lifeforms here.

Otherwise, given the broken laws and shallow foundation of this world, even a few additional Rank Four beings would likely have caused the entire plane to collapse.

***

Half a year later...

Vast pools of blood and a few law-imbued artifacts scattered across the oceanic battlefield on this broken plane.

The vast majority of the blood and artifacts were the walrus’, with only a handful belonging to Sein.

His elemental body had sustained quite a bit of damage. The walrus had fought with desperate ferocity.

Even at this point, Sein still could not eliminate an enemy of equal rank unscathed.

Some exceptionally bold combatants from both sides risked their lives to venture deep into this Rank Five battlefield, all in the hope of claiming one or two law-imbued artifacts or drops of so-called “divine blood”.

Rank Three creatures and demigod-level beings were practically obsessed with these things.

They stood on the threshold of breaking through to Rank Four and had already begun grasping the power of laws, making them the ones most desperate for such high-grade materials and items.

A thunderous boom echoed across the sky of the broken plane once more.

Compared to half a year ago, however, the sound was far weaker, and the layers of pitch-black clouds had thinned noticeably.

The torrential rain gradually faded into a light drizzle.

A faint beam of light broke through the clouds, offering one of the few hints of brightness this world had known in a long time.

Many weaker creatures instinctively lifted their gazes toward it.

A rumor had recently begun circulating among the Magus Civilization legions stationed here—the enemy forces appeared to have started an orderly withdrawal.