Sovereign of the Ashes

The two giant porcupines each had bodies several hundred meters long, but the most striking figure was the giant bear known as Ursa.

On the battlefield, this giant bear’s physique could expand to nearly a thousand meters tall.

A single swipe of its massive paw could shatter a small mountain peak.

Even though the Grove Python was empowered by the planar will, it was still no match for this Rank Four giant bear in direct combat.

In terms of raw destructive power, Ursa was even a bit stronger than both Senarius and Eugene.

Strangely, despite being the strongest combat unit on the field, Reksha and the giant bear were not assigned to confront the Rank Five Bouldrak King.

Instead, it was Eugene who fought it alone.

The Drunken Panda Immortal was supporting the half-beastman legions outside the Rank Four battlefield, working to maximize their battle gains and minimize their losses.

As Reksha had said before, the most critical factor in this interplanar war was Eugene himself.

This was Eugene’s battle to fight alone, as it was likely tied to the shifting power dynamics and compromises brewing back in Beastmen World.

After all, Eugene had offended the vast majority of the beast gods and had not won the support of Kampas, the God of Beastmen.

Becoming the God of Half-Beastmen was no easy feat.

With the beast gods—led by the Jackal God—deliberately making things difficult, Eugene had been forced to dedicate a Rank Five divine relic and a low-level complete plane to his homeplane just to qualify for godhood.

It was not as if the other beast gods had refused him a chance. It was simply a matter of whether Eugene could achieve it by his own strength.

Facing a Rank Five opponent with only a Rank Four body...

Just like the half-beastmen’s pursuit of a free and brighter future, Eugene had to endure unimaginable hardship to accomplish what seemed impossible.

And alongside Eugene, the half-beastman legions were also enduring tremendous pressure and heavy losses.

Though the half-beastmen had seized a major advantage early on, thanks to the efforts of several Rank Four warriors and the Thunder Lizard tide, it was far from enough to determine the outcome of the war.

An interplanar war was ultimately a contest of logistical strength and depth.

Unfortunately, the greatest weakness of the half-beastmen was their shallow foundation and limited resources.

Even though Eugene had prepared for this war for a long time, the half-beastman legions, equipped with simple gear and trained for only a short time, were still a far cry from the elite battle-hardened legions that had survived hundreds of campaigns.

A truly powerful legion needed more than just momentum and numbers—it needed solid, reliable strength.

The thin, starving half-beastmen were beginning to show their weaknesses more and more as the war dragged on.

The Rank Five Bouldrak King was not some brainless brute made of stone.

In fact, this Bouldrak King was far more intelligent than most other Geo Elementals.

It even held some advanced ideas about communicating with the outside world and staying connected to broader affairs.

While the majority of Geo Elementals remained stuck in their usual closed, old-fashioned ways, the Bouldrak King was already thinking about something far deeper.

This was also why, even though Bouldrak World’s Obsidian Crystal Giant was physically stronger and showed more potential among its peers, it was the Bouldrak King who had ultimately risen to rule the plane.

The powerful Bouldrak King, growing increasingly frustrated with the stubborn green-skinned Rank Four creature before it, found itself unable to shake off its opponent, no matter how fiercely it fought.

When Drunken Panda Immortal mass-cremated geo-elemental creatures across the frontlines with his Fire Cloud Swallowing Mist technique, the Bouldrak King had tried to intervene, only to be blocked by Eugene.

When Reksha unleashed his war song to summon a beast horde, and the mighty giant bear named Ursa smashed the tailbone of the Grove Python, the Bouldrak King once again attempted to intervene, only for Eugene to come charging at him without a shred of concern for his own life.

He was only a Rank Four creature—how could his bones be so impossibly hard?!

The Bouldrak King had long since lost count of how many times it had swung its rocky arms to smash Eugene into the ground.

But no matter how many times it struck, every time, the scrawny half-beastman, drenched in his own blood, would climb back to his feet and charge toward it again.

It was as if he could not feel pain at all.

Even the solid, rocky plains of Bouldrak Plane had cracked under the force of their battle.

Yet Eugene’s spine seemed harder than diamond, refusing to break!

This pesky cockroach seemed even more resilient than most geo elemental creatures.

But in truth, Eugene’s physical defense was not superior to that of an ordinary Rank Four beast god.

What set him apart was not his body but his spirit and will.

In reality, by the fourth month of the battle, two-thirds of the bones in Eugene’s body had already been fractured.

One could only wonder what kind of strength kept him fighting even now.

The sight of blood raining from the sky as Eugene rose and rejoined the fight again and again inspired millions of half-beastmen on the Bouldrak Plane battlefield.

Of course, conviction was not a reliable source of strength.

A fighter like Eugene was so rare that no one could expect such resilience from all half-beastmen.

As the war on Bouldrak Plane dragged into its second year, heavy casualties began to mount across the half-beastman legions.

Not only on Bouldrak Plane, but the other two microplane battlefields also suffered their share of losses.

Among the three, Boubor Plane had the fewest casualties, largely thanks to Sein’s presence and the forbidden spell he had unleashed early in the campaign.

***

Obsidian Range...

This was the lair of the Obsidian Crystal Giant, and it served as the main frontline of the Bouldrak Plane’s native resistance against the half-beastman invasion.

The shift of the battlefield from open plains to mountainous terrain was a clear sign of which side held the momentum.

While the Rank Five Bouldrak King was able to suppress Eugene in one-on-one combat, the situation across the other fronts was far less favorable.

In particular, the areas where the Drunken Panda Immortal and Ursa the giant bear fought had seen the geo elemental forces nearly routed.

An interplanar war was not a one-man show.

Though the Bouldrak King desperately wanted to reinforce the other fronts, Eugene clung to it like an indestructible copper pea.

Even though geo elemental creatures were known for their defense rather than their offense, the Bouldrak King still found itself utterly frustrated by Eugene’s persistence.

The Bouldrak King had no idea about Eugene’s secret agreement with the other Beast Gods of Beastmen World.

It simply assumed the invaders were using a classic strategy—tying down the strongest defender while dismantling the rest one by one.

If Eugene managed to wear the Bouldrak King to death, the collapse of the other battlefronts would indeed be inevitable.

The powerful Obsidian Crystal Giant’s inability to defeat Reksha had been an unexpected blow to the Bouldrak King.

By the Bouldrak King’s original calculations, the Obsidian Crystal Giant should have been able to handle two enemies of the same rank without much difficulty.

The worsening situation forced the Bouldrak King to realize it had no choice but to seek help.

During this time, countless geo elemental creatures had fallen, especially among the lower-ranking Geo Elementals whose combat strength was barely worth mentioning.

War, whether for the attacker or the defender, remained a cruel and tragic affair.