The flash of white was none other than White Stella.

Sein had heard that in recent years, White Stella had rarely shown herself in public, even during the campaign against the Aquaria Star Domain.

The frontlines had been held mainly by the sea king and the law-wielding sea race powerhouses, while White Stella never personally intervened.

Even now, after arriving at Aquaria, where Orric was about to inherit the Ocean King’s throne, Sein still had not seen her.

Obviously, White Stella had been going through something extremely critical.

Yet her father’s arrival drew her out of it.

After all, it had been years since she last saw him.

The members of Tourmaline’s family all shared a similar trait.

Tourmaline’s father, her eldest brother, her second brother, and Tourmaline herself were all remarkably heavy sleepers.

More than once, Tourmaline had taken what she called a “short nap”, only to wake and find that Sein had already gone off somewhere.

It was not a bad habit. For their family, sleep was a way to consolidate their foundations and grow stronger.

Simply by sleeping, their strength and vitality steadily increased.

At the same time, they helped suppress the Sea Eye for Magus World, earning the favor of its will.

Where else could one find such a convenient arrangement?

After so long apart, White Stella seemed slightly larger and more majestic to Sein.

The difference between Tourmaline’s pre-Rank Four and post-Rank Four forms was striking.

It seemed that her family’s strength could just as easily be measured by their sheer size.

Even though White Stella looked immense and imposing to Sein, standing beside her father made her seem almost “petite” by comparison.

“What terrifying physiques,” Sein could not help but marvel.

Even if he attacked with his full strength as a Rank Five, he would likely fail to breach Baxia’s defenses.

At best, it would amount to little more than a tickle.

With White Stella’s appearance, Baxia’s attention quickly shifted away from Sein.

Strangely enough, the last time Sein caught a glimpse of the Rosen Dynasty Civilization’s overlord-level Psychic on the battlefield, he had felt a crushing, heavy aura that made it hard to breathe.

Yet now, standing much closer to this overlord-level dragon turtle, he felt nothing like that.

To suppress one’s presence to such an extent was something Sein had never even heard of before.

Following White Stella, Black Oblivion came forward as well, accompanied by his two cousins.

During the war in the Aquaria Star Domain, they had not traveled with Sein’s group. Instead, they had remained with their elder sister, White Stella, fighting alongside the sea races.

Without a doubt, the three of them had reaped enormous gains on those battlefields.

In terms of physique, Black Oblivion was something of an anomaly within the family. His true form was long and slender, a sharp contrast to the broad, imposing builds of Tourmaline and White Stella.

With the entire family gathered, they seemed to exist in a world of their own, leaving little room for outsiders to intrude.

Just as Sein began to think Orric’s coronation ceremony would conclude like this, White Stella caught a single glance from her father and rose straight into the highest reaches above Planet Aquaria.

The aura she had been suppressing suddenly erupted.

It far surpassed Rank Five, surging directly into Rank Six!

Before the stunned onlookers, White Stella’s form began to expand.

Towering tides rose in response to the surging law power, only to be effortlessly pressed back down when Baxia lowered his claw.

When White Stella’s body expanded to a certain extent, she lashed her tail across the surface of the sea.

Tens of thousands of feet of waves surged skyward. Rain began to fall over the heart of Aquaria, and a rainbow arced gracefully across the shoulder of her enlarged form.

Sein watched the scene unfold before him, then turned to Gregory at his side. “She’s Rank Six now?”

Bernice and Lorianne were there too, though the latter had arrived not long ago.

Gregory ran his thick fingers through his hair and nodded. “Seems like she has broken through.”

Both of them stared at each other for a moment.

Sein and Gregory were Rank Five mages. They understood all too well how difficult it was to cross that threshold.

It had not been that long since Sein reached Rank Five; Gregory, however, had remained at this stage for tens of thousands of years.

The greatest difference between a medium-sized world and a low-level plane was the presence of a Rank Six being.

Even within top-tier civilizations, Rank Six beings sit firmly in the upper-middle tier.

Take Feylis and the others, for example—they could command entire regional war zones on their own.

In recent years, Sein had advanced at an astonishing pace, seizing opportunity after opportunity.

Even so, he did not dare predict when he might attempt to break through to Rank Six.

He was still far from it.

For mages, advancement depended on accumulated knowledge above all else.

Sein estimated his cultivation to be at early to mid-stage Rank Five. With the Faceless Mask and the Magic Cube enhancing him, however, his actual combat strength could reach late-stage Rank Five.

Of course, that only reflected his personal strength. Real battles were far more complicated.

The super bombs he crafted could threaten Rank Six beings. Then there was Fermera under his command, along with other powerful Magus Civilization allies who could support him in war.

White Stella’s advancement to Rank Six benefited Sein as well.

Thanks to their successful cooperation during the Aquaria Star Domain campaign and his friendship with Tourmaline, he would likely have many chances to fight alongside White Stella in future wars against the Gallant Federation.

Beyond his surprise at her seemingly effortless breakthrough, Sein was also intrigued by the eyeball she received from her father.

Few likely noticed it at all—he only caught this detail with the enhanced vision granted by his Faceless Mask.

Watching the joyful reunion of father and daughter, Sein felt a quiet stir of emotion.

***

White Stella’s advancement also benefited Aquaria and its inhabitants.

Still, the resources Aquaria had to hand over to the Magus Alliance and the Magus World sea races would not decrease in the slightest. Orric had no choice but to tighten his belt and guide his people through lean times.

At the same time, he burned with a single pressing ambition: to lead his legions into the Arid Expanse Worlds as soon as possible.

His forces had already accumulated significant wealth from past wars, and the Magus Civilization also rewarded allied planes that performed well.

Orric sought deployment with the stated aim of reclaiming the Ocean King’s Crown and punishing his brother and the Aquarian rebels.

Yet Sein—Orric’s backing and direct superior—had recently shown little appetite for war and had repeatedly turned down his requests for deployment.