Sovereign of the Ashes

As predicted by Sein and the other deans, this academy war turned out to be the shortest in recent centuries.

The disruption caused by the Divine Tower of Dark Flame Academy’s unexpected strategies, coupled with the emergence of a Despairer, accelerated the war to its most intense stage and decisive.

When total casualties approached a predetermined threshold, the deans of the major divine tower academies would confer and agree to end the war early.

After all, the Magus Civilization’s purpose was to cultivate the next generation of exceptional initiates—not to push them to annihilation.

However, with multiple tower masters present in this iteration of the war, the final decision fell to them.

“How about it? Shall we end it here? I think these little ones have endured enough,” the Tower Master of Mystic Maze suggested.

She was the only female tower master among the six in the region, and her divine tower academy was the weakest overall.

The longer the war persisted, the more devastating the outcome would be for her initiates.

The Tower Master of Mystic Maze manifested as a mysterious azure mirror.

Through this mirror, countless mysterious worlds could be glimpsed.

It was said that this Rank Four tower master’s expertise lay not in killing or defense but in wielding unique elemental mysteries to confuse or banish her opponents.

Her unorthodox methods reminded Sein of the Tower Master of Cipher, someone he had encountered before.

“I think we can end it early too,” the Tower Master of Flamewoven Sandbox added. Flames flickered along the edges of the giant sandbox that served as his manifestation.

His academy had been the unluckiest in this academy war.

While the initiates of the Divine Tower of Mystic Maze chose an early defensive strategy, minimizing their casualties, the Divine Tower of Flamewoven Sandbox suffered relentless pressure.

Caught between the divine towers of Gray Plume and Astral Sun, their initiates were crushed on both fronts.

Lacking a standout, charismatic initiate to unify and inspire the rest, the Divine Tower of Flamewoven Sandbox initiates ended up like their tower’s name, becoming nothing more than “scattered sand”.

This situation left the Tower Master of Flamewoven Sandbox, who had been observing the academy war, visibly upset.

Since two tower masters had voiced their opinions, the other three naturally raised no objections.

The divine towers of Gray Plume and Astral Sun were both established by powerful Rank Five tower masters.

Meanwhile, a Despairer had emerged from the Divine Tower of Ripple Wheel this time, and he also happened to be the tower master’s apprentice.

The three tower masters were extremely pleased with the outcome of this academy war and saw no reason to extend it unnecessarily.

Apart from Dark Flame, the five tower masters in the region maintained fairly good relations with one another.

Over the past ten thousand years, these divine towers had collaborated on numerous occasions to conquer foreign planes.

Just as the five tower masters were about to announce the early end of the regional academy war, Dark Flame reappeared in the sky with a sinister chuckle.

“What’s the hurry? I think these little ones can still play for a while longer. Let it run for another half a year. An academy war should last at least two years,” Dark Flame said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

At this point, the regional academy war had been going on for exactly one year and eleven months, making it the shortest session in centuries.

Faced with Dark Flame’s suggestion, the other tower masters exchanged glances before silently consenting.

To the tower masters, these young initiates were not that important.

The Regional Inter-Divine Tower Academy War, held every fifty years, was akin to trimming their lawns—another batch of promising initiates would inevitably grow to take their place.

A few more casualties among this batch of initiates would hardly impact the long-term development of any divine tower.

However, for the Tower Master of Dark Flame to suggest prolonging the war when his academy already had so few initiates demonstrated just how little he cared for their survival.

***

In the end, this session of the Regional Inter-Divine Tower Academy War lasted for two and a half years.

In the final month of the war, as was customary in previous years, the top twenty initiates on the individual score rankings were gathered into a special space for the ultimate trial.

The challenges for this trial were three Rank One extraplanar creatures.

Dark Flame contributed a resilient Rank One Goul Groundworm.

The Tower Master of Astral Sun provided a metal robot with Rank One combat power from a technological civilization.

Meanwhile, the Tower Master of Flamewoven Sandbox unleashed a twelve-meter-tall crimson flaming giant, rumored to be a Titan hybrid.

These three formidable Rank One creatures became the final obstacles for the twenty elite initiates to overcome.

If they succeeded in killing the creatures, the initiates would not only receive generous points but also the valuable remains of these Rank One creatures as trophies for their collections.

Sein’s laboratory still housed a prized specimen of a shadow creature that he had fought during his academy war.

The rarity of shadow creatures, provided by Master Lorianne, made them highly coveted. Even now, as a Rank Three mage, Sein still kept this specimen well-preserved.

Lorianne had been really kind to Sein back then. Shadow creatures were notoriously difficult to deal with, as they were immune to most physical attacks and exhibited high resistance to elemental energies.

At the time, Sein’s Solar Eye spell, a unique lumen elemental magic that happened to counter shadow creatures effectively, allowed him to defeat them.

For others, the shadow creatures’ splitting ability rendered them virtually invincible.

Perhaps Lorianne had deliberately picked the shadow creatures during the trial for him back then.

Although the three Rank One extraplanar creatures in the special space were not as rare as shadow creatures, they were still specimens of unimaginable value for the initiates.

Among the twenty phenomenal initiates participating in the final trial, five hailed from the Divine Tower of Dark Flame, much to Sein’s satisfaction.

As the elite initiates entered the special space, the last trial began, marking the concluding phase of the Regional Inter-Divine Tower Academy War.

***

The Regional Inter-Divine Tower Academy War, which spanned two and a half years, concluded with a satisfying outcome for the Divine Tower of Dark Flame.

At the end of the war, the Tower Master of Dark Flame disappeared without offering any comments on the results.

Nevertheless, Sein and Keith could sense that the tower master was rather pleased.

The rewards promised during the pre-war mobilization were transferred to the Divine Tower of Dark Flame’s public pool of funds.

The Magus Civilization also distributed initiate training funds to divine towers across the region.

The points earned by initiates during the academy war would enable them to achieve rapid growth in the coming years.

With them, the initiates could now afford the magic potions essential for their training, or acquire rare materials sourced from the allied planes.

The divine tower mages also received substantial rewards from their divine tower and the Magus Civilization’s public funds for the exceptional performance of their initiates during the war.

In the final standings, the Divine Tower of Dark Flame narrowly edged out the Divine Tower of Ripple Wheel to claim second place, just below the most dominant participant, the Divine Tower of Astral Sun.

For the Divine Tower of Dark Flame—an academy that had undergone drastic changes over the past thirty years—this result was more than satisfactory!