Sovereign of the Ashes-Chapter 1053: Burning Mana

The Demon Mask was, without question, Sein’s most prized alchemical achievement in recent centuries.

Even though the magic robe he wore had been woven from the divine spider silk left behind by the Spider Queen, its superiority came solely from its exceptional material.

In terms of condensed knowledge and elemental mysteries, it was no match for Sein’s Demon Mask.

This scarlet magic mask radiated a strange, unsettling power.

Infused with the power of a Succubus, the mask’s form constantly shifted, making it seem as though it had no fixed shape.

Its powerful disorientation ability, combined with penetrating sonic attacks, caught the God of First Light completely off guard.

The moment Sein unveiled his trump card, the god suffered two major blows in rapid succession.

The first came physically when Sein’s Ashen Flame tore across his lower abdomen, leaving behind a deep crimson wound.

After being enhanced by the Purgatory Flame, Sein’s Ashen Flame had grown deadlier than ever, its unnatural properties capable of wounding even a deity.

The fact that it bypassed the divine protection of the God of First Light’s sacred robe proved Sein’s growing power.

The second, more insidious wound was to his mind.

Few of Faelorian deities had ever mastered sonic-based laws.

Even within the Justice League, only the Goddess of Music, Euphryne, wielded such power—yet her abilities had never been associated with combat.

In terms of raw individual strength, she was considered one of the weakest deities.

Had it not been for rumors that she was the lover of several powerful gods, she would have long since fallen in the previous Avatar Crises.

Now, facing Sein’s Flame Demon form, the God of First Light was already struggling against his relentless flames, oppressive assault, and monstrous constitution.

What he had not anticipated was the devastating power of Sein’s magic artifacts.

Upon activation, the Demon Mask unleashed a cataclysmic burst of supersonic and infrasonic energy, reaching millions of decibels.

The God of First Light reeled back, his face turning ashen as he spat out a mouthful of pale golden blood. novelbuddy.cσ๓

RUMBLE!

The temple and surrounding buildings shook violently, then collapsed in waves, as though they had been battered by a raging storm.

At the same time, Sein, still wearing the Demon Mask, radiated an even more powerful aura.

No matter how one looked at him, he no longer resembled a Magus World human mage. Instead, he appeared more like a demon lord who was a master of elemental power.

While Sein battled the God of First Light, Yuri was also forging her own path to greatness.

Having followed Sein to this very day, she had survived countless battles of all scales. More than once, she had walked through mountains of corpses and waded through seas of blood.

The Epic Beings of Faeloria were undoubtedly powerful, but like the deities they worshipped, they rarely engaged in true life-or-death battles outside of the Avatar Crisis.

To put it bluntly, the templars, clad in polished armor, accustomed to adulation of women and offerings of flowers, were not always stronger than the Godslayers of the same rank, who wore shabby clothes, animal pelts, and wielded crude weapons.

Peaceful lives and blind reliance on divine power had made them just a little weaker than those who actively pursued evolution.

Nothing in this world came without a price.

This was precisely why, in every Avatar Crisis, the Faelorian gods inevitably suffered losses at the hands of the Godslayers.

A mournful cry echoed across the battlefield as the white dragon, a peak Legendary creature, plummeted from the sky.

Its once-pristine scales were now covered in countless wounds.

With the overwhelming firepower of Yuri’s mecha concentrated on it, the massive dragon had been reduced to nothing more than a living target, becoming the first to be forced out of the battle.

Not even its hardened scales were enough to withstand Yuri’s relentless barrage.

However, with two Epic creatures still on the battlefield, and the dragon’s own incredible vitality, it stubbornly clung to life, refusing to breathe its last.

Yet forcing the white dragon into retreat had not come without a cost—three of Yuri’s standard mechas had been destroyed in the process.

This was the most intense all-out battle yet, and both sides were beginning to pay the price.

Yet Sein, still wearing the Demon Mask, refused to slow down.

The God of First Light’s divine power remained abundant.

While Sein’s relentless attacks and magic artifacts seemed to overwhelm him, his vast reserves of divine energy allowed him to continuously replenish himself and keep fighting.

The difficulty of pressing his advantage further began to frustrate Sein.

He was not fooled by the illusion of his current momentary superiority.

The longer this battle dragged on, the worse it would become for him and his allies.

With this in mind, Sein gulped down another mouthful of healing potion, then struck his own chest with his demonic claw.

For the past two hundred years, in addition to his mastery of the Purgatory Flame and the creation of the Demon Mask, Sein’s advancements in body tempering had also reached new heights.

Mastering any high-level discipline did not happen overnight—it involved endless trials and failures.

Sein’s newly mastered body-tempering technique was the result of ongoing research, with plenty of room for refinement.

Back during the Gumo Plane War, Sein had used an external force to activate Reina’s fat-burning state.

At the time, the technique had been unstable, requiring Sein’s direct intervention to trigger it.

Yet by the war’s end, Reina’s fat-burning state had proven its worth, demonstrating the potency of short-term burst techniques.

Unlike Reina, however, Sein had no excess fat to burn.

So, he began to think about how he could replicate the same explosive burst of power and forge it into his own trump card.

For a long time, this challenge had been the core of Sein’s body tempering experiments.

His time at the Divine Tower of Dark Flame and his studies in Sky City had exposed him to the various explosive techniques developed by Magus World mages.

Most mages pursued short-term power surges by stimulating their mental focus.

Others took an even more drastic and reckless approach—stimulating the soul itself to achieve brief but overwhelming bursts of power.

Yet, both methods came with severe side effects.

After extensive research and consideration, Sein ultimately chose a different path—burning his mana!

Mana combustion was not a unique concept in the Magus World. Sein had come across several secret techniques that operated on similar principles.

But his approach was fundamentally different.

His Verdant Flame Body-Tempering Technique had pushed his physical resilience far beyond that of ordinary mages.

As a result, his muscle cells stored far more energy than any mage of his rank.

Although his method was different, he was still able to achieve an effect similar to Reina’s fat-burning state!

Originally, Sein had intended to refine and perfect this technique over time. But with God of First Light refusing to fall, and time working against him, he had to act now.

Even if this technique was half-baked, he had no choice but to unleash it.

BOOM!

The impact of Sein’s demonic fist slamming against his own chest resounded like thunder, shaking the entire battlefield.

The wounded God of First Light, still reeling from the effects of Sein’s sonido magic, gazed at him with fear in his eyes.

Swooosh!

In the blink of an eye, Sein’s entire body was engulfed in flames, as though he had spontaneously combusted.

Purgatory Flames, infused with demonic gray hues, danced across his body.

The moment the flames erupted, agony tore through Sein’s body—but with it came a surging increase in his overall power.

At that instant, the God of First Light’s pupils shrank.