Sovereign of the Ashes

Kayne was an 18-year-old junior initiate at the Divine Tower of Ashes.

Five years ago, he had been rescued from the black mages by a mage from the divine tower. Ever since then, he had been studying there.

Oh, and Kayne was not the only lucky one that mage had saved.

At the time, over two hundred initiates were rescued alongside him—they had all been loaded onto an airship and brought back to the Divine Tower of Ashes.

Over the course of his five years of study, Kayne came to understand what kind of place he had ended up in. He also gained a clearer picture of the former "Darwell Region"—the land that eventually became Ashenreach.

The divine tower's library had plenty of details on all of this.

Kayne knew he was lucky, and he felt deeply grateful to the Divine Tower of Ashes.

Everything he saw and learned during these five years made one thing obvious: if the Divine Tower of Ashes had not intervened, he and the other initiates would have suffered far worse under the black mages.

It was not just Kayne who felt that way. Most initiates at the Divine Tower of Ashes shared the same sense of gratitude and a strong sense of belonging.

Among the tasks assigned to initiates, the most common quests involved scouting out black mages and eliminating dark creatures in Ashenreach.

Naturally, the targets could not be too strong. In fact, Most of them were black magic initiates.

Still, they were notoriously cruel, and their brutal tactics had claimed the lives of many divine tower initiates.

Out of all the quests issued by the academy, black mage elimination missions had the highest casualty rate, followed by dark creature and magic beast hunts.

Compared to the wild nature of magic beasts or the underground dark creatures, black mages were the toughest to deal with.

As a junior initiate, Kayne was not yet eligible to take on black mage hunting quests.

Only intermediate initiates and above could take those on.

Even so, Kayne had heard stories from his seniors and had a rough idea of how dangerous those quests were.

A female senior initiate he was close to had once brought him a crystal ball with footage from a black mage's secret laboratory.

The scenes inside were so disturbing that Kayne threw up three times. His face went pale, and he could barely stand afterward.

At the Divine Tower of Ashes, the public courses included anatomy dissection classes too.

But for junior initiates, the dissection subjects were usually just frogs and rabbits.

The process was not exactly pleasant, but it did not traumatize most young, inexperienced initiates.

Kayne had never really felt anything during those classes before, but the recordings from that black mage's underground laboratory kept him up for nights on end.

He also developed a strong aversion to anything involving dissection.

Kayne had always done well in his studies, but a month ago, he completely failed the anatomy dissection portion of his midterm exam.

This led a certain Rank One mage, who had quietly held high hopes for him, to sigh in disappointment.

One morning, as Kayne headed to divine tower academy for class with his roommate, he suddenly caught a glimpse of red ahead.

Without hesitation, he ditched his overly chatty roommate, cast a quick Lightfoot spell, and rushed toward the figure.

The magic initiate in red was his senior, Vilette—an intermediate initiate, and a powerful one at that.

When Kayne had first arrived at the Divine Tower of Ashes, she had taken care of him quite a bit.

They had first met in the divine tower's library. At the time, Vilette was already an intermediate initiate, and she took care of Kayne because he reminded her of her younger brother.

His curly brown hair was exactly the same, which made Vilette instinctively warm up to him.

Like Kayne, Vilette had also been rescued by the Divine Tower of Ashes.

They were not from the same region, though.

Vilette was nearly ten years older than Kayne and had already been completing tower quests for at least three years.

The ones at the Divine Tower of Ashes were definitely way tougher than those at most other towers!

While other divine tower academies handed out quests like bandit hunting or gathering basic magic herbs, the initiates here were already going up against black mages in Ashenreach and dealing with creatures from the underground.

The intense, high-risk nature of these quests meant that the casualty rate for initiates here was much higher than average.

Fortunately, the Divine Tower of Ashes understood that high risks deserved high rewards, so it also offered great benefits.

Vilette looked like she had just returned from a quest. She and her companions were clearly worn out, and a few of them were even injured.

Vilette was also wounded. There was a streak of dried blood on her left arm, mostly hidden beneath her mage robe.

When Kayne approached, Vilette stepped away from her group and gave him a firm smack on the forehead.

"I heard you failed one of your courses?!" she snapped, arms crossed.

Just a few years ago, Kayne had been shorter than Vilette. But now, he had grown taller, almost matching her height.

Vilette had always treated him like a younger brother, so it was no surprise she was upset about his exam results.

"It was anatomy dissection... I'll study harder," Kayne said, scratching his head, looking a bit embarrassed.

"I should not have shown you that crystal ball last time. Your mental fortitude is worse than I thought!" Vilette poked him on the forehead again.

Kayne just grinned like a goofball. It had been a while since he had seen his senior, and he really had missed her.

"You're not heading out again for a while, right? I've been struggling with the basic aero elemental array and was hoping you could tutor me," he said.

"Not just yet. We just located a black mage's hideout with Master Dorsch. We've already reported it to the academy, but we might need to head out again soon," Vilette said.

"Wait for me to come back. I'll tutor you when I return," she promised, giving Kayne's cheek a little pinch.

She used to do that to her younger brother, but then she suddenly realized it might not be appropriate anymore—Kayne was already eighteen and practically an adult. So she let go, a little awkwardly.

Behind them, the bell rang loud and clear through the divine tower academy.

Kayne had to hurry to class. He called out a quick goodbye to Vilette and dashed off. His Lightfoot spell had not worn off yet, so he figured he could still make it on time.

As he neared the academy buildings, he glanced back for one last look at his senior.

Vilette seemed to notice and gave him a little wave.

Kayne's face lit up with a smile as he sprinted into the hallway of the academy.