Sovereign of the Ashes

It was not just Titanfang that rose to the challenge on the battlefield. The other combat-capable intelligent robots did as well.

Sein’s actions deep within Nexon’s core had helped these advanced robots break free from yet another layer of restraints!

Now, every high-level intelligent robot could unleash seventy to eighty percent of its full combat strength.

That alone was a massive boost.

For more powerful robots like Titanfang, its combat strength surged to nearly ninety percent of full power!

With only one final restraint remaining, the Gallant Federation would no longer have any hold over him.

Even at this stage, Titanfang had enough freedom to lead its kind to independence in another star domain if it wished.

With two layers of firewalls destroyed, the federation’s control over Nexon’s robots had been reduced to its bare minimum.

Aside from the Rank Four and above intelligent robots, even the entire legions of ordinary robots inside and outside Nexon fell silent.

What Sein had done in the core control room affected every robot built on Nexon.

When conflicting orders came through, their systems prioritized the commands from Nexon’s core hub above all else.

After a brief silence, the robots began to turn their weapons on the federal fleet in the skies.

Fortunately, General Lambros had not deployed the other robots sitting idle in warehouses and factories. If he had, the federal fleet would have faced an even greater mutiny!

He was right—robots could not be trusted, at least not the ones within the Nexon Star Domain!

Lambros became convinced that the Magus Civilization’s infiltrator had only one goal: to disrupt and take control of the federation’s robot legions.

With that thought in mind, he immediately relayed the information to the federation’s military, urging them to prepare countermeasures at once.

But in reality, Lambros was overthinking it. The Magus Civilization’s ability was far too limited to replicate this feat in other star domains of the federation.

For now, only the robots on Nexon had shown any signs of awakening to self-awareness.

Even the light orb Sein carried was not something the Magus Civilization could easily create.

The seemingly ordinary orb in his hand was the work of several soul overmages of Magus World, created with the help of one of the Magus Civilization’s ultimate artifacts.

To use such a treasure merely to sway ordinary robots on the battlefield would have been a complete waste!

With the same effort, the soul overmages could have created something to obliterate countless federation robot legions outright.

What the Magus Civilization truly sought was not the raw power of Titanfang and the hundreds of other awakened robots, but the far-reaching consequences their rebellion would spark within the Gallant Federation.

The federation’s new distrust of its robot legions, its heightened vigilance, and the inevitable increase in resources poured into preventing future uprisings... these were the results the Magus Civilization found most rewarding.

Forcing the federation to misallocate resources and focus on the wrong priorities was a strategy for victory in this long war.

To emerge victorious in the Clash of Civilizations, all these strategies had to be built up slowly over time.

This was a war that would last for tens of thousands of years at the very least.

It was an endless cycle of shifting tides, with both the Gallant Federation and the Magus Civilization wielding their own strategies, schemes, and countermeasures.

Each would taste triumph and defeat in turn.

The only question was who would fall first, and who would still be standing in the end.

***

When Sein resurfaced, the war tearing across Nexon and the skies above had reached a fever pitch.

The crimson light orb in his hand was nearly spent, its glow faint and fading.

Once the final layer of restraint code was broken, the power of law within the orb would likely be exhausted as well.

Thankfully, he had reached the core control room just in time. A moment later, and the R7 Fleet’s pursuing forces would have closed in before he ever made it back to the surface.

Explosions thundered across the planet as battles raged in every direction. Nexon’s once-beautiful mechanical landscapes were now reduced to ruins.

Not far from where Sein emerged, several fierce clashes were still underway.

While the federal fleet’s relentless barrage of energy beams lit the skies overhead, Sein’s attention was drawn to two nearby battlefields, where several of Nexon’s advanced intelligent robots were locked in combat with two mobile suits of staggering size.

The combat strength of most high-intelligence robots was around Rank Four, and even then, they tended to be on the weaker side.

By Sein’s estimation, the combined firepower of the two colossal mobile suits already rivaled that of a Rank Five lifeform.

On top of that, they were outfitted with advanced technological weaponry and supported by heavy fire from the fleet above.

Sein had not infiltrated Nexon just to sit in the shadows and watch the robots and the federation fight each other.

If his safety had been guaranteed, he would not have minded letting the two sides tear each other apart. After all, neither side had much to do with him.

But that was no longer the case. His own survival was now tied closely to Nexon’s robots.

His earlier claim that reinforcements from Magus World would arrive to join forces with the awakened robots had been nothing more than a bait to push Titanfang, Skyhold, and the others into immediate allegiance.

From this point on, Sein’s escape from the federation and eventual return to the Magus Civilization would depend on working together with these intelligent robots.

When Sein reached the battlefield in his demonic elemental form, he saw one of the Gallant Federation’s colossal mobile suits repelling a crimson robot.

He recognized it instantly. It was Thunderflame, the Rank Four robot, who was actually quite formidable among its peers.

Unfortunately, before Sein had removed the second layer of restrictions in Nexon’s core, the young robot had already suffered severe damage.

So, even with its newfound boost in strength, it still far weaker than the federation’s mobile suit.

This was Sein’s first time seeing the Gallant Federation’s mobile suits in person.

During his travels through countless star domains under federation’s control, he had never come across these hidden units before.

But he had heard the stories of the now-destroyed Rosen Dynasty, which had once pioneered two major combat systems. One of them was mobile suit technology.

The mechas of the Neisse Civilization bore similarities to the Rosen Dynasty’s mobile suits, but a closer look suggested the Rosen Dynasty had taken the technology to even greater heights.

Now, having absorbed the Rosen Dynasty’s technological legacy, the Gallant Federation had pushed those advancements even further.

After exchanging a quick word with Thunderflame and the other robots, Sein charged headlong toward the towering mobile suit before him.

The Faceless Mask immediately highlighted the weakness of this mobile suit that was about a thousand meters tall.

On the surface, the chest armor looked to be the most heavily fortified part of the suit, but behind that thick steel was its most important space—the cockpit.

Two federal pilots, their minds linked through a neural interface, were seated there.