Sovereign of the Ashes-Chapter 1543: Death Plague Magic and Rewards

For the past few centuries, black mages like Leena had been sent behind enemy lines, infiltrating the Gallant Federation’s frontier regions to carry out sabotage missions.

At first, these missions remained fairly covert, and the Magus Civilization did not publicly acknowledge them.

But as their operations became increasingly disruptive, inflicting heavier damage on the Gallant Federation’s core territories, the federation began treating them as a major threat.

Once concealment no longer mattered, the Magus Civilization openly publicized the black mages’ achievements.

It was not only law-wielding black mages who operated in the Gallant Federation’s rear.

Nearly all Rank Three and demigod-level black mages were deployed as well.

This was why the Spider Queen had said that Blackhaven was practically empty...

As the war escalated, it was only natural that even Rank One and Rank Two black mages would eventually find ample opportunities to prove their worth.

While the black mages wreaked havoc behind enemy lines, the Netherworld Star Domain battlefield moved into its most critical encirclement phase.

The Magus Civilization’s ability to crush the majority of the Gallant Federation’s vanguard fleet within a few short centuries was thanks to the efforts of those black mages operating deep in enemy territory.

As a result, following this Clash of Civilizations, the status of black mages within the Magus Civilization rose noticeably.

Sein’s proposal during the Magus Alliance Conference back then had not been as naive or baseless as many believed.

Had he raised it after the conclusion of this Clash of Civilizations, far fewer would have mocked or opposed him.

Those law-wielding black mages who excelled behind enemy lines naturally drew the attention of the Magus Civilization’s high command.

Just as Sein gradually entered the line of sight of certain leaders within the Magus Civilization, any law-wielding black mage with enough talent and merit would also receive substantial support and backing.

The process of legitimizing black mages was difficult, but not impossible.

In truth, some Rank Five knights and mages on the frontlines had contributed far less than the lower-ranking black mages and black knights operating in the enemy’s rear.

Sein’s wife, Leena, was among the most outstanding Rank Four and above black mages of Blackhaven.

Even Marie, stationed on the frontlines, had heard about her.

“I first heard news of Leena 172 years ago. Apparently, she teamed up with other black mages to destroy a Stellar-class Federation military fortress and spread the undead virus across several Gallant Federation life planets using death plague magic. It caused such a huge uproar that word reached us,” Marie said.

The federation’s war forts and military strongholds were categorized into far too many tiers for even Sein to fully understand their combat platforms or ship classifications. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

A Stellar-class military fortress, however, was likely comparable to a Rank Five or even Rank Six entity.

The fact that Leena had managed to blow up such a structure alongside other law-wielding black mages was an extraordinary achievement.

As for the “death plague magic” Marie mentioned, Sein honestly did not know much about it.

But he did know about the undead virus.

It was a highly infectious necromantic magic.

What people called the Deadly Calamity referred to this type of virus, which spread rapidly among flesh-and-blood creatures and could even erode elemental beings.

Gallant Federation lifeforms generally had weak constitutions. Even with adaptive genetic serums, they stood little chance once black mages began unleashing the virus across their homeland.

Over the past few centuries, the Gallant Federation’s legions had shown noticeably weaker offensive strength along the Netherworld Star Domain’s border.

Much of this was because massive numbers of their combat legions had been pulled back to suppress the undead outbreaks erupting across their major life planets.

Of course, one should not imagine the plague viruses and calamities unleashed by the black mages as being apocalyptic in scale.

The Gallant Federation had developed unique countermeasures against this type of assault.

Both their historical experiences and their more recent attempts to ally with undead civilizations like Graveborn World showed that this technological power had long pursued methods to resist necromantic threats.

Reports from the frontlines made it clear that the true outcome of this Clash of Civilizations still depended on direct battles between the two supreme powers.

The black mages’ accomplishments had certainly played a meaningful role in helping the Magus Civilization seize victory in the Netherworld Star domain.

However, relying on the limited numbers of black mages and black knights alone would never be enough to win the Clash of Civilizations.

“I never imagined that shortly after returning from the heartland of the Gallant Federation, and after securing the allegiance of the Nexon intelligent robots, Leena would venture into such dangerous territory herself. I hope she’s safe,” Sein murmured.

After a brief conversation, Marie led Sein to inspect the resources recently delivered by the Magus Civilization to the Divine Tower of Ashes legion.

“These are from the Alveroth Empire. Some of them are too high-grade and require your personal inspection,” Marie said, pointing to the records displayed inside the crystal ball.

Among the supplies sent by the Alveroth Empire were limbs from high-ranking creatures, rare law materials, and top-tier special crystals.

These were almost certainly the compensation Lorianne had mentioned—resources Grandmaster Feylis had forced the empire to hand over.

After all, the final investigation made it clear that the Alveroth Empire had used Sein as bait without his knowledge. It was a rather underhanded move.

Watching these resources flow into his accounts was undeniably satisfying for Sein.

And he knew this was only the beginning.

Soon enough, his contributions—rallying the Klytheran Legion, securing allegiance from the Blue Star natives, and helping bring worlds like the Shadowbat Civilization into the Magus Alliance—would all be converted into magicoins or equivalent rewards.

Later, when the Magus Civilization began developing the resources of the planes surrounding Blue Star and the Shadowbat Civilization, a portion of those profits should also flow toward the Divine Tower of Ashes.

These were incentives to motivate the Magus Civilization powerhouses to continue expanding outward, seizing more territory and influence.

“Based on what you have said, the Divine Tower of Ashes Academy back in Magus World seems to have thrived these past years. So we have more outstanding initiates and more newly promoted full-fledged mages among the new generation, huh?” Sein asked.

“Yes. Progress over the past two centuries has been remarkable,” Marie replied. “Vice Dean Pekerman has overseen the recent academy wars, and the initiates have performed very remarkably.”

Sein tapped his fingers lightly against the transparent window of the space fortress.

After a moment of considering the Divine Tower of Ashes Legion’s recruitment needs, he said, “Notify the divine tower to increase its intake of initiates. In addition to the usual exchange program with the Alveroth Empire, the transport ships for initiates can begin operating again.”

Marie knew there were gray areas in how the Divine Tower of Ashes conducted certain matters, but she never pried. Her focus was, and always had been, the divine tower academy.

Seeing the look in Marie’s eyes, Sein added, “This is not retaliation against the Alveroth Empire. We simply don’t have enough mage recruits, especially at a time like this.”

“I plan to carry out some long-term war strategy with the Divine Tower of Verdant Flame and the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring. We need enough legions to support us,” he explained.

Never one to contradict him, Marie nodded.

“Yes, you’re right.”