Sovereign of the Ashes-Chapter 1037: Divine Descent

To Sein’s surprise, the Succubus Queen seemed to have everything planned out already.

But before anything else, she first brought him to the first level of Purgatory to see a falling meteor.

Yet, what streaked across the boundless sky was no ordinary shooting star...

It was a deity!

The Avatar Crisis had already begun the moment the three Tablets of Fate were reassembled and fully activated.

The deities had remained within their divine nations, spending up to ten thousand years stabilizing their power in preparation for the crisis. That had kept them from being immediately cast down from their altars.

However, two months ago, the first signs of divine descent began appearing in Faeloria!

At first, it had been just two or three deities.

But now, the phenomenon had erupted across the entire world.

Even the Succubus Queen, a being as powerful as an intermediate deity, could feel the instability of her divine essence.

She, too, could fall from her altar at any moment.

If even she was in danger, then one could only imagine the desperate plight of the lesser deities!

Sein also noticed that the first level of Purgatory had grown far more crowded since he first arrived half a year ago.

While more and more demons had appeared on this level, the demons from the second level had dwindled by nearly thirty percent.

This was their natural response to the Avatar Crisis.

Trapped in Faeloria just like the deities, the demons could not escape the catastrophe that was unfolding across the Prime Materia Plane.

After all, wielders of weak and lesser power made up a significant portion of the demon kings within Purgatory.

In other words, even Rank Four and Five demons were at risk of being forcibly reduced to mere demigods.

Sein could not help but wonder—when the Magus Civilization inevitably invaded this world, would its Rank Four and above powerhouses also be weakened by the Avatar Crisis? [1]

What a strange world Faeloria was!

While Sein was scanning his surroundings, another meteor shower suddenly erupted in the distant night sky.

The sight immediately stirred a commotion among the demons.

The brilliant clusters of colorful light streaking across the sky were manifestations of the unique laws wielded by the Faelorian deities.

There were over two hundred meteors, each glowing with its own distinct hue.

This could only mean one thing: over two hundred Faelorian deities had just been forcibly cast down from their altars at the same time!

Two hundred deities!

Back during the Wild Gorilla Star Domain War, that entire medium-sized star domain had only housed seventy gorilla gods.

That was barely one-third of the number falling at this very moment!

This was an unprecedented event in Faeloria’s recent history, and even the Purgatory demons were in uproar.

But it was not just the deities of the Prime Materia Plane who were facing this.

With over two hundred of them being cast down, nearly twenty demon kings had also been forcibly ejected from Purgatory.

Amidst their echoing roars of anger, they crash-landed onto the outermost perimeter of the first level.

From his vantage point, Sein could clearly see their situation.

These demon kings, once mighty Rank Four beings, had barely landed before their auras began to shrink at a rate visible to the naked eye—their strength rapidly dwindling to demigod-level.

Even in their weakened state, they remained imposing.

The peak Rank Three demon lords still showed deference to these weakened kings.

The sudden downgrade in power, coupled with the suppressive effects of this world’s laws, left these demon kings dangerously short-tempered.

Sein watched as one of them—a bloated toad-like demon king—suddenly grabbed a Rank Two demon, shoved it into his gaping maw, and began chewing ravenously.

The sheer brutality of the act ignited a surge of aggression among the demons gathered at Purgatory’s periphery.

Beyond the blood-colored Purgatory’s barrier, another force stood at attention—several elite combat legions of Faeloria.

Their numbers and strength rivaled those of the demons!

These were not the remnants of the forces that had pursued Sein half a year ago.

Many of them had been recently deployed to hold the Purgatory demons at bay during the Avatar Crisis.

During every Avatar Crisis, the major camps of Faeloria inevitably clashed in battle.

It was not just the demons fighting against the Justice League—even the Dark Alliance might turn against the Justice League.

The sea gods, too, would always find some excuse to involve themselves.

As for the dragons of the outer seas, they certainly would not let an opportunity like this slip by, especially when there was something to be gained from the main continent!

The Avatar Crisis was also known as the “Turbulent Times”.

It was the darkest, most chaotic, and most violent era in Faeloria’s history.

During this time, newly ascended gods and fallen deities became extremely common.

In the Prime Materia Plane, where every major faction had its own motives, it was no wonder that even an organization as small as the Godslayers could cause so much trouble for the deities.

The Godslayers were like a loose screw in the machinery or a rat in the foundation—a seemingly insignificant force whose very presence and meddling could shatter Faeloria’s already fragile balance.

Even within the same camp, betrayals and backstabbing were all but inevitable.

Then again, this kind of internal strife was not unique to Faeloria.

It existed everywhere—in every planar civilization across the Astral Realm, and even within the Magus World.

Take Master Darkflame, for example. He seemed to have suffered some kind of loss in the past, leaving him a man consumed by deep and bitter resentment.

Of course, most of the Magus Civilization’s internal conflicts were skillfully redirected outward—toward external enemies.

Master Dark Flame’s case was an exception though, mainly caused by his own temperament.

Witnessing a divine descent on such a massive scale stirred something deep within Sein.

Even many Rank Five and Rank Six powerhouses had likely never seen a spectacle like this!

Beside him, the Succubus Queen crossed her arms over her chest, her breath quickening. It was evident that the sight before them had shaken her mentally as well.

Only Sein—a mere Rank Three being—was unable to clearly detect the shifting laws of this world and their invisible pressure.

Anastasia had been right. This iteration of the Avatar Crisis was so severe that even she might be cast down from her altar.

In fact, even greater deities were not safe. Some among them could very well find themselves falling from their divine nations.

Only the supreme deities—the peak Rank Six beings of this world—could remain firmly seated upon their altar, untouched by the storm of this crisis.

Of course, that did not mean that they were completely unaffected.

These supreme deities were usually confined to their divine nations, making it nearly impossible for them to intervene directly in the battles unfolding across the Prime Materia Plane.

Sein’s gaze drifted upward.

“The elemental concentration of this world seems to have risen slightly,” he suddenly remarked.

As he spoke, a crystal ball materialized in his hand.

A moment later, he confirmed his suspicion.

“I was right. The elemental concentration of this world just increased by exactly 5.6%,” he murmured, scanning the data displayed in the crystal ball.

1. Author’s Note: Of course, that’s impossible. During the avatar crisis, not even Nergal could break the barrier of Faeloria. How could an entire Magus Civilization deploy its armies to this closed-off world during this time? They could only wait until the crisis ends before beginning their invasion. ☜