Sovereign of the Ashes

Chapter 1798: Assault Mission

Once Sein’s deployment to that star domain was confirmed, the destinations for Reina, Sia, and Gin—who had only recently joined his forces—were quickly decided as well.

All three would follow Sein to the Golden Rock Worlds to receive their combat assignments.

After a period of rest, the relocated knightly order gradually resumed normal operations. Gin, in particular, had long been itching to return to the battlefield.

He was still carrying tens of millions of magicoins in debt, and the pressure to repay it was far more urgent for him than it was for Reina or Sia.

Sein had also arranged for Sia to provide further support to Gin’s Order of Crimson Knights in the form of two thousand sets of magitech armor. Naturally, Gin would have to repay both the favor and the magicoins.

Gin actually still had around thirteen more years of rest, but in order to pay off his debts sooner, he took the initiative to join Sein’s expedition.

Surprisingly, Marie also stepped in to speak on Gin’s behalf.

During a status report on the Divine Tower of Ashes, Marie casually mentioned that Gin was gathering resources to help his younger sister break through to Rank Four.

“Oh?” Sein let out a mildly surprised sound before looking at Marie with a smile. “It seems you and Gina are quite close.”

“Of course we are. Gina has taken a great deal off my shoulders when it comes to developing the divine tower. Without her help, I wouldn’t have been able to begin my preliminary research over the past two centuries into the power of laws within the demigod realm,” Marie replied.

“By the way, I was actually planning to mention this during our last meeting. Isn’t it about time you gave me and the vice deans a raise?” she asked bluntly. “At the very least, Gina and I deserve double, right?”

Sein laughed heartily at that. “Of course. I’ll triple all of your allowances.”

“Thank you for everything you have all contributed to the Divine Tower of Ashes over

the years,” he said.

Marie looked at Sein with a smile. She seemed as though she wanted to say something more, but in the end, she held back.

The day of departure soon arrived. After years of analysis and modification by the Magic Cube, the three space fortresses under Sein’s command set off toward the target star domain as a single unified fleet.

The secondhand space fortress under Gin’s command was not part of the fleet.

His fortress was just too old and worn. He was probably too embarrassed to even bring up the idea himself.

Moreover, Gin’s space fortress was an older model from several generations back. It contained very little mechanical engineering technology, which made modifying it far more difficult.

Sein had told Gin that after they completed a few frontline missions, he could lend him some money so he could commission a new space fortress from Steel City.

That said, even if Gin had any spare funds, he probably would not have used them to buy a new fortress.

To him, a space fortress only needed to be practical. There was no need for that kind of luxury when he still had so many other financial burdens to deal with.

Gin truly felt fortunate to have joined Ashenreach.

The members of his knightly order were likewise fortunate enough to join one of the rare combat forces on the civilizational battlefield where mages actually outnumbered knights.

At present, the mage-to-knight ratio in Sein’s combat group hovered around four to one. In other words, for every knight on the battlefield, roughly four mages were fighting alongside them.

At this point, it was hard to tell whether the knights were protecting the mages, or the other way around.

Sia’s Order of the Flame Demon had only been established recently, so its foundation was still far too shallow. Even with the highly attractive benefits it offered, the total number of registered knights in the order over the past two centuries had only just exceeded four hundred.

And even that modest number had only been possible because many knights from House Grantt and Sia’s family had joined. Otherwise, the number of ranked knights would have been even lower.

Things like this could not be rushed, and Sein had already told Sia as much.

Based on the way his own Divine Tower of Ashes had expanded in recent years, Sein privately advised Sia to pay close attention to scattered knight legions, law-wielding knights, and knightly orders whose leaders had already fallen on the civilizational battlefield.

“We have the money,” Sein told Sia. “Just focus on finding ways to bring them over to our side and strengthen our overall power. first”

When they set out from Magus World, Tourmaline had insisted on joining the expedition as well.

Sein did not dare treat Tourmaline like an ordinary Rank Four combatant.

He still vividly remembered her father—that colossal and overwhelmingly powerful dragon-turtle.

To Sein, Tourmaline and White Stella already looked majestic in their original forms, but compared to their father, they still seemed almost delicate and petite.

Sein had once asked Tourmaline where her father was, but she said she did not know.

After returning Tourmaline to Magus World, her father might have gone to rest in the Boundless South Sea, or perhaps headed off to another civilizational battlefield.

Since White Stella, Black Oblivion, and the others were also active in the battlefields around the Golden Rock Worlds, Sein thought it over for a long time before finally, and somewhat reluctantly, agreeing to Tourmaline’s request to come with him.

She was so excited that she leaped straight onto Sein’s back and clung tightly to him.

Sein had to admit, Tourmaline really was strong!

Even he, who regularly tempered his body, was nearly suffocated by her grip around his neck.

Still, considering Tourmaline’s sheer size in her original form, he was not all that surprised.

“Hey, Sein, did you see the gift I brought back for you?” Tourmaline asked before they set off.

Hearing that, Sein smacked his forehead. He had been so busy over the past few years that he had completely forgotten about it.

He did remember Tourmaline mentioning that she had brought him a gift, but he had never found the time to wonder what it actually was.

It was probably still sitting in his collection room right now. Tourmaline had always been able to enter most areas of the Divine Tower of Ashes freely.

And this was not even the first time she had brought him something.

“I’ve been too busy lately to look at it. What kind of gift is it?” Sein asked with a gentle smile.

Tourmaline puffed out her cheeks a little, but she understood his situation. She knew he had been extremely busy over the past few years, so busy that he had barely even found time to give her injections or run experiments on her.

Tilting her head, she replied, “Nothing much. Just a little bead. I left it in your collection room.”

“Alright, I’ll take a look when I have time,” Sein said, ruffling Tourmaline’s hair.

After left Magus World with a total combat force of roughly three million.

Of that number, two million were the enslaved creature legions he had built up in recent years, while the remaining one million belonged to the Order of the Flame Demon and the Order of Crimson Knights, though the enslaved creatures under those two orders were of somewhat lower quality.

Even so, this total did not represent the full extent of Sein’s strength.

At the very least, the Magic Cube still held nearly one million angel troops, along with a single Rank Six angel—Fermera!

As soon as Sein arrived at BF037 Star Domain, Grandmaster Feylis assigned her grand apprentice a rather demanding mission—to invade a demiplane known as Cadillac, and complete its conquest within three years!