Sovereign of the Ashes

This was Sein's first visit to the Divine Tower of Floating Flame.

Likewise, when he had previously gone to the Divine Tower of Whispering Flame and the Divine Tower of the Blazing Sword, it had also been his first time there in person.

The divine towers belonging to the Verdant Flame Faction were not too far apart.

At the very least, they were all located in the central region of the Magus World, and the Divine Tower of Verdant Flame, Whispering Flame, Floating Flame, and the Blazing Sword had all joined the Pyro Secret Society.

This trip to the Divine Tower of Floating Flame was both a formal visit and an opportunity for Sein to familiarize himself with the area.

Back then, Sein had always observed these elders while standing behind his mentor.

But after he had advanced to Rank Four, he could finally represent himself as Sein instead of Lorianne's apprentice.

Unlike Gregory's Divine Tower of Whispering Flame, which was nestled among volcanoes with boiling magma currents beneath it, Bernice's Divine Tower of Floating Flame radiated a sense of vitality while surrounded by intense pyro elemental energy.

A little farther from the tower, the landscape was lush with green grass and thriving plants. The beautiful scenery made it hard to believe this was the territory of a Rank Four pyromancer.

This unusual environment had actually caused Bernice to lose a few hedge mages who might have otherwise joined her divine tower. At the same time, it attracted more unconventional types of mages with different tastes.

Sein also noticed a large number of knights in the area surrounding the Divine Tower of Floating Flame.

Unlike other regions where mages and knights frequently clashed, the two groups here appeared to get along remarkably well.

On the top floor of the divine tower, Sein met with Bernice, who was accompanied by Berecca, the Rank Four knight.

Instead of a mage's robe, Bernice was dressed in a bright yellow dress today.

She looked to be in good health when Sein greeted her. Without wasting time, he brought up his proposal to jointly conquer White Sand World.

Bernice paused for a moment, then shook her head in refusal, just as Gregory and the others had done.

Instead, she gestured to the knight at her side.

"You need enough knight legions to conquer a low-level plane. Although the Order of the Green Bounty is not one of the old knightly orders, they should have no trouble supporting two divine towers in your campaign," Bernice said.

Bernice spoke as if she were the Order of the Green Bounty's grand master, fully authorized to speak on its behalf.

Surprisingly, Berecca said nothing, silently agreeing with Bernice's words.

"Having Lady Berecca join the campaign is certainly a great advantage. She has also helped me tremendously during the recent Eversurge War. I hope we can work together just as smoothly this time," Sein said with a smile.

Eversurge had originally been discovered and organized for conquest by the Order of the Green Bounty.

Seeing how well Master Bernice and this quiet female knight seemed to get along, Sein saw no reason to refuse her suggestion.

After settling on a rough departure time with the two of them, he took his leave.

With his coordination, the main forces for the White Sand World campaign were more or less confirmed: the Divine Tower of Ashes, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, and the Order of the Green Bounty.

Considering this low-level plane only had two Rank Four creatures, the war was expected to be fairly one-sided.

Unless something unexpected occurred, Tourmaline would join the campaign as well.

That would bring the Rank Four combatant count to four against two.

On top of that, both Lorianne and Berecca commanded their own space fortresses.

In Magus World, a single space fortress was generally considered to be on par with Rank Four combat strength.

***

The construction of the Divine Tower of Ashes took a total of 117 years.

Sein had invested over twenty million magicoins, but in the end, he still had about two million left to spare.

"With the help of the sea kings, we saved a lot of manpower and labor hours. And no one could have guessed there was a rich deposit of black chromite beneath this area. You really got lucky!" Master Wenger said.

After the divine tower was completed, he looked at his work with satisfaction and gave Sein a pat on the shoulder.

Now that Sein had established his divine tower, he had the right to mine local resources within Ashenreach to a certain extent, according to divine tower regulations.

That said, these resources could not be over-exploited without proper justification.

As it happened, nearly a third of the black chromite vein extended to the area around the lowest level of Sein's divine tower.

To avoid disrupting the planar node or damaging the tower's foundations, that section of the vein was fully excavated.

That single ore vein alone brought in hundreds of thousands of magicoins in profit.

No wonder Master Wenger said Sein got lucky.

With Magus World's abundant resources and stable planar environment, new owners of divine towers and knightly orders could remain financially stable simply by developing the resources within their own territories without needing to conquer other planes.

In truth, knights and mages at Rank Four or above in the Magus World were never truly poor. It all came down to how they chose to live and what kind of future they were working toward.

From the magicoins returned by Master Wenger, Sein spent around fifty thousand on a large stockpile of high-quality blood and meat from the Magus Alliance.

He gifted these to the dozen or so sea kings who had helped with the construction as a gesture of thanks.

The remaining 1.5 million magicoins were combined with his personal funds and invested in building the Divine Tower of Ashes Academy.

The massive tower library and the spacious academy buildings were both completed during this phase.

Though smaller than those of more established divine towers, these facilities were more than enough for Sein's current needs.

With the tower and academy completed, Sein began preparing for the upcoming White Sand World War—recruiting full-fledged mages and launching a large-scale talent search across the Ashenreach region.

There were not many hedge mages in Ashenreach, and even if there were, they were most likely black mages.

Over the past century, the knights and mages of House Grantt and House Ernst had frequently clashed with the black mages in this region.

They were few in number, but each one was a force to be reckoned with.

If most of them had not been operating in scattered and disorganized groups, they would have caused even more trouble for the Divine Tower of Ashes.

And that was assuming the Spider Queen had already issued a warning back in Blackhaven.

Without her help, the Darwell Region would likely be in a much worse state.

Aside from the constant annoyance of small black mage groups showing up near Ashenreach, Sein's biggest concern at the moment was actually recruiting magic initiates.

The shortage of full-fledged mages, while inconvenient, was not as worrying.

As long as Sein offered enough incentives, he could always attract some talent.

Since the recruitment campaign included the chance to participate in the White Sand World conquest, many mages had already come forward to inquire.

Some were from the Byrne Empire, while others hailed from the southern coast.

Still, these high-priced hired mages were only a short-term fix. For long-term stability, Sein knew he needed to train talent from within.

Among Magus World mages, Rank One mages were the most common, and their theoretical lifespan was only around a thousand years.

That was way too short compared to the long development cycle of a divine tower.

Given Sein's current physical condition, he figured that even without pushing for further advancement, living for seventy or eighty thousand years should be no problem.

"How can I find enough initiates? The Divine Tower of Dark Flame's model might be worth referencing. The Alveroth Empire has plenty of initiates, but it's too far from Ashenreach. I can't just set up a teleportation array there... can I?" Sein rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

He paused, then suddenly looked up.

"...Teleportation array?!"