Sovereign of the Ashes

Once Lorianne opened up, she quickly returned to her usual lively self.

At first, perhaps because master and apprentice had not seen each other for so long, there had been a slight awkwardness between them. Neither seemed quite sure how to act around the other.

But as the atmosphere gradually warmed, that distance soon disappeared.

Lorianne began by telling Sein about Feylis and the others.

At present, his grandmaster and her group were fighting on the central battlefield of the Grand Apocalypse World Star Domain.

More than a thousand years ago, when Sein first became stranded in a distant star domain, Feylis and the others had already been operating somewhere in that region. At the time, however, the Magus Civilization had yet to formally launch its offensive against the Grand Apocalypse World.

Now, over a thousand years later, they had already advanced deep into the central regions of the star domain.

According to Lorianne, the vanguard legions on that front had even pushed into the deepest reaches of the Apocalypse Star Domain.

With the support of numerous Magus Alliance legions and other allied forces, the campaign against the Grand Apocalypse World had not encountered any major setbacks so far.

The casualty rate among the Magus Civilization’s mages on that front was only around ten percent, while the losses among law-wielding mages were even lower.

Thus, Lorianne assured Sein that he did not need to worry too much about Feylis and the others.

After discussing his grandmaster, she moved on to the Divine Tower of Ashes Legion, as well as Leena and the other ladies.

Sure enough, the Divine Tower of Ashes Legion was currently operating alongside Feylis’ forces.

Although Sein had been absent for all these years, his divine tower’s legions had continued participating in military operations as usual.

In fact, according to Lorianne, the mage legion of the Divine Tower of Ashes had expanded several times over during his absence.

That was hardly surprising. After all, more than a thousand years had passed.

The theoretical lifespan of an ordinary Rank One mage was only around a thousand years.

With so much time having gone by, the very foundation of the Divine Tower of Ashes had likely already been replaced by an entirely new generation.

These younger mages had grown up during the Clash of Civilizations and were naturally far more accustomed to the pace of an inter-civilizational war.

By comparison, mages like Sein, whose lives stretched across nearly an entire epoch, could already be considered “old-timers”, even though Sein himself still felt rather young.

Over the past thousand years, the Divine Tower of Ashes had undergone many surprising changes.

Most notably, three Rank Four mages had emerged from the divine tower during Sein’s absence.

They were Marie, Pekerman, and Mussor, who served as the Divine Tower of Ashes’ vice deans.

The fact that the divine tower had continued to flourish without Sein was likely closely tied to their advancements.

Many prestigious magic families had begun sending their younger members there to study. Even full-fledged hedge mages had flocked to the Divine Tower of Ashes to take up teaching positions.

After advancing to Rank Four, however, Marie, Pekerman, and Mussor had each chosen a different path.

Marie remained at the Divine Tower of Ashes and continued overseeing its affairs.

During Sein’s absence, she had personally handled nearly every matter within the divine tower.

Sein truly owed her a great deal.

Pekerman, meanwhile, was one of the more senior vice deans. Sein still remembered that Pekerman had originally joined the Divine Tower of Ashes because he wished to learn mechanical arts from him.

Naturally, Sein had eventually shared some of his knowledge of mechanics and mecha engineering with Pekerman.

After advancing to Rank Four, Pekerman remained at the Divine Tower of Ashes for about two hundred years before submitting his resignation to Marie and leaving for Steel City to continue his studies.

His decision was understandable. Mechanics had always been Pekerman’s primary field, and there was only so far he could progress while remaining in Ashenreach.

Steel City was where his future truly lay.

The last of the three to advance was Mussor, the young mage Sein had first met among the ruins of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization. Even back then, while still only a demigod-level mage, Mussor had left a deep impression on him.

To Sein’s surprise, Mussor, despite having joined the Divine Tower of Ashes later than the others, did not choose to leave after advancing to Rank Four.

According to Lorianne, he had recently expressed an interest in searching for a suitable planar node within Ashenreach and constructing a divine tower of his own.

Sein was undoubtedly the most influential figure in Ashenreach.

Now that he had reached the peak of Rank Five and already found his path toward Rank Six, any divine tower Mussor established in the region would inevitably develop around the Divine Tower of Ashes.

Ashenreach itself was already flourishing. Several divine towers and knightly orders of varying sizes had been established throughout the region, while its elemental environment and overall training conditions had improved greatly compared with the past.

In the years to come, Ashenreach was bound to become even more prosperous.

In fact, Lorianne’s Divine Tower of Verdant Spring had also produced a new Rank Four mage in recent years.

Unfortunately, that mage had not stayed for long. After remaining at the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring for only a short time, they left to seek greater opportunities elsewhere.

This prompted Lorianne to complain to Sein, “Fine, all of you can leave one after another. At least I’ll finally have some peace and quiet to myself!”

Sein noticed the wistful look in Lorianne’s eyes and joked, “You could always move the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring to Ashenreach, Master Lorianne. I’d be more than happy to have you there.”

His suggestion immediately made Lorianne burst out laughing. She reached over and poked his forehead with one finger. “Ashenreach is saturated with pyro elemental energy. What would I even do there?”

“Besides, all the dendromancers and hydromancers in my tower would probably pack their things and run away!” she said with a laugh.

“Ashenreach has regions rich in hydro and dendro elemental energies too,” Sein replied. “Tourmaline even dug out a man-made sea there.”

Lorianne still shook her head. “Forget it. Moving an entire divine tower is too much trouble. Besides, Viridescent Land is right next to Ashenreach. It wouldn’t take much effort for me to visit you.”

Even so, Sein’s suggestion had clearly lifted her spirits.

Not long afterward, Lorianne shared another piece of good news.

“By the way, that centaur you had a fling with has also advanced to Rank Four. Her legions are still affiliated with the Divine Tower of Ashes Legion.”

Sein was shocked.

“Since when did I ever have a fling with a centaur?”

***

The centaur legions were far from the only forces currently affiliated with the Divine Tower of Ashes Legion—or, more precisely, fighting alongside the combat legions under Feylis’ command.

The Klytheran, Huusian, Marvelous Plane, Blue Star and the Shadowbat Civilization’s legions were all currently fighting on the Grand Apocalypse World front.

Only the Aquarian legion led by Orric did not appear to be operating alongside Feylis and the others. Instead, it had joined White Stella’s forces.

Since they were already on the subject of the giant mermaid, Sein asked Lorianne about her situation and whether she had heard any news of Tourmaline.

Lorianne only knew that White Stella, Black Oblivion, Hanliu, and the others had appeared on the battlefields surrounding the Grand Apocalypse World some time ago.

That region was also one of the main combat zones overseen by the Dragon Clan of the Immortal Realm, and Feylis had met them there once.

However, she had no information about Tourmaline’s whereabouts.

“She should be with the forces of Myriad Springs Worlds right now.”

Sein frowned.

“Then where are they currently stationed?” he asked.