Sovereign of the Ashes

According to intelligence gathered by the Magus Civilization, the Phantom Crow King was a greedy creature and enjoyed bullying the weak.

This Rank Six creature, with its obvious personality flaws, was actually one of the easier ones to recruit.

The Rank Six Sea Emperor Shark had taken a firm stance, but in doing so, it had left its own subjects and the plane under its command trapped in a dilemma.

The Phantom Crow King that appeared in the starry sky was unusually silent. Each flap of its massive wings carried an enormous amount of particle energy.

However, this overwhelming display did not provide the Phantom Crow King with any real advantage during the actual negotiations.

The cawing of the Phantom Crows swarming around Sein and the others grew quite irritating after a while.

Facing the Phantom Crow King's silence, Sein smiled lightly after a moment and said, "Oh? It seems like the Phantom Crow King isn't here to welcome us. I take it that Phantom Crow World intends to stand as an enemy of the Magus Alliance. If that's the case... there's no need for us to stay any longer."

With that, Sein turned away as if preparing to return to the space fortress and depart.

After remaining silent for a long time, the Phantom Crow King finally spoke.

The moment it opened its beak, it shattered the cold, aloof front it had tried to maintain—a demeanor that, until then, had carried a faint sense of pressure.

"We...I mean... I have no hostility toward the Magus Alliance. We don't wish to be enemies of the Magus Alliance either," the Phantom Crow King said, flapping its wings as it looked at Sein.

With the Magus Civilization's power and status now, only a few worlds could afford to cross them. But a medium-sized plane like Phantom Crow World was not one of them.

The Phantom Crow King had indeed never known what Magus World or the Magus Alliance were before this.

However, after being struck down by a single blow in Bouldrak World, this Rank Six creature, which had little contact with the outside world, had finally managed to learn about the true nature of the Magus Civilization through a few friends from other star domains.

The one who provided the Phantom Crow King with this information was a Rank Six creature living in Palebone World.

Palebone World was extremely distant from Phantom Crow World. It was so far that even a Rank Six creature like the Phantom Crow King would find it nearly impossible to cross star domains to reach it.

As a result, the civilizations of the two worlds naturally had no vested interests in one another.

Most who befriended the Phantom Crow King were hardly what one would call upstanding.

Palebone World was a unique plane dominated by bone creatures. However, it was important to note that they were not undead beings.

The Phantom Crow King had traded the bones of powerful creatures for fresh, vibrant souls with Palebone World's Shadowbone Dragon on several occasions.

It was a trade that benefited both sides.

Though also a Rank Six creature, the Shadowbone Dragon was far stronger than the Phantom Crow King.

Moreover, Palebone World was not an ordinary medium-sized plane. There were a total of three Rank Six creatures in that world.

Yet even in such a relatively prosperous medium-sized plane, the Shadowbone Dragon showed clear wariness at the mention of the Magus Civilization.

From the dragon, the Phantom Crow King realized just what kind of terrifying civilization it had provoked.

Since its return from Bouldrak World, the Phantom Crow King had been on edge.

Even the fresh, succulent souls it devoured no longer tasted as good.

At first, the Phantom Crow King feared that the Magus Civilization would come for it right away. So, it consolidated the power of the entire Phantom Crow Star Domain, preparing for the worst.

But after waiting several hundred years with no sign of any foreign civilization showing up at its doorstep, the Phantom Crow King finally started to relax a little.

That was why the sudden arrival of Sein and the others caught it completely off guard.

"Since you have no hostility toward our Magus Civilization, how about inviting us into the Phantom Crow World and showing us around? We've come in good faith for a diplomatic visit," Sein said with a smile, deliberately emphasizinggood faith.

The Phantom Crow King looked at the space fortress behind Sein, then at Sein himself, before nodding hesitantly.

At the Phantom Crow King's signal, the Phantom Crows parted, forming a path in front of the fortress carrying Sein and his companions.

The entire space fortress slowly made its way deeper into Phantom Crow World.

The planar barrier appeared as a swirling gray mist shrouded in darkness. It was clear that the Phantom Crows had fortified their plane well.

The dense negative factors of death, darkness, and decay nurtured billions of new generations of Phantom Crows within their world.

Even if dozens of space fortresses opened fire at once, breaking through the planar barrier of a medium-sized plane like this would still take quite some time.

Unless it was breached from within, the difficulty of conquest would remain extremely high.

***

Phantom Crow World did not give the impression of being a harmonious plane teeming with natural life.

It was not a place suited for most creatures of flesh and blood. Sein did not particularly like the environment here either, though he maintained a polite demeanor.

The Phantom Crow King formally received Sein and the other visitors from Magus World in a massive black palace.

Phantom Crow World embraced a faith system, with all Phantom Crows loyal subjects of the Phantom Crow King.

However, unlike typical systems of divine faith, the Phantom Crow King had a high level of passive evolutionary potential.

It grew stronger by consuming souls... which explained why the Phantom Crows had always been eager to conquer other planes.

Other resources like energy crystals could also help the Phantom Crows grow, but they still preferred souls—that was their staple food.

Sein marveled at the Phantom Crow King's palace.

Phantom Crow World had no sun; the sky was filled with countless stars and two dim crimson moons.

In fact, the Phantom Crow King's palace was a massive open-air temple.

Thick black stone pillars stood throughout the palace, their surfaces carved with detailed patterns that appeared to tell a story.

Sein guessed they told the story of the Phantom Crow King's rise, from a weak Phantom Crow to the mighty ruler it had become.

The carvings showed it leading its subjects to defeat a group of strange, long-nosed creatures.

It seemed like those long-nosed creatures had once lived on the Phantom Crow World. And back then, the world had a sun—more than one, in fact.

"Those were Soul-Eating Beasts. They were once the dominant species of this world. Like us, they fed on souls, but we were also their main food source," the Phantom Crow King explained as it landed in front of Sein.

"Now, they're just history. I built this temple from the bones of the Soul-Eating Beast King," it added.

By now, the Phantom Crow King had shrunk to its normal size, with a wingspan of about a hundred meters.

Of course, it could shrink further if needed.

"These creatures were quite huge," Sein commented, nodding with interest.

He reached out and touched the pillar beside him. If the Phantom Crow King had not mentioned it, he would never have realized that it was actually a rib.

"This is the bone of a Rank Five creature, huh?" Sein mused.