Sovereign of the Ashes

The Divine Revelation Star Domain was a subordinate star domain of the Divine Descendants World, one of the large-sized world civilizations under the Gallant Federation’s rule.

The Gallant Federation had four major allied world civilizations—the Zeak Empire, the Tris Civilization, the Grand Apocalypse World, and the Divine Descendants World.

Sein had already encountered the first three to varying degrees during previous battles against the Gallant Federation.

Only the Divine Descendants World remained unfamiliar to him, largely because of its remote location and the constantly shifting situation across the civilizational battlefield.

The Divine Descendants World was a rather unique civilization that followed a divine faith system.

Neither the Magus Civilization nor the Gallant Federation truly believed in gods, yet both powers strangely had subordinate civilizations that walked the path of faith.

This was especially true within the Magus Alliance, where civilizations worshiping foreign deities actually made up the largest portion of its members!

In the end, regardless of political structure or civilizational ideology, the pursuit of power and benefits remained universal across intelligent life.

Even the Gallant Federation, with its unwavering belief in science and technology, would gladly recruit a large-sized world civilization that followed a faith-based system as long as the benefits were worthwhile and the alliance held enough value.

In the war against the Magus Civilizations, Divine Descendants World followed the Gallant Federation’s orders, gathering its legions before deploying them to designated battlefields.

Although Divine Descendants World itself did not border the Magus Civilization, Sein and the Dawn Empire Army would need to pass through nearly one-third of its territory to reach their destination.

Under normal circumstances, the Dawn Empire’s first major clash should have been against Divine Descendants World.

***

Before the Dawn Empire’s vanguard forces even arrived, large-scale fighting had already erupted throughout the star domain controlled by Divine Descendants World.

Boom!

Explosions and violent law fluctuations spread across vast stretches of the Divine Revelation Star Domain.

The blazing firelight from the destroyed fleets eclipsed the starlight, turning entire regions of space as bright as daylight.

Although Divine Descendants World followed the path of faith, as one of the Gallant Federation’s loyal allies, it still possessed a massive amount of advanced technological equipment and machinery.

It was much like how nearly every member of the Magus Alliance relied heavily on alchemy artifacts produced by Magus World.

This was both a sign of civilizational unity and a way for those great civilizations to promote their own creations.

At present, more than two-thirds of the Divine Descendants World’s native deities and combat legions had already been deployed to reinforce the Gallant Federation’s frontlines.

As a result, the defensive forces remaining within Divine Descendants World itself had become severely depleted.

In the past, the main force causing chaos behind the Gallant Federation’s frontlines had been the black mages of the Magus Civilization led by Nergal.

Now that Nergal had returned to Magus World to recover, even the mid and low-ranking black mages had quieted down considerably.

Taking their place were large-scale star pirate groups.

With the Gallant Federation under immense pressure on the frontlines and its rear defenses stretched thin, these pirates launched sudden raids again and again, causing heavy losses and constant trouble for both the federation and its subordinate civilizations.

Not all of these star pirates were part of the infamous Quatar Star Pirates operating in the regions surrounding the Magus Civilization.

Many small and medium-sized pirate groups had also begun taking advantage of the situation, appearing out of nowhere and frequently stirring up chaos in the rear of the Gallant Federation’s territory.

Most beings in the Astral Realm were opportunists by nature.

Even lower-tier pirate groups could usually tell which side held the advantage in the war between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation, so long as they had decent access to information.

At the end of the day, these pirates were simply taking the opportunity to plunder the Gallant Federation’s rear territories.

By comparison, pirate raids within Magus Civilization territory remained relatively rare.

In a way, this also reflected the strong “territorial instincts” of the Quatar Star Pirates.

However, the large-scale turmoil spreading through several star domains under Divine Descendants World before Sein’s group arrived was indeed the work of the Quatar Star Pirates, not some insignificant pirate groups.

Amidst the constant explosions and the blazing chaos, countless devils and demons could be seen rampaging across the battlefield.

Why did devils and demons have such terrible reputations throughout the Astral Realm?

Well, the atrocities committed by the Quatar Star Pirates around the Magus Civilization over the years were the best possible answer to that!

“Lord Gustavo, a massive expeditionary force has entered our detection range. It appears to be the Dawn Empire’s legions,” said a red-skinned peak Rank Six demon as thick sulfurous smoke poured from his mouth.

Carter Gustavo—one of the two publicly recognized leaders of the Quatar Star Pirates—was an overlord-level demon powerhouse.[1]

At present, the strongest purgatory demon in Faeloria was only a Bloodwar Monarch at the peak of Rank Six.

The other demons of Faeloria were still waiting for this overlord-level demon to one day return and rescue them.

Unlike most of his kind, Carter Gustavo did not radiate a savage or berserk aura.

In ordinary interactions, he actually gave others the impression of a refined and composed demon—one with both culture and wisdom.

His pitch-black demonic fingers lightly tapped against the Dark Sword resting in his hand.

It was an exceptionally high-grade world-class secret treasure.

Not long ago, Carter Gustavo had used this very sword to split a Stellar-class federal war fortress cleanly in half with a single strike.

With so many of its native legions absent, Divine Descendants World stood no chance against this powerful group of space pirates that had appeared from seemingly nowhere.

If they had only been small or medium-sized ordinary pirate groups, things might still have been manageable.

But damn it—even overlord-level entities had shown up. How was the Divine Descendants World supposed to stop them?!

Another Wolfraven-class federal warship exploded deep within the starry void.

The deep blue flames and the violent law fluctuations they created had turned the entire explosion zone into a deadly area.

Glancing toward the distant battlefield, Gustavo calmly suggested, “Let’s move. We’ll leave this place to our allies and continue exploring other regions of Divine Descendants World’s star domain.”

His words drew low chuckles from the surrounding Rank Five and Rank Six demon monarchs.

The very idea of “allies” sounded rather novel to demons.

Still, the demons who had managed to rise to Gustavo’s side all knew exactly who their true “boss” was, and they understood very well which civilization they had been serving all these years.

So calling the Dawn Empire legions their allies was not entirely wrong.

After Gustavo departed, the surrounding demon monarchs and countless demon legions quickly followed behind him.

In one corner of the interstellar battlefield, a Rank Four creature from Divine Descendants World was struggling to crawl out of the wreckage of a federal warship.

Before it could even catch its breath, a Rank Five demon descended with a cruel grin and seized the creature by the throat with his demonic claws.

“Pretty tender,” the Rank Five demon monarch commented with dark chuckle as foul-smelling green slime dripped from the scales covering his body.

Then, under the horrified gaze of the Rank Four creature from the Divine Descendants World, the demon opened his massive fanged maw and bit down on it.

After devouring the Rank Four deity alive, the demon let out a satisfied burp.

The half-eaten arm still dangling from his hand was casually tossed aside.

Noticing that Lord Gustavo and the others were already far ahead, the Rank Five Demon hurriedly spread his enormous green demonic wings and rushed after them.

Hellfire blazed across the battlefield, accompanied by the thick stench of sulfur.

The groans of injured mid and low-ranking creatures echoed throughout the area.

All of it showed just how hurriedly these demons were moving.

Their objective was not merely plunder. They were slaughtering nearly everything in their path.

In truth, this fleet of the Quatar Star Pirates had specifically come to support the Dawn Empire’s vanguard forces.

However, due to various political concerns and public appearances, those demons would never openly meet with the Dawn Empire’s leaders, much less acknowledge any connection between them.

Sometimes, certain things were better left unspoken.

***

After receiving Gongsun Wudi’s instructions, Sein left the imperial chariot and joined the Dawn Empire powerhouses as they headed toward the region where chaos had erupted.

The surrounding starfield was in complete ruin.

Destroyed warships drifted everywhere, and scattered among the wreckage were mutilated corpses with obvious bite marks and bloodied remains.

With the deep demonic bloodline flowing within him, Sein could clearly sense the lingering aura permeating the battlefield.

Looking at the eerie demonic flames still burning across the ruined hulls, he said quietly, “The demons were here.”

1. Translator’s Recap: Ah, it’s been quite a while since we’ve heard this name. It was last mentioned back in Chapter 1033 during a conversation between the Spider Queen and Levon Thorstein. At the time, the Spider Queen mentioned that Gustavo had led the other demons and constructed “New Hell”. ☜