Sovereign of the Ashes

The situation on the battlefield looked extremely favorable for Sein’s group.

Yet Sein’s gaze remained almost constantly fixed on the opposing armies steadily closing in from the distance.

A battle involving at least a hundred million combatants...

When he had been near the Marvelous Plane battlefield before, Sein had not fully grasped its scale.

On one hand, the fighting back then had not reached such a scale.

On the other, the battlefields around the Marvelous Plane were vast. Both armies fought across the Astral Realm, and Sein’s field of vision could only capture a small fraction of the conflict at any given time.

That was nothing like the current situation, where over a hundred million troops from both sides were crammed into the same subspace, fighting as reinforcements poured in without end.

The intensity of the battle in this subspace was about to rise to an entirely new level.

Given his current condition, Sein had no desire to be dragged back into a direct clash between the two civilizations’ main forces.

Fermera and the others had already suppressed Bond and his team. Casualties among the federation’s special forces were steadily mounting, leaving them unable to continue their interception.

Seeing this, Sein issued a decisive order.

“Let’s go!”

Beating the demonic wings on his back, he left the battlefield without hesitation.

Black Oblivion and his cousins withdrew just as swiftly, despite being in their true forms.

They had already made a fortune during this subspace expedition. There was no reason to risk themselves further, especially with the vast federal war fleet approaching.

Just the sight of that dense, ominous mass of black metal vessels filling the sky was enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

After Black Oblivion and his cousins withdrew from their battles, Fermera forced Bond back with a single strike and ordered her angel robots to retreat as well.

The angel-type robots suffered the heaviest losses in this brief engagement.

Their casualties far exceeded those of the federation’s special forces.

Nearly two thousand fallen angel robots lay scattered across the outskirts of the Steel Ruins.

Sein kindly reminded Fermera that recovering the central chips or “black boxes” from these fallen angel robots could allow them to be “revived” later.

This was the fundamental difference between robots and ordinary sentient beings.

Sentient lifeforms had souls, while robots carried streams of data.

Compared to the fragility and unpredictability of souls, “reviving” a robot was less complicated.

Thus, before leading her angels away, Fermera recovered every black box she could.

This difference also highlighted the stark contrast between Sein and the Gallant Federation.

Within the federation, damaged robots—especially low-tier cannon-fodder combat units—were rarely repaired.

The cost of fixing a broken robot often exceeded that of simply manufacturing a new one!

This reflected the federation’s capitalist mindset, while also exposing its disregard for robot “rights”.

By comparison, Sein was clearly the better employer.

With the Magic Cube, he not only promised to repair robots whose central chips were not severely damaged, but also pledged to help them undergo further upgrades in the future.

Robots, too, had aspirations and demands of their own.

Back then, Nexon’s intelligent robots had endured tremendous hardship to join the Magus Alliance, likely because they had recognized the differences between the two parties.

With a final barrage of cluster cannon fire unleashed from her shoulders, Fermera shook off the federal special forces’ pursuit.

She no longer felt much emotion when striking either the Magus Civilization legions or the Gallant Federation forces.

One could call her cold-hearted or simply an emotionless machine at her core.

Casting one last icy glance at Bond and the others as explosions engulfed them, Fermera turned and flew away.

Bond let out a deep sigh as he watched Sein, Fermera, and the others depart, frustrated by the gap in their strength.

A nearby Rank Four federal agent stepped forward to console him. “We already did everything we could, Commander.”

“The angel-type robots rebelling was something none of us anticipated,” said the only female Rank Four agent present, who also happened to be Bond’s most capable assistant.

Bond sighed again. “Setting Fermera and the others rebelling aside, why is the fleet’s reinforcement still slower than we expected?”

As a federal agent, Bond should not have voiced remarks that undermined morale or cast doubt on the war effort.

Yet, faced with this situation and having witnessed the conditions across multiple Gallant Federation’s star domains, Bond found himself harboring a faint unease about the federation’s trajectory in this Clash of Civilizations for the first time.

***

Sein and his group rejoined the Magus Civilization’s main forces without much difficulty.

Having deliberately avoided the frontline combat zone earlier, they ultimately returned through the central flank of the Magus Civilization legions.

Gilbert and the others, who had departed ahead of time, had already set up a temporary outpost for Sein and Black Oblivion.

The Rank Six Magus Civilization powerhouses overseeing the subspace battlefield were also aware of Sein’s return, and an elder who knew him was dispatched to personally escort him back.

Other than the initial commotion caused by the appearance of Fermera and her nearly ten thousand angel robots within the Magus Civilization legions, Sein’s return was handled with relative discretion.

“I never expected you’d come to receive me,” Sein said with a smile upon meeting her.

Standing before him was none other than Bernice.

The two had not seen each other for several years since the outbreak of the Clash of Civilizations.

While Sein had been stationed on the Grand Eye Demon World battlefield, Bernice had followed Feylis to the Netherworld Star Domain front.

On Sein’s most recent expedition near Blue Star, he had been assigned to work with Gregory instead.

He had heard that Bernice had suffered serious injuries during that period and was still recuperating, which explained why they had not crossed paths.

Aside from Bernice, Sein also noticed Berecca standing quietly in a corner.

The pair were practically inseparable, and this time they arrived together at the subspace battlefield.

“You did exceptionally well this time. Your grandmaster personally instructed me to come and bring you back,” Bernice said with clear approval.

Sein did not take the credit for himself. He smiled modestly, then asked, “Where’s Grandmaster Feylis?”

“Still on the frontlines. The fighting there is extremely fierce,” Bernice replied.

“Your injuries are quite severe. You should only return to combat after you’ve recovered,” she advised, having noticed multiple areas of elemental damage across Sein’s lawful form.

“Understood.” Sein nodded.

On this subspace battlefield alone, the number of law-wielding beings on the Magus Civilization’s side had long exceeded a hundred, while the total number of fighting legions surpassed a hundred million.

Whether a Rank Five being like him was present or not made little difference to the overall situation.

As Sein retreated deeper into the Magus Civilization’s main forces, he could still sense the violent fluctuations coming from the frontlines, including clashes between Rank Six beings.

He had not realized that his grandmaster was also fighting there.

While Sein was still lost in thought, Bernice asked, “Is this the Rank Six angel robot from the Gallant Federation that you successfully turned?”

“She’s quite beautiful,” Bernice added, her gaze carrying a hint of fascination as it fell on Fermera behind Sein.

Unaware of the subtle change in Bernice’s tone and expression, Sein simply nodded and replied, “Yes. Her name is Fermera.”