Sovereign of the Ashes

Amidst the chaos, a stray ember grazed Sein’s cheek.

Although it did not cause a serious injury, it seared his face with a fiery pain.

Leena, who was near to Sein, fared far worse.

Despite narrowly avoiding the initial onslaught of fire pillar and rain of flames, she was helplessly thrown several dozen meters by the ensuing hurricane.

“LEENA!” Sein cried out.

Quickly casting the Lightfoot spell on himself, Sein, who was glowing with yellow light, rushed to Leena and picked her up.

The source of the yellow glow came from the magic ring which included a geo elemental shield. It was a gift from Master Morsidor before his departure to Shadow Valley.

When Sein reached Leena’s side, her clothes around the abdomen and waist area were already stained with blood.

Even so, that did not deter a strong woman like her from casting a couple of buff spells, similar to Lightfoot, on him in time.

As a senior initiate, Leena had mastered a much broader array of magic spells.

She had also learned a shield-type spell, but it was not the type that could automatically activate like the one in Sein’s magic ring.

The two took a moment to assess their surroundings.

Shielded by a layer of geo elemental protection, Sein and Leena remained in relatively good condition.

However, the other intermediate and senior initiates in the camp suffered fatalities and injuries from the sudden onslaught.

Elemental light danced around Sein and Leena.

Most of them were aero and pyro elements that had come from the sudden onslaught, and only very little from the resistance put up by the black magic initiates.

“How did the Divine Tower of Dawn manage to descend so quickly and accurately discover our exact location in the Shadow Valley?! Is there a traitor in our midst?!”

An enraged, elderly voice came from the depths of the crumbling passageway filled with dense clouds of elements.

The mere intensity of this furious voice caused several high-strung black magic initiates and those who had suffered severe injuries, to spurt out mouthfuls of blood.

The power behind the voice was evidently formidable, as the sheer intensity of his enraged focus was enough to cause severe injury to the weaker initiates near the spatial passage.

“Hmph, find the answers yourself.” A younger and righteous voice appeared through will transmission.

“You have openly engaged in black magic activities in the Magus Continent, trafficked countless innocents, brutally murdered the natives of the Magus World, and destroyed the seal that the Summer Guardian had placed on the space-time rift.

“I, Rhomwald from the Divine Tower of Dawn, shall execute you under the watchful gaze of the Divine Tower’s laws!”

“With only you? Taking on the master of the Divine Tower of Dawn directly would indeed be a formidable challenge, especially given the rumors that he’s a peak Rank Five Divine Overmage.

“But you, a mere recent entrant into the peak of the Rank Three, do you even know how to wield the power of the laws properly?” the elderly voice taunted his opponent in the will transmission.

“Why don’t you find out yourself by getting a taste of my aero and pyro magic spells?” The younger voice responded with a cold snort in the will transmission.

Two formidable beings at the peak of Rank Three, who could use the power of laws to a certain extent, clashed near the spatial passage.

The man with an older voice appeared to be the dean of the Black Magic Academy in Mystralora City.

Despite his repeated attempts to charge through the spatial passage, he was met with obstruction.

Thick pyro and aero elemental energy turned the area surrounding the spatial passage into a maelstrom of elements.

With pyro and aero elements working in unison, they created a force that prevented the dean from crossing to another world.

Simultaneously, the rain of flames and hurricane inflicted significant casualties on the black magic initiates at the other end of the spatial passage.

Sein and Leena were relatively safe for the moment, but the other initiates faced dire circumstances.

One of the Quasi Mages, despite mastering a shield-type magic, was seen melting under the onslaught of the fiery rain before he could even invoke his protective spell.

The flames of the fiery rain appeared to be no ordinary flame. Their intensity far surpassed the pyro magic spells Sein and Leena had mastered.

The chaos had caused Sein to lose sight of Zorro and Faye.

Amidst the raging flames and hurricane, Sein and Leena had their hands full ensuring their own safety, leaving them with no capacity to worry about the others.

“Hehehe, you mages from the Divine Towers are quite the moralists. There are hundreds of innocent initiates on the other side of this spatial passage. I bet more than half of them have perished due to your magic.

“Oh dear, they were the future hopes of the Magus World! How could you eliminate them so callously when they hadn’t even violated any rules in the Magus World? Are you the black mage, or am I the black mage here?” the old voice said and chuckled eerily.

“Hmph, hunting black mages often comes at the cost of some innocent lives. After all, isn’t using other people as shields a common tactic employed by your group to evade the scrutiny of the various Divine Towers and Orders of the Knights?

“As for those initiates... while I can’t vouch for their character, it’s likely that those initiates raised by black mages will become a menace to the Magus World in the future!” The stern voice spoke again in the will transmission.

The voice startled many of the surviving black magic initiates, including Sein.

Fortunately, the situation did not deteriorate any further.

Another voice emerged.

“Senior Rhomwald, based on the junior and fresh initiates we’ve rescued so far, there are still innocents among the black magic initiates in this area. The fresh initiates, most of whom are shockingly under ten years old and have been subjected to suffering at the hands of the black mages in Gloomhaven. We, as mages from the Divine Towers, have a duty to rescue them!”

The appearance of this voice was a godsend.

While the full-fledged black mages on the other side of the spatial passage might hold a different opinion, this voice stirred some emotions among the black magic initiates in the Sand World.

Could it be that the mages from the Divine Towers were genuinely benevolent individuals who championed human rights and the welfare of the general public?

Having lived underground for many years with limited access to information from the outside world, most black magic initiates lacked awareness of the Divine Towers and the spellcasting community on the surface world.

Sein could only make an accurate judgment after returning to the surface world and interacting directly with these Divine Towers.

The plea from the other mage from the Divine Tower led to a reduction in the turmoil of aero and pyro elements surrounding the spatial passage.

At that moment, Zorro’s voice suddenly rang out from the crystal ball in Sein’s possession.

“Quick! Activate the elemental beads! This is our only chance to escape from the Sand World!”