Sovereign of the Ashes

When the commander asked the question, Karl was still lost in thought.

A Rank Five being in a daze was a rare sight, and it was one of the reasons Sein said Karl had it rough.

Handing over two life planets to the Klytherans?

Karl, of course, was all for it.

But he also knew his kind too well, especially Karazo’s way of doing things.

Once the Klytherans got two planets handed to them so easily, they would never be satisfied. They would want more.

So when faced with the Blue Star commander’s question, he fell into an unusual silence.

In truth, that silence alone was already an answer.

The commander belonged to the small minority of Blue Star beings who favored an aggressive response.

It was not that he craved war, but he was one of the few who truly saw the situation for what it was. He knew the relentless Klytherans would never stop until they got what they wanted.

And now, the Klytherans had brought along two powerful “allies”.

For the Blue Star natives, this was nothing short of a nightmare!

The high-level summit held in Blue Star’s capital ended in endless arguments between factions.

In the end, the Blue Star leaders decided to send a small delegation to open negotiations with the Klytheran Legion stationed outside the planet.

At the same time, the Blue Star forces had not completely abandoned their defensive lines.

This divided state meant their overall coordination was falling apart, drastically weakening Blue Star’s ability to resist.

It was during one of these meetings that an interesting suggestion emerged: seeking aid from other friendly civilizations.

Outside of the Klytherans, Blue Star had, in fact, established contact with several other planar civilizations.

Most were stronger than Blue Star, though a few were roughly equal in strength.

Unfortunately, these civilizations were located far across the Astral Realm.

Even if Blue Star sent out distress signals, there was no guarantee that friendly law-wielding beings could arrive in time.

Meanwhile, the Klytherans were right on their doorstep, and the war would not last much longer.

Among the civilizations friendly to Blue Star were the Shadowbat Civilization, Planet Aquaria, Marvelous Plane, and Voltara World.

These four worlds had openly expressed goodwill toward Blue Star. Over the years, they had also exchanged basic technological knowledge with each other.

Among them, the Shadowbat Civilization stood as the most powerful, having reached the level of a medium-sized plane.

It was a peculiar civilization, fond of “restructuring” the order of nearby star domains. Their system of development valued both strength and technology, though their focus leaned more heavily toward the technological side.

During their early interactions, the Shadowbat Civilization had even shown interest in recruiting the Blue Star natives to help maintain and expand their star domain’s order.

Aquaria was slightly weaker than the Shadowbat Civilization in power, but it was also a medium-sized world.

Its dominant lifeforms were hydro elemental creatures. Their physical makeup and elemental composition were somewhat similar to Blue Star natives, but their personalities were far more aggressive.

To Blue Star, Aquaria’s creatures were the most difficult to deal with among all the friendly civilizations.

Many of Blue Star’s scholars believed that while Aquaria had once expressed goodwill, it had also quietly harbored ambitions of annexation.

As a result, among all its external contacts, Blue Star had kept its distance from Aquaria the most.

Marvelous Plane was known for its focus on self-cultivation. Its dominant species consisted of humanoid women.

Out of all the neighboring civilizations Blue Star had interacted with, this was the friendliest and least self-serving world.

The powerful women of that world did not share the Shadowbat Civilization’s domineering urge to impose their order on others, nor did they harbor ulterior motives like Aquaria.

However, the Marvelous Plane was also far weaker than both the Shadowbat Civilization and Aquaria. It was roughly equal to Blue Star in power, or perhaps just a little stronger.

Because of that, even though it was the most approachable ally, the help it could offer might ultimately be very limited.

Unfortunately, strength reigned supreme in the Astral Realm.

Blue Star’s natives once crossed paths with a Rank Four woman from Marvelous Plane named Beatrice long ago.

When she was still an inexperienced adventurer wandering the Astral Realm, the Blue Star Civilization had offered her help more than once.

Now, if Blue Star were to call upon Marvelous Plane for aid, there was a fair chance Beatrice herself might answer.

They could only hope she arrived in time to save them, rather than to mourn them.

As for the final of the four, Voltara World’s true strength remained unknown.

It was a newly discovered plane, one that the Blue Star Civilization had only recently made contact with, located at an incredible distance across the Astral Realm.

From what they had seen so far, Voltara was a fairly easygoing civilization.

Despite being far from Blue Star, its inhabitants showed remarkable enthusiasm for trade and cultural exchange, as the Rank Four and higher beings from Voltara could travel through the Astral Realm at incredible speeds.

Even though it was the farthest from Blue Star, its powerhouses were still able to maintain contact and communication with the people of Blue Star.

These four planes represented all the allies Blue Star could count on in its time of crisis.

Looking back at Blue Star’s development, one could say this low-level civilization had been surprisingly “fortunate”.

Throughout their long evolution, Blue Star natives had never faced a true invasion or been forced into waging one.

The few planes they had encountered before now were mostly friendly, or at least neutral.

This war with the Klytheran survivors was their first real interplanar conflict, and it was a fight for survival.

The Klytherans had their eyes set on Blue Star itself, yearning to claim the planet as a new home for their displaced race. Any hope of reconciliation between the two sides was nothing more than a dream.

So while Blue Star sent delegations to negotiate peace with the Klytherans beyond their world, they also used every technological means at their disposal to transmit distress signals to other friendly civilizations.

With both diplomatic and defensive efforts underway, the Blue Star natives could only wait anxiously for their fate to unfold.

As the Blue Star commander oversaw the construction of new planetary defenses, he turned to the Rank Five Klytheran beside him.

“We Blue Star people still lack real combat experience,” he said. “Outside our homeworld, we have only conquered the other three planets back when they had no dominant intelligent species. We’ve never actually fought for survival.”

He looked out toward the stars, his voice heavy. “Maybe this war will finally force us to grow up. We’ve lived too comfortably for too long, with nothing out there to challenge us. But the Astral Realm is not so kind. It’s far harsher than those politicians on the council imagine.”

“Even if the Klytherans had not invaded, if we stayed as complacent as we’ve been, it’s only a matter of time before another, stronger civilization comes for us,” he added grimly.

Karl, listening quietly beside him, could not help but think of his own fallen homeworld and its survivors who had wandered the Astral Realm for countless years.

He stayed silent for a long while before finally nodding and sighing.

“You’re right,” he said. “The Astral Realm’s laws of survival are brutal, and the competition is merciless.”