Sovereign of the Ashes

Feylis had suggested that Sein come help oversee Lorianne's divine tower legions, but in truth, there was nothing here that really needed his attention.

If a force this overwhelming still struggled to take down Eversurge, then Gregory and the others would be the laughingstock of Magus World.

As Sein sensed Tourmaline's aura rapidly closing in from below, he looked down.

He was currently hovering above the southeastern region of Eversurge.

Even without diving beneath the waves, he could see the vast coral city spread out beneath the water surface, now reduced to a shadow of its former self.

The divine towers were all conserving the energy of their space fortresses. It was actually the relentless bombardment from tens of thousands of mages that had brought such devastation.

The Divine Tower of Verdant Spring alone had deployed more than six thousand mages to this campaign.

Lorianne had done an impressive job rallying support; many academy mages had responded to the call to arms.

Selina and the others were here too, though the battlefield had been too chaotic earlier for Sein to locate any of them.

He glanced toward the nearest space fortress, and the Faceless Mask immediately began scanning the battlefield.

Streams of dense data flickered across his vision.

In just moments, the mask had already identified several key threat zones, assessed the battle's progression, and even projected rough casualty ratios.

Its analytical power was insane, and still growing as Sein became stronger.

Even now, as a newly promoted Rank Four, he had yet to unlock the full capabilities of this medium-tier world-class secret treasure.

Perhaps only after reaching Rank Five, or even Rank Six, would the Faceless Mask reveal its full potential.

That was just the kind of treasure this truly was.

The Radiant Heart Rod in Sein's hand flared to life, glowing brilliantly.

With a seamless incantation, a torrent of lumen and pyro elemental energy intertwined and shot downward.

The impact ripped through the ocean like a spear of elemental light, creating a massive whirlpool in its wake.

The whirlpool was dangerously close to the Magus Civilization's frontline legions, but thanks to Sein's near-flawless control over elemental power, it did not cause much disruption to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring's forces.

Instead, the terrifying vortex of elemental force tore through tens of thousands of Clawfins beneath the sea, ripping them into countless pieces.

The creature that took the full brunt of Sein's attack was a demigod-level native being that had been hiding deep within the massive coral city.

With two divine relics boosting his elemental output and the Faceless Mask constantly feeding him battlefield data, Sein—the newly promoted Rank Four mage—had no trouble overwhelming an ordinary demigod-level opponent.

The sea monster, thinking itself well hidden, was struck head-on by Sein's sudden assault.

Blue blood blossomed from the depths like a massive flower blooming underwater.

It was an enormous creature, easily seven or eight hundred meters long, which explained why it had been hiding so deep.

Despite its sheer size, it failed to withstand Sein's attack.

When his elemental beam pierced its body, the creature's brain cells instantly shut down.

Sein spared it no further thought. Spreading his demonic wings, he soared across the battlefield, heading further southeast where the energy feedback was strongest.

As he flew, the Faceless Mask expanded in sync with his lawful body, growing to several times its original size.

Beams of concentrated elemental light burst from the mask in every direction.

Every patch of sea Sein passed over was transformed into a roiling maelstrom of elemental chaos.

He quickly realized that lumen and pyro spells alone had limited effect on the sea creatures lurking in the depths.

Instead, the Faceless Mask's sonic attacks proved devastating against those underwater creatures with fragile neural systems.

A wide fan of infrasonic pulses was unleashed from the mask.

Wherever they reached, sea creatures flipped belly-up and floated lifelessly to the surface.

Sein's presence alone delivered the destructive force of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The crushing dominance of a high-ranking lifeform over weaker beings was on full display.

As Sein pushed deeper into the battlefield, Jessica could only watch in disbelief from the space fortress' command room.

Of course, she recognized Sein and his Faceless Mask. The sheer force of his aura and the pressure he gave off also made it clear he had reached Rank Four!

"Was this guy... playing me the whole time?" Jessica muttered, unable to wrap her head around it.

How had someone who was barely Rank Three a few decades ago suddenly become a Rank Four?

The demigod-level female mage was left stunned for a long while.

In the end, it was the voice of a Rank Three grand mage beside her that snapped her back to reality.

"Dean, should we keep pushing forward? Or do you want to touch base with the two divine towers in the neighboring war zone first?" he asked.

Before Lorianne left Eversurge, she had handed over most of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring's military command to Jessica.

Tossing her long green hair over her shoulder and shaking off her distraction, Jessica said, "No need for that. Just advance. Tell the Order of the Green Bounty to press the attack. Our fire support's already in place. What, are we supposed to let the mages charge ahead of the knights?"

"Oh, and notify the recovery unit to retrieve the corpse of that demigod-level sea monster," she added.

***

While the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army was still marching on behind him, Sein was fast approaching the very core of the battlefield on this low-level plane.

The region ahead was a deep-sea zone riddled with vast underwater whirlpools so intense their spiraling force launched towering columns of seawater into the sky. It looked as if the sea and sky had flipped places.

Unsurprisingly, this chaotic spectacle was the handiwork of several high-ranking Magus World powerhouses.

From the looks of it, they were trying to capture the two native Rank Four creatures of Eversurge alive.

That made sense.

After all, this was an ordinary low-level plane that had only ever produced two Rank Four creatures. Killing them outright would be a waste.

Compared to eliminating them, capturing and selling them through the Magus Alliance's slave markets would yield far greater profit—maybe even two to three times as much.

At the base of those water columns, Gregory stood like a mountain in his pyro elemental giant form, arms folded. His icy eyes held nothing but disdain as he stared down at the two native Rank Four creatures.

One of them resembled a massive water serpent; the other had a coral-like form, clearly some form of marine plant life.

Cornered by multiple Magus World powerhouses, the two could only cower in the depths, trembling with fear.