Harmonic Waters World...

That was a hydro-attribute plane where black dominated the landscape.

Endless oceans and sprawling marshlands formed its most common scenery.

With only a faintly warm, pyro elemental broken plane providing illumination, Harmonic Waters World felt perpetually dim with bitterly cold atmosphere.

Creatures accustomed to the temperate climate of Magus World and its four seasons found it difficult to adapt to the frigid conditions here.

For the vast majority of aquatic life, however, this realm was a nurturing cradle of existence.

Within the Aquaria Star Domain, Harmonic Waters World ranked among the top five planes in both size and resource abundance.

It also served as the final gateway for Sein and his group before arriving at Planet Aquaria.

A curtain of pitch-black seawater slowly parted before Sein and the advancing forces of the Magus Civilization.

Facing the orderly ranks of the Magus Civilization legions, the inhabitants of Harmonic Waters World offered no resistance whatsoever.

The former Ocean King, Orven, had already fled, abandoning his home plane without hesitation. His name had since become a subject of ridicule among many creatures across the surrounding star domains.

Now, the nominal ruler of the Aquaria Star Domain, who had inherited the Ocean King’s throne, was Orric, standing before Sein and the Magus Civilization’s forces.

Regardless of how much authority Orric would ultimately retain under the Magus Civilization’s oversight, his presence alone gave countless Aquarians a glimmer of hope.

Before Orven fled the Aquaria Star Domain, he had inflicted immense suffering upon its inhabitants.

Beyond tacitly permitting the Gallant Federation fleet to forcibly extract Star Cores from his home star domain, Orven had also appropriated enormous amounts of its resources and accumulated wealth.

Although a significant portion of those resources was later recovered, the reclaimed wealth belonged to the Magus Civilization legions that seized it—not to the Aquarians.

Moreover, these predominantly gentle inhabitants remained unaware that the Magus Civilization’s “salvation” came at a cost.

For a long time to come, the output of the Aquaria Star Domain would be handed over to the Magus Alliance.

On top of that, Orric had pledged half of his home star domain’s total resource output for the next five thousand years to White Stella and the sea races of the Magus Civilization.

Thus, a prolonged era of hardship and exploitation awaited the countless beings of the Aquaria Star Domain.

In the end, they had only themselves to blame for choosing the wrong side back then.

Life as the Ocean King was anything but easy for Orric.

Pressure from the Magus Civilization above and earnest expectations from his subjects below left him caught squarely in the middle.

Orric’s predicament, and that of Planet Aquaria, was far from unique within the Magus Alliance.

The newly joined Shadowbat Civilization was no exception, nor were the countless other alliance planes under the Magus Civilization’s control.

Was there any way to turn this situation around?

Yes. The Magus Civilization had already provided the answer!

Defeating the Gallant Federation and seizing vast amounts of war spoils on the frontlines was the primary reason so many beings from alliance planes were willing to risk their lives fighting alongside the Magus Civilization.

Sustaining a war through conquest was a strategy few planar civilizations could manage.

The Shadowbat Civilization certainly could not. More than two-thirds of its home star domain had been reduced to ruins, crippling its long-term war potential.

The Aquaria Star Domain, however, possessed a crucial advantage. Although Orven had left Orric with a mess to clean up, it was an undeniable fact that this medium-sized star domain had avoided catastrophic devastation.

While its law-wielding creatures had suffered severe losses over the years—some slain by the Magus Civilization, others purged by the Gallant Federation, and a small number still following Orven—the Aquaria Star Domain retained low-tier forces and war potential several times greater than that of the Shadowbat Civilization!

Marine life, after all, naturally outnumbered land creatures by a wide margin.

Sein’s advice to Orric was to strengthen ties with Darian, Karazo, the Blue Star creatures, and Beatrice, so that they could complement one another’s weaknesses.

That Rank Four being from Voltara World, Auron, was on fairly good terms with all of them, and deep bonds had already formed during the war.

Orric should also find a way to draw Voltara World into their group.

Even if Voltara World refused to join the Magus Alliance, having Auron and the others act as intermediaries to establish trade relations between their worlds would still be an excellent first step.

Feylis had mentioned that Voltara World was a large-sized plane.

In any case, building connections with lightning-attribute beings like Auron could only benefit the Magus Civilization.

As for Orric’s attempt to leverage Sein’s influence to secure resource exemptions for the Aquaria Star Domain from the Magus Alliance, Sein shut it down immediately, telling him not to even bring it up.

Neither Sein nor his grandmaster had the authority to make such a decision.

The war between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation ultimately came down to a contest of civilizational depth.

What did “civilizational depth” truly mean?

It was measured in resources—resources extracted from alliance planes such as the Aquaria Star Domain.

Without a steady influx of such resources, how could the Magus Civilization sustain its vast legions or its endless fleets of space fortresses?

Moreover, speaking as a friend, Sein strongly advised Orric never to raise the subject of reneging on resource agreements with the Magus World sea races.

“The sea races are not as easygoing as I am,” Sein warned him.

After passing through Harmonic Waters World, Planet Aquaria gradually came into view before Sein and his group.

Judging by the advance of his forces and the sea race legions under White Stella’s command, both sides were likely to arrive at this medium-sized plane at roughly the same time.

Sein had no interest in pursuing the remnants of Orven’s army, and White Stella appeared to be deliberately holding back from making any major moves for now.

The Aquaria Star Domain bordered the Arid Expanse Worlds, making any large-scale interception difficult.

For his part, Sein had no desire to engage in further combat anytime soon. He had been fighting for far too long and longed for a period of rest.

Given his years of service and past achievements, he was more than entitled to request an extended leave from the Magus Civilization. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

His primary focus lately was still the Magic Cube and the deeper mysteries of the Ashen Flame.

Natalya’s crystal coffin had already been retrieved from Magus World. When he next met the Phantom Crow King, they would be able to attempt her awakening.

For that reason, Sein had recently begun dedicating time to the study of souls.

Upon arriving at Aquaria, beyond securing full control of this medium-sized plane and systematically cataloging its diverse resources, a grand coronation ceremony for the new Ocean King was held at the heart of this planet.

Orric had originally planned to keep the event modest, reluctant to waste Aquaria’s already strained resources.

Yet the ceremony became a monumental affair, largely due to the sheer number of powerful figures from the Magus Civilization in attendance!

The mere presence of the energetic law-wielding sea kings already filled Aquaria with surging vitality.

This was without even counting the law-wielding sea race elites from Magus World, allied foreign gods, and Magus World powerhouses like Sein, all of whom honored Orric with their presence.

Sein had carved out time from his busy schedule to attend this ceremony. He had planned to leave after presenting his gift, but...

“Sein!”

Tourmaline’s delighted voice rang out from high above.

When Sein looked up, two massive figures entered his field of vision.

Tourmaline, already enormous by the standards of lesser beings, was now the smaller of the two.

She was riding on the back of the larger creature.

That colossal dragon turtle should still have been beyond Planet Aquaria, yet its sheer presence was already causing Aquaria’s planar barrier to tremble violently, while the ocean surface below erupted into towering waves.

“An overlord?!” More than one of the Magus Civilization powerhouses exclaimed in shock.

Sein stared at the pair of dragon turtles in stunned silence.

Perched atop her father’s back, Tourmaline waved cheerfully in his direction.

The ancient, primeval dragon turtle slowly turned its gaze toward him.