Sovereign of the Ashes

What shocked and amazed Sein was nothing out of the ordinary for Mayne.

There was nothing shameful about finding a mate for the Aphid King.

In fact, Void Aphid World had long been a member of the Magus Alliance, which was why it enjoyed such support from the Magus Civilization.

There were many "beneficial insect planes" within the alliance. So why did the Magus Civilization keep allocating resources to Void Aphid World and Activator Fairy World?

It all came down to seniority!

From that angle, the Magus Civilization could even be seen as generous—choosing not to cast aside certain "elderly" planes for the sake of efficiency.

The Rank Six Aphid King, who had spent its life idling away, was definitely one of the happiest Rank Four or higher beings in the entire Magus Alliance.

Throughout its rather long life, all it had done was eat, sleep, produce honeydew, and follow its primal instinct to reproduce.

Among all insect creatures, the Void Aphid King was also undeniably one of the most useless.

Even though it had reached the life level of Rank Six, it was barely stronger than a Rank Five creature in actual combat.

It also had almost no battle experience, having been pampered and well-fed its entire life.

To maximize the value of this creature, the Magus Civilization has even issued mandatory orders throughout history, forcing insect creatures of Rank Four or higher from certain allied planes to mate with the Void Aphid King.

There was no other choice. Without such orders, some of those female insect creatures would not have given this Aphid King a second glance.

As a result, there were numerous Rank Four and Rank Five insect kings in the medium-sized Void Aphid World that shared the biological traits of the Void Aphids.

Some specialized in producing honeydew, while others surprisingly showed impressive combat capabilities.

Many of them were actually the offspring of that Rank Six Aphid King.

Mayne's suggestion, naturally, was to try breeding the Sandworm Queen with the Rank Six Aphid King.

Even if that did not work out, it would still be easy enough to find another Rank Four or Five Void Aphid with his connections.

Of course, his offer did not come without strings.

After finalizing the arrangement with Sein, the Rank Four knight casually mentioned that he wanted Sein to introduce him to Berecca.

"Aren't you already acquainted?" Sein asked, giving him a strange look.

Mayne smiled wryly.

Berecca, who came from a modest background, seemed to have little fondness for Mayne, a noble from the Western Archipelago.

Even though Mayne had always been humble and polite, Berecca had spoken fewer than ten words to him so far.

"Master Sein, you must help me with this! I can see that Berecca is very close to you and Master Lorianne," Mayne said sincerely.

Very close?

Sein could not help but mutter inwardly.

In truth, Sein had barely spoken with Berecca himself. But since they had once conquered a foreign plane together, he had at least interacted with her more than she ever had with Mayne.

As for Lorianne, she could at least hold a normal conversation with Berecca—being a woman probably helped.

Faced with Mayne's request, Sein finally gave a reluctant nod. "I'll give it a try."

The value held by Void Aphid World was roughly on par with that of Activator Fairy World.

If this worked out, it would be a big win for Sein.

He did not make any promises to Mayne; he was just passing along the message.

***

Sein and the others traveled from White Sand World to Eternal Sand World aboard an elliptical spacecraft with a diameter of only about a kilometer.

The vessel resembled a flattened prism fort, but its overall performance was far superior!

Even in terms of combat effectiveness and flight speed, it was on par with standard space fortresses.

Its endurance was impressive too, being capable of making a round trip from Magus World to Eternal Sand World without needing to replenish energy along the way.

"This must be a specialized space fortress, right? With a size this small, its stealth capabilities must be pretty solid," Sein remarked as he examined the craft inside and out.

Mayne smiled and said, "That's right. This is a model released by Sky City ten thousand years ago. Although it isn't the latest model, it holds great sentimental value for me."

"If all power systems are activated, this spacecraft has a 94% chance of evading the perception of Rank Six creatures, and a 71% chance against peak Rank Six creatures," he added.

A 100% guarantee was simply impossible. Too many strange species were born in the Astral Realm, and no one could predict when or where some rare creature capable of seeing through the Magus Civilization's best camouflage systems might appear.

Even that 94% chance against Rank Six creatures was calculated through various means, including astrological analysis, which showed just how seriously the Magus Civilization treated the pursuit of truth.

Sein stared at the spacecraft in awe. He did not say anything, but the look in his eyes revealed a trace of longing.

If he had a spacecraft like this, one capable of fooling Rank Six creatures, flying through the Astral Realm would be a thrilling adventure.

But a model like this had to be unimaginably expensive.

With what he had now, Sein definitely could not afford it.

I have to work harder.

Sein sighed inwardly and shifted his gaze elsewhere.

***

With Mayne's spacecraft as their mode of transport, even though White Sand World was nearly half a star domain away from Eternal Sand World, they still managed to reach the outskirts of Eternal Sand World in under a month.

And that was with Sein and the others deliberately slowing their speed and spending quite a bit of time updating their star map along the way.

During the journey, it was hard to say whether Mayne's spacecraft was just that high-performance or if they had simply been lucky, but they ended up discovering three uncharted complete planes.

Two were low-level planes, and one was a microplane. All of them were less developed than White Sand World.

Each of the two low-level planes was home to a single Rank Four creature.

"They're really undiscovered treasures! I wonder how many complete planes there are in this star domain," Sein could not help but remark.

"The number of complete planes in a medium-sized star domain like this is usually around a hundred," Mayne replied.

"But that's not a strict limit. If the domain is especially prosperous, there could be over three hundred clustered together. On the flip side, the more barren ones might have only twenty or thirty," he added.

Sein nodded. While he was well-read, his actual knowledge of interstellar and planar studies was fairly limited.

Orethorn, the guardian of White Sand World, was also onboard the spacecraft in its energy clone.

Over the past month, casual conversations and passing remarks from Sein and Mayne had left this guardian visibly stunned.

The more contact it had with the Magus Alliance, the more shocks it would face going forward.

But Sein and the others did not have the time to wait for it to catch up.

The bright yellow planar barrier that now loomed ahead of the spacecraft was a sign that it was time for this guy to head down and handle the negotiations first.