Sovereign of the Ashes

After Sein finished searching the monster’s soul, the gray creature trapped in the light net fell completely still.

It appeared dead.

What a tragic end for that teenager.

When Sein dispelled the net, the monster’s body immediately began to corrode and dissolve.

Thick, white vapor rose from the melting flesh.

By the time the mist cleared, all that remained was a pitch-black pearl and a pool of corrosive acid on the ground.

“Hm, physically and mentally unstable. As expected from a mere man-made product. In the Magus World’s academic circles, this would be considered a complete failure,” Sein remarked.

He extended his hand and drew the pearl toward him, rolling it between his fingers. After a moment of inspection, he shook his head.

“It looks like the crystal core of a Rank One creature, but it’s defective.”

Of course, the true disappointment was the gray monster’s death and the complete evaporation of its remains.

After a brief analysis, Sein concluded that the lumen elemental energy he used had been too effective against the creature’s necrotic composition and its already unstable physical state.

The soul search had simply been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Too bad. I should’ve used pyro magic instead,” Sein muttered, clicking his tongue.

The lost specimen was unfortunate, but it was not enough to bother him for long.

Sein felt no sympathy for the teenager. He had seen far too many tragedies like this before.

He had lived through the bleak landscapes of the underground world—a place defined by death and despair.

A teenage boy being mutated into a monster was hardly the most horrific thing he had encountered.

He had seen a fair share of black mages in Mystralora City experimenting on initiates and walked through war-ravaged lands where corpses piled higher than city walls.

The sight before him was insignificant in comparison.

The girl, though....

If circumstances allowed, Sein would try to look after her.

He had no habit of helping others, but she had shown him kindness, and his personal code demanded he repay such gestures in kind.

Of course, the girl’s care for him stemmed from a misunderstanding—she had mistaken Sein for her big brother.

Yet, the cruel irony was that her real brother, the gray monster, had just died by Sein’s hand.

***

After leaving the sewer, Sein flew toward the small fishing village while the night was still young.

Before he reached the village’s edge, his body abruptly tensed. His instincts flared in warning.

Without hesitation, he vanished from his original position.

Moments later, a group of five figures appeared on the stone path just outside the fishing village.

This path was the only road connecting Mora Village to Blackwater City.

The weathered, moss-streaked stones beneath their feet hinted at the village’s former prosperity—after all, most villages in this world had only simple dirt roads.

The group was dressed strangely.

One of them rode a horse, clad in light armor and gripping a pale gray lance.

As for the others, there was a burly man wielding a double-headed axe, a leather-armored swordsman with his blade drawn, and a skinny man with a hookblade strapped to his waist.

The most notable figure of all stood in the middle—a man in gray robes, clutching a scepter.

From the shadows, Sein’s eyes gleamed.

It wasn’t the man’s Rank One life level that surprised him. That alone was nothing remarkable.

What truly piqued his interest was the faint elemental energy radiating from the gray-robed figure.

Sein could also tell, from the subtle fluctuations in the man’s aura, that he possessed a considerable amount of mental focus.

If not for the distinct planar aura clinging to him—the energy commonly exuded by all native creatures of this world—Sein might have mistaken him for a fellow mage.

“There really are elemental power users in this world?” Sein murmured, his lips parting slightly in surprise.

Aside from the gray-robed figure, the strength of the others was hardly noteworthy.

The knight atop the warhorse exuded the faint aura of a Quasi Knight, but the remaining three were well below Rank One.

“Allen, what exactly is our mission this time?”

The voice came from the skinny man with the hookblade. He stepped closer to the middle-aged knight atop the warhorse, his eyes flicking toward the gray-robed figure with poorly concealed curiosity.

”The church actually sent another Transcendent Being besides you... This one’s a priest, right?” he asked in a hushed voice.

The knight’s expression darkened.

“Shut up! Just focus on the mission and stop asking questions!”

His glare silenced the skinny man immediately.

The next moment, the knight’s demeanor shifted. He straightened his back and bowed slightly toward the gray-robed figure.

The gray-robed man said nothing.

Yet his cold, impassive presence radiated a quiet authority that sent a shiver down the skinny man’s spine.

“No one in the Church of Bones is normal... I wonder if my decision to join them two years ago was right. Maybe I should have joined the Temple of Stealth, or maybe even the Temple of Wealth in Poslenna City instead...”

The skinny man sighed inwardly, his thoughts heavy with regret.

But alas, regret was just that—regret. His lamentations were pointless now.

This world placed immense importance on faith and faction allegiance.

If he dared to break away from the Church of Bones without justification, he would face relentless pursuit from the church’s law enforcers.

Among the many temples in the surrounding region, the Church of Bones was considered one of the more formidable organizations.

It was stronger, and its entry requirements were lower compared to the Temple of Stealth, founded by Masque, the God of Thieves.

That was precisely why the skinny man had chosen to join it in the first place.

As for the Temple of Wealth, established by Aurelia, Goddess of Wealth, it was larger in scale but lacked significant combat prowess.

On top of that, joining the Temple of Wealth required a hefty initiation fee.

The skinny man had been a solitary thief before his induction into the church. How could he possibly have scraped together enough coins to bribe the priests at the Temple of Wealth?

He shook his head, pushing aside the unrealistic thoughts.

His mind drifted toward more pleasant distractions. Smoky Willow Alley in Blackwater City came to mind.

“Maybe I’ll stop by for a drink after this mission,” he mused.

But before the thought could settle, the sky ahead of him erupted in light.

The glow carried a cold, ominous hue—a grayish tinge that caused his skin to prickle with dread.

“A-A...Legendary Being!” the thief whispered, eyes wide with disbelief.

The realization struck just as Noraud the warrior and Datch the swordsman collapsed to the ground.

Gray flames coiled around them, searing through armor and flesh alike.

Howls of agony echoed through the night and then suddenly cut off as the flames incapacitated the two adventurers.

Dark energy pooled beneath the skinny man’s feet.

Instinctively, he prepared to run.

But before he could lift his foot, Allen, the knight who led their group, was thrown from his warhorse.

The faint shimmer of divine energy that had protected Allen moments earlier now flickered weakly beneath the relentless gray flames that engulfed his body.

Big Brother Allen was considered to be the templar with the greatest potential to break through the Transcendent Realm in the last decade!

The skinny man’s desire to escape was completely extinguished because what he saw next made his blood run cold.

The Bone Priest, the Transcendent-level powerhouse sent by the church for this mission—launched several bone spears into the oncoming gray flames.

The moment they made contact, the bone spears disintegrated into ash.

The priest let out a muffled grunt and dropped to one knee.

This was not even a fair fight.

The thief froze in place, not even daring to move. By doing so, he unknowingly became the only member of the group left unscathed.

But the danger had not passed. He saw a mass of gray flame hovering directly above his head.

The earlier battle had unfolded too quickly for him to process the enemy’s methods. All he had seen was gray fire streaking across the night sky.

But now... He saw it clearly.

The flame above him formed the image of an exquisite firebird.

”What kind of spell is this? I’ve never seen anything like it,” the thief whispered, staring at the flame above him.

The spell’s form far exceeded anything he had encountered in decades of experience.