Sovereign of the Ashes

Beyond continuing his journey westward and marking the planar nodes, Sein remained committed to observing and studying everything about this world.

Faeloria was a large world, far more biologically diverse and ecologically advanced than the foreign planes he had visited in the past.

His spatial storage equipment had accumulated yet another vast collection of materials and biological specimens, all unique to this plane.

His strength had also fully recovered after a month of being in Faeloria.

With his power restored, Sein also regained full access to his arsenal of equipment.

More importantly, his most valuable companion, Yuri, could now be summoned.

After the upgrade in Sky City, Yuri’s strength was comparable to that of any Rank Three creature.

Together, the two of them were strong enough to stand their ground against a demigod-level entity.

Thanks to Sein’s wealth and the unwavering support of an assistant like Yuri, he maintained a substantial supply of magical ingredients across various grades, ensuring that he never lacked resources for his experiments.

Had he arrived in this foreign plane empty-handed, his situation would have been far less comfortable.

His habit of hoarding resources had likely developed during his initiate years in Mystralora City—he had been too poor when he was young.

No matter the circumstances, he always ensured he was prepared ahead of time to keep his options open.

Of course, Sein’s ability to hoard was due to his skills as an alchemist, which allowed him to construct an abundance of spatial storage equipment.

Beyond that, he still possessed the space conch Tourmaline had gifted him long ago.

It was spacious enough to hold over seventy percent of his fortune.

Every time he retrieved something from it, Tourmaline inevitably came to mind.

Aside from his women, whom he now considered his family, he missed his dragon turtle friend the most.

When he had traveled through the Magus World, he hardly contacted his family or Tourmaline, and at the time, he had not missed them much.

Yet now, in Faeloria, far away from the Magus World, he found himself constantly thinking about those in the Magus World, despite only a few months having passed in his own perception.

Humans truly were complex creatures.

As a mage, Sein had devoted his life to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

He had meticulously studied elemental forces—yet when it came to understanding human nature, he had never explored it as deeply.

At one point, he even asked the Spider Queen whether she had seen a dragon turtle after casting him into the space-time corridor connected to the stone slab when they were above the Magus World’s West Coast.

The Spider Queen merely shook her head; she had not encountered the dragon turtle he spoke of.

Naturally, a goddess like her had no reason to concern herself with mentioning an encounter with the Spring Guardian to a mere Rank Three being.

Sein could only let out a long sigh after hearing her response.

***

By the third month of his arrival in Faeloria, deep within a lush forest, Sein began conducting experiments on Lou, the half-undead girl.

As a principled mage, Sein refused to neglect his own studies and research while carrying out his mission for the Spider Queen.

Having known Sein’s personality for centuries, the Spider Queen did not interfere much in this regard.

As long as Sein completed her assigned tasks on time, she had no interest in what else he pursued.

If word of Sein’s freedom under the Spider Queen’s authority ever reached the Magus World, it would surely astonish the black mages of Blackhaven.

Such brazen defiance was unimaginable to those black mages, especially considering that Sein had already stood up to the Spider Queen several times before.

Sein humbly consulted the Spider Queen regarding his experiments on Lou, but to her, half-undead creatures were hardly noteworthy.

While Lou might have been a unique experimental subject in Sein’s eyes, to the Spider Queen, she was nothing special.

“I’ve dissected several Necromancers before, along with undead creatures of Rank Four and above. Just go ahead and do it. Even if you fail, at worst, she’ll simply become a fully undead creature.”

Her tone was casual, almost indifferent.

In contrast to the Spider Queen’s relaxed attitude, Sein took his experiment on Lou very seriously.

The ability to freely switch between a physical and elemental body was a privilege reserved for mages of Rank Two and above in the Magus World.

Since Lou was a unique existence, caught between life and death, Sein aimed to remove the flower of death behind her head while still preserving this rare ability of hers.

Better yet, he wanted to grant her full control over it.

This would be no small undertaking.

Sein had never attempted an experiment of this nature before, and the thrill of unraveling a new truth filled him with excitement and energy.

Since arriving in this world, he had rarely focused on pyro elemental mysteries, instead devoting himself almost entirely to necromancy and umbra elemental research.

With the Spider Queen serving as a readily accessible mentor, there was no reason not to take full advantage of this unique opportunity.

Moreover, as a Rank Three Grand Mage, Sein was expected to explore all elemental disciplines.

Besides, he had always possessed a natural affinity for necromancy and umbra elemental magic and had even studied them on his own in his early years.

With such a solid foundation, now was the perfect time to push his research further!

After all, knowledge itself had no hierarchy.

Who was to say that pyro elemental mysteries were inherently more valuable than necromancy or umbra elemental magic?

Regardless of the element, once pursued to its depths, none of them were simple.

Thanks to his recent promotion to Rank Three, Sein still had plenty of time ahead of him.

Expanding his knowledge of other elemental disciplines was simply a natural course for him.

The concern that his deep research into other elements might hinder his progress in pyro elemental studies, particularly the power of laws, never even crossed his mind.

It was not as though he was in a hurry to ascend to Demigod.

For Sein, knowledge held far more value than rank.

It was this unwavering pursuit of truth that had inadvertently propelled him ahead of more than ninety percent of the mages in the Magus World.

How many mages could truly ignore power and focus solely on truth?

Sein had been chosen and accepted as Lorianne’s apprentice not merely because he placed first in the regional academy war, but because Lorianne had thoroughly investigated his past before making her decision.

In the Magus World, those who successfully ascended to higher ranks often owed their growth to a combination of luck and ability.

But beyond luck, there was also inevitability!

Sein’s body modification experiments on Lou took a total of one week.

Under the Spider Queen’s guidance, Sein did not attempt to remove the flower of death from the back of the girl’s head.

Instead, he used a special technique to fully fuse the flower of death with Lou, making it part of her being rather than a separate entity.

In Faeloria, this type of flower was also known as the “Red Spider Lily.”

As Sein had previously suspected, the Church of Bones had implanted the flower in Lou.

It was a special resource used to cultivate powerful Transcendent Beings, including Lou’s brother, who the Church of Bones had also transformed.

Among the factions within the Dark Alliance, the Church of Bones had long been notorious for its ruthlessness and disregard for morality.

Their infamous reputation in Faeloria was akin to that of the black mages in the Magus World.