Sovereign of the Ashes

Chapter 1857: The Shattered Portal

At one point, Sein had been forced close to a shattered portal.

Close behind him, a Rank Six vizier and two Rank Six monsters pressed forward without pause.

Under their relentless assault, Fermera had already lost two of her wings. The rest of her injuries were likely even worse than Sein’s.

The vizier’s target was obviously Sein and Tourmaline.

Earlier, when the Magus Civilization’s forces, led by the Ashen Fortress and the Rank Four Dragon Warlocks, broke through his encirclement and flew past, the vizier did not even try to stop them. He stayed locked onto Sein’s group the entire time.

During the fight, the vizier revealed his world-class secret treasure—the Skull of Death.

It appeared to have been crafted from a Rank Six creature’s skull, steeped in concentrated death energy and what remained of its essence.

In terms of quality, it was not especially impressive—at best, a low-grade world-class treasure, bordering on inferior.

Regardless, it was still a world-class secret treasure. In the hands of a Rank Six powerhouse, it could still unleash terrifying power.

This battle was nothing like before, when Sein could blend into the crowd and take part in a group assault against a Rank Six opponent.

This time, he was the target!

The vizier and his two monsters formed a triangle around him, sealing off every escape route.

On top of that, mid and low-tier forces from the Amenkha Empire swarmed the area, constantly harassing Sein.

In terms of sheer numbers, the legions Feylis and the Dragon Warlock Clan brought to the Mordora Star Domain were indeed formidable.

But in quality, there was still a clear gap compared to the Amenkha Empire.

Nearly ninety percent of the Magus Civilization’s forces were low-tier enslaved creatures or cannon fodder from the alliance.

By contrast, most of the Amenkha Empire’s viziers, soldiers, and monsters were at least Rank One.

On top of that, they had gathered an enormous undead army, giving them a clear advantage in total forces over what the Magus Civilization had assembled so far.

BOOM!

A surge of death energy tore through the air as Fermera came crashing down toward Sein, her shoulder blade blown apart by a violent explosion.

At this point, Yuri could offer only limited support, so she stayed close to Sein throughout the fight. The moment Fermera fell, Yuri drove the Burning Flame Unit forward and caught her midair.

Sein moved in as well, quickly checking Fermera’s condition.

The once pristine white memory metal at her shoulder was badly deformed, its surface dulled and lifeless.

Thin strands of deathly law power seeped from within, carrying a distinct aura of “decay” and “withering” that even a mechanical lifeform like Fermera could not resist.

Worse still, her propulsion system had clearly taken heavy damage in the earlier clash.

With injuries piling up, her movements had already grown stiff and sluggish.

Sein could not exactly force-feed her potions. Instead, he pressed the Magic Cube against her chest.

In Sein’s hands, the cube had been a violet-blue hue. But the moment it fused with Fermera’s mechanical body, it shifted to a pale red, shrinking rapidly in size.

From a distance, it looked like a small red crystal embedded in her chest.

Tourmaline stared wide-eyed at the scene in Sein’s arms.

Her gaze lingered on Fermera’s chest—whether out of curiosity about the transformation or the size of her chest was unclear.

Even Sein was caught off guard by the change in the cube’s color.

This was different from his earlier fusion experiments. He could not tell if it was due to the recent refinements made to the Magic Cube or the upgrades integrated into Fermera’s body.

Before he could think further, several more waves of death energy surged toward them. As they collided with the fractured space around them, the distortion only grew worse.

The surrounding space had become increasingly unstable and corrosive. The Rank Six vizier was clearly trying to corner them.

The shattered portals and spatial rifts littering the area were the result of overlord-level power radiating from the heart of the Mordora Star Domain.

The Amenkha Empire’s vizier was no foolish foreign deity.

Whether coordinating with his two monsters to pressure Sein and his group or using the battlefield itself to his advantage, everything he did reflected the patience and precision of a hunter stalking its prey.

Even with the Magic Cube fused into her, Fermera could not recover her combat strength in such a short time. On top of that, Sein himself was already heavily injured from the previous battle.

Faced with the relentless pressure of three Rank Six opponents, Sein felt cornered.

A blinding mass of death energy gathered in the vizier’s hands. The creature was drawing on the life force of the other two monsters, pushing the attack’s destructive power to terrifying heights.

Am I really going to die here? Sein wondered.

No. He refused to go out like this.

If it came to it, he would detonate the Magic Cube and release every last drop of elemental energy in his body to take as many enemies down with him as he could.

As for the Faceless Mask, he had no intention of destroying it. He would cast it into a space-time rift instead. Even if that meant losing a priceless world-class treasure, there was still a chance it could carry on the legacy of Master Jorces and his own.

At that moment, Sein finally felt a flicker of regret for never taking on an apprentice.

Just as he steeled himself for death, a radiant glow began to shine again from Fermera’s chest.

At the same moment, Tourmaline’s smaller hands closed around Sein’s demonic claw.

“Sein, let us go there,” she said, pointing toward a nearby portal that was still expanding.

Forcing their way through a broken portal was no small risk.

Worse, this one had been torn apart by an overlord’s strike. There was no telling what kind of warped laws or chaotic forces lurked inside.

Even at full strength, Sein would never willingly step into something like that. In his current condition, it should have been unthinkable.

Still, he glanced at Tourmaline and asked, “Do you have a way to resist the tearing forces and the erosion of spatial power?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “but I feel like we should try. It might be our only chance to survive.”

She had never practiced divination, but her instincts were rarely wrong.

The space-time power around them grew sharper, as if it could slice through anything. The death energy gathered by the vizier had already surpassed what Sein and the others could endure.

Sein clenched his teeth. Pulling Tourmaline close, he gave Fermera and Yuri a quick signal, then shot straight toward the heart of the shattered portal.

To the Rank Six vizier, it looked like pure suicide.

He knew just how brutal the spatial forces were and how chaotic the energies inside that shattered portal could be—even he would not dare approach it lightly!

But Sein would rather choose death than let his treasures fall into the vizier’s hands.

The vizier was enraged. With a roar, he unleashed the deadly light he had been gathering, firing it straight at Sein’s back.