Sovereign of the Ashes

The person who ambushed Sein was an initiate from the Divine Tower of Shadow.

Bold, or perhaps arrogant, he had daringly trailed Sein over a considerable distance, despite being merely a senior initiate.

Sein, ever cautious, always prepared a contingency plan.

It was a habit honed at the Black Magic Academy.

Laying all his cards on the table left no room for maneuver, a risky strategy that could play into the hands of adversaries.

Thus, in the previous battle at the basin, Sein had only used a select few of his magic spells, along with a few pieces of equipment like the geo elemental shield ring and the invisibility cloak.

He had deliberately refrained from using the Solar Eye Mask, preferring to keep some tactics in reserve over accumulating points.

The lesson of outstanding experts who had fallen over seemingly minor oversights was not lost on Sein; he was determined not to join their ranks.

A minor wound on his right arm from a shadow arrow did little to perturb him.

However, he frowned upon discovering that the simple alchemy table he had taken out had been destroyed during the initiate’s ambush.

After consuming a healing potion, Sein approached the large tree where the senior initiate had been concealed.

The tree trunk, large enough for several people to wrap their arms around it, was riddled with holes, as was the body of the initiate from the Divine Tower of Shadow.

Sein’s attention was drawn to the tattered, pitch-black leather armor on the fallen initiate.

He could discern, from its faint elemental flow and the magic arrays etched onto it, that this armor played a significant role in the initiate’s ability to follow him silently, aside from the initiate’s own specialized abilities.

“I may be able to combine this with the invisibility cloak to create a new type of concealment device,” Sein mused.

“But first, I’ll need to unravel the secrets of this damaged leather armor. That will have to wait until after the regional academy war,” he murmured to himself as he carefully stowed the tattered armor away.

Among the remains of the senior initiate, Sein discovered a shattered mirror.

Recognizing it as a type of spatial equipment, now unfortunately rendered useless due to damage, he sighed.

Damage to spatial equipment meant any stored items were irretrievably lost, shredded by spatial forces.

Still, Sein pocketed the fragmented Space Mirror.

Although the personal collection of this fallen initiate was lost, this decent-looking mirror still held some value as it could be broken down into its basic materials.

After tidying up the remnants of the skirmish, Sein surveyed his surroundings before heading south toward a mountain pass.

Despite the conspicuous golden light around him, he felt confident no other initiates from the Divine Tower of Shadow were in the immediate vicinity.

Nevertheless, he knew he needed to address the glaring light soon or consider retreating to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s territory.

Extracting another alchemy table from his space bangle, Sein prepared for the task ahead. As an accomplished alchemist with Master Morsidor’s inheritance, he possessed multiple sets of alchemy equipment.

This included several spare alchemy tables, a necessity for his extensive research on the Solar Eye magic spell.

Of course, Sein did not bring all of his alchemy tables here. Nevertheless, he had at least three of various sizes at his disposal.

He carefully placed the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring badge onto the mechanical arm at the center of his chosen alchemy table.

With a screwdriver and tweezers in hand, he began the meticulous process of dismantling the divine tower badge, a task he had become quite adept at through previous experience.

As Sein deftly dismantled the badge into its smaller component parts, he was unaware that his actions had caught the attention of several powerful beings outside the trial space, causing them to exchange looks of disbelief.

“I wonder if it’s possible to directly alter the score data through the badge,” Sein mused, but quickly shook his head at the thought. “No, that would certainly be crossing a line into serious cheating.”

***

Sein found that time always flew by when he was deeply immersed in alchemy, and he always lost track of time during experiments.

His love for alchemy experiments and magic research was profound.

If his relentless studies at the Black Magic Academy in Mystralora City during his teenage years were driven by a need for survival, his current pursuits were fueled by genuine interest and passion.

Choosing to attend the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Academy was a testament to his refusal to rest on his laurels.

Had he been content with complacency, he could have easily enjoyed a life of wealth and comfort as a noble heir in Grantt Territory.

Though it was rare for Sein to become distracted during his alchemy experiments, a particular memory surfaced as he worked on the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring badge.

He recalled an incident from his time at the Black Magic Academy when he was nine years old.

Back then, a fellow fresh initiate, who had joined the academy alongside Sein, was frequently bullied by older students who were already junior initiates.

Such bullying was not uncommon at the academy, and not every newcomer had the fortune of finding a strong ally as Sein did in Leena.

He remembered his initial encounters with Leena, being tasked with various chores in her dormitory, delivered in her characteristically icy tone.

Even so, that was preferable to the humiliation and mistreatment that the bullied fresh initiate suffered.

Sein vividly remembered overhearing that fresh initiate vowing to one day retaliate against their tormentors.

However, the junior initiates, along with other initiates from the Black Magic Academy, only mocked the fresh initiate’s defiant stance.

At that time, his magical abilities were unremarkable, especially compared to one of the junior initiates in the group, who was already on the verge of becoming an intermediate initiate.

In the Black Magic Academy, challenging a more powerful initiate without sufficient strength was perceived as foolishness.

Consequently, the fresh initiate became the butt of everyone’s jokes, until he volunteered for an experimental human body modification conducted by Master Collance, transforming him into something monstrous.

Master Collance had predicted that the initiate would not survive beyond three days in his new form.

Hence, the transformed initiate sought out and brutally dismembered the initiates who had bullied him the next day.

This incident resurfaced in Sein’s memory, perhaps triggered by his recent elimination of many initiates from the Divine Tower of Shadow.

Sein’s preference for eliminating any potential threats was a lesson deeply ingrained during his time at the Black Magic Academy.

He could have spared those defeated initiates from the Divine Tower of Shadow, but he chose not to leave any future threats or hidden enemies for himself.

On the battlefield, mercy and kindness could be a fatal liability.

After knowing the casualty rate of the previous war, Sein understood that the Regional Inter-Divine Tower Academy War was not mere child’s play.

It was a war akin to the constant border conflicts in secular nations where people truly died and no knight would spare an enemy soldier.

Earl Grantt’s desire to bring Sein and Solon to the battlefield was likely intended as a form of training.

However, what Earl Grantt failed to realize was that Sein had already acquired this harsh understanding and knowledge much earlier.