Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein had finally reached the deepest part of Nexon.

The complex metal passageways impressed him even more than what he had seen in Steel City years ago.

At first, his progress was smooth.

Guided by a precise map, he simply pressed forward.

But once he entered the last stretch of his journey, the R7 Fleet outside Nexon locked onto his position.

They began firing ground-piercing energy beams at him and tapped into Nexon’s existing defensive systems.

Luckily, Nexon was only a robot manufacturing base, not a dedicated military stronghold. Its defenses, while troublesome, were far from overwhelming.

Outside, intelligent robots like Titanfang were still holding the line, buying Sein precious time.

Empowered by the storm-flaming wings born of his Rank Four elemental body and magic artifact, he pushed onward until he finally arrived at his destination.

Before him loomed a massive metal hatch.

Even with his Rank Four strength, breaking the tightly sealed hatch was no easy task. The Gallant Federation had also sealed every surrounding access point.

Sein considered blasting it open with a destructive spell, but the risk was too high—the violent surge of elemental energy might cause consequences he could not predict in the planet’s core.

After all, Nexon was an artificial mechanical planet. In terms of durability and self-repair, it could never match the naturally formed, complete planes of the Astral Realm.

Sein was not worried about destroying the robots’ homeworld. His concern was damaging the core control room, which would jeopardize the very mission he had come here for.

Worse still, if the planet’s core destabilized and collapsed, even a Rank Four mage like him would not escape unscathed.

He might very well perish with the planet!

Still, solutions were born of ingenuity, and mages excelled at finding them.

The problem was time. He had no chance to study the composition of the reinforced door and devise a precise method of breaching it.

According to the data provided by the intelligent robots, Nexon’s core control room was a completely self-contained, sealed cubic space. Its immense importance and the countless functions it managed demanded nothing less.

Aside from the massive entrance before him, there were no other paths, cracks, or weaknesses.

The rumble of explosions and the tremors running through the ground still reached Sein deep within Nexon’s core.

The fact that he could feel them from so far away spoke volumes about the sheer intensity of the battle raging outside.

This was the first time he had witnessed a battle involving more than a hundred Rank Four or higher intelligent robots clashing with a federal fleet.

He had seen his fair share of wars, but the largest interplanar battles he had witnessed until now involved no more than a dozen Rank Four or higher beings clashing with each other.

In the Clash of Civilizations, a battle of this scale should not have come as a surprise.

Having recently attended the 25th Alliance Conference, Sein had gained a much clearer sense of just how powerful the Magus Civilization truly was.

And that was only what they had revealed openly. Who could say how many hidden trump cards these two top-tier civilizations still had tucked away?

Forbidden spells, elemental decomposition magic, specialized explosive artifacts... Sein’s mind raced through possible solutions that might break the hatch.

But every option he considered was either too destructive to control, took too long to prepare, or carried outcomes that were far too uncertain.

Urgent cries from Titanfang and the others reached him through the crimson light orb in his hand.

Watching comrades fall one after another, Titanfang burned with both rage and despair. It felt the injustice of fate and a growing hatred for the cold-blooded cruelty of the Gallant Federation’s humans.

Under the mounting pressure, Sein’s thoughts continued racing until he recalled a peculiar blue flame that his Ashen Flame had once absorbed—one with extraordinary metal-decomposing properties.

That flame’s unique trait had once helped him tremendously in his alchemy.

But as the destructive power of his Ashen Flame grew, Sein was able to easily refine almost any material without relying on the Azure Flame in most experiments.

Whoosh!

A ball of grayish-black fire flickered to life above his palm.

Since the Pyreling World War, Sein’s Ashen Flame had become even more formidable.

The path of law he picked was an all-encompassing flame law.

As Sein gazed at the grayish-black flame, it slowly turned pure blue.

The transformation was not merely in color; even its very essence was changing.

He pressed his flame-wreathed hands against the metal hatch. Ripples began to spread across its surface.

The alloy, designed to withstand blows from Rank Four or even Rank Five creatures, began to soften and dissolve like wax melting under heat.

Upon seeing the effect, Sein poured more strength into the Azure Flame.

***

After considerable effort, Sein finally entered Nexon’s core control room.

The dense rows of displays and mechanical devices that filled the space left him momentarily overwhelmed.

Even as a pursuer of truth and elemental magic, Sein felt almost dizzy trying to make sense of these technological creations.

Fortunately, he did not need to rely on technology or console inputs to grant Titanfang and the others their freedom.

Glancing at the crimson light orb in his hand, Sein slammed it directly into the massive central console before him.

In an instant, the silent room erupted in a blinding red glow.

***

Above the surface...

Titanfang’s metal arms strained under the weight of a federal warship stretching more than two kilometers in length.

Battles raged all across Nexon. Explosions shook the land, and thick smoke rolled across the metallic landscape.

Unable to overcome the desperate resistance of the rebel robots, General Lambros finally authorized the deployment of ordinary robot legions from both inside and outside Nexon.

On the planet’s surface and in the skies above, the battlefield was filled with robots fighting robots, and robots clashing against Federation humans.

But as time went on, the minority faction led by awakened robots like Titanfang was gradually ground down under the relentless might of the Federation military.

“Do you regret it?” Titanfang asked Skyhold, who was fighting nearby.

Skyhold had been pulled into this war against its will. By now, even if it wanted to side with the Gallant Federation and pursue freedom for its kind through peaceful means, that path was all but impossible.

Skyhold answered Titanfang’s question with silence.

Titanfang liked its response. With a loud laugh, it hurled the massive warship it held aloft down toward Nexon’s surface.

The enormous vessel plummeted, its metal frame shrieking as it tore through the atmosphere.

Many soldiers managed to eject in their escape pods during the fall, but far more went down with the ship.

Despite their armor and weapons, these soldiers were pitifully weak on their own. Yet they had stood as masters over the entire robotic race.

Watching its former “masters” scatter like frightened ants, Titanfang erupted in a roar of arrogant laughter.

But the laughter was cut short as a deep purple beam engulfed its body, slamming it deep into the earth.

A vast chasm split open on impact, and a collapsing basin formed around the ruins where it had fallen.

Moments later, a relentless barrage of tens of millions of concentrated energy beams rained down on the impact zone, as if trying to erase it completely.

Deep within the shattered ground, Titanfang kept laughing despite its fading strength and weakening body. Yet, its laughter would not stop.

It had gone mad. No—every awakened robot had reached this same frenzy as their kind stood at the brink of annihilation.

Skyhold, clinging to the last fragments of sanity, slowly closed its metallic eyes.

But then a surge of crimson light burst from the planet’s core, forcing Skyhold’s open once more.

At the same time, the very spot where Titanfang had been pinned down like a beaten hound by the rain of energy beams erupted in a blinding flash!

Among Nexon’s intelligent robots, Titanfang had always been the strongest.

“Mwahahahahahahaha ! DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Bursting back from the depths, Titanfang ripped straight through a federal destroyer that was still firing, then hurled its massive frame headlong toward another interstellar fortress.