Sovereign of the Ashes

Inside the laboratory, a mesmerizing orange-red flame burned slowly in Sein’s palm.

This was Lustfire—a tangible flame born of emotion.

Refining it had been anything but easy.

Jessica had remained in Sein’s laboratory for nearly two years, enduring countless rounds of mental and physical stimuli.

Even now, specialized devices were still working on her most sensitive areas.

Yet unlike before, Jessica showed no reaction at all on the experimental table. She was peacefully asleep.

From his long observation, Sein had recently concluded that the emotional power in a sentient being existed in a finite total amount.

Refining this Lustfire would spare Jessica at least two centuries of the psychological and physical torment she had been suffering.

But refinement was only the first step. To truly resolve her condition, Jessica needed to master the essence of this emotional power herself and turn Lustfire into something she could wield offensively.

The problem was that Sein had only just managed to refine this strange flame. Its true nature was still beyond his full understanding.

Naturally, he could not teach her how to control it yet.

He would first have to master the flame on his own.

“Flame of emotion... I wonder what would happen if I fused it with my Ashen Flame?” Sein murmured, studying the flame flickering in his palm.

But absorbing the flame of emotion was not something he could decide on a whim.

Jessica’s struggles over the years made it painfully clear that this flame was a double-edged sword.

No one could guarantee it would not hurt her again before she learned how to wield it.

Exhaling softly, Sein stored the precious flame inside a translucent glass jar.

The container itself was no ordinary item. It had been a gift from Grandmaster Feylis herself.

Now that he had marched at Feylis’ side for many years and stepped into Rank Five, he no longer needed Lorianne to mediate every interaction with his grandmaster.

In fact, he had been seeking Feylis out quite often in recent years.

After all, asking someone more knowledgeable for guidance was nothing to be ashamed of.

If Sein were not Feylis’ most accomplished grand apprentice, getting guidance from such an erudite Rank Six mage would not have been easy.

Feylis, for her part, showed the generosity and composure expected of a grandmaster.

Not only did she help him resolve several pyro-related problems he had struggled with in recent years, but she also gifted him a number of experimental tools and rare materials.

Sein had received that glass jar from Feylis during his last visit.

To his surprise, Grandmaster Feylis had already made remarkable progress in researching the flames of emotions.

Likewise, the fragment of Lustfire Sein presented had caught her off guard.

Unlike Sein, whose research now revolved around Lustfire, Feylis’ work centered on “Wrathfire”.

It was a deep crimson, almost black flame that radiated a ferocious, violent intensity.

According to Feylis, she had extracted it from a demon.

“Where did you get this Lustfire? Did you perhaps run into a high-ranking Succubus?” Feylis asked in awe.

Sein had met a high-ranking Succubus before—the Rank Five Succubus Queen in Faeloria.

But at that time, he had not even been exposed to advanced pyro elemental concepts like flames of emotions.

Naturally, he could not have extracted anything valuable from her back then.

“Uh... I got it from a friend. To protect her image, I can’t tell you her name,” he replied awkwardly.

It appeared Lorianne had not mentioned Jessica’s situation to Feylis.

That was understandable. This was not something Jessica would want talked about.

Jessica herself had no idea that the tower master she admired had long known her secret.

She had always believed her most vulnerable side was revealed only to Sein.

Perhaps because of her condition, Jessica always kept a cold, distant, authoritative demeanor in front of others at the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

But around Sein, she let all of that fall away, becoming more open and unrestrained with each experiment.

It was to the point that sometimes, even when Sein had not called for her, she would show up at the laboratory entirely on her own.

This was the consequence of emotional power left unchecked—even a demigod-level mage’s will could waver under its influence.

Fortunately, Master Jessica’s issue had been discovered early. Sein had promised her on the experimental table that he would cure her.

With his grandmaster’s guidance on the flame of emotion, Sein’s research in this area progressed at an astonishing pace.

Through Feylis, he also obtained a small sample of the Wrathfire to study, trading her several specimens from his own collection in return.

Compared to Lustfire, this Wrathfire offered even stronger combat amplification to those who wielded it.

It was also under Feylis’ guidance that Sein learned the emotional spectrum extended far beyond lust and wrath.

There were other distinct powers like pride, envy, sloth, greed, gluttony, and other emotional forces.

“The Arcane Light of Sky City keeps incredibly detailed records on the power of emotions. When you return to Magus World, you should make a trip there and study them,” Feylis suggested.

“The devils, whose homeplane was destroyed long ago, once reached extraordinary heights in their mastery of emotional power. They even forged several world-class secret treasures collectively known as the Seven Deadly Sins, using different flames of emotions as their core.

“But in the Magus Civilization today, information on these seven flames has become scarce. Since I have studied the Wrathfire before, I made a special trip to Sky City to look up whatever material on emotional power I could find,” Feylis added.

Her breadth of knowledge left Sein deeply impressed.

What surprised him even more was what Feylis said next.

“If you dig deeper into the Wrathfire, you will find that it has certain enhancing effects in body-tempering experiments. The demons of Hell were universally known for their powerful physiques, and this flame may have been part of the reason.”

“As for the Lustfire and whatever new paths it might open... that’s something you will have to explore on your own. My research focus is no longer on the flames of emotions, so I’m afraid I can’t offer you much more guidance in this field,” Feylis said.

“Grandmaster, you’ve already helped me immensely,” Sein replied sincerely.