Sovereign of the Ashes

Tourmaline, a demigod-level dragon turtle from a distinguished family, significantly impacted the momentum of both sides in the conflict.

Most participants from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army, apart from Rank Two and Three Knights and mages experienced in interplanar wars, had never seen a behemoth spanning over a thousand meters in diameter.

For the divine tower, Tourmaline's arrival was a motivational surge.

However, for the natives of Verdant Leaf World, its appearance served as an unpleasant reality that chilled them like a bucket of cold water.

While Sein was returning to Verdant Leaf World with Tourmaline, the native inhabitants, led by the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan, had already initiated a robust counterattack against the central fortress of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

The overwhelming numbers of the native army, combined with the advantage of fighting on familiar terrain, compelled the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring to decelerate their advances on the western and northern fronts to manage these counterattacks.

The Green Cypress Pine, the demigod-level plant that had previously injured Sein on the western front, was now besieged by two demigods from the divine tower army.

Together with the collective might of other subordinate knight and mage legions, even the robust extensive root system of the Green Cypress Pine appeared vulnerable under such an intense assault.

If Tourmaline and Sein had delayed their return, the divine tower would likely have to decelerate its offensive on the western front yet again.

This delay would, in turn, prolong the duration of the war in Verdant Leaf World, which was undesirable.

With Tourmaline's arrival, the upper echelons of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring felt revitalized.

Additionally, Luna, the Rank Two centaur, had recently rallied nearly three hundred thousand lower-ranked troops from Centaurworld.

These reinforcements enabled the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring to sustain their campaign on all fronts against Verdant Leaf World.

Dean Archimedes was immensely relieved and joyful at Sein's return.

He had been prepared to deploy the Viridescent Seed entrusted to him by the tower master, but Tourmaline's timely appearance allowed him to preserve this trump card.

Upon entry into Verdant Leaf World, Tourmaline first sniffed the air and discerned the unique laws of this microplane.

"What a small place..." she muttered softly before taking massive strides toward the western region of Verdant Leaf World.

Before arriving at Verdant Leaf World, Tourmaline had been informed by Sein that the entity responsible for his injuries was the Green Cypress Pine located in the western part of Verdant Leaf World.

Tourmaline had already tuned into the aura of this creature, determined to settle a score with it.

Despite Tourmaline's sluggish pace, her colossal size allowed her to traverse westward nearly as quickly as Rank Two mages flying at full speed.

Tourmaline was actually also capable of flight, but she found it too taxing.

She preferred swimming over walking, and walking over flying.

Ideally, she would rather not move at all, opting instead to nap or sleep.

Two months later, Tourmaline reached the westernmost edge of Verdant Leaf World's main continent.

There, the Green Cypress Pine stood like a small green-capped mushroom compared to Tourmaline.

This demigod plant, three hundred meters tall and five hundred meters in diameter, was surrounded by an army of about two thousand smaller tree creatures.

They were ancient trees, over a hundred years old, transformed by the Green Cypress Pine with the origin energy of its homeplane after tapping into the power of Verdant Truth.

Not every century-old tree was turned into a tree soldier—the Green Cypress Pine's method of utilizing origin energy was still crude and primitive.

Initially, there were more than five thousand tree soldiers, but relentless attacks from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army had reduced their numbers significantly.

In addition to the tree soldiers encircling the Green Cypress Pine, the primeval forests to the west teemed with various plant creatures under the guardian's command, posing substantial challenges to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army.

Yet, with the entry of such a formidable opponent, the resistance by Verdant Leaf World's native creatures seemed ultimately futile.

"Is that it? Watch me!" Tourmaline lifted her head toward the Green Cypress Pine.

Towering over her opponent, she felt little threat.

With a powerful slam of her right front paw, Tourmaline created rift valleys, each over a hundred meters wide.

This act triggered severe quakes across the entire western continent of Verdant Leaf World.

The rift valleys also exposed the extensive root system of the Green Cypress Pine.

The resulting quake was not merely due to Tourmaline's strength.

While Tourmaline was indeed formidable, the true cause of the devastating effects was the strength law that Tourmaline had mastered.

The power of laws was a formidable force in the Astral Realm, accessible only by demigods and mastered by creatures of Rank Four and above.

Research by the mages of the Magus World revealed that everything in the Astral Realm was composed of particles arranged according to laws.

The capacity of a world to support life and its developmental potential hinged crucially on the completeness of its rules.

The exact tier of the strength law mastered by the Tourmaline remained unclear to Sein, as was its rank among the various types of laws.

However, the spectacle unfolding before their eyes left Sein, along with nearly all members of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army, utterly astounded.

Sein even began wondering whether he should persuade Tourmaline to assist him with a few magic experiments after the interplanar war concluded.

However, that would prove challenging, given the extraordinary thickness of Tourmaline's shell and the hardness of its scales and skin.

When Sein was at Rank One, all his efforts to make an incision in Tourmaline's skin failed.

How could he perform any experiment if he could not even break Tourmaline's skin with his scalpel?

The quake and geological veins disturbances caused by Tourmaline on the western part of the Verdant Leaf World's continent had profound ramifications across the entire plane.

On a plane, movement on one side could trigger far-reaching effects.

Tourmaline's release of powerful strength law on the western side of the continent rippled through the depths of the eastern sea in the Verdant Leaf World, causing a significant depression in a vast expanse of the seabed.

Although the warring legions on both sides remained oblivious to the changes in the seabed deep in the eastern sea, Lorianne, who was observing the overall situation from beyond the plane, noticed it.

Her goal was to harvest a productive microplane that continued to yield dendro elemental resources, not a fragmented continent strewn with ruins.

Thus, upon recognizing Tourmaline's immense destructive capability, she swiftly contacted Tourmaline, Sein, and the other leaders of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army.

"Huh? I'm not allowed to do this? Fine," Tourmaline muttered, halting her assault.

Before receiving Lorianne's reminder, the dragon turtle had stomped on the ground a few times, turning the landscape before them into a chaotic array of craters and gullies.

More than two thousand tree soldiers of considerable sizes were probably buried somewhere in the newly formed deep ravines.

The lush primeval forest was transformed into a sea of yellow as Tourmaline had pretty much destroyed the forest in the area.

Is this truly the power of a demigod-level being...?

Many knights present, familiar with the might of the Order of the Steel Fist's demigod-level powerhouses, found themselves questioning themselves.

Witnessing this devastation, Sein was reminded of a question he once posed to his mentor—between Tourmaline and Lorianne, who was stronger?