Lord: Sequence Master

"Better not court death just yet..."

Rosen shook his head after weighing his options.

The Sequence 3 spirit realm deep within the island could wait until his strength grew further.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and Rosen successfully gained full control over Clement's spiritual self.

He released Clement from the painting, who immediately knelt before him like a loyal servant.

After instructing Clement to continue his work as a pirate, Rosen boarded his Feathered Serpent Warship and returned to the Blazing Shadow Duchy.

This time, the journey went smoothly. Nearing the duchy's islands, Rosen made his way toward Blackstone Port, the place where he had once fled on a steam train. Now, returning to these familiar grounds, he wondered if he might see some old faces.

The largest tavern near the port still had the same familiar owner.

Rosen climbed to the second floor, planning to buy information on the Black Shark Pirate Ship as he had done in the past.

However, after waiting for a while, the tavern owner still hadn't delivered the information.

Rosen quickly realized the tavern owner might have connections with the Black Shark Pirates.

He split off the Hunter's Eye from his right eye, sending it into the shadows to slip into the tavern owner's private quarters.

Using his mind-reading ability, Rosen soon understood the situation.

The Black Shark Captain had once been a Sequence 7, but his spiritual essence was injured, dropping him to Sequence 8.

Later, in the Forest of Death spirit realm, he sacrificed to the Cat God Statue, healing his spiritual wounds. Over the years, the Black Shark Captain had quickly risen to Sequence 6.

He even gathered several pirate ships under his command, forming a small Black Shark Pirate Crew.

In Blackstone Port, the Black Shark Pirates had become the largest faction.

Naturally, the tavern owner didn't dare offend them and had already informed the Black Shark Pirates that someone was asking for their information.

At that moment, the Black Shark Pirates were on their way to capture Rosen.

Shaking his head, Rosen left Graymouse behind and departed from Blackstone Port.

The Black Shark Pirate Ship wasn't docked at the port, and it was unclear when it would return.

With Graymouse's abilities, wiping out the Black Shark Pirates wouldn't be difficult.

Rosen continuously flashed through the void, quickly leaving Blackstone Port and heading toward the Ashen Zone, a place that once filled him with dread.

Ashen creatures were fewer in populated areas but more abundant in desolate places.

If not for their tendency to stay within ash-covered zones, small places like Blackstone Port would have been uninhabitable.

Rosen summoned 37 Ashen Queens, sending them to scatter into the surrounding mist.

By now, the Ashen Hive had begun producing Ashen Queens.

Neither the Ashen Queens nor the Ashen Hive Mothers had the indestructibility or uniqueness of the original queens.

It was clear these life forms were no longer the same as the originals.

Rosen attempted to induce a dual bloodline atavism in the Ashen Queens, but they only advanced to Sequence 7, not evolving into new forms. Still, unless they encountered a Beast King, these Sequence 7 Ashen Queens could handle almost anything below Sequence 4.

Even Rosen himself found his perception heavily suppressed within the ashen-covered zone.

However, the Ashen Queens thrived, as they were born from the ash.

With little else to do, Rosen summoned the Bonfire of Fuel, beginning to gather the surrounding ash.

The ash that blanketed human civilization was the same as the ash created by the backlash of the Flames of Civilization.

But why did this ash cover the entire human world?

That old legend about the curse of fallen gods? Rosen, knowing the truth about the ash, found it laughable.

Soon, the Bonfire of Fuel absorbed all the ash within a 380-meter radius, but no full fuel logs appeared. Even after expanding the range to several miles and gathering more ash, the fuel pile increased but remained incomplete.

Rosen continued collecting ash, and after scouring hundreds of miles, he finally saw a complete log emerge.

He immediately lit the log with the Bonfire of Fuel and used the Ashen Curtain to reflect its afterglow.

In the light, Rosen saw a forest, a small cabin, and an old hunter cleaning his prey.

The history captured in the afterglow was too brief, providing little valuable information.

However, after seeing the hunter's prayer, Rosen had a sudden sense of familiarity.

His spiritual intuition led him to a special library in the Divine Nation of Flames, where he kept copies of all the books from the Flame Nation's capital. Flipping through a book on the religious system of the Flame Nation, Rosen soon found his answer.

He hadn't been mistaken—the old hunter was indeed a follower of the True God of Flames.

Rosen continued collecting logs, and a few days later, he found another complete log.

Lighting it and using the Ashen Curtain again, he saw another human figure.

This time, the scene wasn't in a forest but a fully automated, high-tech farm.

Judging by the architectural style, the farm had no connection to the Flame Nation.

Rosen noticed strange writing on the machinery, but it was unfamiliar. The figure he saw was humanoid.

Human civilization was unique. Other civilizations, when they fell, were utterly destroyed, leaving only a sliver of hope in the spirit world.

But human civilization seemed to rise and fall repeatedly.

Through gathering ash, Rosen realized the ash covering the Blazing Shadow Duchy came from at least two different civilizations.

Rosen once thought the Flame Nation was a humanoid species or a branch of humanity.

But now it seemed likely the Flame Nation was a human civilization that had been destroyed.

If true, the ash covering human civilization might be the remnants of earlier human civilizations, reduced to ash by the Flames of Civilization.

Could civilizations before the Flame Nation also produce ash?

Or was it possible the Flames of Civilization existed long before the Flame Nation, and the Flame Nation merely discovered it?

Rosen began to doubt whether the ash was truly harmful to humanity.

Though it posed threats, it had also acted as a barrier against foreign invaders.

The depth of human civilization ran far deeper than Rosen had imagined. He silently buried these newfound secrets.

Meanwhile, the Ashen Queens slaughtered creatures in the ashen mist. Rosen's noble lineage tree showed his achievements increasing.

With little else to do, Rosen piloted his Feathered Serpent Warship toward Redstone City.

On the way, he occasionally stopped to hunt ash creatures. Within half an hour, he arrived.

Looking at the familiar yet foreign city, Rosen felt a mixture of emotions. Little Rosen's memories were intimately connected to Redstone City, but for him, it felt distant. During his brief stay, he had hidden in the Divine Library to avoid trouble.

Back then, he hadn't realized how many things were wrong in the Blazing Shadow Duchy.

But now, with broader horizons, Redstone City seemed increasingly suspicious.

His Divine Domain, in particular, was far from ordinary.

Technically, his Divine Domain was just a subsidiary of the Glory Vault, a noble skill.

It was a fusion of the Treasure Space ability of Sequence 8 Hunters and the residual noble extraordinary essence from a damaged Sequence 7 Bloodline Compass, empowered by the God of the Hunt.

The process seemed normal, but could such a combination truly create a Divine Domain?

Clearly, the Sequence 7 Bloodline Compass was far from ordinary.

Unlike other civilized sequences, noble extraordinary essence usually returned to the Noble Lineage Tree in the spirit world upon death. It was almost impossible to intercept such essence and turn it into a Bloodline Compass.

For a small baronial family like the Redstones to possess such an artifact? Impossible.

As Rosen walked through the streets, familiar faces from the past came to mind.

His strong spiritual sense allowed him to recall people he had seen long ago in the virtual spirit realm.

Passing from the outer city to the inner city, Rosen soon arrived at what had once been the Howard family villa.

The villa was gone, replaced by public restrooms.

Though Rosen didn't care much about the villa where Little Rosen had grown up,

seeing this still filled him with rage.

For the sake of Stephanie, an old flame, and Sunny, Little Rosen's dear friend, he had planned to grant Sunny a merciful end.

But now? No escape seemed more fitting.

Rosen looked toward the sky, and the Ashen Curtain projected a meteor descending from the heavens.

He turned toward the city lord's mansion, and moments later, a meteor fell, engulfing a 100-meter area in flames.

The city lord's mansion wasn't large, nor was the Redstone Baron's castle.

Despite its small size, the mansion was still fully equipped, with dozens of servants.

Neither Sunny nor her husband were present, but Rosen discovered that the Redstone Baron had changed—it was now the baron's eldest son.

Currently, the new Redstone Baron, Kaden, was busy with official matters, unaware of the person standing right in front of his desk.

Mind reading could only capture current thoughts; to learn past memories, Rosen needed Kaden to actively recall them.

Rosen's spiritual essence shaped itself into an arm, grabbing Kaden by the hair and lifting him off the ground. Nightmare Shackles quickly sealed his spiritual essence.

Kaden looked around the seemingly empty study, utterly terrified. In the blink of an eye, his spiritual essence vanished from his body.

Using the Heart Prison ability of the Ashen Curtain, Rosen extracted all of Kaden's memories, from childhood to the present.

Kaden's younger brother, Kerry, and his wife, Sunny, had long parted ways with the main family.

Kerry, never becoming a noble, now ran a vineyard in another city with Sunny.

As for the old Redstone Baron, he had become a Sequence 6 and left for the frontlines.

Strangely, the old baron left behind his Sequence 8 son, Kaden. Having reached Sequence 6, shouldn't the old baron have stayed to hunt ash creatures and help his son strengthen the family?

Yet a few years ago, the baron abruptly left for the frontlines, as if fleeing.

Rosen delved deeper into Kaden's memories, hoping to learn more about the old baron.

Kaden had always been doted upon, showing early potential for awakening spiritual essence.

But one incident stood out—the old baron had severely punished Kaden for stumbling upon a hidden chamber in the study. Inside, Kaden had seen a statue of a god, and the old baron had beaten him thoroughly.

Upon seeing this statue, Rosen understood.

The old Redstone Baron had been a worshipper of a god—the same god responsible for the deaths of Little Rosen's parents.

In fact, the Redstone family had likely been watching over the Howard family for generations.

But this god had fallen, explaining why Little Rosen had survived. Unable to contact the god, the Redstone Baron had likely been terrified and refrained from further targeting Little Rosen.

The old baron probably hadn't expected Sunny to fix her gaze on Little Rosen.

In the end, Little Rosen had simply been too insignificant for the old baron to pay attention to.

Or perhaps the old baron had been too frightened to intervene. It wasn't safe for nobles to worship gods, and he had likely realized that something was wrong with his god. As a result, he chose to ignore Little Rosen, hoping to avoid any entanglements.

What he hadn't anticipated was Sunny's schemes, which ultimately led him to flee to the frontlines in terror.

This seemed like the most logical explanation. The Bloodline Compass had probably been an artifact given to the Redstone family by that god.

But if the baron had run away, why hadn't he taken his two sons with him?

It made sense to leave his second son, Kerry, behind, but Kaden, the favored eldest son?

Had the old baron really been so selfish?

Perhaps there was another reason...

There was a possibility that the old baron had only ever loved himself.

By leaving his two sons behind, he could determine whether or not the situation was truly dangerous.

If they lived well, there was no danger.

If they died, the old baron would know immediately through the Noble Lineage Tree.

At that point, he could confirm the danger was real and flee, potentially even escaping the human world entirely.

Rosen opened the study's hidden chamber, only to find it completely empty.

"Am I really going to have to chase him to the frontlines?" Rosen muttered, frowning.

The question was whether the old Redstone Baron was worth the effort.

If not, Rosen could simply curse him to death once he mastered a curse ability.

Hiring an assassin to capture him was another option, but if the old baron had joined the World Government's Allied Forces, retrieving him from the frontlines would be difficult. And if there were hidden secrets, the assassin might not be trustworthy.

Rosen flayed the skin from Kaden's back and turned it into parchment, which he then fused into his Void Sketchbook.

Using his Drawing Technique, he perfectly captured Kaden's essence in the painting.

Sealing Kaden into the portrait, Rosen then used his Mind Canvas to alter Kaden's memories, brainwashing him.

For a mere Sequence 8, the Void Prison wasn't necessary. Mind Control and the Mind Canvas were enough to reshape his memories and control his spiritual essence. The now soulless Kaden continued his work as if nothing had happened.

However, should the old Redstone Baron dare to show himself, Rosen would know instantly.

Within half an hour of his avatar leaving, his Self-Portrait Avatar returned.

Both Kerry and Sunny, who were far away in another city, had been brainwashed and turned into puppets. When the old Redstone Baron finally revealed himself, it would be their time to suffer without escape.

With the matter resolved, Rosen decided to head to the spirit realm to retrieve Graymouse's hidden treasure.

He piloted the Feathered Serpent Warship, activating Spirit Realm Stealth to enter the outer layers of the spirit realm.

The spirit realm of the Blazing Shadow Duchy mirrored the island's fiery history.

The entire island was engulfed in flames, a vision of the world as it had been 25,000 years ago, before the Blazing Shadow Ore had even existed.

The ore, which burned with extraordinary efficiency, was likely a product of this fiery sea.

Going even further back, to the time of the Flame Nation, the island had been covered in vegetation.

But when the Flame Civilization fell, the island became engulfed in flames, erasing all traces of the civilization.

Rosen focused on the surrounding fire, sensing something akin to the Flames of Civilization burning away the remnants of a destroyed culture.

If that were true, then the flames might hold traces of the Civilization's Flame.

However, even with the help of the miraculous origin of all flames, Rosen couldn't detect any trace of the Flames of Civilization.

Instead, he sensed faint divine traces. Clearly, the island had been destroyed by a divine force.

This was likely no secret, but there was simply no need to publicize it.

Two hours later, Rosen crossed the blazing landscape and arrived at a fiery mountain.

The surface of the mountain was molten lava, but instead of flowing downward, the lava flowed upward, causing the mountain to gradually grow larger.

Such occurrences, which defied the physical rules of reality, were not uncommon in the spirit realm.

Because the spirit realm was governed by mental forces, reality here was easily influenced by collective thoughts.

Perhaps someone had written a book describing an upward-flowing mountain, or someone had dreamed of such a place. Any such instance of mental activity from the real world could impact the spirit realm.

While this mountain might seem strange, it wouldn't catch the attention of high-ranking extraordinary individuals.

There weren't many Sequence 7 and above extraordinaries in the Blazing Shadow Duchy, and they would certainly overlook a place like this.

Rosen dismissed his Mechanical Mount, then began backward jumping up the mountain from the base.

His enhanced physique allowed him to ignore the burning flames as his jumping speed increased.

Soon, he was breaking the sound barrier, and in a final leap, he disappeared into a volcano-like crater at the mountain's peak.

This was the hidden method for entering Graymouse's spirit realm—a method few would ever discover.

Graymouse certainly had a knack for hiding things.

Rosen fell through the volcano and landed inside a castle.

Using Void Flash, he blinked up to a tower in the castle. From there, he could see a city teeming with Graymouse people.

These were lifeforms created by Graymouse, and they all worshiped him devoutly.

As long as this spirit realm remained and their faith persisted, it would be nearly impossible for Graymouse to truly die.

This realm was Graymouse's final trump card, hidden so well that no one could find it.

However, fully controlled spirit realms like this couldn't remain in the spirit realm for long.

Naturally formed spirit realms were predominantly spiritual with some material elements.

But once a spirit realm was fully controlled or artificially created, it became predominantly material with some spiritual elements.

Such realms were extremely difficult to reset, far more so than uncontrolled spirit realms.

Moreover, keeping fully controlled realms in the spirit realm for too long risked them shifting back to being spiritually dominant, causing them to fall out of their master's control.

If Rosen had waited another ten years, this spirit realm would have started slipping from Graymouse's grasp.

Rosen was about to share spiritual essence with Graymouse and use the connection to absorb the spirit realm.

But at that moment, his sixth sense warned him of danger.

Turning around, Rosen saw Graymouse—the very one he had ordered to stay in Blackstone Port awaiting the Black Shark Pirates—standing behind him.

Graymouse had somehow left Blackstone Port without triggering the Nightmare Shackles, and Rosen hadn't even noticed his departure.

It seemed Graymouse had been waiting for Rosen's return to the Blazing Shadow Duchy for years.

Unknowingly, Rosen had let down his guard around the little rodent.

Even though he had remained somewhat vigilant and had sent Graymouse off under the pretext of the Black Shark Pirates, it appeared the cunning creature had still found an opportunity to rebel.

But did Graymouse really think he stood a chance?

"Your odds of winning aren't great," Rosen stated firmly.

"I know. I didn't expect you to grow so strong and accumulate so many resources..." Graymouse squeaked, "But as your strength increases, my chances of victory dwindle. I've reached the point where if I don't make a move now, I'll lose my only chance to break free from your slavery."

"Looks like the old hunters' advice about raising pets was right—I should have paid closer attention." Rosen sighed.

"It's too late to realize that now," Graymouse cackled. "My odds may be low, but this is my territory. Whether I have a one-percent chance or a ninety-percent chance, all that matters is whether I win."

"You're right," Rosen agreed, nodding. "History is written by the victors."

Graymouse instantly split into four divine avatars. Theoretically, with 38 points of divinity, he could have created 38 avatars, but dividing power too thin would weaken him. With four avatars, he could maximize his strength.

His main body and the four avatars simultaneously unleashed a Sequence 7 Fear Stare combined with a Sequence 6 Soul Shock.

The two abilities fused into one, targeting Rosen's spiritual essence.

Even with Dragon King's Blessing and the Ashen Curtain, Rosen couldn't block all the damage.

To make matters worse, the castle began generating layers of seals, with the highest-level Sequence 3 seal locking down Rosen's abilities.

Except for his divinity and miraculous powers, all other abilities were suppressed.

Graymouse's four divine avatars, using their Headlong Retreat ability to boost their speed tenfold, instantly closed in on Rosen. With plague-laden claws, they launched a Sequence 7 Bloodthirsty Onslaught combined with a Sequence 5 Deadly Backstab, moving behind Rosen to tear him apart.

But the Rosen they attacked dissolved into paint—it was merely a self-portrait avatar.

(End of Chapter)