Sovereign of the Ashes

The golden light was not some treasure or a natural manifestation of law power—it was alive!

Wearing the Faceless Mask, Sein quickly identified it as something akin to a meteor.

No... it was far more unusual than that!

It was a strange lifeform that existed somewhere between rock and light.

It had shot out from the deepest reaches of the space-time fluctuation zone—but where was it going?

Curiosity got the better of him. Sein took off after the peculiar being.

It was incredibly fast!

Faster even than Auron, the Rank Four electro elemental creature Sein had encountered before.

Using the Faceless Mask to predict its trajectory, Sein cut ahead and barely managed to intercept its path.

He attempted a brief exchange.

“Who are you?” Sein asked.

The lifeform did not respond. It continued flying at high speed, though Sein could sense that its thoughts were in disarray.

When Sein asked again and tried to use magic to chip off a fragment of its body for study, the being finally responded.

The Fiend Tide Civilization has descended upon this region...

The entire Astral Realm is about to face catastrophe.

All civilizations... unite to stop the expansion of the Fiend Tide Civilization.

The Nine Star Civilization, the Flame Emperor Divine Race, the Capricorn Empire... All have joined the resistance against the Fiend Tide Civilization’s corrupting advance.

The Overseer ordered me... to contact the most promising top-tier civilization in this region and enlist them in the war against the Fiend Tide Civilization. That civilization is... the Immortal Realm Civilization!

These strange messages came through in fragments.

This lifeform did not seem capable of normal speech.

Even its transmissions were unstable, frequently interrupted, and difficult to follow.

Sein had never heard of any of the civilizations it mentioned, but the last one caught his attention.

“The Immortal Realm Civilization? Are you heading there? I’ve been meaning to visit that civilization myself. Since we’re going the same way, why not travel together?” Sein said, testing his luck.

Tourmaline’s family was closely tied to the Immortal Realm Civilization.

If Sein could make it there, he might find a way back to the Magus Civilization.

After all, the Drunken Panda Immortal from the Beastmen World had returned home after completing his studies in the Immortal Realm.

Sein had also heard that many powerhouses from the Magus Civilization had traveled there in the past.

The creature did not respond to his suggestion.

It was simply too fast. Even though Sein had managed to close the distance a little, the gap between them kept widening.

Judging by its life level, Sein estimated it to be only somewhere between Rank Four and Rank Five.

However, its speed was on another level entirely!

In this universe, no defense was unbreakable, but nothing could overcome speed.[1]

If Sein’s magic could not even hit it, how could he possibly threaten it or force it to stop?

Just as the meteor was about to slip beyond his range of communication, and just as Sein was considering blasting it out of the sky, it finally responded again.

I can sense that you are a relatively evil being, but the civilization behind you must be quite powerful. Rather than wasting your energy on me, you should return at once and warn your higher authorities. The Fiend Tide crisis is coming.

“The Fiend Tide? Never heard of it. Is that a powerful civilization? Are you heading to the Immortal Realm Civilization to seek help?” Sein asked curiously.

The meteor ignored his questions, so Sein tried a different approach.

“Have you heard of the Amenkha Empire? That’s the enemy my home civilization is about to face. Is the Fiend Tide Civilization even stronger than the Amenkha Empire?” he asked.

This time, the meteor finally replied to him.

But its answer was the same as the one Sein had given it earlier.

“Amenkha Empire? Never heard of it.”

Then it suddenly accelerated to three times its previous speed.

At that pace, even Sein could not keep up.

If he had possessed such speed back then, he would not have feared being pursued by the Amenkha Empire’s Rank Six vizier.

In the blink of an eye, the meteor vanished from sight, shooting into the depths of the starry sky and fading into a distant speck of light.

At this point, even if Sein tried to track it, he could no longer do anything to it.

Just as he was feeling a mix of regret and curiosity, a final message from the meteor reached him.

Over the past hundred thousand years, the Fiend Tide Civilization has annexed eleven top-tier civilizations. Their expansion has reached its peak since the beginning of their history.

Meaningless wars and slaughter should no longer take place in the remaining pure regions of the Astral Realm.

If we fail to stop the Fiend Tide Civilization from continuing its corruption, the entire Astral Realm will be destroyed.

The meteor’s words lingered in Sein’s mind.

At some point, he had slowed to a stop and abandoned the chase.

After a long while, he finally snapped out of it and blurted, “It has conquered eleven top-tier civilizations?! That thing has to be spouting nonsense, right?!”

Unless someone had dealt with a top-tier civilization firsthand, they would have no idea how powerful one truly was.

Just look at the war between the Gallant Federation and the Magus Civilization. That alone shows how immense a clash between civilizations of that level can be.

And yet, that meteor claimed a single civilization had wiped out eleven of them within a hundred thousand years!

Ridiculous.

Shaking his head, Sein dismissed the Rank Four to Five meteor as nothing more than a delusional lunatic.

Still, as he made his way back to Tourmaline and Fermera, he could not help but murmur, “The Fiend Tide Civilization, huh...?”

***

“Sein, where did you go? Why did you take so long?”

Back at the ambush site, Tourmaline—now in human form—was the first to rush up to him, her voice full of concern.

“Just ran into a small complication.” Sein shook his head, already pushing the matter to the back of his mind.

What he heard was too absurd, too far beyond anything he could make sense of.

To be honest, he did not believe such an overpowered civilization could exist in the Astral Realm.

But the meteor had mentioned the Immortal Realm Civilization, and that made their encounter linger in his heart like a thorn he could not remove.

Tourmaline’s lively presence snapped him out of his thoughts.

He ruffled her hair and, with a faint smile, asked about their gains from the battle.

The moment he brought it up, her eyes practically shone like gold coins.

Although the interstellar merchant fleet led by the God of Dusk Desire Saliva was not vast, the goods it carried were incredibly valuable.

Even someone wealthy like Tourmaline considered it a tidy fortune.

And then there was the God of Evil Tides. The three ships he had traveled with held wealth accumulated over tens of thousands of years.

Now, all of it belonged to Sein and Tourmaline.

As for the God of Dusk Desire, who had just been robbed clean, he clearly had a lot he wanted to say to Sein.

But the moment he noticed the lingering traces of the God of Evil Tides’ remains on Sein’s body, he gulped hard and swallowed his words back.

When Sein glanced over, the God of Dusk Desire was already forcing a submissive smile onto his face.

1. Translator’s Note: This is a quote from Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle: “Among all martial arts in the world, no defense is unbreakable, but nothing can overcome pure speed.” (天下武功，无坚不摧，唯快不破). This basically means that in kung fu, speed determines the winner. ☜