Sovereign of the Ashes-Chapter 1307: The Conference’s Motions

The first seven agenda items and motions of the conference all revolved around the looming Clash of Civilizations set to erupt within the next millennium.

Even the voting items reflected the same focus.

For example, the third agenda item approved increased resource and troop deployments to several allied star domains, including the Netherworld Star Domain.

The fifth announced that Magus World would lower the price of large-scale war platforms, such as space fortresses and prism forts, for members of the alliance.

Everything was part of preparations for the coming Clash of Civilizations.

The power of the Magus Civilization was on full display at this conference.

Designated as one of the main warfronts, the Netherworld Star Domain received no less than seven hundred million magicoins in pre-war subsidies from this very conference.

And that was just the initial benefit. As the war continued, Magus Civilization’s investment in the Netherworld Star Domain would only grow larger.

Of course, for the native species of the Netherworld Star Domain, this would also be a disaster.

***

It was not until the eighth agenda item that the Magus Civilization paused discussion of war preparations and turned its attention to internal development matters within the alliance.

The Magus Alliance was a vast collective, and countless issues needed attention.

Only the most important ones were discussed during the alliance conference.

For instance, the eighth agenda item was a vote on whether to continue channeling resources to Violet Ember World and whether some of its elemental planes should be allocated to Burning Sanoras World.

The interests within the Magus Alliance were complex. Sometimes these motions were not just about the gains and losses of individual allied planes but were deeply tied to high-level power struggles within the Magus Civilization itself.

Magus World was not a single, unified entity either.

When it came to civilization-scale wars and other existential threats, they stood united. But when it came to internal interests and the resources of their subordinate factions, even the Magus Civilization pulled and tugged in different directions.

Sein did not know if there was anything shady behind the favoritism toward Violet Ember World, nor was he sure of Burning Sanoras World’s exact role.

Through Lady Bev’s brief introduction, Sein learned that Violet Ember World, a large-sized allied world, had lost its overlord more than one hundred thousand years ago.

Generally, a world that lost its Rank Seven beings would gradually experience changes in laws during its long development and migration, often dropping to the level of an ordinary large-sized world.

In the Astral Realm, the growth of a plane was often directly tied to the development of its native creatures.

The more its native creatures thrived, the more the plane itself prospered.

When those native creatures declined, the plane would also slowly lose its vitality and eventually wither away.

This mutual relationship perfectly reflected the bond between a homeplane and its inhabitants.

Those who ignored their homeplane or coldly watched as its world’s will withered were often technological civilizations.

They had earned a reputation as the parasites of the planes—taking everything and giving nothing in return.

After plundering one world’s resources dry, they would simply move on to the next, leaving their previous victim in ruins.

This was exactly why Lady Bev labeled the Gallant Federation as “evil”.

Unfortunately, most of the Gallant Federation and its vassals were technological civilizations.

While there were a few cultivating and self-evolving civilizations, they made up only a small fraction of the whole.

The federation placed its faith in so-called “science”, and at one time, Gallant Federation scientists and Magus World mages had even reached a rare consensus.

The Gallant Federation did not believe in the existence of “gods”, insisting that Rank Four beings were simply exceptional individuals who had evolved to a higher state.

The federation had even used its technological warships on multiple occasions to capture and round up Rank Four and higher beings in the Astral Realm.

When it came to studying “gods”, the Gallant Federation was just as obsessed as Magus World.

Whether this was a trait common to all top-tier civilizations was anyone’s guess.

On two separate occasions during the eighth agenda item, Sein chose to abstain.

Those who abstained, like him, were a tiny minority—less than five percent of the total participants.

The overwhelming majority of creatures present, surprisingly, had clear positions.

For example, Angreas voted “no” on the first issue but “yes” on the second. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“The majority don’t want the Magus Alliance’s public resources wasted on others, but some planes that have developed to a certain extent worry that they might end up in the same situation one day, so they hope the alliance will uphold the principle of helping the weak. Our Kermoine Serpent Warlock Clan, for instance, recently received a visit from a Rank Five Burning Sanoras,” Angreas explained.

He gave Sein a meaningful look, and Sein immediately understood what he meant.

Influenced by the result of the voting, the Magus Alliance did not completely halt its resource support to Violet Ember World, but reduced it to forty-seven percent in the end.

It also reallocated twenty-three fully complete planes, previously under the control of Violet Ember World’s elemental creatures, to Burning Sanoras World.

When the result of the motion was announced, no one in the conference raised any objections.

Violet Ember World truly seemed to have fallen. Once a major pyro elemental world, it had sent only three Rank Six pyro elemental kings and fewer than fifty Rank Four elemental kings this time.

Among them was an elemental king radiating violet flames, who appeared to be their leader.

After the vote, this king’s anthropomorphized expression revealed nothing but helplessness and disillusionment.

Lady Bev seemed to notice this, and perhaps to lift the spirits of the other alliance members, she added after the announcement, “If Violet Ember World performs well in the coming Clash of Civilizations, the alliance can consider resuming its previous level of support, or even exceeding it.”

But that would only happen if Violet Ember World contributed enough.

In response to Lady Bev’s words and the Magus Alliance’s goodwill, the Rank Six Violet Flame Elemental King bowed respectfully in gratitude.

Once the matter of Violet Ember World and Burning Sanoras World’s gains and losses was settled, the ninth agenda turned to the Magus Alliance’s currency, which had been depreciating steadily for tens of thousands of years.

Currency regulation was a broad, macro-level issue. The Magus Alliance had developed to a level where Magus World could produce and issue vast amounts of magicoins, but such power could not be wielded recklessly.

The problem of currency depreciation had not just emerged in the past ten or twenty thousand years.

To be precise, ever since the magicoin reached its peak value 117,641 years ago, it had experienced chronic depreciation for over one hundred thousand years.

Today, its value was at least fifteen times lower than it had been back then! That was a staggering difference.

This currency depreciation had triggered many crises, but it also signified that the Magus Civilization had been undergoing a phase of rapid expansion and continuous growth.

Many lower-ranking knights and mages of Magus World might not be fully aware of the problems currency depreciation brought them.

However, the vast majority of the allied foreign deities felt it deeply.

They found it increasingly difficult to generate wealth, and the magicoins they held seemed to lose value faster as time passed.

At the same time, the resources within their own planes were being depleted on a massive scale.

Magus World alone supported nearly one hundred thousand Rank Four and above beings, but where did all those resources come from?