Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein was currently stationed at the central command hub.

The Clash of Civilizations’ battlefield was never a place where law-wielding beings rushed in from the outset and fought without restraint.

Moreover, the scale of this star domain battlefield was immense. The Magus Civilization alone had fielded nearly thirty law-wielding combatants.

Aquaria’s forces were no less formidable. If Sein charged in by himself, the impact would be minimal at best.

More importantly, Sein valued his life. In a melee of this scale, even wielding a world-class secret treasure offered no guarantee of survival.

One careless move, and if he found himself surrounded by several Rank Five opponents, even Sein would be skinned alive.

After all, he had not been Rank Five for very long.

His past victories had always depended on superior equipment and numerical advantage.

Some Magus World knights sought to push their limits, deliberately challenging equals or stronger foes in life-or-death duels to understand the true essence of combat.

But sorry, Sein had absolutely zero interest in that!

Why waste time on such things when he could run a few more experiments in the laboratory?

Besides, mages did not need to push their limits through battles.

Although the battlefield could spark breakthroughs and advancement, knowledge remained the primary factor determining a mage’s strength.

“Karazo, Wraithlord, the two of you move toward the sea race legions. A powerful lifeform is heading in that direction,” Sein instructed the two Rank Five beings stationed at the frontline from within the Ashen Fortress.

The Ashen Fortress’ surveillance systems, combined with the support abilities of the Faceless Mask, allowed Sein to detect abnormalities on the battlefield with exceptional speed and clarity.

After issuing his orders to the two Rank Five combatants, Sein reached out to White Stella.

Hanging from her ears was a pair of earrings, each set with a verdant green crystalline gem. They were exceptional treasures that also functioned as communication devices.

Upon receiving Sein’s warning, White Stella, who had maintained a calm and composed demeanor throughout the battle, made no preparations for combat.

Only her serene gaze drifted toward the depths of the starry battlefield ahead.

***

The overall situation on this battlefront was highly favorable to the Magus Civilization.

The sea race legions had performed exceptionally well, and the Magus Alliance forces advancing behind them had also shown decent combat capability.

Judging purely from the clashes among the lower-tier legion, the Magus Civilization had secured a strong opening.

Gadar, a demigod-level Huusian warrior, was the second son of Bisoo, a peak Rank Four Huusian powerhouse.

Despite being a descendant of one of the Huusian powerhouses who was second only to the Huusian King, Gadar never received the preferential treatment often afforded to the offspring of foreign deities.

As far back as Gadar could remember, the Huusians had lived as wanderers in the Astral Realm.

Some of the older clan members would occasionally speak of the Huusian Civilization’s former glory and historic achievements.

To Gadar, however, those stories felt distant, more like legends than lived history.

As a so-called “god’s child,” Gadar had carried heavy expectations from the clan elders since childhood.

After all, the offspring of Rank Four or higher beings usually possessed exceptional innate strength and an unusually strong affinity for the power of laws.

From his teenage years onward, Gadar trained aboard the Huusian clan’s warships, wielding a steel blade.

Bisoo showed no favoritism toward his own children. From youth to early adulthood and now into middle age, Gadar trained and fought alongside ordinary Huusian warriors, and that never changed.

Now more than four thousand years old, Gadar could hardly be considered young by Huusian standards.

The crude steel blade of his youth had long since been replaced by a lightsaber that glowed with brilliant energy and faint traces of law power.

This weapon was one of the few gifts Gadar had ever received from his father, imbued with a sliver of Rank Four divine power.

Gadar knew little about the clan’s high-level decisions. He had always been a quiet man who followed orders without question.

From the Huusian rebellion on Ferramo through their subsequent entry into the Magus Alliance, Gadar faithfully fulfilled his duties as a Huusian warrior.

From time to time, he would overhear Bisoo discussing the Huusians’ broader strategic choices.

Gadar listened, but rarely voiced his own thoughts.

In truth, his temperament was much like his father’s.

It was Bisoo’s way of doing things that had shaped Gadar’s entire life.

In the early days, voices within the Huusian clan had called for division.

Many resented what they saw as the royal family’s misguided decisions, which had cost them their homeplane and shattered their civilization.

During that turbulent period, Bisoo—the strongest among them—attracted the greatest support.

Numerous smaller Huusian tribes chose to rally under Bisoo’s banner, as his tribe fared better than the rest.

Bisoo had openly questioned and even confronted the Huusian King in person.

He had also publicly voiced opinions that were radical and extreme in tone, leading many to believe he was the most likely figure to lead a split from the Huusians.

Yet only the Huusian King and a handful of the clan’s most senior elders knew that Bisoo was, in fact, the most loyal among them.

He challenged the Huusian King openly because he believed those decisions were wrong.

For the sake of the Huusian clan as a whole, he was willing to offer harsh counsel before the full assembly.

But Bisoo would never divide the Huusian clan. In his view, only by staying united could the Huusians reclaim their former glory.

When the Huusian King accepted Sein’s inducements and chose to join the Magus Alliance on Black Tide Plane, there was no safe channel to notify Bisoo in time.

Bisoo was fighting on Planet Ferramo, and any attempt at communication risked exposure.

Even so, when the decisive moment arrived, Bisoo still chose to stand firmly with the Huusian King.

The decisiveness he showed at that moment remained difficult for many Huusian powerhouses to comprehend, even now.

The Huusian King understood Bisoo well, yet he never discussed these matters with him directly.

Between the two, a quiet, unspoken understanding existed.

Gadar understood his father as well.

During the Feramo War, Gadar cut down two Rank Three giant mobile suits from behind, while the number of other federal units he destroyed was beyond counting.

It was that brutal battle that earned Gadar his post-war advancement to demigod status.

Now at the edge of the Marvelous Plane battlefield, Gadar tightened his grip on his lightsaber, staring down a massive metallic shark that had ripped through the sea race legions’ flank and was charging straight at him.

Its metallic hull was riddled with scratches and chipped plating—clear evidence of the brutal battle it had endured to reach this point.

The calm focus in Gadar’s eyes gradually hardened into resolve as he surged forward.